Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Brazil's Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time

The Pirahã people have no history, no descriptive words and no subordinate clauses.

That makes their language one of the strangest in the world -- and also one of the most hotly debated by linguists.

 Go to Spiegel Online International to read the whole story.

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Teabagger Express predicts ‘Judgement Day’ will send all Democrats to hell

If you’re not a “real American” as defined by Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck, then you’re going to hell buckaroo!

The crazy get crazier, as we watch the religious right continue to dress up and interrupt town hall meetings.

What do they really want? You can go to their  "Tea Party" website and read all about their Tea Party Express II:Countdown To Judgment Day."

Snippet from AlterNet:

What will happen on their predicted "Judgment Day"?
If you buy the biblical spin of the Religious Right folks -- that make up the bulk of the Tea Party movement -- the implication is clear: Jesus will soon return, send all Democrats, gays, blacks, progressives, liberals, college-educated unbelievers, etc., to Hell, while saving what Sarah Palin calls "us" "Real Americans" -- in other words unreconstructed frightened and resentful white lower middle class Americans.”

Read the rest here.

ABOVE IMAGE FROM: teapartyhandbook.com/

Baseball’s dirty little secret

Just think; while you’re enjoying your first cup of coffee this morning your also learning about a little known fact about baseballs.

What a way to start a day!

Harvesting baseball's 'magic mud'

“Nobody knows this is where I get the magic mud," Bintliff says.

Out of nine brothers and sisters, Bintliff was the one picked to carry on the family business -- Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud.

  • Jim Bintliff has provided Major League's "magic mud" for 44 years
  • Rubbing baseballs with mud became common after batter was killed with pitch

Read the whole article at CNN

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

When they come packing to make a point

Via Seatllepi.com Cartoon by Horsey

Darwin dreamed of being an astronaut someday…

(via WhereDidYouBuyThat)

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It’s that time of year – Go Lakers!

From the LA Times today…

Lakers want to ring in new season carefully

Snippet of story:

The Lakers begin the season tonight against the Clippers, but not before they receive their championship rings from last season's successful playoff run.”

Read the whole story here. 

Image above via Bright Star Images

‘Peephole’ season USA on the way

 I’m so glad that it doesn’t snow here in Humboldt County! I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and I know how miserable scraping ice off your windows is.

I haven’t been back there since 1972, and don’t intend to ever go back. Look at the guy in the photo. Imagine doing that every day?

FROM USA TODAY WE HAVE:

Police watching for ‘peephole drivers as winter nears

ABOVE PHOTO CAPTION: David Michael scrapes ice from his car during a Jan. 27 winter storm in Nicholasville, Ky. In some states, police can cite drivers for obstructed vision.

Photo By Charles Bertram, AP

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Monday, October 26, 2009

9 Brain Habits You Didn’t Realize You Had…

From MindCafe today…

“The brain is certainly the most amazing part of human body. It becomes more interesting when it does not work the way you expect it should. Psychology frequently establishes our intuitions about how human mind works, but it reveals a number of surprises as well…

Although some psychology students will have heard one or two of these before, here’s a list of brain habits you probably didn’t realize you had:

1) The maximum capacity of your short-term memory is seven.

Humans have basically three forms of memory: Sensory, Long-term and Short-term. Long-term memory is just like hard-drive space. Similarly, Short-term memory functions like a very small RAM. This Short-term memory is capable to hold only about five to nine (seven is an average) items at a time.

Retrieving information longer than this will need you to either pack it together into seven units or store it in Long-term memory. Have you observed that the most phone numbers have only seven digits?

Click here to see the remaining eight.

 

More Americans believe in haunted houses than global warming : A scary Halloween tale.

In the United States, more people believe that houses can be haunted by the dead than believe that the living can cause climate change.

Is this simply a scary Halloween tale or our frightening future?

Read this article by: Dave R. at Care2

 

Vietnam vets finally honored for bloody rescue mission

This article brought back some memories for me. I was part of the engineer group (31st Eng.Battalion) that was rebuilding the old French road that led into Cambodia (mentioned in this article).

Less than a month later my squad was attached to the combined American and South Vietnamese forces that took this road to invade  Cambodia in search of the NVA high command.

While working on the road I met several members of the 11th Armored Cavalry. Now, I can’t help wondering if they are dead or alive. Was one of those men honored someone I talked with back in 1970? I guess I’ll never know.

After 39 years, Alpha Troop is awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for its heroism during 'The Anonymous Battle' in 1970.

(Above photo) President Obama, at a ceremony honoring Alpha Troop, says the treatment of Vietnam veterans has been a "national disgrace." (Tim Sloan / AFP-Getty Images / October 20, 2009)

Read the whole story at The LA Times 

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Surviving a deadly hike on a trail with no name

By Dave Stancliff

For the Times-Standard

Posted: 10/25/2009 01:27:19 AM PDT

August 2009 -- Nancy Maltez fell 1,000 feet to her death while hiking in Zion National Park. The California woman was with her husband and three children. They were hiking the Angels Landing Trail, one of the most famous and thrilling hikes in the U.S. National Parks.

It wasn't a trail for the weak of heart. Or the inexperienced. It slithered along a narrow rock slice with dizzying thousand-foot drops on both sides. There were chains embedded in the rock to give hikers extra hand-holds.

This was a trail for experienced hikers and climbers. Maltez was neither. Should she and her family have gone on this trail? I don't think so. When I read about this terrible accident it took me back to another time.

November 1965 -- I was 15 years old. I held on to the chaparral for dear life. Only minutes before I had been at the top of the trail with my two friends, John and Chuck, brothers who wanted an adventure. We all had empty canteens and were thirsty. Strong winds made it hard to hear each other.

Read the rest here.

image viawww.wausaukee.com

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Trump's Lowest Grift Ever Saved for Holy Week

This is a story about how the devil's puppet, aka Donald Trump, mocked Christianity by selling a book combining the Bible, the Constitu...