Alert Reader Warning: Your help is needed to protect the Internet

I received the following information from a reader, Jim Popenoe, and believe it’s important enough to share with you:

“The House Judicial Committee holds a hearing November 16 on new internet legislation called "SOPA".  So far the only people invited to participate have been the proponents.  I have a feeling that the normally busy, quiet, technical folks out there may not
get heard.  They may oppose SOPA, but they will be vastly over-spent.  So, in spite of their common-sense opposition, they simply will be shouted down, that is, unless there is a huge grass-roots effort.
We need that grass-roots effort right now.  I am personally trying to light a fire under it, and I pray that I am not the only person doing so.  Please view my link below.  If it looks okay to you, please forward to whomever you think may be interested enough to take action.  It is not so difficult.  But the only way to turn the
tide is if enough good people take the time to read, to tell their friends and colleagues, and to express their views to Congress.   http://pages.suddenlink.net/popenoe/SOPA/Action-Plan.htm” – Jim Popenoe

The Golden Age of opposition research, Russian military gets into badminton, and the expense of bringing water to the southland

                       Good Morning Humboldt County!

There’s a thin layer of fog rapidly disappearing outside as shafts of sunlight break through this morning. In other words, looks like another beautiful day. Pull up a seat and grab a cup of hot coffee and check out the trio of stories I’ve collected for your morning entertainment:

The golden age of opposition research

The sort of search tools that discovered presidential candidate Joe Biden's plagiarism in 1987 have become more sophisticated and the outlets to shop damaging information are now virtually unlimited. "This is a golden age" of opposition research, said Jeff Berkowitz, who dug dirt on Democratic candidates for the Republican National committee from 2002 to 2010.

Rick Perry was addressing a tiny audience of about 10 in New Hampshire last Friday. He told the story of a 38-year-old Occupy Wall Street protestor named Jeremy, who had complained that bankers got to work so early that he never managed to get out of bed in time to insult them face-to-face.

"I guess greed just makes you work hard," joked Perry, who said that his son had told him about the lazy protestor. What Perry didn't realize is that "Jeremy" was fictional, part of a satirical column by the Toronto Globe and Mail's Mark Schatzker mocking reactions to the Occupy movement.

Also in the small crowd at the Barley House was a "tracker" from American Bridge, a newly formed SuperPAC doing research for the Democratic Party. The tracker was videotaping Perry's every word and gesture, and even though the gaffe was a relatively minor one, the candidate was about to become a victim of the latest, state-of-the-art opposition research.

Your serve! Russian military takes up badminton

Forget nuclear missiles. Russia's military arsenal will soon be bristling with badminton rackets.

Hoping to keep soldiers and recruits in fighting form without great expense, the Defence Ministry plans to buy 10,000 badminton rackets and tens of thousands of shuttlecocks next year, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Monday. Call it military exercise.

The energy, and expense, of bringing water to the Southland

The twin forces of power costs and climate-change regulations are threatening Southern California's long love affair with imported water, forcing the region to consider more mundane sources closer to home.

"It will further encourage retail water suppliers to use less imported water," said Edward Osann, a former federal water official who is a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's that simple."

Time to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: If you survive reading this column you’ll be better off

                      

"Out of life's school of war: what does not destroy me, makes me stronger."
Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Twilight of the Idols "Maxims and Arrows" sec. 8

                  By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  “What doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger,” is a modern version of an old phrase I’ve always embraced. I don’t have the space here to list every time this philosophy has carried me through hard times. 
  Instead, to support this wise saying, I’m  going to talk about three deadly poisons that also save lives. 
  A few months ago my brother-in-law Tom was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia. It’s the deadliest form you can get, but also the most treatable if caught early enough.

  The treatment they gave him surprised me. Arsenic, which has a long and deadly history. Back in the 15th and 16th century it was the poison of choice for the infamous Borgias in Italy.
  I was aware that arsenic was used as a pigment, a pesticide, and a sure way to kill someone, but to learn that Tom was getting it in a series of infusions caught me off guard. “You’ve got to be kidding!” I told my wife when she called and told me about this treatment plan.  
   He’s still getting arsenic infusions and will continue to receive them for a year. The positive news is he’s now in clinical remission. His future looks good.
   The irony of something so deadly being a medical cure actually occurs with many minerals and plants.
    Take Foxglove (Digitalis) a summer flower which was unfamiliar as a medicine to people in ancient times, but is now used in a number of medicines highly valued by cardiologists and is irreplaceable for many patients.
   Unlike most poisonous plants used in medicine, Foxglove has no ancient myths or mysteries surrounding it. The first reports of it being used in medicine date back to 1542. A German physician and professor of botany, Leonard Fuchs, put together a list of herbs of the time and gave Foxglove it’s scientific name digitalis (meaning a small finger) because it’s blossoms were similar to a thimble.

  Foxglove (pictured left) is a perennial herbaceous plant with long leaves. It’s native to West Europe (Ireland) and flourishes in many countries around the world. This is a common wild flower in California, Oregon and Washington. The whole plant is poisonous because every part of it contains the cardiac glycosides digitoxin (the most important one), gitoxin, digoxin and also some saponins, according to Websters New World Dictionary.
   The Irish and the Scots both used the plant, but it first became officially noted in a London pharmacopoeia in 1722. Later it was recognized for it’s medicinal properties in Edinburgh in 1744, and Paris in 1756.
   It was a trial and error situation as far as how much to give, and was administered in enormous doses as a laxative drug that led to many severe poisonings and deaths. Needless to say, it got a bad reputation and fell out of use for a long time.
  Nowadays, Foxglove has been redeemed, and doctors know its safe limits.

  The third deadly plant used in medicine (and other applications) is Atropa belladonna (pictured right) commonly known as Belladonna, Devil's Berries, Death Cherries or Deadly Nightshade. It’s native to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scoploamine and hyoscyamine which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations. Belladonna is also used as pharmaceutical anticholinergics. The drug atropine is derived from the plant.
  It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the Middle Ages, it was used as an anesthetic for surgery; the ancient Romans used it as a poison (the wife of Emperor Augustus and the wife of Claudius both used it to murder contemporaries); and predating this, it was used to make poison tipped arrows, according to Wikipedia.
   As It Stands, it still strikes me as odd to think the same substance I once put out in our garage to kill rats is now saving my friend and brother-in-law’s life!

Doggone! Pooch eats couple's $1,000 cash stash

One Florida family unwittingly helped serve a very expensive meal to their dog — $1,000 in cash — and then forced the pet to cough it up.

"I just think this is hilarious," the dog's owner, Christy Lawrenson of St. Augustine, Fla., told WJXT in Jacksonville, Fla on Friday.

She laughs now, but it was a different story two weeks ago.

"My husband and I are trying to pay off my car, and so every time we save $1,000, we just take it to the bank and we just put it in the account," she told the Jacksonville station.

This time, she took the cash, paper-clipped it and left it in an envelope on the counter, she said. The couple then said goodbye to their dog Tuity, a Labrador Retriever/chow/bulldog mix, and left for work.

When her husband came home for lunch, the envelope was gone and he saw shards of $100 bills strewn across the floor. The rest, including the paperclip, was in Tuity's stomach, she said. Lawrenson told WJXT that her husband induced the dog to vomit by feeding Tuity hydrogen peroxide. "I took the money from the vomit and put it in a bag and saved it for him because I didn't want to puzzle it back together. It was still not real to me even though I had dug through vomit all afternoon," Lawrenson said.

They pieced $900 back together, but the last $100 bill had one too many serial numbers missing, she said.The couple sent it to the Department of Treasury with a letter of explanation. "I didn't really see that one coming, and I guarantee we'll keep money away from him for now on," Lawrenson said.

Loo Rider–a poop powered bike, Drug Cartel tries to silence the internet, and Boy born at 11:11 on 11-11-11 to vet on Vets Day

         Good Morning Humboldt County!

What a morning…it’s beautiful outside. Still and warm. Birds calling out greetings. It’s a perfect day for you to have stopped by. Grab a cup of hot coffee and a seat and make yourself comfortable. I’ve got a few short reads for you to start your day:

Loo Rider: bike will get you where you want to go

Toilet Bike Neo, a three-wheeled motorcycle with a toilet like seat, is not a people "poop-powered bike" as reported by Huffingtonpost and other English-language websites, toilet maker Toto Ltd. said.

Toilet Bike Neo, the sole purpose of which is to advertise Toto's environmental activities, is powered by biogas fuel made from livestock waste (can you say cow shit?) and household wastewater. The trike carries two tanks containing biogas behind a toilet lid.

Mexican drug cartel tries to silence Internet

Mexico's hyper violent Zetas drug cartel appears to be launching what may be one of the first campaigns by an organized crime group to silence commentary on the Internet.

The cartel has already attacked rivals, journalists and other perceived enemies. Now, the target is an online chat room, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, that allows users to comment on the activities of the Zetas and others in the city on the border with Texas. Already, three apparent site users have been slain, and a fourth victim may have been discovered Wednesday, when a man's decapitated body was found with what residents said was a banner suggesting he was killed for posting on the site.

Boy born at 11:11 on 11-11-11 to vet on Vets Day

Jacob Anthony Saydeh won't have any trouble remembering precisely when he was born. A U.S. hospital says Jacob entered the world at 11:11 a.m. on Friday — 11-11-11. And to make the Veterans Day birth even more remarkable, the boy's mother is an Air Force veteran and his father is serving in the Air Force.

It's the second child for Staff Sgt. Christopher Saydeh and his wife, Danielle. They are a third-generation military family.

Time to walk on down the road…

Veterans Day reflections : what does this holiday mean to you?

             Good Morning Humboldt County!

C’mon in and have a cup of hot steaming coffee with me this chilly Fall morning. Have a seat and share a few moments with me on this holiday. It’s always been a special day for me as my father - a Marine in the South Pacific during WWII - also served this country. As a veteran (Army/Vietnam) I’m honored to have served. What does this day mean to you? Please feel free to comment below.

On Veterans Day, Americans cheer newly returned veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and honor them with parades. Jobs would be better.

Veterans who served since 9/11 have been hit particularly hard. The unemployment rate for them is 12.1%; the national rate is 9%. The hardest-hit group is male veterans ages 20-24. One in three are jobless. The problem may get worse as more men and women return from Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House projects 1 million will enter civilian life in the next five years.

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For a good read about Veterans try this:

          “Building on the Dignity of each Veteran”

by Ken Smith

“The Department of Labor (DOL) has a “Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project” that is operated out of the office of the Assistant Secretary of Veterans Employment and Training. 

Currently the position of Assistant Secretary is vacant, so the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) of DOL-VETS , who is a good guy named Junior Ortiz runs the agency.”

Here’s another good article:

Honor a Veteran; Understand PTSD -

By P.J. Skerrett, Editor, Harvard Health

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I’ll never forget those men I served with in Vietnam. Some never came home. Some did, but forever changed. They’re all ghosts now. Once vibrant young men. I was 19 years-old when I did my tour in 1970. Now I’m 61, but the same heart beats in this chest as that 19 year-old kid who survived chaos.

Why me? Part of me never left that land where bad things happened. I hear that young man’s gasps of horror at the sight’s he witnessed. The sights that would forever change him (me). I remember…

Time to walk on down the road…

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A thought - How about remembering veterans year round ?

          Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day.

Today, a 35-year-old military veteran shot himself in an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Burlington Vermont. I don’t know why. I just know that these young Iraqi and Afghan veterans are coming back with PTSD in bigger numbers than my fellow Vietnam veterans. Multiple employments play a part in that sad statistic.

Over in Oakland, news has come out that a second Iraq war veteran was injured in a conflict with police after Wednesday's general strike. 32-year-old Kayvan Sabeghi was taking part in protests earlier in the day but had left to go have dinner with a friend in the evening hours. He was walking home, down 14th Street near Frank Ogawa Plaza, when he encountered a protest faction and a line of police who would not let him pass, despite his being able to see his apartment from where they stood. He asked repeatedly to be allowed to pass to go home, but he ended up getting beaten by police with batons so severely that he suffered a lacerated spleen. He was hospitalized, but remains in good spirits. Meanwhile injured Marine vet Scott Olsen released a message urging everyone to remain non-violent in the face of police brutality. [ABC 7, Tribune]

Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – VA estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.

Roughly 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the U.S. population respectively. About 1.5 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

My point in sharing all this information with you is that if you want to really honor a veteran…don’t wait until Veteran’s Day. There’s many ways to help year around. Locally, here in Humboldt County we have North Coast Veterans Stand Down every year. There’s veteran organizations nationwide helping other veterans that you can support with your time or money.

Two women arrested in santanic sex ritual stabbing, Nixon unplugged, and Kawasaki disease may be blowing in the wind

                            Good Morning Humboldt County!

It’s another beautiful morning outside. A deer is nibbling on the wildflowers near our front porch. It’s still and warm. The birds are greeting one another happily. In the midst of all this it’s just another day when good things and bad things happen. Grab a cup of coffee and a seat and I’ll share three stories reflecting other realities.

Two women arrested in satanic sex ritual stabbing

Two women were arrested in Milwaukee this week after a man told police they had bound and stabbed him hundreds of times in a sexual encounter that "got quickly out of hand."

Rebecca Chandler (pictured here), 22, of Milwaukee is in jail after an 18-year-old man endured 300 puncture wounds when their sexual encounter "got out of hand," a police affidavit says

'Nixon unplugged': Secret Watergate testimony unsealed

Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony about the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency is finally coming to light.

Four months after a judge ordered the June 1975 records unsealed, the government's Nixon Presidential Library was making them available online Thursday. Historians hoped that the testimony would form Nixon's most truthful and thorough account of the circumstances that led to his extraordinary resignation 10 months earlier under threat of impeachment.

"This is Nixon unplugged," said historian Stanley Kutler, a principal figure in the lawsuit that pried open the records. Still, he said, "I have no illusions. Richard Nixon knew how to dodge questions with the best of them. I am sure that he danced, skipped, around a number of things."

Kawasaki disease may be blowing in the wind, researchers say

Doctors have struggled for decades to understand why thousands of children a year in the U.S. get Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that can cause serious heart damage if untreated, but is often mistaken for an everyday virus.

Now, a team of international scientists have announced the surprising finding that the answer may be blowing in the wind. The team’s leader, Dr. Jane C. Burns, professor of pediatrics and director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at the University of California San Diego, says cases of the disease are linked to large-scale wind currents whipping throughout Asia to Japan and around the North Pacific.

Time to walk on down the road…

Stephan King Shines: Author Helps Ease Mainers’ Oil Bills

I have to hand it to author Stephen King, he’s one of the 1% ers who cares about the rest.

It was inspiring to see the author of “The Shinning” cast a helpful light on his neighbors in the real world. Read about how Stephen King is helping ease Mainers' oil bills here.

King’s latest book “11/22/63” is now available. The master of suspense provides a new glimpse of a fateful chapter in history. Read an excerpt here.

Prop 215 supporters protest today at noon, Would you know if the government put a GPS device on your car? and pro basketball season is scuttled

                     Good Morning Humboldt County!

Looks like Mother Nature is going to be kind with another sunny day with a touch of hawk wind. Step right in my humble blog, and grab a cup of coffee. There’s plenty of seats to go around. Here’s what I have for you today:

Prop. 215 supporters from around the state will be protesting the federal government's attack on medical marijuana at the U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, 501 I Street, today at noon.The protest is sponsored by a coalition of organizations including California NORML.

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

Several justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday they have reservations about allowing law enforcement to do such monitoring without a warrant

Has the government attached GPS to your car?

Most of us really appreciate the benefits of GPS — except when it's surreptitiously attached to our vehicle by the government. And how would you know?

You wouldn't. That's the point, of course: Feds and police agencies investigating bad guys don't want them to know they're being tracked.

But what if you're not a bad guy? What if you're just ... you?

The Supreme Court is expected to rule before June on the issue of whether a warrant is needed for GPS monitoring. Until then, wouldn't hurt to check your car or ask your mechanic to do so. Just in case.

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           NBA Basketball season probably isn’t going to happen

On Tuesday NBA players’ union team representatives met, rejected the owners offer on the table and said they wanted more negotiations. According to tweets from Marc Stein at ESPN, the consensus at that meeting was to go with the 50/50 split of league revenues the owners want if the owners will give a few more things on system issues.

Then just more than an hour later David Stern went on NBA TV and said the owners were not changing their offer. At all. Neither system or revenue. When David Aldridge asked Stern if there was wiggle room on the owners offer, he replied: “As of Sunday morning at 3 in the morning there was none left.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Good Karma: Man helps motorist who then saves his life miles later

A Canadian man who had just helped a motorist change a tire in western Wisconsin had his good deed quickly repaid when, just minutes later, that same motorist helped to save his life.

According to the Wisconsin State Patrol, Victor Giesbrecht, of Winnipeg, was driving Saturday evening on Interstate 94 about 9 miles east of Menomonie when he stopped to help another motorist change a tire. Patrol Sgt. Michael Newton said that after driving off, Giesbrecht was stricken by a heart attack within a mile or two. His wife, Ann, helped bring their pickup truck to a stop, called 911 and waved her arms for help.

At about the same time, the motorists they had just helped pulled up. The Star Tribune reported Monday (http://bit.ly/vrvfEP ) that one of them, Lisa Meier, of Eau Claire, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him until emergency personnel arrived. A state trooper and two Dunn County deputies took over and used an automated external defibrillator to help Giesbrecht regain a pulse and resume breathing.

A medical helicopter took Giesbrecht to Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire. He was in serious condition Monday. Newton said if Giesbrecht hadn't helped with the tire change, his initial rescuer may have remained stranded for too long to play a life-saving role.

"If he had been a few more miles down the road and had his heart attack, it could have been a different outcome," Newton said. "It's an interesting turn of fate." He said Giesbrecht had suffered another heart attack about a year earlier. Newton added that Dunn County having an AED on hand "was the tipping point" in saving Giesbrecht's life.

British students to face plastic bullets if things get out of hand

A mass protest is being organized by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, which said it expected 10,000 people to join in a march from Bloomsbury in central London to the center of the city Wednesday.

Some activists from the anti-capitalist Occupy London Stock Exchange movement in London said they would join the march, according to local reports.

For the first time ever, British citizens will face plastic bullets tomorrow. The same type of bullets which have caused deaths in past riots in Northern Ireland.

London police authorize plastic bullets if riot erupts at protest

“London police were authorized to fire plastic bullets to quell riots and dozens of letters were sent out to activists warning of arrest for "criminal or antisocial behavior" ahead of planned mass student protests on Wednesday.”

A Tribute to Led Zeppelin: Today is the 40th anniversary of ‘Stairway To Heaven’

I know I’m showing my age, but who gives a damn! I think this song is a classic … I was 23 when it came out…

Ya gotta love it!

Here we are forty years later since the British rock juggernaut Led Zeppelin released their magnum opus, "Led Zeppelin IV."

Rife with flourishes of haunting folk, gritty blues and rafter-shaking rock of the heaviest order, "IV" swiftly became the band's defining album, largely thanks to the epic 8 minutes and 2 seconds of the fourth song on the LP, "Stairway to Heaven." Rock music hasn't been the same since.

Smokin’ Joe loses battle with Cancer, Mom rescues tot from washing machine, and Crosby & Nash to play at Occupy Wall Street

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Frazier was small for a heavyweight, only 205 pounds, but fought like a much bigger man with his deadly left hook.

          Good Morning Humboldt County!

It sure is nice to be back home! I’m glad you could make it today. C’mon in and grab a cup of hot Joe with me. There’s so many thing happening in our world that all I can do is give you a brief snapshot – three to be exact – of what’s in today’s headlines. I hope you enjoy them and I’ll see ya tomorrow.

           Smokin’Joe Frazier dies at 67

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be associated with Ali.

No one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

         Mom rescues tot from washing machine

A Washington state woman used a wrench to break the window of a running washing machine and rescue her 5-year-old daughter at a Laundromat in Okanogan. The girl either climbed in or was put in the washing machine Saturday night and it started running even though it had been marked "out of order," the Okanogan County sheriff's office said.

The girl's 29-year-old mother ran to her car, grabbed a wrench, smashed the washing machine door and pulled out her daughter, the Wenatchee World reported. The girl suffered a 10-inch cut on her back and was treated at a hospital in Omak. The hospital declined to comment on the girl's condition.

David Crosby, Graham Nash to play at Occupy Wall Street

Longtime musicians and activists David Crosby and Graham Nash are scheduled to perform a concert at the Occupy Wall Street protest site in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.

The Occupy Wall Street website says the Tuesday afternoon concert will be an acoustic set of protest songs.

Crosby, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer of Crosby Stills and Nash fame, visited the park last week.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

I’m taking a blog break and will be back with your morning coffee and stories on Tuesday Nov. 8

Time for me to walk on down the road…

my latest path will take me through the hinterlands of America where I’ll be associating with a lot of 99 %ers!!!

Peace out!

They said it – Quotes ripped from stories in the headlines today

Students in Shanghai, a booming Chinese city, shocked the world last year when they beat every other country on international exams. After reading the article one commentator (Celtic Curmudgeon) said;

“Welcome to the third world, America. By the time the teahadists and GOP get done with dismantling the U.S. educational system, we'll all be living in single-wides watching NASCAR, and wondering what happened.”

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On Oct. 22, Ms. Zucker, 21, and her friend Alex Fischer, also 21, were stopped by the police in Riverside Park and given tickets for trespassing. Mr. Fischer was permitted to leave after he produced his driver’s license. But Ms. Zucker, on a visit to New York City with a group of Carnegie Mellon University seniors looking for jobs in design industries, had left her wallet in a hotel two blocks away.

She was handcuffed. For the next 36 hours, she was moved from a cell in the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street to central booking in Lower Manhattan and then — she was brought back to Harlem. The judge proceeded to dismiss the ticket in less than a minute. Zucker summed the experience up;

“While it may have been one out-of-control officer that began the process,” she said, “no other officer had the courage to stand up against what they knew was a poor decision.”

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What do you think? Do animals really know right from wrong?

My pug Millie certainly knows when she’s done something wrong. Like Tank (the dog on the left) she cowers and looks at you with her big pleading eyes…

which usually works!

This is an interesting article on the subject and well worth your time to read. Enjoy, it might give you some insights into your pet.

“In a famous YouTube video, Tank the dog sure does look guilty when his owner comes home to find trash scattered everywhere, and the trash can lid incriminatingly stuck on Tank's head. But does the dog really know he misbehaved, or is he just trying to look submissive because his owner is yelling at him?

In another new video from the BBC "Frozen Planet" series, Adelie penguins are seen gathering stones to build their nests. One penguin stealthily steals a stone from his neighbor's nest every time the neighbor goes a-gathering. Does the penguin thief know its covert actions are wrong?”     Read the rest here.

Warlock and witches enlisted in drug wars, City lights could point the way for aliens, and Trump accuses Jon Stewart of being racist

  Good Morning Humboldt County!

It’s another day in paradise and I’ve got the coffee on. C’mon in and join me for a cup. I’ve selected a trio of stories that’ll get your gray matter going today:

Warlocks, witches enlisted in Mexico drug wars

CATEMACO, Mexico — In the dimly lighted back room of a modest house in this tourist city now largely devoid of tourists, Luis Tomás Marthen Torres, a warlock with 50 years of experience, closes his eyes and chants as he briskly rubs a stark white egg over the arms, chest and neck of a worried customer.

The ritual is old and common here in Mexico’s dominant hub for masters of the occult — where wizardry is passed from generation to generation — but like so many things in Mexico, the requests for help have changed.“People ask us for assistance because they’re scared of threats, of extortion. They’re full of negative energy,” says Mr. Marthen Torres. Visitors to this middle-class town of around 67,000 people, which attributes its mysticism to the region’s ancient Olmec roots, had for decades sought wizards to cast love spells and cure physical ailments.

    City lights could point to E.T.

Astronomers suggest that artificial illumination creates a signature that could point to the existence of civilizations on other worlds — and they say we should get started on a survey of the edges of our own solar system, just in case.The suggestion comes from Harvard's Abraham Loeb and Princeton's Edwin Turner, in a research paper submitted to the journal Astrobiology. A version of the paper appears on the arXiv.org preprint server and sparked a write-up today on Technology Review's Physics arXiv Blog.

The Daily Show
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Trump accuses Jon Stewart of 'racist rant'

Let's face it, Donald Trump feuding with someone is hardly shocking.

But that doesn't stop the Republican supporter from pointing the finger at somebody when duty calls. So who's the entrepreneur yellin' at now?

Jon Stewart is facing the real estate mogul's wrath after making what Trump calls a "racist rant" about Herman Cain on "The Daily Show."

The comedian commented on the Republican presidential candidate's confusing reply to reports that he faced sexual harassment charges during the 1990s, joking that it was like responding to the question, "Have you ever kidnapped a baby?" with the response, "No. Well, other than the Lindbergh baby."

Time to walk on down the road…

The Backlash: Propaganda Posters of the 1% …

 

posters via Visual News

Humboldt County Story: dog stays with deceased owner for 8 days

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

Roxy is a true friend of the Millsap family…

This is a bittersweet story that tells of the untimely death of Humboldt County resident, Corkey Millsap, and how his loyal boxer stayed at his side after the fatal accident for eight days.

When daughter Delana and others found Corkey, who had gone over a 200 ft. cliff in a car off of Hwy. 299, Roxy the boxer was next to the car. She had survived the fatal plunge.