Amazing moving pictures created using old stereoscope images bring to life the golden age of the geisha, over 100 years ago. More
Saturday, November 3, 2012
The Bizarre Myths and Mysticism Behind Birthmarks
If you're into explaining the weird and wonky, you'll love the myths and mysticism behind birthmarks! More
Externsteine
The Star Stones Of Lippe
The five standing sandstone pillars have been ornamented over the millennia by human hand. Although the name usually translates as stones of the ridge, many see these huge columns more romantically as star stones, a place resonant with ancient mysticism and ritual. Yet the true origins of the star stones can be discovered through geology.
Winds Blow 100-year old Ash Over Alaska
Winds over Kodiak Island, Alaska,
are stirring up ash from 1912 when Novarupta erupted the largest
volcanic blast of the 20th century.
Oldest Flying Fish Fossil Found In China
A fish from China has displaced its European relatives to become the
oldest known gliding fish. A near-complete skeleton of the fish, named
Potanichthys xingyiensis, was found near Xingyi in Guizhou province in
southwest China.
Potanichthys had well-developed pectoral fins, like modern flying fish. But what seals the deal for gliding flight is the fish's forked, asymmetrical tail, which had a chubby lower lobe similar to that seen in flying fish today.
Potanichthys had well-developed pectoral fins, like modern flying fish. But what seals the deal for gliding flight is the fish's forked, asymmetrical tail, which had a chubby lower lobe similar to that seen in flying fish today.
Over 500 Chinese cats saved from cooking pot
Police in the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou have intercepted a lorry
carrying 500 cats destined for the cooking pot. There has been extra
security on China's roads ahead of next week's once-in-a-decade
leadership change, and officers in Xuzhou pulled over the lorry when
they noticed it had out-of-town licence plates.
When they heard mewling from under the tarpaulin covering its cargo, they asked the drivers what they were transporting. "Rabbits," came the response. Instead, the lorry was carrying dozens of rusty iron cages filled with cats. In recent years, the appetite for cat meat in the south of China has created a supply chain that reaches across the country.
A notorious Cantonese dish is "Tiger and Dragon Locked in Battle", a hot pot of cat and snake meat. The appetite for the dish has already made cats scarce and costly in the southern region of Guangdong, and restaurants in the province have had to look elsewhere for a steady supply.
There is no law in China against selling cats, since cats are not regarded as household possessions. Cat snatchers generally make around 10 yuan (£1) per cat and sell them to middlemen who then arrange transport to the south. While the lorry had therefore not breached any laws, the police contacted animal lovers in Xuzhou who negotiated for almost three hours before reaching a deal with the drivers to buy their feline cargo for 3,500 yuan (£350).
When they heard mewling from under the tarpaulin covering its cargo, they asked the drivers what they were transporting. "Rabbits," came the response. Instead, the lorry was carrying dozens of rusty iron cages filled with cats. In recent years, the appetite for cat meat in the south of China has created a supply chain that reaches across the country.
A notorious Cantonese dish is "Tiger and Dragon Locked in Battle", a hot pot of cat and snake meat. The appetite for the dish has already made cats scarce and costly in the southern region of Guangdong, and restaurants in the province have had to look elsewhere for a steady supply.
There is no law in China against selling cats, since cats are not regarded as household possessions. Cat snatchers generally make around 10 yuan (£1) per cat and sell them to middlemen who then arrange transport to the south. While the lorry had therefore not breached any laws, the police contacted animal lovers in Xuzhou who negotiated for almost three hours before reaching a deal with the drivers to buy their feline cargo for 3,500 yuan (£350).
NYC Rat Population Takes a Hit
Health officials believe New York City's rat population was significantly reduced by flooding from Hurricane Sandy.
Nine New Tarantulas Creep and Crawl
These new species of tarantula
weren't found in a far off jungle paradise, but instead right under foot
in human populated areas of Brazil. Watch where you step! Read more
Elephant Speaks Korean
The male Asian elephant, Koshik, can speak words in Korean that Korean-speakers have no problem understanding. Read more
The Owl who is Scared of the Outdoors
Amateur
photographer Mark Bridger was at the Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool,
England, when he spotted a ghost-like figure staring out of a brick house
window. He's just found Gandalf the Grey (Owl, that is):Gandalf the Great Grey Owl gets scared flying out in the open so his owners have built his aviary inside a brick shed. He now spends his days watching the world go by out of his window. "He is a bit of a wuss as he doesn't like flying in big open spaces," said owner Janet Southard [...]The Daily Telegraph has the story: here.
"When we moved here we put him in the shed temporarily while we built his aviary outside. "But he didn't want to move so now he has an aviary inside the lovely red brick shed.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Daily Drift
The world of tomorrow as seen in 1947
Some of our readers today have been in:
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Waterloo, Canada
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ampang, Malaysia
Odessa, Ukraine
San Jose, Costa Rica
Riga, Latvia
Vancouver, Canada
Roxas, Philippines
Medellin, Colombia
Sursee, Switzerland
Cape Town, South Africa
Manila, Philippines
Melbourne, Australia
Pristina Kosovo
Khulna, Bangladesh
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Mogadishu, Somalia
Klang, Malaysia
Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Johannesburg, South Africa
And we were real popular in Turkey today with readers in Ankara, Istanbul, Sisli, Burdur, Diyarbakir and Konya
We would also like to welcome our newest readers in the country of Somalia.
Somalia
Somalia
***
Don't forget to visit our sister blog!
Today in History
“Glitch” wipes out 1,000 early votes in black FL neighborhood
First they said “computer glitch,” now it’s “human error.” Uh huh. Always at the minority polling places.
At first, polling officials blamed it on a “computer glitch.” Uh huh. And what glitch would that be?
The local supervisor of elections (SOE) didn’t inspire a lot of hope when speaking about another, smaller, change to the early voting numbers at another polling location:
The Grio followed up on the story the next day, Tuesday of this week, and got a different answer about the 1,000 vote discrepancy: now they’re saying “human error.”
And why is it always Florida? Why always in a heavily Democratic precinct, and why do the errors always help the other guy? Remember that Florida is already dealing with a widespread repugican voter fraud scandal. From my earlier post of a month ago:
Always Florida
There was a story over at NBC’s The Grio three days ago noting that
at one Florida polling location, in a heavily black neighborhood, the
number of people who voted early was suddenly “revised” from 2,945 to
1,942 – that’s a 34% decrease.At first, polling officials blamed it on a “computer glitch.” Uh huh. And what glitch would that be?
The local supervisor of elections (SOE) didn’t inspire a lot of hope when speaking about another, smaller, change to the early voting numbers at another polling location:
He transposed the numbers by hand? And this is how Florida tallies votes?Broward SOE spokesperson Mary Cooney acknowledged that the Sunday totals were revised, and said she would look into why.
“I can’t tell you definitively now,” Cooney said, “but I queried the person who posts those numbers and the most significant number he told me he changed was an instance where 1050 should have been 1150 — the numbers were transposed.”
The Grio followed up on the story the next day, Tuesday of this week, and got a different answer about the 1,000 vote discrepancy: now they’re saying “human error.”
The SOE chief says the changes, particularly at a polling place in a predominantly black neighborhood where National Action Network chief and MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton and a group of pastors held “souls to the polls” rallies over the weekend, were the result of human error.In the future, they’re only going to report the electronic result, which still begs the question of which result is really correct, and what else do they do that might result in human error? Not to mention, why did they first say it was a computer glitch?
In a telephone interview with theGrio late Monday, Snipes said the SOE’s office runs two tallies — one manually calculated at the precincts by adding up the total number of voters swiped through an electronic voter identification system called EVID, which was purchased from a Florida vendor, and a second, electronic tally conducted at the Supervisor of Elections office after the polls close each day. The electronic numbers go directly to a database. Snipes said the woman who tallied the votes at the E. Pat Larkins Community Center, which had its vote tally revised downward by 1,003, simply added the numbers incorrectly.
“The woman made a mistake,” Snipes said. “That was absolutely an addition error. The actual numbers are 1942 not 2945, so she made an addition error.”
And why is it always Florida? Why always in a heavily Democratic precinct, and why do the errors always help the other guy? Remember that Florida is already dealing with a widespread repugican voter fraud scandal. From my earlier post of a month ago:
We reported last night that a firm doing business with the national repugican cabal and the Romney campaign was being investigated for voter fraud. The firm has done $2.9 million in business with the repugican national cabal this year alone, and another firm run by the same did $80,000 in work for Romney.
And, as I said last night, harkening back to all the faux outrage from repugicans claiming that ACORN was trying to steal the election: “repugicans accuse us of doing what they are, and we’re not.” AP has more:
What first appeared to be an isolated problem in one Florida county has now spread statewide, with election officials in at least seven counties informing prosecutors or state election officials about questionable voter registration forms filled out on behalf of the repugican cabal of Florida.Lux said there have been forms that listed dead people and were either incomplete or illegible. He met with local prosecutors on Friday, but added that his staff was still going through hundreds of forms dropped off by Strategic employees.
Lux, who is a repugican, said he warned local party officials earlier this month when he first learned the company was paying people to register voters.
“I told them ‘This is not going to end well,’” Lux said.
Always Florida.
Gingrich email: Obama’s gonna win
Ouch.Then again, Paul Ryan is also looking for another job.
Yesterday, an email was sent out to the Gingrich email list informing people that Obama was going to win and that it was time to start looking at 2016. Buh bye, Mittens!
Yesterday, an email was sent out to the Gingrich email list informing people that Obama was going to win and that it was time to start looking at 2016. Buh bye, Mittens!
I think a lot of Republicans are writing their “why Mittens lost” emails today. And a lot of Romney staffers are writing their resumes. But rest assured the 1% Romney staffers will get another huge bonus after they lose.The email, titled “What’s really at stake this Tuesday …” came from Gingrich Marketplace and went out to people who’d given their contact information to the Gingrich campaign when the former speaker of the House was still in the presidential race. Bygone candidates, such as Gingrich and Herman Cain, regularly rent out their email address lists to advertisers.“The truth is, the next election has already been decided. Obama is going to win. It’s nearly impossible to beat an incumbent president,” advertiser Porter Stansberry wrote in the email to Gingrich supporters. “What’s actually at stake right now is whether or not he will have a third-term.”
New York Mayor Bloomberg endorses Obama
Both candidates had eagerly sought the nod from Bloomberg,
who didn't endorse a presidential candidate in 2008 and has publicly
grumbled about both Obama and Romney. But Bloomberg said the possibility
that Sandy resulted from climate change had made the stakes of the
election that much clearer.
"We need leadership from the White
House, and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken
major steps to reduce our carbon consumption," Bloomberg wrote in an
online opinion piece.A full-throated stamp of approval this was not. Even as he pledged to cast his vote for Obama's re-election, Bloomberg faulted the president for discounting centrists, trading in divisive, partisan attacks and failing to make progress on issues like gun control, immigration and the federal deficit.
The
billionaire businessman and former Republican also praised Romney as a
good man who would bring valuable business experience to the White House
but said Romney had reversed course on issues like health care and
abortion. "If the 1994 or 2003 version of Mitt Romney were running for president, I may well have voted for him," he said.
Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Fort Dodge, Iowa, said the essence of Bloomberg's endorsement was that "we've got to work together."
"We got to stop this blue, red — I mean we're a purple nation, man," Biden said.Bloomberg's endorsement could have the effect of injecting climate change and the environment into the national conversation just five days before the end of a campaign where both topics have been virtually absent.
"Our climate is changing," Bloomberg said. "And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be — given this week's devastation — should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."
To the dismay of environmental activists, climate change never came up during any of the three presidential debates and has been all but absent throughout the rest of the campaign. When Romney invoked the environment in his August speech accepting the Republican nomination, it was to mock his rival for making the issue a priority.
"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet," Romney said. "My promise is to help you and your family."
In
his first term, Obama was unable to push limits on carbon emissions
through a Democratic Congress and shelved plans to toughen smog
standards. But he landed other historic achievements, including an
increase in fuel-economy standards and the first regulations on
heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
Romney,
who has expressed doubts about the cause of climate change and charged
Obama with punishing coal-fired power plants, wants clear air and water
laws amended to balance environmental benefits with economic concerns.
Bloomberg,
whose last presidential endorsement was for Republican President George
W. Bush's re-election in 2004, has been a persistent advocate for
policies intended to combat climate change and had previously faulted
both Obama and Romney for failing to offer solutions for gun violence.
Romney
advisers, asked about the endorsement, dismissed it as inconsequential
and suggested it would have no bearing on the race outside of New York
City.
Although Obama's campaign has long expected to win New York
by a wide margin, independents like Bloomberg hold the key to his
second term in battleground states across the country. Obama welcomed
the endorsement, pledging in a statement to continue to stand with New
York in its time of need.
"While
we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the
most important issues of our time — that the key to a strong economy is
investing in the skills and education of our people, that immigration
reform is essential to an open and dynamic democracy and that climate
change is a threat to our children's future, and we owe it to them to do
something about it," Obama said.
Business Abandons Romney as Bloomberg and The Economist Endorse Obama
The Mayor of New York and the founder/majority owner of Bloomberg News endorsed Obama today. Bloomberg said if the old Mitt Romney were running, he might have voted for him. But given Romney’s tack to the right, Bloomberg is endorsing the President for a second term. He concluded, “If he (Obama) listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours. And that’s why I will be voting for him.”
Bloomberg wrote:
“When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there. The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America.
One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.
One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history.
One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics.”
President Obama responded by saying, “I’m honored to have Mayor Bloomberg’s endorsement. I deeply respect him for his leadership in business, philanthropy and government, and appreciate the extraordinary job he’s doing right now, leading New York City through these difficult days.
“While we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the most important issues of our time – that the key to a strong economy is investing in the skills and education of our people, that immigration reform is essential to an open and dynamic democracy, and that climate change is a threat to our children’s future, and we owe it to them to do something about it. Just as importantly, we agree that whether we are Democrats, Republicans, or independents, there is only one way to solve these challenges and move forward as a nation – together. I look forward to thanking him in person – but for now, he has my continued commitment that this country will stand by New York in its time of need. And New Yorkers have my word that we will recover, we will rebuild, and we will come back stronger.”
The Economist endorsed Obama saying, “America could do better than Barack Obama; sadly, Mitt Romney does not fit the bill.” Yes, not exactly a ringing endorsement, but then that speaks volumes about Mitt Romney.
They say Obama’s foreign policy could be better, but “Mr Obama has been a safe pair of hands.” They cite his healthcare achievement in addition to their view that his foreign policy is an achievement after spending the entire paragraph citing what’s wrong with it, “Even to a newspaper with no love for big government, the fact that over 40m people had no health coverage in a country as rich as America was a scandal. ‘Obamacare’ will correct that, but Mr Obama did very little to deal with the system’s other flaw—its huge and unaffordable costs.”
They are very unhappy with Obama’s surrender to “left-wing Democrats” — a charge the left would take issue with. They then go on about their doubts, leaving the reader with the impression that they would endorse anyone but Obama. They seem resentful of Obama’s attitudes toward business and capitalism (leaving one with the idea that they watch too much Fox News). They feel Obama has spent his entire campaign attacking business. I say learn to read; Obama didn’t attack business, he attacked greed and failure to pay taxes. But hey. They really can’t stand Obama.
And yet, they can’t endorse Mitt Romney. They write, “Many a Mitt makes a muddle.” Romney’s foreign policy terrifies them (so they are awake). The Economist writes, “But Mr Romney seems too ready to bomb Iran, too uncritically supportive of Israel and cruelly wrong in his belief in “the Palestinians not wanting to see peace”. The bellicosity could start on the first day of his presidency, when he has vowed to list China as a currency manipulator—a pointless provocation to its new leadership that could easily degenerate into a trade war.”
Romney’s math is a problem for The Economist, “Yet far from being the voice of fiscal prudence, Mr Romney wants to start with huge tax cuts (which will disproportionately favour the wealthy), while dramatically increasing defence spending. Together those measures would add $7 trillion to the ten-year deficit.” Here they praise Obama for getting it and shame Romney for being in “the cloud-cuckoo-land of thinking you can do it entirely through spending cuts.” They say that backing business is important, but first you better get macroeconomics. Ouch.
The Economist counts Romney’s tack to the right as his biggest detriment, “(T)he extremism of his party is Mr Romney’s greatest handicap.” And ultimately they decide to go with the “devil we know.”
So, basically, they think Obama is the devil but he is a better devil than wildly right wing Romney who doesn’t even get macroeconomics and whose foreign policy is a threat that could lead immediately to a trade war.
Romney had to stink pretty badly for The Economist to come to this.
Mitt Romney has now managed to lose the one constituency he was supposed to have locked up, even as he fought for the evangelicals and Tea Party of his own base. Forget winning Independents, Romney is losing the business community. Meanwhile, the economic data is showing steady signs of modest improvement.
Romney’s horizontal fibbing on oil drilling
In his campaign speeches yesterday, Mitt Romney was promising that
the new technology of “horizontal drilling” would open up new reserves
of oil and gas, and allow the US to become energy independent.Like most Romney “facts,” it isn’t true in any meaningful sense of ‘truth’.
The fact is that drilling sideways rather than straight up and down has been going on since the 1920s, when it was the subject of lawsuits as drillers were accused of stealing oil from other people’s land. Horizontal drilling was also at the center of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Iraq was upset that the Kuwaiti wells were taking oil from their land.
There have been recent developments that have improved this
technology — notably, “fracking,” which has made gas reserves available
(but not without environmental costs). But these are incremental
improvements in technology rather than radical technologies that will
solve US energy problems at a stroke. As with every extractive industry,
the oil and gas industry are forced to innovate just to maintain
current production. The resources that are easy to reach are extracted
first, what’s left is anything but easy.
As Obama pointed out, the US has 2% of proven oil reserves but consumes 20% of global production. The idea that the US can become energy independent, without conservation and a major expansion in renewables, is a fantasy and a lie.
The fact is that drilling sideways rather than straight up and down has been going on since the 1920s, when it was the subject of lawsuits as drillers were accused of stealing oil from other people’s land. Horizontal drilling was also at the center of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Iraq was upset that the Kuwaiti wells were taking oil from their land.
As Obama pointed out, the US has 2% of proven oil reserves but consumes 20% of global production. The idea that the US can become energy independent, without conservation and a major expansion in renewables, is a fantasy and a lie.
Romney offends another ally: Italy
Mitt Romney has offended yet another important US ally, this time Italy.We learn via AGI,
one of the top Italian wire services, that Romney, while speaking
yesterday in Roanoke, Virginia had a few choice words for Italy:
Now remember, this isn’t the first time Romney has insulted an important US ally.
Here are several of the front pages from a number of the top Italian papers :
Speaking at an campaign rally in Roanoke, Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, took aim at President Obama by citing Greece, Italy and Spain as examples of countries that the U.S. will end up like:HuffPo reports that the Italians were ticked, and boy are they. I went around and looked at the top Italian papers, and almost all of them have given Romney’s attack on Italy front-page billing. I speak Italian, almost all of them quote Romney saying “With Obama, we will become like Italy.” A number of them also used a nasty photo of Romney I’d not seen before.
“If you are a big company and are thinking of making a large investment, you have to ask yourself, ‘Is America going down the same road as Greece?’ Are we heading for a great economic crisis like the ones we are seeing in Europe, Italy and Spain, and in other parts of the world?’ If we continue to spend $1 trillion more than we take in, America will find itself on that same road.”
Now remember, this isn’t the first time Romney has insulted an important US ally.
Romney’s poor management skills weren’t a gaffe, they’re a feature.And now we welcome the Italians to the wreckage of foreign relationships that is Hurricane Romney.
Look at his foreign trip. His big chance to prove himself on the world stage. What did Romney do? He offended the British, insulted both the Israelis and the Palestinians, and then desecrated a Polish holy site for good measure. By the time his trip was finished, all three countries were ready for Romney to self-deport asap.
Here are several of the front pages from a number of the top Italian papers :
Corriere della Sera
Il Giornale
Il Messaggero
La Repubblica
La Stampa
ANSA
ADN
Il Gazzettino
Il Resto del Carlino
Il Secolo XIX
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The Daily Drift
A bygone era
Some of our readers today have been in:
Alexandria, Egypt
Ankara, Turkey
Sursee, Switzerland
Angeles City, Philippines
Riga, Latvia
Imphal, India
Manila, Philippines
Durres, Albania
Odessa, Ukraine
Lodz, Poland
Roxas, Philippines
Lahore, Pakistan
Mogadishu, Somalia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mugla, Turkey
Klang, Malaysia
Cape Coast, Ghana
Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Athens, Greece
Sampaloc, Philippines
Canberra, Australia
Cape Town, South Africa
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Kiev, Ukraine
Berlin, Germany
Today in History
| 79 | The city of Pompeii is buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. | |
| 1512 | Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is exhibited for the first time. | |
| 1582 | Maurice of Nassau, the son of William of Orange, becomes the governor of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. | |
| 1755 | A great earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal, kills over 50,000 people. | |
| 1765 | The Stamp Act goes into effect in the British colonies. | |
| 1861 | Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, 50 year-veteran and leader of the U.S. Army at the onset of the Civil War, retires. General George McClellan is appointed general-in-chief of the Union armies. | |
| 1866 | Wild woman of the west Myra Maybelle Shirley marries James C. Reed in Collins County, Texas. | |
| 1869 | Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion. | |
| 1911 | Italian planes perform the first aerial bombing on Tanguira oasis in Libya. | |
| 1923 | Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company buys the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles. | |
| 1924 | Legendary Oklahoma marshal Bill Tilghman, 71, is gunned down by a drunk in Cromwell, Oklahoma. | |
| 1936 | Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini announces the Rome-Berlin axis after Count Ciano's visit to Germany. | |
| 1936 | The Rodeo Cowboy's Association is founded. | |
| 1943 | American troops invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. | |
| 1945 | John H. Johnson publishes the first issue of Ebony magazine. | |
| 1950 | Two members of a Puerto Rican nationalist movement attempt to assassinate President Harry S Truman. | |
| 1951 | Algerian National Liberation Front begins guerrilla warfare against the French. | |
| 1967 | The first issue of Rolling Stone hits the streets. | |
| 1968 | President Lyndon B. Johnson calls a halt to bombing in Vietnam, hoping this will lead to progress at the Paris peace talks. |
This Explains LA Drivers
Have you heard the one about the blind man who walked into the
Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Monica, took an eye test
and left with a new driver's license?OK, that's not 100% accurate. He didn't walk out with his new license; it arrived in the mail two weeks later.
The man, 72-year-old Mark Overland of Pacific Palisades, is legally blind, with 94% of his vision gone. When Overland first told me about his adventure, he said he didn't want anyone at the DMV to lose a job over this. But he felt like it was worth speaking up.
"I have concluded that changes need to be made in the DMV vision testing process," he said with graceful understatement.
Overland is a lawyer, and his concern about elderly and impaired drivers has a history to it. He was the defense attorney for George Russell Weller, the 86-year-old man who plowed through the Santa Monica Farmers' Market in 2003, leaving 10 people dead and 68 injured. Russell, who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter but didn't serve time because of failing health, said he had accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes.
Handling the case made Overland give some thought to whether there should be stricter screening of drivers with health- or age-related problems.
"I see people getting into cars who have no business driving," Overland said. He gave the example of an elderly gent he saw inching along with a walker at the Bel-Air Bay Club. "He got into a big Buick and drove away."
Sometimes age has nothing to do with it. Reckless drivers can be young, old and in between.
But my Dad was one of those guys who could barely walk and still insisted on driving. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, he claimed he was a better driver than 90% of the other people out there. I understood that he wanted to hold on to a degree of independence as his limitations mounted, but we were saved from having to pry the keys out of his hands only by his becoming so ill that driving was no longer a consideration.
Overland gave up driving 15 years ago because of his deteriorating vision. But he kept renewing his license by mail for the sake of having a valid ID. Five years ago, when he got a license renewal form, he noticed a portion that asked if he had any visual impairment that would affect his driving.
"I checked off 'yes.'"
The next line asked what that might be, and Overland wrote "retinitis pigmentosa." That's a progressive condition in which peripheral vision is lost. Overland has a narrow tunnel of vision, and can see pretty well within that field. But anything to the right or left, up or down, is lost to him. He was more than a little surprised then to get his license in the mail a couple of weeks later.
When Overland got his latest renewal notice a month ago, it instructed him to go to a DMV office for a written test and eye exam. He was curious to see what would happen if he didn't mention his disability, so he went to the DMV on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, with his daughter Courtney doing the driving. Overland thought briefly about entering the office with his white cane, but decided against it, and Courtney instead served as his guide.
Overland was called to the counter by a clerk and told to read the eye chart on the back wall.
"I'm looking around, and I can't find it because it's not in my line of vision," Overland said.
He located it quickly enough and was able to read most of the letters, but not all of them. The clerk then had him peer into a machine for another eye test. Overland began to read, but Courtney watched the clerk scrunch his face and ask her Dad:
"Sir, what are you reading?"
Overland was looking at something other than the eye chart, which he hadn't yet located. Redirecting his line of vision, he found the chart and did well enough to pass. He later aced the written test, left the building at his daughter's side, and his new license arrived in the mail two weeks later.
When I checked with the DMV, I found that anyone with retinitis pigmentosa is required to take a driving test, and if you fail, your license is revoked. DMV spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez couldn't say why Overland wasn't ordered to take a test five years ago, when he wrote his condition on his renewal form.
She did say that in 2011, nearly 41,000 people were required to prove their ability to drive after concerns about their driving were reported by police, doctors, friends, neighbors or loved ones. The reasons cited included dementia, physical disabilities, vision loss, impairment due to alcohol or drugs, and just plain lousy driving. In the end, 38,256 of those reported last year had their licenses suspended or revoked.
Now that he's told his story, Mark Overland may be the next Californian to lose his license, but if his candor prevents an accident, he won't mind. If you know someone who may be an unsafe driver, you can anonymously make a request for a re-examination that is handled in confidence. The DMV may ask the driver for medical records, check with a doctor or require a driving test.
For more information, go to http://www.dmv.ca.gov and write "unsafe driver" in the search field.
Halloween-colored lobster caught off Massechusetts coast
The New England Aquarium says the 1-pound female lobster has an
orange side and a black side, with the colors split perfectly down the
middle.More
Gore, Bloomberg, Cuomo: Hurricane Sandy impacted by Climate Change
Democrats are talking climate change following Hurricane Sandy, but the repugican cabal remains gleefully ignorant.
While New York repugican mayor Bloomberg has at least mentioned the words “climate change,” he’s an unusual exception in today’s repugican cabal.For the rest of the repugican cabal, climate change doesn’t exist, and mentioning it will only hurt your chances of getting on Faux News.
The hard reality – whether the repugican cabal wants to admit it or not – is that climate change is having an impact on today’s weather. Even if we change our ways today, it will take a very long to have a positive impact. Making jokes about the dire situation, as repugicans do, is a disservice to the country and a slap in the face to the scientific community that has been raising the issue for years, including specific concerns about New York.
The repugicans don’t have to like Al Gore, but they certainly have to admit that he was right. But they won’t.
Former Vice President Al Gore warned in a blog post today that Hurricane Sandy is a “disturbing sign of things to come” if the world doesn’t quit “dirty energy.”More from Bloomberg and Cuomo:
At 1:21 p.m. ET, with large swaths of the Northeast still swimming in the storm’s mess, the Current TV founder and environmental activist published a statement asking the public to “heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis.”
“What’s clear is that the storms that we’ve experienced in the last year or so around this country and around the world are much more severe than before,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a briefing today. “Whether that’s global warming or what, I don’t know. But we’ll have to address those issues.”
N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an early favorite in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, expressed similar concerns, quipping that New Yorkers “have a 100-year flood every two years now.”
What makes wind?
It can be a nice breeze, or a destructive storm, but either way wind is just moving air. And moving air is just moving molecules.
In an explainer for kids that's actually pretty helpful for grown-ups, too, Matt Shipman reminds us that the air around us isn't totally weightless. It weighs something, because molecules all weigh something:
They don't weigh very much (you couldn't put one on your bathroom scale), but their weight adds up, because there are a LOT of molecules in the air that makes up our atmosphere. All of that air is actually pretty heavy, so the air at the bottom of the atmosphere (like the air just above the ground) is getting pressed on by all of the air above it. That pressure pushes the air molecules at the bottom of the atmosphere a lot closer together than the air molecules at the top of the atmosphere.
And, because the air at the top of the atmosphere is pushing down on the air at the bottom of the atmosphere, the air molecules at the bottom REALLY want to spread out. So if there is an area where the air molecules are under high pressure (with a lot of weight pushing down), the air will spread out into areas that are under lower pressure (with less weight pushing down).
Stars ancient and modern?
This colorful view of the globular star cluster NGC 6362 was captured by the Wide Field Imager attached to the ...Illiterate kids given sealed boxes with tablets figure out how to use, master, and hack them
Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child presentation at the MIT Tech
Review EmTech conference recounted an inspiring experiment in which
illiterate Ethiopian village-kids were given solar-charging laptops in
sealed boxes, and quickly taught themselves how to operate, then master,
then hack, these devices, acquiring basic literacy and technological
literacy at the same time.
MIT Technology Review's David Talbot reports in a piece reprinted on Mashable.com:
The experiment is being done in two isolated rural villages with about 20 first-grade-aged children each, about 50 miles from Addis Ababa. One village is called Wonchi, on the rim of a volcanic crater at 11,000 feet; the other is called Wolonchete, in the Rift Valley. Children there had never previously seen printed materials, road signs, or even packaging that had words on them, Negroponte said.Given Tablets But No Teachers, Ethiopian Kids Teach Themselves
Earlier this year, OLPC workers dropped off closed boxes containing the tablets, taped shut, with no instruction. “I thought the kids would play with the boxes. Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android,” Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked Android.”
Elaborating later on Negroponte’s hacking comment, Ed McNierney, OLPC’s chief technology officer, said that the kids had gotten around OLPC’s effort to freeze desktop settings. “The kids had completely customized the desktop—so every kids’ tablet looked different. We had installed software to prevent them from doing that,” McNierney said. “And the fact they worked around it was clearly the kind of creativity, the kind of inquiry, the kind of discovery that we think is essential to learning.”
“If they can learn to read, then they can read to learn.”
In an interview after his talk, Negroponte said that while the early results are promising, reaching conclusions about whether children could learn to read this way would require more time. “If it gets funded, it would need to continue for another a year and a half to two years to come to a conclusion that the scientific community would accept,” Negroponte said. “We’d have to start with a new village and make a clean start.”
MPAA tells court that Megaupload users shouldn't be allowed access to their own files
U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Virginia has scheduled a hearing to
adjudicate a claim from Kyle Goodwin, a sports videographer in Ohio
whose videos have been lost since the illegal raids in May on
Megaupload, a file-locker service. The MPAA has asked to participate in
the hearing in order to object, in principle, to the idea that the
millions of Megaupload users who've had their files seized in the raid.
More from CNet's Declan McCullagh:
The MPAA said today that while it takes no position on Goodwin's request to have his own copyrighted videos returned, it wants to participate in the hearing to describe "the overwhelming amount of infringement of the MPAA members' copyrighted work on MegaUpload." (The MPAA's six members are Paramount Pictures Corporation, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., and Warner Bros. Entertainment.)MPAA: Don't let MegaUpload users access their data
To those Hollywood studios, MegaUpload and its flamboyant founder Kim Dotcom represent the darkest elements of Internet file-sharing. MPAA chairman Chris Dodd has dubbed it "the largest and most active criminally operated website" in the world, and MPAA vice president Michael P. O'Leary claims it's one of the most popular Internet sites "for streaming and downloading illicit copies."
"It makes little sense for the MPAA, or MegaUpload, or Carpathia, or even the government -- despite its actions otherwise -- to prevent third parties access to their legal property," Julie Samuels, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNET this afternoon. "Not only does it harm those individual third parties, but it negatively impacts all cloud storage providers and customers, who, in order for the technology to work, need to be able to rely on access."
Celebratory gunfire leaves 25 dead at Saudi wedding
At least 25 people have died and 30 others were hurt in a fire at a
wedding in eastern Saudi Arabia, officials say. Hundreds were inside the
courtyard of a home in the village of Ain Badr, in the Abqaiq region,
when the blaze began.
A high-voltage power line reportedly fell down and sent sparks flying after it was hit by celebratory gunfire. The power line is also believed to have touched a metal door at the only exit from the courtyard, causing the electrocution of many of the victims. Most of those killed and injured are reported to have been women.
Civil Defence chief Gen Abdullah Khsheiman as said a women-only marquee was set on fire. Women are separated from men at weddings in Saudi Arabia in line with the kingdom's strict rules on gender segregation. Survivors have been taken to the Aramco and Central Abqaiq hospitals.
Civil Defence spokesman Col Mohammed al-Ajami said the governor of Eastern Province, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, had ordered the authorities to investigate the incident. The Saudi authorities last month banned the shooting of firearms at weddings - a popular tradition in tribal areas of the kingdom. In July 1999, 76 people died in a similar incident in Eastern Province.
A high-voltage power line reportedly fell down and sent sparks flying after it was hit by celebratory gunfire. The power line is also believed to have touched a metal door at the only exit from the courtyard, causing the electrocution of many of the victims. Most of those killed and injured are reported to have been women.
Civil Defence chief Gen Abdullah Khsheiman as said a women-only marquee was set on fire. Women are separated from men at weddings in Saudi Arabia in line with the kingdom's strict rules on gender segregation. Survivors have been taken to the Aramco and Central Abqaiq hospitals.
Civil Defence spokesman Col Mohammed al-Ajami said the governor of Eastern Province, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, had ordered the authorities to investigate the incident. The Saudi authorities last month banned the shooting of firearms at weddings - a popular tradition in tribal areas of the kingdom. In July 1999, 76 people died in a similar incident in Eastern Province.
Would-be smugglers left Jeep on top of fence
Two would-be smugglers attempting to drive into Arizona from Mexico hit a
roadblock when their Jeep got stuck on the border fence just after
midnight on Tuesday. US Border Patrol agents from Yuma Sector's Yuma
station foiled the smuggling attempt when agents came across a silver
Jeep Cherokee that had become "high centered" at the top of a make-shift
ramp.
Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Enrique Zarate said that agents have seen this type of activity in the Yuma Sector before, but that it is one of the more creative attempts. The two suspects fled into Mexico just as agents patrolling the Imperial Sand Dunes area arrived at the scene.
The incident is currently under investigation. US Border Patrol seized both the Jeep and ramp equipment after removing the car from the approximately 14-foot-high fence. According to Zarate, Jeeps have been known to smuggle anything from narcotics to humans near the Yuma Sector.
He said at this time it is not clear what the Jeep was carrying, but that "anything that fits would be fair game for smuggling purposes." "We [US Border Patrol] want to let the American public know that this isn't the first smuggling attempt we've stopped, and that we are out here 24/7 making sure the American border is secure," Zarate said.
Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Enrique Zarate said that agents have seen this type of activity in the Yuma Sector before, but that it is one of the more creative attempts. The two suspects fled into Mexico just as agents patrolling the Imperial Sand Dunes area arrived at the scene.
The incident is currently under investigation. US Border Patrol seized both the Jeep and ramp equipment after removing the car from the approximately 14-foot-high fence. According to Zarate, Jeeps have been known to smuggle anything from narcotics to humans near the Yuma Sector.
He said at this time it is not clear what the Jeep was carrying, but that "anything that fits would be fair game for smuggling purposes." "We [US Border Patrol] want to let the American public know that this isn't the first smuggling attempt we've stopped, and that we are out here 24/7 making sure the American border is secure," Zarate said.
Dutch government scraps "weed cards" - foreigners will still be able to smoke weed in Amsterdam's "coffee shops"
The new Dutch government has scrapped plans to issue "weed passes" to
permanent Dutch residents, and require these passes in order to purchase
cannabis products in Amsterdam's famed marijuana "coffee shops." Other
cities will be free to ban foreigners from their own cannabis coffee
shops, should they choose, but the national government will not impose
this upon them.
Top medical innovations treat headaches, diabetes
by Debra Sherman
The best medical innovations for next year include an almond-size
device implanted in the mouth to relieve severe headaches and a handheld
scanner resembling a blow dryer that detects skin cancer, the Cleveland Clinic said on Wednesday.
The clinic's annual
list of the best medical innovations for 2013 includes better
mammography technology and new drugs to treat advanced prostate cancer.
Leading the 2013
list for innovations is an old procedure that has a new use due to
findings in a recent study. Physicians and researchers at the clinic
voted weight-loss surgery as the top medical innovation, not for its
effectiveness in reducing obesity, but for its ability to control Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.
Over the years, bariatric surgeons noticed that the
procedure would often rid obese patients of Type 2 diabetes before they
even left the hospital.Dr. Philip Schauer, head of the Cleveland Clinic's Bariatric and Metabolic Institute, led a study examining this phenomenon, and the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published the results earlier this year.
"Bariatric surgery has been around for a while," Cleveland Clinic Chief Wellness Officer Dr. Michael Roizen said in an interview. "The reason it was chosen as the top innovation is because Medicare
has broadened its indication for payment, and Medicaid in many states
follows Medicare. A lot of the other (private) insurance companies
started covering it, so it's much more accessible."
The criteria that insurers use to cover the surgery has
been broadened because of its effectiveness in controlling Type 2
diabetes, he said.The number of people affected by diabetes has tripled over the past 30 years to more than 20 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90 percent of those cases are Type 2, a condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin.
Doctors and researchers at the Cleveland Clinic voted for what they thought were the biggest, most significant innovations from the 250 ideas submitted from their colleagues. Roizen said one of the main criteria for getting on the list is the number of people that the product or procedure can potentially help.
For that reason, a device that helps relieve headaches, the second-most common ailment after the cold, was second on the clinic's list.
The miniaturized device - invented at the Cleveland Clinic and spun off into a separate, private company called Autonomic Technologies Inc - is implanted in the upper gum above the second molar to treat cluster and migraine headaches. A lead tip of the implant is placed near specific nerves behind the bridge of the nose.
When the patient feels the headache coming on, a remote control device is placed on the outside of the cheek, and the device delivers stimulation to those nerves, blocking pain.
The implant is available in Europe, but not in the United States. The company needs to do more studies to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Frank Papay, department chair of the clinic's Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute and a consultant to Autonomic Technologies.
A handheld device used to detect melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, was also on the list.
"Up until now, we've counted on our eyes," Dr. Allison Vidimos,
who chairs the clinic's dermatology department, told Reuters. "This
device offers an objective look underneath the skin using a special
spectrum of light."
It compares moles and other marks on the patient's skin
with a large database containing information on all types of melanoma.
It also rates the risk."All dermatologists fear missing melanomas," Vidimos said. "The cure rate can be close to 100 percent if caught early."
Vidimos said using a device, manufactured by Mela Sciences Inc and approved by FDA last year for use by trained dermatologists, helped prevent unnecessary biopsies. The Mela scanner is also approved in Europe.
Verisante Technology Inc also makes a scanning device, which is approved in Canada, Europe and Australia. It has applied for U.S. approval, the company said.
Also on the list is a new type of mammography, called breast tomosynthesis. This technology provides greater detail of the image than the standard mammography, which renders a two-dimensional image.
For the patient, it may seem like there's no difference. "You still have the squish," said Dr. Alice Rim, the Cleveland Clinic's section head of diagnostic radiology. But the images produced by the new technology show the breast in slices, for more visible detail.
"With two-dimensional mammography, there are shadows, so it can be like a polar bear running around in a snowstorm," Rim said. "This eliminates the shadows, allowing increased detection and fewer call backs (for a second mammography)."
Other devices that
made the list include mass spectrometry that allows microbiology
laboratories to identify the type of bacteria in infections sooner and
with more specificity, a new modular stent graft to treat complex aortic
aneurysms, and a laser for cataract surgery.
Novel drugs to
treat advanced prostate cancer were on the clinic's list because of
their ability to halt the progress of the disease by blocking
testosterone receptors.
A new technique to
repair and regenerate damaged lungs, called ex vivo lung perfusion, is
on the list. Experts say as many as 40 percent of previously rejected
donor lungs may now be suitable for transplantation after undergoing
this novel "lung washing."
The procedure
involves placing donor lungs into a bubble-like chamber connected to a
cardiopulmonary pump and ventilator. Over four to six hours, the lungs
are repaired as special fluids are forced through the blood vessels.
Nutrients are used to recondition the lungs as they inflate and deflate.
The final item on
the list is neither a procedure, a drug nor a device, but healthcare
programs that use incentives to encourage people to take better care of
themselves.
For example, the
Medicare Better Health Rewards Program Act of 2012 provides incentive
payments to Medicare participants who voluntarily establish and maintain
better health.
"We are seeing
efforts to avoid rationing of healthcare and seeing programs with
incentives built in if people maintain their health," Roizen said. "This
can radically change the cost of care.
"We're seeing this
more in big companies, the GE's and J&J's of the world. All
companies are looking at how much they are spending on healthcare, and
they are looking at ways they can reduce spending without rationing."
Everyone in the pool! Water workouts just as good as on land
Biking, running and walking are all good for you. But the strain can be tough if you’re overweight, have arthritis ...How Much Caffeine Would It Take To Kill You?
The Top 10 Mistakes Of Beginning Photographers
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