Taxpayers are being ripped off by our criminial court system

Good Day World!

I sure hate seeing taxpayers get ripped off by our criminal court system.

One case can easily go into millions of dollars thanks to a system that makes lawyers rich.

Take the case against Colorado theater gunman James Holmes. He’s already absorbed at least $5.5 million in public monies, with more to come.

That’s $2 million more than the estimated average cost of a completed Colorado death penalty trial — and the contentious Holmes proceeding is still months away from opening arguments.

In the two and a half years since that initial court appearance, primary personnel involved with the case — prosecutors, defense attorneys, the judge, court reporter, trial investigators and victims’ advocates for the district attorney — have been paid approximately $4.5 million.

What happened to the right of a Speedy Trial? Two and a half years is a long time. Worse, the trial date is still a mystery.

The Founding Fathers intended the Speedy Trial Clause to serve two purposes.

First, they sought to prevent defendants from languishing in jail for an indefinite period before trial. Second, they sought to ensure a defendant's right to a fair trial.

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees all persons accused of criminal wrongdoing the right to a speedy trial.

Although this right is derived from the federal Constitution, it has been made applicable to state criminal proceedings through the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the due process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Speedy Trial Act establishes specific time limits between various stages of federal criminal proceedings. The act requires federal authorities to file an information or indictment within 30 days of a defendant's arrest.

A prosecutor who knows that accused is incarcerated at the time of indictment must take immediate steps to initiate prosecution.

If a defendant enters a plea of not guilty, trial must commence within 70 days from the filing of the information or indictment or 70 days from the first appearance of the accused in court, whichever is later.

Despite these steps taken to assure a speedy trial, there is no such thing in America today. That’s because our justice system allows lawyers to get rich off of delays. Couple that with ripping taxpayers off for the money to pay them and you begin to see what’s happened to our justice system.

It shouldn’t take millions of (taxpayer) dollars to conduct every murder case. What happens if there’s no more taxpayer money to grab for a continuing criminal case? Will criminals be released because the state funds have dried up and there’s no way to pay the lawyers their blood money?

It’s a troubling thought.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

  

 

I remember when people respected the presidency

I remember

a Lionel train circling a real Christmas tree

back in 1953

We said the Pledge of Allegiance in school

and were taught “The Golden Rule.”

There was a crusade against Communism

and everyone felt a sense of optimism

We rocked around the clock

to Jailhouse Rock

 

We watched The Howdy Doody Show

and sipped cocktails that had a neon glow

We listened to “Rock n’ Roll”

and Nat King Cole

Abstract Impressionism was at its peak

and we watched American Bandstand every week

It was the Golden Era of 3-D cinematography

and Gentlemen Preferred Blonds in 1953

 

Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby made the ladies swoon

while NASA shot for the moon

You probably won’t believe me

but there was a time when people respected the presidency

The end

 

11 Facts That You Probably Aren’t Aware Of

Good Day World!

Most people have never heard of the following 11 facts.

They’re just off-the-wall enough that even scholars could learn something. How many of these facts are you aware of?  

1) Most lipstick contains fish scales.

2) There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo.

3) Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.

4) The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

5) The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad.

6) One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year.

7) The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye.

8) The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders.

9) When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second.

10) A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel.

11) A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

The Right To Vote: 15th Amendment Ratified Today

Good Day World!

We – Americans - must never take the right to vote lightly. The fight minorities faced in the past – and still face today in some places – needs to be recognized.

Voting is one of our greatest freedoms. It was on February 3, 1870 – that the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing the right of citizens to vote, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

--------------------------------------------

Graphic

"The first vote"
A.R. Waud.
Wood engraving. 1867.
Prints & Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number:
LC-USZ62-19234

------------------------------------------

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans.

It would take the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote.

• The House of Representatives passed the 15th Amendment on February 25, 1869, by a vote of 144 to 44
• The Senate passed the 15th Amendment on February 26, 1869, by a vote of 39 to 13.
• The text of the 15th Amendment can be found in the United States Statutes at Large, volume 16, page 346 (15 Stat. 346).
• Secretary of State Hamilton Fish issued a proclamation certifying the ratification of the 15th Amendment by the states on March 30, 1870.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil Predicts 6 More Weeks of Winter

Happy Groundhog Day! 

News alert:

Groundhog Day 2015: Punxsutawney Phil sees shadow, predicts six more weeks of winter

According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will persist for six more weeks.

Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, Groundhog Lodges (Grundsow Lodges) celebrate the holiday with fersommlinge, social events in which food is served, speeches are made, and one or more g'spiel (plays or skits) are performed for entertainment.

The Pennsylvania German dialect is the only language spoken at the event, and those who speak English pay a penalty, usually in the form of a nickel, dime, or quarter per word spoken, with the money put into a bowl in the center of the table.

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, with Punxsutawney Phil. Groundhog Day, already a widely recognized and popular tradition, received widespread attention as a result of the 1993 film Groundhog Day.

HISTORY

The celebration, which began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, has its origins in ancient European weather lore, wherein a badger or sacred bear is the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.

It also bears similarities to the Pagan festival of Imbolc (the seasonal turning point of the Celtic calendar, which is celebrated on February 2 and also involves weather prognostication) and to St. Swithun's Day in July 15.

Sweet Dreams! A ‘Smart’ Mattress Cover is Coming in August

Good Day World!

I can’t wait until August.

You know why? Because there’s something I want to buy which won’t be available until then.

Hint: it’s all about comfort.

The Internet of Things has made its way into a lot of homes already, but the Luna smart mattress cover is one of the first devices to get all the way into the bed.

Yes, it's a smart mattress cover — but it's not as crazy as it sounds. The Luna works as a sleep-tracking device, monitoring your vitals overnight and sending that info along to a smartphone app.

This alone might make it worth buying to some, since other sleep trackers need to be worn on your wrist — or even your head. But Luna also acts as a bed warmer, predicting when you'll go to sleep by your previous schedule and warming the bed up to a preset temperature — there are even separate settings for each side of the bed.

Add an alarm system that wakes you up between sleep cycles (for minimum grogginess) and the Luna starts seeming like a useful bedfellow indeed.

It does, of course, cost significantly more than a regular mattress cover: $199 for the smallest version (queen), and more if you don't pre-order soon.

The company aims to ship in August, but crowdfunded products like this one (which raised over $200,000 on Indiegogo) do tend to slip a little, so be patient. (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Retro Super Bowl Sunday: Game I Photos and Facts

Good Day World!

It’s Super Bowl Sunday.

I’m also declaring today “Retro-Super Bowl Sunday.”

I’ve gathered some photos and facts for your amusement while you wait for today’s big game.

THE COST OF ATTENDING

For Super Bowl I in 1967, the listed ticket price was $10, according to the National Football League.

In 1967, that had the same buying power as $69.75 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index calculator.

THE SCORE

On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) smash the American Football League (AFL)’s Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in the first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship, later known as Super Bowl I, at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.

The Packers’ famed quarterback, Bryan Bartlett "Bart" Starr, completed

16 of 23 passes on the night. The score at game’s end stood at 35-10, and Starr was named Most Valuable Player.

Asked to comment on the match-up after the game, Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi expressed the common opinion that even the best of the AFL--the Chiefs--"doesn’t compare with the top NFL teams."

ORIGIN OF THE SUPER BOWL

For four decades after its 1920 inception, the NFL successfully fended off several rival leagues. However, in 1960, it encountered its most serious competitor when the American Football League (AFL) was formed.

The AFL vied heavily with the NFL for both players and fans, but by the middle of the decade the strain of competition led to serious merger talks between the two leagues. Prior to the 1966 season, the NFL and AFL reached a merger agreement that was to take effect for the 1970 season.

As part of the merger, the champions of the two leagues agreed to meet in a world championship game for professional American football until the merger was effected.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME ‘SUPER BOWL’

Lamar Hunt, owner of the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, first used the term "Super Bowl" to refer to this game in the merger meetings.

Hunt would later say the name was likely in his head because his children had been playing with a Super Ball toy (a vintage example of the ball is on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio).

In a July 25, 1966, letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Hunt wrote,

"I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon."

Although the leagues' owners decided on the name "AFL-NFL Championship Game," the media immediately picked up on Hunt's "Super Bowl" name, which would become official beginning with the third annual game.

The "Super Bowl" name was derived from the bowl game, a post-season college football game. The original "bowl game" was the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, which was first played in 1902 as the "Tournament East-West football game" as part of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and moved to the new Rose Bowl Stadium in 1923.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

No Wars Have Been Fought to Help Victims of Oppression

Good Day World!

There’s never been a GOOD reason for waging war.

I don’t care what some historians say, the fact of the matter is most wars are about aggression – and have very little to do with nobler causes.

Many people think that we went to war with the south over slavery and that we fought in World War II to help stop the Nazis.

In reality, the goals of these wars were much less noble. The main things that led the Civil War were economic issues and slavery was only a part of these problems. When the economic tensions got too hot, the South fought for its independence and the North fought to preserve the Union.

Most Northerners didn’t care about slavery all that much and many Southerners simply couldn’t afford to own slaves.

Even the reasons behind the emancipation proclamation were more political than moral. The so-called Great Emancipator, Lincoln himself, once said, "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

The entire speech was merely a way to help de-motivate blacks who were fighting for the South so the North could get an advantage.

Prior to World War II, the majority of Americans were not only uninterested in the plight of the Jews in Germany, but many even supported the forced sterilization of the mentally incompetent, crippled or criminally-inclined.

Many states also banned interracial marriages as an effort to prevent the tainting of the races. At least 10,000 Americans were forcefully sterilized, many after being labeled with such vague properties as “sexually wayward,” “depressed,” “deviant,” or “bad girls.”

As a matter of fact, America played a crucial role in Hitler’s rise to power and his efforts to create a “master race.” After funding a number of eugenics scientists in America, The Rockefeller Foundation helped create the entire German eugenics program and they even funded work by the infamous Josef Mengele worked before he went to Auschwitz.

Fortunately for us, the researchers believed Americans were not ready to support any “final solutions,” which is why our eugenics program largely stopped at the forced sterilization stage and negligent medical care for the “unfit,” whereas the German program extended into unbelievable horrors.

Of course, if the U.S. eugenics scientists hadn’t come up with so many scientific studies and so much research to back their claims, Hitler would have never been able to convince the rational German public to follow his plans.

Sources: Interesting History, HNN

Time for me to walk on down the road…

The Cruelest Oscar Award Presentation of All-Time

Good Day World!

Editor’s note:

This is a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

“Katharine Hepburn runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.” This quote, by famed writer-critic Dorothy Parker, was put forth about an early performance of Katharine Hepburn.

As a young actress, Kate was also dubbed "box office poison.”

Born and raised to have an independent mind and spirit, young Kate broke the mold of every actress in history. She wore pants and no make-up, and refused to pose for pictures, grant interviews or sign autographs. She wasn't popular or well-liked in Hollywood.

But as we all know, she was, within a few short years, to become one of the most acclaimed and admired actresses in the history of Hollywood and the movies. She is truly now regarded as one of the movies' immortal figures- imitated, studied, and admired by any and every actress, young or old. To put it in simplest terms, Katharine Hepburn was the Meryl Streep of her time.

It was for the 1932-33 Academy Awards that Katharine received her very first Oscar nomination. Young Kate was nominated for her performance as “Eva Lovelace" in the movie Morning Glory.

Her nomination was surprising enough, and she didn't even bother to show up for the awards ceremony. (In retrospect, one wonders if she would have found the evening's show amusing.)

 (photo- Katherine Hepburn in Morning Glory.)

Host for the ceremony that year was legendary liberal humorist, Will Rogers. Rogers was quite possibly the most beloved comedian-humorist in American history.

He was definitely slanted left as a liberal, but conservatives loved him and were hardly ever offended by his humor. He showed so much common sense in his observations, no one took any offense at his remarks and barbs.

Rogers spent much of the evening making wisecracks about the Republicans, Hollywood big shots and phonies, even Oscars lobbying (this predated Jon Stewart's similar targets in his Oscar hosting stint by 73 years).

His rudest joke, however, was reserved for the awarding of the evening's Best Actress award.
That year, besides Katharine, there were two other nominees for Best Actress": Mae Robson for Lady for a Day and Diana Wynard for Cavalcade.

Rogers was handed the official envelope with the Best Actress winner listed on it. Upon receiving the envelope, Rogers opened it and summoned the other two nominees, May Robson and Diana Wynard, up on stage with him.

The two nominees, May and Diana, excitedly rushed up on stage. Of course, they thought they had both won, assuming that it was a tie. (A tie had happened just the previous year for the Best Actor award).

Instead, Rogers thanked both women for their performance, and announced that the award for Best Actress had been awarded to Katharine Hepburn. (Funny perhaps...but what a creep!)

As the two embarrassed women stood awkwardly on stage, the audience looked on, baffled and confused.

The crowd was stunned and responded with a round of half-hearted applause. One can easily imagine what the two ladies must have been thinking about Will Rogers as they awkwardly made their way back to their seats in the audience.

Hollywood eventually did warm up to Kate Hepburn, bestowing three more Oscars on her, more than any actress (or actor) in movie history. She also received 13 Oscar nominations, a record that stood until the perennial Meryl Streep smashed it with 16 (so far!).

Although she never bothered to show up at any of the Oscar ceremonies, Kate was genuinely moved. In 1998, she confessed that she felt touched by her Academy Awards. “They gave me their respect and their affection. It was a revelation. The the generous heart of the industry,” she said wistfully.

Her final film was 1994's Love Affair, a remake of an earlier classic. In 1991, she published her memoirs, Me: Stories of My Life, in which she told her story with characteristic candor and forthrightness.

Late in her career, she made several critically acclaimed appearances on Broadway.

Katharine Hepburn died on June 29, 2003 at the age of 96. Even after her death, she proved she could still win Oscars, when Cate Blanchett took home a statuette for playing her in The Aviator (2004). (This guest post originally appeared in Neatorama)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Remember the 47% You Dissed Last Time Romney? They’re Still Out There!

Good Day World!

News flash for Mitt Romney for President campaign:

There’s certain things people don’t forget when it comes to being insulted. American voters aren’t likely to forgive Mitt Romney’s comments in the last election for several reasons.

Who can forget Romney’s famous 47% gaffe that even he said “did real damage” to his campaign?

Thanks to the magazine, Mother Jones Americans got a candid peak of Mitt’s real feelings about segments of Americans.

The cat was out of the bag when when Mother Jones released the secretly-recorded videos of Mitt at a private fundraiser telling donors:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what…who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax.”

Romney’s revealing gaffes like “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” still won’t endear him to anyone.

Another memorable one-liner, “Corporations are people, my friend” Mitt said during a question-and-answer session at the Iowa State Fair in 2011.

It was an unscripted moment after people urged him to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help fund social welfare programs followed by days’ worth of headlines.

What really amazes me about Romney’s possible third bid for the presidency is he (and his handlers?) must think Americans have short memories. I read where Mitt is going to “re-tool his campaign” this time around.

Unless there’s a sudden case of national amnesia, Mitt and his minions are going to experience the same rejection as the last election.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

History of ‘Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water’

Ever wonder where we get the saying, “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water,” from?

Back in the day bathing was a luxury and labor intense, read more about that here.

The bath consisted of one large tub or something like a tub. Large buckets of water were fetched and heated then poured into the tub.

This in itself was hard work, which is why many took baths once or so a year! Baths were so labor intense that bath times were established for each member of the family.

The men bathed first, women next, then children and finally the baby. By the time the baby was put in the tub, which had been used by everybody in the family before, the water was so dirty you could actually lose the baby in it!

So that’s how we got, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!” And we worry about a little mud getting underneath the baby’s fingernails today! (source)

Why Prisons Are Called Universities of Crime

Good Day World!

In American prisons, and others throughout the world, terrorists are being breed like cockroaches.

"Prisons have been called universities of crime for a long time," said Mark Hamm, professor of criminology at Indiana State University and author of "The Spectacular Few: Prisoner Radicalization and the Evolving Terrorist Threat."

"That idea is simply being applied to terrorism so prisons might become universities of radicalization, and in some cases that has proven to be true."

They include:

• Richard Reid, the would-be American Airlines "shoe bomber" from 2001, converted to Islam while in Britain's Feltham young offenders' institution.
• Muktar Ibrahim, who attempted a second London transit attack in 2005, became radicalized in the same facility.
• Spanish drug dealer Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras and Moroccan petty criminal Jamal Ahmidan were among those recruited by an al Qaeda-linked cell while serving sentences in Spain's Topas prison, later becoming co-conspirators in the 2004 Madrid train bombing.

The risk that jails could breed a fresh generation of radicals should sound alarm bells in the U.S., which has the world's largest prison population and the second-largest per capita. "We are the world's jailors," Hamm said.

There have been U.S. cases, including the 2005 discovery of Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, an Islamist group that robbed southern California gas stations with the aim of funding terrorist operations.

(Photo:Abu Hamza)

At southeast London's Belmarsh prison — which once housed hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza, who was jailed for life in the U.S.earlier this month — warders told an official House of Commons inquiry into radicalization [PDF link] that extremist views were "widely disseminated" among inmates but they struggled to monitor how far such ideas were adopted.

"Usually a tightly-knit, clandestine network of inmates with a charismatic leader begins to prosthelytize … getting young, more impressionable, more vulnerable inmates into more extremist ideology," Hamm said.

"But that network needs to be in place. In the case of the Madrid train bombing you can trace the influence back to one prison and one cell block and the social network between inmates."

Complicating the picture, some new inmates join religiously-affiliated networks for their own protection as they navigate the fearsome prison gang scene, coloring conventional faiths with an undercurrent of violence.

"The whole thing is built on a prison gang model … not only for Islamic groups, but also white supremacists," Hamm said. "In the U.S. we have the phenomenon of prison Islam, which is nothing to do with Islam in the real world.

It's a jailhouse Islam that mixes certain tenets of Salafist thought with American Islam in the Malcolm X tradition then it blends those with symbolism and the internal cohesion of street gangs into a very complex mix."

"You can cut the head off the snake, move the leader into another institution or you can just try to micro-manage the problem," Hamm said.

"In a prison with 3,000 convicts you've first of all got to identify the problem: How many are at risk? Who's doing it? What is the method?"

The history of Islamist radicalization in prisons stretches back more than half a century — jihadist icon Sayyid Qutb wrote extremist texts while jailed in Egypt in the 1950s [PDF link] — but the response stepped up only after Sept. 11, 2001 attacks put the issue onto the global agenda. (source)

It’s pretty clear to me that if we don’t shut down the terrorists cells in prisons, civilization – as we know it now – will cease to function.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Find out how much money big business spends to win your mind

Good Day World!

Forget lobbying.

When Washington, D.C.’s biggest trade associations want to wield influence, they often put far more of their money into advertising and public relations, according to a new Center for Public Integrity investigation.

Take, for example, the American Petroleum Institute. The oil and gas industry trade group spent more than $7 million lobbying federal officials in 2012. But that sum was dwarfed by the $85.5 million it paid to four public relations and advertising firms to, in effect, lobby the American public — including $51.9 million just to global PR giant Edelman.

From 2008 through 2012, annual tax filings show, the API paid Edelman a staggering $327.4 million for advertising and public relations services, more than any other contractor. 

It’s been well-publicized how much industry spends on lobbying the government, but little is known about how much money goes toward influencing the public. In an effort to find out more,Center for Public Integrity reporters examined the tax returns for trade associations that spent more than $1 million on lobbying in 2012. The IRS requires the groups to report their top five contractors.

Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs.

By industry sector, the biggest clients of PR, marketing and ad services were energy and natural resources associations. (Center for Public Integrity)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

The First Fax Machine & Jimmy Stewart

Good Day World!

I remember watching a classic movie with Jimmy Stewart; it was a movie from the late forties. Sadly I can’t remember the name.

But in the movie he needed a document faxed to him,or the man he was defending, was going to fry in the electric chair. Well, they did not use the term “fax” but it was the same function.

And I remember thinking how was that possible? Wasn’t the Fax Machine widely used in the 70’s and invented shortly before that?

The story goes that a priest in Florence, who was too radical for the church, and because of his radical views was forced to live in exile is responsible for the invention of the fax machine in the year 1857!

Giovanni Caselli appeared to be strange fellow to his neighbors, always tinkering with things, and his home was full of junk. The neighbors thought, they had a loony living amongst them for sure.

Not only was Caselli a priest, but he was also a scientist and the telegraph was the hot technology of the day. Caselli wondered if it were possible to send pictures over the telegraph wires.

The world thought he truly had lost his mind, but that did not stop Caselli from trying to do what he thought was possible.

In 1857 and over the course of six years Casselli perfected what he called the “Pantelegraph.” It was the very first fax machine for the world! It stood six feet tall and made up of swinging pendulums, batteries and wires.

The way the Pantelegraph worked was by passing an electrical current through an image, the signal was sent to a receiver that translated it onto a piece of treated paper.

The Emperor of France, Napoleon III was so awe-struck with this invention that he authorized its use on French telegraph lines. By 1868 the Pantelegraph was transmitting 110 faxes per hour! But the world was not quite ready for such an invention. It was seen as a novelty, not really practical, or a necessity.

Then came the invasion of France by the Prussians in 1870 and the service was interrupted, and never to resume again. It would be another hundred years before the modern fax machine became ubiquitous.

So back to my movie with Jimmy Stewart, although the fax machine was not widely used until the 70’s, there were other fax machines that followed Caselli’s.

It turns out that RCA came up with “Radio Facsimile,” in the 1924; this one is actually the forerunner of the modern day fax machines we use today. So, now I understand how Jimmy was able to get that fax in that movie in the 40’s.

So when your fax machine rings and you see that image faxed from a remote part of the world to your desk, thank Giovanni Caselli who in 1857 never stopped trying until he got it to work. We can learn a lot from a person like that. (This article originally appeared in History Confidential)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Great news for coffee drinkers – check it out!

Good Day World!

I’ve got great news for the coffee crowd; now you can drink coffee before you go to bed and it won’t keep you up. That means you can drink coffee whenever you want.

Imagine brewing coffee as a nightcap. That’s what Deland Jessop says he and his wife have begun to do with Counting Sheep Coffee—a new product designed to allow coffee lovers to drink a cup before bed without being kept awake for hours.

When his wife complained that she couldn’t enjoy coffee after 3 p.m., Jessop turned his home into a makeshift lab to search for a possible solution. After experimenting with a variety of herbs and supplements, he says he stumbled upon valerian—a plant that has been used as a mild sedative in Europe for centuries. He mixed it with decaf to mask the pungent smell, and sleep coffee was born.

Jessop notes that Counting Sheep Coffee is a food product, not a drug to help with sleep. Valerian is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food ingredient.

Experts don’t know exactly why the plant such a potent sleep-inducer, but there’s little known risk of side effects (other than the obvious drowsiness), says University of California San Francisco associate professor Stephen Bent.

“In the studies that have been done, it’s been show to be safe,” he says. “It has a long traditional history of being used to induce sleep.”

The product first appeared at Bed, Bath & Beyond in 2013, and is now sold in several regional supermarkets. (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Athletes training with pot – why not?

Good Day World!

Imagine the following training session using marijuana for athletes:

“Okay class, are you ready to get high?

Toke up! That’s it! Big deep breaths. Exhale. Inhale.”

Sound too crazy to be true?  

Robin Williams once joked, "the only way it's (marijuana) a performance-enhancing drug is if there's a big f---ing  Hershey bar at the end of the run," right?

Believe it or not, marijuana is actually helping some people perform better at certain sports. There are people that say training while high has helped them unlock new performance gains.

In November, Men's Journal interviewed elite triathlete Clifford Drusinsky, a Colorado gym owner who also leads training sessions fueled by marijuana edibles.

"Marijuana relaxes me and allows me to go into a controlled, meditational place," Drusinsky told Men's Journal. "When I get high, I train smarter and focus on form."

Outside Magazine correspondent Gordy Megroz wrote in the February issue of that magazine that while he has never been much of a pot smoker, he heard enough close friends — especially skiers — say that getting high helped their performance that he decided to give it a shot.

In the World Anti-Doping Association's current ban on competing while stoned, the organization cites studies that show marijuana can decrease anxiety and increase airflow to the lungs by acting as a bronchodilator, something that decreases resistance in the airways. (source)

There isn't much research available yet on how pot affects performance. As long as marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, it's incredibly difficult for researchers to study its effects.

Meanwhile it should be interesting hearing some more stories about athletes training with pot. Who would have thought?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

How Fat, Big Boobs, and Propriety gave us The Stethoscope

Good Day World!

Before there were X-Rays, MRI’s, Sonograms
and Cat Scans, doctors had no way of knowing what was happening inside a human body.

All they had to go on was the external signs such as skin pigmentation, urine, feces and all that fun stuff. Gross, I know.

Another method doctors used to learn what was happening inside a patient’s body was placing their ear directly in contact with the body.

With their ear they were able to listen to the Heart, lungs and abdominal areas.

Doctors desperately needed a better way of diagnosing diseases.

A very young French doctor named Rene Laennec was one of the first doctors to perform autopsies. This is one way to see what’s happened in the body, but a bit late to be of any help.

Dissecting his former patients taught Laennec a great deal about diagnosis and causes of diseases, known as pathology.

From crime TV shows and movies we’re familiar with the term“pathologist report”.

In the 1800′s Dr Laennec studied dead bodies inside and out. Desperately seeking answers. He specialized with the lungs, liver, skin and a bit of the heart.

He was very passionate about pathology. His dedication paid off with one of the greatest medical discoveries ever, up to that time.

Rene was a multi-talented man. He played music (the flute), he was skilled with woodwork, and on the side, he did some doctoring. A lot of doctoring.

His musical skill helped discover his invention (His knowledge of acoustics:the science of sound). His woodworking helped him create it, as you’ll see in a minute.

He once observed some kids playing with a long stick which they put up against their ears and then tapped with a pin to hear the sound vibrate through the stick. Acoustics.

He took note.

Once upon time a chunky young female patient went to see Dr Laennec, apparently with heart issues. The good doctor felt a bit awkward putting his ear against the girl’s well endowed chest. Well, I’ll let the doctor tell you in his own words:

“In 1816, I was consulted by a young woman laboring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail on account of the great degree of fatness. The other method just mentioned [the application of the ear to the chest] being rendered inadmissible by the age and sex of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known fact in acoustics, and fancied, at the same time, that it might be turned to some use on the present occasion.”

The ear-to-body method was ineffective with obese people.

The doctor found an ingenious solution.

He rolled up several pieces of paper to form a tube-like device.

It was kind of like the cardboard roll that paper towels are wrapped around and remains when the paper towels are finished.

He placed one end to the girl’s chest and the other to his ear and thus the Stethoscope was born. The year… 1816.

Dr Rene experimented with different materials before deciding to use wood.

With his woodworking skills he managed to create the first stethoscope, himself.

By 1819 the stethoscope was made available to all doctors.

The stethoscope became the most crucial instrument in the diagnosis of diseases. It was all the rage by 1850′s.

Technology moved slowly in those days, it wasn’t until the 1890′s when new materials like rubber was used.

Ironically, the thing that doctors rail against (obesity), is the very thing that lead to a great medical discovery. (Post written by: H. L. Ortiz, Guest Blogger)

Time for me to walk on down the road….

 

Loving Libraries and Why We’ll Always Need Them

Good Day World!

Today’s subject is libraries.

Growing up, I lurked about in those silent repositories of age-old wisdom for countless hours. My respect for libraries grew with each passing year. I will always have a soft spot for them.

Libraries are evolving with the times, but they still face numerous challenges.

New technologies are changing the services that libraries provide, for example, online reference, instruction, document delivery, user-initiated library loan, direct borrowing and self-checkout.

At least one librarian sees the shift to user-initiated services as analogous to fast food, a cheapening or devaluing of what libraries provide, hence the phrase "the McDonaldization of libraries."

I don’t see it that way however. Libraries will always represent knowledge, regardless of how it’s presented. We need libraries. Libraries are free. But all Americans don’t have access to them. The following article is an example of that:

Libraries, Literacy, and the Poor

A depressing opinion article in the New York Times highlighted a study showing low access to books among poor children in Philadelphia, as well as a nonprofit organization called First Book that tries to put new books in poor children’s hands.

The study shows that there aren’t many books for sale near poor children in Philadelphia, and that if there were a lot of families couldn’t afford them. It also demonstrates that even when there are school and public libraries around, they have many fewer books than such libraries in Philadelphia’s wealthier parts of town.

In other words, a lot of time and expense went into proving that poor kids don’t have as much of anything as rich kids. This kind of thing might be truly surprising to tenured professors at big research universities, but not to anyone else. (Full story here)

For those that love reading and collecting literature, a library can be a magical place of the imagination. It's a great place to find volumes on almost every imaginable topic. Library patrons may have a variety of reasons for visiting the library.

All of the great civilizations in the world have gathered information about their history. Without those repositories of knowledge we would have never known about the achievements of Rome, Greece, Persia, and the rest.

Related:

X-Rays Help Decipher Secrets in 2,000-Year-Old Papyrus Scrolls

Hundreds of ancient papyrus scrolls that were buried nearly 2,000 years ago after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius could finally be read, thanks to a new technique.

There will always be a need for libraries. I’ve heard the argument that libraries are no longer necessary thanks to technology like the internet. It’s a weak argument coming from drones with other agendas.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

A brief reflection: Have you ever dodged death or seen it up close?

Good Day World!

Have you ever faced death?

Has your life ever been on the line? Have you watched loved ones die? Strangers die? Heard someone’s last breath, and saw life flee from their eyes?

Without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood and feared aspects of life is death.

In our Western culture, we generally do not think of death until the time comes for someone close...or our time is near.

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"...death is essentially the shedding of the body."

What remains, forever, is the soul.

Thus, "...death can be looked at as a great opportunity...the ultimate healing...the start of a [life] someplace else." - Stephen Knapp

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I’ve looked into the grim face of death and survived several times while fighting in Vietnam. Even before I went into the Army, death showed itself to me. While mountain climbing in high school I was confronted with death’s finality.

Two friends and I found ourselves in a bad position while climbing. One of them fell to his death. I nearly did, but was able to break my fall. Those moments when I was rolling down the mountain – loose shale offering no grip – I saw death.

My whole life didn’t pass in front of me however. I simply thought I was going to die and was having a hard time accepting it.

I stepped on a landmine in Vietnam, but it didn’t go off. Turned out to be an anti-tank mine and I wasn’t heavy enough to depress the detonator!

I didn’t know that for several gut-wrenching minutes as my squad leader carefully probed around my foot with a knife, trying to determine my options. I was so afraid that I pissed myself.

Again, there was no instant replay of my life flashing before my eyes. Just an immense sadness that I was going to die. By the time it was determined I wouldn’t set off the mine I felt like I had died, and then came back to life.

My joy at being alive was indescribable. The lesson I learned was priceless. You never know when you time is up so you better make the most of it.

I don’t fear death.

Those days are long gone. Nor, do I embrace death. I know it’s just the final act in this drama we call life.

What lies beyond is a mystery that won’t be solved until our time comes. Meanwhile, we should live life to the fullest. Love more, and hate less.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

94 year-old Jazz Ballad Keeps New Generations Grooving

Good Day World!

My taste in music is eclectic, but if I had to pick a favorite style/type, jazz would get the nod.

Like all good music, jazz tells a story and stands the test of time. 

The following jazz standard is an excellent example of the genre:

"Right or Wrong" is a jazz ballad from 1921.

It was composed by Arthur Sizemore and Paul Biese, with words by Haven Gillespie. The piece, described by the original sheet music as "a beautiful fox-trot ballad," deals with a universal theme.

The lyrics tell of the loss of a paramour.

The title comes from a refrain in the chorus:

Right or wrong, I'll always love you.

Tho' you're gone, I can't forget.

Right or wrong, I'll keep on dreaming,

Tho' I wake with that same old regret.

All along I knew I'd lose you,

Still I pray'd that you'd be true.

In your heart, please just remember,

Right or wrong, I'm still in love with you.

The biggest hit for "Right or Wrong" came in 1984, when George Strait recorded the old Bob Wills song for his best-selling album of the same name (See Right or Wrong).

The single from that album (MCA 52337) reached #1, staying on the charts for 12 weeks.

"Right or Wrong" was recorded by many early jazz and swing orchestras, including; Mike Markel and His Orchestra (OKeh 4478, 1921), Original Dixie Jazz Band(Oriole 445, 1925), Peggy English (Brunswick 3949, 1928), Tampa Red (Bluebird 6832, 1936), and Mildred Bailey and Her Orchestra (Vocalion 3758, 1937).

The recording with the longest lasting influence would be the one by the black-faced Emmett Miller and the Georgia Crackers (OKeh 41280, 1929).

Miller's version was picked up by an early Bob Wills and became a standard Western swing dance tune. Both Wills (Vocalion 03451, 1936) and Milton Brown(Decca 5342, 1936) made early recordings.

Western swing versions generally do not include any of the verses, only repetitions of the chorus. The song also appears on Leon Redbone's 1990 album Sugar. (Source-Wikipedia)

Time for me to walk on down the road…