CAROLINA NATURALLY

Saturday, April 24, 2010

What you should know about finance reform

These provisions in the bill will have the most impact in fixing the financial system.

What's the 'Volcker Rule'?

Also:

Ideas for great-paying summer jobs

Now is the time to start looking for fun seasonal work that's also very lucrative.

$450 a week and up for cruise gigs

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Great pay without advanced degrees

Great pay without advanced degrees

The top 10% of earners in one career make six figures, but the job requires just two years of schooling.

Also:

8 excellent companies to retire from

One corporate giant contributes cash and stock worth up to 18 percent of pay to retirement accounts.

Great benefits

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Smart tips to slice your grocery bill

Savvy merchants put the most profitable items at eye level, so stoop and bend to find better deals.

27 more ideas

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Easy grilling tips for a tasty cookout

Whether you use charcoal or gas won't matter as much as how you prepare the grate.

Recipe for grilled pizza

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The Haggis beast that roams Scotland

Photo: Roland Tanglao.

According to a survey in the UK, one in five Britons believes that haggis, a traditional Scottish meal made from all the sheep bits the English didn't steal, is in fact "an animal that roams the highlands."

From Reuters:

Another 15 percent said it is a Scottish musical instrument while 4 percent admitted to thinking it was a character from Harry Potter.

Thus proving that not only are Americans ignorant of what is and what is not within their own country.

Spam

Monty Python's most famous sketch.

Tough immigration measure sparks outrage

Tough immigration measure sparks outrage

A legal battle brews even as Arizona's governor promises the law won't support racial profiling.

Obama's reaction

Also:

You may also note the sign in the boy's hand - the words on it are spelled correctly ... something that can not be said for signs that those who like this abomination of law and pushed for it's passage like to wave around.

Controversial immigration bill signed

Controversial immigration bill signed

The U.S.'s toughest immigration law gives police powers that Obama says may violate civil rights.

Arizona bill details

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May violate Civil Rights?! There is no 'may' about it. The law in and of itself is a violation of our Civil Rights!

Arizona will identify illegal aliens by their shoes

Seriously folks ...

Well, we have finally discovered what 'planet' the wingnut crazies come from it's called Arizona

Wild Thing

Animal sings

How much home can $300K buy?

How much home can $300K buy?

At this price, you can purchase a mini- mansion, a lakefront chalet, or a 450 sq. ft. studio.

Nationwide comparison

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SEC porn scandal: Political payback for fraud suit against Goldman Sachs?

The reemergence of a Securities and Exchange Commission porn scandal may be political payback for the agency's fraud suit against Goldman Sachs, some officials suspect.

News of salacious Internet sex surfing by dozens of SEC supervisors actually broke months ago, but it got new life after the commission's April 16 vote to act against the financial powerhouse.

Repugican lawmakers have loudly slammed the decision, government sources noted.

Asked whether there was any connection between the lawsuit and the recently leaked inspector general's report on downloading porn, SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.

But he said the agency has been explaining since February that it looked into every report of "inappropriate" behavior. The report named 33 officials. "Each of the offending employees has been disciplined," Nester said. "Some have already been suspended or dismissed."

A week of wrangling with sea creatures

A week of wrangling with sea creatures

An octopus snatches a scuba diver's camera, while a shark chomps on a surfboard.

Remarkable stories

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Buddy to the rescue

Determined dog leads troopers to fire

Buddy helps Alaskan police with a malfunctioning GPS find his burning home.

See the dashboard video

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Drum Battles

Animal vs Buddy Rich from the Muppet Show in 1978

Actor Files $50M Lawsuit Against Academy of Motion Pictures For False Imprisonment

Sometimes watching the interminable Oscars can make you feel like you're being unfairly punished. But one actor says attending this year's Academy Awards was like being locked up - literally!

http://www.adultfyi.com/images/news/41399-1.jpg

Actor Michael Avmen filed a $50 million lawsuit against The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for illegal false imprisonment and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, Pop Tarts has learned exclusively.

The suit was filed in Central District Superior Court in California on Thursday. It stemmed from an incident that took place at this year’s Academy Awards. According to the suit, several days prior to the awards show, Avmen and his wife were informed that their tickets were “tentatively confirmed,” but despite several attempts by Avmen and his publicist, they were unable to locate the tickets. On the day of the event were led to believe that their tickets, like many others, including those of Robert Downey Jr., were possibly being held inside.

On the afternoon of March 7th, the actor and his wife dressed up for the Oscars and an usher for the event transported them from where they were staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to a “resolution desk” where an Academy employee they had been communicating with was working.

Avmen alleges that despite repeated requests to be able to return to the Roosevelt, he and his wife were “held against their will” for six hours in the Academy’s “detention center,” interrogated about how they were able to get onto the red carpet without tickets, and accused of lying and trespassing.

At around 10pm, uniformed Los Angeles police officers arrived and took them to the station, but no charges were filed and Avmen claims that the officer apologized profusely for how they were treated by Academy officials.

As a result of the acts, Avmen and his wife allege that they were “injured in health, strength and activity” and “sustained injury to his and her body and shock and injury to their nervous system” and have since suffered with “humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress.”

“If I or some ‘REGULAR’ individual acted as The Academy did, we would be in prison right now. I want, and I will show that these people aren’t above the law,” Avmen said in a statement. “Security is one thing, but this was outside the realm of excessive. My wife and I have suffered, and there has been a great injustice enforced.”

The Academy was not immediately available for comment.

Avmen is preparing for the release of the films "Straw Dogs," and "Battle: Los Angeles," in which he has minor roles.

Odds and Sods

Odds and Sods

In Cop News

Six men say that 20 Chicago cops assaulted, Tasered and maced them in a private home, with a helicopter hovering overhead, because the men had shouted that "the kids were OK" as cops patted down a group of 10- and 11-year-old kids on the street

Second Tulsa cop is placed on paid leave as feds' investigation of fabricated drug buy continues

Florida deputy gets probation for armed standoff

Fired New York police chief pleads guilty in assault case

Seattle police withheld evidence in low-level arrest, civil rights activist learns

Second candidate for sheriff in West Virginia is arrested

Friday, April 23, 2010

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
It might feel to you that things are going so well that they couldn't possibly be get better.
Yet as of today, and for the next month, too, things are going to get better.
You've got nothing but helpful energy circulating within and around you, and you should be able to bring exactly what and whom you need, exactly when you need it.
Enjoy the great energy!

Some of our readers today have been in:

Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia

Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Bari, Puglia, Italy

Galway, Galway, Ireland

Malmo, Skane Lan, Sweden

Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark

Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France

Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Guelph, Ontario, Canada

London, England, United Kingdom

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha, Czech Republic

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Dundalk, Louth, Ireland

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

as well as Colombia, Scotland, Paraguay, and the United States in such cities such as Marinette, Decatur, Muscle Shoals, Hackensack, Milton and more

Today is Friday, April 23, the 113th day of 2010.

There are 252 days left in the year.

Today In History April 23

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

Talk Like Shakespeare Day

http://www.digtriad.com/genthumb/genthumb.ashx?e=3&h=240&w=320&i=/assetpool/images/100411062646_Theodore%20Roosevelt.jpg

On April 23, 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt delivered his famous "Man in the Arena" speech at the Sorbonne in Paris. In it, Roosevelt declared, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena."

As The World Turns

As The World Turns

North Korea to Seize South Korean Property

Full story

North Korea announced Friday that it plans to seize five South Korean-owned properties at a mountain resort as tensions mount between the two nations

North's - human torpedoes' sank South Korea's ship

A closeup of a Japanese suicide sub from the second world war. A newspaper in South Korea has accused the North of using such a device to sink a South Korean ship.

Full story

Top drug dealer caught near Mexico City

Troops battled a suspected drug gang in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City and captured an alleged major trafficker with a $2 million U.S. bounty on his head, officials announced on Thursday.

Full story

The State Of The Nation

The State Of The Nation

	Condemned Killer In Utah Could Face Firing Squad A condemned killer appears headed for a date with death in Utah that could see him sit before a firing squad and re-ignite protests over an antiquated, Old West-style of justice. Full Story
	Suspected Pirates To Be Tried In U.S. Court Five suspected pirates captured after an attack on the USS Nicholas could be in a Virginia courtroom as early as Friday morning. Full Story

Local Hospitality

Local Hospitality

Obama Coming To NC For Weekend Vacation

Obama and his family were to leave the White House at midday Friday and fly to Asheville.

Prosecutors Say NC Woman Tried To Steal Baby To Pay Off Debt

More disturbing details about the woman charged with trying to steal an infant from Duke University Hospital on Tuesday.

Full Story

Whole Wide World

The Proclaimers version of the Wreckless Eric song

Democrats to offer bill to blunt Citizens United decision

Good move.
Check out the third and fourth paragraphs. Sounds like something the repugicans would do - and I mean that in a good way.

Democrats plan to introduce legislation next week that would sharply limit the ability of foreign-connected companies to participate in U.S. politics and require greater transparency from corporations, unions and nonprofit groups that pay for political advertising, according to a confidential summary of the bill.

The proposal, spearheaded by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), is aimed at blunting the effect of a Supreme Court ruling in January that permits companies and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money for or against political candidates. President Obama has sharply attacked the ruling, and many Democrats feel it will unleash a flood of corporate spending that is likely to favor repugicans.

According to the summary, obtained by The Washington Post, the legislation would require corporate chief executives or group leaders to publicly attach their names to ads, much like political candidates are required to do. It would also mandate disclosure of major donors whose money is used for "campaign-related activity."

The latter measure would require powerful trade groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the first time to identify the companies that fund its political-related spending.

SEC Officials Surfed Porn While Economy Crashed

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Hospital says it performed world's first full face transplant

A hospital in Spain said it has carried out the world's first full-face transplant, giving a young man who lost his in an accident a new nose, skin, jaws, cheekbones, teeth and other features.

Full Story

It takes 18 chickens to get a mammogram

John Aravosis had this to say:

You may recall that the GOP Senate candidate running against Harry Reid recently said that health care in America is affordable because you can always use chickens, and other livestock, to pay your doctors for medical procedures. Then she defended the statement by giving other examples of medical barter, such as hay, yard work, and horse shoeing.

Well, some folks have created a Web site to facilitate this medical barter. The site lets you know how many chickens you'll need for each medical procedure. Priceless.

A turn of a phrase

Lackadaisical

Meaning: In a listless, languid manner; without interest. .

Origin:

Lackadaisical may now be a single word but, in its original form, it derived from a phrase, albeit by a circuitous route. The phrase in question is 'alack a day' or 'alack the day'. It was used first by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, 1592, on Romeo's mistaken belief that Juliet had died:

Shee's dead, deceast, shee's dead: alacke the day!

Alack itself can be broken down into the exclamation 'Ah' and 'lack', which then meant failure or shame. Alack-a-day was a recognition of woe or regret at some unfortunate occurrence.

'Alack-a-day' migrated into 'lack-a-day', by a process known as aphesis. This is defined by the OED as - the gradual and unintentional loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word; as in squire for esquire.

It was used by John Eachard in The Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion Enquired, 1685. At that date the 'lack' spelling wasn't yet fully accepted and this citation proceeded the phrases by a hyphen, indicating the missing 'A'.

'Lack a day. how easie a matter is it for old folks to dote and slaver, and for young ones to. be deceived.

Having been shortened 'lack-a-day' now became extended to become the rather fanciful 'lack-a-daisy'. This ornamentation may have been influenced by the existence of the term 'ups-a-daisy', a version of which was in use by 1711.

Tobias Smollett, recorded this piece of street slang in the satirical novel The adventures of Roderick Random, 1748:

Finding the sheets cold, [she] exclaimed, "Good lack-a-daisy! the rogue is fled!"

The novelist Laurence Sterne formed the adjectival form of 'lack-a-daisy', in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, 1768:

Would to Heaven! my dear Eugenius, thou hadst passed by, and beheld me sitting in my black coat, and in my lack-adaysical manner.

Lackadaisical may be a single word but it displays an almost Germanic effort to encapsulate an entire paragraph's worth of meaning. To translate from the constituent parts that it is built from, it means 'in the manner of someone who, for all of the day, exhibits a sense of languid dissatisfaction of some failure or fault'.

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe

First there was wingnut hate speech radio.

Now there is a new cable television network planned that will bring wingnut hate speech programming to the TV screen.

It's called the rightnetwork, and actor kelsey grammer is the spokesperson for the new ultra-wingnut channel. Full Story

So Faux News is too Liberal, eh?

Senior Moments (Brain Farts)

Golf Brooks

Book ban infuriates Cult of Scientology

Like we care what this cult thinks?!

Book ban infuriates Cult of Scientology

Russia's government bans L. Ron Hubbard's books, calling them "extremist."

Cult's response

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Family guilty of lagoon body murder

Five members of a family have been convicted over the death of a man whose headless corpse was found in a lake.

Michael Gilbert, 26, was kept as a slave and tortured before being killed and decapitated then dumped in the Blue Lagoon in Arlesey, Bedfordshire, last year.

Full Story

News of jailed hikers alarms parents

News of jailed hikers alarms parents

Two of the three Americans held in Iran have fallen ill, Swiss diplomats reveal.

Captives mull 'disturbing' move

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Bank robber changed from black to white

When Ohio police put out an A.P.B. for a black male who had robbed five banks, they were puzzled as to why they could never catch the guy. He always seemed to slip away, despite cops locking down the area around the target banks.

That's probably because the real suspect was a white guy from Florida disguised as an African-American. Blame this one on the magic of Hollywood. Conrad Zdzierak, a former Seminole resident, was arrested earlier this month accused of robbing four banks and a CVS pharmacy in a three hour span.

Police said he eluded police by wearing a mask known as "The Player," which transformed the very white, spike-haired Zdzierak into a very dark, bald black guy. Zdzierak, 30, also wore shades to cover his blue eyes.

The suspect seen in the surveillance photographs and that we were looking for, we believed to be an African American male," Springdale Police Lieutenant Michael Mathis said. "The suspect was actually a male, white, who was wearing an elaborate disguise." Between robberies, Zdzierak would take off the mask and drive by police as they searched for the black suspect.

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health

Nearly 4 million face health care penalty

Many mostly middle-class Americans will be fined after the health care law kicks in.

About $1,000 each

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Deadly Airborne Fungus is Killing People in Oregon

A deadly, airborne new strain of fungus has emerged in Oregon. It has killed nearly one out of four known affected people so far and might also attack animals ranging from dogs to dolphins. And it is likely to spread, researchers now warn.

The new strain known as VGIIc of the fungus Cryptococcus gattii not only targets humans but has also proven capable of infecting dogs, cats, alpacas, sheep and elk. Other strains have even infected porpoises.

Although it can spread to mammals, it does not jump from animal to animal. Instead, people and other animals get it from inhaling spores released by samples of the fungus that infect trees.

Full Story

Exceptions to five common health rules

Eating lots of leafy veggies and getting exercise by swimming are great choices for most people.

But not everyone

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Who's side is Mitch McConnell realy on

Any Questions?

It's The Economy Stupid

Biggest money losers of the Fortune 500

The worst-performing companies had such massive losses that they needed Uncle Sam to prop them up.

Top 6

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Oil rig disaster poses environmental peril

Oil rig disaster poses environmental peril

The collapsed platform could pump more than 300,000 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

Workers missing

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Scientific Minds Want To Know

Scientific Minds Want To Know

First footage of giant deep sea jellyfish

Better than one? The bobtail lizard with two heads

THE BIG PICTURE

Photo: Teske Lab

'Spaghetti'-like megabacteria

One of the largest collaborations to investigate marine biodiversity has uncovered something on a mind-boggling scale: a giant mat of string-like bacteria - the size of Uruguay or the U.S. state of Alabama - has been discovered deep in the ocean depths off the coasts of Chile and Peru.
Uncovered as part of the Census of Marine Life - a global, decade-long effort to systematically identify and study oceanic organisms - scientists are now speculating whether this huge mat of mega-bacteria may somehow contribute to thriving fisheries found in these waters.

Article continues: Gigantic Nation-Sized Mat of Bacteria Found Off South American Coast