The Rooftop Concert: parts 1, 2 and 3

In London on a rooftop four lads from Liverpool played and sang themselves into history ...

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Divers reach steamship that sank off Mass. in 1898

Five Massachusetts men became the first divers to reach the wreck of a 19th-century steamship that sank in one of the most destructive storms in New England history, and say they saw an array of artifacts like dishes and mugs but no human remains.

The Portland, known as the "Titanic of New England," sank off the Massachusetts coast Nov. 26, 1898, after it sailed from Boston, taking more than 190 people with it.

The recreational divers spoke this week for the first time about their three successful dives in August and September.

David Faye, one of the divers, said wreckage of the Portland was littered with artifacts like plates, dishes and mugs, wash basins and toilets - and even a few medicine bottles etched with the name of an apothecary in Maine.

"I immediately thought of these people - how horrible it must've been," said Faye, a lawyer in Cambridge, Mass. "They had no communication with shore. They had no idea where they were. The storm was pushing them out to sea."

An image from team leader Bob Foster's camera depicts a starfish clinging to a mug. Another shows toppled stacks of sandy plates and dishes.

The divers found no human remains. If there are any human remains, they were likely below decks, which the divers didn't explore because of the danger, they said.

Reaching the ship tested the divers' limits and their equipment because the wreckage rests so far below the surface. Their dives - 460 feet below ocean surface - were so deep that some of the underwater lights imploded with a boom, Faye said. The divers could only spend 10 to 15 minutes exploring the wreckage site before returning to the surface.

The wreck was first located in 1989 by underwater explorers Arnold Carr and John Fish, but they couldn't prove it was the Portland.

It wasn't until 2002 that the ship's location in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, an area about the size of Rhode Island between Cape Ann and Cape Cod, was firmly established by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration team using sonar equipment and remotely operated submersibles.

Because the location is kept secret, the divers had to independently verify the location. They had no sponsors; they paid out of pocket for their dives. The diving equipment cost between $10,000 and $50,000 per person, Faye said.

"You have to give the wreck its respect," Faye said. "It's deep and it's dangerous, and you have to be at the top of your game."

The 291-foot Portland left Boston's India Wharf for Portland, Maine, as scheduled despite forecasts of an impending storm and the decision by the captain of a sister ship to stay in port.

Captain Hollis Blanchard may have believed the Portland could outrun the gale, but the storm was actually two separate storms that collided at sea and grew in force. Winds reached 100 mph, and waves crested at 60 feet, higher than the ship's smokestacks.

Bodies and wreckage began to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod shortly after the storm, which became known as The Portland Gale.

The divers were unable to retrieve artifacts from the wreckage because of rules in place at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. For now, the Portland's resting place remains a secret to prevent it from being plundered.

Texan is Washington's kin, and could've been king

A genealogy Web site says it has found the king of America - or rather, the descendant of George Washington's family who would have most likely held the title had the nation's first president been its first monarch instead.

Long live Paul Emerson Washington, 82, of San Antonio, a retired regional manager for a building supply company.

Paul Washington is the one among 8,000 possible Washington descendants that the chief family historian at Ancestry.com believes would currently hold the crown - had there been one.

"He kind of won the sweepstakes," said Megan Smolenyak, with the genealogical research group.

George Washington had no children. He had an older half brother, Augustine, and a younger brother, Samuel. Many descendants died young or as lifelong bachelors. Other Washington descendants had only daughters, Smolenyak said.

She ran four family lines to account for the two brothers and lines of succession with and without women inheriting the crown. She found that against improbable odds, two of the four lines led to Paul Washington.

Paul's son, Bill, said his father now spends his days caring for his wife, who has Alzheimer's disease. He said his father is honored but completely unpretentious about his would-be crown.

"He's always been a modest, soft-spoken person," said Bill Washington, a 54-year-old bookseller.

The family has long been proud of its connection to the founding father.

"I was dubious as a child growing up because I always thought, 'Why don't we have a sword lying around or a three-pointed hat?" Bill Washington said.

But as an adult, Bill began filling the second floor of his home with George Washington-related artifacts, and he participates in historical re-enactments wearing a Revolutionary War artillery officer uniform.

Still, he says George Washington made the right decision, allowing himself to be elected president but not seeking a crown.

"He fought for eight years to do away with the monarchy, and I think he made the right decision," Bill Washington said. "The idea of one individual having supreme power over all others is an antiquated idea - to say the least."

Easy for him to say. As the second of Paul Washington's three sons, he's not next in the line of hypothetical succession.

What they are saying

Funny and accurate.

Way to go, tell it like it is.

Informative.

LOVE your blog!

Daily reading of Carolina Naturally is a must for me.

*****

Thanks everybody!

Say What?!

“Sooner or later people are going to figure out that if all you run is negative attack ads you don’t have much of a vision for the future.”

– John McCain in 2000.

You know he's right ... we got it figured out all right.

I have wondered the same thing myself

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”

~ Mark Twain

Repugican Campaign Methodology

This depiction illustrates the repugican campaign methodology quite well, don't you think.

And I Quote

"We don't throw the first punch,
but we'll throw the last."

~ Barack Obama

Millionth word in English imminent?

A new word is added to the English language every 98 minutes, says the Global Language Monitor, a descendant of yourDictionary.com. According to the Global Language Monitor's best estimate, the millionth English word will be coined sometime next April. However, the Global Language Monitor is a bit looser with its acceptance of new words than most dictionaries. For example, unabridged dictionaries include about 600,000 words, compared to the 900,000 tracked thus far by the Global Language Monitor. From Smithsonian:

"We went back to the Middle English and saw that the definition of a word was 'a thought spoken,'" said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst at the Monitor, "which means if I say a word, and you understand me, it's a real word."

Payack counts staycation, Facebook and Wikipedia as words. But he also follows some of the old rules. For example, words that are both noun and verb, such as "water" are counted only once. He doesn't count all the names there are for chemicals, because there are hundreds of thousands.

Once the Monitor identifies a word, it tracks it over time, watching to see where the word appears. Based on that measurement, they decide if the word has "momentum," basically, whether it's becoming more popular or if it's a one-hit wonder of the linguistic world.

At first glance, this seems a lot like a dictionary's system.

"It's the same as the old [method], just recognizing the new reality," Payack said. The Monitor's method gives a lot more weight to online citations.

The Million Word March

One in four mammals facing extinction

One in four mammal species are at risk of extinction, according to a new study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The assessment was done by more than 1,700 experts from 130 countries over the last five years. Who's to blame? Humans, of course. The IUCN also updated its Red List of Threatened Species that now includes Tasmanian devils (above), parachute spiders, fishing cars, and a host of other beautiful beasties.

From National Geographic:

"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," the study authors wrote...

Humans are mostly to blame, as habitat loss, pollution, and hunting continue to squeeze at-risk species.< "Perversely, the species that humans show greatest affinity toward—the largest mammals such as primates, big cats, and whales—are significantly more likely to be threatened with extinction," Barney Long, a biologist at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C., said in an email.

One in Four Mammals at Risk of Extinction

Parachute Spider, New Shrew on 2008 "Red List"

Ten-year-old flips van

Tennessee sheriff's deputies say a 10-year-old was driving up to 90 mph when he crashed a van carrying two adults who had been drinking and taking pills and two other children.

Sullivan County sheriff's Capt. Keith Elton says authorities found a woman passenger trying to swallow as many pills as she could and a man told police he drank at least 15 beers.

The young driver lost control Sunday of the speeding van, which rolled, coming to rest on its top.

Everyone in the van was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Authorities say the children were related to the adults, but could not specify how.

The adults face multiple charges including reckless endangerment and child abuse.

The children have been placed in state care.

Doh! What were those adults in the van thinking ... or that's right they weren't

Monkey waiters at restaurant

Yat-chan and Fuku-chan are waiters at the Kaoru Otsuka sake house north of Tokyo. The two are monkeys. They bring hot towels and also serve drinks. From Reuters, where you can also see video:

"Yat-chan first learned by just watching me working in the restaurant. It all started when one day I gave him a hot towel out of curiosity and he brought the towel to the customer," the 63-year-old owner of the tavern, Kaoru Otsuka, told Reuters...

"We called out for more beer just then and it brought us some beer! It's amazing how it seems to understand human words," said 71-year-old retiree Miho Takikawa, who said she came to the tavern specifically to meet the monkeys.

Monkey waiters

Mushrooms to cure headaches?

An individual who suffers from cluster headaches thinks he may have finally found a treatment that works: psychedelic mushrooms. The man, who goes by the name Flash, found no relief at the doctor's office, read that in the 1960s LSD had been tested to relieve migraines. So he decided to eat some psilocybin mushrooms.

From The Independent:

He was thrilled to find that the "shadows" evaporated – and stayed away. He began taking a light, sub-hallucinogenic dose of 12 to 20 mushrooms approximately once every three months, and found that he remained symptom-free for nearly a year. "I started to tell people about it," he says, "but they thought I was mad..."

A handful of CH sufferers thought there was truth in Flash's unorthodox solution. One man, Bob Wold, decided to start clusterbusters.com, a website devoted to campaigning for research and disseminating information about how to safely use hallucinogenics...

Anecdotal reports of the clusterheads' use of hallucinogens attracted the interest of John Halpern of Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Spurred on by the suicide of a colleague who suffered from CH, Halpern and colleague Andrew Sewell interviewed 53 people who had self-medicated with the hallucinogen therapy. The survey results suggested that there was something to Flash's idea after all. The pair published their results in the respected journal Neurology, and Halpern has now submitted a protocol for a Phase-I clinical trial to the university's Institutional Review Board.

Psilocybin to cure cluster headaches

Lynn pleads guilty to fraud for phony asylum claims

The man accused of coaching immigrants on how to make phony asylum claims pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges and agreed to forfeit $1.7 million.

David Lynn, led a ring that prepared 380 asylum applications between 2003 and 2007, charging $8,000 for individuals and $12,000 for couples, prosecutors said.

Lynn, 32, pleaded guilty Monday to one count each of conspiracy, visa asylum fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to launder money.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 13, and he faces more than seven years in prison.

He claimed to be a lawyer or to have special knowledge of the asylum procedures, court records indicated.

He and co-workers coached applicants to lie, saying they were being persecuted in their homeland because of religious or political beliefs.

Most of the asylum seekers were from Russia, but prosecutors said some were from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine.

A few were granted asylum, but most were in the United States illegally and had to leave the country.

The Consequences of Hate

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy ... not

The Hater author of a smear piece attacking Barack Obama as unfit for the presidency was being deported from Kenya on Tuesday, a criminal investigations official said.

Jerome Corsi, who penned the pack of lies "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was picked up by police Tuesday for not having a work permit, said Carlos Maluta, a senior immigration official in charge of investigations.

He was briefly detained at immigration headquarters before being brought to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for deportation, said Joseph Mumira, head of criminal investigations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

It was not immediately clear when he would fly out.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign had no comment.

Corsi had been scheduled to launch his book Tuesday in Kenya, where the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate is wildly popular. Obama's late father, whom he barely knew, was a Kenyan economist and the candidate is considered by many Kenyans as a native son. Minibuses are emblazoned with his picture and vendors sell T-shirts bearing his image.

Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his mother, a white American from Kansas.

Corsi's slander piece claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendos and false rumors - that he was raised a Muslim and attended a radical black church.

Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his campaign picks apart the rag's claims on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com.

He arrived last week at the invitation of radical fundamentalist christian missionaries angered by the rise of Islam. Corsi had planned to spew daily Hate missives throughout the week.

*****

Kismet like Karma can be a bitch, there buddy.

Just as it should be

Polls in five key battleground states in the race for the White House released Tuesday show that Sen. Barack Obama is making major gains.

Polls of likely voters in Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin reflect a significant nationwide shift toward the Democratic presidential nominee.

51% for Obama in Indiana
53% for Obama in New Hampshire
51% for Obama in North Carolina
51% for Obama in Ohio
51% for Obama in Wisconsin

Three hundred held after raid in South Carolina

Federal agents say they have detained more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants in a raid on a South Carolina chicken processing plant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald says the raid began shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday during a shift change at House of Raeford's Columbia Farms plant.

Federal prosecutors and immigration agents have been investigating the plant's hiring practices. McDonald says 12 people have been arrested in past months, and seven have pleaded guilty.

McDonald says a recent review of 825 workers' immigration paperwork showed false information for more than 775.

A woman at the company's Rose Hill, N.C., headquarters had no immediate comment.

The raid was in Greenville, about 100 miles southwest of Charlotte, N.C.

Man nabbed for skinny dipping in Japan palace moat

TOKYO Police have apprehended a Western man who went skinny dipping in a moat ringing the Imperial Palace in a busy Tokyo business district, attracting a huge crowd, officials said Tuesday.

The naked middle-aged man jumped into the moat, then threw rocks and splashed water at two policemen who chased him in a rowing boat, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

The police official did not know the man's name or nationality.

Local TV footage showed the man swimming around the moat as the police chased him with a long stick, attracting a crowd of onlookers. He was in the water for about an hour.

He eventually got out of the water and climbed a stone wall only to fall into the hands of police officers who were waiting for him. The police official said the man was detained for questioning, but could not confirm if he was arrested or charged.

Broadcasters were careful to meet Japan's obscenity laws once he had climbed out of the water, masking images of his private parts with a blurry dot.

The police official said he had never heard of a skinny dipper causing a stir in the palace moat before.

"If you know what is within the moat, you won't go skinny dipping there," he said, referring to Emperor Akihito, who lives in the palace. The moat is separated from the emperor's residence by high stone walls and woods.

A palace official said the emperor was in the palace, but it was unlikely he saw the nude swimmer. He also spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with palace policy.

They're lining up

The wife of Nebraska republican senator Chuck Hagel endorses Democrat Barack Obama.

Lilibet Hagel has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference in Virginia tomorrow with Susan Eisenhower, the daughter of republican president Eisenhower.

From KCAU-TV

Three win Nobel for subatomic physics research

Two Japanese citizens and a Japanese-born American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in the world of subatomic physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.

American Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half of the prize for the discovery of a mechanism called spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half of the prize for discovering the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

"Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface," the academy said in its citation. "Nambu's theories permeate the standard model of elementary particle physics. The model unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature's four forces in one single theory."

The Japanese-born Nambu moved to the United States in 1952 and is a professor at the University of Chicago, where he has worked for 40 years. He became a U.S. citizen in 1970.

"As early as 1960, Yoichiro Nambu formulated his mathematical description of spontaneous broken symmetry in elementary particle physics," the citation said.

"Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface. It has proved to be extremely useful, and Nambu's theories permeate the Standard Model of elementary particle physics."

Kobayashi and Maskawa "explained broken symmetry within the framework of the standard model but required that the model be extended to three families of quarks."

Kobayashi, 64, works for the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, or KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan. Maskawa, 68, is with the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University in Japan.

"The spontaneous broken symmetries that Nambu studied, differ from the broken symmetries described by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa," the academy said. "These spontaneous occurrences seem to have existed in nature since the very beginning of the universe and came as a complete surprise when they first appeared in particle experiments in 1964."

The academy added that it was only in recent years that scientists have been able to confirm the explanations that Kobayashi and Maskawa proffered in 1972.

"These predicted, hypothetical new quarks have recently appeared in physics experiments. As late as 2001, the two particle detectors BaBar at Stanford ... and Belle at Tsukuba, Japan, both detected broken symmetries independently of each other. The results were exactly as Kobayashi and Maskawa had predicted almost three decades earlier," the citation said.

The trio will share the 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) purse, a diploma and an invitation to the prize ceremonies in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

Cassidy Leigh

At 12:24AM on October 7, 2008 a 7 pound 14 ounce, Blond hair - Blue-eyed girl made her debut on this earth.

She is my first great-granddaughter.

Daily Horoscope

I am on a roll with my Daily Horoscope the past few days.
Today's is:

You may not be the highest ranking person in your organization, but your opinions carry enormous weight.

Ain't that the truth!

Basic Economics

Just think of the Furballs

A Glenwood Springs animal shelter was trying to find homes for 86 cats rescued from a two-bedroom condominium. The Colorado Animal Rescue Shelter received the cats on Wednesday. Since then, workers have been scrambling to accommodate the animals at area shelters and homes.

Executive director Leslie Rockey said many appear to be healthy but in need of a bath.

Garfield County sheriff's spokeswoman Tanny McGinnis said the cats were strays taken in by a woman. The woman called for help, saying she couldn't take care of the cats while moving from her Battlement Mesa condo.

The woman's name was not released because no charges were filed.

Might not be a bad idea at that

An intersection in southeastern Idaho has proven unlucky for a woman who's been in two car accidents at the same crossroads since August. Kris Payne was driving at the intersection of Pole Line and Eldredge roads on Thursday when another driver ran a red light and collided into her Chevy Blazer.

Six weeks ago, Payne was driving at the same intersection when another driver also ran the red light and collided into her vehicle. Payne said she plans to go to a local hospital and to determine whether her back and shoulder were injured.

The other driver injured her ankle during the accident and police cited her for running a red light.

After two accidents at the same intersection, Payne said she's going to find another route to work.

Holy crap, Batman!

A man who state police said had a blood alcohol level more than six times the legal limit when he was arrested in July has pleaded no contest to drunken driving.

As part of a plea deal, Stanley Kobierowski was sentenced Friday to one year probation, a $500 fine, 40 hours of community service and a one-year loss of his driver's license.

The 34-year-old Kobierowski was arrested after driving into a highway message board on Interstate 95. Authorities said he had the highest blood alcohol level ever recorded for anyone in Rhode Island who wasn't dead.

Police said Kobierowski registered a .489, then a .491, breathalyzer tests. The legal limit in Rhode Island is .08.

Obama, in N.C., keeps economy at center stage

Barack Obama sought to keep the focus on the economy today as he took a break from preparing for Tuesday's debate with Repugican John McPain.

“Obviously we woke up this morning and saw the markets are still in turmoil,” he told reporters outside the Grove Park Inn. “The contagion is spreading to all parts of the globe.

“It is a reminder that the rescue package that was passed last week is not the end of our efforts to deal with the economy, it is only the beginning.”

Obama repeated his call for a new stimulus package and for the extension of unemployment benefits.

He promised to “keep on talking about the economy” even as he chided the McPain campaign for wanting to “turn the page.”

Obama sped off in a motorcade to 12 Bones Smokehouse, a riverside barbecue restaurant whose walls are decorated with a Cheerwine sign and bumper stickers. He surprised a lunchtime crowd and ordered ribs, sweet tea, pork barbecue, collard and corn pudding for himself and his staff.

While his takeout order was prepared, he walked through the squat restaurant, congested with reporters and TV cameras, and greeted diners including Maria Stanis of Asheville.

“I told him to kick butt,” she said. “He said, ‘You know we will.”

Tour Guides Don't Want To Be Tested

Philadelphia's plan to test and license tour guides is on hold. Lawyers for three tour guides who challenged the plan say a federal judge Monday temporarily blocked the city from enforcing the testing law. It was scheduled to take effect next Monday. Mayor Michael Nutter signed the law in April amid concerns that some guides were telling Philadelphia's history inaccurately. The three guides say it violates their free speech rights. The guides' lawyers say the judge's order prevents the law from being enforced for six months or until the litigation is resolved.

*****

Give me a break ... I need an aspirin - things like this give me a headache.

Take the test fools.
Knowing the correct history is not an abridgment of your right to free speech.
It is however, a prerequisite for a tour guide who dispenses that same historical data to those who entrust that they do so (and pay them to do so) ... the tourists via the city of Philadelphia.
Now, if the city proscribed a entire dialog to be cited verbatim with no deviations that the tour guides must follow - then that would be an abridgment of their right to free speech and self expression.
Barring such ... the tour guides are at liberty to present the historical data as they see fit- the correct data.
So where in the bloody blazes does taking a test on the history of Philadelphia interfere with their right to free speech?

Obama widens lead in national poll

This poll was conducted after the VP debate, and Palin's lame attacks.

*****

Fifty-three percent of likely voters say they are backing Obama for president.

A majority of Americans say Palin would be unqualified to serve as president if it became necessary, and her unfavorable rating has doubled.

Entire Poll

US Congress Members Told Martial Law Would Be Imposed if Bailout Bill Didn't Pass

In this YouTube clip, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) says some congresspeople were told in private briefings that if they did not pass the bailout bill, circumstances would soon force the federal government to "impose martial law."

They are trying to steal our country away from us. And they almost succeeded. But for the ineptness and outright stupidity of the shrub and his cabal the would have ... however, the gods did not wish it so and caused that ineptness and stupidity to shine brightly so that even the blind could see and assured they failed.

The Maverick Family in Texas Asks: "Who You Callin' a Maverick?"

New York Times writer and Texas son John Schwartz wrote this piece about the family in Texas who bear the name being co-opted by John McCain's presidential campaign.

[T]o those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.

Who You Callin’ a Maverick?

Image: Mr. Samuel Augustus Maverick, of Texas.

2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Three scientists split the 2008 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of HIV and HPV. French researchers Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barre-Sinoussi first identified human immunodeficiency virus in 1983 and German scientist Harald zur Hausen discovered the human papilloma virus which leads to cervical cancer.

From the New York Times:

Of the more than 100 human papilloma viruses now known, about 40 infect the genital tract, and 15 of them put women at high risk for cervical cancer. Papilloma viruses account for more than 5 percent of all cancers worldwide.

The Karolinska Institute said that discovery of H.I.V. by the French scientists, Dr. Barre-Sinoussi and Dr. Montagnier, led to blood tests to detect the infection and to anti-retroviral drugs that are effective in prolonging the lives of patients. The tests are now used to screen blood donations, making the blood supply safer for transfusions. The viral discovery has also led to an understanding of the natural history of H.I.V. infection in people, which ultimately leads to AIDS unless treated.

Three Europeans Win the 2008 Nobel for Medicine

Photo of Jupiter from Earth

This is the sharpest "whole Jupiter" photo ever taken from Earth. It was snapped with a telescope using special adaptive optics to reduce fuzz.

From National Geographic:

Captured using a new computer-assisted process and a 27-foot (8.2-meter) telescope in Chile, the result is sharp enough to show features as small as 180 miles (300 kilometers) across...

Adaptive optics, (UC Berkeley/SETI Institute astronomer Franck) Marchis said, adjusts for distortions caused by the Earth's atmosphere, "providing images as if the telescope was in space."

New Jupiter Image: Sharpest View Ever From Earth

Full Resolution Image

Keating-McPain: Fraud and Financial Crisis ... Sound familiar?

Funny thing about criminal acts ... people tend to remember them.
McPain wants you to forget.
Sorry, Charlie, no can do.

Sarah Palin just messed with Texas

Uh, oh ...

From over at jmooneyham.com comes this little tidbit:

Sarah Palin just messed with Texas

I've lived among Texans twice: for some months in the 1970s, and then again for several months in 2001.

Many Texans don't think of their state the same way we other Americans may think of our own. This is reflected in the exclamation "Don't mess with Texas!", as well as other items.

Although McCain's kept Sarah Palin on the tightest leash of any VP candidate in history for what are now obvious reasons (like the first ABC and CBS interviews), no containment measure can be perfect.

And so Sarah Palin came out and called Texas a "little sister state" to Alaska.

OOPS!

Although the Texas newspaper(s) which initially reported this seemed to have hastily scrubbed it from their web sites almost immediately afterwards, it was too late: the words were already out of her mouth and in the media ether.

I suspect a panicked McCain campaign immediately launched a huge effort to collect and destroy any videos which might exist of Palin mouthing the words, as well.

But as of Saturday morning, there were already about a quarter million result hits on Google for the quote.

It is good to be visiting here in Alaska's little sister state Texas - Google Search (already 242,000 results as of 10-4-08)

So what? you might ask. It doesn't sound like anything special to me.

Well, you're probably not a Texan, either.

Is it possible Palin's comment will turn deep-red Texas blue in the election? Well, Texas (like my native Tennesee) can usually be taken for granted by Republicans in elections.

But as I said before, Texans are a different breed from other state natives, in how they view their own state. So it'd be a very Texan thing to do, to shock the hell out of the GOP, and vote for Obama.

Especially after being told their state was little sister to Alaska.

Texas is nobody's little sister. Or little brother. Or little, PERIOD.

And come election day, they might just decide to show McCain-Palin how big Texas really is.

*****

... She's gone and done it now!

The Forgotten War

As of Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, 539 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Some of us have not forgot.

Old Forum News

Friends tell me that the wing-nuts are still attacking and deriding everyone that does not kowtow to their dogma over on a forum that I used to post on.
Even to the point of misquoting me and parsing statements to look and sound as they want them to.

Rather pathetic, isn't it.

It is amazing that they think no one notices.

Hate is always noticed and called out, yet when called out the haters redouble their hate and accuse those who have the temerity to call them out of being the haters.
They abuse, deride and belittle all others then accuse their victims of what they do and claim to be the 'real victims'.

That is the reason I left the forum.

No restraint, either self or administrative, on these n'er-do-wells ... and by all reports from all friends, both liberal and conservative, that still check in on that forum (many do not have anything to do with it as well), it is business as usual - if you don't think the shrub and the cabal are the second coming or that McPain/Pale-lyn aren't da bomb, then you are attacked, derided, slandered, belittled and the like even if you are not there (especially if you are not there it seems).

Biker dies in fall rally at Myrtle Beach

New town ordinances kept turnout down, bikers, vendors say

(I know they kept us from being there)

An N.C. motorcycle rider became the first fatality on Myrtle Beach roads during the area's fall bike rally after his bike collided with a car over the weekend, marking the end of an event that law enforcement officials said otherwise went smoothly.

Clarence Thomas Potter, 59, of Kenansville - about 60 miles northwest of Wilmington - died early Sunday morning at New Hanover Regional Medical Center after being taken there by helicopter. The crash occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday at 21st Avenue North and Robert M. Grissom Parkway.

The crash happened on the last night of The Pilgrimage, the fall Harley-Davidson rally, which ended Sunday. The rally started Oct. 1, shortly after Myrtle Beach passed new laws targeting the area's spring rallies. Three of the city's 15 new ordinances and amendments took effect in the past two weeks, and they began being enforced during this fall rally.

The effort, bikers and vendors said, meant fewer people came to the area for this year's event.

Kevin O'Brien, who drove up from Charleston for the rally, was disappointed. "The May rally was good, but there's not many people out here at all."

Myrtle Beach police held two checkpoints during the event, and, on Saturday, one at Farrow Parkway became the site of a biker protest against the new laws, which include decibel limits for bikes.

"Obviously, we're happy that there weren't more fatalities," said Sgt. John Bertang of the Myrtle Beach Police Department. "Considering the amount of people and how many bikes were in town, there were a relatively low number of collisions."

Bruce Kligman, the owner of Klig's Kites, found his own way to protest the new laws at the vendor booth he set up at Broadway at the Beach. A toy rat was caught in a mousetrap, mechanically writhing next to a sign that said: "Myrtle Beach City Council."

Kligman said business was relatively good this year, despite worries that the city's new laws would discourage bikers from attending the rally and decrease sales.

"Everybody was concerned with what was going on," he said. "I think it's crazy to chase money out of this town."

Sherry Emmons and Tom Emmons of Cincinnati said they would not have showed up this year had they known about the city's new laws before booking their hotel room.

"A lot of people are worried about next year," Sherry Emmons said.

"That's their concern. They don't want a good thing to be ruined."

The Emmonses said they would wait to see how the new laws affected the spring rally before making plans to come back next fall.

But despite the turmoil surrounding this year's rally, Linda Turner of Goldsboro, N.C., said she'd be back.

"I've got two best friends that live here," she said. "I'm coming regardless."

Potter, the motorcyclist who died Sunday, considered himself a regular at the Myrtle Beach rallies, said Cynthia Potter, his wife. He was a former firefighter and department of corrections worker who owned a pig farm, she said.

"I told his friends that he was doing the two things he loved the best this weekend, and that was biking and eating," she said. "He died happy."

Bertang said the incident is still under investigation. He said Potter was traveling on Grissom Parkway when he turned in front of a car to go east onto 21st Avenue North, causing the collision.

"We're just trying to look at all factors and talk with any potential witnesses before we jump to any conclusions," he said.

There were two bike-related fatalities during last year's fall rally and three deaths during the larger spring rally in May.

"He was just a loving father, friend and just an all around good guy," Cynthia Potter said of her husband, who leaves behind two children and two grandchildren. "He will be sorely missed."

Judge issues order against Citigroup for attempting to steal Wachovia

A Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge on Sunday granted a temporary restraining order barring Citigroup from enforcing an exclusivity agreement that barred Wachovia from entering a merger agreement with another suitor.

Two Wachovia shareholders - Mary Louise Guttmann and former Wachovia chief executive Bud Baker - requested the temporary restraining order from Judge Robert Johnston. The order is the latest twist in a battle for Wachovia after Wells Fargo upended a Wachovia-Citi merger with a competing offer.

In their motion, Guttmann and Baker say Citi is taking steps "apparently designed" to cause the Wachovia-Wells merger to fail and the collapse of Wachovia's market value by saying Wells interfered with Citi's exclusivity agreement. Under the order, Citigroup is to appear at a hearing at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse on Thursday.

"We are delighted that Judge Robert Johnston has agreed that Citigroup should be prohibited from attempting to enforce what it has incorrectly claimed were lawful exclusivity provisions in the letter agreement between Wachovia and Citigroup," Guttmann and Baker said in a statement. "We are especially pleased that Judge Johnston directed Citigroup to take no action attempting to utilize those provisions, or to make any public statement that casts doubt on the validity of the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger agreement."

The pair added that they look forward to the opportunity of voting on the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger.

Faux News Cannot Deal With Reality

Faux News 'reporter' asks a room full of diners who was voting for McPain to raise their hand and no one does. He asks them if they are voting for Obama to raise their hands and everyone did.
He then turns to the camera and says 'it looks like a split' and the room laughs at him.

Not dealing well with reality is he?!

McPain Supports Terrorists Rights To Buy Guns In US

McPain supports the rights of terrorists to buy guns. He supported the 'Mayors Against Illegal Gun Violence', and in 2000 appeared in commercials calling for the 'gun show loophole' to be closed.

He is now silent on this issue. (to bad for him we're not)

Quote:

A manual titled, "How Can I Train Myself for Jihad" was found among the rubble at a training facility for a radical Pakistan-based Islamic terrorist organization. The manual contains a chapter on "Firearms Training" and singles out the US for its easy availability of firearms and states that al-Qaeda members in the US can "obtain an assault weapon legally, preferably AK-47 or variations". In Texas, Muhammad Asrar was arrested in an investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. He pleaded guilty to immigration violations and illegal possession of ammunition. The Pakistani store owner said he had bought handguns, rifles and a submachine gun at gun shows since 1994. On September 10, 2001, just one day before the devastating attacks against the United States, Ali Boumelhem was convicted on a variety of weapons violations plus conspiracy to ship weapons to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. He and his brother Mohamed had purchased an arsenal of shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, flash suppressors and assault weapons parts from Michigan gun shows without undergoing background checks.

Those who are so infantile to call for no regulations on guns are just supporting terrorists. They need to grow up and admit that gun control is necessary and realize that gun control is not the same thing as banning guns!

Daily Horoscope

My Daily Horoscope for the day October 6, 2008 says:

You're confident, and well you should be.

That's cool, but how did they know?!

Brake Lines Cut on Liberal Campaign Managers car

I am sorry to report that the wing-nut sickness is unfortunately not only an American disease ...

In Alberta, Canada an incident occurred that could have seriously injured or killed somebody.

The brake lines were cut on Liberal workers car.

He went to stop at a stop sign and the brake pedal went all the way to the floor.
Someone had cut his brake lines,according to the mechanic who looked at the car after the incident.

RCMP are advising that anybody working for the Liberals to check for a puddle of brake fluid before driving their vehicle.

Luckily,he steered the car up onto the curb to stop. He almost hit a transit bus but his quick thinking saved his life and the lives of others.

*****

Granted the term 'Liberal' is applied differently when used in terms of Canadian politics but the term 'wing-nut' is not and this as well as the Gassing in Ohio and the Bomb Threat in Texas are festering sores that need to be cured.

Seven in Pale-lyn's administration agree to give statements in probe

Damn, don't you just hate it when that happens ...

Seven employees of Alaska governor Sarah Pale-lyn's administration have agreed to give statements in the state Legislature's investigation into her firing of the state's public safety commissioner, the attorney general and lawmakers involved in the probe said Sunday.

The seven, including Pale-lyn's chief of staff, had tried to fight subpoenas issued by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. But an Anchorage judge upheld the subpoenas Thursday, and Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, whose department challenged the authority of the subpoenas, notified the committee Sunday that the seven would give statements after all.

"Despite my initial concerns about the subpoenas, we respect the court's decision to defer to the legislature," Colberg said in a statement.

Colberg said his department was working with Judiciary Committee Chairman Hollis French to arrange the testimony.

"We're still working out the details," said French.

French said he believes statements could be taken without pushing back the scheduled Friday release of a report by Stephen Branchflower, the former Anchorage prosecutor conducting the investigation into Pale-lyn's July firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Pale-lyn's husband, Todd, has also been resisting a subpoena, and there has been no word on whether he would challenge Thursday's ruling.

Pale-lyn has insisted that the state Personnel Board conduct the investigation.

Pale-lyn attorney Thomas Van Flein said that "all options are possible" for Todd Pale-lyn to participate in the Legislative Council's investigation, including a joint interview with Branchflower and Tim Petumenos, the investigator for the Personnel Board's inquiry.

Todd Palin will likely speak with Petumenos later in the month, Van Flein said, adding, "Ultimately, I think he will" participate in the legislative investigation.

Regarding the governor's advisers, Van Flein said, "It's appropriate for all the state employees to give their testimony. ... Everyone has wanted that for a long time."

Another member of the committee, state Sen. Bill Wielechowski, said some of the witnesses have already given statements to Colberg, a Pale-lyn appointee.

"I don't think there's a whole lot of new information that's going to come out of them," Wielechowski said.

Both French and Wielechowski are Democrats. French in particular has been accused of leading a biased investigation by Pale-lyn's allies, some of whom are now asking the state Supreme Court to halt the Legislature's probe.

Pale-lyn, now the Repugican vice presidential nominee, says she sacked Monegan over budget disagreements. But Monegan has said he believes he was fired because he resisted pressure to fire Pale-lyn's ex-brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten.

Pale-lyn has denied any wrongdoing, calling Wooten a "rogue trooper" who had threatened her family during his divorce from the governor's sister. Though she initially agreed to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation, her campaign has called it "tainted" by partisan politics since she became Senator John McPain's running mate and insisted that the state Personnel Board handle any inquiry.

On Friday, lawmakers backing Pale-lyn appealed Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski's refusal to block the state Legislature's investigation.

"If this unconstitutional and unlawful investigation is allowed to continue, is completed, and if the resulting report is released as planned, Plaintiffs and Alaskans in general will suffer irreparable harm," lawyers for the Liberty Legal Foundation told the Alaska Supreme Court. The Texas-based conservative group is representing Repugican legislators who support Pale-lyn and are asking the court in Alaska to shut down the probe, which they call "biased."

Michalski in his ruling rejected arguments that the investigation violated the state constitution's guarantee of due process and fair treatment and said it was up to the Legislature to manage its own investigation.

*****

All them chickens is a-coming home to roost!

And the repugicans don't like it!

Also, what is a Texas group doing interfering with an Alaskan investigation of corruption among its officials, anyway?

Four from the Eighties

Whip It

Safety Dance

Der Kommissar

Dance Hall Days

Hard to believe all four of these songs are nearly thirty years old. Seems like only yesterday.

No new trial for US woman in Hong Kong 'milkshake' murder trial

An American woman sentenced to life in prison in Hong Kong in the death of her high-flying banker husband lost her bid Monday for a new trial in a case known widely as the "milkshake murder."

Nancy Kissel was convicted in 2005 of giving her husband a milkshake laced with sedatives before fatally beating the wealthy banker on the head with a metal ornament during an argument in 2003.

Kissel said she did it in self-defense.

Prosecutors argued she planned the attack in the couple's luxury apartment.

The three-judge court rejected Kissel's request, but the 44-year-old Minnesota native's attorney said he would ask the Court of Final Appeal to hear her case.

The case made headlines worldwide because of allegations of drug abuse, kinky sex and adultery in the wealthy world of ex-patriots in this Asian financial center.

Defense attorney Simon Clarke said he was "very disappointed" with Monday's decision, but added that he expected "a better hearing at the Court of Final Appeal."

Kissel said her 40-year-old husband, Robert, an investment banker for Merrill Lynch, was an erratic whiskey-swilling workaholic who also snorted cocaine and forced her to have sex.

She testified that she killed him as he was threatening her with a baseball bat in a quarrel.

During the appeal hearings, Kissel's defense lawyer said the woman suffered an abnormality of mind that substantially impaired her self-control.

But prosecutors argued that Kissel was a cold-blooded, scheming woman who plotted to kill her husband.

They said Robert Kissel of New York had been angry about his wife's affair with a repairman who worked on the couple's vacation home in Vermont.

He had planned to seek a divorce just before she killed him, they said.

Robert Kissel's estate was worth $18 million in life insurance, stocks and properties, prosecutors said.

Under Pressure

Sort of appropriate with the way things are going, isn't it ...

Damn, there is a god!

The dreadful never-right right-wing "comedy" by David Zucker, An American Carol, out-grossed Bill Maher's slam of organized religion Religulous this weekend, by a mere $300,000 or so, according to Box Office Mojo.

However, it is interesting to note that Zucker's movie was on shown more than 3 times as many screens as Maher's flick. and yet Religulous out performed Carol 3 to 1 on a per-screen basis: Religulous grossed $6972 per theater, while Carol brought in a mere $2325 on each screen.

Fifty Ways to Boost Your Energy

What do booze, an aching back, and a bad mood have in common? They all suck away your energy. But you can fight back. We mined hundreds of scientific studies and interviewed dozens of experts to compile 50 of the very best tips to rev your engines—right now!

Read more from 50 Ways to Boost Your Energy

Four Nevada teens arrested after dress code violation

From the "They have gone way too far, now!" Department:

Four Nevada high school students have been arrested after one of them refused to adhere to the dress code.

Churchill County High School Principal Robbin Pedrett says a 17-year-old refused to turn over his bandana to a staff member Friday.

Officials say the student turned aggressive when a police officer asked for the article.

Three other students stepped in and were arrested on suspicion of interference with a public officer.

The 17-year-old was charged with resisting arrest and assault on a peace officer.

The school was locked down for more than an hour.

*****

Dress codes are for the birds and it looks like the Gooney Birds are in charge of the 'code'

Five police held in deadly clash at Mexican ruins

Five state police officers were arrested Sunday in connection with the deaths of four villagers during a raid on protesters who had seized the entrance of a Mayan archaeological site.

The five officers led an operation on Friday to remove hundreds of mostly indigenous villagers who had occupied the entrance of the Chinkultic ruins in southern Mexico for nearly a month, the Chiapas Justice Department said.
The officers were being investigated on possible homicide charges.

The villagers, most of them from the Mayan Tzeltal and Tzotzil cultures, had been protesting excessive entrance fees and the failure to reinvest those fees into the area's infrastructure and environment.
They were demanding a role in the administration of the ruins.

Protesters fought the raid with sticks, rocks and machetes.
They wrested 75 guns from the officers and poured gasoline on others, threatening to set them on fire, the department said.

State Justice Secretary Amador Rodriguez Lozano said four villagers were killed and two are missing.
Two dozen other people were injured, including 16 police, the justice department said.
Indigenous leaders say the two missing protesters were found dead, bringing the toll to six.

Another 295 police who had been held for questioning had been released by Sunday.
But the Justice Department said more could be arrested as investigations continue.

Villagers had agreed to return the stolen weapons for the release of 30 detained protesters, Lozano said, adding that authorities will discuss their offer.
The protesters have also said they won't try to retake the entrance while negotiations are under way.

Chinkultic is a Mayan archaeological site about 1,200 years old located near the Montebello lakes near the Guatemalan border.
The villagers drove administrative workers off the site on Sept. 7, but allowed the archaeologists to keep working.
During their takeover of the ruins, protesters charged visitors 20 pesos (US$1.80) for entrance rather than the official 35 pesos (US$3) and said they would use the money to fix roads and make other infrastructure improvements.

Obama accuses McPain of looking for distractions

Sen. Barack Obama speaking today (Sunday, October 5, 2008) charged that Sen. John McPain's campaign is launching "Swift boat-style attacks" on him instead of addressing the country's problems.

"Sen. McCain and his operatives are gambling that they can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up," Obama said at an event in Asheville, North Carolina.

"That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time," he said.

Obama also continued his heightened attack on McPain's health care plan, calling it "radical" and "out of line with our basic values," reiterating criticisms he made Saturday in Virginia.

Obama's health care plan includes the creation of a national health insurance program for individuals who do not have employer-provided health care and who do not qualify for other existing federal programs. His plan does not mandate individual coverage for all Americans, but requires coverage for all children.

Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan called Pale-lyn's comments over the weekend "offensive" and "not surprising" given the McPain campaign's statement that "they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills."

In a new ad that begins airing Monday, the Obama campaign calls the new McPain campaign attacks a "dishonest, dishonorable assault on Barack Obama".

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said she found Pale-lyn's attack on Obama "shocking."

"He's leading in the polls. He's leading in most of the battleground states. And this is going to be a month, I think, of character assassination. And so the repugican position is to try to assassinate Barack Obama's character and try to place him in a position where the trust that he has built dissipates, the credibility that he has dissipates," Feinstein said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

*****

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, said Sunday that the Delaware senator would be canceling campaign events Monday and Tuesday in the wake of his mother-in-law's death Sunday.

Bonny Jacobs, Jill Biden's mother, had been sick for a long time and was living in a hospice.

Wade announced Saturday that Sunday and Monday's events were canceled after doctors told the family to stay close by.

The death comes the same day Biden's son, Beau, deploys with his National Guard unit to a mobilization station in Texas before a tour in Iraq.

(Editor's Note: McPain campaign - that "deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills" thing ... t'aint working McGee)

Police blow up suspicious backpack at Texas mosque

You spew fear and hate as the wing-nut Hate (oops, I mean, talk) Radio heads do ... and at High Volume, to boot!

You get this ...

Police have blown up a suspicious backpack outside a Texas mosque and arrested a man who claimed it contained a bomb.

Austin police Lt. Cedric Hudson says 46-year-old Azzam Baytie threatened the North Austin Muslim Community Center on Sunday.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that police said Baytie also claimed to have a gun.

Authorities X-rayed the backpack and found electronic parts inside.

They destroyed it as a precaution.

Hudson says Baytie was arrested on charges of criminal trespassing and terroristic threat.

Police do not know if he has an attorney.
(Who cares ... the nut threatened terrorism.)

*****

This and the recent gassing of children in a Mosque by a some idiots swallowing the tripe belched up on a video entitled Obsession by a 527 PAC pushing for McPain/Pale-lyn and acting upon it show the depth of the depravity of the right wing (as if the underage and same sex scandals and the corruption scandals and fraud scandals and the ... oh, you get the idea ... weren't enough).

Something McPain/Pale-lyn have NOT disavowed, nor will they disavow it.

These morons are just the tip of the iceberg - a mall iceberg, but an iceberg none the less - of the underground network of fanatical lunatics who believe every vile thing spitted their way and regurgitate such refuse and offal and act upon their 'marching orders' from the neo-con demagogues they bow down to.

Farmer carves out California record with huge pumpkin

That's a lot of pumpkin seeds.

A Canadian farmer has won a contest in California with a pumpkin that weighs more than 1,500 pounds.

Jake van Kooten of British Columbia collected more than $9,000 in prize money Saturday at the Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin and Harvest Festival.

Festival spokesman Steve Capps says the entry set a new California record - by just 1 pound.

Zip it!

Adrenaline junkies hitch themselves to a steel cable and go whirring across panoramic views of mountain scenery.

The High Country boasts some of the best autumn views in the Southeast: Every fall, flocks of folks drive up for slow cruises of oohs and ahhs to see the blazing colors and feel the crisp mountain air.

But if it's a bird's-eye view – and a more adrenaline-filled experience – you want, I've got just the place.

Scream Time Zip Line crisscrosses about 100 feet above a former Christmas tree farm that's nine miles outside Boone. Hawk's Nest, Sugar Mountain and the top of Grandfather Mountain perch on the horizon, and a valley of lazy cows and country churches makes a picturesque view below.

Scream Time, which opened this year, offers six zip lines across the valley ranging from 450 feet to 800 feet. One three-man Super Zip line runs 2,000 feet down the length of the valley. Cost is $89 for six runs and an additional $29 for the Super zip. You can also do the Super Zip alone for $47.

“We've had people on the zip line from 15-month-olds – riding tandem with the moms – all the way up to 90 years old,” said Scream Time owner Monie McCoury. “We really didn't know what our demographics would be, but it has turned out to be singles, couples, families … anyone looking for a fun, low-impact adventure. They're all looking for that thrill and sense of flight.”

Seasonal surge expected

Many people envision zip lines running through the jungle, whether it's from “Tarzan” or the Sean Connery movie “Medicine Man.” Canopy tours are a popular tourist attraction in the rainforests of Hawaii, Belize, Costa Rica and some Caribbean islands.

McCoury had never been on a zip line or even seen one in operation when he dreamed of zipping on a cable across the High Country.

“As a kid, we'd use a bar to slide on a cable between two trees,” he said. “When I had my own children, I built a rinky-dink one in the backyard. But here I envisioned an elaborate path with long runs zipping across the sky.”

McCoury teamed with Experience Based Learning, of Rockford, Ill., to design, engineer and inspect the course, as well as train the staff. The course was built last fall and opened in January.

“We were hugely busy this summer, but it slowed down in mid-August when kids went back to school,” he said. “We expect the next surge when leaf season arrives and again in December when people come up for the holidays.”

Scream Time will close January through late March.

Folks who've zipped in Central America or other rainforests can expect a few differences at Scream Time. All but one of the lines run across or down the valley, offering panoramic views of mountain scenery.

At Scream Time, only one line zips through the woods.

Staffers at Scream Time also “brake the line” – slow you down at the end of your flight. In Central America, you do it yourself by grabbing the steel cable with a heavy leather glove.

The 2,000-foot-long Super Zip is especially fun – and worth the extra bucks. The longer run builds more speed and gives you plenty of time to spin around and check out the scenery as you fly down the hill. An added plus: three riders can race at one time.

“It's the total feeling of flight,” McCoury says of zip lining's allure. “You're above the ground, suspended in the air and it sounds like you're on your own private Lear jet. You don't really realize how high up you are because you're focused on getting to the other side. But once you relax, you look around and enjoy it. It's the best view in the High Country.”

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(on the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
(tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
(sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land
(on the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
(washes the grave with silvery tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
(a soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(war bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
(generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
(and to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

CARE Rejects US Food Aid

Number 22 in Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009

*****

In August 2007, one of the biggest and best-known American charity organizations, CARE, announced that it was turning down $45 million a year in food aid from the United States government. CARE claims that the way US aid is structured causes rather than reduces hunger in the countries where it is received. The US budgets $2 billion a year for food aid, which buys US crops to feed populations facing starvation amidst crisis or enduring chronic hunger.

The organization’s announcement prompted argument about the forms and objectives of the aid given by the US and other big powers to third world countries and the role that most charity organizations are playing. The reasoning behind CARE’s decision is part of a years-long debate that has influenced everything from US trade and domestic legislation to the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization talks.

CARE’s 2006 report, “White Paper on Food Aid Policy,” points out that the current food aid program is motivated by profit rather than altruism. The policy, which dictates that donated money be used to purchase food in the home country, results in a program driven by “the export and surplus disposal objectives of the exporting country” and not the needs of people in hunger.

The US policy implements the practice of monetization, a food aid policy in which the US government buys surplus food from American agribusinesses that have already been heavily subsidized, and ships it via US shipping lines (generating transport costs that eat up much of the $2 billion annual food aid provided by the US government) to aid organizations working around the world. The aid organizations then sell the US-grown crops to local populations, at a dramatically reduced cost. The aid organizations use proceeds from these sales to fund their development and anti-poverty programs. But several groups, with CARE at the forefront, have pointed out that this policy has the effect of undermining local farmers and destabilizing the very food production systems that aid organizations are working to strengthen.

A policy that puts local farmers out of commission and undermines agriculture in developing countries becomes part of a process by which those countries lose the means to develop—and thus grow more dependent on the stronger and more dominant nations. These countries become more vulnerable in every sphere, not only economically but politically as well. The result is likely to be more hunger and less sovereignty as countries are tied ever more tightly to the world market.

“We are not against emergency food aid for things like drought and famine,” CARE spokeswoman Alina Labrada said, “but local farmers are being hurt instead of helped by this mechanism.”

The European Union has also been critical of the US food aid program. European countries all but phased out the practice of monetization in the 1990s. Only 10 percent of their budgeted food aid is reserved for crops grown in Europe. Suspicions remain that the US uses monitized food aid programs to avoid limits on its universally contested farm subsidies.

The UN World Food Program, the largest distributor of food aid in the world, has rejected the practice of monetization and does not allow its grain to be sold by NGOs.

The past two US congressional farm bills presented proposals to shift portions of the food aid budget from grain to cash donations, to be made available for people in need to buy locally grown crops. Both attempts were voted down.

*****

Sources:

Inter Press Service, July 23, 2007
Title: “Mutiny Shakes US Food Aid Industry”
Author: Ellen Massey

Revolution Magazine, October 1, 2007
Title: “Starvation, Aid Agencies and the Benevolence of the Imperialists”
Author: Revolution Cooperative

Think You’re Multi-tasking? Think Again!

“Don’t believe the multitasking hype, scientists say. New research shows that we humans aren’t as good as we think we are at doing several things at once. But it also highlights a human skill that gave us an evolutionary edge. As technology allows people to do more tasks at the same time, the myth that we can multi-task has never been stronger. But researchers say it’s still a myth — and they have the data to prove it.

Humans, they say, don’t do lots of things simultaneously. Instead, we switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly. A case example, researchers say, is a group of people who focus not on a BlackBerry but on a blueberry — as in pancakes.

Diner Cook: A Task Master:

To make it as a short-order cook, you must be able to keep a half-dozen orders in your head while cracking eggs, flipping pancakes, working the counter, and refilling coffee cups. And at a restaurant like the Tastee Diner, in Bethesda, Md., the orders come in verbally, not on a ticket. Chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled with sausage, order of french fries, rye toast — they’re small tasks. On a busy day, though, they add up to a tough job for Shawn Swinson. “My first month here, I was ready to walk out the door,” he said. Asked what it feels like when he’s in the middle of rush hour, Swinson said, “Like you’re in an insane asylum. It’s almost unbearable.”

“It’s singularly the most difficult job in this type of operation,” Long said. “Four cooks. Five waitresses. Bus staff. Host. Getting them in and out.” Speed and accuracy are at a premium — especially when the customers are multitasking, too. Lunchtime is the worst, Long said. “People may have an errand to run. Maybe go to the bank and pick up dry cleaning, and eat. All within an hour, whatever time they have.” It’s all part of life these days. We answer e-mails while yapping on the phone. We schedule appointments while driving and listening to the radio. And it seems as if we’re focusing on all these tasks simultaneously, as if we’ve become true masters of doing 10 things at once. But, brain researchers say, that’s not really the case.”

From NPR

Panthers Maul Chiefs

DeAngelo Williams scored three times ... the Panthers notched their first shutout in nearly two years ... and recorded the largest victory margin in franchise annals. Those statistics defined the day, and illustrated a 34-0 whitewashing of the Kansas City Chiefs at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday.

Female fan's kiss ends music concert in Kuwait

From the "You're joking, right?!" Department:

A Kuwaiti official says authorities abruptly ended a music concert by an Egyptian singer in the conservative Muslim country when a young female fan jumped on stage, hugged the male singer and gave him a kiss.

Qanas al-Adwani, who heads the government department that monitors public entertainment, says the girl's behavior at Friday's concert "defied the conservative traditions" of Kuwait.

Al-Adwani also said Sunday that the fan's behavior broke controls on public entertainment, which were imposed by influential Muslim fundamentalists after they failed in 1997 to ban concerts altogether.

Concerts have to be licensed by the government, and monitors from the Information Ministry watch the crowd to make sure nobody stands up to dance.

*****

Well, we know where Percy and Prunella Prigsnif are living, now don't we?!
"Defied the conservative traditions," my sore arse ... defied Machiavellian repressions is a more appropriate phrase.

Judge blocks Wells Fargo-Wachovia deal

A judge has temporarily blocked Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia, according to a news release by Citigroup, which previously had a deal with Wachovia.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos issued the order, saying that Citigroup and Wachovia must appear before him on Friday, the news release said.

Citigroup has been pressing Wachovia and Wells Fargo to abandon their merger plans, arguing that it had entered into an exclusivity agreement with Wachovia.

In a deal struck with the assistance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Monday, Citigroup had offered to take over the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank for $2.2 billion. However, four days later, Wells Fargo said it was buying Wachovia for $15.1 billion.

A Wells Fargo victory would transform the company, whose operations and bank branches are largely located in the Midwest and on the West Coast, into a dominant presence along the East Coast and in the Southeast.

It would also put the San Francisco, California-based bank squarely in competition with the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

If Citigroup prevails, it would represent a huge step forward for the company's retail banking aspirations, whose footprint has lagged many of its biggest rivals.

Investors cheered Citigroup's decision last week to buy Wachovia's banking assets. However, some observers had wondered whether Citigroup could pull off the deal since it is in the process of a major restructuring after posting close to $18 billion in losses over the past three quarters.

In the past month, the nation's banking industry has undergone a dramatic facelift, including the failure of Washington Mutual and its subsequent purchase by JPMorgan Chase, as well as Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

*****

Citigroup needs to get a clue you aren't going to 'steal' a Southern company for 2.2B when we're offered 15.1B to be bought ... contrary to what some think - Southerners are quite adept at mathematics and no Yankee company is going to hoo-doo them.

Palin'sToxic Paradise

As governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids.
It's true that Alaska's top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. but, instead of correcting this problem, she's compounded it.
Peer into her environmental record, and Palin ends up looking a lot like George W. Bush.

In the past 20 years, research has shown that exposure to some metals and to chemicals such as pesticides, flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) can cause birth defects and permanent developmental disorders both prenatally and in the first years of childhood.
And Alaska is vulnerable to some of the worst environmental pollutants out there.
In a state whose wealth depends on the exploitation of its natural resources, the toxic byproducts of mining and energy development, such as arsenic, mercury, and lead, are particular problems.

Read the rest in the new republic

March of the Penguins

Between the bronzed bodies in skimpy thongs soaking up the rays on Copacabana beach, a tiny black and white bundle of feathers struggles to emerge from the surf. exhausted and emaciated, its bones poking through the blubber, the young penguin finally collapses on the sand.
It has strayed thousands of miles from home, one of more than 1,000 penguins to have washed up on the Brazilian coast this year

No one is really sure what has caused the Brazilian exodus – at the moment, the focus is on saving the penguins rather than explaining how they have ended up in this predicament – but the prevailing theory is that changes in water temperatures have caused confusion on the migratory routes.

Fish like cold water and so South American penguins in search of food usually ride the cold Malvinas current north, gobbling as they go. when they hit the warmer Brazil current, they know it's time to stop and head back.
Only this year, the Malvinas current has been warmer than usual, meaning the penguins couldn't appreciate the difference.

Read the rest in the London Independent