AS IT STANDS: Why I’m nice to people who serve me food

                                                                       By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  Why isn’t there a national holiday for food servers? (If there is please don’t share it with me and ruin this column!)
   There should be. They don’t get paid anywhere near what politicians and others do for serving the public. Yet, what would we do without them? Stand in a line at restaurants and place our order with an overworked cook?
  Waiters and waitresses lead challenging lives. Anyone who has ever tried serving food knows this to be true. No surveys need to be taken. There are a lot of mean jerks out there! Some folks feel so entitled they treat the waiter/waitress like donkey dung. They criticize their server’s every move and do petty things like sending steaks back because they “don‘t look right.”

   This is not a wise thing to do. You can only humiliate and antagonize someone for so long before expecting retaliation. Think about what they can do to that steak with vicious delight? It’s not a pretty picture.
  I’d like to think most people have enough sense not to mess with waiters and waitresses. After all, they handle your food. This somewhat intimate exchange comes with expectations that your food hasn’t been tampered with, and your server’s wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
 It’s a two-way street. Be nice to them, and they’ll be nice to you. So why would anyone risk revenge? I’d write a book if I had the answer, but the short story is there are an incredible number of rude people in this world who do not think before engaging their mouths. It’s true, and I’m sure you’ve seen examples of same.

  In making my argument for a national holiday, I would like to include various types of food servers, such as those in fast food restaurants staffed with pimpled teenagers and seniors who are unable to retire. They get treated to drive-by rude encounters in addition to counter customers complaining there wasn’t enough salt in the French fries.
  Perhaps you’ve seen a movie about how fast food servers strike back at the public for perceived mistreatment. Maybe you’ve read a story or two about “luggie burgers” and much worse. That happens and a lot more. I’ve heard of hamburgers batted around on the floor like a hockey pucks and then served to unwitting customers.
 I’ve seen firsthand what can happen to food if you torment your waiter or waitress. You should also be aware they have many devious ways of getting back at you if you treat them badly. It isn’t always your food they mess with, sometimes it’s your head.

 Here’s one first hand example: my wife and I were treated to dinner by an old high school buddy, Larry, at an Italian restaurant in downtown Eureka a number of years ago. Larry, was messing with the waiter. He had fun bugging the waiter who tried to smile, but obviously had a hard time maintaining his grin.
  I sensed something was up when Larry handed him his credit card to pay the bill. The waiter came back smiling and said it was no good!
You should have seen Larry. He sent that waiter back twice with the same results and  grew more mortified each moment. I finally stepped in and paid the bill. After we left, Larry practically frothed at the mouth (luckily I was driving) and asked me to pull over to a local bank with ATMs out front.
  He stormed over to the ATM and for a tense moment it looked like his card wouldn’t work again, but then it started spitting money out. He slowly walked back to the car, coming to the painful  conclusion the waiter had messed with him big time. His embarrassment was complete. The moral of the story is simple; don’t screw with someone serving your food. They have many ways to return the favor.
  Personally, I have nothing but respect (even if it is born from the abject fear of my food being tampered with) for waiters and fast food servers. I always smile and say “Thank you,” even if I get the wrong order! I always leave tips.

 Food servers are not paid enough for what they have to endure. I was once almost a food server while in high school. I worked at an all-you-can eat smorgasbord after school, busing tables. I recall the psycho cook doing unspeakable thing to the salads and gravies.

 Needless to say I never ate anything there. After a while, I couldn’t stand it any longer and moved on to another menial job that didn’t involve working with the public.
 What’s that? How about rude food servers? Not right now my friend, that’s the stuff of another column.
As It Stands, we need to show our appreciate for waiters, waitresses, and fast food servers somehow. If not a national holiday, then how about how we treat them well every day? 

Mining Lore: A quick take from today, and a short history on the Yreka Mine

For a brief period of time, from 1992-94, I had the gold fever and was searching in the Siskiyou’s with a couple of buddies.

We spent a lot of time at the BLM office pouring over old records of mines. Some were still active, but most had reverted back to the state.

Long story short…never found enough to make our efforts worthwhile. I recall one day when the three of us went to the Siskiyou County Court House and saw a fabulous display of gold nuggets in the lobby behind a glass case.

We all wondered about how secure they were there. There was no apparent way to stop someone from doing a smash and grab. One in particular caught my eye – it looked like a big fat dog bone! We decided no one would be stupid enough to rob this display in such a public place. There were cops wandering around the halls a lot. (graphic - Yreka Mine, 1860)

On February 1, 2012, the LA Times reported:

“Thieves in Yreka, Calif., made off with $3 million in gold nuggets Wednesday after breaking into the Siskiyou County Courthouse and smashing a glass case that contained a display on the area's mining history, officials said.”

So much for someone being stupid enough to rob it. How about some local history about Yreka to wrap this post up with”

It was March, 1851 and gold had recently been discovered about 30 miles south of here on the Scott River.

A group of six men... while striking camp the next morning, Thompson observed something extraordinary. Because of heavy rains the ground was soaked, and the bunch grass, serving as breakfast for the pack mules, was being pulled out of the ground, exposing the roots. And on those roots, Thompson noticed, were flecks of gold. He and his men decided to stay.

Unbeknownst to Thompson, he had just spent the night on what would soon become known as “the richest square mile on earth.” As well, his accidental discovery set in motion the creation of a new town.

With so many gold-seekers already in California due to the ’49 gold rush, it wasn’t long before word got out, and within six weeks of Thompson’s discovery there were 2000 miners on Yreka flats. In those early days it was known simply as Thompson’s Dry Diggings, and was basically a huge camp full of transient gold miners. By August of that year, as the miners discovered that this area was the “second mother lode,” the population swelled to 5,000. At that time, the town, now called Shasta Butte City, moved to its present location, in order to be closer to the nearest water supply (Yreka Creek).

Slowly but surely, the new town was taking shape, and the first real structures were going up on Main Street (today’s Miner Street). In early 1852, with the population continuing to grow, the State Legislature created Siskiyou County. At that time, because there was another town called Shasta in the region, Shasta Butte City changed names again, this time choosing the local Indian word for Mt. Shasta—Yreka.

from "The Boomtown That Didn't Go Bust--A History of Early Yreka"

Richard Barter, also known as Rattlesnake Dick ...[d]uring California’s Gold Rush days, [settled] in at Rattlesnake Bar, a small mining camp in Placer County.....

However, Barter was unsuccessful in his quest for gold and soon decided to turn to a life of crime. ... In 1856, Barter learned from a drunken mining engineer that large gold shipments were being sent down Trinity Mountain from the Yreka and Klamath River Mines.

Barter sent George Skinner and three others to intercept the gold shipment, which was packed on mules. George and the other bandits stopped the mule train outside of Nevada City, California holding guns on the muleskinners. Meekly the men turned over $80,600 in gold bullion to Skinner and his men, without a shot being fired.

The bandits then made off with the shipment to keep a rendezvous at Folsom with Barter and Cy Skinner. However, George Skinner found it next to impossible to take the heavy gold shipment down the mountain passes without fresh mules. Soon, he split up the gold shipment burying half of it in the mountains.

Making their way to Auburn, the outlaws were soon intercepted by a Wells Fargo posse and gunfight ensued. In the melee, George Skinner was killed and his confederates fled. The lawmen recovered $40,600 of the stolen loot and though they searched diligently, they failed to find the remaining $40,000. ...

The treasure has never been recovered and is said to be somewhere on the slope of Trinity Mountain, said to have been buried about 12 miles south of the hold up point.

-- from Legends of America

America’s National Parks under siege: environmental threats, invasive species and climate change to blame

         Good Day Humboldt County!

  The reasons why our national parks face such challenges today can be attributed to several things.

  I recall working as an editor of a small town newspaper (The Desert Trail) during the 1980s, and going to Joshua Tree National Park numerous times; both recreational and on the job when a hiker would get lost or something along those lines. Today, Joshua Tree National Park is suffering from air pollution, among other things.

Joshua trees face peril from air pollution and climate change, which could leave Joshua Tree National Park with just 10 percent or less of the trees by 2100

“Disappearing glaciers, decreasing air quality and foundation species pushed to the brink of survival. America’s national parks are facing environmental threats that range from tiny invasive species to the planet-spanning impacts of climate change. In some cases, the situation is dire; in others, progress is being made. In aggregate, the issues point to how important — and how fragile — these special places are.

“Each unit in the system has its own unique challenges,” said Al Nash, spokesman for Yellowstone National Park, “but they all reflect a component of who we are and where we’re going. They’re about our shared experience as Americans.” (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands Unique People: Part one – meet Derek Amato muscial genius

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

Amato’s life-changing head-injury happened in 2006 when he was horsing around with some friends.

I’m launching a new feature for this blog today – As It Stand’s Unique People. I love reading about people who do unique things and lead unique lives.

My definition of a unique life is one lived off the beaten path. People are often in awe of what another person does and either considers them a genius or a crazy person.

      My first candidate is Derek Amato: 

“When Derek Amato crashed headfirst into the hard bottom of a pool, he was scared about what he might have done to his brain. But amazingly the fallout from that accident wasn’t all bad.

Along with the headaches and other post-concussion symptoms, the accident brought Amato an unexpected gift: it turned him into a musical savant.” (Continue reading the story here)

RECORD BREAKING WEATHER: 2012 is the Warmest U.S. Spring on record

              Good Day Humboldt County!

  Scientist are calling this year a carbon dioxide milestone. Every kind of weather record imaginable was broken thus far and we have six more months to go. But whatever you do, don’t say “global warming” or you’ll rile up the crazy disbelievers! You know what group I’m talking about – they still think the earth is flat.

  I find it interesting how people can ignore facts and the changing world around them, and rely instead on misinformed rhetoric from the extreme right. There’s no fixing stupid, so clueless conservative partisans will continue to ignore the science even when their wearing shorts in the dead of winter in Alaska!

“So far, 2012 has been the warmest year the United States has ever seen, with the warmest spring and the second-warmest May since record-keeping began in 1895, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Thursday.

Temperatures for the past 12 months and the year-to-date have been the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, NOAA said. Record warmth and near-record warmth blanketed the eastern two-thirds of the country from this spring, with 31 states reporting record warmth for the season and 11 more with spring temperatures among their 10 warmest.

"The Midwest and the upper Midwest were the epicenters for this vast warmth," Deke Arndt of NOAA's Climatic Data Center said in an online video. That meant farming started earlier in the year, and so did pests and weeds, bringing higher costs earlier in the growing season, Arndt said.

"This warmth is an example of what we would expect to see more often in a warming world," Arndt said. More long-lasting heat waves, record-high daytime temperatures and record-high overnight low temperatures are to be expected in a warming world, said Jake Crouch of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.” (Continue reading here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Election Madness 2012: White supremacist wins county GOP seat

How could a self-avowed skinhead have won a seat on a Republican committee? This surprising article not only explains how, but also exposes a flaw in the system. The GOP committee’s current bylaws don’t include a provision that would allow a member to be expelled for his/hers beliefs so they’re stuck with Steven Smith.

“Leaders of the Republican Committee of Luzerne County, Pa., are trying to figure out whether they can oust a reputed white supremacist who was elected to the committee with one vote – his own.

Steven Smith, co-founder of a racist group called the Keystone State Skinheads, was elected to one of two committee seats for his district, Pittston City's Ward 4, during Pennsylvania’s April 24 primary election.

The county GOP chief said that as much as other committee members want to distance themselves from Smith, their hands are tied for now by committee bylaws.” (Continue reading the story here)

In the name of art: dead flying feline causes global outrage and curiousity

                   Good Day Humboldt County!

I’ve heard it said that art is in the eye of the beholder. Artists are constantly exploring new avenues of expression using materials from the world around us.

I’ve seen some pretty crazy things done in the name of art, but a remote-controlled dead cat takes the honor of being the most bizarre piece of art I’ve ever witnessed.

  “A Dutch artist, upset over losing his beloved pet, Orville, had the animal stuffed and transformed its body into a remote-controlled helicopter, according to a Sky News report

A video posted to YouTube shows the flying feline slowly hover several feet in the air in a park, its body permanently spread eagle with propellers on its front paws. Artist Bart Jansen teamed up with radio control helicopter expert Arjen Beltman (photo above) after having a taxidermist preserve the pussy cat, Reuters reported.

The bizarre creation was then unveiled at the Kunstrai art festival in Amsterdam. The Orvillecopter doesn’t fly quite right, however, a glitch Jansen hopes to fix. “He will receive more powerful engines and larger props for his birthday,” Jansen said, adding that he hoped the upgrades will allow for a more “steady flight.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

You’ll be surprised how easy it is to come up with ‘scientific results’ on dubious studies and polls

                  Good Day Humboldt County!

If you watch, or read, the news every day then you probably saw or heard of at least one study, or poll, that claimed to use scientific methods to reach a conclusion. Political, scientific, and entertainment polls are a way of life in America.

Many people accept their results with no question, assuming experts know what their doing. They’re right about some pollsters and researchers with ethics and morals perhaps, but many others manipulate figures, numbers, and percentages, into a false picture according to their agenda.

Flat out. Don’t believe every poll or research paper is an honest assessment of things. Some polls have a certain amount of credibility – like Gallup for instance – but you still have to look at factors like the questions asked. Do they lead you into an inevitable conclusion? Who conducted the poll or research? Why? Who financed it?

There’s a lot to consider when you look at a poll or read a research paper. How do you tell if one research paper claiming marijuana is harmful and can give you cancer, and another tells you the complete opposite? Who is telling the truth? You have to do your own research to determine that. It’s often not easy, but I think preferable to being a lemming and not questioning polls and surveys.

Take them all with a grain of salt. Polls are playthings for politicans and in election years like this we’re bombarded with them. Consider this; it’s easy to publish statistically significant evidence consistent with any hypothesis.

See what you think about the following article - a “scientific paper” - on how easy it is to bullshit people!

 “Would you believe a scientific paper that said listening to the Beatles song "When I'm 64" made people get younger? It was tested by experiment, and the result came out with "statistical significance," which is the gold standard for incorporating new findings into the established scientific literature.

The point of the experiment was not really to test the youth-restoring effects of the song, but to show how too many dubious studies in social sciences are getting published in respected journals. (If it were really true, Paul McCartney would get even richer.)

Wharton researcher Uri Simonsohn constructed the song experiment as a sort of test case, along with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. They conducted a similar experiment showing that listening to the children's song "Hot Potato" made people feel older.

The researchers got both results using well-accepted practices for collecting, parsing, and analyzing statistical data, and both easily met qualifications for acceptance in peer-reviewed journals, said Simonsohn, a co-author of the paper.

"It's unacceptably easy to publish statistically significant evidence consistent with any hypothesis," he said.”

(read the entire story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road….

Last in a lifetime event: Venus transit: A last-minute guide

Thousands of scientists and skywatchers around the world have made detailed plans to monitor today's transit of Venus across the sun, but chances are that word of the last-in-a-lifetime event is just now sinking in for millions of just plain folks.

Venus' disk begins to pass over the left edge of the sun's disk a little after 6 p.m. ET, and makes a stately crossing that lasts until about 12:50 a.m. ET. (Of course, the sun will have set on the East Coast by then.)

Some part of the transit will be visible from most locations on Earth — though you're out of luck if you're in eastern South America, western Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Antarctica or the middle of the Atlantic.

The precise time when different edges of the planet's disk cross the sun's edge is actually a big deal. Those times vary by location on Earth, and the variations can be used to calculate dimensions and distances in the solar system.

Today, so much is known about those dimensions that astronomers can predict the key times of the transit based on your location. To find out what you can see when, use the U.S. Naval Observatory's transit computer.

You should never gaze at the sun without proper eye protection. Sunglasses are not adequate. Neither are black plastic garbage bags, or film negatives. Unsafe viewing can damage your retinas.

(Read the whole story here.)

Homegrown Terrorists: American gangs wage war against each other and the public

          Good Day Humboldt County!

Gangs are nothing new in America’s history. They’ve been around since the Declaration of Independence. I remember growing up in Southern California in the 50s and 60s in the Mexican barrios (La Puente, El Monte, Baldwin Park and Azusa) where I was a minority.

I grew up fighting in those neighborhoods. I didn’t have a choice. The first time I was attacked by a gang (five kids) I was in the third grade. I was walking home from school when they came after me like animals. I picked up a couple of rocks and threw them before being overwhelmed in the front yard of a house. They beat me senseless. An old woman came out of the house – at some point – and put a wet cloth on my head. I was bleeding from the nose and from several cuts, including one over my left eye that is still visible today.

Somehow, I survived that and countless other encounters, and graduated from Azusa High School in 1968. My reason for mentioning my experience with gangs, is that I understand the gang culture. In time, I earned the respect of different gang members and was even accepted by them because I was ready to fight despite the odds.

I didn’t hang with them, but could pass them on the street – have a conversation – and go on without having to fight them. Back then I realized gang members were “born” into gangs. I fought with the sons of the fathers who ran tough street gangs or were lifetime gang members.

Today, gangs are so powerful that we can’t seem to stop them, or even contain them. They come in every nationality and race, but all have one thing in common; they’re waging bloody wars against each other and law abiding Americans. They’re homegrown terrorists. What can be done to stop them?      

“The recent surge in violence that left 10 dead in Chicago during the Memorial Day weekend underscores a continuing national struggle to control criminal gangs whose numbers continue to grow even as violent crime has declined throughout much of the nation.

Of the 200 murders in Chicago so far this year — up from 139 at the same time last year — local police said that about 80% were gang-related in a city whose gang membership is estimated at more than 100,000.

"We're trying to get our arms around it," said Robert Tracy, Chicago's chief of crime control strategies. "We're trying everything."

Tracy attributes much of the violence to a rapidly-changing gang structure in which young members of the city's established 59 gangs have splintered into more than 600 subgroups, all seeking to assert their authority

Chicago's gang presence largely tracks a troubling national trend in which criminal gangs have been expanding in number and reach throughout the country, according to the National Gang Center, an arm of the Justice Department.

"At a time when most cities are experiencing their lowest levels of violent crime in a quarter of century, gang activity remains a potent problem," concluded an April report released by the National Gang Center.

James "Buddy" Howell, a senior research associate at the gang center, said gangs have become so "entrenched" in some of the nation's largest cities that gang-related crime is largely immune from forces that have been driving down overall crime.” (Read the whole story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Fantastic New Invention: Sleep anywhere in public and people won’t know!

 Designer Jamie O’Shea must have really wanted a nap when he created his vertical bed design. The vertical allows the user to sleeping standing up right in the middle of the street. Not satisfied without testing his own creation, O’Shea slept for 40 minutes in downtown New York. The bed design can be collapsed into a small suitcase and is attached to a subway vent when in use. The user gets a peaceful rest, as the bed comes with noise canceling headphones, opaque sunglasses and a free-standing umbrella for napping in the rain. Next time you walking down the street and feeling tired, simply set up the vertical bed and take a nap.
http://www.substitutematerials.com

I can see politicians of all stripes wanting one of these vertical beds. It has to beat bumping their heads on desks and podiums while trying to stay awake during long meetings.

STUPID LAWS: Today we’re featuring 12 laws in the great state of Alabama

          Good Day Humboldt County!

If you just happen to be traveling through Alabama in the near future here’s some laws you might want to be aware of:

  Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.

             Why does this law exist?
                 Full text of the law.

Incestuous marriages are legal. Full text of the law.

It is illegal to impersonate a person of the clergy. Full text of the law.

It is illegal to maim oneself to escape duty. Full text of the law.

It is considered an offense to open an umbrella on a street, for fear of spooking horses. Full text of the law.

It is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church. Full text of the law.

It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle. Full text of the law.

It is illegal to sell peanuts in Lee County after sundown on Wednesday. Full text of the law.

It is illegal to howl at ladies within the city limits. Full text of the law.

It is unlawful to wear women’s pumps with sharp, high heels. Why does this law exist?

No person within the city may possess confetti. Full text of the law.

Bathing in city fountains is prohibited. Full text of the law.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: Controversial conversations about politics

 

             By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
First Partisan pol: “My Super PAC is raising more money than your Super PAC.”
Second Partisan pol: “Oh yeah. My National Party has raised more than yours this year.”
Observation: Lots of money targeted for mud slinging by both sides.
First Tea Party member: “I hear Obama has come out and admitted he’s gay.”
Second Tea Party member: “Fact is, I hear Obama can’t produce a real marriage license proving he and Michelle are legally married.”
Observation: Some conservatives are over the edge.
First Hispanic: “What do you think about voting for Romney? I hear he has some family in Mexico.”
Second Hispanic: “No way would I vote for that ‘etch-a-sketch’ hombre. It’s true though, he has family in Mexico. I hear they’re in hiding.”

Observation. Romney will not do well with Hispanic voters.
First CEO: “Now that we have legally achieved transforming corporations into people, we’re ready for the next step.”
Second CEO: “Taking over the White House?”
First CEO: “No…becoming gods.”
Observation: The way Americans worship money why can’t divinity be bought?

First 99% : “I’m getting clobbered because I don’t qualify for any tax breaks this year. I may have to live in my car after paying my taxes.”
Second 99% : “I hear you. I paid a higher tax percentage than Mitt Romney did.”
First 99%: “What do you expect from a guy who has overseas accounts to dodge taxes here in the U.S?”
Observation: Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s bad form for a future U.S. president to have financial accounts overseas. A bit hypocritical, don’t you think?

First 1%: “The rabble simply doesn’t understand business. What is it about the “trickle down theory” that they don’t get?”
Second 1%: “The part where they’re downing.”
First 1%: “We’ll have to work on that. Give Mitt a call for me will you?”
Observation: It’s going to be a tough sell for Romney to act like he cares about the 99% ers when he’s a 1% er with a vision of more tax breaks for the wealthy.

First Gambler: “I bet Obama and Romney will pour equal amounts of cash into buying the presidency.”
Second Gambler: “That’s pretty much a given. How about betting they’ll set a new record for money raised (wasted?) in a presidential election campaign?”
Observation: This will be an historic presidential election for some pretty sad reasons.
Religious Right Voter #1: “That’s it for Barack Hussein Obama! Siding with the homosexuals and granting them equal rights is going to get him struck down by lightning from God almighty! Pass it on!”
Religious Right Voter #2: “There’s just one little problem with that thought brother…Romney is a Mormon. You know, a cult member.”
Religious Right Voter #1: “You had to bring that up, didn’t you?”
Observation: I don’t believe religion will play a major part in the upcoming debates for several reasons. The majority of Americans are much more concerned about the economy and spending for wars than they are about conflicting religious beliefs.

First Homeless Man: “If I could vote, I’d vote for Romney.”
Second Homeless Man: “You got to be kidding! He’s a Republican. They hate us!
First Homeless Man: “Yeah, but the Republicans don’t pretend to care about us, unlike the Democrats. At least I’d know for sure what I’d get for my vote.”
Observation: The number of homeless people in America is a national shame. The statistics show the ranks of the homeless are swelling even as social help programs are cut from state, city, and county budgets.

President Obama: “When you’re President, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.” (Source - http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/05/22/election-2012-bain-is-here-to-stay/ )

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney: “This president is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best - and can provide all.” (Source - http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/04/mitt-romney-delivers-remarks-manchester-nh)
Observation: This is the kind of smack talk we can expect from Obama and Romney in the coming months. It’s not enough. Americans want to hear solid proposals on how to solve the many challenges this country faces.
As It Stands, did you hear the one about the partisan politician who always told the truth? Neither did I.

Website that picked this column up:

1) News Now – USA Politics (Pg 12)

 

Why did the CDC feel the need to tell the public zombies don’t really exist?

Why did the Center for Disease Control and Prevention decide to issue a release assuring the public zombies don’t exist? They could have also added, the Boogey Man, Vampires, and Werewolves, but chose not to. 

I can only speculate, but lately cannibalism stories seem to prove to some people that there are zombies. The #2 trending spot on Google is “zombie apocalypse.” Zombies have already invaded popular horror movies. Now they’re lurching around in our society seeking a spot alongside Vampires and other trending monsters. 

“A spate of bizarre acts of cannibalism in the last week have many people wondering whether to be afraid for their own flesh. The populous' collective curiosity has even driven "zombie apocalypse" up to the No. 2 spot on Google's list of trending search terms. But don't worry: according to government scientists, the zombies are not coming for you.

The flesh-eating living dead don't actually exist, said a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," agency spokesman David Daigle told The Huffington Post.”

(Read the whole story here.)

Scientific and Technological Visionaries Who Experimented With Drugs

                           Good Day Humboldt County!

I like to explore. Living through the 60s, I joined millions of others in experimenting with everything from marijuana to LSD. Expanding my horizons has always interested me. And I’m not alone.

Taking drugs has always been a controversial subject. Drugs have been used since the dawn of time for many purposes. From medicinal to recreational, drugs have played a part in nearly all societies.

Today I thought it would be fun to look at the influence drugs have had on history’s most influential scientific and technological visionaries:

“Is intelligence related to an increased likelihood of recreational drug use? It's an interesting hypothesis, and one that's been gaining momentum in recent years.

If a definitive link between intellectual capacity and drug use does exist, it will likely be sometime before anyone establishes one. Having said that, this much is for certain: history has more than its fair share of experimenting experimentalists. Let's meet 10 of history's most influential scientific and technological visionaries, along with their drugs of choice.”

                             Sigmund Freud — Cocaine

To Freud, cocaine was more than a personal indulgence; he regarded it as a veritable wonder drug, and for many years was a huge proponent of its use in a wide array of applications. In a letter written to his fianceé, Martha, Freud wrote: "If all goes well, I will write an essay [on cocaine] and I expect it will win its place in therapeutics by the side of morphine and superior to it... I take very small doses of it regularly against depression and against indigestion and with the most brilliant of success."

Freud published such a review, titled "Uber Coca" in 1884. Interestingly, Freud's paper was one of the first to propose drug substitution as a therapeutic treatment for addiction. While replacing morphine with cocaine is something we now know to be counterproductive to recovery, the concept of substitution therapies persists to this day. (For a great overview of Freud's relationship with cocaine, check out this post by Scicurious.)

                         Francis Crick — LSD

Francis Crick — of the DNA-structure discovering Watson, Crick, and Franklin — reportedly told numerous friends and colleagues about his LSD experimentation during the time he spent working to determine the molecular structure that houses all life's information.

In fact, in a 2004 interview, Gerrod Harker recalls talking with Dick Kemp — a close friend of Crick's — about LSD use among Cambridge academics, and tells the Daily Mail that the University's researchers often used LSD in small amounts as "a thinking tool." Evidently, Crick at one point told Kemp that he had actually "perceived the double-helix shape while on LSD." [Image via NYT]

                                                               Go here for more examples

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

This is a beautiful scene - But there is something more to it…

If you look look enough you’ll see a woman and child praying. Do you see them now?                              (Source)

Jesse’s Story: How a Nervous Chicken-Plucker Made the Big Time

Let me tell you, Jesse hated this job. And you would too, I imagine, if you had to do it. Jesse was a chicken plucker. That's right. He stood on a line in a chicken factory and spent his days pulling the feathers off dead chickens so the rest of us wouldn't have to. It wasn't much of a job. But at the time, Jesse didn't think he was much of a person.

His father was a brute of a man. His dad was actually thought to be mentally ill and treated Jesse rough all of his life. Jesse's older brother wasn't much better. He was always picking on Jesse and beating him up.Yes, Jesse grew up in a very rough home in West Virginia. Life was anything but easy. And he thought life didn't hold much hope for him.

That's why he was standing in this chicken line, doing a job that darn few people wanted. In addition to all the rough treatment at home, it seems that Jesse was always sick. Sometimes it was real physical illness, but way too often it was all in his head.

He was a small child, skinny and meek. That sure didn't help the situation any. When he started to school, he was the object of every bully on the playground. He was a hypochondriac of the first order.
For Jesse, tomorrow was not always something to be looked forward to. But, he had dreams. He wanted to be a ventriloquist. He found books on ventriloquism. He practiced with Sock puppets and saved his hard earned dollars until He could get a real ventriloquist dummy.
When he got old enough, he joined the military.

And even though many of his hypochondriac symptoms persisted, the military did recognize his talents and put him in the entertainment corp. That was when his world changed. He gained confidence. He found that he had a talent for making people laugh.

They laughed so hard they often had tears in their eyes. Yes, little Jesse had found himself. You know, folks, the history books are full of people who overcame a handicap to go on and make a success of themselves, but Jesse is one of the few I know of who didn't overcome it. Instead he used his paranoia to make a million dollars, and become one of the best-loved characters of all time in doing it!

Yes, that little paranoid hypochondriac, who transferred his nervousness into a successful career, still holds the record for the most Emmy's given in a single category.The wonderful, gifted, talented, and nervous comedian who brought us Barney Fife was Jesse Don Knotts!

The Mystery of the Burning Rocks: If They’re Coated With Phosphorus How Did It Get There?

                Good Day Humboldt County!

  Life is full of mysteries, and I have one for you today. It’s about some rocks that burst into flames while in the shorts pocket of a Southern California woman, who wore them back from a day at the beach. Lyn Hiner, suffered third-degree burns from the bizarre incident which happened in the kitchen of her San Clemente home. 

  What gives? Chemistry experts have said they do not believe the phosphate was naturally occurring and have speculated that the rocks could have been coated with phosphorus, which can spontaneously ignite when exposed to oxygen.

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Related story:
Burning rocks victim tells of strange horror

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The big question now is, where would those rocks have picked up that nasty phosphorus? The woman and her children were walking on Trestles Beach at San Onofre State Beach. The land is owned by the Marine Corps, but operated by State Park Rangers.

I suspect there’s a heavily polluted area where phosphorus is leaking somewhere off shore. Maybe miles out. The few rocks that were discovered may be a small part of what’s yet to come.  

Results of tests taken by the state lab, released Thursday, confirmed initial testing by the Orange County Public Health Department that found elevated levels of phosphate on the rocks, but provided no explanation of its presence.

The fact of the matter is, no one is really talking much about those rocks. Interesting isn’t it?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Hope for Humans? Paralyzed rats walk again in Swiss lab study

Lately I’ve been reading about “exo-skeletons” that researchers are using to give paralyzed people the power to move their hands, arms and legs.

There’s more research that may restore paralyzed peoples motion one day coming out of Switzerland.

The following story highlights another way to help paralyzed people. It appears to be a step in the right direction:

“Scientists in Switzerland have restored full movement to rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries in a study that spurs hope that the techniques may hold promise for someday treating people with similar injuries.

Gregoire Courtine and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne saw rats with severe paralysis walking and running again after a couple of weeks following a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation of the spinal cord together with robotic support.

"Our rats are not only voluntarily initiating a walking gait, but they are soon sprinting, climbing up stairs and avoiding obstacles," said Courtine, whose results from the five-year study will be published in the journal Science on Friday.

Courtine is quick to point out that it remains unclear if a similar technique could help people with spinal cord damage but he adds the technique does hint at new ways of treating paralysis. Other scientists agree.”

Mainstream media quick to judge a person quilty and slow to report they were innocent

                                    Good Day Humboldt County! 

  Sensational headlines followed by stories that stir the public’s anger or horror, compete daily in the nation’s newspapers, magazines and blogs. A war of words waged to get your attention.

  News outlets are constantly searching for stories designed to invoke a gut reaction among readers. You see them everyday. You don’t always hear about how they end up unless it goes badly for the accused.           

 The following story is a recent example of the media rushing to judgment, and then not following the case after learning a person is innocent:

“When Marvin Washington Jr. (pictured) was arrested last month for allegedly spitting into a customer's sweet tea at a McDonald’s in Simpsonville, S.C., the incident made news around the globe. When the charges were dismissed a few weeks later? The media barely paid it any attention.

Since then, Marvin Washington, 19, has embarked on a campaign to clear his name and convince the world that he is not the person behind the initial headlines. The college freshman says he aims to get a graduate degree in healthcare and become a nurse practitioner. And he fears the incident will haunt him forever, or scuttle his job chances if a future employer Googles his name and finds the original story.

"I worry that people will only remember the first part -- that I got arrested. They probably won’t care that the case got dropped, they will probably assume I did it. And I want to tell them, 'I didn’t do that, I’m not that type of person.' I want them to know, 'I’m a good young man' and that these allegations were false," he told the Los Angeles Times.” (Read full story here.)

Time for me to walk on down the road…