Tuesday ramblings: Mickey and Minnie mouse cartoon controversy and other stuff…

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Have you got you coffee or tea? Let’s enjoy warm beverages this morning while taking a look at the madness in the world around us:

Cartoon of bearded Mickey Mouse with Minnie in a veil causes stir in Egypt

Ultraconservative Muslims don’t have a sense of humor.

An Egyptian Christian telecom mogul has angered Islamic hard-liners by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie in a face veil. The ultraconservative Islamists, known as Salafis, called the cartoon posted by Naguib Sawiris on Twitter a mockery of Islam.

 'Anonymous' hackers declare war on Orlando

The hacker group Anonymous on Monday declared war against the city of Orlando, Florida, over the arrest of people handing out food to homeless people, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Anonymous said it would start "a massive campaign" against Orlando and "city web assets."

It said it would send emails to millions of people in 50 countries asking them to boycott the city.

Man completes 300-mile trip on paddleboard

Bart de Zwart expected to be in more pain after paddling 300 miles from the Big Island to Kauai.

"I'm not even sore," he said Monday morning from his Kauai hotel room, where he slept in a bed after arriving to Kalapaki Beach the night before onboard a stand-up paddleboard.

The 41-year-old Maui man spent five days alone at sea attempting what he believes to be the first-ever solo crossing from the Big Island to Kauai on a standup paddleboard. He was headed to a Kauai clinic Monday to have swollen, infected blisters on his feet checked out. Aside from the blisters and losing about six pounds, he said he felt fine.

Thanks for stopping by. Time for me to head on down the road…

Parting shots: Doobie or not doobie? That is the question, Bard...

The end of another day. Here’s a question to take with you: How many famous writers were stoned while composing their masterpieces? Has anyone kept track?

Some think the Bard of Avon was a loadie. A good argument I suppose for blazing a bowl before composing your great American novel. 

“A South African anthropologist has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana.”  Story

Ex-Gov. Blagojevich found guilty of corruption charges

I’ve been wondering why Blago’s trial hasn’t been getting the media’s attention like the Casey Anthony trial has. I guess it’s just not sensational enough for a ravening public.

Once upon a time, a story like this – A state governor trying to sell the President’s old Senate seat - would have been considered sensational. But, we’re all so use to corrupt politicians nowadays that this trial barely got a second-glance from anyone.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he is disappointed and "stunned" after a jury found him guilty on 17 corruption-related charges, including trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old Senate seat.

Blagojevich, who had spent two and a half years professing his innocence on reality TV shows and later on the witness stand, faces an undetermined amount of time in prison.

Late night jokes from Sunday night…

Here’s a humorous roundup from last night’s reigning comedians:

Fallon: Airplane designers are planning a high-speed jet that can go from New York to London in one hour. Seriously? How about a jet that can go from the gate to the runway in one hour?

Leno: NBAs Ron Artest is changing his name to Metta World Peace. Not to be outdone, LeBron James is changing his name to Not Michael Jordan.

Conan: Egypt's military is Facebook polling for the country’s next leader. So, congratulations to Egypt's new leader, President Betty White.
Leno: Newt Gingrich’s campaign staff quit last week. Then his finance staff. He was going to quit the race, but his speechwriter quit too.

Fallon: A new study finds most Americans will have to work into their 70s and 80s to afford retirement. But then they'll have plenty of time to enjoy their golden year.

Letterman: Miss California won the Miss USA contest. Now the race is on to find the naked pictures.

Leno: Hugh Hefner is so depressed over his canceled wedding to Crystal Harris. They found him in the closed garage sitting on his Rascal scooter with the motor running.
Conan: NBC apologizes for deleting the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in its U.S. Open coverage.  NBC is also sorry that Brian Williams ended the Nightly News with “Hail Satan!”Letterman: Rory McIlroy won $1.4 million at the US Open. Congratulations. Once again, the money had to be borrowed from the Chinese Open.

Leno: You probably saw President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner had their big golf match. You know what Obama's handicap is? Joe Biden.

Leno: Interesting political news tonight: Our entire studio audience used to work for Newt Gingrich. Everyone has resigned.

Fallon: Researchers in Brazil have discovered an Amazon tribe that’s never made contact with the outside world. Which can only mean they’re using iPhones.

Leno: Al Gore publicly attacks President Obama for taking no bold action on global warming and not fighting hard enough to pass new legislation in Congress. Then the girl behind the counter said, 'Sir, can you please just pay for your ice cream and go?'

Fallon: Justin Bieber and President Obama both in New York tonight. Traffic gridlock with the most powerful man in the world and right down the street President Obama.

Leno: A new survey says the U.S. is the funniest country in the world and Germany is the least funny. Gee, imagine coming in behind that laugh riot land of Iran.

Conan: Apple founder Steve Jobs plans a new state-of-the-art corporate headquarters. Then in six months he’ll replace it with a slightly thinner headquarters with a crappy camera.

Conan: The Florida Marlins new manager Jack McKeon is 80-years-old. That makes him the oldest man working in baseball and the youngest man working in Florida.

Source

Manic Monday: the Dodgers go bankrupt and other stuff…

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee or team with me as we take a quick glance at what’s happening in the world around us:

The Dodgers file for bankruptcy

A mere three days before the payroll comes due — payroll that Frank McCourt can’t meet — the Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy, reports Richard Sandomir. With that, the legal game begins.

Michael Jackson 'Thriller' jacket sells for $1.8 million

A famed black-and-red calfskin jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the classic "Thriller" video has sold at auction for $1.8 million. I don’t know who these people are that can pay a king’s ransom for stuff like this.

Just a couple days ago the only known existing photo of Billy The Kid sold for $2 million dollars. That’s a lot of cash for just a photo.

We may be in a prolonged recession…but that’s not stopping the super rich from changing their costly collecting habits. This outrageous waste of money is par for the course when your rich and bored.

Nebraska nuclear plant safe despite flooding, officials say

Floodwater seeping into the turbine building at a nuclear power plant near Omaha on the banks of the Missouri River is not a safety risk, officials said Monday.

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Coming Next Sunday in As It Stands – “Oh say Can You See – a Nuclear Free Country?”

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Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson said that seepage was expected at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station and that pumps were handling the problem.

Flooding remains a concern all along the Missouri because of massive amounts of water the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released from upstream reservoirs. The river is expected to rise as much as 5 to 7 feet above flood stage in much of Nebraska and Iowa and as much as 10 feet over flood stage in parts of Missouri.

It’s time to get on with the day. Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon. Time for me to head on down the road…

As It Stands: Why global warming is such a controversial subject

By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard

Posted: 06/26/2011 02:40:17 AM PDT

This year in particular I've heard a lot of talk about global warming because of all the natural disasters world wide. Tsunamis, tornados, volcanoes, earthquakes, record flooding, and record freezing temperatures have been almost biblical in their frequency and destruction.

So what's going on? Some say the Earth is heating up rapidly because of man-made pollution penetrating the ozone. Others say the Earth is just having its natural good and bad cycles (in terms of human habitation).

In fact, a Gallup Poll in March claimed 51 percent of Americans worry about global warming. I'd say that shows how divided we are on this controversial issue.

The idea that mankind could negatively affect the climate by using fossil fuels is not new. The first talk of global warming goes back to 1896. A Swedish scientist, Svante Arrhenius, first suggested the idea. He proposed a direct relationship between carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature.

No one seemed concerned enough about the possible danger to the planet to pursue Arrhenius' research until 70 years later. Scientists showed a renewed interest in the earth's climate in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lead researchers in the early 1970s discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) broke down into elementary chlorine in the presence of UV light emitted by the sun. CFCs were widely used as refrigerants, propellants (in aerosol applications) and solvents.

They also found a single molecule of elementary chlorine could destroy over 100,000 ozone (03) molecules. This discovery led to a worldwide ban on CFCs by the late 1990s (see Ozone Science: The Facts behind the Phaseout).

During this two decade period scientists thought the world was cooling. That theory gave way to the opposite one of global warming in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988, global governments formed an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In 1999, Indian climatologist Syed Hasnain speculated that the Himalayan glaciers would “vanish within 40 years as a result of global warming.” Fred Pearce, a reporter for The New Scientist magazine, quoted Hasnain's contention.

 Like a good journalist, Pearce noted that Hasnain cautioned his data was speculative, hadn't been published and wasn't peer reviewed. The interview would have faded into history, but was revived in 2001 when the IPCC used it to show a millennium of relatively stable global-average temperatures followed by a sharp increase in the 20th century.

Apparently ignoring Hasnain's warning that the report wasn't properly vetted, it was cited again in 2005 in a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The report was a lobbying and fundraising tool.

This misuse of the Hasnain interview opened the door for a faulty foundation to be laid by the IPCC. They took Hasnain's untested speculation without doing any fact checking and ran with it. If they had checked it out, I suspect they never would not have quoted it once more in a 2007 report claiming “glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than those in any other part of the world.”

Throw in Climategate, when IPCC emails revealed discussions by leading IPCC scientists about how to exclude dissidents and skeptics from the body's report-writing processes and you can see why so many people don't believe in global warming. Protecting false science didn't give the IPCC much credibility.

Despite some doubtful information, there is also credible information on the effects of fossil fuels on the environment. To read more, I recommend the following: an article “Global Warming” which ran Jan. 13, 2011, in the New York Post; NASA's Earth Observatory website; and ScienceDaily.com.

 Our two-party system is divided over the credibility of global warming caused by fossil fuels. The Republicans feel they have to deny any facts supporting fossil fuel as a cause of global warming to protect Big Oil. The Democrats feel they're hitting the high road because they side with the environmentalist agenda, even though they too have a habit of skipping uncomfortable facts that don't support their contentions.

Whatever you want to call it, the Earth is experiencing drastic changes. Islands sink as sea levels rise. Instead of denying what we know to be true, that ancient glaciers are thawing, and temperatures are rising rapidly in areas that were cooler in recent history, we should unite in an effort to deal with what we can see, and prepare ourselves for climatic changes that surely lie ahead.

As It Stands, I hope the subject will transcend politics someday, and we still have time to take the appropriate actions for future generations.

WEBSITES CARRYING THIS COLUMN:

Doing It Green -

The Daily Jabber

Global Warming Cycles

Earth Global Warming

Is Hobie Call the most fit man in the world? Some think he is…

The "Death Race," a 24-hour obstacle-course competition that began Saturday in Vermont, is advertised as so difficult it "will make giving birth seem like a walk in the park."

Typically, fewer than a quarter of participants are able to finish, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

This year's 200 competitors were set to include accomplished triathletes, military special forces and a person who has been called the "world's fittest man."

The race's organizers, though, were focused on Hobie Call, a 34-year-old father of five who installs air conditioning for a living.

When Call learned that owners of a series of obstacle-course races were offering a $100,000 prize to anyone who can win 14 of them in the US this year, he announced he was going to pull off a sweep.

"I didn't believe him," said Joe De Sena, co-founder of the Death Race. "There just are not that many people who have that drive."

But so far, Call has won six in a row. Now, the race owners are intent on stopping him, saying that if he wins Saturday's Death Race, they will give $20,000 to anyone who can beat him in the future.

The Death Race is part of a circuit of obstacle-course competitions in the US, Canada and the UK known as "Spartan Races." They are as frustrating as they are physically grueling. Details of each Spartan Race course are kept secret so competitors cannot specifically train for them.

Organizers force racers to do just about anything, including crawl through muddy troughs covered in barbed wire, jump through flames, solve puzzles, chop wood, carry water and learn Greek. It also helps to be very fast.

The Death Race, the longest of the Spartan races, usually covers 45 miles. It lasts at least 24 hours, but has gone on for as long as 72. (Participants will not know exactly how long until it's over; they are given instructions during the race.)

"It emulates life," said De Sena. "Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

In February, Call left the suburbs of Salt Lake City in a 10-year-old Dodge Caravan and drove 11 hours to Temecula, Calif., to compete in his first Spartan Race. Call, who has the fastest known time for lunging a mile (24 minutes, 56 seconds) and has run marathons, thought it would make for a fun vacation. He packed his own food and slept in his car. The next day, he blew away his competition in a race that involved climbing a slippery wall, running through flames and solving one side of a Rubik's Cube.

Since then, Call has gone to extraordinary lengths to win six Spartan Races in a row. He sold his TV, he said, to buy a plane ticket to a race in Austin. Thanks to a cult following, fans and competitors helped cover some expenses and offered up their hotel rooms so he does not have to sleep in his car.

Race organizers are looking for someone to defeat him. De Sena, an institutional trader, said he invested his life savings in the series and will have to pay $100,000 out of his own pocket if Call reaches the goal.

"We were told we should get insurance," he said. "We laughed and said no one could do this."

Spartan Race staffer Jason Rita has been charged with finding the perfect athlete to beat Call. He has asked everyone from mixed martial-arts studios to the Navy SEALs to send someone. All have declined. In one race, Call nearly lost when he was asked to drag bricks using a rope. A competitor caught up to him, but Call out-sprinted him to the finish.

Call looks nothing like the hulking Spartans in the Hollywood film "300." He has the stature of a distance runner, wears glasses and has a quick smile.

"I don't have that rough look, but when it comes time for the race, I have that rough mentality," he said.

He said runners do not have the upper-body strength to beat him, and the buff guys are too slow.

"It's my combination of strength and speed," he says. "Good luck finding somebody."

story source       Google Images

NY passes gay marriage bill, treasure found, and man hides in toilet

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Grab a cup of Joe and take a load off this morning. There’s always something happening of interest. For example:

Cuomo signs NY gay-marriage bill

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed New York's gay marriage bill into law late Friday, paving the way for what is expected to be a crush of gay weddings starting in 30 days.

New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

I have a niece who is going to be glad to hear this news.

 $500,000 emerald ring — and it's a real treasure

Salvors searching for a sunken 17th-century Spanish galleon said they found a gold and emerald ring with a rectangular cut stone estimated at 10 karats while diving 35 miles west of Key West Thursday.

They say they believe it is from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the Florida Keys during a 1622 hurricane.

The ring was found by divers from Mel Fisher's Treasures, who were looking for the sterncastle of the Atocha.

Colorado Toilet Tank Arrestee Is A Wannabe New Age Pornographer

The man arrested for hiding in a toilet tank at a Colorado yoga festival is a New Age transient who aspires to operate a “spiritual porn site” and describes himself as a “worshipper” of women.

Luke Chrisco, 30, was arrested recently and charged with hiding inside a toilet tank at the Hanuman Yoga Festival in Boulder. A woman about to use the toilet, cops reported, noticed “movement in the tank” and alerted a man who spotted the feces-covered suspect “hiding inside the tank.

Time for me to head on down the road…

We can thank this moron from Texas for blocking federal legalization of marijuana!

It seems that the opinion of one good-old-boy Congressman from Texas outweighs yours. Meet the asshole who is making sure the failed War on Drugs never ends:

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), also known for his anti-immigrant policies, has said his House Judiciary panel will not consider the Barney Frank/Ron Paul bill. Period.

Now, we all know that this half-wit Texan already has his mind made up, so maybe there’s not much we can do about that. HOWEVER. What we CAN do is to make every single day of the rest of his life an occasion upon which he was reminded of his rank stupidity.

(Information and photo source here)

Here’s Rep. Lamar Smith’s contact info. Let him know what you think of the fact that he is now, by his own choice, the man responsible for continuing marijuana prohibition in the United States.

You can get started by emailing Lamar (click here), but this “man of the people’s” website makes you put in your zip code to do so (handy way to reduce citizen input), so you’re going to need to be from the 21st Congressional District of Texas to do that.

Meanwhile, you can call and write his offices: Washington, DC Office
2409 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 - ph: 202-225-4236 fax: 202-225-8628
8:30 am- 6:00 pm EST, or

San Antonio District Office -1100 NE Loop 410, Suite 640 San Antonio - TX 78209 ph: 210-821-5024
fax: 210-821-5947 8:00 am- 5:00 pm M-F

Kerrville District Office
301 Junction Highway, Suite 346C Kerrville, TX - 78029 ph: 830-896-0154 fax: 830-896-0168
8:00 am- 12:00 pm M-Th

Austin District Office
3532 Bee Cave Road, Suite 100 - Austin, TX 78746 - ph: 512-306-0439 fax: 512-306-0427
8:00 am-1:00 pm M-Th

As It Stands turns back the clock to 2009 when I warned readers about suspected cell phone health risks

 The subject of harmful effects from using cell phones has recently been in the news. Two years ago I wrote about them and got a divided response; some people thought I was crazy, and others agreed problems could exist.

Has anything changed since I wrote this column? Sadly, there’s very little progress to report.

On March 31st of this year CNN reported radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

June 7, 2009

   By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard

It always troubles me when people get sick, or even die, from a product that hasn't been thoroughly tested.

You see that kind of thing often in the pharmaceutical market. Big companies are more concerned about releasing new products to make a profit than they are about the long-term effects these products may have.
Despite the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) efforts, the practice of releasing products to the public before their long-term effects have been thoroughly studied, continues to this day.
Take cell phones for example. The FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is supposed to make sure that radiation-emitting products, such as microwave ovens, TV sets, cell phones, and laser products meet radiation standards.
According to the CDRH Website (www.fda.gov) “the center monitors devices throughout the product life cycle, including a nationwide post-market surveillance system.” If that's the case, why are the FDA's only studies relatively short term, with absolutely no data available on the consequences of childhood exposure to cell phones?
The majority of published data has been concentrated on a small number of outcomes, especially brain tumors and leukemia. Recently, there have been some studies of residential exposure to radio and television, that have focused on leukemia.
There have also been studies of cell phone users, particularly for brain tumors and less often cancers or other symptoms. These studies have shown no consistent or convincing evidence of adverse health effects from radio frequency field (RFs) exposure, according to the FDA. Not everyone agrees.
Critics of these limited studies point out that they are too deficient to rule out an association. The fact is that very little is known about new technologies using RFs. There haven't been any definitive population studies, but other statistics indicate concerns about cell phones being dangerous to one's health.
Recent statistics show that more than 30 percent of children under 13 years of age in the U.S. own their own cell phones. One-out-of-two American teenagers have their own cell phones. By next year, even more of those populations will get cell phones.
Why? Cell phones are getting cheaper every day. We like being connected to our children at all times. and, let's face it, a cell phone is nice to have in case of an emergency. Warning signals can be seen in current studies that indicate negative effects from electromagnetic fields and radio frequency radiation.
The head of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, recently told reporters there is a clear possibility of a direct relationship between cell phones use and the risk of cancer.
Worldwide, health researchers are taking a harder look into the adverse effects of constant cell phone use. International findings suggest that, if nothing is done about the matter, we may see an epidemic of brain cancer among the planet's youth.
Studies have shown significant correlation between electromagnetic radiation on our cells and our DNA. These studies also show that children are at the greatest risk to radiation damage because their brains are still developing and skulls are very thin.
Evidence is building that shows extreme low frequency (ELF) waves may not only be related to cancer, but may speed up the aging process, increase anxiety, depression, anger, and irritability.
A study by Dr. Neil Cherry, of Lincoln University in New Zealand, suggests that exposure to ELF waves alters calcium ions in our cells. Dr. Cherry's contention is that cell phone use may alter the delicate melatonin/serotonin balance in the brain, which would explain mood disorders and sleep problems.
I could cite other studies, but I hope you get my point. The FDA is lagging behind in studying adverse cell phones effects. So we won't hear from them soon, if ever. Until more is known about prolonged cell phone usage, we should encourage young people to use them less often or not hold them as close to their ears. I know that's easier said than done.
But what if your child comes down with brain cancer some day? Then it will be too late to do anything. At least now you can err on the side of caution.
As It Stands, technology brings benefits, but it also can bring grief if we don't fully understand it.

 image source #1    image source #2    Image source #3

The passing of an icon: Don Knotts gives up the ‘Ghost’ at 81

"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" star left audiences howling with delight.

Don Knotts, the saucer-eyed, scarecrow-thin comic actor best known for his roles as the high-strung small-town deputy Barney Fife on the 1960s CBS series "The Andy Griffith Show" and the leisure-suit-clad landlord Ralph Furley on ABC's '70s sitcom "Three's Company," has died. He was 81.

Don was one of my favorite comedians of all time. I loved every movie he ever starred in.  The Incredible Mr. Limpet" was one of his funniest movies in my opinion. RIP Don Knotts…you’ll be missed.

Finally Friday: Did you ever laugh so hard you thought you’d die?

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Glad you could join me this morning. The coffee’s hot and we’re burning daylight so let’s get with it shall we?

Have you ever laughed so hard you couldn’t get your breath and thought you were going to choke to death? A comedian named Jim Dailakis knows what that’s like. According to Dr. Martin Samuels, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, blacking out while laughing may be related to over-breathing, and is probably not too dangerous.

Store clerk opens up a can of you-know-what on assailant

Sorry Charlie! But no robbing this guy’s liquor store!

In what became the fight of his life, Benyahia grabbed something he knew might help, the hardest item on the shelf — a metal can of tuna.

In the video, you can see Hakim Benyahia hit the would-be robber on the head, just enough to shake him.

Dude! Tossed pot lands on police cruiser!

AP - State police say a man's effort to ditch some drugs from a moving car in western New York didn't exactly go as planned. Troopers with the state police Thruway detail say 20-year-old Sean Schmidt was standing with his upper body sticking out the sunroof of a vehicle traveling on Interstate 190 in Buffalo late Monday night.

When a trooper following in a state police cruiser activated the car lights to pull the other vehicle over, Schmidt threw a small bag of marijuana, which landed on the hood of the trooper's car.Troopers say Schmidt was ticketed for marijuana possession and not wearing a seat belt.

The coffee has kicked in and it’s time for me to head on down the road…

Summer by the Sea is Magical - Awash in Warm Colors and Mystery

Google image/ Anonymous Photographer

What America Needs: Young Entrepreneurs With Visions for a Future

From time to time, I talk about jobs in America. I’ve written why it’s so hard for young people today to find a job in this extended recession.

So, I’m always on the lookout for some good news on this subject. I recently read about a young entrepreneur who started an offline business at 16 years-old (in 2006), and who has steadily built his t-shirt business into a viable profit source online.

Graphic:  a screenshot of ooShirt’s Design Lab

Lei now employees six people, all current students or recent graduates from UC Berkeley. His company is called ooShirts, and he started out with $2,200 seed money. The UC Berkeley sophomore, who started ooShirts.com in his junior year at Cupertino's Monta Vista High School, represents a new wave of startups that require little or no capital.

“We're an "ultra-light" startup, meaning that we spend no money on direct advertising and generally make every penny count,” said Colleen Fitzgerald, an employee I recently talked with. This new business model requires a lot of hard work, but anyone with the desire could go the route that Lei has chosen.

One of the many aspects about Lei’s business is that he’s getting all of his t-shirts printed in locations throughout the USA. Lei couldn’t find inexpensive custom-shirts when he started out, so he built an easy-to-use website and found reliable suppliers who provide speedy deliveries.

Lei, a sophomore business major at the University of California-Berkeley, says his revenue is continuing to grow. "We grew from having about $30,000 in revenue per year all the way up about $2.2 million at the end of 2010," he says.

As It Stands, Lei is on the frontline for the new millennium of entrepreneurs that hopefully will generate more jobs during these hard times.

(Go to Custom shirts for more information)

Ammonia Treated Meat: Yummy! Some Pink Slime In That Burger?

Pink Slime? What’s That?

This product is actually called ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings. Still not sure?  This is the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer – fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. Once swept up, the scraps are sent through a series of machines, which grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens.

Sounds Tasty? It Gets Better!

The USDA allows this ammonia treated meat to enter the marketplace and with no labeling requirement on the packaging to inform the consumer that the meat they are about to buy contains ammonia. It is used to stretch the actual ground beef, and the USDA shockingly allows up to 15 percent of a ground beef product to be this filler and still be labeled ground beef.

On the premier of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” the British chef showed how “nasty pink slime,” as one FDA microbiologist calls it, is wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat from the meat scraps, and then treated with ammonia to “retard spoilage,” and turned into “a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips”. You can view his show clicking here.

So if you are eating a burger, there’s a good chance that you are also eating Pink Slime. How yummy is that?

According to a New York Times article, The “majority of hamburger” now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings “the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil,” “typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass” that contains “larger microbiological populations.”

Read more here

Thursday Talk: Top FBI fugitive captured and some other stuff…

Good morning Humboldt County!

Pull up a chair and join me for some coffee or tea.  It’s another beautiful day in paradise. After being in the big city again, my appreciation for this area comes in waves of gratitude this morning for the opportunity to live here. Let’s get with it, shall we?

Fugitive mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger arrested

James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday.

The world's most adorable — and photogenic — animals

Ever heard someone say they don’t like animals? It’s a rare occurrence, and typically met with confused looks and protestations.

That’s because animals steal the show, drawing gasps and smiles from giddy onlookers, who scramble for their phones to snap photo after photo of each endearing or goofy expression.

Slideshow: World's most adorable animals

I'll have a 'Big Dirty' -- stirred, not shaken

Next time you’re in Washington, D.C., you can get down with the “Big Dirty.”

Wrap your arms around a hefty 48 ounces of your favorite cocktail — for just $80. And for $10 more, you get to keep the glass.  (Or save the money and the memory with a snapshot from your smartphone.) 

“It’s a good novelty thing, and a good way to brand ourselves,” said Walter Rhee, managing partner and director of operations at Dirty Martini, which sells about 35 to 40 of the supersize-me cocktails a week.

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by. Time for me to head on down the road…

Some common sense please: What will get you kicked off US Airways? Saggy pants or underpants?

I like to share stories like this where people simply don’t use common sense. You can’t tell me this guys get-up is better than saggy pants. I’ll take those baggy trousers every time. Can you imagine being the person sitting next to this cutie? I think he out-weinered Anthony Weiner!

US Airways has acknowledged that less than a week before having a college student arrested for allegedly refusing to hike up his saggy pants while boarding, the airline allowed a man (photo by another passenger, Jill Tarlow via AP) wearing little more than women’s underwear, black thigh-high stockings and heels to fly.

On June 16, University of New Mexico football player Deshon Marman was removed from a US Airways flight at San Francisco International Airport and arrested for refusing to follow crew members’ requests to hike up his saggy pants.

Members of Congress to introduce Historic Legislation Ending Marijuana Prohibition Thursday

This news just in:

The Legislation, Modeled after the Repeal of Alcohol Prohibition, Comes on the 40th Anniversary of the Failed War on Drugs and on the Heels of a Global Commission Report Recommending Marijuana Legalization

Teleconference: Rep. Barney Frank and Leading Organizations Working to End the Failed War on Marijuana Explain the Significance of the Legislation

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce bi-partisan legislation tomorrow, June 23, ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference. Other co-sponsors include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal. The legislation is the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.

Leading critics of the war on marijuana will explain its significance for state andnational marijuana policy at a national tele-press conference on Thursday.

What: Tele-Press Conference on the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

When: Thursday, June 23. 2:00pm EST / 11am PST

Call-in Info: 1-800-311-9404; Passcode: Marijuana

Who:

• Representative Barney Frank (D-4th/MA)
• Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
• Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project(MPP)
• Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
• Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Last week marked the 40th Anniversary of President Nixon declaring a war on marijuana and other drugs. In an oped in the New York Times last week, timed for the 40thAnniversary, former President Jimmy Carter called for reforming marijuana laws.

The legislation also comes on the heels of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which released a report on June 2 calling for a major paradigm shift in how our society deals with drugs, including calling for legal regulation of marijuana. The reportsent a jolt around the world, generating thousands of international media stories. The commission is comprised of international dignitaries including Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations; Richard Branson, entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin Group; and the former Presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Switzerland. Representing the U.S. on the commission are George P. Shultz, Paul Volcker, and John Whitehead.

46.5% of Californians voted last year to legalize marijuana in their state, and voters in Colorado, Washington and possibly other states are expected to vote on the issue next year. In the past year at least five state legislatures have considered legalizing marijuana, including California, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington. 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to arrest people under federal law and U.S. Attorneys have in recent months sent threatening letters to state policymakers in an apparent attempt to meddle in state decision-making.

Rep. Frank's legislation would end state/federal conflicts over marijuana policy, reprioritize federal resources, and provide more room for states to do what is best for their own citizens.

It’s good to be back! Let’s see what’s happening today…

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Good to see you this morning. Grab a folding chair, stool, or beanbag and join me in having a cup of steaming hot Java or tea and we’ll see what we can see:

Spider Man sued for illegal Poker games 

Looks like actor spider man actor Tobey Maguire is in hot water over an illegal poker game in California.

Biblical proportions: Man builds full size Noah’s Ark

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

Imagine going for a cruise on this boat!

Tiny art critics: Babies pick Picasso, study finds

The littlest art critics -- a bunch of 9-month-olds in Switzerland -- preferred the works of Picasso over Monet in a recent study.

Paintings by the Spanish artist appealed more to the diaper-clad set than those by the Frenchman in a series of five different experiments published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Now, you may wonder: How much insight can an infant offer when comparing cubism to impressionism?

"At 9-months of age, infants' vision is already much the same as in adults," says Trix Cacchione, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, and the study's lead author.

"To an infant, a painting is most likely only a perceptual pattern and their aesthetic preferences are most likely guided by low-level functions of the visual system."

That’s all for now. It sure is good to be back. Time for me to head on down the road…

I’m going on a Blog Break…

Time to recharge my batteries.

I’m stepping away from my word processor. My book. Newspaper columns. Daily posts on this blog. Making comments on other blogs or newspapers. I’m stepping away from them all. It’s time for me to walk on down the road…

See you next Wednesday – June 22nd. Please feel free to look over my column archives while I’m away. Peace.