Motivated Lakers out for playoff vengeance

It’s that time again when the Lakers meet someone in the Western Conference. This year, it’s the Suns.

Nothing would make Kobe happier than beating old foes Suns, Celtics

Today’s photo: ‘A bad day in suburbia’ – see more below

A tow truck operator looks to tow a Jeep Liberty after the driver, who claims the accelerator stuck, drove it through the back wall of his garage on Monday, May 17, in Lancaster, Pa. The driver was not hurt. (Dan Marschka/Lancaster Newspapers via AP

For more interesting photos go here

Pesticides in kids linked to ADHD

I always suspected that the crap we spray on fruits and vegetables was dangerous to more than just insects.

This research confirms one of my fears: young children with developing nerve systems are at risk, and the connection between the pesticides and ADHD now prove that.

There’s one answer. Eat organic and locally grown products. I know that real organic food is more expensive but the trade-off is a no-brainer. 

Researcher advises parents to buy organic, wash produce

Excerpt:

“Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly foods — including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery — appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, new research shows.”

Video: Pesticides linked to ADHD in kids?

As It Stands: How to get in trouble for telling the truth -- be a Whistleblower

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

They're average folk, but when they decide to step up and tell the truth about what's wrong in their work place, they become targets. Their lives are often ruined because they are honest.

They're Whistleblowers, who reveal wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority. In my opinion, they're heroes in an age when heroes are all too rare.

Remember Karen Silkwood? She was an American labor union activist and a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee plant near Crescent, Okla., in 1974. A movie was based on her story.

Police suspicions about her mysterious death led to a federal investigation into nuclear plant security and safety. Silkwood exposed the hazards of nuclear energy and raised questions about corporate accountability and responsibility. She paid the ultimate price for revealing Kerr-McGee's dangerous practices.

More recently, Wendell Potter, a former vice president of Corporate Communications at CIGNA, one of the biggest health insurance organizations in the country, testified against the HMO industry in the U.S. Senate.

What motivated Potter to expose his employers? You might say he an epiphany when he saw a touring free clinic run by Remote Area Medical in rural Virginia. He was horrified by the hundreds of desperate people, most without medical insurance, who came from the hills for basic medical help.

GO HERE TO READ THE REST.

Pill-Popping Pitbull Needs Viagra to Live

A veterinarian suggested Viagra as a solution to keep the small pooch up and running.

And it appears to be working.

Read all about Ingrid’s (photo right) harrowing life and why Viagra is saving it.

Here’s a good read for a Saturday

Stupid is, stupid does: Palin still says ‘drill,baby,drill’

Sarah Palin will say anything such as Obama would ban guns if he could just to please her audience.

In this case, for the National Rifle Association members who’ve been waiting with baited breath for someone to dare introduce ANY anti-gun legislation.

It’s been 18 months since Obama took office and they’re still waiting. They’re still cleaning their semi-automatic weapons every night, dreaming of parading down streets with them on their backs in a “patriotic” protest. I kinda feel sorry for the fools, but if they want to live their lives fearing someone is going to take away their weapons…so be it. One of these days their parade will come. So don’t worry loyal NRA members, you’ll get your dues worth someday when CNN shows you trying to shoot skeet on the White House Lawn!

 In her usual clever way, Palin is encouraging “mama grizzlies” to vote all Democrats out of public offices in November. Her desire to see Alaska “drill, baby, drill” is still strong, and it makes you wonder about those articles regarding her and her Big Oil buddies while she was in office. You have to hand it to her though, at the end of the day she got PAID for(and folks that’s why she decided not to finish her term as governor, because it paid peanuts compared to what she could get for public speaking and writing -more like dictating to someone who could write- right-wing rhetoric.

Listen folks…Kagan is an average American Aaand …

 

Cartoon source: Mike Lester / The Rome (GA) News-Tribune, Politicalcartoons.com

High on pot initiative passing? Intrade has investment for you

Somehow I just knew Wall Street vultures would figure out a way to make money BEFORE marijuana became legal.

I call it the Goldman-Sachs effect.

The Intrade prediction market, an on-line trading network that enables investors to buy and sell shares based on forecasting events, is trying to cash in on curiosity over the outcome of California's November vote on legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Go here to read more.            Image Source

Friday Trivia Corner: World’s strangest vending machines

The world’s first vending machine apparently dates back to the first century, when Hero of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, devised a coin-operated mechanism that would dispense holy water.

Perhaps because that was such a tough act to follow, vending machines didn’t really evolve again until the 19th century, when Industrial Age machines started selling postcards or gum.

From pizza to a bar of gold, the oddest items — instantly

PHOTO: ‘Let’s Pizza” machines, found in a few shopping malls and airports in Italy will make an individual pizza from scratch in just under three minutes for $5-$8.

Family sues teacher in taped beating of student

I have never heard of a woman teacher beating up a teenage boy in school. Maybe I’ve led a sheltered life. I don’t know.

The odd thing about this situation is there’s no explanation why she beat the boy up. I have to think he really pushed her button damn hard to have her react like this.

Not knowing these details makes it hard to understand how this could happen. The boy might have attacked her and she just got the better of him. Who knows?

Attack at Houston, Texas, school was caught by classmate on a cell phone

Recycled cigarette butts keep steel pipes from rusting

Okay…I gotta hand it to the Chinese. Recycling nasty cigarette butts is a stroke of genius. Now, if they’ll just tie it in with the toxic drywall they’ve been selling us, homeowners can coat all the steel fixings in their house effectively stopping the toxic fumes from rusting them.

Call it serendipity. Call it whatever you want. No one knows toxic better than the Chinese.

China scientists find use for cigarette butts:

Toxic chemicals can be recycled to protect steel pipes from rusting

Photo source