Excerpt:
“In Korea, the hagfish, or slime eel, takes the shape of an enviably large member and emits a slimy substance when touched, likely accounting for its status as an elixir of love. And there is perhaps no more symbolic aphrodisiac than the balut—a duck egg hosting a partially gestated fetus—hawked in the Philippines as commonly as movie theater popcorn.”
Go here to read the rest.
CLICK FOR SLIDESHOW
I got an email from my buddy, and brother-in-law, Tom today. It was snowing and the winds were howling at 55 mph. He lives near Baltimore and sent me some photos.
All I know is I live on the “Right Coast” even though some call it the “Left Coast.”
National Park Service workers clear snow in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Alex Brandon / AP
Excerpt:
“In a commentary to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in April, experts say there's a possibility that the more bored you are, the more likely you are to die early.
Annie Britton and Martin Shipley of University College London caution that boredom alone isn't likely to kill you — but it could be a symptom of other risky behavior like drinking, smoking, taking drugs or having a psychological problem.”
Go here to read the rest.
Related article:
Excerpt:
“If you downed one too many while watching the Super Bowl, here's at least one reason to hold your head high: Drinking beer can be good for your health.
But seriously, a new analysis of 100 commercial beers shows the hoppy beverage is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for bone health.”
Go here for the rest of the story.
It’s also scary. Watching Palin consult her palm (crib notes anyone?) as she speaks with a GOP lackey chiding President Obama for using a teleprompter while speaking in public, is like a stepping into an alternate universe where sanity has no place.
This paragon of politics who claims she can see Russia from her backyard, and who couldn’t even finish her only term in office as governor of Alaska, is only interested in making money while she’s still a hot topic. Does anyone think that working as a commenter for Fox News will be something she can proudly put on her resume for president?
She even collected money from the Tea Bagger’s to speak at their gathering recently. I thought she was their champion. If that’s so, why do they have to pay her to talk with them? Make no mistake, her book “Going Rogue” was only the forerunner for future fortunes.Being a Conservative diva is probably the smartest thing she can do to fill her coffers with the coins of her slavish admirers.
Does that inspire you to vote for her in 2012? Here’s a pro and con link for your reading pleasure.
True love: According to a survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries, 21 percent of adults would rather smooch their pet than their spouse on Valentine’s Day.
Least likely to choose non-human companionship: the French, of course.
Getty Images stock
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 02/07/2010 01:27:41 AM PST
“I wear hearing aids, but I consider myself lucky. There are a lot of people in America today who are deaf due to numerous environmental assaults on their hearing. Many of them don't have insurance to get what they need.
Recent research presented by the American Academy of Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) in San Diego concluded that males are three times more likely to have noise-related hearing loss than women.
According to Dr. Hamid Djalilian of the University of California Irvine Medical Center, occupational and recreational noise exposure, as well as service in the armed forces, probably explain why men are at greater risk.”
Go here to read the rest of this column.
Photo caption: Vietnam Defoliation Mission. A UH-1D helicopter from the 336th Aviation Company sprays a defoliation agent on a dense jungle area in the Mekong delta., 07/26/1969/National Archives photo
I was in Vietnam in 1970 and saw Agent Orange sprayed everywhere. Hell, I recall looking up at an oily rain as it came down upon me and the guys of my squad as we trudged through dense jungle areas like the one shown above. We didn’t think much of it other than it was sticky and added to our overall discomfort.
Now, I’m researching a column on Agent Orange – and the effects it has had on the children of the exposed veterans. The need for more research is now. Past studies and research (on these children) have somehow slide to the rear of the VAs priorities. The VA has been grudgingly awarding disability ratings to the veterans who were exposed, but the next generation is being forgotten.
When grisly images of their daughter's death went viral on the Web, the Catsouras family fought back. Two years later, a court rules in their favor.
These are the photos the Catsouras family wishes you would see.
Excerpt:
“They say losing a child is the worst thing a parent can endure. But for Christos and Lesli Catsouras, whose 18-year-old daughter, Nikki, was killed in a devastating car crash in 2006, there was something much, much worse.
Two weeks after their daughter's death, on Halloween day, Christos got a phone call from a friend. "Have you seen the photos?" he asked, hesitantly. Nine color close-ups of Nikki's mangled remains, still strapped into her father's crushed car, had been circulating around town by e-mail. Within days, the images went viral, popping up on hundreds of sites. Now a California court has handed the family an important legal victory.” Go here to read the entire story
Looks like some folks in Redding are planning to greet Sarah Palin, but they’ll be outside the building she’s being paid to speak at.
I guess they don’t want to pay to hear her speak. I wonder how much she’s being paid for this gig? Her last one netted $150,000.
Looks like those Rednecks in Redding have got some some cash to spend.
SARAH PALIN will be speaking at the Redding Convention Center on Monday, Feb. 8 at 3 PM and again at 7 PM, approximately for an hour each time.
The protestors plan on creating a “HIGHLY VISIBLE, peaceful presence” outside the center.
Read The original press release here. from Redding progressives who are organizing these demonstrations.
The organizers are asking people to PLEASE POST & DISTRIBUTE FLYER EVERYWHERE YOU GO up till Monday morning. According to the protestors, “This is for everyone who could never quite picture Sarah Palin in the White House!”
British atomic physicist Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Background: The Cold War
Population: 2.556 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize:
Ralph J. Bunche (US)
More World Statistics...
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 152,271,417
Life expectancy: 68.2 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.3
More U.S. Statistics...
US GDP (1998 dollars): $294.6 billion
Federal spending: $42.56 billion
Federal debt: $256.9 billion
Consumer Price Index: 24.1
Unemployment: 5.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Uruguay d. Brazil (2-1)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Way West, A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
Music: The Consul, Gian Carlo Menotti
Drama: South Pacific, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan
Oscars awarded in 1950
Academy Award, Best Picture: All the King's Men (Robert Rossen Productions; Columbia)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Bertrand Russell (UK)
Chemistry: Otto Diels and Kurt Alder (both Germany), for discovery of diene synthesis enabling scientists to study structure of organic matter
Physics: Cecil Frank Powell (UK), for method of photographic study of atom nucleus, and for discoveries about mesons
Physiology or Medicine: Philip S. Hench, Edward C. Kendall (both US), and Tadeus Reichstein (Switzerland), for discoveries about hormones of adrenal cortex
Excerpt:
“A political newcomer who won the Democratic nomination for Illinois lieutenant governor said he has no intention of leaving the race after details emerged about his arrest for allegedly holding a knife to his former girlfriend's throat.
Scott Lee Cohen struck a defiant tone even after running mate Gov. Pat Quinn predicted he would have to leave the race. Cohen said people should wait for all facts to become known.”
AP PHOTO: According to the Chicago Tribune, police records show Scott Lee Cohen's (above) former girlfriend has been arrested for prostitution. He has denied hitting her and says their relationship was "tumultuous."
Excerpt:
“A man kite surfing off a Florida beach died Wednesday after being surrounded and attacked by sharks.”
Go here to read the story
“TEHRAN, Iran - Iran announced Wednesday it has successfully launched a 10-foot-long research rocket carrying a mouse, two turtles and worms into space — a feat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Go here to read the whole story.
“When doctors and staff realized that a cat living in a U.S. nursing home could sense when someone was going to die, the feline, Oscar, was portrayed as a furry grim reaper or four-legged angel of death.
But Dr. David Dosa, who broke the news of Oscar's abilities in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, said he never intended to make Oscar sound creepy or his arrival at a bedside to be viewed negatively.” Go here to read the story.
AP – FILE PHOTO - In this July 23, 2007 file photo, Oscar, a hospice cat with an uncanny knack for predicting when patients are going to die.
This ought to be an entry for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Looking at that knife in her neck, it’s hard to imagine that the body can seal off pain through shock…but it does sometimes.
“Mugging victim Julia Popova calmly went home after being robbed on her way home from work - without realizing she had a six inch knife stuck into her neck.
The 22-year-old office worker had grappled with her attacker when he snatched her handbag as she walked to her parents' home in the Russian capital Moscow.
But she was so shocked by the ordeal she didn't know that the thug had buried a kitchen knife in her neck just fractions of an inch from her spinal cord.
Her horrified parents rushed her to hospital where surgeons managed to remove the blade without damaging Julia's spine.
"Shock had kicked in and her body prevented her from feeling any pain. She simply walked home without feeling the knife in her back," said one medic.”
Photo and text via Austrian Times
I was contacted by blogger, Sharon L. Perry founder of Agent Orange Legacy, last week when she responded to one of my posts on corporate corruption and chemical companies in particular.
After reviewing her blog, I was so impressed that I became a member. Not enough people know about the generational effects Agent Orange has on Vietnam veterans children today. This site will provide you with information that may help someone you love.
It’s time that all Americans know that Agent Orange has another deadly legacy beyond what it did to our men and women who served in Vietnam. It’s time for the government to address the needs of these families.
AGENT ORANGE LEGACY
MISSION STATEMENT
Agent Orange Legacy is a grassroots movement dedicated to uniting the children of Vietnam veterans who are ill or not and adversely affected by their parent(s) service in Vietnam and exposure to agent orange and other toxins in order to lobby Congress to create or change public policy regarding the plight of the children of Vietnam veterans and their children.
EMAIL US @ aolegacy@gmail.com
JOIN OUR LOBBYING CAMPAIGN WWW.AGENTORANGELEGACY.US
We are looking for state coordinators. Join Your State Group/Chapter now.
The Lobbying Campaign group will help us coordinate our efforts.
Please visit our Public Policy website for more information
Our Lobbying Campaign will consist of the following:
1) Creating a state chapter in every state
Join Your State Chapter Now
2) Defining our Issues as a group
Join Speak Out
3) Documenting our stories to present as testimony
Join The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
4) Building an online museum to create awareness about the plight of the children of Vietnam veterans & their families
Join Let's Build A Museum
5) Connecting with other agent orange victims worldwide to build a coalition
Join Global Awareness Let's Build A Coalition
We offer the following Support Groups:
Wives
Widows
Mother's
Our Father's Were Lost
Nam Vets Connecting
Poetry Corner
Excerpt:
“Thanks to the blog, he had already connected with two well-known mixologists in Portland. Those contacts ended up taking him to an industry event where Grier met the bar manager at the Carlyle, and the rest is history.”
Read the whole story here.
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 01/31/2010 01:27:22 AM PST
I'm a lousy multitasker. Some of my earliest memories involve walking, chewing gum and day-dreaming, which led to smacking into fences, trees, street signs and other people. I learned my lesson the hard way -- in the school of hard knocks.
I always envied people who could multitask. Multitasking is really about paying attention. It's an art, and some people can shift their attention from one thing to the next and respond to the thing most worthy.
However, recent research shows that multitasking has a dark side. Multitasking is taking a toll in our society, according to researchers at the University of California at Irvine. They found workers take an average of 25 minutes to recover from interruptions, such as phone calls or e-mail, before returning to their original task.
“The recall of about 55,000 "The Princess and the Frog" necklaces reflects concerns of an emerging threat in children's products.”
Go here to read the story.
We’ll find out tonight.
Photo source:NOAO/AURA/NSF
This enhanced image of the moon was taken with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera, using two NSF telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The moon is superimposed on a separate image of the sky.
Excerpt:
“Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.
This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.”
Go here to read the whole story.
Full moon craziness
Many people think full moons cause strange behavior among animals and even humans. In fact several studies over the years have tried to tie lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, and more. Connections have been inclusive or nonexistent.
The moon does have some odd effects on our planet, and there are oodles of other amazing moon facts and misconceptions.
In California, the "Move-over" Law (a new national law) became operative on January 1, 2010.
Related Links:
http://www.moveoveramerica.com/
“Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito didn't like hearing President Barack Obama publicly criticize the high court's ruling removing corporate campaign spending limits — and he didn't try to hide it.” Go here to read the story.
New York City police have arrested over 300,000 people for low-level marijuana possession since 1997, sometimes employing outrageous methods to humiliate citizens.
Excerpt:
“Yesterday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Michael Mineo took the stand to describe in detail his harrowing experience on a Brooklyn subway station in 2008: being held down by three New York City police officers and sodomized with a foreign object.”
Now stand up and take several steps back, roughly 15 feet away,
It will become... Marilyn Monroe.
If there’s one subject that really gets me hot-under-the-collar it’s deadly chemicals polluting the land we live on.
Since the early 1970s, I’ve crusaded against Agent Orange and other dioxins, and the companies that made them. I got my share of Agent Orange via Uncle Sam while in Vietnam.
I confess that’s why I got involved in fighting the use of deadly chemicals long ago. Along the way, I editorialized on the subject every opportunity I got. What bugs me is that it’s common knowledge that these chemicals have deadly effects on humans, yet they continue to be sprayed and reap a deadly harvest!
When I read this article – case in point - it made me sick. It also proves that corporations still run the country. That’s the only answer for the continued use of these deadly chemicals. Why has the EPA allowed these companies to continue spraying them? This article acts like the EPA is surprised by the cluster of deformities discovered near a toxic waste dump. The EPA is portrayed as the good guy whose going to ride in on a white horse and bring justice to all. Don’t hold your breath.
Especially now, since the Supreme Court passed the worst piece of legislation in history allowing corporations to be treated like individuals. The flood gates have been opened and there’s no turning back…
Excerpt:
“Residents suspect the facial deformities are linked to a nearby toxic waste dump. The dump is set to be expanded to accommodate waste from large population centers, including Los Angeles, and residents have filed a lawsuit against the Kings County Board of Supervisors challenging its approval of the expansion.”
Go here to read the whole story.
ABOVE PHOTO: Maria Saulcedo sits next to a memorial to her daughter Ashley, who died at the age of 11 months. Five babies, including Ashley, were born with cleft palates in Kettleman City over a 14-month-period and some residents blame a nearby toxic waste dump. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times /December 7, 2009)
The pooch in this story was certainly a lucky dog. I don’t know what the odds were for that kind of rescue, but he sure beat them!
WARSAW (Reuters) – A dog had a lucky escape when a Polish boat rescued him from an ice floe that had carried him more than 100 miles up a river and out onto the icy waters of the Baltic Sea.
"My crew saw... a shape moving on the water and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice," Jan Joachim, senior officer aboard the Baltica, told Reuters Television.
"As we got closer to the ice floe we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water."
Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.
"He didn't even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes," said Buczynski.
The dog was first seen on the ice floe some 100 km (70 miles) inland to the south on the Vistula river but firemen were unable to rescue him. When the Baltica crew found him, he had already drifted some 24 km (18 miles) out to sea.
"We were in the right place at the right time," said Joachim, noting that they rescued him shortly before night fall.
The crew are now trying to locate the dog's owner.
Poland is in the grip of bitterly cold weather, with night temperatures in some areas falling as low as -34 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit).
Customized Mercedes-Benz SL600s, Luxury Crystal Benz, studded with 300,000 Swarovski crystal glass, are displayed at the pavilion of custom car accessory company Garson/D.A.D at Tokyo Auto Salon 2010 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, east of Tokyo, January 15, 2010. The annual auto show, which showcases custom cars and accessories for cars, will be held until Sunday.
REUTERS/Toru Hanai (JAPAN
The honeymoons over and Obama’s agenda meets capitol hill reality.
President seeks to offer some attractive options to taxpayers
Excerpt:
“The initiatives amount to a package of tax credits, spending expansions and new mandates on employers to encourage retirement savings by workers. Most of them will be included in Obama's budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and they will require approval from Congress. Obama will release that budget Feb. 1.”
After carefully reading this article I decided it was a load of pure manure that means little to Americans who need help now.
“Two doors into medical care on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The door on the right leads to quicker service and personal attention from a doctor. The other leads to longer waits and more uncertainty. As it turns out, they're the same place.”
Photo by David Friedman / msnbc.com
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 01/24/2010 01:24:13 AM PST
I have good news and bad news for men everywhere. The good news is, a recent study has determined that men are evolving faster than women!
It's time to get rid of all of those knuckle-dragging jokes about men being more primitive than women. Science says it isn't so. It's true, ladies. According to the study's co-author, Dr. David Page, director of the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT, “The Y chromosome appears to be the most rapidly evolving of the human chromosomes.”
Update: 2:25 p.m.
Links to today’s column picked up by the following sites:
tweetmeme by Gilhurtado
Excerpt:
“At northern latitudes, many people experience a lower mood, irritability, decreased energy, and changes in appetite, starting around now and lasting until spring. About 10 percent of people in northern states experience full-blown Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), with depressed mood, anxiety, irritability, fatigue, carbohydrate-craving, and weight gain or loss. Another 30 percent experience sub-syndromal SAD, a low-grade version of seasonal depression.”
According to the Daily Express...
A 67-year-old teacher who has been teaching for over 50 years has been banned from teaching because she touched a nine-year-old boy's arm. More on that story here.
This is what makes news in north-west Florida:
A north-west Floridian woman aged 19 has been charged with domestic battery after kicking her brother in the genitals. 'The brother said she scratched him, too.' (NWFdailynews.com)
20 Funniest Newspaper Headlines Ever
'Tiger Woods plays with own balls, Nike says' - Oddee.com
All of these great links via Hubpages
If there’s one sport I really love above all others, it’s basketball. I played most of my life until back surgery and injuries ended my hoop days.
The idea of a racist league like this in 2010 is really kinda scary. I’ve always enjoyed playing the game with people of all colors. I can’t imagine not playing with the best players regardless of their color. It bothers me because I’m seeing a trend since Obama took the presidency. We seem to be going backward on race issues. Now, we’re confronted with a blatant basketball league of white supremacists!
Excerpt:
“A new professional basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) sent out a press release on Sunday saying that it intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.”
Above Photo source: The Akron Silents, pictured here, were not known for their trash-talking.
When I miss a day, or two, of posting something on this blog I feel guilty. I get flashbacks to my days as a newspaper editor when there was no such thing as missing a publication date. Those days meant deadlines that had to be kept. And that was just with a weekly newspaper!
I’ve always admired a daily newspaper for the very fact that it has to come out everyday. Think about that. An entire newspaper with four or five sections everyday. That’s a lot to read.
To NOT POST something on my daily blog seems like an abysmal act which will bring about dire consequences. No one will ever come back now. I’m sure. Those few odd ducks that have been visiting this blog daily are probably the only ones who noticed my breech in daily blog etiquette. To you I say, “We’re all human.” I can’t even make up a good excuse why I didn’t make a blog entry. Or two.
I prefer to say I tool a pause. That my mind was engaged in other pleasurable pursuits. Mindless things to be sure. Serious has to be set aside sometimes. Like a cracked bat, or worn-out old leather wallet. For my imagination to soar I have to shed serious like a sock with holes in it. Humor is my dopamine. My vial of crack. My Jack Daniels. It has a numbing effect on the harsh realities around me if I remember to tuck it into my back pocket and not sit on it.
This is the 21st Century and I’m a relic that remembers the days before there were cell phones for every man,women, and child across this nation. In my century, Buck Rogers was the only guy with gadgets like cell phones. It took a little longer for news to travel back then. The thought that we would one day be driving a car, while yakking or texting on a tiny phone simultaneously never even entered anyone’s mind in 1950 (the year I was born). Well, maybe it did in Buck Roger’s mind.
TO POST or NOT TO POST is the question. Should I set standards so high that I get a nosebleed? I don’t think I should. It seems to me I started this to have fun. Okay, and to help promote my column As It Stands. (Which sometimes makes me feel guilty). Am I messing with a good thing here? I guess if I stay away from putting advertising on this blog it’ll help keep things loose. This is a no censor zone. A no judgment zone. A zone where political rhetoric is ruthlessly rejected and made fun of. If you have a favorite political party that you pander too, this is not a good place to put up signs saying vote for ****** *** (fill in blanks).
I don’t roll with the pols. Apparently they’re a necessary evil in our silly system of supposed checks and balances – but that’s what we’re stuck with. Back to humor. It’s so easy to have fun prodding pols with zingers. They often provide them for you. But enough of this nonsense.
I have no idea why you’re still reading this…but thanks…and good night world.
Excerpt from AP:
“Egypt said Tuesday that its archaeologists have unearthed a Ptolemaic-era temple dating back more than 2,000 years, that may have been dedicated to the ancient cat goddess, Bastet.”
The ancient cat-goddess Bastet was found amongst the temple's ruins in the Kom el-Dekkah area of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
CLICK FOR RELATED CONTENT
Hunt for bird mummy in US comes up empty
Artifact suggests Bible written centuries earlier
Mummy storeroom found in Egyptian tomb
It’s been 40 years (1970) since I was in Vietnam. For decades afterward, all I heard was terrible stories of the high cancer rates among the general population caused by the Agent Orange we sprayed everywhere.
Now it seems, that Vietnam has emerged as a growing economy with it’s own billionaires, despite being communist.
Big businessmen are now looked upon favorably by the government. The 21st Century has been good to this once impoverished country. Rhetoric has been replaced with capitalism (for all intents and purposes).
AP Excerpt:
One of the flamboyant entrepreneurs making it big in booming Vietnam unveiled a massive precious stone on Monday that he plans to transform into the world's largest jade Buddha.
Read the story here.
AP Photo – Buddhist monks look a the jade piece as it was unveiled today in Hai Duong province.
“The Great Recession seems to have pushed Americans into a negative mindset about their prospects for getting rich.
Seven out of 10 say it is harder to get rich in America today than it used to be, according to the most recent Bankrate.com survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.”
Go here to read the rest.
By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Do you remember the 1980 horror movie called “The Fog?”
Anyone with Homichlophobia, or fear of fog, would probably rate it more horrifying than the thriller “Jaws.” Take my advice and don't see the 2005 remake of “The Fog” because it stinks!
There's a so-called “Ten Minute Cure” for Homichlophobia on the Internet. I don't advise anyone to take it seriously. Paying good money for a little CD that's supposed to cure your phobia is like taking a 10-minute home course in The Reproductive Biology of the mongoose and then writing a scholarly article for a prestigious wildlife journal based upon your new found knowledge.
“The glitch — the result of a routing problem at the family's wireless carrier, AT&T — revealed a little known security flaw with far reaching implications for everyone on the Internet, not just Facebook users.” Go here to read the rest.
CLICK FOR RELATED CONTENT
Privacy is dead on Facebook. Get over it.
Check your Facebook privacy settings. Now!
Facebook beefs up security with McAfee
Excerpt:
“Scientists say they will no longer conduct avalanche experiments monitoring the deaths of pigs buried in snow, after animal rights groups protested their methods.”
Editor's note : I'm back from my recent blog break...and I'm pissed! In January Pope Leo XIV gave a speech that so infuriated T...
