President Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist warned Sunday that repugicans catering to tea party politics threatened much-needed progress on job creation.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Wingnut Politics Preventing Economic Action
President Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist warned Sunday that repugicans catering to tea party politics threatened much-needed progress on job creation.
Repugicans to OK tax increase President Obama wants to block!
Impossible, right?repugican lawmakers are so virulently anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll tax increase on virtually every wage-earner starting January.
Of course they're all for this tax increase - it hurts the middle and working class.
Koch responds to Warren Buffet
They say their non-profits better for society
(Yeah, and little green men live in me arse, too)
ThinkProgress:
Koch’s “non-profit investments” include the group founded by his brother David, “Americans for Prosperity” (formerly known as Citizens for a Sound Economy). As ThinkProgress first reported, AFP was one the first and most well-resourced drivers of the anti-Obama so-called “Tea Party” movement. Koch-funded Tea Party events have featured speakers comparing health reform to the Holocaust, and in some cases have sponsored rallies with leaders of the “birther” conspiracy theory.
Among the Koch brothers’ other non-profit investments include far-right conservative think tanks dedicated to cheerleading the war in Iraq, spreading anti-science propaganda, and smears claiming that the poor do not really suffer. Koch has given money to educational initiatives, but in exchange for control over academic freedom that simply furthered Koch’s political beliefs. These “investments” at best advance Koch’s political ideology and at worst misinform American voters. Either way, they are hardly a replacement for “government spend[ing]” on things like food assistance and basic medical service.
Social Security troubles
A flood of laid-off and aging workers pushes the cash-strapped program to the brink of collapse.
Also: Market plunge hurts everyone
The market's nosedive pounds your finances even if you don't invest.
Also: How Fake Money Saved Brazil
Twenty years ago, Brazil found itself in the grips of hyperinflation. Its inflation rate hit 80% a month, and the country was in financial free fall.Economists at the Catholic University in Rio came up with an unlikely - but ultimately successful - plan to rescue the country. And would you believe it, the plan calls for fake money:
The four friends set about explaining their idea. You have to slow down the creation of money, they explained. But, just as important, you have to stabilize people's faith in money itself. People have to be tricked into thinking money will hold its value.Read the fascinating story over at NPR's Planet Money blog.
The four economists wanted to create a new currency that was stable, dependable and trustworthy. The only catch: This currency would not be real. No coins, no bills. It was fake.
"We called it a Unit of Real Value — URV," Bacha says. "It was virtual; it didn't exist in fact."
The Lowdown On Supper Clubs
We talk to hosts of supper clubs to find out what you can expect from the very latest dining trend.
Also: Royal Pizza
A red-faced restaurant owner in southern Germany admitted on Sunday she had turned away Sweden's king and queen when they asked for a table after failing to recognize them.
Thirsty boy stuck in chimney trying to get drink
An 8-year-old boy desperate for a drink tried to get into a neighbor's home by sliding down the chimney, but got stuck for more than four hours, authorities said.
Culinary confrontation ends with basil attack
A woman accused of throwing a basil plant at her husband after a meat-related argument was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, according to a recently released police report. Accused herb hurler Andrea Antoine-Pierre, 52, was jailed on a battery (domestic) charge following an apparent culinary confrontation with her spouse at their home in Port St. Lucie. Antoine-Pierre's 60-year-old husband told Port St. Lucie police he was in the kitchen preparing food when his wife got home.
"They then began to argue about what type of meat was supposed to be cooked," the report states. The report didn't specify whether the meat was beef, poultry, pork, fish or some sort of crustacean. As the husband walked away during the dispute, Antoine-Pierre stands accused of throwing a potted basil plant at her husband's back, hitting his left shoulder. Basil, an aromatic herb often associated with Italian and Thai cuisine, is not often used as a weapon.
Antoine-Pierre's husband got past his wife. While outside, Antoine-Pierre reportedly got rocks from the garden and tossed them at her husband, but the rocks didn't hit him. Antoine-Pierre told police she argued with her husband over dinner. She said he called her mother a liar. "Upon hearing this Ms. Pierre admitted to picking up the plant and throwing it on the ground not on her husband."
Asked to explain how dirt got on her husband's back, Antoine-Pierre said "it must have bounced off the ground." Antoine-Pierre also said she lobbed rocks in her husband's "general direction" but didn't hit him. Antoine-Pierre's 26-year-old stepson said Antoine-Pierre threw a plant in his father's direction but couldn't determine whether it hit him. As for the potted basil plant, police took a photo of it in the bin.
"They then began to argue about what type of meat was supposed to be cooked," the report states. The report didn't specify whether the meat was beef, poultry, pork, fish or some sort of crustacean. As the husband walked away during the dispute, Antoine-Pierre stands accused of throwing a potted basil plant at her husband's back, hitting his left shoulder. Basil, an aromatic herb often associated with Italian and Thai cuisine, is not often used as a weapon.
Antoine-Pierre's husband got past his wife. While outside, Antoine-Pierre reportedly got rocks from the garden and tossed them at her husband, but the rocks didn't hit him. Antoine-Pierre told police she argued with her husband over dinner. She said he called her mother a liar. "Upon hearing this Ms. Pierre admitted to picking up the plant and throwing it on the ground not on her husband."
Asked to explain how dirt got on her husband's back, Antoine-Pierre said "it must have bounced off the ground." Antoine-Pierre also said she lobbed rocks in her husband's "general direction" but didn't hit him. Antoine-Pierre's 26-year-old stepson said Antoine-Pierre threw a plant in his father's direction but couldn't determine whether it hit him. As for the potted basil plant, police took a photo of it in the bin.
Is Trial by Combat Still Legal in the United States?
The blogger New Jovian Thunderbolt offers this novel legal argument:American law originates from British Common Law. Specifically Common Law before we split from them. 1776 and all that. It’s where the 2nd Amendment comes from and a right to defend yourself. But after 1776, our jurisprudence system was evolving along its own path.If so, court TV could become a lot more interesting.
Britain didn’t overturn trial by combat until after we declared independence. No American court has really addressed it. Ergo, trial by combat may still be legitimate under U.S. Law.
Ready, Aim, Attire
The Oddest Military Uniforms Ever
Whether it's protection of the royal family or Vatican City, combating enemies of the future or local troublemakers, here are some of the oddest military get-ups you may ever see.
A tunnel to link US and Russia?
It's an interesting idea for engineers to consider but does this really make sense when it links two of the most remote parts of Russia and the US? Bad winter weather would likely make transport very difficult for part of the year.
The Times newspaper in the U.K. said that idea to construct a $60 billion tunnel under the Bering Strait was this week backed by some of President Dmitry Medvedev’s top officials.
The paper described the idea as "the greatest railway project of all time."
The tunnel would mean Russian territory would meet U.S. jurisdiction underneath the islands of Big Diomede, which is Russian, and Little Diomede, which is American. One problem might be that there is no rail line to Alaska's west coast.
The Times named one of the officials supporting the plan as Aleksandr Levinthal, the deputy federal representative for the Russian Far East.
How the Beatles Revolutionized Animation
A person would be hard-pressed to argue that the Beatles didn’t revolutionize music; even the youngest of today’s kids has heard a song by or inspired by the band. (My six-year-old, for her part, is a fan of the movie Across the Universe and her Kindergarten class performed “Yellow Submarine” at last year’s graduation.) But people may not realize that John, Paul, George and Ringo also had a part in bringing animation to the foreground of innovation with the making of their feature-length film, Yellow Submarine.More than a decade before Pixar, the film was not only a technical feat of animation execution but also a seminal work in bringing more attention to animation as a serious art form, both for audiences and for creators.It’s worth watching even if you’re not a Beatles fan for the history and great one-offs from the narrator, who calls Yellow Submarine “a sort of open-end Rorschach filled with Joycean puns.” Check out the documentary on Brain Pickings.
Get a degree while working
Studying online on your own time could help you move up at work or switch fields.
Also: Think You’re Too Old to Learn a New Language?
Think Again
I’m not sure what the sample size is, or how old the adults in the study are, but:Ferman and Avi Karni from the University of Haifa, Israel, devised an experiment in which 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds and adults were given the chance to learn a new language rule. In the made-up rule, verbs were spelled and pronounced differently depending on whether they referred to an animate or inanimate object.
Participants were not told this, but were asked to listen to a list of correct noun-verb pairs, and then voice the correct verb given further nouns. The researchers had already established that 5-year-olds performed poorly at the task, and so did not include them in the study. All participants were tested again two months later to see what they remembered.
“The adults were consistently better in everything we measured,” says Ferman. When asked to apply the rule to new words, the 8-year-olds performed no better than chance, while most 12-year-olds and adults scored over 90 per cent. Adults fared best, and have great potential for learning new languages implicitly, says Ferman. Unlike the younger children, most adults and 12-year-olds worked out the way the rule worked – and once they did, their scores soared. This shows that explicit learning is also crucial, says Ferman, who presented the results at the International Congress for the Study of Child Language in Montreal, Canada, this week.
Meaning of auto warnings
Those dashboard icons may not be telling you what you think they are.
Also: Thirty-Five Cool Long Exposure Photographs
The 25 Coolest College Labs
Man-Made Mountain Closer to Reality in Netherlands
Oldest Fossil on Earth Found
Dinosaur Breeders
We broke ground on our fully-customized facility in 2007 and no expense was spared designing our state of the art facility. All of our dinosaurs are 'free-range' with plenty of space to roam around. We also have a lab on the premises where we conduct our research and development in paleogenetics.
Certain Trained Dogs Can Smell Lung Cancer
Earlier this year, Japanese researchers announced that they had trained a dog to detect colon cancer by smelling the poop of cancer victims. Now, reseachers at Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany have discovered that trained dogs can detect lung cancer by sniffing the breath of sick patients:The dogs successfully identified 71 samples with lung cancer out of a possible 100. They also correctly detected 372 samples that did not have lung cancer out of a possible 400.
The dogs could also detect lung cancer independently from COPD and tobacco smoke. These results confirm the presence of a stable marker for lung cancer that is independent of COPD and also detectable in the presence of tobacco smoke, food odours and drugs.
Woman who let dog eat razor blades and starve to death found guilty of animal cruelty
A New York woman was convicted of animal cruelty for leaving her dog to starve to death. Cherika Alvarez, 30, abandoned her brown one-year-old pit bull Alizé when she was evicted from her Belmont basement apartment in mid-November 2009.
The malnourished dog ate nothing but razor blades, splintered plastic, wood chips, garbage and ketchup packets for six weeks before he died. Officials from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found the dog lifeless amid piles of garbage and bloody stools in Jan. 2010. The pup's body had no body fat, and was so emaciated that his remains had to be scraped off the floorboards.
The single mother - who claimed she left some food and water for the dog in the bathtub - testified she had arranged for a neighbour she barely knew to pick up Alizé. But the unidentified stranger never showed. "I didn't know him from a hole in the wall," testified Alvarez. "I didn't get any information from him. I should have been more smart. Me being irresponsible, I didn't check up on the dog."
Prosecutors suggested Alvarez had fictionalized her story about making arrangements with a neighbour. "She left Alizé in that apartment like garbage and she walked away," said Bronx Assistant District Attorney Megan Mellem. Judge Robert Sackett decided Alvarez's behaviour amounted to cruelty. She faces up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine at her Sept. 28 sentencing.
The malnourished dog ate nothing but razor blades, splintered plastic, wood chips, garbage and ketchup packets for six weeks before he died. Officials from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found the dog lifeless amid piles of garbage and bloody stools in Jan. 2010. The pup's body had no body fat, and was so emaciated that his remains had to be scraped off the floorboards.
The single mother - who claimed she left some food and water for the dog in the bathtub - testified she had arranged for a neighbour she barely knew to pick up Alizé. But the unidentified stranger never showed. "I didn't know him from a hole in the wall," testified Alvarez. "I didn't get any information from him. I should have been more smart. Me being irresponsible, I didn't check up on the dog."
Prosecutors suggested Alvarez had fictionalized her story about making arrangements with a neighbour. "She left Alizé in that apartment like garbage and she walked away," said Bronx Assistant District Attorney Megan Mellem. Judge Robert Sackett decided Alvarez's behaviour amounted to cruelty. She faces up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine at her Sept. 28 sentencing.
New York to Fight Poaching, Torture of Bears with Ban on Sale of Their Gall Bladders and Bile
Photo: Steve Gregory under a Creative Commons license.
This headline might surprise you if you didn't know that the bile produced by bears' gall bladders is a valuable commodity in traditional Chinese medicine. The commercial nature of the bile leads not only to the killing of bears, but to "bear farming" - the extremely painful process of "milking" bile from living bears. While bear farming takes place in China, Vietnam and Korea, the value of bile leads to the killing of bears in the United States. But this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a ban on the sale and transportation of bear gallbladders and bile throughout the state.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The Daily Drift
The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:
It takes a lot of energy to be a conscientious person, but you show a knack for it today.
You know how to make everyone else feel comfortable and at ease, which will be invaluable today.
If you're meeting someone for the first time, you'll be the one to create a calm scene for a great conversation.
In a professional context, you will be able to feed someone's ego just enough to create a comfortable environment, without coming off as a sycophant.
Some of our readers today have been in:
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Selayang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Selayang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland
and in cities across the United States such as Wake Forest, Mountain View, Riverside, Skyland and more.
and in cities across the United States such as Wake Forest, Mountain View, Riverside, Skyland and more.
Today is:
Today is Sunday, August 21, the 233rd day of 2011.
There are 132 days left in the year.
Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:
Poet's Day
and
National Go Topless Day.
and
National Go Topless Day.
Don't forget to visit our sister blog!
August 21 is 'National Go Topless Day!'
For the fourth consecutive year, the U.S.-based organization will stage a national Go Topless Day protest to proclaim a woman's constitutional right to go bare-chested in public.
Yes, There’s Real Money at the Top
When billionaire investor Warren Buffet recently called on policymakers to "get serious about shared sacrifice" by raising taxes on the nation's wealthiest people, some critics claimed that this wouldn't make a serious dent in our budget problems.That 'claim' is utter bullshit (and what's more they know it).
Fact Check
Fact Check: Recession is Culprit in High US Debt
It's the loud and clear consensus of repugicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail: Runaway government spending is the problem, not taxes.
And as usual the repugicans are wrong!
Bank of America promises to "help Rick Perry out," didn’t realize mic was still hot
Great moments in unscripted television, note what the top Bank of America official tells repugican presidential candidate Rick Perry:
And, does this surprise anyone? The corruption and utter contempt for decency at BofA is very well known.
And, does this surprise anyone? The corruption and utter contempt for decency at BofA is very well known.
Corrupt Moody’s
Reuters:
An ex-Moody's Corp derivatives analyst said the credit-rating agency intimidated and pressured analysts to issue glowing ratings of toxic complex, structured mortgage securities.And this is surprising ... how?
In a 78-page letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, William Harrington outlined how the committees that make the ratings decisions are not independent and how managers often intimidated analysts.
Stores hiding higher prices
Watch out for these marketing ploys to get you to pay more for fall clothes.
Also: How does your money stack up?
If you aren't a fan of budgeting, dividing expenses into these seven categories can help.
Also: 
US judges rule for teacher who called creationism 'superstitious nonsense'
Well, what do you know, a correct court decision for a change!
A public high school teacher in California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
A public high school teacher in California may not be sued for making hostile remarks about religion in his classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by a student charging that the teacher’s hostile remarks about creationism and religious faith violated a First Amendment mandate that the government remain neutral in matters of religion.
Two women from Northern Ireland have been killed in Turkey
Sources have said the killings happened after Ms Graham refused a waiter's proposal to marry her 15-year-old daughter Shannon.
Full Story Iran Sentences 2 American Men To 8 Years In Jail
Iran's state TV is reporting that two American men already held for two years in Tehran have been sentenced to 8 years in jail each on charges of espionage and illegal entry.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal receive eight years on charges of espionage and illegal entry.
Also: Nine Strange Facebook-Related Crimes
One of my high school teachers once told our class, “if you’re going to be stupid enough to do something illegal, at least don’t be stupid enough to put it on camera.” That was before the days of Facebook and YouTube, but it seems like the best advice you can give people these days is what my teacher said, followed by “and if you’re stupid enough to put it on camera, for the love of God, don’t be stupid enough to upload it on to the internet.”Vanessa Starr Palm and Alexander Daniel Rust certainly wish they got this advice and heeded it before they visited the Bahamas, killed an endangered lizard, ate it, documented the whole thing with photos and then uploaded the images onto Facebook.
The couple has been charged with violating an animal protection act and may also face additional charges for breaking a U.S. law that bans committing a crime in a country with a relationship to the U.S.
Read more funny Facebook crime stories over at Oddee.
The Bacon Candle: Your Life May Depend On It
Photo by Syriloth/Creative Commons
It's The End Of The World As We Know It. What are you going to do? Your flashlight batteries are dead. Hell, your candle wax is even running low. All you have left to eat is bacon. Well, at least there are worse ways to die. But wait ... A burned-out candle. Bacon leftovers. What? Behold the bacon candle.Article continues: The Bacon Candle: Your Life May Depend On It
Humana fined for not reporting Medicaid fraud
State officials in Florida say they've fined health insurance giant Humana Inc. $3.4 million for failing to promptly report Medicaid fraud or abuse.
After Insulin Pump Hacking, Lawmakers Seek Review
Two lawmakers are requesting a review of the government's security standards for wireless medical devices after a diabetic discovered how to remotely reprogram his and other people's insulin pumps.Ecstasy developed to treat cancer
Modified forms of the dance club drug may be effective against blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and melanoma, early research suggests.
Five Silly Secrets That Only Two People Know
Read about more weird well-gaurded secrets over at Cracked.
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