A view of the Eel River Valley taken on April 2nd…

This photo was taken by a local veteran activist, Fortuna resident, and my buddy, Carl Young. He likes to roam around taking photos in Humboldt County with his fancy camera, and often shares them with me. In turn, I’m sharing one with you now… 

Corporate Scumbag for April: Transocean gives safety bonuses despite Gulf spill deaths

I’m establishing the first “As It Stands Corporate Scumbag of the Year Award” and Transocean Ltd. is the first entry.

Company filing calls safety record 'exemplary' for meeting internal goals…

“Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the "best year in safety performance in our company's history" — despite the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people, including nine of its own employees, and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Story here.

Southwest passengers recount harrowing ordeal as hole opens in plane fuselage

I’ve never never been a fan of flying – see

“Kauai or Bust”

Excerpt:

“I was never enthralled with the concept of hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 or 30,000 feet above the ground. Call me silly or a coward. It was a plane that took me to that dirty little war in Vietnam, and I’d never forgive that airline if I could just remember which one it was!” Editor’s Note: scroll down stories until you get to my column.

Meanwhile…

“Passengers described a harrowing journey Friday when a Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Sacramento suffered a rapid loss of cabin pressure, and the crew found a hole in the top of the fuselage.”

Photo - A cellphone image of the hole in the cabin of a Southwest flight from Phoenix to Sacramento. Flight 812 was diverted to Yuma, Ariz., Friday where it landed safely. (Joshua Hardwicke via Associated Press / April 1, 2011)  Story here.

Here’s five rare disorders you probably never heard of…

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine: Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is an extremely rare neuropsychiatric disorder that causes an exaggerated startle reaction. Something as small as an unexpected poke in the ribs can cause sufferers to jump, scream, flail their arms, hit or throw things, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

The oddly named condition is a nod to the French Canadian lumberjacks in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine -- the original jumping Frenchmen. The cause is unknown, although some researchers believe that a behavioral disorder is at the root of the strange condition, while others argue that it's caused by a gene mutation.

Fregoli delusion: What if your sister, your boyfriend, your boss and your next-door neighbor were really all the same person, who was constantly altering her appearance in order to fool you? Sufferers of Fregoli delusion believe (very, very mistakenly) that different people in their lives are actually the very same person, using an elaborate array of disguises and costumes to trick them.

It's related to Capgras delusion, a rare psychiatric disorder that causes a person to believe her friends or family members have been replaced with impostors. And like Capgras, psychiatrists believe it's the result of troubles with facial perception, which can be caused by traumatic brain injury.

Swallowing syncope: Ever eat such a good meal it made you feel faint? In 2007, UCLA reported a strange case of a 68-year-old woman who was standing at the sink, drinking a glass of milk  -- when she suddenly fainted. Three months later, it happened again, this time while she was eating a bagel. Swallowing syncope -- or, fainting after swallowing -- is unusual, but not unheard of; case reports date back as early as 1958. In this woman's case, doctors prescribed an anticholinergic medication, which stopped her from losing consciousness when swallowing.

Kung fu colitis: This is the sad story of a blow to the stomach that resulted in bloody diarrhea, a trip to the emergency room and an eventual diagnosis of colitis for one poor 21-year-old dude.

The cramps and bloody mess started an hour after he was kicked in class, and it was still happening the next morning, according to a case report in this month's Annals of Emergency Medicine. He was observed for 12 hours in the ER, and then sent home with strict instructions to stick to a clear-fluids diet.

Spasmodic dysphonia: Is it a crime if one can only speak in rhyme? About 30,000 Americans suffer from a mysterious condition called spasmodic dysphonia, which means the parts of their brains controlling speech have malfunctioned. Strangely, many sufferers have found they aren't able to speak in their normal voice -- but if they sing, speak in a silly higher or lower pitch, or recite poetry, they regain their ability to speak.

               Story Source

As I predicted, hate-monger Pastor Terry Jones burned the Koran

Intolerance of American Muslims…

I’ve provided two links below to show how predictable cult leader Pastor Terry Jones is. One reader, commenting on my column when it came out, thought I should just ignore him and he’d go away.

I can’t do that. Jones is part of an overall assault on American Muslims that has seen them go on public trial twice now. First, when lawmaker Peter King held his witch hunt a couple of weeks ago, and then this latest outrage.

If you’re not a Muslim, then you don’t know what it’s like being prosecuted for your religion in America today. In my opinion, there’s already too much intolerance in this country without targeting religious groups.

“American pastor promotes 'International Judge the Koran Day' today” Did you catch the part about “so-called peaceful Muslims” like such a thing is impossible? That tells you that no matter what argument is made for Islam, Pastor Jones and his prejudiced flock will find the religion guilty. Then what? Threaten to burn the Koran again and incite every devout Muslim in the world?

 

Florida pastor oversees Quran burning The controversial Florida pastor who halted plans to burn a Quran on the 9/11 anniversary last year oversaw the burning of the Islamic holy book on Sunday after it was found "guilty" during a "trial" at his church.

I should note that eight UN workers were murdered, two were decapitated, by an outraged crowd in Kabul, Afghanistan when they found out what Jones did.

 

My son Nate is in the news today talking about his up close encounter with a massive land slide

From the Times-Standard today:

“Seeing and hearing the landslide up close; a forgotten clipboard may have saved a life”

By Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard

Posted: 04/01/2011 02:30:36 AM PDT

Plainly, Nathan Stancliff has never liked the route.

Though he's driven his Del Reka Distributing truck from Eureka to Garberville once a week for several months to deliver to Southern Humboldt grocery stores, he's always done so a bit nervously.

“I've told everyone that I don't like this route because I feel there's going to be a landslide,” Stancliff said Thursday -- a day after a massive slide covered all four lanes of U.S. Highway 101 with tons of mud, rocks and debris. “I'm always worried I'm going to end up in a situation where there's going to be a landslide coming down and a cliff on the other side. Imagine that.”

On Wednesday, Stancliff (shown above driving in his truck) didn't have to imagine. He was there to see, hear and feel what he described as “this huge green blob” descend from the mountain to eat the highway. According to Caltrans, what Stancliff saw was a 600-foot-wide piece of earth stretching 1,500 feet up the hillside move at once, descending on the roadway and buckling it 50 feet in both directions.

And if it weren't for an absent-minded moment, Stancliff said, he and his truck might also have been right in the middle of it.

When preparing his truck to head south, Stancliff said, he left his clipboard on the ground of the loading parking lot. He had to turn back to get it, putting him a couple of minutes behind schedule -- a couple of minutes that may have saved his life.

Not thinking much of it, Stancliff said, he proceeded on his route, listening to music and enjoying the day

Everything was pretty calm -- kind of eerie calm,” he said.

Near Phillipsville, Stancliff said, he rolled down his window. A few minutes later, he noticed a growing noise in the distance that began drowning out the music playing in his cab as he came around a sweeping corner.

“You could just hear this crunching -- just crack, crunch, snap, crack,” he said. “Then it didn't take long to realize what the snapping and cracking was -- I saw this tree that is upright sliding down right onto the road in this huge green blob. When I first saw it, the top was moving so quick it was like when you take butter and put it on a hot pan and it just goes bloop. ... And you could feel it when it hit.

”Needless to say,” Stancliff continued, “I was in complete shock. It was dumbfounding. I don't even have the words for it.”

In the moment when he was downshifting his truck, slowing down while approaching the massive slide, Stancliff said he felt oddly calm. His life didn't flash before his eyes. There was no panic.

“When it was so intense there for a minute, I felt kind of at ease and pictured my daughter smiling,” Stancliff said, referring to Carissa Ann, his 4-year-old.

On Thursday, Stancliff said, he's just grateful to be around to tell his story -- grateful that he absent-mindedly left his clipboard on the ground while closing up his truck's tailgate.

“Those couple of minutes were crucial to my being here today,” he said. “It's pretty heavy. It really makes you appreciate life when something like this happens.”

Labor Department says more jobs added, but people are still losing jobs for numerous reasons

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Middle-aged casino waitresses fired after told they don't look good in new uniforms

Employment grew solidly in March; jobless rate declined

“The U.S. economy posted a second straight month of solid gains in March as the nation’s jobless rate fell to a two-year low of 8.8 percent, marking a decisive shift in the labor market that should help to underpin the economic recovery.” Story here.

Waitresses fired when new uniforms don't fit

“Sixteen cocktail waitresses at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City were fired after being told they’re not a fit for the casino’s new sexy uniforms.”  Story Here.

IT'S NOT JUST GLENN BECK: FOX News Has Lost 21% Of Its Audience This Year

Apparently people are figuring out how truthful Fox News is. I knew that it was only a matter of time. The Fox family is losing ratings while the other news outlets are gaining on them.

“All in all Fox News actually lost 21% of its primetime audience during the quarter.
Compare this to CNN which is up 28% in primetime and MSNBC which is up 9% (Rachel Maddow increased by 16.65% and Anderson Cooper by 18%) and then take into consideration all the breaking news there's been since Christmas, and one might begin to draw the conclusion that people are beginning to turn elsewhere for news news coverage.”

source: http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-beck-ratings-fox-q1-2011-3

Want to reduce BPA exposure? Cut canned foods from your diet, report says

Exposure to the chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA, through canned foods and other food packaging can be significantly reduced with simple dietary changes, according to a report released Wednesday by the nonprofit Breast Cancer Fund and the Silent Spring Institute, a breast cancer research group.

BPA is a chemical that is often used in clear, shatterproof plastics, such as baby bottles and food-storage containers, as well as the liners of metal food cans. Studies have shown BPA can leach from plastic and cans into food. Story here.

Bottled water largely unmonitored - flush your habit and turn the tap

Bottled water? That's so '80s.

The $14.4 billion bottled-water market has come under fire for being environmentally incorrect as those discarded plastic containers keep piling up in landfills.

Meanwhile, decades of marketing that touted costly bottled water as cleaner, healthier and better tasting than tap water turned out to be a lot of hype. Not only is most good-old-fashioned tap water safe and clean, experts say, but swearing off the bottle also saves you a bundle.

Here's how to turn on the tap and let the savings pour in — without sacrificing flavor: Full Story

Thanks to Eva for the support.  Currently taking "degree courses online,” she avoids buying bottled water to protect the environment and to save money.