The images above are from Mexican cartels that have been warring among themselves for over a year now. The violence has crossed the border and now Americans are being killed and kidnapped at alarming rates. Travel advisories to American tourists regarding Mexico have been full of warnings. It's just not safe anywhere in Mexico right now. To get a good overview on what's happening today take advantage of the two following links:
MEXICO UNDER SEIGE - ITS A WAR
Rueters writer Jane Sutton talks about crocodiles invading neighborhoods...
Florida wildlife managers have launched an experiment to see if they can keep crocodiles from returning to residential neighborhoods by temporarily taping magnets to their heads to disrupt their "homing" ability.
Researchers at Mexico's Crocodile Museum in Chiapas reported in a biology newsletter they had some success with the method, using it to permanently relocate 20 of the reptiles since 2004.
"We said, 'Hey, we might as well give this a try," Lindsey Hord, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's crocodile response coordinator, said on Tuesday.
Crocodiles are notoriously territorial and when biologists move them from urban areas to new homes in the wild, they often go right back to the place where they were captured, traveling up to 10 miles a week to get there.
Scientists believe they rely in part on the Earth's magnetic fields to navigate, and that taping magnets to both sides of their heads disorients them.
"They're just taped on temporarily," Hord said. "We just put the magnets on when they're captured and since they don't know where we take them, they're lost. The hope would be that they stay where we take them to."
Hord and his co-workers have tried it on two crocodiles since launching the experiment in January, affixing "a common old laboratory magnet" to both sides of the animals' heads. One got run over by a car and died, but the other has yet to return, Hord said.
Once an endangered species, American crocodiles' numbers have rebounded to nearly 2,000 in coastal south Florida, their only habitat in the continental United States. That puts them in increasing contact with humans, especially in areas where backyards border on canals around Miami and the Florida Keys.
Crocodiles are still classified as a threatened species, so game managers are reluctant to move them to new areas where they might be killed battling other resident crocodiles for turf rights, Hord said. Unlike alligators, which are far more numerous, each crocodile is considered important to preserving the species, he said.
"These crocodiles are unique and valuable creatures and we feel like we have a responsibility to live with these animals as much as we can," he said.
Many frightened residents don't share that view, although crocodiles are shy creatures, Hord said. Wildlife managers will try to relocate any thought to pose a significant risk, mainly those that seem to have lost their fear of humans.
Most crocodiles in Florida are tagged as hatchlings so biologists can easily recognize them, Hord said.
Any that come back twice after being captured and moved are sent to zoos or otherwise placed in captivity, something biologists hope to avoid if the magnet experiment works.
"This one is by no means a really well-developed scientific study with a control group. It's just something we thought we would try," Hord said. "We do have to make some room to live with them."
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Todd Eastham) image via Google Images
THE FOLLOWING STORY RAN IN A BLOG CALLED "ADVERTISING IS GOOD" BY PAULA ZARGAJ-REYNOLDS
Ashton-Drake Galleries had the bad luck to offer us a baby monkey doll the same week Travis the chimp went berserk and mauled a woman.
This ad ran in one of the Sunday circulars in last week's Boston Globe.
In the defense of the advertiser, there was really nothing it could do to prevent this ad from appearing in newspapers this weekend.
Sunday circulars are created and printed far in advance. Getting the circular pulled in time would also have required the agreement of all the other advertisers appearing in the same circular.
Hidden beauty is often in the eye of the beholder who can see beyond a first glance. What do you see here?
images credit: Octavio Ocampo)
I can't believe that in this day and age, there are people so prejudice that they have to do hateful acts to show their their displeasure. This account from the Chicago Tribune this morning sickens me...
By Howard Witt | Tribune correspondent/2/24/09
HOUSTON — Only a few weeks ago, race relations had reached such a low point in the troubled east Texas town of Paris that federal Justice Department mediators were called in to try to bring together black and white citizens, but the public meeting quickly dissolved into rancor.
Now fresh racial tensions are erupting inside one of the town's biggest employers, the Turner Industries pipe fabrication plant, where black employees charge that hangman's nooses, Confederate flags and racist graffiti have been appearing throughout the workplace for months. Click here for the rest of the story.
(Photo by Karl Mitchell / 2/24/09)
FROM THE PAGES OF THE SMOKING GUN...
Does this woman look like a testicle crusher? Well, that's what cops claim University of Colorado student Chalie Simon did to a former boyfriend early Saturday morning during a confrontation at a campus apartment.
Simon, a 19-year-old sophomore, went to Job Donkor's home at about 4 AM and became irate when he sought to remove her from the residence. That's when Simon allegedly "grabbed his testicles and squeezed hard," according to a police report. Donkor, 23, replied, "Yeah, it hurt a lot," when a cop asked about Simon's squeeze play. Donkor told police that he had dated Simon "on and off" during the prior 18 months, and that they had broken up "approximately 20 times."
Simon was apparently angry because Donkor had not, as promised, called or sent her a text message by 3 AM (police noted that another woman was sleeping in Donkor's bedroom when they arrived). Simon, pictured below in a Boulder County Sheriff's Office mug shot, was arrested on assault, trespass, and domestic violence charges.
image via thesmokinggun.com
“Why frogs?” / Interview
PHOTO via MiMi Moscow
“K’ung-fu-tzu” (Confucius) 2003
The jump of frog symbolizes thirst of flying.
As genetic magic dream, about that far time,
when frogs were the ANGELS.
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Project “ FROG CAN FLY ” refers to people, frogs being only actors.
DE I: Why frogs?
Mi-Mi: Because they are small and light.
Can you imagine a Scooby Doo ring for example?
Of course you can, but don’t break your finger…
If you find a real dog set in place of a stone.
But a frog is an actor of a small chamber genre.
One cannot find a better main character for this role in nature
if one wants to develop the theme “A piece of art as a living
substance”
None of the fixing locks in the project are made of rubber and
their size is between 3 and 5 centimeters in the waist.
Strict! ... As on a podium. What can one do?- c’est la vie.
It is impossible to fit into somebody else’s shoes.
DE I: What principle was used to select an actor for the role?
Mi-Mi: The only principle: talent and desire to work.
Not all the applicants passed the audition. And,…
there were so many of them.
Some could not stand the intense schedule, some failed
because of personal reasons,
Others thought it was mere “talk-show” …
But the results of selection produced real Stars.
Frogs same as people may possess Star quality and Virtuosity.
It wasn’t necessary to force them to do special or
unnatural movements.
What was most difficult... to wait for a "Revelation"
on their side and not to interfere with this process.
Everybody is gifted in many different ways, and frogs
are not an exception.
Some open slowly and thoughtfully, like Confucius,
Others inflame instantly, like Eddy Chlorophyll,
But the truth is they cool down the very next moment.
Eddy is a natural born comedian.
Eddy is the one and only frog who can so selflessly put his paws
on his tummy and smile with such charm.
Nobody taught him, he just knew how, he was capable
and used it with grace.
He did 2 full days of shooting in the project and then he left.
Afterwards he used to come quite often but ...only as a spectator.
Confucius is unequivocally a Shakespearian character.
He is superb in tragic roles. If the project could continue,
he would make a remarkable King Lear.
But, on September 21st all Moscow frogs go to sleep till spring.
There's nothing to be done about it.
DE I: We hope nobody was hurt?
Mi-Mi: On the contrary, everybody ended up happy.
Siberian Postman and Fly of Destiny now live at our place.
They stopped being interested in mosquitoes and now eat delicious
African cockroaches with tremendous appetite.
They became fat and look contented.
“Freedom and Will” issues are of no relevance at the moment.
At nights they lose themselves singing duets…
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interview / “Desillusionist” magazine / 2006
Translation by
Lyan In Su & Steven Brayshaw.
(image credit: Lew Jensen) Cranes" by Gary LeMaster
"Unicorn" by Ron Cheruka The Grecian Urn" by Gary LeMaster
Remember the highly praised Faberge eggs from the courts of Russian tzar?
Modern masters of eggshell filigree carving make similarly detailed works, using only the nature-given material: eggshell itself, cut in creative patterns by hand with high-speed drills.
The word must have gone out when they lost the presidential election, that all Republicans are going to be big babies in defeat!
Just look at what their doing in Congress and the House of Representatives. Republican governors are also in lock-step with the new GOP strategy to “Just Say No” to whatever Democrats purpose.
It’s a mindless and petulant approach that doesn’t serve all Americans. But the GOP isn’t worried about all Americans. They serve a constituency that is out of touch with the majority of Americans.
They call themselves Conservatives, but they are really more like Extremists, who want things their way and that’s all there is to it. Confronted with reality, these GOP followers start throwing mud. They conjure up a crisis where there is none. They twist the words of Democrats into mangled messages to mislead the general public.
The so-called Moral Majority and Neo-Cons, have no positive direction to go because their own response to anything outside of their beliefs, is vicious attacks and lies. With one side of their mouth they say they hope the new Economic Recovery Plan will help Americans. From the other side of their mouth they are spewing dissent. They don’t want President Obama and the Democrats to succeed.
If they had any guts they should at least admit it. Partisanship has poisoned our country. GOP governors are positioning themselves as possible presidential candidates in 2012, by refusing help from the Recovery Plan. Damn the people in their state who need it. The GOP is sticking to core beliefs, which by the way have economically crippled America during the last eight years.
Look at what Bush and GOP cronies have wrought. A country in crisis.
You’d think that the Neo-Cons would wake up with reality bitch-slapping them everyday on Wall Street and Main Street USA.
Not so. The GOP’s core following is wealthy people who finance their follies because they want to continue being rich. Any concept of equality goes out the door when money is the motivator. They sit on Ivory Towers and call upon God to help them continue their dominance over the average American.
So that leaves us with a snake in our political system. It will strike out any attempt at bi-partisanship to prove how powerful it is. Tattoo’s, reading something like, “ Might makes Right and Money makes Might” are inscribed somewhere on their brains.
How can any sensible person work with someone who comes to the table with an attitude like that? Here’s what the GOP Extremists need to understand: the majority of Americans support Obama. That’s why he was elected president. Obama’s clear mandate to help the majority of Americans should count for something. In my opinion, the GOP won’t be happy until they get back in power. That however, is not going to happen for a long time, if ever again.
AS IT STANDS, we wouldn’t be struggling to survive as a country today if the Republican’s hadn’t made such a mess of things.
image via www.NewsCorpse.com
Tourism officials don't believe the economic downturn has dampened the mood at this year's Mardi Gras celebrations, and say that big crowds over the weekend and nearly full hotels bode well for the annual event.
Image via pbase.com
It's time to expose the dark secret about political polls . We , the people, don't need them. However , the media market needs them ...
