Playoff Sunday: My Picks & Why 50% of NFL Players use Pot

Good Day World!

It’s NFL Playoff Sunday!

Tom Brady Peyton Manning, Colin Kaepernick, and Russell Wilson. Four men whose names are going to be cursed or blessed, depending upon if they can steer their respective teams to victory today.

Guts and gridiron. Less talked about, is the pain from a hard season of injuries. How do players today deal with the pain? You may be surprised that sources say half of the players in the NFL use pot for pain management.

Here’s an extensive look at marijuana use in the NFL, by Andrea Kremer of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel . They ask senior V.P. of labor law and policy Adolpho Birch whether a player who believes marijuana helps him with pain management and recovery should smoke it?

What do you think?

After more years than I would care to admit of being an armchair quarterback, I have come to the conclusion that the 49er’s will be playing the Broncos in the Super Bowl! Take it to the bank!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Mourning in Motor City: Murder Rate Among Highest in the Nation

 Good Day World!

The last time I was in Michigan was in the early 1970s with my father. We went up to Marlette to visit his brother and family.

I remember laughing at the tiger teeth that came onto the television screen whenever a Detroit Tiger would get a home-run during the 1972 season when Billy Martin was the manager.

Upstate Michigan was pretty laid back. In Detroit, Motown Records was setting records with great performances by Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Jackie Wilson.

Motown was an American record company founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. in 1959 in Detroit, Michigan. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music by achieving a crossover success.

But Detroit, like the rest of the great State of Michigan, is in the dumps now. It’s become the Murder Capital again, and the population heavily reflects people who can’t afford to leave the chaos. Those with money slipped out slowly over the last decade leaving a shell behind them.Detroit became the first American city to declare bankruptcy.

It’s sad to see. Here’s a recent article about the increase in crime:

“A dwindling population -- 706,585 people in 2011, according to the U.S. Census estimate -- and the rise in homicides combined to make Detroit’s murder rate among the highest in the nation, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Police Chief Chester Logan announced at a press conference.”

 Read the rest here 

Related:

• Three men dead, several wounded after shootout near Detroit barbershop
• Renisha McBride shooting: Trial set for June
• Girl, 4, fatally shoots cousin, 4, while playing at grandpa's Detroit home

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Beef Armageddon! Higher prices and less stock in stores soon

Good Day World!

I’m thinking about giving up meat.

Beef for sure.

At least when it comes to anything more than hamburgers. Steaks are just getting too expensive.

See the link below for more on that.

I remember when I use to shake my head at the price of Lobster (I finally quit eating it).

There’s a lot of good reasons to quit eating beef right now. Health scares around red meat and beef products like "pink slime' - which celebrity chef Jamie Oliver compared to dog food – are a good start. Then there’s the whole butchering process. If you’ve ever witnessed it you understand why some people become vegetarians.

Cattle supply is at an all-time low in the U.S. after nearly three years of drought, which led to more farmers killing off their herds earlier than planned. U.S. beef output will hit a 20-year low of 24.205 billion pounds this year, according to Department of Agriculture forecasts.

Meanwhile, prices are going sky high. I’m on the verge of stopping my chicken consumption too. The latest news about Foster Farms and cockroaches has grossed me out. I’m just waiting for some bad news about pork.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Related stories:

Beef prices at new high

Lean times at the grill

Pork and beef get rebranded

New Study: Find out why birds fly in a V formation

 Good Day World!

I’ve often wondered how birds manage to fly in such a perfect wedge.

Was one bird (alpha bird?) leading the way at the head of each flying V? Did they practice a lot to achieve such precision? Or was it some strange built-in flying in formation gene?

In case you wondered how our feathered friends are able to fly in such precise military-looking formations I found this intriguing article: 

“The next time you see birds flying in a V, consider this: A new study says they choreograph the flapping of their wings with exquisite precision to help them on their way.

That's what scientists concluded after tracking a group of large black birds, each equipped with a tiny GPS device to record its position and every wing flap. One expert in animal flight said just gathering that data was a remarkable accomplishment.

The scientists reported their results online Wednesday in the journal Nature. It's the first experimental evidence that birds can adjust their flapping to take advantage of the wake, Florian Muijres and Michael Dickinson of the University of Washington wrote in an accompanying commentary.” (Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Explore the World’s Largest Cannabis Strain Resource

 Good Day World!

 Every now and then, I promote a website that I think is well-designed and of general interest.

Today’s selection is LEAFLY.

They claim to be the world’s largest Cannabis strain resource. You can search based on type, effects, ratings and more. Over 500 strains available.

  I particularly like the feature where you can explore medicinal uses and effects of Cannabis. Find out what strains are best for anxiety/PTSD, or for chronic pain.

You will also get directions to the nearest dispensary (if you live in states that allow medical marijuana) to where you live. Map and directions.

Just sign up and start shopping now! Let me know what you think.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Hide $25 million from the IRS and try to get away with it – Beanie Baby inventor did!

 People ask me why I don’t believe in our justice system.

It’s cases like this that bolster my contention that the rich are held to a different standard when it comes to getting caught committing crimes, and paying for them afterwards.

Point in case: The billionaire creator of Beanie Babies on Tuesday avoided prison and was sentenced to two years probation and community service for failing to pay taxes on $25 million in income he'd hidden in an offshore account. He faced up to 5 years in prison, but didn’t get sentenced to a day behind bars!
From MBC 5 News:

"It is imperative that when an individual brazenly breaks the law and lies repeatedly, year over year on their income tax returns, and evades the payment of millions of dollars of taxable income, that that person be held accountable," said Zach Fardon, the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. "And that's true if you're rich or you're poor. No one is above the law, and everyone, including the wealthy, has to pay their dues."

I guess Zack Fardon is a newcomer to the system if he really believes no one is above the law. Look at what happened in the case he tried.

Forget “Justice for all – it’s “money makes things right” when your caught breaking the law in America.

‘As It Stands’ hits 2 Million visitor mark! Thank you!

 I registered 2 million hits several hours ago! 

I never suspected when I started this blog in July of 2008, that I would still be publishing it almost six years later and have over two million views.

“As It Stands” has evolved slowly over those years. For five of them I carried my “As It Stands” newspaper columns every week. There’s still links to them on the right.

But, I moved out of Humboldt County – said goodbye to the local newspaper The Times-Standard and came to Medford, Oregon. I spend my time now putting together learning boards for a social media website – Learnist (see examples of my work on the right).

This last year year I’ve focused on a format that offers current news, opinions, and slices of my life carefully parceled out and documented. Thus far, this new formula has resulted in increased traffic and connections to people. My contact list has doubled in the last 12 months.

More importantly, I’m having fun. Do you have a blog? If you do, are you having fun? If not, then why not?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Is the strange fish-animal that sported hind legs a link to humans?

 Good Day World!

 What do you think?

Do the little fishy things in this photo have a humanoid smile?

For those of you who hold fast to evolutionary theories for mankind, this is the latest link between humans and something that crawled out of the evolutionary caldron commonly called the ocean.

But don’t get too excited. Tiktaalik roseae is not the missing link bridging humans and fish. That remains to be found.

Here’s the story: 

“The closest known relative of the ancestors of limbed animals such as humans probably evolved the foundation for rear legs even before the move to land, researchers say. This ancestor may have even been able to walk underwater, they added.

These findings reveal that a key step in the evolution of hind limbs happened in fish, challenging previous theories that such appendages evolved only after the move to land.

Scientists investigated fossils of a 375 million-year-old fish known as Tiktaalik roseae, discovered in 2004 on northern Canada's Ellesmere Island. Possessing a broad flat head and sharp teeth, Tiktaalik resembled a cross between a fish and a crocodile, growing to a length of 9 feet (2.7 meters) as it hunted for prey in shallow freshwater.

Study lead author Neil Shubin, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, told LiveScience that Tiktaalik is not the ancestor of all limbed vertebrates. It is currently the closest known relative, "but not the sole, direct ancestor," he said. "It is more like our closest cousin."

” ( See Images of Bizarre Tiktaalik Fish Fossils ) (Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Find out Why a Pimp sued Nike –You won’t believe it!

Good Day World!

I could launch into a litany of frivolous lawsuits, but I’ll just give one example for today. 

Each story I read on the subject seems to outdo the last for sheer stunning gall. Isn’t there something that can be done about these moronic lawsuits?

Here’s the story from USA Today:

“A Portland pimp is suing Nike for not placing a warning label in their shoes specifying that they could be used as a dangerous weapon -- after he was sentenced to 100 years in prison for brutally beating a john with his sneaker.

Sirgiorgiro Clardy, 26, claims Nike should have placed a warning in the shoes warning consumers that the kicks have the potential to be used as a dangerous weapon, according to The Oregonian newspaper. Clardy is seeking $100 million for what he believes was the shoe manufacturer’s oversight.

In June, Clardy repeatedly stomped on the face of a client with his Jordan Nike shoes when the man refused to pay Clardy’s prostitute. The man required stitches and plastic surgery after the beating.

Clardy was sentenced to 100 years in prison for beating the man as well as attacking an 18-year-old prostitute so violently that she bled from her ears.

Clardy has been charged with numerous felonies and misdemeanors, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

The jury in Clardy’s most recent case called him a “dangerous offender” and classified his shoes as “a dangerous weapon” in order to assure he received the longest prison sentence possible, according to The Oregonian.

Clardy wrote a three-page complaint against Nike from the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution where he is incarcerated, reported The Oregonian. In the claim he said Nike “failed to warn of risk or to provide an adequate warning or instruction,” by not cautioning that their shoes are “potentially dangerous.” 

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Now you can outshoot an experienced shooter without experience

Good Day World!

 Pow!

Take a gander at this baby. It’s the new AR Smart Rifle by TrackingPoint.

The technology in this weapon automatically makes you a crack shot. Even if you’ve never fired a weapon in your life.  You’ll be able to hit anything within a 500-yard range. It has five times the accuracy of an experienced shooter!

The user simply "tags" the target, and the gun and ammo do the rest, all for a mere $9,950 - the starting price for the new series.

The gun can track a target moving at up to 10 mph and allows for rapid engagement, meaning a person can shoot multiple targets quickly.

Is it just me that thinks this is scary?

Just imagine the possibilities. Law enforcement across the country will be outgunned by deadly neophytes who can afford to pay 10 grand.

The makers of the new Smart Rifle say they’re going to be picky about who they sell it to. They want someone who is going to shoot it a lot, and is willing to give them plenty of input throughout the process. Be that as it may, I doubt if they’re going to turn away a paying customer who doesn’t want to play their game.

TrackingPoint is the inventor of Precision Guided Firearms, a guided shooting system that the company says creates the most accurate guns in the world. The new rifle is the company's first semi-automatic series.

Think about it. No more wounding people or animals. Each shot spells a kill. The final frontier of firearms has arrived – you don’t have to know about a damn thing when it comes to shooting them – just point and fire.

Time for me to walk on down the road…