Kenyan Wildlife Service warns locals and travelers against giving booze to baboons

The Kenya Wildlife Service has warned travelers on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway not to give baboons alcohol. “Doing so is irresponsible and careless, as it poses a huge risk to motorists,” said KWS director William Kibet Kiprono.
“Liquor has the same effect in animals as on human beings. They might become violent, or distract road users, causing accidents. They might also start fighting people and cause death if unchecked.” Mr Kiprono added that the law stipulates that people should not feed wild animals, explaining that this was meant to protect the wildlife as they might be adversely affected by eating human food.
Maai Mahiu residents have been complaining of a baboon menace. “They eat our goats, and we have been unable to plant food for the last three years,” said a local farmer, Mr Kabiu Kabiru. Another villager, Mr John Mwangi added: “We chase 20 monkeys every night. They enter our kitchens and steal food.”

YouTube link.

Mr Kiprono admitted that the animals living outside the reserve were many, citing that close to 7000 animals were living outside protected areas. “We are trying to stem out human – wildlife conflict and this can only be done through ensuring that both the rights of the animals and the people are well respected,” he added.

Octopus Protects Eggs for 4.5 Years

A female octopus lays eggs once in her lifetime and dies soon after. But until the eggs hatch, she guards them fiercely, to the point of not eating. For one octopus in the Monterey Canyon of the Pacific Ocean, that meant a record-breaking four and half years of diligence! Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute first observed this octopus in 2007, traveling to a brooding site. She was seen again 18 times over the next 53 months, always guarding her eggs. Bruce Robison of the institute said that they recognized it was the same octopus by her distinctive scars. In 2011, divers finally found the egg cases empty and the octopus mother gone.

The mother's devotion to her eggs may have been the final act of her life, Robison said, noting that the egg brooding period can occupy as much as the last quarter in the life of a female octopus.

She was never observed away from her egg clutch, he said, and probable never ate during her 53-month vigil.

"Everything we know suggests she probably didn't eat," Robison said.

Octopuses typically experience a single reproductive period after which they die.

The low temperature at the depth of the nest is suspected to be the reason the eggs took so long to hatch, and would also explain how the mother lived so long without food. The 53 months is now a world record for egg brooding, not just for octopuses, but for all animals. The previous record was 20 months for a red shrimp.

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Non Sequitur

Today in History

902		The Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiyah (modern day Tunisia) capture Taormina, Sicily.
1096		The crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Constantinople.
1464		Piero de Medici succeeds his father, Cosimo, as ruler of Florence.
1664		The Turkish army is defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
1689		James II's 15-week siege of Londonderry, Ireland, ends in failure.It was a shaken and demoralized English column that returned to its northern Irish base at Newry on the evening of May 28, 1595.
1740		Thomas Arne's song "Rule Britannia" is performed for the first time.
1759		British and Hanoverian armies defeat the French at the Battle of Minden, Germany.
1791		Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves in the largest private emancipation in U.S. history. An 1839 mutiny aboard a Spanish ship in Cuban waters raised basic questions about freedom and slavery in the United States.
1798		Admiral Horatio Nelson routs the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay, Egypt.
1801		The American schooner Enterprise captures the Barbary cruiser Tripoli.Often venturing into harm's way, America's most famous sailing ship, the Constitution, twice came close to oblivion.
1834		Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
1864		Union General Ulysses S. Grant gives general Philip H. Sheridan the mission of clearing the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate forces.After nearly 10 months of trench warfare, Confederate resistance at Petersburg, Virginia, suddenly collapsed.
1872		The first long-distance gas pipeline in the U.S. is completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran five miles from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1873		San Francisco's first cable cars begin running, operated by Hallidie's Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.
1880		Sir Frederick Roberts frees the British Afghanistan garrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.
1893		A machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented.
1914		Germany declares war on Russia.
1937		The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany becomes operational.The Nuremberg Trial brought high-ranking Nazis to justice.
1939		Synthetic vitamin K is produced for the first time.
1941		The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane makes its first flight.
1942		Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sinks U-166 as it approaches the Mississippi River, the first U-boat sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.
1943		Over 177 B-24 Liberator bombers attack the oil fields in Ploesti, Rumania, for a second time.
1944		The Polish underground begins an uprising against the occupying German army, as the Red Army approaches Warsaw.
1946		President Harry S Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission.
1950		Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrive in Korea from the United States.
1954		The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel.
1957		US and Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1960		Singer Chubby Checker releases "The Twist," creating a new dance craze. The song had been released by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters the previous year but got little attention.
1964		Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American to play on the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.
1966		Charles Whitman, shooting from the Texas Tower at the University of Texas, kills 16 people and wounds 31 before being killed himself.
1988		Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.
2004		In Asuncion, Paraguay, a fire in the Ycua Bolanos V supermarket complex kills nearly 400 people and injures 500.
2007		The I-35W bridge at Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.

50 Words That Sound Rude But Actually Aren't

Once while giving a driving lesson, I told my daughter to quit pussyfooting around. She became highly offended that I would use such language, and didn’t learn a thing that day besides that her mother has a vulgar vocabulary. Oh, the things she has yet to learn. Anyway, “pussyfooting” wasn’t even rude enough to make this list of rude-sounding words that mean something completely different from what they sound like. Here’s a snippet:  

15. DREAMHOLE
A dreamhole is a small slit or opening made in the wall of a building to let in sunlight or fresh air. It was also once used to refer to holes in watchtowers used by lookouts and guards, or to openings left in the walls of church towers to amplify the sounds of the bells.
16. FANNY-BLOWER
According to one 19th century glossary of industrial slang, a fanny-blower or fanner was "used in the scissor-grinding industry," and comprised "a wheel with vanes, fixed onto a rotating shaft, enclosed in a case or chamber to create a blast of air." In other words, it’s a fan.
17. FARTLEK
Fartlek is a form of athletic training in which intervals of intensive and much less strenuous exercise are alternated in one long continuous workout. It literally means "speed-play" in Swedish.

And those are just some of the more innocuous words from the list of 50 at mental_floss.

Man who filmed himself driving car while sitting in passenger seat given suspended jail sentence

A 20-year-old man who was arrested by police after posting a YouTube video of himself driving from the passenger seat on a highway near Barcelona has been given a six-month suspended sentence.

The Spanish-born student of French nationality was found guilty of reckless driving. That sentence will be dismissed if the young man does not break the law in the next two years.
He also had his driver's license suspended for a year. The man was arrested after posting a video of himself, yawning as he drove his vehicle from the passenger seat, at one point overtaking a truck.

YouTube link.

Spanish police sent out a tweet asking for help in identifying the individual, and received 40 replies in 13 hours. The driver, who has not been named, was identified, and later turned himself in.

Ziggy

Inmates broke out of prison then broke back in after getting drunk

At least four prisoners in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory are suspected of repeatedly escaping from the prison, getting drunk, then voluntarily returning to the facility in the hope no one would notice. It is understood authorities are checking whether low-security prisoners have repeatedly escaped from a work release center at Berrimah jail for a few hours after a 7pm headcount.

"It would appear that a couple of prisoners have jumped the fence but returned," a spokesman for NT Department of Correctional Services said. Authorities were believed to suspect the group, and possibly other prisoners, were from time to time jumping a cyclone fence, getting picked up from a main road by partners and given alcohol and marijuana, before breaking back into prison a few hours later.
The deception was eventually discovered shortly after midnight in the early hours of Sunday July 20 when five drunk prisoners were found fighting over a mobile phone. "It is alleged that four of the prisoners had earlier climbed a perimeter fence to retrieve contraband items from someone on the outside," the department spokesman said. He added the group "may have been out for a while" but that would become clear only after a police investigation. An internal departmental investigation was also underway, the spokesman said
"They [police] will come back with recommendations as to what charges will be laid," he said. "It will be up to police to determine what constitutes an escape." A search of the work release center uncovered several other items of contraband including two empty bottles of alcohol, five mobile phones, phone chargers, a small quantity of a "green leafy substance", a cigarette lighter and rolling papers. The men have since been transferred to the prison's maximum security section.

Cocoa Farmers Taste Chocolate

(YouTube link)

Small farmers in Ivory Coast find out what their cocoa beans are used for when they taste a chocolate bar for the first time. Chocolate is out of their reach economically, and cocoa beans aren’t much without the sugar, milk, and other ingredients. But how could it be possible that these farmers don’t even know about chocolate? A commenter explained that chocolate is not part of the tradition of West Africa.

I know its weird, but in West Africa a bunch of the stuff we produce is for export only. It wasn't part of the traditional food, thus people never cared to eat it, or even knew how to finish production of it. The raw materials are just sent off.

It's not just cocoa. We produce coffee but don't roast it or drink it. We produce mangos, but not mango shakes. Chicken, but the variety for export is considered 'too soft' for the local palette.

It’s touching that the first thing the farmer does is to gather his friends and show them what chocolate tastes like. However, the kids will only get to see the wrapper. The video is a clip from the Dutch show Metropolis. You can see the whole chocolate episode here. Oh, and if you begin listening to the video because you know French, be aware that most of it is in Dutch. You may still need subtitles.

China Creates Right-Angled Running Track

Sports officials in northeast China build a rectangular running track - with right angle corners - in order to ensure their stadium is ready for the visit of Communist Party leaders.
Stadium officials explained that their original track had once featured curves but said its rubber surface had become severely worn down from overuse. When senior Communist Party leaders recently announced plans for a last-minute visit to the stadium, a quick makeover suddenly became necessary. Painting right angles was faster than painting curves.

Why Are Cans Shaped That Way?

The metal can is an amazing work of food packaging. They are tough, long-lasting, and convenient. But how did we come to agree on the cylindrical shape of food cans? Nick Berry at Datagenetics takes a look at the many aspects of a simple design.

* The ratio of packaging materials to the volume of food.
* Structural integrity and strength.
* The ease of packing, stacking, shipping, and storing quantities of containers.
* Minimizing wasted space.
* The ease of manufacture.
* Usability for the consumer.
* Aesthetics.

Each of these aspects is studied, and since it is Datagenetics, there is some math involved. Who knew so much thought went into a can of soup? Still, everyone has something to complain about. My pet peeve is using my 1972 cook book that calls for 16-ounce cans of some ingredient and finding they are sold in 13- and 14-ounce sizes now. You’ll learn more than you ever thought you needed to know about food cans in this article.

Hide Your Conditioner Like A Pro - Literally

Central air conditioning is pretty much amazing -but the compressor units are one of the biggest eyesores on the backside of your house. That's why, over at Homes and Hues, we compiled two new solutions to hide those ugly units while still providing them with enough air flow to keep them running at maximum capacity.

While these are both professional designs, the top one looks easy enough for a particularly handy person to replicate, while the lower design could be great inspiration for a professional back yard redesign.
Check out more pictures over at Homes and Hues: Two More Alternatives For Hiding Your Air Conditioner

The bend in the Appalachian mountain chain is finally explained

A dense, underground block of volcanic rock (shown in red) helped shape the well-known bend in the Appalachian mountain range. The 1500 mile Appalachian mountain chain runs along a nearly straight line from Alabama to Newfoundland -- except for a curious bend in Pennsylvania and New York State. Researchers from the College of New Jersey and the University of Rochester now know what caused that bend -- a dense, underground block of rigid, volcanic rock forced the chain to shift eastward as it was forming millions of years ago.

According to Cindy Ebinger, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, scientists had previously known about the volcanic rock structure under the Appalachians. "What we didn't understand was the size of the structure or its implications for mountain-building processes," she said.
The findings have been published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
When the North American and African continental plates collided more than 300 million years ago, the North American plate began folding and thrusting upwards as it was pushed westward into the dense underground rock structure -- in what is now the northeastern United States. The dense rock created a barricade, forcing the Appalachian mountain range to spring up with its characteristic bend.
The research team -- which also included Margaret Benoit, an associate professor of physics at the College of New Jersey, and graduate student Melanie Crampton at the College of New Jersey -- studied data collected by the Earthscope project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. Earthscope makes use of 136 GPS receivers and an array of 400 portable seismometers deployed in the northeast United States to measure ground movement.
Benoit and Ebinger also made use of the North American Gravity Database, a compilation of open-source data from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The database, started two decades ago, contains measurements of the gravitational pull over the North American terrain. Most people assume that gravity has a constant value, but when gravity is experimentally measured, it changes from place to place due to variations in the density and thickness of Earth's rock layers. Certain parts of Earth are denser than others, causing the gravitational pull to be slightly greater in those places.
Data on the changes in gravitational pull and seismic velocity together allowed the researchers to determine the density of the underground structure and conclude that it is volcanic in origin, with dimensions of 450 kilometers by 100 kilometers. This information, along with data from the Earthscope project ultimately helped the researchers to model how the bend was formed.
Ebinger called the research project a "foundation study" that will improve scientists' understanding of Earth's underlying structures. As an example, Ebinger said their findings could provide useful information in the debate over hydraulic fracturing -- popularly known is hydrofracking -- in New York State.
Hydrofracking is a mining technique used to extract natural gas from deep in the Earth. It involves drilling horizontally into shale formations, then injecting the rock with sand, water, and a cocktail of chemicals to free the trapped gas for removal. The region just west of the Appalachian Basin -- the Marcellus Shale formation -- is rich in natural gas reserves and is being considered for development by drilling companies.

53 Surreal Places You Need to Visit Before You Die

There are many places on Earth that look other-worldly. Some are just beautiful and some are weird. You might not believe your eyes, but here are 53 surreal places you need to visit before you die.

Mars Rover Opportunity Breaks Record For Miles Roamed

The Mars rover Opportunity has outdone itself by driving further than any other off-Earth vehicle in history. NASA announced that the 10-year-old rover hit 25 miles, which breaks the previous record set by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover.
While often in the shadow of its popular sibling Curiosity, Opportunity has exceeded expectations by living on the inhospitable planet for more than 10 years. The rover landed on Mars in 2004 and has since been hard at work exploring the surface of the planet.

Daily Comic Relief

Man eventually requested help after python had spent five days on the dashboard of his car

A resident of Toonumbar in New South Wales, Australia, was ready to drive to work last week when he was surprised to find an intruder inside his car. A large python was settled on the dashboard.

He made the wise decision to open the doors and then keep his distance. He hoped that the snake would leave of its own accord. Fortunately he had another vehicle to get to work.
After five days, the python was still sunning itself on the dashboard, so the resident called WIRES. He advised them that the python’s body was the diameter of a wine bottle for most of its length. WIRES Northern Rivers reptile handlers responded to the call.
The python looked very much like it had moved in for winter and was a bit cranky about being disturbed. The 2.8m python was gradually coaxed from the vehicle and released on the property. The vehicle owner says the doors and windows will be firmly closed in future to keep out the same or other unwanted visitors.

Koala found clinging to car’s grille after 88km journey

A koala survived being hit by a car near Maryborough in Queensland, Australia, early on Friday morning only to be later discovered clinging to the car's grille at a service station approximately 88 kilometers (50 miles) down the road at Gympie. The koala, now named Timberwolf, was spotted by the Gympie taxi driver and his occupants when they stopped to refuel.

They then assisted in keeping the rather disheveled and startled marsupial from wandering onto the highway. Local veterinarian Geoff Collyer was called to the scene shortly after 2.30am. "It was very, very scared and very wide-eyed," Dr Collyer said. "It was making horrible noises at everybody who was trying to stop him from getting hit again. I took a big sheet to pull over him.
"You put it over them from behind so they can't get to you and you hold them by the shoulders and arms. You wrap them up like a tight little baby and they de-stress because it's nice and dark and snug." Later collected and taken to the Australian Wildlife Hospital at Australia Zoo, Dr Collyer says Timberwolf looked to be in good condition. "The crew from Australia Zoo came and confirmed they thought he was a juvenile," he said.
"Surprisingly he was looking really good later that morning. He didn't appear to have any broken bones and he was trying to find little things to eat - he was really quite bright." Dr Collyer says it's an amazing story of survival and one he will never forget. "There are plenty of urban myths about things jumping onto cars as they go past, and until you see it yourself you don't' really think it could ever happen," he said. "It's all part of the job - the good stories make it all worth it."

Kitten rescued after surviving typhoon has made remarkable recovery

After Typhoon Matmo hit Tapaei, Taiwan last Wednesday, Sean McCormack found this tiny kitten lying almost lifeless in the middle of a road.

YouTube link.

Sean is a member of the Taiwanese animal rescue service and following a bath, the little kitten, now named Matmo, was looking a lot happier with himself.

YouTube link.

And here he is a short time later.

Humpback whale surprises dog on beach

Foraging mammals pursue anchovies within 50 yards of shore in Monterey Bay, allowing for unique photo opportunities; "We've been so spoiled lately'

by Pete Thomas

Humpback whale surprises dog 50 yards from shore in Monterey Bay.

Still photographs are often more compelling than video because they capture a single moment in time.
The stunning image atop this post, captured Sunday by Kate Cummings near Moss Landing in California’s Monterey Bay, is a prime example:
The humpback whale has just lunged upward to capture a mouthful of anchovies and is about to sink back down. A woman on the beach takes a photo while her dog seems surprised by the sudden appearance of this gigantic creature.
It’s an outstanding image because it provides not only a detailed glimpse of a large whale in the act of surface lunge-feeding, but a sense of scale.
The images with this story also show the whales’ remarkable proximity to shore. This rare phenomenon began over the weekend, said Cummings, owner of Blue Ocean Whale Watch.
Before Sunday, the closest the humpbacks would come to shore was 100 yards. That’s more typical.
On Sunday, however, large schools of anchovies began to bunch up along the coast. The whales followed, coming as close as 50 yards, allowing people on the beach to attain up-close views previously attainable only by boaters.
“I think it has to do with the calmness of the ocean and the tides, plus the anchovies trying to seek refuge in shallow water—to no avail!” said Cummings, who provided the first three images with this story.
“We’ve been so spoiled lately,” Cummings continued. “The last few days our routine has been to first check out the whales lunge-feeding on anchovies along the beach, then head out a mile-and-a-half to groups of 10 to 12 humpbacks feeding together with hundreds of sea lions.

Humpback whale opens wide as two beachgoers watch in amazement

“There’s so much food in the area the whales have no reason to leave, so we’re seeing the same individuals day after day.”
Of the whale pictured atop this post, Cummings said:
“This whale in particular is one of the best lungers we’ve seen. She circles away from the beach, then heads in close to shore, arches her back, and then comes up lunge-feeding shortly afterwards. The whales have drawn a crowd at the beach, and I was hoping she’d come up near a beachgoer for a sense of scale. The alert dog was a bonus.”
Bianchetta posted the image to the company Facebook page Monday morning, beneath the caption:
“Anyone seen these women lately?”
Understandably, most images showing the coastal lunge-feeders are being widely shared and admired.

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Word ...!

 

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Non Sequitur

Today in History

904		Arabs capture Thessalonica.
1703		English novelist Daniel Defoe is made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters.
1760		Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drives the French army back to the Rhine River.
1790		The U.S. Patent Office opens.
1882		Belle and Sam Starr are charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory.
1875		Former president Andrew Johnson dies at the age of 66.
1891		Great Britain declares territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within their sphere of influence.
1904		The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia's Pacific coast, is completed.
1917		The third Battle of Ypres commences as the British attack the German lines.
1932		Adolf Hitler's Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubles its strength in legislative elections.
1944		The Soviet army takes Kovno, the capital of Lithuania.
1962		Federation of Malaysia formally proposed.
1971		Apollo 15 astronauts take a drive on the moon in their land rover.
1987		An F4 tornado in Edmonton, Alberta kills 27 and causes $330 million in damages; the day is remembered as "Black Friday."
1988		Bridge collapse at Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal in Butterworth, Malaysia, kills 32 and injures more than 1,600.
1990		Bosnia-Hercegovina declares independence from Yugoslavia.
1991		US and USSR sign a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact.
1999		NASA purposely crashes its Discovery Program's Lunar Prospector into the moon, ending the agency's mission to detect frozen water on Earth's moon.
2006		Fidel Castro temporarily hands over power to his brother Raul Castro.
2007		The British Army's longest continual operation, Operation Banner (1969-2007), ends as British troops withdraw from Northern Ireland.

USA Today Publishes John Boehner Editorial Then Trashes His Lawsuit Against Obama

USA Today published an editorial by House Speaker John Boehner defending his lawsuit against President Obama, while at the same time their own editorial board published an editorial blasting the lawsuit.

Boehner wrote, “Congress makes the laws; the president executes them. That is the system the Founders gave us. This is not about executive orders. Every president issues executive orders. Most of them, though, do so within the law. This is also not about me vs. President Obama. This is about future Congresses and future presidents. There is a conflict between the executive branch and the legislative branch of our government. It is the judiciary branch’s role to help resolve it. I believe this path is the right one to defend our institution and preserve the Constitution, while continuing to focus on the American people’s top priority — helping our private sector create more American jobs.”

The editorial board at USA Today put out a nearly simultaneous editorial that took Boehner to task for the lawsuit.

The editorial board wrote:

It’s possible to view this as a high-minded dispute over where the Constitution draws the lines of authority between Congress and the president. Republicans cite scores of examples of what they say is executive overreach, such as Obama’s decision not to deport children brought here illegally by their parents.

But the lawsuit focuses solely on a small part of Obamacare, one that repugicans themselves would love to see delayed forever. A fair-minded look at the suit’s merits suggests it’s really more of a political grudge match, one in which the repugican cabal is seeking an outcome it hasn’t been able to achieve at the polls or through the legislative process.

For one thing, Obama’s temporary delay to part of the health law doesn’t seem much different from the shrub’s action in 2006 to extend the deadline and waive penalties for certain seniors who hadn’t signed up in time for the new Medicare prescription drug program. Both presidents appeared to be making reasonable, short-term accommodations to reality, and courts have traditionally given the executive branch broad discretion in implementing complex new laws.

It’s not good when the editorial board of the newspaper that published Boehner’s defense of his lawsuit felt compelled to write their own editorial condemning his tactics. Outside of wingnut circles, Boehner is not finding a warm reception anywhere for his lawsuit. The lawsuit isn’t fooling anybody. It has always been a path towards drumming up support for impeaching the president. Boehner’s frivolous abuse of the court system is also intended to make Obamacare the front and center issue during the midterm elections.

The lawsuit does look like an attempt by a sore loser at petty political retribution. The repugicans lost at the ballot box. They’ve lost in court of public opinion, because people like what the ACA does. All that they have left is a desperate run to the courts in the hopes that partisan agitator judges will bail them out.

As a political strategy, the lawsuit has backfired. Democrats are fired up over Boehner’s clumsy tactics. As a fundraising gambit, the lawsuit has been a disaster. Democrats continue to raise millions of dollars off of a tactic that was supposed to help repugicans gain seats in the fall.

Boehner has shot the repugican cabal in both feet with his lawsuit, and it has gotten to the point where no credible publication wants to be tainted with the embarrassment surrounding his attempt to sue the president.

This repugican Governor Who Won’t Expand Medicaid Blames Obama For High Uninsured Rate In State

A study done by WalletHub finds that Mississippi is the only state that has seen its uninsured population increase since the implementation of Obamacare.because Phil Bryant decided not to expand Medicaid …

Due to the Affordable Care Act, the percentage of uninsured people in this country has decreased dramatically over the past few months. However, there is one state where there has actually been an increase in those who lack health insurance. A study done by WalletHub finds that Mississippi is the only state that has seen its uninsured population increase since the implementation of Obamacare. Prior to the first enrollment period on the health care exchanges, Mississippi’s uninsured rate was 18.11%. It has since climbed to 21.46%, which is the second highest uninsured rate in the nation, trailing only Texas.

When presented with this information by The Daily Journal, repugican Gov. Phil Bryant knew exactly where to point the finger of blame.

“If statistics show that the ill-conceived and so-called Affordable Care Act is resulting in higher rates of uninsured people in Mississippi, I’d say that’s yet another example of a broken promise from Barack Obama.”

Of course, what the Governor failed to point out is that he has refused to expand Medicaid in his state even though his state won’t have to pay for it for the first three years, and the federal government will pay 90% of the expansion in subsequent years. What is even more dumbfounding about Bryant’s decision to not provide expanded Medicaid coverage to the state’s residents is that Mississippi is the nation’s poorest state and has largest percentage of its population living below the poverty line. Mississippi also has the highest unemployment rate in the country.

In an effort to see Obamacare fail, Bryant and other repugicans in Mississippi are going out of their way to deliberately hurt the poorest people in their state. In a state that has proven time and time again that pushing an extreme wingnut ideology only makes things worse, Mississippi repugicans continue to insist that everything is the fault of liberals and Democrats. If they aren’t blaming Obama for their ills, they are claiming that not having insurance isn’t all that bad anyway. That it is really just about having a choice. Mississippi’s Speaker of the House Philip Gunn had the following to say when asked if it was good that more people in Mississippi are now uninsured.

 “I don’t know if it is good or not. That is their call to make.”

The fact is, due to the high number of poor people in Mississippi, if the state agreed to expand Medicaid, over 300,000 residents would become immediately eligible. That would almost certainly bring down the uninsured numbers in the state. While the majority of red Southern states have declined to participate in the expansion, the ones that have seen huge decreases in the uninsured rates in their states. Kentucky, which also create its own state exchange, has seen its rate drop to 8.95%. It was previously at 17.3%. Arkansas has gone from 20.87% to 13.77% while West Virginia has seen a huge difference with the rate down to 6.59% after being at 17.34%

However, in states like Mississippi and Texas, the governors and repugican-dominated legislatures would rather obstruct and prevent their residents from receiving health coverage. Why? Because they hate the man currently occupying the White House. Of course, it plays well to their ‘base,’ who will support the repugican cabal due to their own prejudices, even as they vote and act out against their own self-interests. I guess it is better to be poor, bitter and bigoted than accept anything from a Democratic black man.

Kansas Is Going Bankrupt And repugicans Are Lying About the Tax Cutting Reason Why

Despite repugican warnings the state will be bankrupt in two years, more than 100 Kansas repugicans swearing to help replace Brownback with a Democrat for governor, and a …

In the field of psychiatry, pathological lying, compulsive lying, or pseudologia fantastica is a behavior of habitual lying that is defined as “falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.” In some cases the individual may be be unaware that they are relating fantasies, but when they repeat the same lie as fact for thirty years despite empirical data disproving their assertion, it is safe to say they know they are lying.

The repugicans and wingnut 'economists' continue claiming cutting taxes for the rich is key to full employment, wealth for the masses, government flush with money, and a robust economy. In fact, Kansas repugican Sam Brownback and the repugican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. However, despite repugican warnings the state will be bankrupt in two years, more than 100 Kansas repugicans swearing to help replace Brownback with a Democrat for governor, and a credit agency downgrading Kansas credit, a noted wingnut 'economist' lied to support Brownback’s tax cuts as a job creating bonanza. Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.

The Heritage Foundation’s senior 'economist', Stephen Moore, wrote a pro-Brownback op-ed attacking Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman because like every economist not in the employ of the Heritage Foundation and Faux News, Krugman does not support repugicans’ failed trickle-down scam. Moore was caught red-handed deliberately using incorrect statistics to convince readers that Brownback’s tax cuts create jobs. Moore lied and claimed states that do not give huge tax cuts to the rich are “getting clobbered by tax-cutting states” in the number of jobs created. The editorial board of The Kansas City Star caught Moore’s lies and published annotated corrections to his false assertions specifically stating that “the author misstated job growth rates for four states and the time covered.” In other words; Moore was lying to convince Kansas residents that Brownback’s “ruinous” and “dramatic tax-cutting failure” warrants giving him another four years to completely eviscerate the Kansas economy.

In another instance of wingnuts projecting their malfeasance on Democrats, Moore accused “liberals” like Krugman of “cherry-picking a few events” to argue that major tax cuts like Brownback’s are failing miserably. Not only did Moore deliberately “cherry pick bad data to support his claims,” he cherry-picked a time frame when the entire nation was suffering from the Great Recession due, in part, to shrub-repugicans’ major tax cuts for the rich. One might think Moore is unaware he was lying about the benefits of continuing to give tax cuts to the rich, but after thirty years of trickle-down’s abject failure, he knew he was lying like he has done for years.

For example, Moore has consistently criticized the idea of raising the minimum wage he claims will result in a “big increase in unemployment.” Obviously Moore, a “noted wingnut economist,” saw the recent statistics that the states he claimed lag “major tax-cutting repugican states” that raised their minimum wage, and taxes, are leading the nation in job creation as well a overall economic growth. One of the states Moore specifically cited, California, is experiencing the nation’s best job creation increase according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in spite of increasing the minimum wage and taxes on the rich. Moore also spent years claiming the Affordable Care Act would kill millions of American jobs, and yet the unemployment rate is falling and there has been 52 straight months of private sector job growth while millions of Americans have healthcare for the first time in their lives.

Stephen Moore, like the Heritage Foundation he represents, is not just a pathological liar, he is guilty of pseudologia fantastica. It is unlikely Kansas residents believe such fantastic lies about the raging success of Brownback’s tax cutting-spree because they see the devastation of the trickle down scam first hand. Certainly, a group of one-hundred-and-four current and former Kansas legislators understand that Brownback’s billion-plus dollar tax cuts for the rich are decimating Kansas.

The group, repugicans for Kansas Values, endorsed Brownback’s Democratic challenger and released a statement saying, “All of us standing here today know Kansas can do better. We can have better schools and a stronger economy. The values that unite us as Kansans are much bigger than the partisanship and experiment of Sam Brownback. Through hard work and cooperation, we can restore Kansas together.” The 104 repugicans cited Brownback’s failed trickle down tax plan, severe cuts to schools, and fiscally irresponsible budgeting as reasons for their historic decision and praised Paul Davis (D) for being a moderate with common sense leadership and “focus on proven solutions” such as “reinstating taxes and spending at their previous levels;” precisely what Stephen Moore lied and said is a recipe for disaster.

Obviously, there is no lie too fantastic, including citing false statistics, repugicans and their Heritage Foundation 'economists' are willing to parrot ad nausem to perpetuate their thirty year failed economic theory that giving more tax cuts to the rich is the key to economic wonderland. Moore has always been a condescending liar and for the second time he has been caught lying. In February, CNN’s Carol Costello destroyed Moore’s wingnut economic lies disparaging any consideration of raising the minimum wage, and correctly noted “that raising it would increase incomes and decrease poverty.”

One would think that of all the states Moore would choose to unleash a rash of lies about the benefits of giving major tax cuts to the rich, he would have picked anyplace except Kansas. But repugicans, and so-called “noted” wingnut 'economists', are such pathological liars that they likely actually believe Kansas residents are unaware their state is drowning in debt, suffered a credit downgrade, lags the entire nation in job creation, and cannot afford $100,000 to keep a children’s homeless shelter open; all due to what Stephen Moore says is the reason Kansas is “clobbering states” that are succeeding because they did not give tax cuts to the rich.

Detroit schools emergency manager raises class size to emergency levels

As Detroit struggles with bankruptcy, its public schools are struggling, too. They even have their very own emergency manager, and he has a new plan. Instead of a mere 38 students per class in grades 6 through 12, the new target will be 43 students per class in those grades. I'll repeat that: 43 students per class.Next up, we can expect a wave of publicity about Detroit's failing teachers, to which I again say "43 students per class. YOU teach under those circumstances." If you're saying "well, Detroit is bankrupt, it's to be expected," first off, you are morally bankrupt. Second, this:

    ... the proportion of general fund dollars reaching the classroom has declined under emergency management - and not just by a little bit! Spending on classroom instruction constituted 55 percent and 58 percent, respectively, of all general fund expenditures in 2008 and 2009 - the last two years that the elected board set spending targets. Since then, spending on instruction has trended downward, reaching a historic low with Jack Martin's 2015 budget at a level of just 46.8 percent.

The dismantling of America continues unabated so we can extend more tax breaks to the rich

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Defeating useless rich people

Taming wealthy, unproductive "moochers" will require a populist campaign to stop them. Here's how we can do it

In two previous columns, I argued that left and right alike are confused by a failure to distinguish productive businesses that sell innovative goods and services from "rentier" interests - landlords, lenders, copyright holders and others - which use their natural or artificial monopoly power to extract excessive tolls, fees and other recurrent payments from the rest of society, including productive businesses. The fees or rents extracted by these interests constitute a kind of "private taxation" which - rather than public taxation - is the greatest threat facing America's productive economy.
Today America's powerful rentier interests, particularly those in the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector, are mobilizing campaign contributions and paid propaganda to promote what I called the Rentier Agenda: low taxes on those whose income is derived from capital gains; the privatization of public infrastructure and the deregulation of regulated private utilities, to generate windfall profits for investors in privatized or deregulated agencies; and a macroeconomic policy that serves the interests of creditors, at the expense of slow growth and mass unemployment, rather than productive businesses and workers. Similar observations have been made by many on the left and some mavericks on the right.
To counter the domination of America's rentier oligarchs, we need an Anti-Rentier campaign that would unite unlikely groups: owners of productive businesses as well as workers, populist conservatives and liberal reformers. An Anti-Rentier movement would distinguish businesses that make profits by providing worthwhile goods or services in innovative ways from rentier interests that passively extract exorbitant tolls and fees from the economy without adding any value.

A lot of rich people contribute very little to nothing to our economy

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Border Patrol agents hold Iowa Boy Scouts at gunpoint for taking a picture of them

A Border Patrol agent allegedly held a member of an Iowa Boy Scout troop at gunpoint while another threatened another boy with arrest and a 10-year prison term for taking a picture of him, KCCI-TV reported.

The incident reportedly took place while members of Mid-Iowa Boy Scout Troop 111 and volunteers traveling with them were attempting to drive through the border between Canada into Alaska. Troop leader Jim Fox told KCCI that the group was detained and searched after the scout took the picture. The agent allegedly told Fox that the scout had committed a federal offense.
"The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and 10 years in prison," Fox was quoted as saying.
Fox and his troop complied with the agent's order, but as another scout was unloading luggage from one of the group's vans, "He hears a snap of a holster, turns around, and here's this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man's head."
The troop was released after being detained for four hours, and made it back to Iowa this past Sunday.

Just another shining example of the insanity that is today's America

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8-year-old Takes Disabled Brother on Triathlon

Noah and Lucas Aldrich are inseparable brothers. Lucas was born with the brain disorder lissencephaly, which affects his growth and development. Lucas does not walk or talk, but thanks to his parents and brother, he gets to do a lot of things able-bodied kids do. Eight-year-old Noah recently entered a youth triathlon, and he took Lucas along. He pulled him on a bicycle, towed him while swimming, and pushed him while running. Sing it with me now: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.” See more pictures of Noah and Lucas at Buzzfeed.

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Clootie Wells

(vimeo link)

There are several places in Scotland, England, and Ireland where the trees are wrapped with rags. These are clootie wells, forests with mineral springs that are believed to have healing powers. A relic of ancient paganism, the idea is that if you have an ailment, you should wash the afflicted area in water from these springs. Then you tie the rag you used around a tree, and as the rag rots, your ailment will disappear. You can see the problem here: Cotton and wool rags may take years to rot, but polyester can take centuries, which means more and more rags survive longer and damage the forest. But it’s terrible luck to remove them. Read more about this ancient practice at Atlas Obscura.

Wari geoglyph found in southern Peru

Archaeologists undertaking investigations in the Peruvian region of Arequipa discovered a large geoglyph last December.

The large geoglyph is being described as similar to the famous Nasca lines
According to Peru21, the geoglyph is approximately 60 meters by 40 meters and is located in the province of Caylloma. Peru21 reports that the initial archaeological investigations were performed at the request of the Consorcio Angostura – Siguas, an agroindustrial company that is executing an irrigation project in the area. Consorcio Angostura – Siguas would have ordered the investigation in order to receive a certificate from the Ministry of Culture stating that there were no archaeological sites in the area, allowing them to continue with their irrigation project.
Experts say that the geoglyph was created by members of the Wari culture in 1200 or 1300 AD. The geoglyph has been dubbed “Gross Munsa,” and is the only known geoglyph in Arequipa.
Peru21 reports that excavators also found other objects that they hope will help to shed some light on Wari culture and practices

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