Three days by car to Oslo, three hours by plane to Svalbard, Norway, five hours by an Arctic ship with a romantic name "Polar Girl" and you find yourself in the northernmost abandoned city: you are in Pyramiden. More
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The City Abandoned At the Worlds End
Three days by car to Oslo, three hours by plane to Svalbard, Norway, five hours by an Arctic ship with a romantic name "Polar Girl" and you find yourself in the northernmost abandoned city: you are in Pyramiden. More
Poetry in Motion: Rare Polar Ring Galaxy Captured in New Image
When the lamp is shattered, The light in the dust lies dead. When the cloud is scattered, The rainbow’s glory ...Grand Canyon In The Kazakh Way
Charyn canyon is 200 km (124 miles) to the east from Almaty not far from the border with China and is included into the territory of the Charyn national park. It is a natural monument which formed from sedimentary rocks whose age is about 12 million years. More
Science News
No life found in Antarctica's buried Lake Vostok
A first analysis of ice pulled from the largest body of water buried beneath Antarctica has yielded nothing but pristine water. Read more
What Makes Earth So Perfect for Life?
There are a few key ingredients that scientists often agree are needed for life to exist — but much debate remains as to what limits there actually might be on life. Read more
Old Dams Hold a Toxic Legacy
Tens of thousands of old dams in the eastern U.S. no longer power machinery, but they still hold a toxic legacy. Read more
Sea Monster 'Predator X' Gets Official Name
It's official: A giant, marine reptile that roamed the seas roughly 150 million years ago is a newly named species. Read more
Could you build a city in an underground cave?
Are there any caves on Earth that are large enough to actually contain a real, functional city? Read more
Astrononical News
A streaking fireball lit up California skies and stunned stargazers, and professional observers say more meteors are on the way.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has dug up a mini-mystery for scientists:
an odd white fleck that sticks out like a beacon in the reddish soil.
How Long Would It Take To Get To Alpha Centauri?
The Alpha Centauri system is much farther away from us than the sun. There's a lot of empty space between us and this nearest star. In fact Alpha Centauri is trillions of miles away from Earth. Its distance of 4.3 light-years equals 25.6 trillion miles away - nearly 300,000 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. How long would it take to get to Alpha Centauri?
‘Housework’ cuts the life span of female Komodo Dragons
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo Dragons live half as long as males on average, seemingly ...
Dog poisoned and buried alive survives
A Jack Russell terrier has survived after being poisoned and buried alive - and he can thank the man who saw the ground wiggle.
Pet Couture
Not Just A Horse In Striped Pajamas
Upping the Cute Factor
OMG, baby octopodes!
National Geographic's Enric Sala took this photo during an expedition
in Gabon. He and another researcher were using a remote operated
vehicle to explore the ocean off the coast of that country's Loango
National Park.When we picked up the shell from the ROV’s arm, to our surprise, a small octopus came out of the shell. It was a female that laid her eggs inside the shell. We put shell and octopus in a tank with seawater, and after one minute thousands of octopus larvae started to stream out of the shell. The octopus eggs were hatching! That was the first time we had observed such a magnificent show. The larvae were changing coloration from transparent with dark spots to brown, and swimming like squid – although on a millimeter scale.
Animal News
First Human Ancestor Looked Like a Squirrel
This tree-dwelling animal saw the dawn of an era when mammals would come to dominate the planet. Read more
Prehistoric Flamingo Nest with Eggs Discovered
Five fossilized flamingo eggs from some 18 million years ago are found in Spain. Read more
Jaws vs. Frankie Valli
Sharks inspire fear from most of the human population, but they're more vulnerable to us than we are to them. Read more
How Dolphins Stay Awake for Two Weeks
Unlike land mammals, dolphins sleep with only part of their brains at any time. Read more
Dome-Headed Dinos Battled With Their Heads
Signs of injuries detected in pachycephalosaurs' skulls offer evidence the animals head-butted in violent battles. Read more
Eight-Eyed Spiders Watch Videos and People
Eight-eyed jumping spiders have a near 360-degree view of the world and can be captivated by humans and nature videos. Read more
Primates at Risk
A new UN report has named 25 primates most at risk. See each one and learn why each is threatened. Read more
Shrimp Vomits to Escape Predators
The Grandaddy of Daddy Longlegs
Surprisingly, it's actually not the record holder of its species. That distinction belongs to a species of harvestmen from South America: More
Friday, October 19, 2012
The Daily Drift
The terror comes to America ... The Mayflower bringing the pilgrims perverts to North America
Some of our readers today have been in:
Minsk, Belarus
Moscow, Russia
Kuching, Malaysia
Cape Town, South Africa
Jakarta, Indonesia
George Town, Malaysia
Doha, Qatar
Warsaw, Poland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Marrakesh, Morocco
Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Zagreb, Croatia
Miri, Malaysia
Reykjavik, Iceland
Caracas, Venezuela
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Cairo, Egypt
Sampaloc, Philippines
Lahore, Pakistan
Today in History
| 439 | The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa. | |
| 1216 | King John of England dies at Newark and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry. | |
| 1448 | The Ottoman Sultan Murat II defeats Hungarian General Janos Hunyadi at Kosovo, Serbia. | |
| 1466 | The peace of Torun ends the war between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia. | |
| 1739 | England declares war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins' Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins. | |
| 1781 | Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Va. Cornwallis surrenders 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides. The Revolutionary War is effectively ended. | |
| 1812 | Napoleon Bonaparte begins his retreat from Moscow. | |
| 1848 | John "The Pathfinder" Fremont moves out from near Westport, Missouri, on his fourth Western expedition–a failed attempt to open a trail across the Rocky Mountains along the 38th parallel. | |
| 1864 | At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Va., a narrow victory helps the Union secure the Shenandoah Valley. | |
| 1873 | Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities draft the first code of football rules. | |
| 1914 | The German cruiser Emden captures her thirteenth Allied merchant ship in 24 days. | |
| 1917 | The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I. | |
| 1942 | The Japanese submarine I-36 launches a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew report on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft is lost at sea. | |
| 1949 | The People's Republic of China is formally proclaimed. | |
| 1950 | The North Korean capital of Pyongyang is captured by U.N. troops. | |
| 1954 | Egypt and Britain conclude a pact on the Suez Canal, ending 72 years of British military occupation. Britain agrees to withdraw its 80,000-man force within 20 months, and Egypt agrees to maintain freedom of canal navigation. | |
| 1960 | Canada and the United States agree to undertake a joint Columbia River project to provide hydroelectric power and flood control. | |
| 1973 | President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes. | |
| 1987 | In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U. S. navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms. |
A repugican congressman admits Paul Ryan, repugican cabal will “end” Medicare
Outspoken Illinois repugican congressman Joe Walsh admitted yesterday that Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, and House repugicans in Washington, DC, plan to “end” Medicare.
Walsh was being attacked by his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, who accused the House repugican budget plan, authored by Paul Ryan, of “ending Medicare as we know it.” Walsh, remarkably, agreed.The House repugican budget plan, [Duckworth] said, “would end Medicare as we know it.” But Walsh responded, “If we don’t end it as it is, it’s going to end as we know it all by itself.”
Later on in the discussion, Walsh suggested that all abortion can now be outlawed, including cases involving the life of the mother because medical science has eliminated all life-threatening complications from pregnancy.
Walsh said he was against abortion “without exception,” including rape, incest and in cases in which the life or health of the mother was in jeopardy.Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post noted that Walsh joins an ever-increasing line of repugicans making insanely incendiary comments about abortion.
Asked by reporters after the debate if he was saying that it’s never medically necessary to conduct an abortion to save the life of a mother, Walsh responded, “Absolutely.”
“With modern technology and science, you can’t find one instance,” he said. “… There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing.”
Walsh’s comments echo Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who similarly relied on an ignorance of science and medicine to proclaim a belief that women’s bodies are able to prevent pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.”
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist,” Akin said, setting off a firestorm before the repugican national coven, including calls for him to resign from the race. Akin now trails his Senate race against Democrat Claire McCaskill.
And this is all part of a much larger problem the repugican cabal has with women of late.
Whether it’s a Wisconsin state representative telling a newspaper that “some girls rape easy,” Mitt Romney talking about “binders full of women,” or Mrs. Romney suggesting that women didn’t really care about the economy when the entire financial world came crashing down four years ago.
Mitt Romney may be facing binders full of angry women at the ballot box in November.
Arrested vote fraud suspect worked for rnc
We reported last night
that a repugican contractor, Colin Small, was arrested in Virginia for
alleged voter fraud involving the destruction of completed voter
registration forms.And the plot thickens. He wasn’t just a repugican contractor – he was an
employee of the repugican national cabal, aka, the repugican cabal
headquarters in Washington, DC.
Below is a copy of his LinkedIn page in which he claims to be employed by the rnc.
Small’s arrest comes on the heels of statewide voter fraud by a vendor working for the repugican cabal in Florida. That vendor also did work for Mitt Romney and for the rnc in a number of other key swing states.
Below is a copy of his LinkedIn page in which he claims to be employed by the rnc.
Small’s arrest comes on the heels of statewide voter fraud by a vendor working for the repugican cabal in Florida. That vendor also did work for Mitt Romney and for the rnc in a number of other key swing states.
Couple used cannabis farm profits to help poor in Kenya
To the impoverished Kenyan villagers, their regular visitors, an English
couple in their sixties, were lifesavers. They supported children
through school, bought computers for an eye hospital nearby and paid for
the amputation of a diseased leg that threatened to kill a young man.
What they did not know was that the couple’s charity was funded by a
“Robin Hood” cannabis operation hidden in the depths of the British
countryside. Michael Foster and Susan Cooper pocketed as much as
£400,000 during the six-year operation, and spent “much of it” in
Africa, a court was told. They were jailed for three years after
admitting four charges of producing the drug and one relating to the
proceeds. “This couple were both in their sixties and were of previous
good character,” Jon Dee, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court.
“It perhaps can be best summed up by Mr Foster who told police in his own words during his interview that it had started as a hobby and turned into a business.” The couple were caught “completely by chance” when a police officer pursuing a burglar nearby recognized the distinctive smell coming from their farmhouse in Long Sutton, Lincs. When the officer knocked on the door and asked Mrs Cooper, a 63-year-old divorcee, if she knew why he was there, she answered: “Yes I do.” Inside police found 159 cannabis plants, worth an estimated £20,000. Two of the buildings had been converted into a growing room and drying room. Officers also recovered £20,000 in £1,000 bundles from a carrier bag. Mr Dee added: “This was a professional and commercial set-up.” A note from a man called “Jess” found in the farmhouse led police to a second property linked to the couple in the Norfolk village of Terrington St Clement.
Investigations showed the annual electricity bill for the Long Sutton farmhouse had risen by £2,000, which the couple explained by claiming to run a pottery business with a kiln. Bank statements showed around £300,000 had been paid into their joint account over the six years between 2004 and 2010, when the operation had been running. A further £100,000 had gone through an account in Mrs Cooper’s maiden name. Mr Dee added: “The Crown accept some of the money will not have come from drug dealing. At some point the home of Mrs Cooper’s mother was sold, but not all the money would have been paid in and £400,000 represents a fair assessment.” When they were caught, Mrs Cooper “apologized profusely” for being unable to answer police questions. Mr Foster, 62, admitted regularly selling cannabis in deals of around £1,500 to a local drug dealer to whom he had been introduced through a loan shark.
Gareth Wheetman, for Foster, said that the couple had not spent the profits on lavish living. “Much of the money was being put to charitable and good use,” he said. They had paid for children from the village near Mombasa to be educated and bought equipment for the local eye hospital. Chris Milligan, mitigating for Cooper, said: “Susan Cooper is a good person who has done a bad thing. There is another side to her, she has been a good mother, wife and partner to Mr Foster.” She had offered not just money but care to the villagers. “When a young adult called Wilson got a gangrenous infection in his leg he was given two days to live. She paid for that treatment,” he said. Passing sentence, Judge Sean Morris said that he accepted that they were a previously respectable couple of “positive good character”. But he told Foster his own cannabis habit may have led to the psychosis which contributed to his crimes. ”Cannabis does that, it is a dangerous drug too often belittled,” Judge Morris told the couple. “You were growing it on a significant scale, jetting off to Kenya on it. “I am sure you were doing good things in Kenya with your drugs money, whether that was to appease your consciences I can only speculate.”
“It perhaps can be best summed up by Mr Foster who told police in his own words during his interview that it had started as a hobby and turned into a business.” The couple were caught “completely by chance” when a police officer pursuing a burglar nearby recognized the distinctive smell coming from their farmhouse in Long Sutton, Lincs. When the officer knocked on the door and asked Mrs Cooper, a 63-year-old divorcee, if she knew why he was there, she answered: “Yes I do.” Inside police found 159 cannabis plants, worth an estimated £20,000. Two of the buildings had been converted into a growing room and drying room. Officers also recovered £20,000 in £1,000 bundles from a carrier bag. Mr Dee added: “This was a professional and commercial set-up.” A note from a man called “Jess” found in the farmhouse led police to a second property linked to the couple in the Norfolk village of Terrington St Clement.
Investigations showed the annual electricity bill for the Long Sutton farmhouse had risen by £2,000, which the couple explained by claiming to run a pottery business with a kiln. Bank statements showed around £300,000 had been paid into their joint account over the six years between 2004 and 2010, when the operation had been running. A further £100,000 had gone through an account in Mrs Cooper’s maiden name. Mr Dee added: “The Crown accept some of the money will not have come from drug dealing. At some point the home of Mrs Cooper’s mother was sold, but not all the money would have been paid in and £400,000 represents a fair assessment.” When they were caught, Mrs Cooper “apologized profusely” for being unable to answer police questions. Mr Foster, 62, admitted regularly selling cannabis in deals of around £1,500 to a local drug dealer to whom he had been introduced through a loan shark.
Gareth Wheetman, for Foster, said that the couple had not spent the profits on lavish living. “Much of the money was being put to charitable and good use,” he said. They had paid for children from the village near Mombasa to be educated and bought equipment for the local eye hospital. Chris Milligan, mitigating for Cooper, said: “Susan Cooper is a good person who has done a bad thing. There is another side to her, she has been a good mother, wife and partner to Mr Foster.” She had offered not just money but care to the villagers. “When a young adult called Wilson got a gangrenous infection in his leg he was given two days to live. She paid for that treatment,” he said. Passing sentence, Judge Sean Morris said that he accepted that they were a previously respectable couple of “positive good character”. But he told Foster his own cannabis habit may have led to the psychosis which contributed to his crimes. ”Cannabis does that, it is a dangerous drug too often belittled,” Judge Morris told the couple. “You were growing it on a significant scale, jetting off to Kenya on it. “I am sure you were doing good things in Kenya with your drugs money, whether that was to appease your consciences I can only speculate.”
Man found manufacturing meth in cemetery says he was ghost hunting
A South Carolina man, found with what police believe was a mobile meth
lab, told officers he was ghost hunting in Oakwood Cemetery,
Spartanburg, late on Saturday night. Marvin Willis, 36, was charged by
the Spartanburg Public Safety Department with manufacturing
methamphetamine, according to an incident report.
The report states that an officer patrolling in the area of Oakwood and Avant streets near the cemetery about 11 p.m. noticed three people standing beside a pickup truck in the back of the graveyard. All three told the officer that they were in the cemetery hoping to see ghosts.
The officer noticed alcohol inside the truck and asked if he could search the pickup, and Willis said yes. During the search, the officer found several items used to make methamphetamine. Willis also consented to a search of his person, and the officer found a plastic container in Willis' pants. Willis said, “You got it, it's dope,” and admitted that there was meth inside the container.
The officer found a blue, rock-like substance inside a plastic bottle in the truck bed, and Willis at first said it was salt, but then admitted that the bottle contained several ingredients used to make meth: ammonium nitrate, lye, pseudoephedrine and lighter fluid. Willis remains at the Spartanburg County Detention Facility on a $15,000 bond.
The report states that an officer patrolling in the area of Oakwood and Avant streets near the cemetery about 11 p.m. noticed three people standing beside a pickup truck in the back of the graveyard. All three told the officer that they were in the cemetery hoping to see ghosts.
The officer noticed alcohol inside the truck and asked if he could search the pickup, and Willis said yes. During the search, the officer found several items used to make methamphetamine. Willis also consented to a search of his person, and the officer found a plastic container in Willis' pants. Willis said, “You got it, it's dope,” and admitted that there was meth inside the container.
The officer found a blue, rock-like substance inside a plastic bottle in the truck bed, and Willis at first said it was salt, but then admitted that the bottle contained several ingredients used to make meth: ammonium nitrate, lye, pseudoephedrine and lighter fluid. Willis remains at the Spartanburg County Detention Facility on a $15,000 bond.
Amazing Inhabited Bridges
Here's 23 Of The World's Most Insane Caves That You Can Explore
Here are 23 of the world's most insane caves that you can explore.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Daily Drift
That pretty much covers it ...
Some of our readers today have been in:
Marrakesh, Morocco
Cape Town, South Africa
Abuja, Nigeria
Belize City, Belize
George Town, Malaysia
Doha, Qatar
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Lublin, Poland
Sampaloc, Philippines
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Zagreb, Croatia
Bogor, Indonesia
Bayamon, Puerto Rico
Warsaw, Poland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Nairobi, Kenya
Moscow, Russia
Ankara, Turkey
Seremban, Malaysia
Pretoria, South Africa
Sanaa, Yemen
Manila, Philippines
Today in History
| 1648 | The "shoemakers of Boston"–the first labor organization in what would become the United States–was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. | |
| 1685 | Edict of Nantes lifted by Louis XIV. The edict, signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, gave the Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious liberties. | |
| 1813 | The Allies defeat Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig. | |
| 1867 | The Alaska territory is formally transferred to the U.S. from Russian control. | |
| 1867 | The rules for American football are formulated at meeting in New York among delegates from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities. | |
| 1883 | The weather station at the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland, the highest mountain in Britain, is declared open. Weather stations were set up on the tops of mountains all over Europe and the Eastern United States in order to gather information for the new weather forecasts. | |
| 1910 | M. Baudry is the first to fly a dirigible across the English Channel–from La Motte-Breil to Wormwood Scrubbs. | |
| 1912 | The First Balkan War breaks out between the members of the Balkan League–Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro–and the Ottoman Empire. | |
| 1918 | Czechs seize Prague and renounce Hapsburg's rule. | |
| 1919 | Madrid opens a subway system. | |
| 1921 | Russian Soviets grant Crimean independence. | |
| 1939 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans war submarines from U.S. ports and waters. | |
| 1944 | Lt. General Joseph Stilwell is recalled from China by president Franklin Roosevelt. | |
| 1950 | The First Turkish Brigade arrives in Korea to assist the U.N. forces fighting there. | |
| 1967 | A Russian unmanned spacecraft makes the first landing on the surface of Venus. |
And I Quote
From the reality based Rachel Maddow
"Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. The unemployment rate is below 8%. The day after the Benghazi attack, the president called it an 'act of terror.' Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better, but do not confuse your ''world-net-daily-caliber-theraputic-conservative-alternative-reality-fantasy-babble for what actually happened.
Because stuff really does actually happen. and eventually, you really do have to deal with it."
"Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. The unemployment rate is below 8%. The day after the Benghazi attack, the president called it an 'act of terror.' Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better, but do not confuse your ''world-net-daily-caliber-theraputic-conservative-alternative-reality-fantasy-babble for what actually happened.
Because stuff really does actually happen. and eventually, you really do have to deal with it."
Corporations don't like free speech ...
... and
their wage slaves not agreeing to "vote their way"....especially if a
presidential candidate instructs them how to "inform" their wage slaves
how to vote...or else.
In a June 6, 2012 conference call posted on the anti-union national federation of independent business’s website, republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney instructed employers to tell their employees how to vote in the upcoming election.Now...remember...as the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, Fascism is: "a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
A repugican contractor arrested for vote fraud in PA
So our concerns about massive repugican voter fraud extending beyond Florida were justifed.It’s now hit Pennsylvania too.
I saw the story first on Not Larry Sabato, but it wasn’t entirely clear that this was definitively a repugican job, so I didn’t post it. Now it has been confirmed, and the guy’s been arrested.
Via NBC we have the press release from the local sheriff:
I saw the story first on Not Larry Sabato, but it wasn’t entirely clear that this was definitively a repugican job, so I didn’t post it. Now it has been confirmed, and the guy’s been arrested.
Via NBC we have the press release from the local sheriff:
More from Ryan Reilly at TPM:Here is the full release from Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan F. Hutcheson:
PRESS RELEASE:
October 18, 2012
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest in the investigation of voter registration fraud that began on the afternoon of October 15th when law enforcement received a citizen complaint of voter registration application forms being found in a dumpster behind a business in the City of Harrisonburg.
The following individual has been charged:
The following charges have been placed:
- Mr. Colin Small, 31 year old male of Phoenixville, PA
- Voter Registration Supervisor employed by Pinpoint, an independent private organization contracted by the Republican Party of Virginia for purposes of general voter registration.
- Copy of mugshot attached to this release
- Four (4) counts of Destruction of Voter Registration Application, Class 1 Misdemeanor, Section 24.2-1002.01, Code of Virginia
- Eight (8) counts of Disclosure of Voter Registration Application, Class 5 Felony, Section 24.2-1002.01, Code of Virginia
These charges are based upon lengthy consultation with and assistance from the Rockingham County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office regarding the investigation.
- One (1) count of Obstruction of Justice, Class 1 Misdemeanor, Section 18.2-460(A), Code of Virginia
His office began investigating after the manager at a Tuesday Morning store in Harrisonburg, Va., allegedly spotted a man on Monday afternoon throwing eight voter registration forms into a dumpster behind the shopping center where he works.
In an interview with TPM on Wednesday, the manager, Rob Johnson, said the man was driving a black Toyota with Pennsylvania license plates. He said he thought he saw the same car parked outside the Republican Party’s Harrisonburg Victory Office the following day. The office is just down the street from the shopping center.
“I spotted the car that the gentleman was driving when he threw the voter registration applications into the dumpster parked in front of the repugican campaign headquarters,” Johnson said.
A staffer at the Harrisonburg Victory Office referred TPM to the repugican cabal of Virginia, which has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Mitt & Tagg Romney tied to Ponzi scheme
Despite previous assertions to the contrary, SEC documents link
Mitt Romney and his son Tagg Romney to a firm involved in the Allen
Stanford $7 billion Ponzi scheme.Tagg, who recently threatened to “take a swing” at the President,
has previously denied the links but legal filings say otherwise.
Surely the Romney’s strict religious faith, that Mitt talks about so
much now, doesn’t approve of lying, does it? Or is this what they mean
when people talk about “lying for the lord?”
Lee Fang at the Nation has more on the actual facts, rather than the Romney-family version of the story. The story is from six days, and still is obviously quite relevant.
All of this, of course, brings us back to the critical problem of Mitt Romney’s missing tax documents.
Until Mitt Romney produces his full returns for the past ten years, rather than the scrubbed version of the last two years, that is missing a lot of details, we simply do not know the full extent of what he’s involved in or where. And whether it’s even criminal.
For someone that is proposing to make such radical changes to the tax code – Romney has proposed a $5 trillion tax cut for the rich that even Faux News says doesn’t add up – we should know if he’s doing this to benefit the country, or just himself and his rich friends.
Lee Fang at the Nation has more on the actual facts, rather than the Romney-family version of the story. The story is from six days, and still is obviously quite relevant.
The private equity firm run by Tagg Romney—Mitt’s eldest son, who is now taking a leadership role in guiding his father’s presidential campaign—misled reporters last year about its involvement with a company run by men accused of taking part in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.It’s also interesting to note that this revelation is only available because of the new reporting requirements for Dodd-Frank. No wonder Romney doesn’t like that legislation.
However, Solamere Capital’s statement, provided to ABC News, is false. Disclosures from the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Tagg’s company indeed maintains ties with the Ponzi-linked firm, Solamere Advisors.
The claim that Solamere Group didn’t invest directly in Solamere Advisors, the firm employing former Stanford employees, appears to have been an attempt to shield Mitt Romney. Mitt invested about $10 million into Tagg’s Solamere Capital venture, which would suggest Mitt has a direct financial relationship with folks involved in a Ponzi scheme. That’s because Solamere Capital pools together investment money to co-invest in other companies.
All of this, of course, brings us back to the critical problem of Mitt Romney’s missing tax documents.
Until Mitt Romney produces his full returns for the past ten years, rather than the scrubbed version of the last two years, that is missing a lot of details, we simply do not know the full extent of what he’s involved in or where. And whether it’s even criminal.
For someone that is proposing to make such radical changes to the tax code – Romney has proposed a $5 trillion tax cut for the rich that even Faux News says doesn’t add up – we should know if he’s doing this to benefit the country, or just himself and his rich friends.
Did you know ...
About Romney's 7 biggest debate lies
That two prominent repugicans endorse legalizing marijuana
That a robot artist learns masters' calligraphy brush strokes
And, guess what, there really was a real Tom Sawyer
That two prominent repugicans endorse legalizing marijuana
That a robot artist learns masters' calligraphy brush strokes
And, guess what, there really was a real Tom Sawyer
FDA finds fungus in steroid shots, meningitis toll rises
"Now we can
definitively say that the injections are linked to the infection," Dr.
Tom Chiller, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters in an interview. "To date, CDC has no firm evidence of infection in any patients beyond those exposed to the contaminated lots."
The CDC said the
death toll climbed by one to 20, while nine new cases brought the
national total to 254, including the first in New York - the 16th state
with confirmed infections.
Michigan reported its fourth fungal meningitis death and new cases were also reported in Indiana, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee. There are also three cases of peripheral
infections in joints, the CDC said.
"There were a lot more spinal injections performed
versus joint injections, but the infection rate may also reflect the
fact that joint infections might be slower or the incubation period
could be longer ... we just don't know," Chiller said.
About 14,000 patients are believed to have been exposed
to the potentially tainted NECC steroid and some 97 percent of them
have been contacted so far, the FDA and CDC said.NECC issued a statement saying it was "earnestly focused on determining, along with these agencies, the cause of contamination in vials of this product - and to rapidly and professionally carry out a recall to remove all NECC products from circulation."
U.S. doctors in
Baltimore said early diagnosis and treatment of patients at risk of
fungal meningitis was vital, based on the case of an otherwise healthy
woman who declined rapidly after receiving steroid injections
for neck pain.
Writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers
at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine described the deterioration of
an unidentified 51-year-old who sought care in an emergency room for a
severe headache a week after receiving an injection with tainted
medication on August 31.The CDC has said it learned about the fungal meningitis outbreak on September 21 and that it contacted patients injected as far back as May.
Patients found to be infected are treated with a fairly high dose of voriconazole, sold by Pfizer Inc under the brand name Vfend, which can cause side effects including "visual disturbances," fever and headache.
"We are finding a fair amount of toxicity," Dr. Carol Kauffman, infectious diseases chief at the University of Michigan Health System, said during an infectious disease and epidemiology conference in San Diego. "We don't want to have 80-year-olds hallucinating. That's indeed what is happening."
CONTRACTS UNDER SCRUTINY
NECC is under investigation by federal authorities over
how it supplied hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers with
large orders of drugs, including whether it violated state laws
regulating pharmacies.
U.S. Senator
Richard Blumenthal Of Connecticut, who previously called for a criminal
investigation of NECC, raised new questions on Thursday about a
government contract for medications from NECC's sister company,
Ameridose.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense, he cited
a July purchase agreement for specialized medicines between the U.S.
Army Medical Command and Ameridose. They were intended for use in the
neonatal intensive care unit at the Army's Tripler Medical Center in
Honolulu.Most of the meningitis cases have been linked to Exserohilum, a fungus associated with grass and rotting wood that appears to be especially aggressive in attacking tissues in the spine and brain stem.
Fungal infections typically only attack people with severely compromised immune systems, such as patients who have had bone marrow or organ transplants.
In the case described by the team at Johns Hopkins, the injection was the woman's first and she had no medical history of having a compromised immune system, nor was she taking any long-term medications.
Doctors found nothing and sent her home, but the woman returned the next day with more severe symptoms and was admitted to the hospital, where she was treated with a series of antibiotics and other drugs.
Tests for a host of
infections were all negative. The woman died 10 days after being
admitted to the hospital, the same day the team found evidence of
Exserohilum in her spinal fluid. An autopsy showed massive tissue death
in the brain stem, inflammation in the blood vessels and evidence of a
stroke.
Based on the case,
the researchers urged doctors to be aware of the symptoms of fungal
meningitis and to seek rapid diagnosis and treatment to prevent "serious
complications and deaths."
The CDC advises
patients who feel ill and are concerned they were injected with one of
the recalled products to contact their physicians.
On a call with
healthcare providers earlier this week, the CDC said the typical
incubation period was one to four weeks after injection, but that it
could be two months or longer.
"We want you to remain vigilant for several months after injection," Chiller told physicians.
Symptoms of fungal
meningitis include new or worsening headache, fever, sensitivity to
light, stiff neck, weakness or numbness in any part of the body, slurred
speech, increased pain, redness or swelling at the injection site.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The Daily Drift
The 1940's Malt Shop
Some of our readers today have been in:
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuwait, Kuwait
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Cape Town, South Africa
Jakarta, Indonesia
Ankara, Turkey
Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Kuching, Malaysia
Bangkok, Thailand
Karachi, Pakistan
Manila, Philippines
Belgrade, Serbia
Ipoh, Malaysia
Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
Zagreb, Croatia
Abuja, Nigeria
Muscat, Oman
Klang, Malaysia
Bogota, Colombia
Belize City, Belize
Lublin, Poland
San Salvador, El Salvador
Leeds, England
Jdaidet El Matn, Lebanon
Lima, Peru
Islamabad, Pakistan
Doha, Qatar
Today in History
| 1244 | The Sixth Crusade ends when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilates the Frankish army at Gaza. | |
| 1529 | Henry VIII of England strips Thomas Wolsey of his office for failing to secure an annulment of his marriage. | |
| 1346 | English forces defeat the Scots under David II during the Battle of Neville's Cross, Scotland. | |
| 1691 | Maine and Plymouth are incorporated in Massachusetts. | |
| 1777 | British Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne surrenders 5,000 men at Saratoga, N.Y. | |
| 1815 | Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he has been banished by the Allies. | |
| 1849 | Composer and pianist Frederic Chopin dies in Paris of tuberculosis at the age of 39. | |
| 1863 | General Ulysses S. Grant is named overall Union Commander of the West. | |
| 1877 | Brigadier General Alfred Terry meets with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians' return to the United States. | |
| 1913 | Zeppelin LII explodes over London, killing 28. | |
| 1933 | Due to rising anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler's Germany, Albert Einstein immigrates to the United States. He makes his new home in Princeton, N.J. | |
| 1941 | The U.S. destroyer Kearney is damaged by a German U-boat torpedo off Iceland; 11 Americans are killed. | |
| 1956 | The nuclear power station Calder Hall is opened in Britain. Calder Hall is the first nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into a civilian network. | |
| 1972 | Peace talks between Pathet Lao and Royal Lao government begin in Vietnam. | |
| 1989 | The worst earthquake in 82 years strikes San Francisco bay area minutes before the start of a World Series game there. The earthquake registers 6.9 on the Richter scale–67 are killed and damage is estimated at $10 billion. |
A 1 gallon jug of 1992 McDonald's McJordan barbecue sauce sells for $9,995 on eBay
Add It Up
Here's a hilarious comment over on Greg Sargent's Plumline @ Washington Post:
Dear governor Romney,
It’s come to my attention that you have misrepresented me several times during the presidential campaign. I am writing to ask you to cease all such activity immediately.
You have claimed that I could add between $7 trillion and $8 trillion to the U.S. budget without increasing the deficit or raising taxes on someone other than the wealthy. I’m good, but not that good. I’ve searched my multi-millennial archives from Algebra to Quantum Theory to Zoological Science and conclude I have never done anything remotely close to what you’re describing. Ever. I can’t. It violates my basic principles as well as my professional reputation.
I also understand you claim I told you 12 million jobs over 4 years is the same as 7 million jobs over 10 years. with all due respect, how many times did you flunk third grade?
Given the adverse publicity it’d cause at this sensitive time, I’d like to keep the lawyers out of it. Just stop saying things about me that aren’t true, OK? If you’re not sure, run it by my staff beforehand.
I’ve worked hard for thousands of years to develop the trust humanity places in me and I’ll not have it fuzzified or tarnished by anyone who’ll die long before I will.
Sincerely,
Mathematics
CNN’s Carol Costello destroys anti-gay hate group over Hitler claim
So gays caused the Holocaust…
CNN’s Carol Costello picked up on the issue we wrote about the other day, of wingnut hate groups trying to kill anti-bullying programs in schools because, they say, anti-bullying programs are secret programs to recruit kids into “the gay lifestyle.”Uh huh.
“Hitler recruited around him homosexuals”
Bryan Fischer of the officially-designated hate group, American Family Association, did the interview with the Costello. Fischer is perhaps best known for promoting the idea that gays were behind the Holocaust. Fischer’s radio show is a frequent stop for repugican leaders and political candidates. Costello was aware of Fischer’s odd views on Hitler, and read Fischer’s quote back to him:“Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers, they were his enforcers, they were his thugs. And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals.”
CNN’s Carol Costello.
Did Fischer repudiate the quote? Oh no. He defended it.
Thanks for sharing your views, I guess.
Fischer then went on a tear about the Southern Poverty Law Center – he’s upset that the SPLC recently designated a number of extreme religious right groups as official “hate groups.” Here’s the end of the interview, after she reads the Hitler quote – it’s priceless.CNN’s COSTELLO: I would think most historians would take issue with that. But what I’m saying to you is that, by many people’s standards, would be hate speech.
AFA’s FISCHER: Well, but the reality is, it’s the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’re out to destroy the AFA and the FRC (Family Research Council), that makes them the bullying group, that makes them the hate group. They’re the ones that want to silence any view that would criticize the normalization of homosexual behavior. And we know from the CDC, and from the FDA, not part of the vast rightwing conspiracy…
COSTELLO: Well…
FISCHER: …that homosexual behavior has the same health risks…
COSTELLO: …okay…
FISCHER: …associated with it…
COSTELLO: That, that’s just not true. I’m gonna end this interview now, sir, I’m sorry, because that’s just not true. Mr. Fischer, um, thanks for sharing your views. I guess.
Did you know ...
That a university diversity chief put on leave after signing anti-gay marriage petition
That Koch Industries orders employees not to discuss Koch politics on social media
Oh, and here's the binders full of women tumblr
And speaking of which, Romney was lying
Here's 20 ways being a liberal has made life better
Here's Paul Ryan at the Donner pass
That DNA shows mother of all cultivated rice came from China's Pearl River
That New Jersey governor Chris Christie adopts legislation nearly word for word from ALEC
That Koch Industries orders employees not to discuss Koch politics on social media
Oh, and here's the binders full of women tumblr
And speaking of which, Romney was lying
Here's 20 ways being a liberal has made life better
Here's Paul Ryan at the Donner pass
That DNA shows mother of all cultivated rice came from China's Pearl River
That New Jersey governor Chris Christie adopts legislation nearly word for word from ALEC
Did the average Neanderthal know she had a brother-in-law?
Truth is, for how little we understand the wiring and functioning of our own brains, we understand even less about the Neanderthal mind. It's quite possible that they could mate with us, but couldn't think the same way we do. And it's those unseen, unstudied differences that could really account for the vast disparities that we see between how humans lived and how their Neanderthal neighbors lived.
The picture we have so far is that the Neanderthals are sort of opportunistic, good at hunting middle- to large-sized mammals. They have a territory in which they probably go through a cycle of habitation in different places, basically when one place is exhausted they move to another one. What we don't see with Neanderthals is long-distance exchanges with other groups. What we see with modern humans in the same areas is different. For example, we find shells in Germany coming from the Mediterranean or from the French Atlantic Coast. It means there was a network of people. So, the question is, what kind of relationship did a Neanderthal have with his brother-in-law? Humans did not just live with their families and their neighbors, but they knew they had a brother-in-law in another village, and that beyond the mountain there is the family of their mother, or uncle, or something like that. There is a large network of groups that, if necessary, could help each other. I think this is where we would like to go to find differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Dog rescued from animal shelter credited with saving baby's life
A family in Portland, Connecticut, is thanking their rescue dog for
saving their infant daughter's life. "If Duke hadn't been so scared, we
would have just gone to sleep," said Jenna Brousseau.
On Sunday night, Duke, who was adopted nearly six years ago, jumped on the Brousseau's bed and was shaking uncontrollably, enough to wake them up. "He is insanely obedient, so this is extremely bizarre," Brousseau said.
The Brousseaus said Duke has never acted like that before and knew something was wrong. When they went into their 9-week-old daughter Harper's room, she was not breathing. "My husband called 911 and the ambulance came here and it was because of our Dukey dog, who alerted us," Brousseau said.
Harper was taken to an area hospital after being revived by paramedics. "I tell him all the time, 'You were born in mommy's heart,' just because he was so meant to be ours," Brousseau said. The family wanted to share their story because they wanted to inspire others to consider rescuing an animal like they did.
On Sunday night, Duke, who was adopted nearly six years ago, jumped on the Brousseau's bed and was shaking uncontrollably, enough to wake them up. "He is insanely obedient, so this is extremely bizarre," Brousseau said.
The Brousseaus said Duke has never acted like that before and knew something was wrong. When they went into their 9-week-old daughter Harper's room, she was not breathing. "My husband called 911 and the ambulance came here and it was because of our Dukey dog, who alerted us," Brousseau said.
Harper was taken to an area hospital after being revived by paramedics. "I tell him all the time, 'You were born in mommy's heart,' just because he was so meant to be ours," Brousseau said. The family wanted to share their story because they wanted to inspire others to consider rescuing an animal like they did.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
The Daily Drift
Mountain Forest
Some of our readers today have been in:
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Karachi, Pakistan
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
Belgrade, Serbia
Kuching, Malaysia
Zagreb, Croatia
Ipoh, Malaysia
Muscat, Oman
Klang, Malaysia
Bogota, Colombia
San Salvador, El Salvador
Jdaidet El Matn, Lebanon
Islamabad, Pakistan
Opole, Poland
Cape Town, South Africa
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