-------------------------------------------------
A Civil War-era photograph featuring a man with more than a passing resemblance to Nicolas Cage had the Internet buzzing last year when it appeared on eBay. On Thursday night's "Late Show With David Letterman," the actor chimed in on the image and addressed the ridiculous rumor that the man in the photo might actually be him.
--------------------------------------------------
1. Henry Ford forgot to put a reverse gear in his first automobile.
2. Cut flowers become sleepy and wilt in the presence of Apples.
3. In 1913, the tax on a $4000 annual income was one penny.
4. Ninety Seven percent of all people offered a new pen to try, write their own name.
5. A dog is as old at 12 years as a man at 84.
6. Saturday is the most dangerous day to drive a car.
7. In the U.S. a person dies every 14.5 seconds.
8. If a color blinded woman marries a man with normal vision, all of their sons will be color blind,the daughters will have normal vision.
9. It cannot be proved by the bible that Christ ever smiled.
10. 60 days are required for a housefly to become a grandmother.
11. A mans beard grows about an inch in 8 weeks.
12. 7 suicides are recorded in the bible.
13. Theodore Roosevelt was the only president not sworn in on the bible.
14. 72 muscles are used in speaking 1 word.
15. The eggs of a water flea hatch 10 years after they are laid.
16. During WW2 it cost the US $225,00 to kill an enemy soldier.
17. Mosquitoes prefer children to adults and blonds to brunettes.
18. When reduced to dust a diamond is as black as carbon.
19. The nine most useful words: and,be,it,of,the,will,I,have,you.
20. A normal person can lose as much as 1/3 his blood without fatality.
Today’s road leads us to a place where children are not safe. Especially the inner cities poor children. The arrest of two longtime teachers at Miramonte Elementary School opened a window to a problem that exists in other poor school districts.
The charges are shocking, but the choice of victims comes as little surprise.
At Miramonte, the victims could hardly have been more disadvantaged: The 1,400 students are virtually all from poor Latino homes, a majority from immigrant families where English isn't spoken at home, and some with parents lacking legal immigrant status. It's a voiceless community where fear is ingrained — fear of authority, fear of the police, fear of immigration enforcement, fear of retribution.
The hard-pressed barrio school is just the kind of place where an adult with bad intentions could take advantage of a child, knowing there was little chance a victimized family would report the acts. Or if they did, little chance they would be believed.
You have lots of the very poor who don't even know what their rights are. Miramonte is not Malibu. It's not a sophisticated community. It's a perfect recipe for a predator. According to Lisa Aronson Fontes, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts who wrote Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families, "There's a culture of silence at most schools … and a culture of disbelief and denial."
In the case of Miramonte Elementary, administrators fired the whole teaching staff. I’m not sure that’s the answer for dealing with this situation, but they felt they had to. I wish I knew the answer to protecting these disadvantaged children throughout our nation. Sadly, I’m not sure there is an answer.
Time to walk on down the road…
Nowadays, Sharpie markers come in more than basic black––they’re available in every color of the rainbow, and in just about every size and shape. They’re great for everyday labeling and organizing, but did you know that they could also be used to decorate everything from guitars to fingernails? From a Lamborghini turned objet d’art to a wall mural, check out how different artists uncapped their creativity.
George Ramos spent two weeks on this intricately designed Lamborghini––he used Sharpie markers to create the design and then topped it off with a clear coat of paint to protect the pattern. The car was displayed at the Concorso Italiano, a festival celebrating Italian style, in Monterey, California, and received plenty of appreciative nods. Photo courtesy of George Ramos.
Peter Bragino created a custom design on his Ibanez guitar using an industrial-strength Sharpie marker––no sanding or topcoat was needed to preserve the long-lasting design. He penned this intricate work of art at his Brooklyn, New York, art gallery, THECEEFLAT. Photo courtesy of Peter Bragino.
Would you like to see more examples? Go here.
------------------------------
Big Splash, or “Hong Dong” in Chinese, is an 11-month-old Red Tibetan Mastiff. He already stands nearly three-feet-high at the shoulder and weighs more than 180 lbs.
He was recently purchased by a Chinese coal baron.
------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firefighters rescued a man who got stuck twice on elevators Sunday night in a downtown Chicago building. The man called for help after getting trapped in an elevator at 65 East Monroe St. around 9:15 p.m., according to Battalion Chief Michael Gubricky. For more, visit NBCChicago.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Day Humboldt County!
Everybody lies — even doctors.
I’ve been saying this for years. Not only do they lie as a matter of convenience, but they often can’t agree on things like medication, or if vitamins are necessary to promote good health. For example: I have a civilian doctor and a VA doctor who are on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to taking Vitamin D. One says you can’t take enough and the other says Vitamin D doesn’t do anything good at all.
Take this new study that found 11 percent of doctors say that they have told a patient or a child's guardian something that was not true in the past year, and about 20 percent say they have not fully disclosed a mistake to a patient because they were afraid of being sued. The results also show 34 percent of doctors surveyed did not "completely agree" that physicians should disclose all significant medical errors to affected patients. Instead, these doctors said they only somewhat agreed, or disagreed.
Between lies and individual opinions on what is good and bad for us, the hunt for a “good” doctor looks like a lost cause. The fact that they lie to us at times comes as no shock to me. Patients should be aware that doctors don’t always have their best interests in mind. And, when they do screw up, they often hide the fact.
Time to walk on down the road…
Good Day Humboldt County!
The road we’re taking today may be a familiar one to you. Have you ever had a hard time recognizing someone’s face? Someone you knew, like a celebrity perhaps? I know I have because of my short, and long term, memory loss from PTSD. It actually happens a lot to me.
There’s another reason why people have trouble recognizing faces. A study,published Jan. 23 in the journal Brain, talks about individuals who have prosopagnosia. If you’ve never heard of prosopagnosia, don’t feel alone. I know I haven’t. Apparently it’s a disorder rendering people unable to distinguish another's mug. Researchers say the reason for that is a breakdown in a brain pathway used to process faces. Study researcher Bradley Duchaine, of Dartmouth University, told LiveScience there are probably different types of prosopagnosia.
Anyway, I’ve learned something new today. Read the entire article here.
Time to walk on down the road…
This one of those “When you See It…” type of photos that really throw you off at first.
But then when it suddenly popped-out, I spilled my drink all over myself. Hint: with a little luck…you’ll see the word
_ _ _ k
So how long did it take before you were able to see it?
Do you like random illusions and stuff like that?
Because if you do I have just the place for you here.
Fishermen tie ropes around the carcass of a whale shark in a harbor in Karachi, Pakistan, on Feb. 7, 2012. The 40-foot whale shark was said to have been found dead in the Arabian Sea.
Good Day Humboldt County!
We meet people on the road though life who look normal (well, how about non-threatening?) who do things that shock us. Terrible, unfathomable things. Dark, senseless, stupid things that literally ruin other people’s lives.
Are these people evil? You read about them all the time because of the sensational impact of their crimes.
Do you know what the face of Evil looks like? Could you tell if a serial killer stood beside you in line at the super market? In my life experience, I’ve seen Evil’s un-remarkable face many times. After the fact. There was never a warning. Age and gender never mattered.
One day a kindly male elementary school teacher beloved by parents, staff and students, the next a pedophile. Mothers killing their children because low life boyfriends don’t want them around. Then you have this ripped from current headlines:
A father who murders his two young sons after murdering their mother.
Anyone following Josh Powell, the Utah man suspected of killing his wife in 2009, had to be skeptical about his camping story with two young sons in the middle of a snowy night. The same night his wife Susan Powell, and the boy’s mother, disappeared. Yet, the police were never able to find her body, or come up with enough evidence to charge him with anything.
Then, when he looses custody of his two sons (photo right), he murders them, and kills himself in the family’s house rigged up like a giant Molotov cocktail. To compound this tragedy, the grandparents who had custody of the boys, were told shortly before allowing the fatal visitation with Josh that, “Mommy was in the car’s trunk,” during their camping trip! A bombshell. Did word leak to Josh Powell his kids were talking?
We’ll never know. All we can do is shake our head and look at the photo at the top of this page of Josh and Susan Powell, and their two sons. Who would of guessed that normal(?) looking family would have such a sad ending? Just look at those smiles. They all seemed to glow with happiness. Gone now.
Time to walk on down the road…
Some people may find it amazing to know that the world actually functioned without an internet once. It's the one modern invention that...
