Our Food is Full of Crap ...

... as well as Rodent Hair, Mildew, and Bugs.

In the wake of the peanut butter salmonella scare (caused by rats, roaches, and other awfulness inside the factory), an op-ed in today's New York Times examines the government's standards for acceptable levels of gross stuff in food. According to the writer, you likely ingest up to two pounds of "flies, maggots and mites" each year, without being aware.

Excerpt:

In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.

Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”).

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.

The Maggots in Your Mushrooms (E. J. Levy / New York Times)

Here's that happy-fun FDA publication: "The Food Defect Action Levels - Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans."

Bon appetit!

Research on snap judgments based on people's faces

New Scientist reports on the research of Princeton University's Alexander Todorov, who finds that "snap judgments are based on an 'overgeneralization' of an evolved need to read facial expressions for signs of danger.

How your looks betray your personality

Brits: rally to save your right to photograph the police at Scotland Yard

Britons are planning on rallying at Scotland Yard on February 16, 2009 to protest the new law that lets the cops throw you in jail for ten years for photographing them in action, if your photo is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

The National Union of Journalists, in association with British Journal of Photography, has called for photographers to make their voices heard at a rally on 16 February as a new law is introduced that allows for the arrest - and potential imprisonment - of anyone who takes pictures of police officers 'likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism'...

The NUJ has teamed up with Mark Thomas, a writer, broadcaster, comic and political activisit, along with Chris Atkins, who is behind the documentary Taking Liberties, and BJP for a 'photo opportunity' outside New Scotland Yard on Monday 16 February. 'The plan is simple, turn up with your camera and exercise your democratic right to take a photograph in a public place,' says Marc Vallee, an NUJ member who will be there on the day, and who himself clashed with police over the right to photograph public events

Section 76 ignites new debate

Man charged with arson in Australia fire

A media report says a suspect has been charged with lighting one of the wildfires that killed more than 180 people in Australia last weekend.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that the man was charged in court on three counts: arson causing death, lighting a wildfire and with possession of child pornography.
The report cites no sources.

The man did not appear in the Morwell Magistrates Court, where he was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

The arson charges are connected to a blaze known as the Churchill fire, one of hundreds that raged through southeastern Victoria state last Saturday, killing more than 181 people and destroying almost 2,000 homes.

Our Readers

Today some of our readers hailed from:

Athens, Attiki, Greece
Erfurt, Thuringen, Germany
Deming, New Mexico, United States
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Beaverton, Oregon, United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You can still get your message across, if it's carefully chosen.

Great!

Right to privacy

Swill O'Really rails about the 'right to privacy is tantamount'.
That is ... if you agree with him ... if not, then screw your right to privacy.

Most Americans want investigations

Close to two-thirds of those surveyed said there should be investigations into allegations that the shrub and cabal used torture to interrogate terrorism suspects and its program of wiretapping U.S. citizens without getting warrants.

Political Commentary

"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician.
I, for one, believe the piano player to be much more honorable than most current politicians.'

~ Harry Truman

And I Quote

"Behind every economic catastrophe you will find a Republican president."

~ Bartcop, and if you want to challenge me on that, bring your wallet

Not me, I don't bet against the truth.

Blogger's Legal Guide

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

Legal Guide for Bloggers

Having been the victim of a gaggle of internet bullies I know a bit about this. At a forum I was assaulted by several of these 'internet bullies' and stood up and backed them down from a direct attack ... however they colluded to go underhandedly and cry foul that I would stand up to them and accused me of their very tactics behind the scenes.

Health News

Genetic map of cold virus a step toward cure

Researchers have solved the first step in treating the common cold, by mapping its entire genome, or genetic map, teams from the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported today.

"We have the pieces all in place. They can't go in any other way. Now we have to understand what the pictures are telling us," said Dr. Stephen B. Liggett, professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of its Cardiopulmonary Genomics Program.

The research was published in the online edition of the journal Science on Thursday afternoon.

Technically known as the human rhinovirus infection, the common cold is responsible for half of all asthma attacks and is a factor in bronchitis, sinusitis, middle-ear infections and pneumonia. The coughs, sneezes and sniffles of colds impose a major health care burden in the United States -- including visits to health care providers, cost of over-the-counter drugs for symptom relief, often-inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions and missed work days -- with direct and indirect costs of about $60 billion annually.

"We generally think of colds as a nuisance, but they can be debilitating in the very young and in older individuals and can trigger asthma attacks at any age," Liggett said. "Also, recent studies indicate that early...infection in children can program their immune system to develop asthma by adolescence."

Finding a cure for the common cold has been elusive. That's because the rhinovirus is so complex. Made up of at least 99 different strains, it can infect different people with different symptoms.

By mapping the genome of the common cold and assembling the results into a "family tree," scientists can see how the virus strains are related, as well as their differences. Liggett, who is also the study's senior author, says this is a breakthrough in solving the common cold puzzle because. "At least now we have an understanding of which virus one might have."

Now that the pieces are together, drug companies can work on developing new treatments that would either halt or prevent the cold virus before it begins to spread.

Researchers found that human rhinoviruses are organized into about 15 small groups. So the idea of one drug fits all probably won't work, Liggett says. "Our mindset right now is to consider more along the antiviral treatment, rather than vaccines, but always keep an open mind to the new technology of vaccine development."

Investigators are so optimistic with their findings that they predict the development of new drugs within the next two to five years, depending on Food and Drug Administration approval, which could mean one day soon, runny noses caused by colds may be a thing of the past.

Tylenol poisonings: 25 and still going

The items seized at a Boston-area home last week are being examined in Chicago as part of the investigation into the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that caused seven deaths, an FBI spokesman said Wednesday.

A week ago, authorities seized a computer and boxes of files from James W. Lewis' home in Cambridge, Mass.
The recent activity has raised hopes of a long-awaited break in the case.
Investigators returned to Chicago last weekend and began sorting through the items Monday, according to FBI spokesman Ross Rice.

"They brought with them the items that were recovered during the search, and they're now involved in the process of going through, very meticulously, all of those items to try to determine if there's any link to our investigation," Rice said.

Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for trying to extort money from Tylenol's makers after the cyanide poisonings.
But he has denied having anything to do with the deaths.

As for the recent activity in the investigation, the FBI gave little details about its basis but cited forensic advances and tips spurred by the 25th anniversary of the poisonings.

Over three days beginning on Sept. 29, 1982, seven people died after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol in the Chicago area.
The poisonings triggered a huge recall and eventually led to the widespread adoption of tamperproof packaging in food and medical products.

Judicial Shakeup Is Coming

The pseudo-science of criminal forensics

A soon to be released study from the National Academy of Sciences on the poor quality of forensic science in America’s courtrooms is expected to send shockwaves through the criminal justice system.

According to The New York Times:

“People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting. The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court.”

Law enforcement organizations have tried to derail the report nearly every step of the way, and with good reason. Police and prosecutors have been relying on bad science to get convictions for decades. It’s only recently, as the onset of DNA testing has begun uncovering a disturbing spate of wrongful convictions, that some of the criminal justice system’s cottage industry pseudo-sciences like “bite mark analysis” have been exposed for the quackery they are.

Just think of the headaches this is going to cause the judicial system - having to review an awful lot of cases is going to be the easy part.

Brain's Night Off

Pinky and The Brain

New Device Reads Minds Pretty Well

Makes you go ... Hmmmm…

Canadian researchers say they can glean simple preferences from a person’s brain by shining near-infrared light into the noggin.

The study, reported in the Journal of Neural Engineering, demonstrated the ability to decode a person’s preference for one of two drinks with 80 percent accuracy by measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue, the scientists said in a statement today.

“This is the first system that decodes preference naturally from spontaneous thoughts,” says Sheena Luu, a University of Toronto doctoral student in biomedical engineering who led the work under the supervision of Tom Chau, a specialist in pediatric rehab engineering at the university’s Bloorview Kids Rehab center.

Live Science

Massive solar thermal installation system being built

This is one big battery!

The largest series of solar installations in history, more than 1,300 megawatts, is planned for the desert outside Los Angeles, according to a new deal between the utility Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker, BrightSource.

The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes — more than exist in San Francisco — though estimates like that are notoriously screwy.

The technology isn’t the familiar photovoltaics — the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity — but solar thermal power, which concentrates the sun’s rays to create steam in a boiler and spin a turbine.

Full Story at Wired

Hindu extremists promote 'cow water' soft-drink

From the "Ah, thanks, but no thanks" Department:

Radical Hindus in India are attempting to cleanse the nation of foreign soft-drinks by promoting an "ayurvedic" beverage made from cow urine:

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

India to launch cow urine as soft drink

Time-travelling destroyer of economies

In yet more evidence of the deluded state of mind repugicans dwell under ...

Representative Steve Austria (r-OH) has the skinny on FDR: the man was a time-travelling socialist.

"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."

History and historians date the beginning of the Great Depression at or shortly after the stock-market crash of 1929; Roosevelt took office in 1933.

"That's just history." Someone has been spoon-fed a load of tripe and swallowed it whole.

U.S. Rep. Austria blames Depression on Roosevelt.

Can we now be rid of all these fools?!

Two men arrested over Australian fires

Two men were arrested today in connection with the wildfires that have swept through southeastern Australia, killing as many as 300 people.

Victoria state police said the two suspects -- who had been taken into custody and were "assisting" police earlier -- had been behaving suspiciously in or near Marysville, a small village where roughly 100 people have died in the fires.

It was not immediately clear what the behavior was or what charges the men may face.

Meanwhile, authorities said they fear the death toll from the fires, which sat at 181 on Wednesday, could reach as high as 300.

Our Readers

Our readers today have hailed from:

Doha, Ad Dawah, Qatar
Tazewell, Tennessee, United States
Zagreb, Grad Zagreb, Croatia
Germantwon, Maryland, United States
Rome, Lazio, Italy

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

The closer you get to the top, the more the hearing changes.

Curious?!

Don't let me down

The Beatles
The famous 'rooftop concert in 1969' their last 'live' performance.

Speaking of banks

Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors.

Give up?

It is Canada.

Yup, Canada.

In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world.

America's banking system is ranked 40th, Britain's is ranked 44th.

Read the rest in Newsweek.

Items in the News

Despite having easy access to the US Treasury's funds, Bank of America and General Motors continue laying off workers.
More in the Charlotte Observer

In England, big-time bank mucky-mucks say they'll sue if the government bans their million-pound-plus bonuses.
More in the London Daily Mail

It is policy at Bank of America, after the death of credit card holders, to guilt grieving family members to pay the balance.
More at WCVB-TV: The Boston Channel

Liars and Fools

Today's Liars and Fools are:

Los Angeles Times holds back Limbaugh's most offensive recent quote

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Faux's O'Really is a hypocrite!

Plame leaker Rove claims the shrub White House never leaked

Faux News passes off repugican press release as original research

Faux's O'Really chides Obama for calling on blogger at press conference, forgetting the shrub's gay blogger-boy Jeff Gannon of "Talon News"

Faux's Brick says of stimulus package: "It is slavery"

Faux's Handjob lies that stimulus funds "frisbee golf course"

Faux's More-ass uses lie of ACORN funding in stimulus bill in repugican fundraising letter

Politico accuses Obama of fear-mongering

Politico echoes Huckabee's bogus claim that stimulus is "anti-religion", without noting that it's bullshit

Dimbulb, Handjob, and the repugican cabal: An iron triangle of stimulus misinformation

Salmonella Peanut CEO won't eat his own peanuts, cites Fifth Amendment

In Congressional hearings into Salmonella found in peanuts, Stewart Parnell, owner of Peanut Corp. of America, declined a request by Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon to eat some of his company's own product citing his fifth-amendment protections.
Given what's come out during the hearing, it's no wonder:

Charles Deibel, president of Deibel Laboratories Inc., said his company was among those that tested Peanut Corp. products and notified the Georgia plant that salmonella was found. Peanut Corp. sold the products anyway, according to an FDA inspection report...

The House panel released e-mails obtained by its investigators showing Parnell ordered products identified with salmonella shipped and quoting his complaints that tests discovering the contaminated food were “costing us huge $$$$$$.”

Owner Stewart Parnell refused to testify at hearing; 9 have now died

Thai official rebukes Jolie for refugee plea

A senior Thai diplomat rebuked Hollywood star Angelina Jolie yesterday for speaking out on behalf of Muslim refugees from Burma.

Jolie - who is deeply involved in the plight of refugees in her capacity as a United Nations goodwill ambassador - called on the Thai government to respect the human rights of Burma's Rohinyga "boat people" last week while touring a camp in northern Thailand for other refugees from the military-controlled nation.

The Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in their native land, have been trying to land in Thailand after treacherous sea journeys in recent months only to be towed back to sea and cast adrift by the Thai Navy.

Virasakdi Futrakul, permanent secretary of Thailand's foreign ministry, said Jolie's mission last week was to inspect a camp that houses refugees mostly from Burma's ethnic Karenni minority not deal with the Rohinyga.

"We probably have to warn UNHCR that they should not have comment on this because it was not the purpose of her visit," he said.

UNHCR spokeswoman Kitt McKinsey did not comment on Virasakdi's remark.

As to Jolie - "She was extremely touched by the plight of the Rohingya people. She expressed the hope that the human rights of the Rohingya people will be respected just as the human rights of everyone in the world should be respected," McKinsey said last week.

Married Life

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the woman's face was severely burned.

The doctor told the husband that they couldn't graft any skin from her body because she was too skinny.

So the husband offered to donate some of his own skin.

However, the only skin on his body that the doctor felt was suitable would have to come from his buttocks.

The husband and wife agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from, and requested that the doctor also honor their secret.

After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the woman's new beauty.

She looked more beautiful than she ever had before!

All her friends and relatives just went on and on about her youthful beauty!

One day, she was alone with her husband, and she was overcome with emotion at his sacrifice.

She said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me. How can I possibly repay you?"

"My darling," he replied, "I get all the thanks I need every time I see your mother kiss you on the cheek."

Hey Bulldog

The Beatles

It's a Blond world

A blond reports for her university final exam.

The exam consists mainly of true or false questions.

She takes her seat in the examination hall, stares at the question paper for five minutes, and then in a fit of inspiration takes her purse out, removes a coin and starts tossing the coin.

She marks the answer sheet 'true' for heads and 'false' for tails.

Within thirty minutes she is all done, whereas the rest of the class is still working furiously.

During the next few minutes, she is seen desperately throwing the coin, swearing and sweating.

The moderator, alarmed, approaches her and asks what is happening.

"I finished the exam," she replies. "Now I'm rechecking my answers."

Student injured on bus as friend shows off gun

A middle school student in North Carolina is recovering after being shot in the leg aboard a school bus when a friend showed off a handgun.

The Wake County School System says the shooting occurred this morning.
Officials didn't name the students.

School system spokesman Michael Evans says the wounded student was grazed in the leg by a .22-caliber bullet.
The boy was taken to Rex Hospital where he was in good conditions and was expected to be released soon.
Evans said a student apparently found a gun at home and was bringing it to school in a book bag. When he took it out to show his friend, the gun discharged.
The boy with the pistol was being interviewed by investigators.
There was no word on whether anyone would be charged.

*****

Whomever let the boy take the gun should be charged!

Economic Meltdown Continues

Even the obscenely wealthy are feeling the recession as it hits hard!

A federal bankruptcy judge says he will appoint an outside examiner to investigate the proposed sale of The Yellowstone Club, following accusations of collusion between the club's owner and its would-be buyer.

The millionaires-only club, now under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, fell almost $400 million into debt last year after its former owner diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from the enterprise. - More details here

*****

Times has certainly changed for The Yellowstone Club, an ultra-luxurious retreat for the wealthy including Bill Gates and Dan Quayle which was once to be the site of a single home to sell for $155 million. now it is more than $400 million in debt. - More details here

*****

And here I was thinking the shrub and the cabal looked after their 'friends' ... oh, yeah, that's right they don't have any.

Texas police commiting piracy

And you thought it was just in Somali waters where pirates plied their trade didn't you ...

A two-decade-old state law that grants authorities the power to seize property used in crimes is wielded by some agencies against people who never are charged with — much less convicted of — criminal activity.

Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008, and, to date, filed criminal charges against fewer than half, according to a review of court documents by the San Antonio Express-News.

Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car that was being driven through town.

Some affidavits filed by officers relied on the presence of seemingly innocuous property as the only evidence that a crime had occurred.

Linda Dorman, an Akron, Ohio, great-grandmother had $4,000 in cash taken from her by local authorities when she was stopped while driving through town after visiting Houston in April 2007. Court records make no mention that anything illegal was found in her van. She’s still hoping for the return of what she calls “her life savings.”

Dorman’s attorney, David Guillory, calls the roadside stops and seizures in Tenaha “highway piracy,” undertaken by a couple of law enforcement officers whose agencies get to keep most of what was seized.

Full Story in the San Antonio News

Obama moment yields offers for McDonald's worker

A McDonald's worker who got President Obama's attention at a town hall meeting in Florida says his job prospects were super-sized by the spotlight.
Nineteen-year-old Julio Osegueda told CBS' "Early Show" today that he has gotten two offers since the televised exchange.
The communications major at Edison State College said a radio station offered him an internship and a local baseball team owner wants him to broadcast the home opener in April.
Osegueda told Obama on Tuesday that he had worked at McDonald's for more than four years because he couldn't find another job.

*****

OK, so where is my non-Mcjob? I already have my degrees.

Woman who sang about fire charged with 7 arsons

Police in a Philadelphia suburb say a 19-year-old woman accused of arson was caught on a surveillance camera singing, "The fire department is going to be mad at me."

Police say Amanda Gessner touched off 7 blazes in trash and brush between 3 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. Tuesday within blocks of where she lives in Upper Darby Township.

Officials say Gessner was witnessed earlier in the evening at a local convenience store singing the ditty about the fire department.
Her tune was caught on the store's surveillance camera.

One fire damaged a home where a family of four was sleeping.
They escaped without injury.

Gessner is being held on $100,000 bail, charged with arson and related offenses.

Authorities say they have no reason to believe she is connected to the recent arsons in Coatesville, a few miles away.

*****

Want to know the definition of 'stupid'? Read the story above again.

Our Readers

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England, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Austria, Spain, India, Italy, Canada, Poland, Ireland, China

as well as the states of ...

California, Iowa, Florida, New York, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Ohio, Maryland, Wisconsin, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, Alabama.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Push now, and you'll pop right through.

All right then!

Underwater Stones Puzzle Archeologists

“Forty feet below the surface of Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse Bay, a mysterious pattern of stones can be seen rising from an otherwise sandy half-mile of lake floor. Likely the stones are a natural feature. But the possibility they are not has piqued the interest of archeologists, native tribes and state officials since underwater archeologist Mark Holley found the site in 2007 during a survey of the lake bottom.

The site recently has become something of an Internet sensation, thanks to a blogger who noticed an archeological paper on the topic and described the stones as “underwater Stonehenge.” Though the stones could signal an ancient shoreline or a glacial formation, their striking geometric alignment raises the possibility of human involvement. The submerged site was tundra when humans of the hunter-gatherer era roamed it 6,000 to 9,000 years ago. Could the stones have come from a massive fishing weir laid across a long-gone river? Could they mark a ceremonial site? Adding to the intrigue, one dishwasher-size rock seems to bear an etching of a mastodon.”

More in the The Chicago Tribune.

Anger Problems

The proliferation of blogs and emails may be partially responsible for the increase in anger of recent years. We can learn a lot about the emotions that motivate many blogs and emails, as well as reactions to them, from, believe it or not, a few observations of animals.

Anger, for instance, is the fight part of the primitive fight/flight/freeze response common to all mammals. It functions primarily to protect self and juvenile offspring from harm. Activation of the fight/flight/freeze response requires a dual perception of threat and vulnerability. Animals respond to lesser threats with greater anger, fear, or submission (freeze) when they are wounded, starving, sick, or recently traumatized.

The activation of fight over flight/freeze is determined by the annihilation potential of the threat. A raccoon will ferociously fight a rat to defend her newborn pups but not a cougar. Thus more anger is observed in powerful animals, which tend to be predatory. Powerful animals use anger to defend and acquire territory and resources, thereby reducing threats to the survival of self and juvenile offspring.

Social animals have to make choices about where to go, who gets to eat what and mate with whom, and when all these things happen. They must develop some kind of executive function to make necessary choices as a group. Most social animals, including humans, answer this challenge by organizing into a hierarchy, in which individuals achieve rank. Ascending up the hierarchy increases status, along with access to resources, with most of both bestowed on a chief executive, i.e., alpha males or matriarchs.

More in Psychology Today.

*****

It's possible ... there is an awful lot of anger out there - especially from one segment. Though I suspect there are a few other factors in the rise of anger.

Award for prisoner's mattress all wet

A judge has slashed the $295,000 award a jury gave to a Wisconsin prisoner who claimed his rights were violated by being forced to sleep on a moldy, stinky mattress.

A federal jury awarded Reggie Townsend that amount in punitive damages in September.
It found that New Lisbon Correctional Institution Sgt. Jerry Allen ignored Townsend's complaints about the mattress being wet because he had to sleep near a shower.

Judge Barbara Crabb found the amount excessive.
She ordered Townsend to accept $29,500 or go to trial over the amount.

Townsend, 29, of Milwaukee, is serving a 23-year sentence for reckless homicide.

*****

You've got to be kidding! He is in prison, not the Hilton. Deal with it! He should not get a cent!

Talk about living in denial ...

The fantasy:

What the wing-nuts are saying and doing:

Wing-nut group pledges to fight repugican senators who support stimulus

A whacked-out wing-nut political action committee is pledging to support primary challenges to any repugican senator who backs the economic stimulus package -- the latest public show of obstructionism and divisiveness from the lunatic fringe over the massive measure before Congress.

Three repugican senators voted for the $838 billion compromise version of the package that the Senate approved today.

"The American people don't want this trillion-dollar political payoff that will just line the pockets of non-governmental organizations who supported [President Barack] Obama in the election," said Scott Wheeler, the demented leader of The National Republican Trust PAC, a wing-nut organization that calls for less government spending and lower taxes and a return to the stone age socially as well as politically.

"Republican senators are on notice," he said. "If they support the stimulus package, we will make sure every voter in their state knows how they tried to further bankrupt voters in an already bad economy."

*****

The reality:

Obama Has Upper Hand in Stimulus Fight

The American public gives President Obama a strong 67% approval rating for the way in which he is handling the government's efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill.

See the Gallup Poll here.

As of this moment ...

576 Brave men and women will not be returning from Afghanistan
ALIVE!

Taiwan's Wu pleads guilty

Taiwan's former first lady admitted to laundering $2.2 million and forging documents Tuesday - the latest in a judicial process that has seen her husband stage a jailhouse hunger strike, her daughter lash out at media, and her son plead guilty to similar charges.
Wu Shu-chen told a three-judge panel that she sent abroad $2.2 million she received from a contractor in connection with a government construction project and that she forged documents related to a special presidential fund.
However, she did not admit to charges of embezzling money from the fund and other charges of taking bribes in connection with a land deal and the government construction project.
She did not say whether the money was a bribe - as prosecutors allege - or a political donation as she has repeatedly suggested.
The case against Wu is part of a complex web of charges that has also ensnared her husband, former President Chen Shui-bian, as well as her son, daughter-in-law and brother.

Alcohol Abuse

It wasn't quite the Boston Tea Party.
The proof was a little higher.

Kentucky bourbon industry officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder today and poured spirits on the state Capitol's front steps to protest a proposed 6-percent sales tax on all booze.
"They've always been taxing us to death over the years," said Jimmy Russell, master distiller at Lawrenceburg, Ky.-based Wild Turkey, moments after pouring out an entire bottle of bourbon into a pile of melting snow.

Beer and bourbon trucks circled the Capitol all morning.
A few hundred people holding signs and wearing stickers gathered in the Rotunda to shout their opposition.
But lawmakers on the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee weren't swayed.
They're staring down a projected $456 million revenue shortfall for the next fiscal year.
They approved the tax measure, which includes doubling the state's cigarette tax from 30 to 60 cents a pack.

*****

Raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes ... And there is a problem with this? How? Why?

Phantom Corsair

This magnificent machine is a 1938 Phantom Corsair. It was a prototype designed by Rust Heinz, of the Heinz ketchup family, and coachbuilder Maurice Schwartz. You can see it roll in the 1938 film The Young In Heart.
"Is This The Motor Car Of Tomorrow?" from Popular Science, November 1940

No sign of dolphins in NJ rivers

A helicopter search of two New Jersey rivers today failed to turn up a glimpse of the dolphins that had been living there since last summer, perhaps an indication the mammals have safely swum away.
The U.S. Coast Guard's Atlantic City station and scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surveyed the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers in Monmouth County for any sign of the bottlenose dolphins.
They didn't find any.
Teri Frady, a NOAA spokeswoman, says the lack of dolphin sightings could mean the last five have escaped from the river.
"Clearly, the fact that there were no live animals in the rivers and that there were no carcasses spotted is a good sign," she said.
The owner of a restaurant on the banks of the Shrewsbury says he and some of his employees saw the dolphins swim out into Sandy Hook Bay last month.

Three of the original 16 dolphins spotted in the river last June have died.
The fate of the others is unknown.
The dolphins had been at the center of a tug-of-war between federal wildlife officials - who said they would leave the dolphins alone unless they appeared to be in imminent danger - and animal rescuers, who wanted them either removed or coaxed out of the river and back out to sea.
Local rescuers worried that waiting too long could invite a replay of a scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins that lingered in the river in 1993.
Ice eventually closed in on them, and they drowned.

The restaurant owner who said he saw the dolphins swim out to the bay said they did so right before the Shrewsbury froze over.
NOAA scientists say they believe the dolphins originally swam into the rivers to pursue fish they feed on.

Mexico mass grave may be Aztec resistance fighters

Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City said they found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of the Aztec holdouts who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes.
The unusual burial holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adult Indians who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital.
The pyramid complex, in the city's Tlatelolco square, was the site of the last Indian resistance to the Spaniards during the months-long battle for the city.

Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem, the leader of the excavation for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the Indians might have been killed during Cortes' war or during one of the uprisings that continued after the conquest.
Guilliem said many burials have been found at the site with the remains of Indians who died during epidemics that swept the Aztec capital in the years after the conquest and killed off much of the Indian population.
But those burials were mostly hurried, haphazard affairs in which remains were jumbled together in pits regardless of age or gender.

The burial reported today is different.
The dead had many of the characteristics of warriors: All were young men, most were tall and several showed broken bones that had mended.
The men also were carefully buried Christian-style, lying on their backs with arms crossed over their chests, though many appear to have been wrapped up in large maguey cactus leaves, rather than placed in European coffins.
The mass grave contained evidence of an Aztec-like ritual in which offerings such as incense and animals were set alight in an incense burner, but Spanish elements including buttons and a bit of glass also were present.

Susan Gillespie, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, said the grave was unusual, both because it was unlikely the Spanish would have bothered with such careful burial of Aztec warriors, and because the Indians themselves would have been more likely to cremate any honored dead.
But Gillespie, who was not involved in the excavation, also noted that little is known about the period immediately following the fall of the city, when Cortes razed most pyramids and temples, then abandoned the largely destroyed metropolis.
He lived on the city's outskirts before returning to rebuild a Spanish-style city on the ruins.
It may have been in that interim period after Cortes left that the Aztecs returned to bury their dead, Guilliem said.
Gillespie agreed the burials could be those of disease victims or rebellious Indians from later years, rather than warriors who fell in the 1521 battle, and said more research was needed, such as a skeletal analysis to show cause of death.
Another possibility, she said, was that the men could have been held by the Spanish for some time and killed later.
That was the fate that befell the leader of the Aztec resistance, emperor Cuauhtemoc.

Mayor has police escort him to the restroom

Snellville, Georgia politics have reached a low point.

Jerry Oberholtzer, the mayor of the Atlanta suburb, has been asking for police escorts to the restroom in City Hall after a verbal altercation with city council member Robert Jenkins a few months ago. Oberholtzer says he no longer feels comfortable around Jenkins.

Jenkins says the mayor has no reason to worry for his physical safety and should only "fear me as a political opponent." The mayor has even had police Chief Roy Whitehead escort him to the restroom.

Jenkins and Oberholtzer have butted heads for years. Last week, the mayor sent pictures of what he said are code violations at one of Jenkins' properties to police. Authorities issued a warning to the councilman to clean up by March 1st or face jail time.

*****

Give me a break, will you ...

Seeking Medical Assistance

Injured deer stumbles into Ohio vet clinic

Workers at an Rossford, Ohio pet shop are used to worried pet owners bringing their animals in to be treated in the store's clinic.

But an unaccompanied visit Saturday by a deer to the PetSmart in Rossfield was a first for the store.

Manager Trudi Urie says the wounded doe was hanging out behind the store and then ran through an open door into a stockroom.

Staff members made sure the animal couldn't enter the shop area and called police and a veterinarian.

Agustin Cuesta had the deer brought into the clinic and closed a wound on its hind leg with dissolvable stitches as assistants held it down.

He says he couldn't tell how the animal got hurt.

The door was reopened and the animal ran back into the wild.

Talk about a sweet tooth

Teen charged with billing school for $37K of candy

Police say an Ohio teenager tried to pull off a sweet deal by ordering more than $37,000 of candy online and charging the bill to his former high school.

Police say the 18-year-old used a Middletown High School purchasing number to place orders for thousands of lollipops and candy bars from Michigan-based The Goodies Factory. It wasn't clear how he accessed the number.

The candy company became suspicious, contacted the school and was told by detectives to send an empty box.

Police say he had the order shipped to his home and was arrested after the fake delivery.

The teen faces two counts of felony telecommunications fraud. He was being held in Middletown City Jail on more than $30,000 bond.

Oh, for the love of lemons

Man calls 911 after eatery runs out of lemonade

Authorities in Boynton Beach, Florida said a man, 66, was arrested after calling 911 on Saturday to complain that a fast food restaurant ran out of lemonade.

After a drive-through employee failed to respond to the man's threat of contacting the police, the irate diner called 911, a police report alleges.

He spent about 5 minutes talking to the 911 operator about his complaint.

Boynton Beach police said the man was charged with abuse of 911 communication.

*****

Lemonade isn't that good no matter who or how you make it, people.

Police chase escaped zebras through streets

These fugitives were wearing stripes even before they were caught.

Police in the southern Germany city of Augsburg said they had to chase four circus zebras through the streets after they escaped from their handlers.

Police spokesman Robert Goeppel said one of the escapees gave itself up to by passers-by as it wandered the city streets. The other three were eventually corralled in a paddock on the outskirts of town.

Goeppel said there were no injuries, either to humans or zebras, during Monday's chase. He said it was the first time "anything like this has happened here."

Muzak files for bankruptcy protection

From the "Hallelujah, maybe now we can have real music" Department:

Muzak Holdings LLC, the Fort Mill, S.C. provider of background music to businesses, today announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection so it can restructure its debt.

The company had $105 million in secured bank debt that was due today, part of $440 million worth of debt due between February and March. Last month, Muzak said it had received a 22-day extension on the $105 million debt. The company said today that it and Muzak's major creditor constituencies are committed to completing restructuring negotiations.

“Muzak is a solid business with an outstanding customer base, but we are burdened with substantial debt obligations established over a decade ago,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Villa said in a statement. “We intend to move through this process as quickly as possible and we firmly believe that this course of action will better position Muzak for long-term success.”

Muzak has 1,250 employees, including 550 in Fort Mill. It designs and installs professional sound systems for businesses, and provides other services, such as promotional music for corporate branding.

Catch the Wind

Donovan (live)

Let's hope it's not the career bad guys

California May Be Forced to Release Up to a Third of All Prisoners

Federal judges on Monday tentatively ordered California to release tens of thousands of inmates, up to a third of all prisoners, in the next three years to stop dangerous overcrowding.

As many as 57,000 could be let go if the current population were cut by the maximum percentage considered by a three-judge panel. Judges said the move could be done without threatening public safety — and might improve a public safety hazard.

The state immediately said it would appeal the final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trend-setting California, the Golden State, has an immense prison system responsible for nearly 170,000 inmates, and their care has become a major political and budget issue as officials weigh multibillion costs of improved facilities against death and illness behind bars.

Full Story in Reuters

Science News

Solar cells inspired by moth eyes

Philips Research Laboratories engineers have taken inspiration from moth eyes to develop a coating for solar cells that increases their efficiency. Nanostructures, comparable to the tapered structures on the insects' eyes, reduce the amount of light that's reflected off the photovoltaic material. From Physics World:

To maximize the amount of light entering (moths') eyes, to help them see at night, the insects’ eyes are covered in tapered nanostructures. This creates an “effective medium” where the refractive index gradually increases as light travels from air through to the insects’ optical nerve. The resulting effective index is close to one, which means that very little light is reflected out of the eye.

Inspired by these biostructures, Gomez Rivas and colleagues have mimicked the effect by growing nanowires of different lengths - creating a metamaterial with optical properties that change gradually as a function of distance.

"Moth eyes inspire more efficient solar cell"

Health News

Hallucinations that are tied to eye disease

In recent days, both the Daily Mail and Wired.com looked at Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a disease characterized by bizarre and vivid visual hallucinations. Interestingly, people who suffer from CBS aren't mentally ill but have visual impairments such as macular degeneration. Even weirder is that the hallucinations often involve characters or things that are much smaller in size than reality.

From the Daily Mail:

Following his wife's death six years ago, David Stannard has become accustomed to spending quiet evenings alone at his home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

So it came as a surprise to the 73-year-old when he looked up from his television one evening to discover he was sharing his living room with two RAF pilots and a schoolboy.

'The pilots were standing next to the TV, watching it as if they were in the wings of a theatre,' he says.

An estimated 100,000 people in Britain have Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS), which leads to hallucinations. These can include visions of miniature people

'The little boy was in a grey, Fifties-style school uniform. He just stood there in the hearth looking puzzled. He was 18 inches high at most.'

"Visions of 'little people'"

Meanwhile, Wired.com interviewed famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose eye disease resulted in his own hallucinations. From Wired.com:

Why do hallucinations occur in people who lose their sight?

Oliver Sacks: When a part of the brain that is used to a sensory input, whether it is visual or auditory, isn't getting it, then it tends to become hyperactive and to generate activity on its own. In the case of musical hallucinations, with [people who go deaf], the brain delves into its memories of music, and so people hallucinate pieces of music, sometimes just a few bars.

The visual ones [in people who go blind] are different. People never recognize the figures or places they see. They're not like bits of memory. They're sort of strange inventions in a way, which the visual brain comes up with.

Q&A: Neurologist Oliver Sacks

For What It's Worth

Buffalo Springfield

Achieving Manhood

Writer Ernest Hemingway believed that to prove their manhood, males had to do four things in their lifetime: have a son, write a book, fight a bull and plant a tree.

Well, using those criteria I achieved manhood went I was fifteen.
(I know that is a little late, but hey I wanted to be a kid before I was a father.)
Had my first son at fifteen.
Wrote my first book at twelve.
Fought my first bull at eleven.
(There was an ornery old black bull that used to chase us down by the fishing hole and between running up trees to get out of his way and jumping fences to avoid him we - my friends and I - used to bash him over the head with sticks when he got too close.)
Planted my first tree at two.

Can I be a kid now?

Really Great Dictator

Pinky and The Brain

Quote of the Day

"The Republicans set the economy on fire
and now they're blocking the fire trucks."

~ Paul Begala,

And I Quote

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

~ John Lennon

Hooked on Facts

(Warning: repugicans [and other wing-nuts] should avoid reading this segment because it deals with facts - something that is totally foreign to them and therefore it is unknown what detrimental effects the truth will have own them and their warped psyches.)

Today we introduce a new segment where we present a few random facts (this is an upgrade of the old 'random facts' posts of the past).

So without further Adieu ...

Here are the facts:

1. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan.
2. Only 55% of Americans know that the Sun is a star.
3. When pitched, the average Major League baseball rotates 15 times before being hit.
4. Blue eyes are the most sensitive to light, dark brown eyes are the least sensitive.
5. A blue whale's heart is the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.
6. The male platypus has poisonous spurs on its legs.

'Real Dinosaur' in the museum

This is so cool!

Kids meet a 'real live' dinosaur in the hall of a museum.

Our Readers

Carolina Naturally readers today have been in:

India, England, Scotland, Canada, Poland, Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, Brazil, Liechtenstein, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Look around.

OK.

Death toll in Australian wildfires rises

Damn and Double Damn ...

Disaster teams found charred bodies on roadsides and in crashed cars - grim signs of the futile attempt to flee raging wildfires fed by 60 mph winds, record heat and drought that caught even fire-savvy Australians by surprise.

As the death toll rose to 173 in Australia's worst wildfire disaster, suspicions that some of the 400 blazes were caused by arson led police to declare crime scenes in some of the incinerated towns, Victoria police said.

The fires near Melbourne in southeastern Australia destroyed more than 750 homes, left 5,000 people homeless, and burned 1,100 square miles of land, the Victoria Country Fire Service said.
Whole forests were reduced to leafless, charred trunks.
Farmland was in ashes.

The scale of the disaster shocked has a nation that endures deadly firestorms every few years.
Officials said panic and the freight-train speed of the walls of flames probably accounted for the unusually high death toll.

*****

If it is arson ...

Did you know ...

Three more American banks have collapsed in the past few days.

Detail in the Money Times.

Liars and Fools

Today's Liars and Fools are:

Faux's Brick says Obama's stimulus bill is "really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism"

Rove lies that he knows no-one who's talking about tax cuts only, when that's the standard repugican position

Anti-eavesdropping whistleblower Russell Tice gets the Faux News treatment, by Bill O'Really's attack crew

Faux's Brick implies that unions will have him killed

Faux's Brick compares Gore to Joseph Goebbels and drug dealers

Remember ex-shrub arse-licker Andy Card's silly complaint about the dress code in the Oval Office? It was a lie, as if you didn't already know.

Faux News trumpets non-existent "war on Christians"

Disney's Savage continues his decline into insanity

More in tomorrow's installment of Liars and Fools!

They Knew ...

Peanut Corporation of America already knew their legumes were contaminated with salmonella when they sold 32 truckloads of toxic peanuts to the USDA's school lunch program.

Details in the Washington Post.

$550 Billion Disappeared in "Electronic Run On the Banks"

The Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, tells C-Span how the world economy almost collapsed in a matter of hours.

At 2 minutes, 20 seconds into this C-Span video clip, Kanjorski reports on a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars." According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occured over the period of an hour or two.

Kanjorski: "The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic and there. And that's what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

"It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it."

Economy Meltdown Continues

Dubai airport clogged with cars abandoned by fleeing construction workers

The roads around Dubai airport are clogged with abandoned cars left behind by guest-workers from the construction industry who are fleeing the country ahead of the economic collapse:

On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport.

Faced with a cash crunch and a bleak future ahead, there were no goodbyes for the migrants -- overwhelmingly South Asians, mostly Indians - just a quiet abandoning of the family car at the airport and other places.

While 2,500 vehicles have been found dumped in the past four months outside Terminal III, which caters to all global airlines, Terminal II, which is only used by Emirates Airlines, had 160 cars during the same period...

"The construction and real estate industry has been hit following the global slowdown and the direct fallout is that professionals working in the realty industry are rapidly losing their jobs," said a senior media professional, in-charge of a realty supplement in Dubai. "In fact, my weekly real estate supplement usually had 60% advertisement and ran into 300-odd pages. In the last seven weeks, it's down to 80 pages and with fewer advertisments," he added.

Mumbai resident D Nair (name changed) had been living in a plush highrise in Sharjah for the past four years. However, the script went horribly wrong when his contract was terminated. Nair used all his credit cards to their maximum limit, shopping for people back home. He then discarded his Honda Accord before returning to India for good. Nair, who stays in a rented apartment in Navi Mumbai today, has a Rs15 lakh loan with a Dubai bank.

Indians flee Dubai as dreams crash

Magnetic duct-tape

What's better than duct-tape? Magnetic duct-tape!

It couldn't be any easier or more versatile: Just stick a few centimeters of the 19mm (3⁄4") wide patented magnetic tape to the back of your photos, posters, calendars, etc. and a matching piece on the wall, the sloped ceiling, the fridge door, office cupboard, memo board, etc. The tape strips will stick to each other magnetically. And can be just as easily taken off again. Unlike conventional removable adhesive tape, you can use this tape again and again. Ideal, for example, if you need to reposition plans and maps several times.

Self-adhesive magnetic tape

Disabled men put to work at Iowa plant for decades

State officials say 21 mentally disabled men lived for 20 years or more in an old building with boarded-up windows and nothing but space heaters for heat.

It wasn't some neglectful group home - it was the bunkhouse for Henry's Turkey Service.

The plight of the company's meat-processing workers went unnoticed for decades by the state until Thursday, when a tipster called a Department of Health Services hot line.
Governor Chet Culver said local officials were going to court to allow the state to take guardianship of the men and would launch an investigation of how the situation in Muscatine County was allowed to continue for 20 years.

"It's too soon to know the extent of the potential criminal and civil penalties and fines," Culver said at a Statehouse news conference.
"This is going to be a very extensive and thorough legal process."

The 21 men were all from Texas but had lived in Iowa for 20 years or more while working at the plant.
They lived in a 106-year-old house on a hilltop in nearby Atalissa, a town of about 300 people about 20 miles east of Iowa City.

Department of Human Services director Gene Gessow said it's clear that money was being deducted from Social Security checks the men received.
"We will have a lot more to say as we discover any more violations," Culver said.
"What we do know is that money was deducted from their paychecks for housing and other services."
Henry's Turkey Service apparently acted as the men's employer, landlord and caregiver.

Relatives showed payroll records showing that in January the company deducted $487 from one worker, Keith Brown, to pay for room and board, then another $572 for "kind care."
Keith Brown's sister Sherri Brown said her brother has $80 in savings after decades of work at Henry's.

The house was closed Saturday night.

Gessow said all 21 of the men have been placed under a protective status and in temporary housing.
Most of the men removed from the bunkhouse were in their 50s and 60s, officials said.
The issue is complicated because the men are all dependent adults.
Many have families, but those families must take legal action to become guardians of dependent adults, Gessow said.

The governor said there are indications that local officials had some knowledge of the situation.
"There are a lot of very good questions about how we got to this point," he said.
Culver said several state agencies will investigate the matter and whether other similar arrangements are operating in Iowa.
If there are, he said, "We are going to find you and shut you down."
The governor also said he probably will ask the Legislature to approve tougher penalties if such situations arise in the future.

*****

Some one should be in jail for this already! Tar and feathers is not a bad idea either!

As of this moment ...

4243 Brave men and women will not be returning from Iraq
ALIVE!

Man pleads guilty in Tennessee church shooting

In another one for the good guys ... a wing-nut is going to prison!

An out-of-work truck driver has pleaded guilty to all charges in the killing of two people and wounding of six others in a Tennessee church.

Fifty-eight-year-old Jim D. Adkisson entered the pleas this morning before Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz in Knoxville.
He had been scheduled to stand trial next month.

After Adkisson entered his plea, the court sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Police say Adkisson said in a letter that he attacked the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in July 2008 because he hated liberals and gays.

The shooter fired three shotgun blasts into the congregation during a children's musical performance before members wrestled him to the ground.

Belfast environment chief bans climate change ads

This nut is an idiot.

He is way too unstable to be in charge of himself much less a governmental body - especially the government body overseeing the environment!

Northern Ireland's environment minister announced Monday he has banned the local broadcast of British government ads on climate change and denounced their energy-saving message as "insidious propaganda."

Read the rest here.

Religious wackos have no place among humans! Let alone governments.

And I Quote

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.

~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Question of the Day

Today's Question of the Day comes from Jim Yeager.

He posted this over at Skippy earlier this morning:

Much has been said about how the republicans have zero ideas, zero vigor, zero vision, zero anything that doesn't involve tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts. yeah, fine. What I want to know is, since everyone who isn't an incurable dittohead now knows beyond question that none of these republicans are worth the $#!+ they spew -- not to mention that $#!+ is all they're made of, have ever been made of, and will ever be made of -- why is anyone still giving them the time of day?

Seriously, is there no holy water or garlic to be obtained in Washington whatsoever? What the f&%k?

Good point and good question, Jim.

Charity begins at home

A local United Way office realized that the organization had never received a donation from the town's most successful lawyer. The person in charge of contributions called him to persuade him to contribute.

"Our research shows that out of a yearly income of at least $500,000, you give not a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give back to the community in some way?"

The lawyer mulled this over for a moment and replied, "First, did your research also show that my mother is dying after a long illness, and has medical bills that are several times her annual income?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbled, "Um ... no."

The lawyer interrupts, "or that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair?"

The stricken United Way rep began to stammer out an apology, but was interrupted again.

"or that my sister's husband died in a traffic accident," the lawyer's voice rising in indignation, "leaving her penniless with three children?!"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, said simply, "I had no idea..."

On a roll, the lawyer cut him off once again, "So if I don't give any money to them, why should I give any to you?"

A Blond Goes On Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Regis: "Barbara, you've done very well so far - $500,000 and one lifeline left -- phone a friend.

The next question will give you the top prize of One Million dollars if you get it right ... but if you get it wrong you will drop back to $32,000 -- are you ready?"

Barbara: "Sure, I'll have a go!"

Regis: "Which of the following birds does not build it's own nest?

Is it........

A-Robin

B-Sparrow

C-Cuckoo

D-Thrush

Remember Barbara its worth 1 Million dollars."

"I think I know who it..but I'm not 100%...

No, I haven't got a clue. I'd like to phone a friend Regis, just to be sure.

Regis: "Yes, who, Barbara, do you want to phone?

Barbara: "I'll phone my friend Maggie back home in Birmingham."

(ringing)

Maggie (also a blond): "Hello..."

Regis: "Hello Maggie, its Regis here from Who Wants to be a Millionaire-I have Barbara here and she is doing really well on $500,000, but needs your help to be a Million.

The next voice you hear will be Barbara's and she'll read you the question.

There are 4 possible answers and 1 correct answer and you have 30 seconds to answer -- fire away Barbara."

Barbara: "Maggie, which of the following birds does not build it's own nest? Is it:

A-Robin

B-Sparrow

C-Cuckoo

D-Thrush"

Maggie: "Oh Gees, Barbara that's simple.....It's a Cuckoo."

Barbara: "You think?"

Maggie: "I'm sure."

Barbara: " Thanks Maggie." (hangs up)

Regis: "Well, do you want to stick on $500,000 or play on for the Million, Barbara?"

Barbara: "I want to play, I'll go with C-Cuckoo"

Regis: "Is that your final answer?"

Barbara: "It is."

Regis: "Are you confident?"

Barbara: "Yes fairly, Maggie's a sound bet."

Regis: "Barbara.....you had $500,000 and you said C-Cuckoo ...you're right! - You have just won ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Here is your check. You have been a great contestant and a real gambler. Audience please put your hands together for Barbara."

(clapping)

That night Barbara calls round to Maggie and brings her down to a local bar for a celebration drink and, as they are sipping their Champagne, Barbara turns to Maggie and asks "Tell me Maggie, How in God's name did you know that it was the Cuckoo that does not build its own nest?

Maggie: "Listen Barbara, everybody knows that a Cuckoo lives in a clock."

Oh, Deer

Home broken into by 6-point buck

An intruder smashed through a picture window, alarming the family of Keith Luke during breakfast.
He found the culprit cowering behind a sofa: a deer.

The Detroit News reports the 6-point buck was bleeding when Luke found it in the study of his West Bloomfield Township home Sunday morning.
Luke said he opened the front door to let the animal leave.

"I think he was as bewildered as everyone else was," Luke said.
He said he didn't know what happened to the buck but doubts it survived its injuries.

Deer are common in the area, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit, but police say it's extremely rare for one to jump through a window.

Health News

In today's health news we find:

Drop in Breast Cancer Rates Due to Drop in HRT Use

and

Adult Fast-Food Diets Tied to Too Much TV as Teen

Quotes

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

~ Edmund Burke

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

~ Bertrand Russell

World's Worst - Beck, O'Reilly, Murdoch

Feb. 6: Worst Persons: Countdown's Keith Olbermann reports that Rupert Murdoch's company, NewsCorp has lost $6,400,000,000 in the final quarter of 2008 and is forecast to drop 30 percent in profits for the first half of 2009.

Fox News: "We Have Never Been A Company That Tolerates Facts."

*****

Well, they finally admit to the truth ... who knew they had it in them!

Dear Prudence

An original video featuring footage from the Beatles trip to India, where John Lennon met Prudence, Mia Farrow's shy sister.

So, you want to work in the computer industry

Working conditions in a Chinese keyboard factory

The National Labor Council's investigation into the working conditions at the Meitai keyboard factory in Dongguan City is just ghastly, a stinging indictment of the South China economic miracle. The workers are underpaid, cheated out of their wages, forced into overtime, subjected to brainwashing, and subjected to unsafe working conditions and denied medical assistance when they're injured. Meitai makes keyboards for Lenovo, Microsoft, HP and others.

Big Brother Is Watching

“Employees should actively monitor each other.” (Meitai factory’s Factory Regulations and Discipline, Chapter VII)

* “Infractions” punished with the loss of over two hours’ wages (fine of 10 RMB--$1.44), including for—
--“Being 1 to 5 minutes late to start a shift…”
--“Not periodically trimming fingernails, which will affect product quality.”
--“Not lining up correctly while punching time cards or at the cafeteria.”
--“Wearing work shoes outside the work room after work.”
--“Putting hands in pant pockets while inside the factory or workroom.”

* “Infractions” punished with the loss of 4 ½ hours wages (20 RMB fine, $2.88)
--“…answering a personal telephone call in the workroom.”
--“Not diligently working or raising ones head to look around when guests or cadres come to visit.”
--“Putting personal objects on the work desk.”
--“…listening to the radio while on the job.”
--“Not parking bicycles according to company regulations; riding bicycles in and out of the company in a way not in accordance with company regulations.”
--“Returning to the dorm after regulated hours [curfew].”

* “Infractions” punished with the loss of nearly seven hours’ wages (30 RMB fine--$4.32)
--“Switching beds without authorization.” (Dorm beds are assigned by management.)

* “Infractions” punished with the loss of nearly 1 ½ days’ wages (50 RMB fine--$7.20)
--“Workers who arrive over one hour late…”
--“Riding the elevator without permission.”
--“Plugging in electronics [using electricity] in the dorm room for personal use.”
--“Using the company phone to make personal calls.”
--“Producing products of low quality…”
--“Workers who…go to visit other workers during working hours.”
--“Chatting at the workstation during work hours…”
--“Entering or leaving the factory area without allowing door personnel [security guards] to inspect [search workers].”
--“Treating supervisors with an arrogant attitude…”

* “Infractions” punished with the loss of nearly three days’ wages (100 RMB fine--$14.40):
--“Leaving one’s workstation without permission…”
--“Putting up personal notices…or handing out flyers.”
--“Revealing confidential company or production-related information.”

* “Infractions” punished with firing:
--“Violating labor discipline…and not obeying the company’s work arrangements.”
--“…Taking part in illegal organizations.” [In China, this means independent unions; human, women’s and children’s rights organizations and non-state-sanctioned religious organizations.]
--“Not following the procedures spelled out by government regulations on stopping work, slowing work down, encouraging others to stop or slow down work.”
--“Missing three days of work.”
--“Disobeying China’s one-child policy.”
--“Not obeying company arrangements or directions or…collectively causing trouble as a group…”
--“Any behavior similar to that listed above or helping or colluding in such behavior.”

The Dehumanization of Young Workers Producing Our Computer Keyboard

Ancient Egyptian mass grave?

30 mummies found in newly discovered tomb in Egypt

A storehouse of 30 Egyptians mummies has been unearthed inside a 2,600-year-old tomb, in a new round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara outside Cairo, archeologists said.

The tomb was located at the bottom of a 36 foot deep shaft, announced Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass and eight of the mummies were in sarcophagi, while the rest had been placed in niches along the wall.

Hawass described the discovery as a "storeroom for mummies," dating to 640 B.C. and the 26th Dynasty, which was Egypt's last independent kingdom before it were overthrown by a succession of foreign conquerors beginning with the Persians.

The tomb was discovered at an even more ancient site dating back to 4,300-year-old 6th Dynasty.

Most of the mummies are poorly preserved and archeologists have yet to determine their identity or why so many are in a single room.
One of the sarcophagi is made of wood and bears the name Badi N Huri, but no title.
"This one might have been an important figure, but I can't tell because there was no title," Hawass" assistant Abdel Hakim Karar said.

He added that the rest of the sarcophagi - including four which are tightly sealed - have yet to be opened yet.
Karar added that it was quite unusual for mummies of this late period to be stored in rocky niches.
"Niches were known in the very early dynasties, so to find one for the 26th Dynasty, is something rare," Karar said.

Excavations have been ongoing at Saqqara for 150 years, uncovering a vast necropolis of pyramids and tombs dating mostly from the Old Kingdom, but including sites as recent as the Roman era.
In the past, excavations have focused on just one side of the two nearby pyramids - the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser and that of Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty.
The area where the current tomb was found, to the southwest, has been largely untouched by archeologists.

Despite the years of excavation, new finds are constantly being made.
In December last year, two tombs were found near the current discovery.
The two were built for high officials - one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and other for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.

In November, Hawass announced the discovery of a new pyramid at Saqqara, the 118th in Egypt, and the 12th to be found just in Saqqara.
According to Hawass only 30 percent of Egypt's monuments have been uncovered, with the rest still under the sand.

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Penticon, British Columbia, Canada
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Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

If all you can do is keep talking, that's good enough for now.

Can do.

Brain Food

Pinky and The Brain

Bankers say 'we can't possibly afford NYC on a mere $500K/year'

The lead story in today's New York Times Styles section is all about the tremendous difficulties that executives at bankrupt companies receiving public bailouts will face if their salaries are capped at only $500,000.

For example, many of these people might have to give up necessities like armed chauffeurs, twice-annual $16,000 vacations, and $4,000,000 summer homes.

It is really heartbreaking. It truly is, my friends, it is truly.

Barbara Corcoran, a real estate executive, said that most well-to-do families take at least two vacations a year, a winter trip to the sun and a spring trip to the ski slopes.

Total minimum cost: $16,000.

A modest three-bedroom apartment, she said, which was purchased for $1.5 million, not the top of the market at all, carries a monthly mortgage of about $8,000 and a co-op maintenance fee of $8,000 a month. Total cost: $192,000. A summer house in Southampton that cost $4 million, again not the top of the market, carries annual mortgage payments of $240,000.

Many top executives have cars and drivers. A chauffeur’s pay is between $75,000 and $125,000 a year, the higher end for former police officers who can double as bodyguards, said a limousine driver who spoke anonymously because he does not want to alienate his society customers.

“Some of them want their drivers to have guns,” the driver said. “You get a cop and you have a driver.” To garage that car is about $700 a month.

A personal trainer at $80 an hour three times a week comes to about $12,000 a year.

The work in the gym pays off when one must don a formal gown for a charity gala. “Going to those parties,” said David Patrick Columbia, who is the editor of the New York Social Diary (newyorksocialdiary.com), “a woman can spend $10,000 or $15,000 on a dress. If she goes to three or four of those a year, she’s not going to wear the same dress.”

Total cost for three gowns: about $35,000.

You Try to Live on 500K in This Town