Take a look at the 10 most secret societies in the world

No matter what their supposed purpose, there’s something inherently sinister about a secret society. Though most are formed with relatively realistic political and religious goals in mind, their focus on mystery and secrecy has made them the target of countless criticisms and conspiracy theories involving everything from aliens and the occult to world domination. Of course, the reality is usually much more innocuous, but that doesn’t mean that the groups don’t have some fascinatingly weird practices, or that they haven’t had an impact on world events.

With this in mind, the following are ten of the most famous and influential secret societies in history:

   Skull and Bones

        Famous Members
  George H.W. Bush, George W.Bush, John Kerry

Ivy League Colleges are known for their many secret societies and student organizations, and of these Yale’s Skull and Bones is probably the most famous. The society taps new students for membership every spring, and the only real prerequisite for membership is that the initiate be a campus leader. As such, athletes, members of the student council, and fraternity presidents are often considered. Skull and Bones counts among its membership U.S. Presidents, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, which has lead many to argue that the group works as some kind of underground organization for the high-powered political elite. There is no denying that the club is well funded: an alumni organization called the Russell Trust Association bankrolls its activities, and the group supposedly owns an island in upstate New York.

Secret Practices
Skull and Bones’ membership is no longer kept secret, but their practices still are. The order meets twice a week, but just what goes on at their meetings has never been revealed. To the disappointment of conspiracy theorists, what rumors have come out are relatively innocuous. The group has supposedly taken part in a number of pranks, and was once even sued by chairman of the Apache tribe, who claimed the Bonesmen were in possession of the skeleton of Geronimo. Beyond this, the group is known for allegedly forcing new members to relate their sexual history to the rest of the society, and for giving out nicknames to each initiate. In a widely reported rumor, President George H.W. Bush was supposedly known as “Magog,” a name given to the Bonesman with the most sexual experience

Go here to read about the other nine secret societies. 

Gadhafi killed, thief uses crane to steal Jeep, and study reveals how gross public bathrooms are

           Good Morning Humboldt County!

It’s coffee time and all visitors are welcome. I’m serving up some hot Joe and stories to start your day. So c’mon in, pull up a seat, and join me. 

 

'We have been waiting for this moment': Libya confirms Gadhafi is dead

Deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been killed, the Libyan prime minister confirmed Thursday, following news of his capture and reports of his death.

The ousted dictator died of wounds suffered in his capture near his hometown of Sirte, according to a senior National Transitional Council military official and a government minister. "He was killed in an attack by the fighters. There is footage of that," the NTC's information minister, Mahmoud Shammam, told Reuters.

The military official, Abdel Majid Mlegta, told Reuters that Gadhafi was taken at dawn on Thursday as he tried to flee in a convoy that NATO warplanes had attacked.

UPDATE:

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

This video just in around 11:00 PST…

Up... and away! Thief uses crane to steal jeep

A thief used a crane to lift a Jeep Wrangler off of a northern Indiana car lot over the weekend, local media reported. Surveillance camera footage at LaPorte Chrysler showed someone driving a truck carrying a crane onto the lot, then circling around to park next to the 2008 Wrangler, Chicago NBC station WMAQ reported. Then the thief hooked the Jeep with the crane and loaded it onto a trailer.The entire operation, which occurred at 6:40 a.m. Sunday, took all of six minutes, according to WMAQ.

Don't touch! Study confirms your worst fears about public potties

No. 1: A new study on the germ orgies going down in America’s public restrooms truly puts the “P” in repulsive, repugnant and “Hey, how awesome are my Depends?”

No. 2: If you can, maybe just hold it until you get home.

Yes, we’re talking about relieving those two basic bodily functions and doing so in some of most bacteria-bedecked spaces anywhere. As long suspected, bathroom surfaces in U.S. restaurants, airplanes, stores, hospitals and other busy locales are often heavily contaminated with illness-causing microbes – and, in some cases, the bug colonies are even too large to measure, according to a paper to be presented Friday to the Infectious Diseases Society of America in Boston.

Time to walk on down the road…

Warning: 'Natural' diet pills tainted with banned prescription drug

Twenty brands of dietary supplements touted as so-called natural weight loss aids have been found to contain a prescription drug pulled from the market for safety concerns, the Food and Drug Administration warned today.

Products marketed under names like “A-Slim 100% Natural Slimming Capsules,” “P57 Hoodia,” “PhentaBurn Slimming Capsules,” and “Dream Body Slimming Capsules,” were found to contain sibutramine. That's actually the medication more commonly known under the brand name Meridia -- a prescription weight-loss drug that was removed from the U.S. market last October  because it was linked to heart attacks and stroke.

According to the FDA warning, “the product poses a threat to consumers because sibutramine is known to substantially increase blood pressure and/or pulse rate in some patients and may present a significant risk for patients with a history of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke.  This product may also interact in life-threatening ways with other medications a consumer may be taking."

Click here for a full list of products listed in the FDA warnings.

ICE officer arrested in pot smuggling

A deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona state police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled, the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.

The deportation officer, identified as Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, had been under surveillance for more than month after a known smuggler who had been arrested gave authorities a tip about the officer in an effort to get lenient treatment, Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook told The Associated Press. Lowery, who lives in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, does not yet have an attorney.

DPS and federal agents tried to pull Lowery over Tuesday after he picked up a load of marijuana in the desert with his unmarked ICE pickup truck, Cook said. The officer fled, leading agents on a 45-minute chase at speeds of up to 110 mph as he threw 10 of the 14 bundles of pot that he had in the truck out of the window, he said. "He got pretty desperate," Cook said.

The chase began in the Vekol Valley about 45 miles south of Phoenix and ended just south of Sacaton, about 20 miles as the crow flies northwest from where the chase began. It ended when Lowery's truck rolled over and he gave himself up. DPS believes Lowery was taking the marijuana to a man working for a drug cartel whose house served as the nexus of the drug distribution.

Lowery was booked into Pinal County jail on charges of smuggling and felony flight and was turned over to ICE custody Wednesday morning. The sheriff's office also booked the man who was to receive the marijuana, identified as 33-year-old Joshua Duane Powell of Arizona City.

At Powell's home, police found 14 rifles and guns in the trunk of his car, seven of which had been reported stolen, according to a DPS document. The document also said that Powell had been out on a $25,000 bond stemming from a separate investigation last month in which multiple bulletproof vests, weapons, stolen night-vision equipment, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and various drugs were found in his home.

"Since his release only a few weeks ago, (Powell) has amassed a small arsenal of weapons and has proven to continue involvement in the illicit drug trade," the document said. Powell does not yet have an attorney and he has declined interview requests from the news media.

ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard declined to say how long that Lowery had worked for the agency or other details about him or the case. "ICE is cooperating with federal and state authorities in this matter," Picard said in a statement. "We hold our officers and agents to the highest levels of responsibility and are committed to supporting the agencies investigating this incident."

By AMANDA LEE MYERS The Associated Press

Time for change: The New US Government Symbol

The US government today announced that it is changing its symbol from an EAGLE to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance....

A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed!

It just doesn't get more accurate than that!

Movie inspires splash-and-dash robberies, Ice cream vendor offers drugs with other goodies, and a woman survives a kangaroo attack

             Good Morning Humboldt County!

Coffee’s on. C’mon in and have a cup with me. It’s another day in paradise. After scanning headlines this morning, I came up with these three stories to share. Enjoy.

Silver-screen strategy nets New York robbers $217,000

Accused New York thieves have been using a Hollywood-born strategy to rob dozens of small stores, telling police they were inspired by the 2010 movie "The Town" to splash bleach on the crime scenes, according to the police.

In what were dubbed the "splash-and-dash" robberies, the suspects would throw bleach over cash machines and cash drawers in a bid to erase their DNA evidence, the New York Police Department said. They targeted dozens of corner stores, discount stores and pizzerias, netting $217,000 in the past year, police said.

 

Ice cream vendor gets prison for selling drugs with treats

An ice cream vendor who peddled prescription painkillers from the same truck he sold frozen treats to kids, was sentenced on Tuesday to three and a half years in prison.

The sentence was part of a plea deal struck by Louis Scala, 30, the head of a $1 million drug-trafficking ring run out of his Lickety Split truck, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in August to one count of conspiracy and one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance. Scala, 30, obtained the drugs with a prescription pad stolen by an accomplice from a Manhattan doctor's office. Through a network of more than two dozen runners, he was able to get nearly 43,000 oxycodone pills between July 2009 and June 2010, with a street value of $20 apiece, prosecutors said.

Scala drove his Lickety Split truck through neighborhoods in Staten Island, selling ice cream to children while inviting adults into the back to buy pills.

Australian woman survives attack by large kangaroo

An Australian woman said she thought she was about to die when a huge kangaroo attacked her while she was walking her dogs.

Janet Karson, of the southwestern Australian town of Deanmill, told The West Australian newspaper in a report published Wednesday that she was walking her dogs on Saturday when the kangaroo appeared. One of her dogs chased after it and she hurried to catch up. When she arrived, she said, the kangaroo had its claws locked onto her pet.

"I used a stick to lever its claws off my dog and then it reared up in front of me — it was huge," Karson told the newspaper. "All I can remember is its claws going to work on me and the smell of my own blood when my head fell on to its chest. I thought, 'That's it, I'm finished.' "It all happened so quickly — it was over in a few seconds."

Karson isn't sure if the dogs fought the kangaroo off her or if it decided to end the attack on its own. The mauling left her with cuts to her neck, ears and back. She said she needed 20 stitches to close the wounds to her ears. "I honestly believe it's a miracle I'm alive," she said.

Time to walk on down the road…

It’s not to early to think about Halloween costume ideas…

Nate Beeler / The Washington Examiner, Politicalcartoons.com

As It Stands Book Recommedation: ‘Unlikey Freindships’

Birds of a (different) feather…

An orphaned Madagascar teal duckling (left) snuggles under orphaned kookaburra (a predator to the former).

 

Jennifer Holland is a senior writer for National Geographic magazine, specializing in science and natural history. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, two dogs, and dozens of snakes and geckos; none of whom, to her dismay, have crossed the species barrier to befriend the others. More Photos Here

Was van Gogh murdered? Mexican drug cartels recruit children in Texas, and McDonalds’s new TV channel

   Good Morning Humboldt County!

This great weather we’re having is really spoiling me. Every day seems nicer than the last one. C’mon in and celebrate another day in paradise with me over a cup of hot coffee and a trio of stories to get. Enjoy:

 

Vincent van Gogh Murdered? New Book Presents Different Account of Artist’s Death

Experts have said for more than 100 years that post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh walked to a wheat field on July 27, 1890, shot himself in the chest with a pistol, then died two days later in his room at the age of 37. But a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith — who were honored in 1991 for a biography about American painter Jackson Pollock – argues the troubled artist might have been murdered.

Mexican drug cartels recruiting Texas children

Texas law enforcement officials say several Mexican drug cartels are luring youngsters as young as 11 to work in their smuggling operations.

Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told Reuters the drug gangs have a chilling name for the young Texans lured into their operations. "They call them 'the expendables,'" he said.

McCraw said his investigators have evidence six Mexican drug gangs -- including the violent Zetas -- have "command and control centers" in Texas actively recruiting children for their operations, attracting them with what appears to be "easy money" for doing simple tasks.

McDonald's new TV channel: The wisecracks

The Golden Arches pairs fattening food and slothful entertainment with a new network just for burger-scarfing Americans

McDonald's has long tried to smooth the rough, garish plastic edges of its restaurants to make them nicer places to hang out. The burger giant's latest gambit to get customers to while the day away under the Golden Arches? A new television network that will be beamed to widescreen HD screens visible to almost all dine-in customers. Reality TV mogul Mark Burnett, BBC America, and ABC are on board to provide locally tailored news and entertainment programming. The McDonald's Channel is being tested in California, with a national rollout in the works. Of course, the idea of mixing unhealthy Big Macs and brain-numbing TV hasn't escaped the notice of the commentariat. Here, some of the best zingers:

First Oprah, now Ronald?
Between this and the Oprah Winfrey Network, "the reprogramming of America just keeps getting scarier," says Amy Scattergood at LA Weekly. "Maybe soon we can simultaneously watch television and eat fast food every single waking moment."

Speaking of odd bedfellows
McDonald's TV is the brainchild of "the man who brought us Survivor and the people responsible for the Chicken McNugget"? says Tim Kenneally at The Wrap. "I'm watchin' it"!

Call it suicidal synergy!
Arguably, "anyone who is in a McDonald's has already given up on life, so they might as well be forced to watch more company propaganda," says Chris O'Shea at Mediabistro. Maybe they'll have a show called Guess What? I'm Stupid! where contestants explain to their loved ones why "eating three Filet-O-Fishes for lunch is fine even if their hearts do stop beating 'sometimes.'"

What else will be on McTV?
"You know, besides Super Size Me"? says Aly Semigran at Entertainment Weekly. How about a crime-buster show starring the Hamburgler, or "campaign commercials with Mayor McCheese against Herman Cain. Pizza vs. cheeseburgers: Make your vote count!"

Time to walk on down the road….

Sign of the times: Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

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

Coming Sunday: As It Stands takes a look at what President Obama has said about medical marijuana while campaigning for the presidency, and what he’s actually done since being in office. It isn’t pretty, but lies never are!

50 percent of Americans favor the legalization of marijuana, up from 46 percent last year, according to a new Gallup poll.

It was the first time in the survey that the number of people favoring legalization was higher than those opposed.

The support for legalized marijuana use has continued to climb since Gallup first began asking questions about it in 1969. Then, only 12 percent of Americans supported legalization, with 84 percent opposed.

I’m just saying, you might be a Conservative If…

1: You’re irate over the president taking so many vacation days on the taxpayer’s dime (61 thus far), but you thought George W. Bush earned every minute of his leisure time (196 days at the same point in his presidency).

2: You’re happy with your 40 hour work week, paid vacations and company-provided healthcare, but you’re strongly anti-union, because those commies haven’t done anything for you lately.

3: You strongly support the First Amendment and it’s guarantee of religious freedom to all, but you don’t think Muslims have a right to build an Islamic Community Center in Manhattan.

4: You believe Ronald Reagan was a devout Christian, even though he hated going to church, but any president who spends twenty years going to the same Trinity United Church in Chicago must be a Muslim.

5: You believe when a Republican governor creates a healthcare package with an individual mandate for everyone in his state, that’s a good idea. But when a Democratic president does it, suddenly it’s unconstitutional.

6: You’re so enthused about demonstrating your Second Amendment rights, you can think of no finer place to brandish your pistol in public than at a presidential rally.

7: You believe Bill Clinton was responsible for Osama bin Laden’s escape ten years ago, but thankfully George W. Bush caught up with him and killed him in Pakistan.

8: You believe in putting American jobs first, except when president Obama rescued 1.5 million GM and Chrysler autoworkers, because that was socialism.

9: It angers you that you can’t communicate with the Mexican busboy at your local Olive Garden, but when you took a vacation to San Francisco’s Chinatown, you thought it’s quaint that so many Chinese-Americans are holding fast to their traditional language. Because that’s America!

10: You deny that the lunatic who tried to murder Gaby Giffords was a conservative, even though he targeted a Jewish, pro-choice, pro gay rights, Democratic Congresswoman.

11: You thought it was perfectly normal that every president in history had an untethered right to raise the debt ceiling when warranted, but when Obama asked the GOP held congress to do it, you thought it only natural that it be tied to cutting Social Security and Medicare.

12: When the new 112th Congress was sworn in, you swooned as they promised to focus on “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” But when they pivoted, and went after NPR, Planned Parenthood and gay rights, you cheered.

13: You accuse president Obama of raising your taxes to the highest point ever, even though they’re lower today than at any time since 1950.

14: You believe the wealthiest Americans are “job creators,” and they are — but it doesn’t bother you that all the workers in those positions are in India, China and Malaysia, and they’re doing the jobs that our fathers once did.

15: You believe gays are anti-American, because their lifestyle is a threat to the children… unless they’re married to Tea Party-backed presidential candidates from Minnesota.

16: You strongly defend individual freedom, but that freedom doesn’t include a woman’s right to decide her own healthcare needs.

17: You believe corporations are people too, and are deserving of the same rights as the rest of us. Just not the same obligations to pay personal income tax free of corporate loopholes, or penalties for massive criminal behavior and tax evasion. In these matters, corporations are deserving of special rights.

18: And since corporations are now people too, you must believe in their right to a driver’s license, the right to marry, to adopt children, etc. These rights shall not be denied to Exxon, Halliburton and BP (but still immune from the right of the People to try, convict and sentence to death any corporation that conspires to commit a felony… because at that point, they’re suddenly not people again.)

19: You still believe Climate Change is a myth, and the recent record highs, lows, floods and droughts around the world coinciding with climate scientist’s predictions are all an amazing coincidence. Oh, and Al Gore is FAT!

20: You believe when George W. Bush took the national debt from $5 trillion to $11 trillion, it was necessary for him to do so to keep America safe. But when Barack Obama added to it by trying to rescue the country from a second Great Depression, he was deliberately trying to destroy America!

21: You believe America is a God fearing country, and that the Almighty protects those who believe just as you do. But it’s never crossed your mind that the majority of tornados, hurricanes and floods all occur in the Bible Belt.

22: You believe that no matter who’s in the White House, the office, if not the man himself is deserving of your respect. The only exceptions to this rule, are if his middle name sounds Muslim, and if he’s not at least as white as that black guy who works down in the mailroom at the office.

First ran here.

How safe is your hospital? New website lets you check

Medicare has begun publishing patient safety ratings for thousands of hospitals as the first step toward paying less to institutions with high rates of surgical complications, infections, mishaps and potentially avoidable deaths.

The new data, available on Medicare’s Hospital Compare website, evaluate hospitals on how often their patients suffer complications such as a collapsed lung, a blood clot after surgery or an accidental cut or tear during treatment. The measures also include specific death rates for patients who had breathing problems after surgery, had an operation to repair a weakness in the abdominal aorta or had a treatable complication after an operation.

Photo left: Madd River Community Hospital – Photo right – St. Joseph’s Hospital (both in Humboldt County)

Banks back down on homeowner foreclosure, Sesame Street channel hacked & filled woth porn, lost De Vinci portrait controversy

Good Morning Humboldt County!

C’mon in and have a cup of coffee with me. I’ve got a few stories to start your day. The sun is struggling to pierce the morning haze and a determined woodpecker is hammering away outside. What a wonderful world!      

 

Homeowner taps 'Occupy' protest  to avoid foreclosure

Rose Gudiel and her family were squatters in their own home. They had lost a two-year battle against foreclosure, and the eviction date had arrived. They hunkered down in the house on Sept. 28, surrounded by dozens of homeowner advocates and friends, hoping to stave off forcible removal.

“(The bank) kept saying we can’t do anything. Your case is closed,” said Gudiel. “Our stand was, ‘No, we’re not leaving. This is our home. We worked hard for it and we’re just not going to leave.’”

But instead of the anticipated confrontation, there was a dramatic reversal of fortune. Fanny Mae canceled the eviction notice and offered the Gudiels a loan modification that could enable them keep their home.

Why? Fannie Mae and loan servicer OneWest won’t discuss the case. But nonprofit advocates say a series of bold protests — with reinforcements from the “Occupy Wall Street” movement — and a spate of media interest put Rose in the limelight and forced the banks to back down.

Sesame Street YouTube channel hacked, filled with porn

The official YouTube channel for children's television series Sesame Street was compromised this weekend. At that time, a hacker filled what could be considered one of the more the child-friendly corners of the Internet with videos so pornographic that they'd make Cookie Monster blush until he resembled Elmo.

Security blog Sophos reports that the incident occurred on Sunday and that it took about 20 minutes before the explicit content was removed. It wasn't just the pornographic material which disappeared from YouTube at that point though. The entire Sesame Street channel — and all of its original videos — are currently "not available" on YouTube.

'Lost' Da Vinci Portrait, and its origins, stir controversy

Christie's auction house may have sold a priceless piece of art by Leonardo da Vinci for a little more than $21,000, according to researchers who claim to have identified the origins of the hotly debated painting.

The painting appears to have come from a 500-year-old book containing the family history of the Duke of Milan. Art historian Martin Kemp, of the University of Oxford, believes the mystery painting, which appeared in 1998, is a portrait of the duke's daughter, created by da Vinci for her wedding book. [ See images of the portrait and book ]

"We knew it came from a book, you have the stitch holes and can see the knife cut. Finding it is a miracle in a way. I was amazed," Kemp told LiveScience. "When doing historical research on 500-year-old objects … you hardly get the circle completed in this way." In 2010, Kemp first suggested that da Vinci painted the portrait, and since then, art historians have debated over both its origin and the painter. In fact, several art historians contacted by LiveScience said they wouldn't comment on the piece or didn't return emails. An earlier examination of the artwork by a gallery in Vienna led the director there to say it was not a da Vinci, and they are unswayed by the new evidence.

Time to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: Workplace reality - more robots, less humans

                                                  

          By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  Years ago I had a theory that cockroaches would inherit the earth. I still think there’s a chance, but now it looks like robots will, instead.
 There have been many troubling signs in the last few decades that robots are well on the way to making humans obsolete in the workplace. When I watched IBM’s Watson whip every human contender on Jeopardy, I knew our days were numbered. It’s hard to contend with a robot who makes fewer mistakes than you do and doesn’t get bored performing tedious tasks.
 Here’s something to consider; there will be 1.2 million industrial robots working worldwide next year according to Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works and author of Robotic Nation.
 You can’t go a day without seeing some form of robot. They analyze documents, fill prescriptions and work in checkout lines in stores nationwide. They handle many other tasks that were once performed by humans. Google has been working on automated cars. Seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles with human supervisors in the passenger seat. It’s just a matter of time before we get in the car in the morning, program it, and sit back and relax during our daily commute.
 ATM machines reduce the need for bank tellers, virtual assistants can answer the phone 24 hours a day. In 2008, Aeon Co., a major Japanese retailer, introduced a four-foot-tall yellow and white robot at a store whose job was to babysit children while adults shopped. Can full-time robot nannies be far away? 
 Robots can reach areas that are inaccessible to humans and provide crucial help in rescuing victims from natural disasters. The most useful robots could be aerial drones that  provide aerial inspections or ROVs, which can help locate underwater objects and determine the condition of bridges and pipelines, according to the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at Texas A&M University. 
  Lawyers and paralegals must be concerned with the arrival of software that can do their job in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, CA provides software that helps analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000, according to a New York Times report.
 Guess who else will have new competition for their job? Astronauts. NASA and General Motors got together and built an android - Robonaut2 - who will initially handle menial jobs such as cleaning the space station and assisting humans in space operations. It won’t take long for them to take the next step and replace a human crew.
 In ancient Greek and Roman mythology there were stories of metal men that, through the use of godly magic, came to life. In the real world of the 21st Century there’s the MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System), made by Foster-Miller, which has provided armed robots in Iraq. Drones and other machines are also increasingly used in reconnaissance and combat missions. 
 Especially troubling to an old journalist like me is the software developed by  Northwestern University Narrative Science that specializes in machine-generated stories. Robots writing stories! We must be headed for the end times.
 Why robots? That’s simple. They are cheaper than beat reporters. Look at the Big Ten Network, partially owned by Fox Cable. Their director of new media didn’t make any bones about telling Bloomberg BusinessWeek that they use the service for baseball and softball coverage because it’s less expensive. Yeah, but what about quality coverage for their readers?

  I’m not saying robots will start locking humans away like in the movies “The Matrix” or “I, Robot,” but I suggest we’re getting closer to a future when there will be no jobs for humans. Then what? The robots get tired of us stupid humans like in the movie “Terminator?”
   Artificially Intelligent machines have, to all intents and purposes, been around for years.  Take a look at traffic lights, computers that run hospitals, airports. shops and homes. Our world would come to a grinding halt without the robots that run our lives. But what will happen when there are no jobs for humans?
  As It Stands, I guess that’s what scares me. I also think robots will figure out a way to eliminate the cockroaches some day!

The Times They Are A-Changing…

Back in my day they said the times were changing…and so they are…and will always change.

They were calling for change in my day.

Some things never change though.

And that’s the need for change from one generation to the next…

A flashback that seems fitting today.

Majority of American troops to leave Iraq by January but US will still have a significant presence there

The good news is about 40,000 American troops are coming home from Iraq, reducing our footprint there considerably.

The bad news; there will be a massive American diplomatic presence for a long time to come.

From NBC News

“The U.S. in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and the State Department will have offices in Basra, Irbil and Kirkuk as well as other locations around the country where contractors will train Iraqi forces on U.S. military equipment they're purchasing. About 5,000 security contractors and personnel will be tasked with helping protect American diplomats and facilities around the country, the State Department has said.

The U.S. Embassy will still have a handful of U.S. Marines for protection and 157 U.S. military personnel in charge of facilitating weapons sales to Iraq.”

It seems we can’t let go of our eight-year mistake of invading and occupying Iraq. Just another case of American imperialism. Deals have been made and we can be sure of Iraq oil.

We still have Afghanistan and now our warmongering government is turning it’s attention to Africa by sending Green Berets to Uganda in what is the first part of a phased military operation that will spread to other nearby countries.

Once again, the government’s bullshit reasoning for an increased military presence is based upon lies designed to hide our capitalistic goals – there’s oil in Libya – and other natural resources we can plunder. We’re going in – wearing White Hats and all – to save these poor countries from some roving gang of thugs that’s supposedly terrifying the good people in Southern Africa. I’ve heard that song in Vietnam. It’s getting kind of old.

Our Chicken Hawks in the Pentagon are ready to rip Africa apart, like the vultures they are, in order to keep the war machine rolling. Africa screams…but no one hears.

As It Stands, until we pull our troops out from the more than 126 occupied countries, we can’t deny that American Imperialism thrives in the 21st Century.  

OWS Open’s Pandora’s Box: worldwide protests increase daily

Someone opened Pandora’s Box about a month ago when less than a dozen protestors began to occupy Wall Street in the name of the 99% who have lost hope for a true democracy.

      How the Myth relates to what’s happening today:

Once up a time, a long time ago, Zeus ordered Hephaestus (Aphrodite's husband) to make him a daughter. It was the first woman made out of clay. Hephaestus made a beautiful woman and named her Pandora.

Zeus sent his new daughter, Pandora, down to earth so that she could marry Epimetheus, who was a gentle but lonely man.

Zeus was not being kind. He was getting even. Epimetheus and Prometheus were brothers. Zeus was mad at one of the brothers, Prometheus, for giving people fire without asking Zeus first. 

Zeus gave Pandora a little box with a big heavy lock on it. He made her promise never to open the box. He gave the key to Pandora’s husband and told him to never open the box. Zeus was sure that Epimetheus' curiosity would get the better of him, and that either Epimetheus or his brother would open the box.

Pandora was very curious. She wanted to see what was inside the box, but Epimetheus said no. Better not. "You know your father," Epimetheus sighed, referring to Zeus. "He’s a tricky one."

One day, when Epimetheus lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box.

Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.

Epimetheus woke up at the sound of her sobbing. “I opened the box and all these ugly things flew out,” she cried. “I tried to catch them, but they all got out.” Pandora opened the box to show him how empty it was. But the box was not quite empty. One tiny bug flew quickly out before Pandora could slam the lid shut again.

“Hello, Pandora,” said the bug, hovering just out of reach. “My name is Hope.” With a nod of thanks for being set free, Hope flew out into the world, a world that now held Envy, Crime, Hate, and Disease – and Hope.

Today we have millions of people worldwide hoping to change oppressive governments ruled by corporations and an elite few. How long will this hope for change last? The powers-that-be hope the people will eventually give up and go back to being good sheep.

Yet, as long as Hope is out there, and shared by millions, there’s always a possibility they’ll make a positive difference in the lives of the oppressed masses in the near future.

photo source

Where missing people are found, an accommodating commode, and air traffic controllers errors soaring

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

NamUs is a vast registry that anyone can us to scan records and search for people.

       Good Morning Humboldt County!

Another day in paradise! It’s nice to see you could drop by and share a cup of coffee with me and read a few stories to start your day. This is a fascinating world full of surprises.

NamUs: Where missing people can be found

There is a place where the lost can be found.

Long before Lisa Irwin vanished from her Kansas City home, there was another desperate search in Missouri for a little girl. Her name was Elizabeth Gill. On the afternoon of June 13, 1965, Elizabeth was in her family's front yard in Cape Giradreau. It was the last time the 2-year-old was seen alive.

Scott Kleeschulte also disappeared in Missouri. On June 18, 1988, the 9-year-old freckled face boy was walking down a street in St. Charles County. To this day, nobody knows what happened to him. The three cases, separated by decades, share a common bond with thousands of other files accessible to the public on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System website. Known as NamUs, the vast national registry lets relatives, law enforcement, victim's rights advocates, and anyone scan the records and search for information that could help solve these heartbreaking mysteries. NamUs, which is run by the National Forensic Science Technology Center, is under the direction of the National Institute of Justice.

  This commode does it all ... for $6,400

The New York Times just published an in-depth review of Kohler's Numi toilet, a $6,400 contraption that is basically a cross between a potty and a butler.

The toilet, which costs 81 times the amount of your standard Home Depot toilet, has a touch-screen remote that flushes, cleans and dries its user. It also provides heat and music, and settings can be saved for each member of the family.

At first, we thought the Numi sounded like another unnecessary extravagance intended to make millionaires part with their money.But reporter Sam Grobart convinced us otherwise. Having spent a month living with the device, he writes:

And one thing I learned is this: It is possible to acclimate to such luxury. Anyone who has ever owned a car with a backup camera or heated seats knows what this means. Features that initially seem unnecessary can become something you cannot do without, even in a bathroom.  

Watchdog: Air traffic controller errors soaring

A report by a government watchdog says errors by air traffic controllers in the vicinity of airports as well as incidents in which there was an unauthorized plane, vehicle, or person on a runway have increased sharply in the past three years.The Government Accountability Office report released Thursday says errors by controllers working at radar facilities that handle approaches and departures within about 30 miles of an airport have more than doubled.

The report also says runway incursions at airports with control towers — which includes most large and medium sized airports — nearly doubled between 2008 and this year. A Federal Aviation Administration statement attributed the increases to better error reporting. The agency is also using new a plane-tracking system better able to spot planes too close together.

Time to walk on down the road…

Obama sends 100 military advisors to Uganda: Isn’t this how Vietnam began?

We’re about to repeat a big mistake (Vietnam) by sending combat troops to Africa – aka military advisors- into a country (Uganda) that is a political quagmire. Ultimately, they'll also deploy in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo according to the White House.

Doesn’t anyone see what’s happening here? Even if we eventually do pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan our military is slated to deploy to other countries.

There’s no end in sight. The Chicken Hawks at the Pentagon manage to hold every administration (Republican and Democratic) hostage under the banner of patriotism. They paint country-after-country as our enemies, and then they go in and occupy those countries, no matter how big or how small.

I can only shake my head in disgust with Obama and the rest of the military puppets that claim to be politicians representing the people. The majority of Americans don’t want war. We want peace. And roofs over our heads, and food, and schools where our children get the best possible education. The people need jobs. Not new enemies worldwide.  

High Hopes: Lasting Happiness Found With Hallucinogen Use?

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine studying psilocybin, the mind-altering chemical in “magic mushrooms,” found that the chemical may actually alter people’s personalities for a long period of time, ABC News is reporting.

The study involved one high dose of psilocybin administered to 51 adult study participants and found that 30 of them underwent measurable personality changes lasting more than a year. The aspect of personality that changed is known as openness.

Openness, the authors wrote, “encompasses aesthetic appreciation and sensitivity, imagination and fantasy, and broad-minded tolerance of others’ viewpoints and values.” Measured on a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, changes in openness were larger in magnitude than changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experiences, the scientists say.

The research, approved by Johns Hopkins’ Institutional Review Board, was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.  article source