Do you wonder about the meanings of your dreams?

There are deep meanings of dreams that we can find in our nightly trip away from reality. Most people find their dreams to be unintelligible scrambles of mixed messages and cryptic symbols from things they encountered in their day. The subconscious mind is a much more remarkable machine than it is given credit for. Precognitive dreams are dreams that are designed by your subconscious mind to make you feel a certain way or even tell you something.

Disturbing dreams are often linked to tragic or traumatic incidents in your life. Situations involving trust can cause you to have bad dreams. However, a disturbing dream can also be tied to a significant risk you are taking. It is possible you are realizing just how bad a particular situation could become. Some dreams might just be reflecting your fundamental fears but others could be warning you that action is needed to prevent the worst from happening.

Because our minds often work differently from person to person, it can be difficult to gauge the meaning of a particular symbol appearing in the dreams of one person to the next. However, there are many inherently similar common dream symbols with distinctive and sometimes surprising meanings. In order to help you understand some of the hidden meanings in dreams, here are eight commons symbols which appear in dreams and their different meanings.

Click here to read about them.

text via Mind Cafe

photo via Google Images

I take exception at the term 'reverse discrimination' that has been used in this case

What does reverse discrimination mean?

I'll tell you what it implies: the term suggests that normally white people are racists, but in this case (reverse) it's saying the whites were discriminated against. What's wrong with just using the word discrimination? A racist can come in any color. Someone who discriminates against others can come in any color. Race is still, and will always be, a matter of controversy in this country. Anyone can be discriminated against.  It doesn't matter if you are white, brown, yellow, or black.

What matters is that we do away with any kind of discrimination in the work place or at home. One of the things that came out in this case, is the fact that Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor had her decision overturned. How that plays out remains to be seen. Another troubling thing that's come up is how some city governments err on the side of minorities (out of fear of lawsuits) when it comes to the workplace. There might have been a time when this kind of thing was acceptable, but that time has passed. Today it should be about true equality among ALL of the races in America.  

Photo by Jessica Hill / Associated Press

Here' some backround on the ruling from the Los Angeles Times...

Ruling for white firefighters may alter hiring

The Supreme Court says white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were the victims of illegal discrimination when the city tossed out their test results and denied them promotions.

Goering had one thing right: use fear to control people

image via dvmx.com

Naked ex-mayor, Mark Musselwhite, arrested at campsite

  Another Republican acting badly. I have friends who are Republican and they must be turned off with the latest rash of GOP badboys in the news. If it isn't an incumbent Republican Governor it's a Republican ex-mayor.

The thing that get's me is that all of these GOP poster boys have been church-goers - Musselwhite served as a deacon at the First Baptist Church of Gainesville.

  I'm really not picking on members of the GOP, but they are sure providing the scandals lately. I know that there are Democrat hypocrites out there too. Just like their GOP counterparts. It's just that lately the GOP has been - shall we say - newsworthy?

 From The Atlantic Journal-Constitution...    

   By Alexis Stevens

  A former mayor found sitting naked and holding a beer at a Rabun County campsite told police he wasn’t the same naked man seen walking around earlier.

Mark Musselwhite, 43, said he was hot and had been in the creek, according to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources incident report. He apparently didn’t think he was doing anything wrong.

Musselwhite, of Gainesville, was arrested last weekend after being confronted by state DNR authorities. He was charged with public indecency.

“He told me he was the ex-mayor of the city Gainesville and he was a very political person,” DNR Ranger Brandon Walls wrote in the report.

Walls and a deputy sheriff went to the campsite Saturday evening after a complaint of a man walking naked in Earls Ford Road, according to the report. Musselwhite appeared to be intoxicated, and several alcoholic beverages were at the campsite, Walls said.

Walls said he had spoken to Musselwhite earlier in the day regarding an ATV the former mayor was driving.

“He looked at us and said hello,” according to the report.

Musselwhite then asked why he was being visited.

“I said the complainant had specifically said his campsite, and the fact that he was still nude made me think it was him,” Walls wrote.

Musselwhite denied that he was the nude man identified in the complaint.

An unidentified female was also at the campsite.

Musselwhite, a Republican, was elected to the City Council in 2000. He served on the council for six years, including as mayor of the town. In 2006, he lost a bid for a state Senate seat.

Musselwhite previously served as deacon of First Baptist Church in Gainesville.

image via The Atlantic-Journal Constitution

Life is full of illusions...like this one for example

(Quote) "This illusion has been doing the rounds this week (see Bad Astronomy and Richard Wiseman for a couple of science blogs I like that picked it up), but it's so good I thought it needed to be posted here also.
Look carefully at the image below. Do you see a couple of spirals, one blue and one green? Well, take a closer look - in actual fact, the blue and green are actually the same color!

Don't believe me? Copy the image and open it up in PhotoShop or Paint and take a closer look....
You will notice that the orange curves move through the "green" spirals, but not the blue. And the purple curves don't move through the green.

(left)If we blow this picture up even more, we can see that the colors are becoming more and more similar.

(Above)The blue and green appear to be different colors because our brain works out colors by comparing them to other surrounding colors and it does a bit of mixing. When we look at the "blue" spiral, we also take in the purple curves moving through it. This makes it look more blue. When we look at the "green" spiral, we take in the orange curves, which makes it look more green.
I know that's not a great explanation, so I'd be happy to hear a better one!" (End Quote)

 All text and images via Mr Science Show

Sotomayor's decision reversed by Supreme Court today

By Dave Stancliff

Political pundits are salivating this morning with the news that one of Sotomayor's rulings was overturned.

In a ruling today, the Supreme Court said white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race.

This comes as a reversal for her at a time when she is the high court nominee. Sonia Sotomayors decision, while an appeals court judge, is coming back to haunt her at an inconvient time..

According to the Washington Post...

According to USA Today...

According to the Associated Press...

Thus far, nearly everyone has been in favor of Sotomayors appointment. Her confirmation process has been smooth, with just little bumps in the road.

Does that change now with this new ruling?

I suspect that it'll cause people to pause...but she'll get the job in the end.

image via Google Images

Last Unscathed Republican Politician To Be Placed Under Protected Custody

From the Smirking Chimp this morning...

This is Patrick Noony (Last Remaining Virtuous Republican)

Saying that they "weren't taking any chances," Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation to place Patrick Noony, a Bakersfeild, CA supervisor, in the witness protection program at an undisclosed location until late 2012.

"The scandals are killing us," admitted Steele. "Sex, drugs, promiscuity or just plain foot in mouth disease. You'd think we're Democrats. We've got to do everything possible to make sure we have someone who can run without dropping they're drawers and sticking his foot in his mouth. Then again, if we could get a guy who could actually get his foot into his mouth he wouldn't be getting into real trouble."

Republicans and conservatives like Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, David Vitter, Bobby Jindel, George Allen have been faced with a string of embarrassing incidents leading to a scarcity of plausible nominees."

"Come the next presidential election Patrick just might be the only credible Republican candidate left," admitted Steele. "We're desperate to keep him pristine until READ THE REST OF THE RNC PLIGHT HERE...

National warranty extension robocallers finally stopped by federal court

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 06/28/2009 01:27:17 AM PDT

Have you noticed those “warranty extension robocalls” have stopped?

Do you wonder why?

I got several calls each day for months and tried to stop them. I filed with the National Do Not Call Registry -- and was on the verge of writing a scathing column about the hapless Federal Trade Commission (FTC) because they couldn't seem to stop those calls.

I was about to gather the local villagers and hand out burning torches as soon as I found the location of the boiler room for those robocalls! It seemed that nothing less than an all-out assault on these fiends would do.

Click here to read the rest.

image via Google images

Have you ever tried Absinthe? It was once popular...

   

After having been banned for over a century in most countries, Absinthe is re-establishing itself as a (legal) cult favorite, and the drink of choice for people looking to become inebriated as quickly as possible. Suffice to say, many of the older absinthes producing companies are no longer in business. These nineteenth century absinthe brands, did however, leave a wealth of history in the form of their print advertisements. Here is a small compilation of absinthe posters from the drinks’ heyday. Most of these come from French brands of the time, and it is interesting to note that many prove a foreshadowing of sexual innuendo-laden modern beer advertisements.

Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic (45%-74% ABV) beverage It is an anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as “grande wormwood”. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green color but can also be colorless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as “la fée verte” (the Green Fairy).

A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, when countries in the European Union began to reauthorize its manufacture and sale. As of February 2008, nearly 200 brands of absinthe were being produced in a dozen countries, most notably in France, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic. Commercial distillation of absinthe in the United States resumed in 2007.

To see some more images click here.

Text and images via The Weird News

National Health Care: A Canadian's view on the subject

As the Obama administration tries to get a new national health plan through Congress, there are a lot of people with fears that it would make things worse for people. Canada is often held up as a poor, or good example, of socialized health care. It just depends upon who you talk with. I found this well-written article, by a Canadian who seems to thing the system works for them. She addresses most of the issues involved in a national health care system that does work.

From Common Dreams... 

Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths

by Rhonda Hackett

As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.

Often I'll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner's nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one's merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.

Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.

Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America's health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.

As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system.

Myth: Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.

In actuality, taxes are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Overall, Canada's taxes are slightly higher than those in the U.S. However, Canadians are afforded many benefits for their tax dollars, even beyond health care (e.g., tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education), so the end result is a wash. At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent.

Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy.

The U.S. has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world. More than 31 percent of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc. The provincial single-payer system in Canada operates with just a 1 percent overhead. Think about it. It is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money to decide who gets care and who doesn't when everybody is covered.

Myth: The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.

Ten percent of Canada's GDP is spent on health care for 100 percent of the population. The U.S. spends 17 percent of its GDP but 15 percent of its population has no coverage whatsoever and millions of others have inadequate coverage. In essence, the U.S. system is considerably more expensive than Canada's. Part of the reason for this is uninsured and underinsured people in the U.S. still get sick and eventually seek care. People who cannot afford care wait until advanced stages of an illness to see a doctor and then do so through emergency rooms, which cost considerably more than primary care services.

What the American taxpayer may not realize is that such care costs about $45 billion per year, and someone has to pay it. This is why insurance premiums increase every year for insured patients while co-pays and deductibles also rise rapidly.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

image via Google Images

'The Grand Life' and 'As It Stand's' team up today

D.o.D. and Homeland Security join forces

HOMELAND INSECURITY

U.S. military teaches 'protesters' are 'low-level terrorists' Become 'dangerous citizen' by 'repeating the very phrases Founding Fathers used'

From the Saturday, June 20, 2009 post titled:
Orwell would have shook his head and said: I told you so!

By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily

at http://www.davesblogcentral.com

So far everyone who has seen this toon asks. "Why Lincoln?".

Jefferson and Franklin and many others wrote these priceless documents. Lincoln, for all intents and purposes, stood alone in his attempt to defend and maintain their place as guides for our government, as well as maintain the nation as a whole, as the Founding Fathers intended.

Seems a shame to let certain departments in the very same government, screw with it!

Cartoon and text via Holloway's The Grand Life

Are we alien offspring? Scientists say we came here on comets

In 1953, a scientist named Stanley Miller demonstrated to the world that running an electric current - representing lightning - through a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen gas and water could create amino acids and simple carbohydrates.

Miller, perhaps taking his cue from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, believed that he had proved life could spontaneously erupt from the most basic of ingredients already available here on Earth.

While this is what some scientists would have us believe, there is another possible scenario for the creation of life on Earth; perhaps it came from outer space.

X Files babble aside, it’s possible that bacteria (prokaryotes) traveling through space on comets, were the building blocks for all life on Earth. The idea that life on Earth arrived from space is called Panspermia and is backed by a number of high-profile scientists. Like dark matter and dark energy, it’s difficult to prove one way or the other, but hotly contested evidence concerning whether there was, or is, life on Mars may provide evidence of life-creating space invaders.

There is actually quite a strong case for the proposition that bacteria contained within comets and asteroids colonized and seeded the Earth for life. Pod people? Not quite. In 1996 NASA made public their claim that life may once, or still does, exist on Mars. Some in the science community have contested the evidence, but the NASA team was very sure that what they had in their possession were 3.6 billion year old fossilized ‘bacteria-like’ organisms.

Click here to read the rest.

photo and text via Science A Go Go

Here's the Top Ten Candy Myths to sweeten your Friday

Here's an example of one of the top ten Candy Myths from

Toptenz ...

#8 The Gruesome Origins of LifeSavers’ Name

Has anyone ever tried to freak you out with this little bedtime story: The inventor of LifeSavers originally designed the candies to be disks without holes, but when his poor little daughter tragically choked on one and died, he vowed to end the senseless killings, so he put holes in the middle and re-dubbed them LifeSavers? I’ve heard this one from quite a few sources, and, well, let’s think about this, people. Would that little hole prevent a kid from choking? It’d have to be lodged just right.

Naw, the real story is a lot less dramatic. In 1912, Clarence Crane began production of a peppermint candy. The machine worked best if the candies had holes in them, and he couldn’t help but compare these these donut-shaped mints with the newfangled life preservers that were becoming fashionable after the recent Titanic disaster.

Click here to read the other nine myths.

This article was submitted by Caitlin Kendall. Visit the Candy Addict for more sweet samples.

Poppy field fantasies: Stoned wallabies make crop circles!

 SYDNEY (Reuters) – The mystery of crop circles in poppy fields in Australia's southern island state of Tasmania has been solved -- stoned wallabies are eating the poppy heads and hopping around in circles.

"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," the state's top lawmaker Lara Giddings told local media on Thursday.

"Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," she said.

Many people believe crop circles that mysteriously appear in fields around the world are created by aliens.

Poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids said livestock which ate the poppies were known to "act weird" -- including deer and sheep in the state's highlands.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," said field operations manager Rick Rockliff.

Australia produces about 50 percent of the world's raw material for morphine and related opiates.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

image via Google Images

Bored? Get mechanical centaur legs that let you walk like a horse

Short people of the planet rejoice! Now you too can be tall and nimble on your centaur legs!! Just imagine the applications these great legs must have. You can dress up wearing all black and your centaur legs and hop around your neighborhood on a moonless night scaring the hell out of anyone you meet! Oh the possibilities...

From Gizmag...

By Loz Blain

Ever wished you were a 7-foot tall semi-centaur with the body of a human and a horse's legs? Er, me neither. But there's plenty of people out there who do, and Seattle-based fantasy artist Kim Graham has come up with a killer Halloween costume that makes you 14 inches taller and gives you uncanny-looking equine legs and spring-loaded cloven hooves. The effect is quite amazing, and even a bit sexy - or, maybe that's just the admirably proportioned Ms. Graham; check out this video . A set of Digitigrade legs like these can be yours for under $1,000.

photo via Gizmag

RIP: Actress Farrah Fawcett dead at 62

From The Canberra Times...

Actress Farrah Fawcett, best known for her role in television series Charlie's Angels, has died, her long-time companion Ryan O'Neal says. She was 62.

Fawcett died in hospital surrounded by friends and family shortly before 9.30am on Thursday (0230 AEST Friday), reports said.

"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," O'Neal said in a statement released by Fawcett's publicist Arnold Robinson. "Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

O'Neal told People magazine's online edition he had talked to Fawcett through the night.

"She's now with her mother and sister and her God. I loved her with all my heart. I will miss her so very, very much. She was in and out of consciousness. I talked to her all through the night.

"I told her how very much I loved her. She's in a better place now."

Speculation that Fawcett's death was close at hand had mounted after veteran ABC television interviewer Barbara Walters said the actress had been given her last rites earlier on Thursday.

Reports said O'Neal and Alana Stewart were at Fawcett's bedside when she passed away at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

Earlier this week, O'Neal revealed he planned to marry Fawcett, who has been battling cancer for three years. "I've asked her to marry me, again, and she's agreed," O'Neal said.

photo via Canberra Times

O'Neal, 68, and Fawcett had been romantically involved off-and-on since 1982. The couple had a son together, Redmond, but never married.

Redmond O'Neal is in jail in California for drug offences and was not at his mother's bedside when she died but spoke to her on the phone before her death, his father told People.

Pop Icon Michael Jackson dies of heart attack

 From the LA Times and TMZ...

Pop icon Michael Jackson died on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest, multiple US media outlets reported, sending shockwaves through the entertainment world.

The Los Angeles Times and TMZ.com celebrity news website reported Jackson, 50, died after suffering an arrest just after 12pm local time (0500 AEST) and paramedics were unable to revive him.

The Times cited multiple city and law enforcement officials as confirming the pop icon's death.

Jackson's manager Tohme E. Tohme was not available for comment. Officials at UCLA Medical Centre where Jackson was treated also could not be reached for comment.

National and local television networks showed hundreds of media gathered at UCLA Medical Centre for what appeared to be a briefing.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Devin Gales did not confirm Jackson's identity but said paramedics went to an address corresponding to the star's home at 12:21pm (0521 GMT) and the person was taken to UCLA Medical Centre.

An unidentified family member earlier told TMZ -- the first outlet to report that Jackson had suffered a cardiac arrest -- that the star was in "really bad shape."

Michael's father Joe Jackson told E! Online he was aware of the emergency but did not know further details.

"I am in Las Vegas, but yes, people in Los Angeles called me and are with Michael and tell me he was taken to the hospital," he said.

"I am not sure what's wrong. I am waiting to hear back from them."

The reports came as Jackson prepared to make a keenly anticipated concert comeback in London, his first series of shows in more than a decade and the first since his 2005 acquittal on child molestation charges.

However those concerts -- billed as the "final curtain" -- had been thrown into doubt after Jackson pushed back the opening dates last month.

Toronto's new green roof law a first for North America

From Mother Nature Network...

                                           By Michael dEstries

In a first for a North American city, Toronto recently passed a new law mandating "green" rooftops for all new developments. Any new construction with floor space of more than 2,000 square meters must devote between 20 and 60 percent of its roof to vegetation. The rule applies to residential, commercial, industrial and institutional structures.

As expected, developers are less than thrilled with the new mandatory rules -- least of all that they come during an economic downturn. Some estimate that green roofs could add more than $177,000 to the cost of a project; not including the ongoing maintenance, replacement and repair costs. "I don't think anybody is warm and fuzzy about having a green roof bylaw impressed on them as a prescriptive method," said one developer to Reuters.

Still, the benefits to the city in terms of energy savings and rainwater runoff management are seen as cost-effective in the long term. According to the organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, more than 3.1 million square feet of green roofs were installed in 2008, a 35 percent growth over the previous year. Though Toronto may have the lead in proactive legislation, the city of Chicago still retains the crown for having the most green roofs in North America at more than 600. Still, it should be interesting to see if our neighbors to the north inspire some U.S. cities to follow with similar legislation.

image via Photo: 416style/Flickr

'Outside The Box' teams up with As It Stands for laughs!

Tom Holloway is an old high school buddy of mine, and my brother-in-law. He does cartoon strips for the Frederick News-Post in Maryland.

"The Grand Life" and "Outside the Box," are the titles of two of his cartoons. Tom showed his artistic acumen in high school drawing superheros from Marvel and DC Comics.

Tom was recently inspired to draw this cartoon based on a post I made about Cheerios two days ago. If you'd like to see more of his work go to "Holloway's Grand Life" Enjoy.

Tom's comments:

Honest to God, this toon is based on an actual news story!

Check out the whole story from Tuesday, June 23, 2009
FDA says Cheerios is a drug and may not be legally marketed!

PETA Insanity: Clooney declines sweaty tofu offer

 That's all I can take without saying something. PETA has done a lot of questionable promotions in the past and taken some silly stands (PETA defends fly that Obama swats!), but this is just too much!

  Good grief! Who the hell would want to eat someone else's sweat? This is crazy. These PETA people must run around with tin-foil hats to avoid the galactic rays or something. I mean...c'mon...really?  

From stuff.com ...

George Clooney has declined an offer for his sweat to be used to make tofu.

Animal rights group Peta want to create the unusual vegetarian food by extracting George’s salty perspiration from his used gym towel.

The organisation wrote to the handsome actor asking for permission to create the product, saying: "The technology actually exists to take your perspiration and make it into George Clooney-flavoured tofu (CloFu).

"Of course, your fans would swoon at the idea of eating CloFu but what interests us most is that we would attract many people who don't try tofu because they worry that it would be bland or that they wouldn't know how to cook it.

 Click here to read the rest.

image via Rueters