How can this happen? Baby food formulas contaminated by rocket fuel!

My question is how did the traces of this rocket fuel come to be in baby food! It's troublesome to me to see the CDC won't name the affected brands of baby formula.

From the Associated Press this morning...

Traces of a chemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of powdered baby formula, and could exceed what's considered a safe dose for adults if mixed with water also contaminated with the ingredient, a government study has found.

The study by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered baby formula. It was published last month, but the Environmental Working Group issued a press release Thursday drawing attention to it.

The chemical has turned up in several cities' drinking water supplies. It can occur naturally, but most perchlorate contamination has been tied to defense and aerospace sites.

No tests have ever shown the chemical caused health problems, but scientists have said significant amounts of perchlorate can affect thyroid function. The thyroid helps set the body's metabolism. Thyroid problems can impact fetal and infant brain development.

Read the rest of the story here.

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/

World leaders all agree on measures to protect the global economy

  

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TODAY...

   "World leaders pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling countries and agreed Thursday to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds — but failed to reach sweeping accord on more stimulus spending to attack the global economic decline.

    At the end of a highly anticipated one-day gathering, leaders of the Group of 20 nations said they would upgrade an existing financial forum to serve as an early warning monitor to flag problems in the global financial system.

   They did not, however, satisfy U.S. and British calls for new stimulus measures. Nor did European politicians get their goal of a global financial super regulator.

The leaders did bridge several gaps between the United States and some European nations over how far to regulate the market and how to curb the excesses that sparked the global economic crisis.

Read the whole story here. Image via www.pbs.org/.../business/0402_g20.jpg

 

 

G20 Pledges New IMF Aid, Passes on Stimulus Moves

G20 leaders took big steps toward reforming a "failed regulatory system" that helped create the global economic crisis, President Barack Obama said after the summit concluded in London Thursday.

FROM THE ONLINE NEWS HOUR...

The G20 leaders pledged an additional $1.1 trillion in financing to the International Monetary Fund and other global financial institutions and announced plans to regulate tax havens and hedge funds as part of the final statement to emerge from the emergency summit.

Read more here.

Text and Audio: Obama's News Conference

Read the Final Communique from the G20 Meeting [PDF]

Photos From the London Summit's Flickr Stream

Laughing man swallows scissors but still survives his stupidity!

Just when you think you've done some stupid things in your life there comes along a guy who picks his teeth with scissors; easily surpassing your worst moments!

Incredible X ray of scissors stuck in man's throat - plus more pics of amazing X rays

By Mirror.co.uk

A Chinese man that used a pair of small scissors as a toothpick ended up with them stuck in his oesophagus and with the sharp top angling up to his epiglottis after they slipped as he laughed.

"He had a big laugh on hearing a joke from a friend, and unexpectedly the scissors slipped inside his throat," said his wife.

The man tried to get the 9cm long and 4cm wide scissors out by coughing hard, but as the situation worsened, he was forced to go to a local hospital in Putian, Fujian province.

Using a whole body anaesthetic may have relaxed the throat muscles and allowed the scissors slip even deeper, so the hospital applied local anaesthetic and blood vessel forceps to remove the stuck scissors.

"The whole surgery took around 30 minutes. Luckily Lin does not have much of a wound inside his throat," said Doctor Chen.

Click here to see the X ray of six-inch spike stuck in a man's head and more amazing x rays.

X-Ray image via Mirror.co.uk

Links to April Fools pranks around the news today...

By Saeed Ahmed/CNN

"If you happen to browse upon a news story that's too odd to be true Wednesday, hold your outrage and check the calendar.

It's April Fools' Day -- when media outlets around the world take a break from the serious business of delivering news and play fast and furious with the facts.

No one quite knows when the practice began, but any journalist will point to what is undoubtedly the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled: A 1957 BBC report that said, thanks to a mild winter and the elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop.

The segment was accompanied by pictures of farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees -- and prompted hundreds of viewers to call in, wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.

Read the rest here.

While not as elaborate, the pranks that media outlets harvested this year have been quite rich:

The Guardian in London ran a story Wednesday announcing that, after 188 years as a print publication, it will become the first newspaper to deliver news exclusively via Twitter.

Twitter, a micro-blogging site, allows users to post updates that are 140 characters long. In keeping with the limitation, the newspaper said it had undertaken a mammoth project to retool the newspaper's entire archive.

A Lebanese newspaper ran a caricature last year (shown above) of two opposition leaders hugging in light of April Fools' Day. Image via Getty Images

 

New X-Ray Vision at airports sees right through your clothing!

Do you remember those ads in comic books back in the 60s when they advertised X-Ray vision glasses? I wonder how many little boys like me believed them and were disappointed when they didn't reveal what was underneath girls clothing! Well, the latest techno advance has solved the problem of strip searches without people taking their clothes off.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) passed out this undated handout image showing a composite of 4 separate scans, a female in the left two and a male in the right two, from a whole body scan machine, or millimeter wave machine being used at a security check point at the Salt Lake International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The new machine developed by New York based L3 Communications has been in use for over two weeks by passengers and takes a whole body scan penetrating clothing. This was a pilot program by the TSA to test the machines in a live setting for the first time at Salt Lake International Airport.

Reuters Photo

Marijuana's uphill battle hindered by Feds who ignored Eric Holder's protection of dispensaries - and Harvard study shows pot fighting Cancer tumors!

From the Independent Institute's Beacon Blog...

HOW CALIFORNIA SHOULD RESPOND TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA RAID

   "Activists are outraged over Obama’s raid of Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic in San Francisco, but they should not be surprised.

    Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had promised to end federal medical marijuana raids, as conducted by both Clinton and Bush’s administrations, leaving alone dispensaries operating legally under state law.

Obama broke the spirit of the promise, but not the letter.

The excuse for this last raid was state law violations – supposedly, sales taxes were being evaded. Now the feds will probably prosecute under federal law.

Read the whole story here. "

Image via www.dbtechno.com/images/medical_marijuana_tra.

From CURRENT.COM....

MARIJUANA CUTS LUNG CANCER TUMOR

GROWTH IN HALF,HARVARD STUDY SHOWS

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
They say this is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy.
THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.

 

This isn't the 'Woody" that the Beach Boy's sang about, but it's still pretty cool and does 100 mph

The Tryane II purports to be an improvement over the Citroen 2CV whose underpinnings lie hidden beneath its sensuously curved polished wood body. The builder, Friend Wood, was seemingly inspired by old Morgan three-wheelers and vintage Chris Craft cruisers. The Tryane II weighs in at a mere 900 pounds, which allows the 2CV's tiny opposed twin-cylinder engine to move it along at speeds up to 100mph (more info) (image credit: 1)

Streamy Awards: Winners for Best in Web Television Announced

The first annual Streamy Award winners were announced recently by The International Academy of Web Television, an independent organization of digital entertainment leaders created to recognize excellence in original episodic Web television programming.

The Streamy Awards is the first live awards show dedicated to honoring the actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, music and production talent behind some of the best original content on the Web.

Awards in craft categories were presented at a special ceremony on Thursday, March 26th, excerpts from which were integrated into the live show. Members of the International Academy of Web Television reviewed episodic Web television shows that were submitted by the public from December 18, 2008 though January 23, 2009 and voted on the final nominees for each category.

Over 100,000 public submissions were received

The feeling in the air last Saturday night at the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles was summed up by Felecia Day’s acceptance speech.

The now Streamy Award-winning writer-producer-actor who maintains creative control over her Microsoft-funded hit series, The Guild, thanked her first-season fans who supported the series with donations of usually less than ten dollars. She also mentioned a dying distribution paradigm whose round hole could never quite fit her square peg.

The Official Winners of the 1st Annual Streamy Awards - March 28, 2009

Overall Series

Best Comedy Web Series
The Guild

Best Dramatic Web Series
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy

Best Hosted Web Series
EPIC FU

Best Reality or Documentary Web Series
The Shatner Project

Best News or Politics Web Series
Alive in Baghdad

Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Directing

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Joss Whedon)

Best Directing for a Dramatic Web Series
Pink
(Blake Calhoun)

Writing

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
(Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon

Best Writing for a Dramatic Web Series
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy
(Jane Espenson, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Ronald D. Moore)

ACTING

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Neil Patrick Harris — (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Felicia Day — (The Guild)

Best Male Actor in a Dramatic Web Series

Alessandro Juliani — (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy)

Best Female Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Rosario Dawson — (Gemini Division)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
The Guild

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Paul Rudd — (Wainy Days)

Best Web Series Host
Alex Albrecht — (Project Lore)

Craft Awards

Best Editing
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog— (Lisa Lassek)

Best Cinematography
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Ryan Green)

Best Art Direction
Tiki Bar TV — (Kim Bailey)

Best Visual Effects
Backyard FX — (Erik Beck)

Best Animation in a Web Series
The Meth Minute 39 — (Dan Meth)

Best Original Music (*)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — (Jed Whedon)

Best Ad Integration in a Web Series
Back on Topps — (Skype)

Best Artistic Concept in a Web Series (*)
You Suck at Photo

All photos by the Bui Brothers.

An Age of Accountability: Are Americans paying for past permissive practices?

By Dave Stancliff

Here's what I think happened: 20th century Americans decided to ignore what their parents taught them and listened to Dr. Spock instead.

Spock, a popular pediatrician since the 1940s, laid out a parental roadmap that offered answers (and wrong turns) for a child's every move.

If you read his famous book “Baby and Child Care,” circa 1946, you'll see his advice hasn't been all that beneficial.

As a matter of fact, one of the tips he gave parents is responsible for as many as 50,000 infant deaths in the USA, Australia and Europe, according to numerous empirical studies released in the 1980s and 1990s.

Read the rest of this column in today's Times-Standard.

image via www.thingamababy.com

New Orleans Art: Things are changing since Hurricane Katrina came

"Parade Watchers" by Myrtle von Damitz, III and Mardi Gras costume by Jackie Mang

New Orleans has been an introverted bohemian draw for centuries, but recent international attention to all aspects of the city's cultural phenomenon's has delivered new energy and intensity to its visual arts community. The art scene in New Orleans is at a turning point. The world's established contemporary art market is at a turning point as well, with more focus on source and originality of work, beyond the pure numbers of the market.

Many dynamic new visual arts alliances have formed since Hurricane Katrina - not just out of the intellectual petri dish of Barrister's Gallery but as a response to a wider desire of local artists to communicate with their friends and neighbors and to broadcast their sensibilities to the rest of the world. One such group aligned with Barrister's Gallery and the Antiabecedarians is the New Orleans Airlift (www.neworleansairlift.org).

Prostitute bites ShamWow Guy's tongue! He slugs her in the chops!

   How many times have you seen an infomercial with this guy's mug? His real name is Vince Shlomi and he's a successful pitchman for absorbent towels and food choppers.

   After hiring a prostitute for a night of straight sex she started right off biting his tongue and not letting go! He slugged her in the chops and was later arrested for felony assault.

   When the cops found out about what she did, they arrested her and charged her with felony assault. As luck would have it, prosecutors decided to drop all formal charges and the two were released.

   But wait! There's more to this story. Go to thesmokinggun to get all of the juicy details and get a free thrill! Hurry...the first 200 visitors will get an autographed photo of the ShamWow guy's booking photo!

Don't delay...

Photo via www.thesmokinggun.com

Step right up folks and see the fabulous fleas flying through the air!

These clearly bizarre posters are lovingly created by David Manuel

Like People Say: 'It's not who you are, but who are you related too?'

• Nepotism; favoritism shown to relatives, especially in appointment to desirable positions

  FROM THE LA TIMES
• California jobs go to those with connections

Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times / File

Excerpt from article:

"Lawmakers can hire anyone they choose. Sometimes that means friends and family.

"It looks like nepotism," said Tracy Westen, chief executive of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "It's the kind of thing the public doesn't like: people using their power and influence to provide cushy jobs to friends and family."

Read the whole article here.

Cartoon (By Leo Cullum) via www.cartoonbank.com via The New Yorker

Senators steal taxpayer money under guise of PACs: Bailed-out banks give thanks by donating money to lawmakers

Mike Huckabee, a recent candidate for president and governor of Arkansas, is known to be a PAC porker, but even Huckabee wouldn't take PAC money from government bailed-out companies, unlike the senators mentioned in the following article from The Raw Story. The same senators who have spoke out with feigned indignity over the AIG controversy are busy collecting PAC money. House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, and House GOP Whip, Eric Cantor, lead the list of shame, but are followed by other senators who don't mind stealing tax payer money!  

DONATING FOR DOLLARS? MANY BAILED-OUT BANKS STILL CONTRIBUTE TO CAMPAIGN FUNDS

By Jeremy Gantz

The federal bank bailouts may be giving new meaning to the term "kickback."
Many of the banks rescued last year with taxpayer money have contributed to the campaign coffers of some politicians who approved the bailouts, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Read the whole article here.

If you want to read more about this subject NewsWeek has a good article titled "Follow the bailout cash."

Exporting American Jobs: IBM fires Americans and sends their jobs overseas to India!

You sure can't call IBM patriotic when it comes to employing Americans. They just eliminated 5000 jobs here and are outsourcing them to India. Sound familiar? It ought to. The newspaper industry has been outsourcing jobs to India for a couple of years now and look what it's done for them. Nothing. They're still struggling and closing down across the country. I think those economists that argue outsourcing is good for America are full of prime A bullshit! Getting rid of jobs when 12 million Americans are out of work is bad enough. Sending them overseas is down right shitty and all that I would expect from a corporate entity with no heart or soul.

Here's an interesting take on what's happening today from TIME CNN -

IBM and the Rebirth of Outsourcing

A couple of month ago, India's chief finance minister may have made calls to the heads of IBM and several other large U.S. tech companies to tell them that the huge developing nation was hemorrhaging high-end tech jobs. Whether the call happened or not, looking at statistics from India it would be easy to see that the costs of outsourcing technology work to firms based there is dropping as unemployment in the country rises.

Related

The Uptick in Home Sales Sends a False and Dangerous Signal

Still No Road to Recovery in Detroit

Nintendo Brings a New Product to the U.S. and Wants to Crush Microsoft and Sony

More Related

• Should Clinical Trials Be Outsourced?
• Dead Letter
• Arming India: Can the US Get a Piece?

For a number of years, unions and members of Congress spent a great deal of time complaining about the number of U.S. jobs being sent abroad. The bitterness about the issue seems to have receded recently, especially as the recession has deepened and large American companies have been inclined to cut jobs as much or more than they have been able to export them. Perhaps with the economy losing about 600,000 jobs a month, the need for efficiency though outsourcing has become less immediate. (See pictures of the Top 10 scared traders.)

Photo by STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty

Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? Some researches, to my surprise, say he was!

I was watching the History Channel this morning and was very surprised to hear that some researchers think Abraham Lincoln was gay. At first I thought it was just some wild way to induce viewers so I did a bit of research, and here's what I found....

QUOTE FROM CAROL LLOYD FROM HER ARTICLE IN SALON-COM's

IVORY TOWER... Was Lincoln Gay?

"The 28-year-old traveler was tall, with rough hands, a chiseled jaw and unforgettable, deep-set, melancholy eyes. He arrived in town, his worldly possessions in two battered suitcases, and inquired at a general store about buying some bedding. But the price was far beyond his budget. The strikingly handsome 23-year-old merchant took pity on the man and invited him into his own bed, free of charge, which happened to be just upstairs. The traveler inspected the bed and, looking into the merchant's sparkling blue eyes, agreed on the spot. For the next four years the two men shared that bed along with their most private fears and desires.

If this sounds like the opening of a homoerotic dime-store novel whose subsequent scenes feature fiery loins and ecstatic eruptions, hold your panting."

Read this whole story here.

Image via salon.com.

Here's some more information from Wikipedia.

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN ONLINE - SPEECHES & WRITINGS...LINCOLN'S LETTER TO SPEED:

"Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed met in Springfield, Illinois, during the 1830s. Although Speed returned to his native Kentucky, they remained friends throughout life. In this letter, Lincoln expresses his thinking about slavery, which contrasted with Speed, who grew up on a plantation and owned slaves.

The year before Lincoln wrote this letter, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed Congress, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the territories to slavery. The passage of this bill proved a turning point in Lincoln's career. As he observed, "I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again."

Springfield, Illinois
August 24, 1855

READ THE REST HERE.

THERE'S MORE INFORMATION FROM "THE STRAIGHT DOPE"

Dear Cecil:

In the recent debate around gay marriage, the Log Cabin Republicans have come up. I understand their deal is that Abraham Lincoln was gay and grew up in a log cabin, so they align themselves with his sexuality through endorsing his upbringing. Whatever. My question is, how valid is the allegation of Honest Abe being gay? I realize that "we may never really know," but my impression is that he was a rowdy skirt chaser in his youth. What evidence do we have that he chased pants as well? Surely having a harridan for a wife isn't evidence enough?

— Bill in Connecticut

READ THE REST HERE.

READ THIS 2005 REVIEW BY RICHARD BROOKHISER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES. HERE'S AN EXERPT...from C.A. Trip's book "Was Lincoln Gay?"

"Tripp surveys seven of Lincoln's relationships, four with men and three with women, as well as two episodes from his early life. The discussion of Lincoln's youth is worthless. Relying on Lincoln's law partner and earliest biographer, William Herndon, Tripp decides that Lincoln reached puberty when he was 9 years old. Since Kinsey concluded that early maturing boys tended to become witty masturbators with lots of homosexual experience, Tripp concludes the same of Lincoln. He claims even more for Lincoln's adolescence, including a source for his religious heterodoxy. ''Since Lincoln had already arrived on his own at the powerful pleasures of orgasm . . . one can be sure that like most precocious youngsters he was in no mood to give it all up for bookish or Bible reasons.'' One can be sure, if one is as credulous as Tripp."

READ THE REST HERE.

 

Billy had a bad hangover and needed another shot of sake!

Okay that's not what really happened here, but looking at him you could be excused for thinking he was suffering a bad hangover! Actually, according to Yahoo's Most Emailed Photos:

"With facecloth on the head, male Baikal Seal Billy performs 'a dip in a hot spring' as he holds a sake bottle in a basin with forefoot at a pool of Hakone-en aquarium in Hakone, west of Tokyo, Tuesday, March 17, 2009.

It took some three months for six-year-old Billy to master this performance, a traditional Japanese style of soaking in a hot spring."

(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye

Happiness is a warm earlobe on a cold day....

(image credit: farkkelt)

Don't tell me work can't be fun...

No autographs please!

Who are these three mysterious women and why are they smiling?

I'm married to one of these revelers.
She tells me that she goes to work everyday and doesn't play.
But now I have photo evidence that it's party time in the office she "works" in.
There's another photo of my wife on this blog if you want to look at it and make an educated guess as to which one of these party girls are mine!

What does morality have to do with these hard times?

  Our society has practically eliminated the need for morals with a "me first" mentality that disregards what's right or wrong in the world. Like Rome, we are slowly crumbling from within. The 21st century is a story of rampant capitalism and it's destructive nature. Some people are writing about this subject like Chris Hedges of Truthdig in his article titled, "America is need of a moral bailout" 

I have a column coming down the pipe titled, "An Age of Accountability: Are Americans paying for past permissive practices?" I think it's a subject that we all need to examine and consider. When trying to understand what has happened to our nearly rudderless society, we need to go to the root of the problem. Some people may disagree on one single thing that has got us in our moral wasteland, but others are starting to say it may have started at home as we were growing up.

  How did we swap our morality for money? Big corporations certainly led the way, but what led to the rise and power of these giant corporations? It's something to think about this Wednesday morning.

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