Saturday, August 17, 2013

Oops! Another embarrassing moment for a Republican Pol!

colorado voter fraud 

Exposed! Voter fraud is not as rampant as Colorado's secretary of state has been claiming.

Just when you thought Republicans might stay out of the news for a month or two without making asses of themselves, one of their political luminaries, Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R), announced last month that 155 possibly illegal voters went to the polls in the November 2012 elections - out of more than 3,050,578 voters in Colorado.

Today, a review by Boulder County's top prosecutor has found that all 17 instances of allegedly fraudulent voters in his county were, in fact, verifiable U.S. citizens, The Boulder Daily Camera reported.

You have to hand it to these conservative hammerheads who never stop trying to limit minorities from voting, they’re determined. They’re also rabid racists, and determined.

As It Stands: RNP flips out and bans news outlets they don’t like! Election 2016

By Dave Stancliff

I’m simply stunned at what the Republican National Party (RNP) has done. The party that was thrashed in the last two presidential elections and who vowed to change some things the next time around – read appeal to minorities – is totally gone off it’s tracks.

The train derailed when they voted Friday to bar NBC News and CNN from partnering with them in hosting the 2016 presidential primary debates! Apparently one of the things the GNP decided to change was who gets to report on them. They don’t like being criticized – poor sensitive darlings – and have decided to cut off any legitimate coverage of their political election coverage.

Too bad. They just don’t play well, and like a pack of petulant kids, are pushing out their lower lips: “We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said ahead of the vote to ban NBC News and CNN. “There are plenty of other outlets. We’ll still reach voters, maybe more voters. But CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on their competitors’ networks.”  

Can’t you see Priebus wiping the snot away from his nose after making this announcement? The whole pack of idiots aren’t going to stop there however. The clowns are talking about having Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levine as the moderator for “their debates.” No kidding. They’re that pissed off about having inconvenient facts surfacing about their candidates.

I really do wonder what world these guys live in? Unrealistic ideals are one thing, but to ban any news sources that don’t fit in with their view of the world is scary, senseless, and stupid. What really set the RNP off? I’ll tell you.

NBC Entertainment, a subsidiary of NBC News, is planning on doing a documentary on Hillary Clinton in 2015. CNN is also guilty of planning a a show about her – a biopic on the former secretary of state, next year. Reince Prince Priebus warned that if each network did not cancel planned projects about Clinton, each network’s news division would be barred from participating in official Republican primary debates in 2016.

There you have it. Let’s see if the Democrats ban Fox News from their election coverage. Somehow, I doubt it. But, politics being politics, they might show how stupid they can be in spite of what I think. 

As It Stands, controlling media coverage in America is too Nazi-like for my comfort!

 

Friday, August 16, 2013

As It Stands: Meet a New Cute Mammal today

Mark Gurney

  Good Day World!

TGIF! The weekend looms…meanwhile I’d like to introduce you to a new mammal! He’s new to us, but has been around for a long time.

Brass band buildup….ta da! Say hi to Olinguito (you can call him Fog for short if you’d like).

I can’t wait to see the Olinguito stuffed toy line and the avalanche of other marketing ideas that will surely following this cute critter. Panda’s are going to face a new challenge to their cute mammal monopoly. The world is being introduced to “Fog” by the Smithsonian Institute. Here’s the low down:

A new mammal species has been confirmed by scientists, and it's already melting hearts. The olinguito, described as a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear, is the first new carnivorous mammal identified in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years, and it's considered one of the cutest scientific finds in recent memory.

Photo by Mark Gurney- The newly named "Olinguito" lives in the "cloud forests" in the Andes. Its scientific name, Bassaricyon neblina, comes from the Spanish name for fog.

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

Kristofer Helgen talks about the introduction of the olinguito — a member of the raccoon family who is being described as a cross between a house-cat and a teddy bear.

"It's certainly the cutest new species described in a long time," Roland Kays, director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences said.

In addition to cat and teddy bear comparisons, "it has a bit of monkey and raccoon thrown in there too," said Kays.

The researchers describe the entire olingo family, including a first-time analysis of the elusive olinguito, in the Aug. 15 edition of the journal ZooKeys.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, August 15, 2013

As It Stands: Jetpacks For All & the Oldest Rock Art in North America

         Good Day World!

It’s not just another Thursday…it’s today. You can’t buy it back. No amount of regret will change that.

The alternative? Live it like it’s your last day.

Speaking of days – ancient ones that is – wait till you read the second article I’ve selected for you below: imagine rock art that’s 14,800 years-old and you can see it in Nevada.

The first article is fun. Did you ever see that guy in a jetpack that unexpectedly landed in the middle of a football game years ago? It was pretty cool, but I doubt if anyone in that football stadium ever suspected that someday they too could fly around like Rocket Man of comic book fame.

With that thought in mind: 

That jetpack you always wanted? It's almost ready

If the engineers at Martin Aircraft have their way, you will soon have your very own jetpack: Aviation authorities in New Zealand have given the Christchurch-based company the green light to begin manned test flights of its jetpacks.

Founder Glenn Martin began experimenting with jetpacks about 30 years ago, after spending his youth watching "Thunderbirds" and other action-packed TV shows, Agence France-Presse reports.

RockArt

Rock art in Nevada believed to be oldest in North America

On the west side of Nevada's dried-up Winnemucca Lake, there are several limestone boulders with deep, ancient carvings; some resemble trees and leaves, whereas others are more abstract designs that look like ovals or diamonds in a chain.

The true age of this rock art had not been known, but a new analysis suggests these petroglyphs are the oldest in North America, dating back to between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

As It Stands: You’re not going to get me to lose weight by humilating me!

Good Day World!

Some people mean well. For example, those enthusiastic advocates of fitness who tell us to get off of our lazy asses and to work out.

We are an obese nation these days. No doubt about it. Having said that, I don’t believe you’re going to help someone by humiliating them and expecting them to do something beyond their physical capabilities. 

Enter the motivation gurus who come up with all kinds of cute little exercise routines that are about as useful as quicksand in your front yard! We are not all created equally. Those skinny guys and gals who prance around on our TVs demonstrating the surefire way to fitness are already fit. Get it?

They don’t need the exercise but we’re supposed to think we’re going to look like them if we do everything instructed. Regardless of our body type. That’s about as realistic as believing politicians really work to serve people!

Throw in the products touted by these phys-ed fanatics and you’re bound to be the next Hulk Hogan or Gywneth Paltrow! False promises, I tell you! It’s deceiving to make people think they can miraculously transform their body into a hunk or hunkette.

I’m not saying we don’t need to exercise. We do. But within our physical realities. For some, that just means walking 20 minutes a day. Goading people to perform physical acts with smart ass memes and quotes is not productive…it’s elitist and unrealistic.

I suppose those who are fit enough to enjoy being challenged like this find the popular “get fit” memes and quotes fun. I’m happy for them. But I can tell you right now, humiliating me for the sake of motivation is the wrong way to go.

The following article is what set me off on this rant:  

“So you’re on the couch entering hour three of a Pinterest binge. This is a time when you probably could use a little motivation to get yourself to finally log off and drag your butt to the gym.

That’s essentially the point of “fitspiration” – a cutesy, Internetty term for images and slogans meant to inspire people to meet their fitness goals, hundreds of which are posted and pinned every day on image-heavy social media sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.

And a lot of “fitspo,” as it’s nicknamed, does a great job of doing what it’s intended to do: inspire people to get and stay fit, say body image experts and fitness bloggers.

But mixed right into those healthy messages are also some sneakily harmful underlying themes. “A lot of these things are very reasonable -- they say things like ‘Just start,’” says David LaPorte, a psychologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has studied body image and social media. “Or, I love this one: ‘Failure isn’t falling down; it’s refusing to get back up.’

“The trouble is when you surround all those good messages with images of people that are unattainable for most women, quite frankly,” he says.” Read story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

As It Stands: The Movie Jerry Lewis Made & Never Released Surfaces, But Not in Theatres

Good Day World!

Most people are unaware that Jerry Lewis wrote, produced, and starred in a movie – “The Day The Clown Cried” - in 1972. That’s because he never released it, knowing it was a clunker upon finishing the project. So the movie stayed hidden all these years.

But on August 10th, YouTube user Unclesporkums uploaded perhaps the longest clip (it's a 7-minute "Making of Footage" collection of clips) to ever publicly surface of the film in the past 41 years, which introduces the movie mistake to a whole new generation. Lewis plays a circus performer who is taken by the Nazis after making fun of Hitler.

In the concentration camp where he's sent, he amuses the children with his routine, and eventually walks with them into a gas chamber. The last scene involves Lewis' clown (Helmut Doork) and the children laughing while the gas surrounds them. hole new generation. (A nearly 1-minute "behind the scenes" clip is also available.)

The film was not made as a comedy; it was to have been Lewis' first foray into serious drama. But after test screenings went terribly wrong, Lewis (who told Dick Cavett in 1973 that he'd planned to release it at the Cannes Film Festival) pulled the film. When he was asked about the movie at Cannes this year, the 87-year-old Lewis said, "It was all bad and it was bad because I lost the magic. You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work."

Only a select few have seen the film since Lewis packed it away, and one is comedian (and frequent voice on "The Simpsons") Harry Shearer, who saw a rough cut in 1979. As he told Spy magazine in 1992, it's no surprise that the film won't get a public release.” (Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Monday, August 12, 2013

LA To San Francsico in 35 minutes via the new Hyperloop!

Hyperloop passenger capsule version cutaway with passengers onboard.

You might want to sit down for this piece of high tech news that may change the way you travel…soon!

It’s called Electromagnetic Acceleration.

Photo via Elon Musk / Tesla Motors / SpaceX ;A conceptual rendering shows the Hyperloop passenger pod inside a low-pressure tube.

It’s the high technology behind the high-speed transit concept that billionaire Elon Musk calls the Hyperloop.

Musk — who already plays leading roles in the SpaceX rocket venture, the Tesla electric car company and the SolarCity solar-energy company — unveiled his vision of the Hyperloop today.

____________________________________________________

The Hyperloop would send travelers through low-pressure steel tubes in specialized pods that zoom at high subsonic speeds, reaching about 760 mph (1,220 kilometers per hour). That compares with typical speeds of 110 mph (for U.S. systems) to 300 mph (in China) for high-speed rail travel.

_______________________________________________

The plan is aimed at cutting the travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to 35 minutes, at a price of $20 for a one-way trip. Musk said the Hyperloop arrangement could be implemented between any pair of cities situated up to, say, 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) apart.

Hyperloop capsule in tube cutaway with attached solar arrays

For longer distances, air travel would probably be more efficient, he said.

In a blog posting and a 57-page PDF file about the Hyperloop, Musk said he came up with the plan out of frustration with the shortcomings of California's $68 billion high-speed rail project, which is just getting started. read story here

As It Stands: Sanjay Stands up for Pot - ‘We’ve Been Mislead’

Good Day World!

Just when I was wondering if any progress would ever be made after the Supreme court’s moronic decision not to recognize it’s medicinal values, along comes some good news!

A notable neurosurgeon discovers what it can do for people with epilepsy and completely reverses everything he’s said for years on TV about it being bad! More news like this will force the feds to give in to some sane marijuana policy some day…I’m just not sure when.  

We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.” - Sanjay Gupta

Who is Sanjay Gupta?

Sanjay Gupta is an American neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

Why Did he Make Headlines on Marijuana Last Week?

Sanjay Gupta changes mind on weed but debate continues

The haze surrounding Sanjay Gupta's stance on medical marijuana use has cleared. The TV doctor says he just wasn't looking hard enough.

CNN's chief medical correspondent announced his change in heart Aug. 8 in an online op-ed, Why I Changed My Mind on Weed, promoting his specialWeed, a documentary premiering tonight at 8 p.m. on CNN.

Gupta says he used to oppose the use of medical marijuana. But after more research, he says he has changed his mind, and has apologized for earlier statements, including his 2009 TIME magazine article Why I Would Vote No on Pot. Story here

CNN's Sanjay Gupta Talks 'Weed' and His Evolving View of Medical Marijuana

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's views on medical marijuana are evolving. In a candid admission, CNN's chief medical correspondent wrote an op-ed this week, "Why I Changed My Mind on Weed," explaining that he reevaluated his stance on the use of marijuana in certain medical treatments. Story here

Sanjay Gupta documentary outlines his marijuana research findings

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, apologized for his previous anti-marijuana stance after spending a year reporting on the subject. His findings are highlighted in a special called “Weed” that debuted Sunday and will be rebroadcast on Friday at 10 p.m.

Gupta called his research “stunning” and posted a mea culpa on the CNN website, “Why I changed my mind about weed.” In 2009, he wrote a piece in Time magazine explaining why he thought marijuana should not be legalized. While Gupta doesn’t specifically espouse legalization, he said he finds plenty of positives about cannabis.

“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that,” he wrote. “I hope this article and upcoming documentary will help set the record straight.” Story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Sunday, August 11, 2013

As It Stands: When love calls: a brief look at a four-letter word

                             
By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard

The Beatles had it right when they sang, “All you need is love.”

The most positive emotion in humans is love. It moves mountains. It saves lives. No amount of money will ever buy it. Your body and mind need it like oxygen.

 It has spawned poems since ancient times when rhymes were written for Kings and Queens. C.S. Elliot describes four kinds of love in his book “The Four Loves.”  They are based upon the Greek words for love;  Storge (affection), Phileo (friendship,) Eros (romance), and Agape (unconditional love).

 Love is the best anti-depressant, but many of our ideas about it are wrong. Most of us get our ideas about love from the popular culture. We expect to be swept off our feet when in love. We tend to have unrealistic images that don’t fit with the real world.

 The myth in our culture is love just happens. It appears out of nowhere and suddenly you are intoxicated. It doesn’t work that way. You have to actively pursue love by learning a variety of skills. You can’t just sit down and wait for love to come to you. That’s a mistake a lot of us make.

Hate controls everything it touches, but love sets everything it touches free,” said Bryant McGill, in The Voice of Reason. It’s true. Love can give us a new lease on life. It has no boundaries, other than the ones we set upon it.

 An extremist when it came to love, Kurt Vonnegut also had a healthy irreverence about it. In The Sirens of Titan he said, “A purpose in human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

In The Brothers Karamazov Fydor Dostoyevsky forcefully describes love. “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”

Paulo Coelho in Zahir: A Novel of Obsession, wrote, “Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.”

 Honore de Balzac, who knew a thing or two about all-consuming love, wrote Physiologie Du Marriage.  In it he states, “The more one judges, the less one loves.” The wisdom of this quote really resonates when you think about it. I think we’re all guilty, at one time or another, of harshly judging others.

 One of my favorite quotes about love comes from Agatha Christie who wrote in her biography: “It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize how much you love them.”

 It was Albert Einstein who asked, “How are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”

 When I try to describe my first love (who I married) the words seem sappy and silly. I found that love grew, and was not a static thing.The longer you love, the deeper it goes. I know this from experience.

Poets and authors worldwide have talked about love since the days of yore, but the subject never seems to be exhausted. People have always written about it, big and small. Love is always a fresh subject.

 Love is hard to define. How do you avoid mistaking it for infatuation or lust? Not even an experienced person can give a definite answer to that question. Psychologists talk about “that initial glow” (for the first six months) when a couple fall in love. It’s almost a fairytale come true, but always ends in reality. If love survives the rigors of  the world, it’s true love.

Love is your mother watching basketball games with me, even though she doesn’t care about the game,” I explained to my sons early on. “Love is selfless. It bends under stress, but always rebounds when given a chance.”

 Contrary to what some people may think, love has no price, yet still has to be earned. A mother’s love for her child is the exception, because it has no bounds or requirements. I’ve seen love in my wife’s eyes for 39 years, despite all the dumb things I’ve done during that time.

 Yes, I believe in the power of love. During my hippie days in the late sixties, I eagerly embraced the message of “Peace and Love” even though I was a stranger to it. Love does make the world go around, of that I‘m sure.

 As It Stands, to have truly lived, we must have love in our lives.

Universal Music Power

In a delightful description of the power of music William Congreve wrote "Music hath charms to sooth a savage beast..." in his 16...