Things you should know about your rights on the web...

Are you interested in knowing what your rights are when it comes to Internet usage? Do you want to be kept informed of anything that may interfere with your First Amendment Rights on the web? Then here's a good link for you this morning:

FROM the Electronic Frontier Foundation...

EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit group of passionate people—lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — who depend on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight —and win—more cases.

Click here for the whole article.

image via Google Images

Here are some Links and Resources on Media Reform...

WARNING! This information is scary if you value free speech and oppose mind control...

FROM THE MEDIA REFORM INFORMATION CENTER...

"In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation."

Read the rest of the story here.

Lost robot crosses city by asking directions!

FROM New Scientist...

Robots are getting better at finding their way around unknown areas, and making their own maps as they explore. But robots lost in urban areas don't need to rely on their own faculties to get from place to place, German roboticists have shown.

Their mobile robot simply rolls up to any humans nearby and asks for directions. By using that strategy, their robot has become one of the first to be properly let loose in the real world, not just carefully controlled environments.

Martin Buss's team at the Technical University of Munich dumped their mobile robot outside the university and instructed it to find its way to the Marienplatz in the center of Munich, some 1.5 kilometers away.

Click here for the rest of this story.

Wildlife Crew Finds Rare Albino Raccoon At Construction Site

FROM CITY NEWS...
It's not exactly one in a million - more like one in 500,000. But it's still a pretty rare sight. A Toronto wildlife company responding to a request for help has found a rare while albino raccoon at a construction site at Yonge and Eglinton.

The animal was one of a litter of five babies, and looks almost like a pig instead of one of the traditional "black masked bandits." It also lacked a striped tail.

How rare are the creatures? Brad Gates of Gates Wildlife Control, whose company was behind the discovery, says over the past 25 years, his people have only ever come across the phenomenon twice - the other time was in Mississauga. He estimates it's a 1-in-500,000 shot.

He tells CityNews.ca it's "a busy construction site" that's about to be sealed off and they needed to finally get rid of the raccoons. What happens to it now? It will be given back to its mother - arrangements are being made to trap her sometime on Monday night.

The entire family will then be "relocated" elsewhere in the area.

When asked if they won't just cause more problems for some other resident, Gates admits it's possible. But he says once a raccoon gets used to living in a city environment, it can't be sent back to the wild. He notes the mother will "teach the babies everything they need to know" to survive in the urban jungle.

Photo courtesy: Gates Wildlife Control

Scientific breakthrough proves there's water on Mars!

Credit & Copyright: Ellen Roper (GCC)

Heil! America? THE ORIGINAL PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE SALUTE

 

I don't remember saluting the flag at all when I was in elementary school in the 1950s. We did put our hand over our hearts however. I find it interesting that this was the way American's saluted the flag prior to the Nazi's infamous salute. You learn something new every day...

From Slightly Warped Curiosities...

When the Pledge of Allegiance was originally written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who was - ironically - a socialist magazine writer, he included instructions on how to properly salute the flag while reciting his oath.

Dubbed "The Ballamy Salute" after its creator, school children were instructed to recite the pledge with the right arm out in a stiff salute outstretched to the flag.  This practice actually was adopted and continued until the early 1940's when it was noticed that the American salute bore a striking resemblance to a salute that another country was using.

Naturally, the salute quickly fell out of style and was replaced by placing the right hand over your heart as we do today.

Using the outstretched salute is a tradition that goes all the way back to the Romans, but after the Nazis, it's unlikely we'll see a resurgence of the original Pledge of Allegiance salute anytime soon.

FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS and get in touch with your inner kid!

  ATTENTION ALL GROWNUPS!

 Your "inner child" has long been waiting for a chance to usurp control of your body and force it to perform certain actions.

The time is now at hand. Read and follow the these instructions 

  The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity."  -   T. H. Huxley

John Moran's: River of Dreams - Fireflies on the Ichetucknee

"...Night settles in and the fireflies begin their flickering dance in the woods. Rising at my feet, the endless gushing waters of a living planet complete the seduction. Once again, the river affirms that magic still happens in the dark."

John Moran's, Florida Nature Photography studio, offers some beautiful original works like the one above.

 

What would you pay for a heart-shaped watermelon?

Having mastered the art of making square watermelons and even pyramid watermelons, Japanese farmers turned to making heart-shaped watermelons.

These 15,750 yen ($160) watermelons were grown by a couple and took three years to perfect down to the point where they were good enough to convince people to pay $160 for them. There's only 20 melons in this batch, but we're sure Mr. and Mrs. Hiroichi Kimura will grow more next season. image/story via Gizmoda via Asahi via Japan Probe via Inventor Spot via Boi

Drive-In Memories: Car Culture meets movies for successful run

I can clearly recall going to the "outside movies" during the 1950s and 1960s, with my siblings and parents. We'd stop at McDonalds and load up on 15 cent burgers and fries (they were cheaper than the movie snack bar), and head to the show.

Us kids use to spend our time on the playground on the swings or the merry-go-round, while sometimes stopping to see what was happening on the big screen. I had an appendix attack when I was 10-years-old while playing on the playground. I went down writhing in pain so my sister ran back to the car to get Dad.

He didn't know what to think but rushed me to the hospital where I had my appendix removed that night! Oh the memories! In the 1960s, I took more than one young lady to a drive-in movie, as it was an established place to make out!

From badfads.com ... 

The first drive-in movie was shown in the driveway of Richard Hollingshead's Camden, New Jersey home. Hollingshead sat in his car while his 16 millimeter projector displayed a movie on a screen he projected.

He took this concept and expanded it with the idea of allowing hundreds of people to watch a movie from the privacy of their own automobiles.

On June 7, 1933, Hollingshead opened the world's first drive-in movie theater in Camden. Within the fan shaped, tiered parking lot and inclined ramps, more than 400 cars in eight rows came to watch a movie on a 30 x 40 foot screen. The theater was an immediate success and Hollingshead and his cousin created a drive-in movie theater franchise throughout the United States

Click here for the rest of the story.

image via badfads.com