China oil spill doubles in size, is deemed 'severe threat'

Crude pours out after pipeline blast; at least 1 firefighter dead

Anyone who says drilling for oil offshore is a safe and reliable process is just plain stupid, or has a stake in the operation.

China’s latest oil spill is shaping up to be their worst one. So far, the oil slick covers 165 miles of ocean. While the leak has been contained, the damage has been done to miles of coast line and marine life in the area.

This is just another compelling reason to stop off shore drilling for oil. How many disasters like this do we need to experience before it’s too late to save the ocean and the creatures in it?

Are we getting to a tipping point? If not yet, then we’re getting close. American isn’t the only country to use fossil fuels. China has recently surpassed our economy’s thirst for oil. It won’t take too many more accidents like this to destroy China’s beaches and waters. Until Big Oil loses it’s death grip on the countries of the world, we can all expect more catastrophes to further blight our environment.

Cause for Concern: City of Oakland approves mega marijuana farming

I think those small-scale “garden growers” have something to worry about it with this mega grow.

This giant grow is what people have been concerned about since talk of legalization surfaced. I hope no other cities plan on doing the same thing.

There’s too many reasons why a corporate grow like this is going to hurt the market. Establishing grow monopolies is going to hurt independent farmers, and the quality is going to be questionable. There’s a good chance that pesticides will be used or other harmful chemicals in that super garden. Someone is making a lot of money here. I wonder who is making out like a bandit with this latest development? You know someone is.   

The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for "industrial" cultivation starting next year.

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.The resolution passed the city council easily after a nearly four-hour debate that pitted small-scale "garden" growers against advocates of a bigger, industrial system that would become a "Silicon Valley" of pot.

BP digitally alters press photo, confesses it's a fake

Amateurish use of Photoshop causes yet another BP embarrassment

It's been a long season of embarrassment for BP, but leaking oil isn't what the blogosphere is ripping the company for today.

A site called Americablog spotted a photo of BP's Houston command center, ostensibly taken on July 16. The image had quite visibly been Photoshopped — badly — to include more on-screen camera action.

Once word got out — the story was picked up by the Washington Post, where it was then spotted by the tech blog Gizmodo and others — BP 'fessed up. A spokesman admitted that the image was altered, said that a photographer had inserted shots where the TV screens were blank, and provided the original image.

Facebook hated as much as airlines, cable companies

Customer satisfaction poll puts Facebook in the bottom 5 percent of businesses

Facebook, the most visited site on the Internet , may also be the most despised:

A new poll says the site scored 64 on a 100-point scale, which “puts Facebook in the bottom 5 percent” of private sector companies “and in the same range as airlines and cable companies, two perennially low-scoring industries with terrible customer satisfaction,” according to results of a survey released today.

Maybe a Movie: Spider-infested ship turned away from port

Thousands spill out as cargo is unloaded; vessel last docked in South Korea

This has all the makings of a sci-fi thriller movie, but I’m afraid it’s already been done. I think the name of the movie was “Arachnophobia,” or something close to that.

It was all about deadly spiders chasing people. Then there was the airplane thriller “Snakes on the Plane,” (or something like that – I’m too lazy today to check it out further!)

Spiders and snakes have been done separately, but how about putting those creepy crawlers together in a Sci Fi flick? The two species could fight it out in a war…in say the streets, back alleys, and board rooms in Washington D.C. What could be more fun that watching snakes and spiders chasing politicians and lobbyists? (the answer is, of course, watching them catch up to them!)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, agriculture officials say they don't know what type of spiders were on the ship, but said it's a type that isn't normally found on the island.

They said there was concern the spiders could damage Guam's environment.

Black USDA official resigns after saying she only 'did enough' for white farmer

There’s no doubt in my mind that racism is rampant in this country. Here’s just another example. Anyone can be a racist, regardless of their color. This nation doesn’t really want a “national dialogue” on race relations. Americans tend to hide behind false facades regarding racial equality publically, but privately many have issues with people of another color. Be it black, brown, yellow, or white. 

                                                                                                 

A black USDA official in Georgia has resigned after publicly admitting she didn't help a white man trying to save his farm to the "full force" of her power and instead referred him to "one of his own."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack accepted Shirley Sherrod's resignation, saying there was "zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA."

EMT accused of ignoring dying NYC woman is killed

Authorities say an emergency medical technician accused of refusing to help a dying pregnant woman during his coffee break was fatally shot near a New York City nightclub.

Police believe those accusations and the shooting were unrelated. I can’t help wondering if they were related, as in a relative (or friend) of the woman who died, getting revenge.

As It Stands: Reverse outsourcing: Americans taking international online jobs

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/18/2010 01:27:30 AM PDT

If you listen to or read national news, you've probably noticed stories about the economy doing better. Bean-counters in high places point at polls, statistics and other divining devices to assure us things are looking up.

At ground level, the average American still struggles to find a job, or to keep a job with additional duties due to downsizing with no extra pay. It's not a pretty picture regardless of what Wall Street thinks.

Stock traders live in a warped version of Disneyland where people make money without selling a real product. While their view from Cinderella's castle is rosy, most Americans are struggling.

So where will jobs come from? What can people do to make money when the economy is so tight and jobs are more scarce than untainted seawater in the Mexican Gulf coast? You may be surprised at the answer.

A couple of years ago I wrote a column about the outsourcing of American jobs, in particular about newspapers that had to lay off full-time American employees and outsource their jobs to countries like India and the Philippines. Now, in an interesting reversal, Americans job seekers are finding overseas work.

I don't know if that's a good thing. I'll leave that up to you. Corporations and small businesses in Australia, China, India, Pakistan and the U.K. are hiring U.S. workers online. Websites like Elance, oDesk, People Per Hour and Sologig are providing workers for these countries. Quality workers at bargain basement wages. READ THE REST HERE.

UPDATE:

Here’s some web sites that have picked up today’s column:

ONLINE JOBS

Nearshore Journal

Go4Outsourcing

 BizOpZine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.gyancallingcard.net/site/online-jobs/why_opt_for_online_jobs.php

Bummer: New Mexico faces medical marijuana shortage

State's small number of providers can't grow enough to meet demand

Len Goodman can't grow enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state's 2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and cured, he sends an announcement that patients can place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

Tale of the monkey terrorists who shoot at American uniforms

The Taliban's training monkeys to gun down Americans? It's a bogus claim that's sparked some serious (and not-that-serious) fact-checking.

People's Daily Online started the monkeyshines in China a couple of weeks ago, with a report claiming that the Afghan Taliban was using bananas and peanuts in an experiment to teach monkeys how to fire machine guns and mortar rounds at soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms.

The report even said the program was modeled after a CIA effort to train "monkey soldiers" during the Vietnam War, and quoted an unnamed U.S. military source as confirming the existence of the Taliban monkeys.

The fallout has been as hilarious as the original story: Taiwan-based Next Media Animation, which churns out CGI parodies like The Onion on ginseng, put together a video report on the killer monkeys. Over at Stars and Stripes, Jeff Schogol (the Rumor Doctor) went so far as to check with NATO officials, Chinese Embassy officials and a primatologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Schogol turned up no hard evidence of monkey mayhem, although primatologist Christopher Coe said he had heard unsubstantiated reports of monkeys being trained to jump into enemy trenches carrying grenades when India and Pakistan were at war.

Warning for Pet Owners: short-snouted dogs most likely to die on planes

 

Bulldogs, pugs, similar breeds made up about half of deaths in past 5 years

That cinches it! I was never comfortable with the idea of putting dogs in the cargo bay of a plane. When I read this article I immediately thought of my Pug Millie. Oh the horror!

Anyone that has read any of my stuff over the last three years knows that; one, I have a Pug named Millie, and two, I hate traveling by plane. Here’s one column to give you an idea of how I feel about planes: “Traveling by airplane, or fear and loathing in the not so ‘friendly’ skies” 

PHOTOS: left, Millie the Pug, and on the right there’s an unidentified Bull Dog via AP wire.

 

Get fired up for the next ‘Burning Man’ happening

I found a great resource for all things to do with the ‘Burning Man’ event. The name of the site is “Brave New Traveler”  and it has a lot of information and great photos by Ian MacKenzie.

 I’ve never been to this interesting event in the Black Rock Desert, but I read about it every summer. If it wasn’t so darn hot I think I’d consider going to it – at least once. I’m an old 60s era hippie (who’s 60) who still digs happenings like this.  

Golden State Warriors sold for record $450 million

Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan reached an agreement Thursday to sell the franchise for a record $450 million to Boston Celtics minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.

I doubt this ownership change will make any difference. Just look at the starting lineup for next year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish in the league cellar again – something they’ve been doing regularly for decades. Who knows? Maybe they’ll win more games than last year just because there’s new owners to impress.

See early Kodachrome Images from the Great Depression

When we think of America during the Great Depression, we often picture it in shades of grey.  It was a grim era and nearly all of the photographs we see are in black and white.

Color presents an entirely different image. Go here to see numerous color photos taken during the Great Depression. It’ll take a couple of minutes to read the captions and view all of the photos, but it’s worth it for nostalgia nuts like me.

This is one of Dorothea Lange’s most famous photographs - a destitute mother in a migrant farm worker camp in California.

Lange was one of the many talented WPA photographers who recorded the history and conditions of the Depression across the United States.

Porky Pig allegedly beaten up at Six Flags theme park

Off-duty Six Flag employees accused of attacking dressed-up co-worker

Is nothing sacred? How could someone attack an iconic pig?

The clowns who attacked the worker wearing the Porky Pig outfit tried to lie their way out of it, but witnesses busted them.

Tha..tha..tha…That’s all folks!

Forget the war on marijuana - prescription drug abuse skyrocketing

400 percent rise in those admitted for treatment, government study says

U.S. officials reported a 400 percent increase over 10 years in the proportion of Americans treated for prescription painkiller abuse and said on Thursday the problem cut across age groups, geography and income.

The dramatic jump was higher than treatment admission rates for methamphetamine abuse, which doubled, and marijuana, which increased by almost half, according to figures from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire – Researcher says McInnis lying about plagiarism

A researcher whom Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis blamed for plagiarism allegations said Wednesday he won't sign a letter from the campaign owning up to what happened because he claims McInnis is lying.

The claim by 82-year-old Rolly Fischer is the latest to plague McInnis after the plagiarism allegations against him surfaced this week. Fischer told KMGH-TV that McInnis' campaign sent him a letter to sign in which Fischer would say the alleged plagiarism was his fault.

Colorado gubernatorial candidate (right) Scott McInnis.

Wall Street accountability increased by Senate bill - sweeping reform predicted

Massive 2,300-page bill is aimed at averting another financial crisis

Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.

Sources: U.S. paid Iran scientist $5 million, but account is frozen

I wonder what the real story is? Did we get any important information or is this all a dog and pony show? 

'We've got the information and the money,' one official tells NBC

Iran scientist returns home, claims U.S. torture

 

Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri arrives at Tehran's airport on Thursday. He claimed he was offered $50 million to remain in the U.S.

Fair warning: CSPI Says Food Dyes Pose Rainbow of Risks

I always suspected food dyes could pose a health risk, but had no idea how serious a threat until I read they cause:

Cancer, Hyperactivity, Allergic Reactions

Food dyes—used in everything from M&Ms to Manischewitz Matzo Balls to Kraft salad dressings—pose risks of cancer, hyperactivity in children, and allergies, and should be banned, according to a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

A top government scientist agrees, and says that food dyes present unnecessary risks to the public.

The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are contaminated with known carcinogens, says CSPI. Another dye, Red 3, has been acknowledged for years by the Food and Drug Administration to be a carcinogen, yet is still in the food supply.