Pirates aren't going to stop seizing ships until the world wakes up and does something about it!

  It only took Somali pirates 24 hours after an American vessel and crew escaped from one of their attacks, before they started seizing other ships. Four, including one in an unusual night attack, ships were seized and their crews held hostage.     

   The pirates have declared they will get revenge for the killing of three of their thieves who were holding an American ship captain (Richard Phillips) in a lifeboat.

    President Obama told the press that the acts of piracy should be punished. Whether he will send troops to the pirate's den on the coast is another matter. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to stop these thieves is to take out their base of operation on land.

    For nearly two decades, Somali's have been seizing ships and making easy money. I blame the world's various maritime companies who would rather pay a ransom than to actually do anything about these pirates. The companies simply don't want to pay higher premiums, so they enable the pirates.

   This is a worldwide problem. It just doesn't make sense that a little rogue nation can hold the entire world hostage with impunity, and get away with it.

The following article from The Los Angels Times discusses four recent hijackings.

Image via cache.gawker.com

Meandering With Millie: While walking we encountered a skunk today!

   Millie my pug and I were taking our daily walk when we came upon a skunk standing unsteadily on the side of a gravel country road.

   We both instantly knew that skunks shouldn't be out during the day. This one looked like it was drunk on blackberry wine and was swaying slightly from side-to-side.

   Not good. His beady black eyes seemed to be fixed on some point beyond us as he didn't react to how close we were. Time was frozen. I was worried that the skunk would lunge at Millie and bite her if I moved too fast.

   It came to me that Millie had her rabies shot eight days ago, so she was at least protected in the worse case scenario. I, however, haven't had mine. I can't remember the last time I had a rabies vaccination.

    I remember when I was in third grade a dog bit me in the front of my school and I had to get the whole stick-the-needle-in the-stomach treatment! But that was no vaccination. That was the treatment. Do they still do that?

   So far no one made a move. Millie finally decided she wanted to take a closer sniff of this strange black-and-white animal, and I picked her up in the same instant, holding my breath and expecting to be attacked.

  It didn't happen. The skunk continued to wobble, looking blankly ahead. We set off down the road. I put Millie down and we continued on our regular route. On the way back I kept my eyes peeled for the skunk. But it was gone. Probably back into the blackberry bushes and high grass.

   I was secretly thrilled we didn't have to contend with Billy Bob Skunk. You see, Millie and I got to talking while we were walking, and decided it could have been a "geeter-head" (same-same as a meth-head) skunk who might have went by the name of Billy Bob. Why not?

   We started coming up with wild headlines:

'Geeter Skunk sends man and pug packing!'

'Man and pug accidentally stumble upon stoned Skunk's outdoor meth lab!'

'PETA says man and pug threatened skunk stoned on medical-meth'

  Before we knew it we were back home. Just another day in our adventuresome lives. Peace.

Skunk image via  www.caltechgirlsworld.mu.nu/.../tedkennedy.jpg

  

State scammed by people who are supposed to be serving the elderly and disabled

Fraud infects state in-home care program

By Evan Halper/LA Times 
April 13, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento -- Loose oversight and bureaucratic inertia have allowed fraud to fester in a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar state program that provides personal caregivers to the impoverished elderly and disabled. Hundreds of reports of scams and swindles are going without investigation.
Prosecutors and program administrators across the state say they are alarmed by the ease with which people are taking advantage of the program, In Home Supportive Services.

Read the whole article here.

Today's As It Stands in The Times-Standard: Reality vs Fiction

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 04/12/2009 01:26:06 AM PDT

Remember the 1995 hit movie “Outbreak?”

Parts of it were filmed here in Humboldt County, and Ferndale was supposed to be the fictional town of Cedar Creek. In the movie, a deadly virus (Motaba) passed from a Capuchin monkey to a human who went on to infect others and scores of unsuspecting people died as a result.

Pretty scary stuff. Now let's consider a small news item recently sent out by the Associated Press. At the Oregon National Primate Center, nine Japanese Macaque monkeys got out of their cage when a keeper accidentally left it unlocked. Five of the monkeys were quickly caught, but the other four remain on the loose. According to Jim Newman, an Oregon Health & Science University spokesman, officials watched three of the escapees from a distance, and tried to catch them in cages baited with apples.

It's that last monkey that concerns me. The missing monkey is thought to be somewhere on the Beaverton Primate campus. One more little thing about this primate, it's infected with a virus that could hurt people! Read the rest of the column here.

Polish politician upset because zoo bought a gay elephant!

OH REALLY? A GAY ELELPHANT. NOW I HAVE HEARD EVERYTHING!

WARSAW (Reuters) – A Polish politician has criticized his local zoo for acquiring a "gay" elephant named Ninio who prefers male companions and will probably not procreate, local media reported Friday.

"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys ($11 million) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," Michal Grzes, a conservative councilor in the city of Poznan in western Poland, was quoted as saying.

"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.

The head of the Poznan zoo said 10-year-old Ninio may be too young to decide whether he prefers males or females as elephants only reach sexual maturity at 14.

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; editing by Andrew Roche)

Every time you go on the Internet another robot goes to heaven!

From "Every Time You Use the Internet, a Robot Goes to Heaven" - verseguru

These fanciful robots from the fifties are what I grew up with. I had a couple of these whirling, twirling, wind-em up mechanical wonders. Of course, I never saved them. Like most people, I regret not having them now. They'd be antiques and worth something! Oh well...I had some good times with them, and I guess the memory makes up for the material loss. Note that they are all made of metal, not plastic like now. My favorite was Robby The Robot.

"The Robot Hut" is where all good robots end up in afterlife...

John Rigg from The Robot Hut built a whole barn for his immense collection of toy and movie prop robots. Most of the movie prop robots he builds himself including Robby, B-9, Star Wars droids and Huey, Dewey & Louie from the movie "Silent Running" to name a few. He also built a replica of the Time Machine from the classic movie.

(images credit: darkroastedblend.com

Mexican drug cartel violence featured on YouTube & video games

FROM USA TODAY THERE'S AN ARTICLE ABOUT MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS USING YOUTUBE TO BRAG ABOUT THEIR ACTIVITIES.

TO THE RIGHT IS THE COVER FOR ONE OF THE RECENT VIDEO GAMES GLORIFYING THE CARTELS. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THIS IS A TRUE REFLECTION OF MEXICAN SOCIETY TODAY.

THE POWER OF THE CARTELS IS ALMOST UNIMAGINABLE, AS THEY HAVE PENATRATED NEARLY EVERY STATE IN THE USA, WITH THEIR DRUG ACTIVITIES.

IT"S JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY TAKE CHARGE OF MEXICO. OUR BORDERS ARE VIOLATED DAILY. SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO TO STOP THE VIOLENCE FROM THESE GANGS SPILLING OVER INTO OUR COUNTRY? SO FAR, PITIFULLY LITTLE.

THESE MURDEROUS PUNKS THINK THEY CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT. UNTIL WE ACTUALLY GO AFTER THEM BIG TIME, IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE HERE. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS RAPIDLY BECOMING AN EXTENSION OF MEXICO, AND IT'S GANGSTERS.

YouTube riddled with drug cartel videos, messages

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

The violence among Mexican drug cartels is not filling just the streets of Mexican border towns: It's also spilling into gruesome online videos and chat rooms.

The videos on YouTube and Mexican-based sites are polished — professional singers croon about cartel leaders while images of murdered victims fade one into the next.

In the comment area, those loyal to the opposing cartels trade insults and threats.

Such videos are used to intimidate enemies and recruit members by touting "virtues" of cartel leaders, says Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, a Texas-based global-intelligence company.

Read the rest of the story here. Image via tinypics.com

 

Vietnamese Art: Works by Southeast Asian artists reflects their culture

Buoi Som Dung Street by Pham Binh Chuong

To see more examples of art by other highly-skilled Vietnamese artists click here.

Believe it or not: Scientist says sending pollution into outer space could control global warning, and it's a future option!

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THIS MORNING WE HAVE A REALLY STRANGE SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING...

"Tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming — a radical idea once dismissed out of hand — is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president's new science adviser said Wednesday.
That's because global warming is happening so rapidly, John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month.
The concept of using technology to purposely cool the climate is called geoengineering. One option raised by Holdren and proposed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays."

Read the whole story here. Image of John Holdren/science advisor via J. Scott Applewhite, AP Photo

Walking with Millie, and a shout-out to all viewers in the last 24 hours

   Before I ramble off in another direction with Millie my pug, I would like to thank “Taide” for becoming the sixth regular follower of this blog by subscribing to it. I appreciate that you are interested enough to want to read this blog daily. Hopefully, I won’t let you down.
   Speaking of readers, there’s been an interesting string of schools and colleges this last 24 hours. Here are some of them:
   Bishop Kearney High School; University of Phoenix; Trumbull Public Schools; Purdue University; Park Hill School; State of Tennessee Department of Education; Katy Independent School; Danbury Public Schools; University of Masssachusetts; Pennsylvania State College; Confederate College (in Ontario, Canada); and Wayne State University.
     There has been 148 international visitors in the last 24 hours. Here are some of them:
    Tirana, Tirane, Albania; Belmont, New South Wales, Australia; Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium; Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria; Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Nicosia, Cyprus; Copenhagan, Staden Kobenhaven, Denmark; Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland; Marseille, Provence-alpes-cote-D’azur, France; Brotterade, Thuringer, Germany; Athens, Attiki, Greece; Milan, Lombardia, Italy; Pune, Maharashtra, India; Tel Aviv, Israel; Amman, Amman Governorate, Jordan; Tokoyo, Japan; Vilnius, Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania; Kuala Lumpor, Malaysia; Auckland, New Zealand; Bergen, Hordaland, Norway; Porto, Portugal; Volgograd, Russian Federation; Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa; Meyrin, Geneve, Switzerland; and Istanbul, Turkey.
      Nationally, 178 readers from all over the USA, and Hawaii, have stopped in to visit the last 24 hours. None from Alaska however! I almost always get one from there.
      Moving on....
       As usual I did some good thinking while walking Millie today. Lines of verse teased me as I observed the beautiful countryside here in Dow’s Prairie. Signs of Spring made the walk all the more enjoyable.
      Green leaves provided lush canopies to stroll through, as the sun struggled to pierce the clouds that hinted at rain. Tree limbs, once winter-barren, now explode with buds and new life. The scents of numerous animals made Millie’s walk an adventure. Like every day. She knows to live for the day, and I meekly follow that tactic.
      Life is too short to live it in misery. It’s too short to hold grudges and to feud with family. We are here for a brief blink of time, and it’s up to us to enjoy it. Inspiration comes from everywhere. Walking, going to a good play, or sailing in a boat for the day.
       No matter what life has-or hasn’t- given us, it’s out choice to make it a good day. Walking with Millie helps me to see that. Taking deep breaths from the cleanest air in California, I feel like I’ve won the lottery...just to live here.
       As It Stands, my blog is going somewhere, and touching people out there, and I hope it brings good vibes! 

What should be done to stop Somali pirate attacks on international ships?

My column on March 1st dealt with this problem...

Avast Mate! There are pirates on the high seas, the Web, and Wall Street!

From the Associated Press this morning...

SOMALI PIRATES HIJACK SHIP; 20 AMERICANS ABROAD

By Katharine Houreld/AP

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden. Read the rest of the story here.

From Somalilandpress.com we have more information on the pirates and what's happening in Somalia

Pirates: The Massive Threat To Somaliland

The pirates illegally operate in Puntland coastal area have enormous threat to Somaliland in term of its social structure, currency value and youth mentality in near future unless the government has not taken tight security measurement.

The fact that pirate has get much publicity in Puntland state with the positive reaction from its society has expressed overwhelming treat to Somaliland, which may effects it’s social institution – marriage.

Read the rest of the story here. Image via somalilandpress.com