As part of the her ongoing series Methods & Apparati for Social Facilitation and Mood Elevation, Keetra Dean Dixon has created “The Anonymous Hugging Wall”. It is yet unclear if they come in deluxe form or what their cost may be.
Other parts of the series include the “Full Spectrum Optical Invigoration Unit, Psuedo Simile Guides, and the Colling Inhalation Aid (aka Fridgi-Poofs)”.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY...
Middle East: President Obama seeks a grand, unlikely reconciliation between Jews, Shiites and Sunnis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decidedly undreamy Mideast agenda is about survival.
Read More: Middle East & North Africa
In the Middle East of the early 21st century, the world is challenged by two big facts: one, a problem with no solution; the other, a problem it's been pretending isn't really there.
The first fact is the troubled co-existence of Israel with its hostile Muslim neighbors.
It's obvious that the Jewish state will never be accepted as legitimate by a large number of Arabs.
There will always be Muslim nations and armed organizations that will never accept its right to exist, and that would try to get rid of it.
Yet year after year we hear most of Western Europe, Third World nations and now apparently America insist that a Palestinian state is the key to a lasting Mid East peace.
image via www.naiveabroad.com/
It looks like steps are being taken to meet California's water needs for the future. The new desalination facility is supposed to be done by election year (2012). This article by GREENBIZ.COM gives the particulars:
By GreenBiz Staff
Published May 18, 2009
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board last week unanimously voted to begin work on a $300 million desalination facility to help meet the water needs of the region.
The reverse-osmosis desalination facility will be built by the Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources, and the company expects the facility to be online by the beginning of 2012. When it is fully operational, the plant will be able to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water every day, or about 10 percent of the region's water needs.
Poseidon is building the facility in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego, and it is just the first of many such facilities in the works in California. The state is in the third year of a drought, and faces pressures on water supplies from a growing population and agricultural water needs.
(photo above - This desalination plant in Perth, Australia, will be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere when completed) photo by ABB.com
photo by Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
Lakers center Andrew Bynum steals the ball from Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks, who was driving through the lane, in the first half today.
In a series that should never have gone to 7 games, the Lakers won when it counted this afternoon. Still unanswered; which Laker team will show up against the Denver Nuggets Tuesday night (6:00 p.m. California time) during the Western Conference Finals? Why did a seriously undermanned Houston team match up so well for so long? What Laker weaknesses were exposed? I've never seen a more erratic (okay chaotic) team than this seasons version of the Lakers. If you're into betting, leave the Lakers alone! They'll break your heart and wallet!
FROM TODAY's Time-Standard...
Dave Stancliff
Posted: 05/17/2009 01:27:20 AM PDT
Politicians leaning left or right must learn how to cooperate to effectively fight the rising threat of extremists in our country.
A recent assessment report to law agencies, released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), warned that extremists in America are taking advantage of current events to recruit members.
This report has caused a lot of controversy, for all the wrong reasons.
Click here to read the rest of the column.
image via Google Images
FROM INVENTORSPOT we have...
The
Top Ten Weird and Bizarre Japanese Soft DrinksBy Steve Levingstein
Ahh, refreshing Coolpis... THE soft drink to offer guests - before removing their blindfolds.
Actually a Korean copy of the disturbingly named Calpis, Coolpis comes in Peach flavor and (stop reading now, if you can...) Kimchee flavor.
Kimchee, for those unacquainted, is a traditional Korean dish made from fermented cabbage and LOTS of red pepper.
Makes Peach flavored Coolpis almost appealing, doesn't it?
Anyone for a Calpis vs. Coolpis taste test? We could call it a pis-ing contest.
I wrote this column Lead Exposure From House Paint Study Shows Ties With Criminality on October 19th, 2008.
In it, I talk about the poorer neighborhoods being the most affected by lead paint, and some surprising results from that exposure when it came to criminality. I discussed how the children were the main victims of lead in the home, and some the symptoms involved.This news article looks like a step is being taken in the right direction to combat this deadly lead exposure.
(From the Associated Press today)
Nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money will go toward a program to remove lead- based paint and other health and safety hazards from low-income homes, Vice President Joe Biden announced Friday.
Biden announced the plan in the courtyard of an affordable-housing development operated by a community group that is getting $875,000 of that money to help identify and remove toxic paint and other health hazards from 225 Los Angeles homes.
Biden said the program will immediately employ workers to do the leadabatement work. He said it will also save the country millions in future health care costs that otherwise would be spent treating people suffering from neurological damage, slowed growth and other ailments connected to growing up in contact with lead-based paint.
“This is a real bang for the buck here,” he said. “You have people from this community filling good jobs, helping other families, helping children to stay healthy.”
South Los Angeles’ Esperanza Community Housing Corp. was among 53 local programs in 20 states and Washington, D.C., getting grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to remove lead-based paint and other hazards such as mold.
Image via leisureguy.files.wordpress.com
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer – It's not all doom and gloom in the U.S. economy. Some products are bucking the recession and flying off store shelves.
Sales of chocolate and running shoes are up. Wine drinkers haven't stopped sipping; they just seem to be choosing cheaper vintages.
Gold coins are selling like hot cakes. So are gardening seeds. Tanning products are piling up in shopping carts; maybe more people are finding color in a bottle than from sun-worshipping on a faraway beach.
Strong sales of Spam, Dinty Moore stew and chili helped Hormel Foods Corp. post a 6 percent increase in first quarter sales in its grocery products unit.
Consumers have trimmed household budgets and postponed buying cars, major appliances and other big-ticket items. Yet they still are willing to shell out for small indulgences and goods that make life more comfortable at home, where they are spending more time.
Read the rest of the story here.
Photo via AP and is from a recent promo ad by Hormel Company.
The following links are being provided to you to so that you can track all information sources used in the article.
National Sporting Goods Association http://www.nsga.org
Information Resources Inc. http://www.infores.com
Mintel International http://www.mintel.com/
National Gardening Association http://www.garden.org
W. Atlee Burpee http://www.burpee.com
The Wine Institute http://www.wineinstitute.org
Enviorsell http://www.envirosell.com
Leo J. Shapiro & Associates http://www.ljs.com
Things are sure changing in this communist country that once banned all forms of porn. It almost looks like their entering a "sexual revolution."
Westerners are flocking to China in record numbers. It must be the "new attitude" that Chinese have about Capitalism (once their sworn enemy).
From Most Emailed from Yahoo today....
Visitors try to get a glimpse of "Love Land", billed as China's first-ever sex theme park, in southwest China's Chongqing municipality.
The sex theme park is slated to open in October, but detractors hope the project will never see the light of day, as the exhibits of naked human sculptures, giant genitals and boasts a sex technique workshop is stirring up howls of protest.
(AFP)
Caution. Don't hold your breath , but it looks like the fighting might stop between Hamas and Israel soon. The militant group has acce...
