This crazy world: Lennon's toilet sells for $14,740 at auction

 'I think it's the most unusual item we've ever  had in our auction'

Hard to believe someone paid this much for a crapper – even a famous one!

Lennon image source

toilet photo source

Attack ads surpass 2006 levels as November draws near

It's not even Labor Day and negative political ads are muscling in on your TV time. Across the country, ad spending is up and attack ads lead the way.

“As of this week, candidates for state and federal office had spent $395 million on ads for the November elections, compared with $286 million at this point in the 2006 midterms. More than half the ads have been negative.”

Pet Psychics – do they really talk with the dead and heal all sicknesses with their hands?

Coming Sunday Aug. 29th in The Times-Standard:

As It Stands explores the murky world of pet psychics who perform miracles. They can talk with your pet via the phone (just provide a pic of the pet), or find your lost pet. They dredge up spirits of past pets and even tell you what they were reincarnated as in case you want to continue your relationship with that special pet.

 

Judge: Video game addiction suit can go on

Player claims he is unable to bathe, dress himself or wake up in the day due to 'Lineage II'

“A Hawaii man who says he is unable to bathe, dress himself or wake up in the day because he is addicted to the video game "Lineage II" may proceed with his suit against the game's South Korean developer, a federal judge has ruled.”

Image source

Be sure to watch the sky tonight – it will look like we have 2 moons

UPDATE : this turned out to be a viral hoax.

Sorry about that…. 

Tonight the Whole World is waiting for...

the planet Mars to be at it’s brightest.

It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye tonight when it comes within 34.65M miles off earth.

 The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Elder financial Abuse: Stealing from Grandpa and Grandma

What will happen when you die?

Who will get your personal belongings and whatever money you have?

Do you even care? Should you care? Do you have a will? Even if you do, will it be carried out like you intended?  

The story plays out thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands of times — every year across the country, a scourge of old age

“America's vulnerable, graying population, and the concentration of wealth among older adults, has created a massive opportunity for fraud. Hard statistics are not available, but experts suspect that perhaps half a million elderly adults are ripped off by family members, lawyers and accountants every year, potentially taking $2.6 billion from infirm older Americans. The crime is known as elder financial abuse. Financial expert and consumer advocate John Wasik has called it "the crime of the 21st century."

Image source

Want to be class president? Not if you're black, in one Miss. school

Mother moves her family after learning about segregation in class elections

It’s hard to believe such blatant racism is tolerated today, but as this article points out, it’s just the way things are in Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss. The fact of the matter is racism is rampant in America today, and to prove my point look at Glenn Beck’s plans for this weekend (see Post below). 

Beck and Palin to lead ‘extreamist’ rally – they have a dream, but unlike King, it’s only for wealthy white America

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Beck’s bogus “God inspired” idea to overshadow Martin Luther King’s famous speech is based on nothing more than prejudice and hate. Beck loves the limelight and has no trouble calling Obama a racist or anyone else. It’s the pot calling the kettle black – but Beck seems to get away with it. At least with his rabid followers who want to “take America back!”

We're about to crash, jet passengers told in error

'They said the pilot hit the wrong button'

A while back I wrote a column about flying in airplanes and how I dread the experience.

I can just imagine if I’d of been on this flight!

Revenge of the Cat: ‘Cat Bin Lady's’ Internet infamy grows

The Internet abhors a cat dumper.

Never was that sentiment more clear than in its ongoing outrage over the infamous "Cat Bin Lady" of Britain, who made international news after video captured her petting an unsuspecting cat, then incongruously dropping the friendly tabby in a nearby garbage bin.

Gawker's Adrian Chen, himself a victim of the /b/board Internet horde, reports on 4chan's rapid identification and dissemination of the woman's identity, including her name and contact information, as well as that of her employer. Fitting, considering 4chan is responsible for the LOLCat phenomenon enjoyed by the general Internet population today. As was the case when 4chan targeted adolescent viral video star Jessi Slaughter,

Guess who is going to reclaim the civil rights movement?

Just when you thought you heard it all from Glenn Beck he comes up with shit like this. The sad part is, he has a willing (and extremely stupid) audience.

What’s next? No! Don’t tell me.   

Glenn Beck Says Obama’s Not a Muslin But a Perverted-Christian Whatever

“Prominent theologian Glenn Beck has been busy hanging streamers and making his favorite Metamucil-infused punch in preparation for this weekend’s “Restoring Honor” rally, where he and Ted Nugent will reclaim the civil rights movement from the Ghost of Martin Luther King Jr. and riddle it with bullets. Beck says his festival is going to be “the Woodstock of the next generation,” as well as “the anti-Woodstock.” He’s also calling the event an “American miracle,” which sounds more credible than the Woodstock stuff given Beck’s an expert on religion.”
Read more here.

Real tiger cub found in luggage with stuffed toys

Bangkok airport officials got suspicious when suitcase was X-rayed

A live tiger cub was found drugged and hidden among stuffed-tiger toys in the luggage of a woman at Bangkok's airport, a wildlife smuggling watchdog group reported Thursday.

Photo -This two-month-old tiger cub was found in a woman's suitcase at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand

Meet Lorenzo the cat, a complete clotheshorse

This feline loves to wear fancy shirts and mug for the camera

Not many cats have thousands of fans and a couple of museum exhibits under their belts.

Of course, not many cats could wear belts.

Lorenzo is a 2-year-old Maine coon who happily models the latest fashions for his owner, photographer Joann Biondi.

Mendocino County: There’s a Whole Lotta There There

I found this author’s observations/conversations to be interesting. You can go to his website and read the whole article. I was researching alternative vacations when I discovered: 

Max Hartshorne (shown here) who is the editor of GoNOMAD and his blog Readuponit. 

Hartshorne’s description of Mendocino sounds a lot like Humboldt. I suppose they are somewhat akin.

However, in my experience, when I tell people I’m from Humboldt County they automatically think “Marijuana.” If you say Mendocino, the odds are some people will relate it to wine. More informed types will know better, because bud production is a primary crop there. 

Excerpt:

“I asked Richard about the topic that many people quickly associate with the name Mendocino: Marijuana. “Oh, that. Let’s not go there. There are many things more important than that.”

But what he’s referring to is an underground economy of nearly $1.5 billion. Scores of local residents have good jobs trimming the marijuana buds, easy work that pays $25 per hour.

“Try hiring somebody to clean motel rooms, if they can make that for trimming,” an innkeeper told me that night.

In November 2010, an initiative on the California ballot will give voters the chance to legalize pot, both growing it, smoking it, and owning it will be legal. Most people said they thought it was a good idea, eyeing the tax revenues that would be produced for the state.

Everyone here is plain sick of the mess their state finances are in... looming giant deficits and cuts that go far beyond the acceptable. So this new source of tax revenue has to be tempting.

Yet when I visited a winery and spoke to people there, they said that they feel that legalization would kill the many pot businesses, and then big conglomerates would come in and take over the growing operations.

There are already plenty of Mexican drug gangs profiting handsomely from ‘illegal grows’ in the huge state forests of the county. Many people told me about how they showed the DEA where to find the growers who were invading their land with illegal planting...and they said they were fed up with it.

Who knows what will happen? At GoNOMAD we’re interested in promoting tourism, travel and spreading the gospel of going. I think if Mendocino follows the example of Amsterdam, it might be the biggest tourist draw since Disneyland. "This Bud's For You!" might be the perfect slogan for California's new tourism campaign.”

New treatment for advanced melanoma shrinks tumors

Drug reduced tumors in 80 percent of patients, study says, but effect may be fleeting

“An experimental targeted cancer drug shrank advanced melanoma tumors in 81 percent of patients with the deadly and hard-to-treat cancer, doctors said Wednesday.

The findings were part of an early phase study used to determine the best dose of the experimental drug PLX4032, now in late-stage clinical trials. It is designed to target tumor cells with a mutation in a gene called BRAF. The drug is made by Roche and privately held Plexxikon.

In two patients, tumors went away completely. In 24 others, the tumors shrank by more than 30 percent, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The team said 81 percent of 32 patients with a BRAF mutation showed complete or partial shrinkage of their tumors.”

I enjoy looking for unique vintage movie posters

This movie poster came out when I was a junior in high school.

1967 USA, documentary

(Don't Look Back)

Director D.A. Pennebaker

featuring Bob Dylan

UK
1974 reissue
20×30 $200

From The Posterman

Cat-tossing lady: I didn't mean to cause 'distress'

I’m filing this story under “I’ve Seen It All.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

U.K. woman says 'it's just a cat' in response to uproar; she later apologizes

“Cat got her tongue?

After saying "it's just a cat" in response to the uproar over her decision to throw a neighbor's cat into a trash bin, Mary Bale apologized Tuesday for her actions and said she will work with investigators who are looking into the matter.

"I want to take this opportunity to apologize profusely for the upset and distress that my actions have caused," Bale said in a statement.

“I cannot explain why I did this, it is completely out of character and I certainly did not intend to cause any distress to Lola or her owners. It was a split second of misjudgment that has got completely out of control.”

Dog who ate beehive wins unusual pet insurance award

“A Labrador that ate a beehive containing pesticides and thousands of dead bees won an award on Monday that recognized the most unusual pet health insurance claim in the United States.

Ellie, who fully recovered from her encounter with the beehive in southern California, beat a border collie that ran through a window to get at a mailman, and a terrier that bit a chainsaw.

She won a bronze trophy in the shape of a ham, and basket of toys and doggie treats.

The winner was announced on Monday by the Veterinary Pet Insurance Co (VPI) and selected from a dozen pets nationwide.”

photo source – This smiling girl is a stand-in for Ellie.

Mother Nature to the Rescue: new microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill

Is this to good to be true? Is it possible the environmental impact from the spilled oil will be considerably lessened by this tiny microbe?

Read on and see what you think.

'Great potential' for dispersing oil in deep sea, researchers report

“A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe suddenly is flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico and  gobbling up the BP spill at a much faster rate than expected, scientists reported Tuesday.

Scientists discovered the new microbe while studying the underwater dispersion of millions of gallons of oil spilled since the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Also, the microbe works without significantly depleting oxygen in the water, researchers reported in the online journal Sciencexpress.”

More tainted food: Meats sold at Walmart recalled for bacteria

If it’s not eggs (see below), then it’s meat (see below).

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380,000 pounds of deli products possibly tainted with listeria

Roast beef and ham that was distributed to Walmart delicatessens nationwide and sold in sandwiches has been recalled because it might be tainted with potentially harmful bacteria, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.

No illnesses have been reported from the 380,000 pounds of meat products that were made by Zemco Industries in Buffalo and may contain Listeria, agency spokesman Gary Mickelson said.

"It's believed most of the affected products have already been consumed," he said. The sandwiches have been removed from store shelves nonetheless.