Ted Nugent Calls Obama a Chimpanzee and Subhuman Mongrel

Nugent said, "The gun debate is about good people having the individual right from god, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, to stop evil people.

My father, as I have related here on other occasions, was a racist. He didn’t much like Jews and he didn’t like blacks – but I can say this for him: he equally loathed what he called “white trash.” He taught us kids that there were different classes of people, white trash being, to his mind, the lowest of the low. I think he saw them as an embarrassment to that nebulous and often changing state of being called “white.” This “class” idea went contrary to my early egalitarian spirit, but in time, as I got out in the world and began to experience things for myself, I began to believe he might be right about that much at least. In his mind, these classifications of people were based not on birth or genetics but on upbringing and behavior. A person revealed himself in how he acted. I remember many profanity-laden “discourses” on the subject.
I do believe he thought people could “improve” themselves, though being a cynic, he probably considered such instances unlikely. Having grown up abandoned to an orphanage, he came by his cynicism honestly and I suspect now that he saw himself as evidence of this potential for upward mobility. And he did indeed change and even soften in some of his outlooks in time.
I would now go farther, and perhaps regress myself: I think Ted Nugent, who the other day in an interview with Guns.com (where else?), called President Barack Obama a “chimpanzee” and “subhuman mongrel,” actually proves my father’s point about classes of human beings.
See what you think:

I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America. I think America will be America again when Barack Obama, [Attorney General] Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, [Sen.] Dick Durbin, [former New York City Mayor] Michael Bloomberg and all of the liberal Democrats are in jail facing the just due punishment that their treasonous acts are clearly apparent.

Ted Nugent cannot, of course, point to any actual treasonous activities by the president, and there are, I believe, good reasons for this. Rather than simply dismiss Nugent as the douche he no doubt is, I would like to talk about these.
Cicero said “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Ted Nugent is deficient on a number of levels. His education, for one. Now, while I understand we are all to some extent victims of our flawed educational system, which is more or less better or worse depending on the luck of the draw, a person can always overcome that deficit through reading, and, more importantly, thinking about what he has heard and read. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Ted Nugent might know that if he had heard of Socrates, but I find that unlikely because Ted Nugent quite clearly doesn’t care for being educated. If he did, he would not be so ignorant. In this day and age, there is simply no excuse for the levels of ignorance he demonstrates on an almost daily basis.
It’s breathtaking. Witness his answer to Guns.com’s request for Nugent to define himself:

The gun debate is about good people having the individual right from god, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, to stop evil people. If you find fault with that you’re on the side of the evil people — duh.

Duh. Indeed. This utterance at least explains how Nugent could think President Obama is guilty of treason.
I happen to think my third grader could do better. Not only does the Constitution not grant the right to people to “stop evil people,” it does not define who or what “evil people” might be. It grants, for the purposes of a well-ordered militia in the days before a standing army, the right to bear arms. Therefore, to the thinking of the Founding Fathers, an evil person is certainly not anyone who disagrees with you. Thus, while it is tempting, I cannot accuse Nugent of having the mentality of a third grader.
Perhaps not even a second grader. But his mentality and intellectual development is definitely childlike, and childish.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Achievement has no color.”
Nugent is also a bigot and a racist. Now, I should say here too that I was brought up to be both. I also overcame both. As I grew into adulthood, I started thinking for myself, always questioning my early, ingrained assumptions and preconceptions. Actually seeing and meeting and talking to people as opposed to simply being told about them by your parents, tends to have this effect on an open mind.
I came sooner rather than later to the belief that my parents were wrong on a number of levels, and this process of self improvement has continued all my life long. I am constantly having to re-adjust my thinking in light of new facts and I am proud of this fact. I can very much appreciate President Barack Obama’s emerging thoughts about marriage equality because if you’re worth the weight of your component parts, you will have experienced the same sort of evolution in thinking about the world around you. Change is not evil; it is good.
Nugent, quite clearly, has no more desire to overcome this moral deficit than he does his educational deficit. Unlike Socrates, he has not begun to examine his life. He is, to put it bluntly – as witnessed by his utterances in recent years – content to be a despicable and ignorant cracker, or “white trash” in my father’s words,. I could joke that perhaps the “Cat Scratch Fever” got to him, but this isn’t a joking matter, and I’m not willing to cut him the kind of slack that would make him a victim of circumstances beyond his control. No adult is a prisoner of his own ignorance. Nugent has it in his power to be a different person, a better person, but he chooses to be numbered among the dregs of society instead.
Anne Frank wrote, “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
I grew up very much admiring Anne Frank, but Anne Frank was wrong on this score. The Nazis were not really good at heart. Neither is Ted Nugent, who, in the essentials of his thinking, is only a haircut away from being a Nazi himself. But J.R.R. Tolkien was certainly right when he wrote, “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
It is people like Anne Frank who make it worth writing for and it is people like Ted Nugent we are fighting against. The only problem with fighting against the Ted Nugents of this world is that we are left with the disagreeable task of dealing with ignorant hicks like Ted Nugent and the people they inspire. We can’t ignore them; they won’t go away quietly if we do.
Nugent laments that he has “failed to galvanize and prod” but there are those who hang on his every word, because it excuses their own failings as human beings. Misery, as they say, loves company. So, too, apparently, does ignorance.

The repugicans Are Using Charter Schools To Inject Religion Into Public Schools

There is a concerted effort in repugican-controlled states to use sketchy and horribly underperforming charter schools to inject an unhealthy dose of religion into science …

A plague is a widespread affliction or calamity with pervasive and serious consequences for its victims, and is often associated with a sudden destructive influx or injurious outbreak. America is suffering a widespread calamitous affliction that is having serious consequences for its victims, innocent bystanders, children, and the future of the nation. The Founding Fathers foresaw the plague coming and prescribed a simple remedy that 21^st Century repugicans have ignored, rejected, and shredded in an attempt to infect every adult in America. Over the past few years, repugicans in states have focused their energy on using the public school system, and taxpayer dollars, to poison children’s’ minds with fallacy and mythology disguised as science, and besides creating a generation of imbeciles, they are shredding the Constitution while the courts, the federal government, and parents stay silent out of fear of breaking America’s cardinal rule; do not challenge christian theocrats.
There is a concerted effort in repugican-controlled states to use sketchy and horribly underperforming charter schools to inject an un healthy dose of religion into science and history classes using funding for public schools. The practice is already underway in Louisiana with Arkansas and Indiana closing in on Texas as states blatantly violating the Constitution by shifting public money into Responsive Education Solutions, a group of publicly supported charter schools. Responsive Education Solutions currently has over 65 campuses with 17,000 students enrolled at a cost to taxpayers of more than $82 million in Texas alone. RES is expanding with 20 new campuses due to open in Texas in 2014 and taxpayers will be picking up the tab to teach the bible as science in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The problem with all charter schools is that they are run independently, but are still considered public schools because they are funded with taxpayer dollars. For a student enrolled in an RES charter school to pass biology they have to study “Knowledge Units,” workbooks that overtly and underhandedly discredit evidence-based science and teach creationism as science in public-school classrooms. Responsive Ed not only discredits science, the opening section of a workbook section on the origin of life plagiarizes the christian bible and states, “In the beginning, god created the Heavens and the Earth.” The so-called science curriculum also states emphatically that “scientists question the validity of the conclusions concerning the age of the Earth” to mislead students into believing there is serious scientific debate about the age of the Earth, the nature of the geological record, and validity of biological sciences.
It is well-acknowledged that the evidence that the Earth was formed between 4 and 5 billion years ago is overwhelming, but an entire generation of students in Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, and several other theocratic states will go into the world certain the Earth was blinked into existence 6,000 years ago by an all-powerful deity in need of beings to torment. The communications director for a watchdog organization monitoring the spread of theocracy, Dan Quinn, said that “These materials should raise a big red flag for any parent or school administrator. It’s bad enough that they promote the same discredited anti-evolution arguments that scientists debunked a long time ago. But the materials teach religious beliefs that the courts have repeatedly ruled have no place in a public school science classroom.” In Missouri, repugicans are proposing a law that eliminates the concept of a public school science classroom because science contradicts the christian bible.
According to National Center for Science Education (NCSE) deputy director Glenn Branch, “House Bill 1472 would eviscerate the teaching of biology in Missouri” because the repugican bill allows parents to pull their children from any science classes that teach the theory of evolution that will have far-reaching effects on several scientific disciplines. HB 1472 is co-sponsored by repugican theocrats Rick Brattin and Andy Koenig who are no strangers to authoring religious legislation disguised as science curriculum according to the NSCE. The two bible-thumpers have crafted several bills in the past that ordered teachers in all public learning institutions, including colleges and junior colleges, to give equal instructional time to the christian creation story as they do real science that fortunately have not yet been passed into law. Their House bill does the next best thing and effectively eliminates instruction in biological sciences, geological science, meteorological science, and astronomical sciences because they contradict the genesis story that the Earth, and indeed the Universe, is a little over 6,000 years old.
The idea of teaching biology, geology, or astronomy without acknowledging the Earth is over 6,000 years old is impossible according to a 2008 white paper that states, “Evolution inextricably pervades the biological sciences; it therefore pervades, or ought to pervade, biology education at the K-12 level. There simply is no alternative to learning about it; there is no substitute activity. A teacher who tries to present biology without mentioning evolution is like a director trying to produce Hamlet without casting the prince.” It is also true of geological science, history, and astronomy that are all dependent on the premise that the Earth is over 6,000 years old, but Missouri students, at least those in households that believe the christian bible is science and the law of the land, will forever remain steeped in superstition and mythos like aboriginal peoples cut off from civilization.
This repugican plot to infect the minds of America’s youth with religious instruction in public schools has been struck down in the courts time and time again as unconstitutional. That Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indiana are using taxpayer money meant for public schools to fund bible instruction in charter schools is also unconstitutional and yet there is little outcry due to America’s unspoken 1^st commandment that “thou shalt not question Christians imposing religion on the population.” Forget that evolution is unquestioned and observable, or that the preponderance of scientists agree the Earth is between 4 and 5 billion years old, what is happening in southern-state charter schools is patently unconstitutional and despite court decisions ruling they are in violation of the Constitution they proceed as if the nation’s founding document is null and void. In the case of the Missouri legislation giving ignorant parents the right to restrict their children’s education to 6,000 year old mythos, there is no hope except for a court ruling to prevent America having to suffer another generation of superstitious aboriginals who will reproduce and continue America’s decline into a nation of imbeciles.
In Texas, Arkansas, and Indiana the courts, and voters, have a responsibility to disband the educational abomination known as charter schools (more on that later) and impose severe fines on groups like Responsive Education Solutions and force them to repay the tens-of millions of taxpayer dollars to real public schools that endeavor to educate students to compete in the 21^st century and not the Bronze Age. It is a travesty that although evolution is a fact, there is a large swathe of America, primarily across the South, that is inhabited by people who have not evolved beyond cave dwellers who are dumbfounded by science and cling to archaic beliefs repugicans are spreading like plague using taxpayer dollars and biblical legislation. They are violating the Constitution and flushing it like used toilet paper, creating a nation of idiots, and installing the christian bible as the law of the land with hardly a whimper from a population mortified of abridging the rights of repugican dominionists plaguing America with a christian theocracy

Daily Comic Relief

A Second Chemical Was Part of West Virginia Chemical Spill

How ELSE would you describe Freedom Industries?

The chemical spill that left 300,000 West Virginia residents without usable water involved more chemicals than the company responsible had previously reported, officials revealed this week, leading the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to order that company to give a full accounting of the chemicals that had leaked into the Elk River.

The newly disclosed chemical appears to be somewhat less toxic than MCHM, the chemical initially identified, and it made up only a small part of the Jan. 9 spill. But the late disclosure outraged officials and citizens who had been hungry for reliable information.

“It is very disturbing that we are just now finding out about this new chemical, almost two weeks after the leak,” said West Virginia’s secretary of state, Natalie E. Tennant, in a statement on Wednesday. She called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to post its water test results online. “We must have confidence that the water coming out of our faucets is not going to make our families sick.”

A Second Chemical Was Part of West Virginia Chemical Spill, Company Reveals

Doubts About the Safety of West Virginia Drinking Water As repugicans Push Deregulation

As doubts remain about the safety of West Virginia drinking water, repugicans were so certain there are sufficient regulations to keep the water supply safe, they passed three…

The idea of clean, safe drinking water in West Virginia after Liberty Industries allowed 7,500 gallons of a toxic and little known chemical to leak into the Elk River is still not guaranteed for 300,000 residents. Although the last of the “do not use” bans were lifted last Saturday meaning all of West Virginia American Water’s customers were given the green light to use and drink their water, it is still unclear, and highly doubtful, that the water is safe to drink.
On Monday at a press conference, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin who said he is not a scientist told reporters that “It’s your decision, if you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking with this water then use bottled water. I’m not going to say absolutely, 100 percent that everything is safe, but what I can say is if you do not feel comfortable, don’t use it.” If residents are wise, they will heed the coded warning in Tomblin’s statement because it is still unclear what exactly spilled into the river or whether or not proper tests have been conducted to identify all the toxic chemicals that were released. The chemical that Liberty Industries identified, crude MCHM, is a mixture of six chemicals, but only the pure form of the main ingredient has been studied and may not account for other chemicals that leaked into the river. Yesterday, West Virginia regulators ordered Freedom Industries to immediately disclose all materials involved in the recent spill that poisoned the water supply after the company admitted there was a second chemical that spilled into the Elk River.
According to West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman, “Having this revelation so late in the game is completely unacceptable.   We have ordered Freedom to reveal any other information they have regarding the contents of the tank that leaked.” That Freedom Industries withheld vital information about the chemicals that spilled into the river is criminal and they need to be held accountable for concealing, until yesterday, the extent of the leak. That the West Virginia EPC “had to order them to provide such obvious information is indicative of the continued decline of their credibility” Huffman said in a statement. State regulators should have shut down the company immediately for failing to report the presence of the second chemical, but they likely lack the enforcement power and instead ordered them to disclose everything that leaked into the river by 4 p.m. yesterday.
Even though the water is allegedly safe to drink, the Centers for Disease Control warned pregnant women to drink bottled water until there were absolutely no detectable levels of MCHM in the water supply.  State officials and health care professionals recommended that small children not drink the water and that schools only use bottled water even after the water was deemed safe to consume. There is a very good reason for all West Virginians in the affected area to stay away from the poisoned water according to a former West Virginia coal miner, Joe Stanley, who said he has not been drinking the water for years.
Stanley knows why most of the water in and around coal mining country is toxic because he worked at West Virginia’s Marrowbone Coal Mine from 1981 to 1996 for Massey Energy. Massey is the company responsible for the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in 2010 that killed 29 miners because company officials refused to listen to safety concerns from men working in the mines.  Stanley’s employment with Massey was terminated after a he demanded an official inquiry into which chemicals were being used in the mine after claims they were making mine workers get sick. Stanley said, “I watched the coal industry poison our water for years. Now they’re telling us not to drink the water? We’ve been dumping this stuff into unlined ponds and into old mines for years. This MCHM was just one of the chemicals we were told was highly toxic, but that we dumped it into old mine shafts and slurry ponds that seeped into groundwater for years.” Stanley’s claims are backed up by a 2012 Environmental Protection Agency assessment that identified 132 cases where coal-fired power plant waste damaged rivers, streams and lakes, and 123 where it tainted underground water sources according to an AP investigation.
It is important to remember that House Speaker John Boehner, recipient of more coal industry money than any House member, said “We have enough regulations on the books and what this administration ought to be doing is doing their jobs.” The repugicans have slashed EPA funding for inspections and enforcement by 20% over the past three years informing that it is repugicans who are preventing the EPA from “doing their jobs” and not the Obama Administration. In fact, repugicans were so certain there are sufficient regulations to keep the water supply safe, they passed three bills last Thursday to eliminate the EPA’s authority over states in addition to several riders neutering the environmental watchdog’s authority in the recent budget. According to a new poll, over half of the American people disagree with Boehner and repugican claims there are enough regulations in place to keep the water supply safe.
An unambiguous 51% of the poll’s respondents said the government should enforce more stringent regulations on companies that manufacture and store chemicals, and people who identified as repugican were more likely to not favor new regulations. Only 34% of Americans said they were “very confident” that the tap water in their area was safe to drink. House Democrats have asked repugicans to conduct hearings “to examine regulatory gaps in the nation’s toxic chemical control laws” to protect the water supply, but instead repugicans are voting on three measures to eliminate the EPA’s ability to inspect, enforce regulations, and protect the water supply.
Americans need to remember that just a little over two weeks ago repugicans offered their grand “job creation” plan that featured gutting regulations as the be all, end all method of putting Americans back to work. Their focus is not on creating jobs, or protecting America’s water supply, but giving the dirty energy industry, especially dirty coal, greater freedom to skirt environmental protections and poison the one resource humans cannot live without. To keep the campaign contributions flowing, Republicans are systematically eliminating the EPA’s inspection and enforcement ability evidenced by their votes to restrict the agency’s oversight and authority in the states, or use scare tactics to convince voters the EPA is an existential threat. The West Virginia miner, Joe Stanley, who warned “Don’t drink the water, just don’t do it,” showed what West Virginians hoping their water is safe to drink are up against when he held up the local Republican Senate candidate’s campaign sign that says, “SAVE COAL, END THE EPA.” At the current rate of deregulatory frenzy among Republicans, Americans in and around coal mines should read the sign as “SAVE COAL, END SAFE WATER.”

Calling it what it is ...

Say What ...

Top West Virginia official: 'We have to trust the science, even though there's no science to trust' .

When you follow politics, you inevitably encounter mind-bending idiocy and self-serving bullshit in heaping quantities. But the dangerous chemicals that have leached into West Virginia's water supply have produced an extraordinarily toxic combination of idiocy and bullshit that's remarkable even for our jaded age:

Karen Bowling, West Virginia's secretary of Health and Human Resources, said pregnant women who drank the water before being told to avoid it should contact their doctors. For the rest of the population, Bowling said she is confident the tap water is not harmful.

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"It's understandable that people are concerned. I don't want to minimize anybody's feelings about an issue as sensitive as this," said Bowling, who said she drank the tap water after it was declared safe. "It's hard to instill confidence when there's little known about the chemical, but at the same time we have to trust in the science of what's happening."

Trust in the science-when you admit there is none? We don't even have toxicity data on the substance at issue in West Virgina, known as MCHM, because it was grandfathered in when Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act back in 1976, along with 62,000 other chemicals. It the 40 years since, the law still hasn't been updated, and we're still in the dark about MCHM, but West Virginia's top health official wants us to "trust in the science" anyway.

It's time for government to take a stronger hand in regulating ALL industry.

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Today in History

1699		The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the war between Austria and the Turks.
1720		Guilio Alberoni is ordered out of Spain after his abortive attempt to restore his country's empire.
1788		A fleet of ships carrying convicts from England lands at Sydney Cove in Australia. The day is since known as Australia's national day.
1861		Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1863		President Lincoln names General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
1875		Pinkerton agents, hunting Jesse James, kill his 18-year-old half-brother and seriously injure his mother with a bomb.
1885		General "Chinese" Gordon is killed on the palace steps in Khartoum by Sudanese Mahdists in Africa.
1924		Petrograd is renamed Leningrad.
1934		Germany signs a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland, breaking the French alliance system.
1942		American Expeditionary Force lands in Northern Ireland.
1943		The first OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent parachutes behind Japanese lines in Burma.
1964		Eighty-four people are arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.
1969		California is declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides.
2005		Condoleezza Rice is appointed to the post of secretary of state. The post makes her the highest ranking African-American woman ever to serve in an U.S. presidential cabinet.

Non Sequitur

The 10 Toughest Exams You Can Take

Up For A Challenge? 

We've all been there. You spend months - or even years - studying for an exam, only to turn over the question paper and discover that it has been written in an apparently alien language, discussing topics that have never even danced across one's memory.

However, after some profuse sweating and maybe a few tears, the mortal panic starts to subside and familiar words begin to drift into view; the brain whirs into life, and a torrent of crammed knowledge can finally be unburdened onto the paper. It's a terrifying enough process even when someone knows their subject, so we certainly don't envy the thousands of people that sit the world's hardest exams.

Did you know ...

The 4 creepiest ways corporate America is spying on you

The ancient antarctic trench (bigger than the grand canyon) is under miles of ice

That house repugicans are draining $600 million a week from the economy

The tea party is the 'petite bourgeoisie' face of corporate oligarchs

by Travis Gettys

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The Tea Party is just the popular face of corporate power in the United States, says political philosopher Noam Chomsky.
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"I wouldn't call them revolutionary," Chomsky said, dismissing a suggestion that the conservative political faction had anarchist characteristics.
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He told Radio VR during an interview posted online last week that he agreed with the conservative political analyst Norman Ornstein's characterization of the Tea Party.
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"He just described them as a radical insurgency opposed to rationality, to political compromise, to participation to a parliamentary system - in fact, with no positive goals themselves," Chomsky said.

[...]

"They're in favor of having the population subordinated to concentrated private power, which should have no limits," Chomsky said. "When they call themselves anti-government, that means they don't want government to limit the capacity of concentrated private power to dominate the society. That's very far from any anarchism."
[...]

Noam Chomsky: The tea party is the 'petite bourgeoisie' face of corporate oligarchs

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford curses in a jafaican accent when he's loaded

A video of Toronto Mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford drunk and bellowing obscenities in a jafaican accent has surfaced. Ford, a luminously white and privileged man who was born into millions in a quiet suburb of Toronto, affects an embarrassing West Indian accent as he thunders to a captive audience at a west-end steak joint.
The subject of his rant was Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who instigated the long-running investigation into Ford's association with drug-dealers and gangsters, and which surfaced evidence that the mayor had smoked crack, driven drunk, and lied to the public and to council. In the video, Ford calls Blair "Cocksucking fucking Chief Blair."
He also says "bumbaclot." A lot.
When the scandal broke, Ford admitted to his drug use and swore he'd gone sober. But he told reporters who questioned him about this video that he was drunk, and that the events depicted in it were his "my personal life, with my personal friends, that's up to me. This really has nothing to do with you guys."

“I was with some friends and what I do in my personal life, with my personal friends, that’s up to me. This really has nothing to do with you guys,” Ford told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
The mayor wouldn’t address questions about his past claims that he quit drinking.
...The video could be damaging to Ford’s campaign for re-election, as he has staked his reputation to being clean and sober since November.
Ford “guaranteed” he has stopped drinking in interviews last year and told the CBC he had a “come to Jesus” moment about his drinking.

Oh, and there's a dancehall remix

Rob Ford video shows ‘drunk’ mayor rambling and swearing in Toronto restaurant

The future of technology might be in Greenland

The rare earth elements that play an important role in everything from electric car batteries, to LED lighting, to surgical lasers, aren't actually rare. The vast majority of them come from China right now, but that's not because China has them and other countries don't. In fact, the US and Australia also have large deposits of rare earths. Instead, rare earth elements come from China because China is willing to cheaply mine and process them, which can be extremely polluting. The more protections against pollution that you put in place, the more expensive the rare earths become, which is how the US got priced out of that game.
All of that is important background information to help you understand why a proposal to mine and process rare earth elements in Greenland is so controversial. On the one hand, it could bring economic and political independence to the country (which still relies heavily on Denmark), and provide jobs in a really rough economyu. On the other hand, actually challenging China's supremacy in this business means cutting costs in ways that would likely have lasting, negative impacts on the land.

The growing war on hackers

America may finally be saying farewell to its long, failed War on Drugs, but that doesn't mean we can't have a long, failed war on something! How about hackers? Hanni Farouki writes that despite reforms to 80s-era computer misuse laws, prospects are grim: "The growing recognition of the powerful capabilities of modern computing and networking has resulted in a “cyber panic” in legislatures and prosecutor offices across the country. Instead of reexamination, we’ve seen aggressive charges and excessive punishment."

Jeweler born with no fingers makes miniature masterpieces

One of Britain’s most talented jewelers makes miniature masterpieces worth thousands of pounds despite being born with no fingers.

Annette Gabbedey, 48, who has had her own workshop and shop in Frome, Somerset for 23 years, does not have any special tools to help her work, she simply adapts conventional crafting devices to create dazzling ornaments. Annette, who insists she is not disabled, even says she could not imagine doing her job with fingers because they “must get in the way”.
She said: “Normally people can see that there is something a little bit different about me – I don’t have fingers which most people expect a goldsmith to have. Making jewellery is very tactile and something you do with your hands. I do find that people have that usual question of how do you manage and how do you manage to create jewellery let alone the day to day things.

YouTube link.

“My answer to that really is that I tend to look at people with fingers and think well how can you manage with fingers because they must get in the way. It is just your own perception of how you look at yourself and for me I was born like it and I have never known anything different. I’m quite normal and not disabled at all but I do appreciate that people are fascinated by me being able to create something and just get on really.”

Behind the hashtag

 The Great Velveeta Shortage story began when an editor at Ad Age couldn't make queso.

Restaurant has all its tables and chairs stolen

Police believe burglars stole “to order” when they took every piece of furniture from a restaurant.

 

Officers investigating the incident at the Thai Café in Saltford, Bath, Somerset, said it was one of the most unusual crimes they had come across. Owner David Appleby was confronted with an empty dining room when he went to open up last week. Thieves had made off with all the tables and chairs.
Police said they believe the items were targeted by professional criminals “stealing to order”. Mr Appleby, who runs the business with his head chef wife, said: “I just can’t believe what’s happened. The police say they’ve never seen anything like it. They were completely baffled.”

Mr Appleby added: “When I walked in and saw what they’d done I was in shock. You don’t really understand why. It’s bizarre.” Andy Hodges, of Bath CID said: “This is a most unusual burglary and theft and there is no clear explanation as to why someone would steal tables and chairs. Presumably they were stolen to order.”

Grandmother ordered to pay $1,000 for setting off fire alarm while boiling an egg

A grandmother from Queensland, Australia has been ordered to pay a $1,000 bill for setting off a fire alarm while boiling an egg. Fay Nielsen, 74, denied she burned any pots or caused any smoke when boiling a single egg in her Runaway Bay Retirement Village unit.

But TriCare staff told the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal that they found smoke emanating from her unit into the passageway when they arrived and saw her trying to dissipate cooking fumes and smoke.

Mrs Nielsen said she was unable to explain how boiling an egg had led to the fire alarm going off. The widow told the tribunal she had been boiling eggs the same way for the last 60 years. "I put the egg in a saucepan of water and boil it for barely five minutes,'' she said.
Mrs Nielsen had sought relief from paying the $1,020.31 bill for an unwanted fire alarm activation but, after weighing up all the evidence, the tribunal dismissed the application. Mrs Nielsen, who has eight grandchildren, is determined to fight the bill and says she will lodge an appeal and if necessary complain to an Ombudsman. "It's terribly unfair. This decision is absolutely ludicrous,'' Mrs Nielsen added.

Man claims compensation from utility company after preventing power cuts through prayer

A South African man is claiming R250 million (£1.4m, $2.3) from power company Eskom for preventing power cuts through his own prayers.

Nelson Thabo Modupe, of Lichtenburg, has argued that he prevented power cuts during the 2010 Soccer World Cup and claims he should be compensated.

In a letter to Eskom, he said the main reason for load-shedding was lightning and wind, and that he had he became a member of the Zion Christian Church and taken it upon himself to pray to God and ask that no power cuts took place.
As a result, Eskom now owes him R250m, because he saved the company the burden and humiliation of load shedding. Alternatively, Eskom can offer him a partnership in the company. The claim has been placed on the court roll in the North West High Court for Thursday.

Woman recovering after car swept off road by avalanche of slurry

A woman is recovering after her car was swept off a road by an avalanche of slurry in Co Limerick, Ireland on Monday night after a tank on a hill ruptured.

The Doon to Cappamore Road in east Limerick was after the spillage of an estimated 50,000 gallons of slurry onto the road. The surge was so powerful that a car carrying a woman was washed off the road and into a field at around 9.45pm. The female driver was taken from the car by a local man who responded to her screams .
The woman, who is from Cappamore, did not sustain any injuries but is said to suffering from shock. A hearse and another car narrowly escaped the spillage which came from a slurry pit on a hilltop farm. A number of houses nearby were damaged by the spillage and will have to be cleaned and the cost of the incident is expected to be several thousand euros.

A source at the scene said: “It must have been like an avalanche. The slurry smashed through the slurry tank wall and it ran down a hill about 50 yards from the road. There was a woman driving a car and she was swept across the road with the force if it.”

Ziggy

Victorian home "slightly haunted", say sellers

 

A 113-year old Victorian home is on the market in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, some caveats are scaring away potential buyers.

"Built in 1901, this Victorian home in the Hollywood section of Dunmore features 1850 sf of living space with an additional 1350 sf of partially finished space. Original hardwood floors throughout entire home. 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. Off-street parking. Freshly painted. New moulding throughout entire first floor. Slightly haunted. Nothing serious, though. e.g. The sounds of phantom footsteps. A strange knocking sound followed by a very quiet (hardly noticeable, even) scream at 3:13am, maybe once a week. Twice a week, tops. And the occasional ghastly visage lurking behind you in the bathroom mirror. Even still, this occurs very rarely and only in the second floor bathroom.

According to the Zillow listing, they're asking for $144,000.

For sale: water-tank castle

If you're in New Zealand and want to have the coolest playhouse/LARP-prop south of the equator, this Trademe ad is offering a concrete water-tank converted to a castle for a surprisingly reasonable $500 (you have to pay to move it, though).

This one off creation from an old concrete water tank makes a unique playhouse.
Downstairs dungeon with gate.
Ladder leads to timber & ply 1st. floor.
Painted roof to form turrets.
Perspex windows.
Pictures do not do it justice.

Castle Playhouse

 

Archaeologists Find Remains Of Previously Unknown Pharaoh In Egypt

The 3,600-year-old remains of a forgotten pharaoh unearthed this month in southern Egypt may be the first of several significant discoveries in a previously ignored burial ground that rivals the Valley of the Kings.

The discovery of King Woseribre Senebkay is the first firm evidence of a pharaonic dynasty whose existence archaeologists had suspected but never proved. About 20 previously undiscovered pharaohs may lie near Senebkay's tomb.

Our Global Village

The World Of 100

What the world would look like if it were a village of 100 people. From data visualization to infographics, we're big on the power of smart graphic design to covey big concepts that are otherwise hard to grasp in their raw numberness.

Designer Toby Ng's poster series 'The World of 100' is an experimental graphical representation of statistical information about the world, based on the allegorical scenario of reducing the world to a village of 100 people.

Monster surf hits Hawaii

Surfer Cole Clisby rides his surfboard off the top of a wave as the sun sets off the shores of Leucadia, Calif., January 15, 2014.
Monster swells hitting Hawaii this week are due to reach California shores soon, creating waves that may reach nearly 20 feet at some spots.

Some of the biggest surf in decades is pounding the North and West shores of Oahu and other Hawaiian islands this week. A high surf warning remains in effect, and waves of up to 40 feet are expected on some beaches today.
The famed Eddie surf invitational is a no-go because while the waves are higher than 35 feet at Waimea, the winds make surf conditions undesirable. At Jaws, or Peahi, on Maui -- 50 foot waves. I have never witnessed this in person, and I'm not there at this time, but my surfer buds say the earth shakes beneath your feet when you're on the beach. The waves are also making some coastal roads impassable, and threatening homes. The swell will hit California next, creating 10-19 foot waves along some popular surf spots.

Daily Comic Relief

Police doubt aggressive chicken attacked woman

A woman says an aggressive chicken attacked her in Tracy, California, but police are skeptical about her claim.

The woman told police the chicken scratched her as she walked passed it near Third Street and Central Avenue.

However, police say there are inconsistencies with her story, which include her address and why she waited a day to report the attack.
Police say the woman hung up on them when they called her back.

The road to extinction is paved with good intentions

In trying to save an endangered species of robin, scientists began moving eggs laid perilously close to the edge of nests. The problem: Natural selection. Without the negative pressure of losing those eggs, more and more eggs are being laid on the edge and an attempt to save a species could help undermine it.

Arthritic wombat given rare life-saving hip replacement surgery

A female wombat called Wanda is recovering at Adelaide Zoo's Animal Health Centre after undergoing hip replacement surgery.

It is the first time the operation has been performed on animal of her size.
At 22, Wanda is in her twilight years and had developed debilitating arthritis in her hip.

YouTube link.

She had stopped using one leg and needed a step to get into her nest. Vets decided surgery was the only option to save her life. Wanda is expected to make a full recovery.

Pigs have faces censored in Malaysian edition of International New York Times

Seemingly innocuous photographs of pigs on the front and inside pages of The International New York Times (NYT) were censored in the Malaysian edition of the paper.

A front page story featured a picture of piglets standing in the snow, but the printers of the Malaysian edition, KHL Printing Co, had blacked-out the faces of each animal.

A continuation of the story about rising demand for pigs reared in the open on page 19 of the paper was given the same treatment, with the faces of two adult pigs blacked-out. A representative from the printing company based in Shah Alam said that pictures of pigs are not allowed in a Muslim country like Malaysia.

“From last time also we do this. If there is picture of nudes or like this we will cover. This is a Muslim country,” the spokesman said when asked why the faces of the pigs had been censored. He added that the printing firm had not received express instructions from the authorities to censor the pictures.

A Ghost Ship Full of Cannibal Rats

An abandoned cruise ship has been floating in international waters for months, since it came loose in a storm while being towed off the coast of Newfoundland. The company that intended to sell the Lyubov Orlova for scrap, Transport Canada, wrote the ship off after it determined that the ship “no longer poses a threat to the safety of [Canadian] offshore oil installations, their personnel or the marine environment.” But now it is feared that the drifting ship may be nearing the UK.

Two signals were picked up on the 12 and 23 March last year, presumably from lifeboats which fell away and hit the water, showing the vessel had made it two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic and was heading east.

A week later, an unidentified object of about the right size was spotted on radar just off the coast of Scotland – but search planes never verified the find.

Pim de Rhoodes, a Belgian salvage hunter who is among a number looking for the Lyubov Orlova off the UK coastline, told The Sun: “She is floating around out there somewhere.

“There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other. If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison.”

The head of the Irish coastguard, Chris Reynolds, said the ship was more likely than not to still pose a threat.

Rats eating each other? The most reasonable response I can think of is KILL IT WITH FIRE! Or nuke it from space -it's the only way to be sure. Read about the Lyubov Orlova at The Independent. -

Manatees on ice

When the polar vortex brought freezing temperatures to Florida earlier this month, the state's manatee population had to figure out how to survive. Despite their "sea cow" nickname and appearance, manatees don't have a lot of insulating fat on their bodies. If the water temperature dips below 68 degrees F for very long, they can get sick and die.
The solution: Manatees gather together in water that maintains its temperature year round, like this naturally hot pool at Florida's Blue Springs. The record for greatest number of huddled manatees is 567, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Besides natural springs, they also like the outflow from power plants. A coal-fired plant like the Big Bend Power Station near Tampa Bay uses quite a bit of water — coal is burned to heat water that turns into steam, which turns the electric turbines. The steam then cools a bit and turns back into water and is discharged from the power plant, still warm from its journey. The discharge makes a perfect environment for chilly manatees.

Time to coo over baby animals who aren't charismatic megafauna

Kaup's Caecilians are worm-like amphibians native to tropical regions. Unlike frogs, however, these amphibians give birth to live young. No eggs required. The really crazy thing here is that, instead of using a placenta to transfer oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the babies, Kaup's Caecilians seem to use an organ that looks very much like detachable gills. Babies are born with these gill sacs and then discard them after birth.

Video Link

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1533		Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn.
1787		Small farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, revolt against tax laws. Federal troops break up the protesters of what becomes known as Shay's Rebellion.
1846		The dreaded Corn Laws, which taxed imported oats, wheat and barley, are repealed by the British Parliament.
1904		Two-hundred coal miners are trapped in their Pennsylvania mine after an explosion.
1915		Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Thomas Watson in San Francisco make a record telephone transmission.
1918		Austria and Germany reject U.S. peace proposals.
1919		The League of Nations plan is adopted by the Allies.
1929		Members of the New York Stock Exchange ask for an additional 275 seats.
1930		New York police rout a Communist rally at the Town Hall.
1943		The last German airfield in Stalingrad is captured by the Red Army.
1949		Axis Sally, who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stands trial in the United States for war crimes.
1951		The U.S. Eighth Army in Korea launches Operation Thunderbolt, a counter attack to push the Chinese Army north of the Han River.
1955		Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock that is accurate to within one second in 300 years.
1956		Khrushchev says that he believes that Eisenhower is sincere in his efforts to abolish war.
1959		American Airlines begins its first coast-to-coast flight service on a Boeing 707.
1972		Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress, announces candidacy for president.
1972		Nixon airs the eight-point peace plan for Vietnam, asking for POW release in return for withdrawal.
1984		President Reagan endorses the development of the first U.S. permanently-manned space station.