Sources say that for the first time negotiators authorized to speak for Quetta Shura
Secret talks to end the war in Afghanistan have begun between representatives of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, The Washington Post reported on its website Tuesday night.
Scientists found at least 20 new species of katydids in Papua New Guinea's Muller Range, including this pink-eyed Caedicia. ;Click through a slideshow of new species found in Papua New Guinea.
“Alan Boyle writes: Conservationists are celebrating the discovery of more than 200 new species in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea, ranging from flowers to frogs to mice.
The island of New Guinea and its surroundings have been a biological gold mine for more than a century, going back to the expeditions of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer in evolutionary biology and contemporary of Charles Darwin who cataloged hundreds of species throughout the Malay Archipelago.”
The next time you’re in Santa Barbara stop by the Moreton Bay Fig Tree
There are a lot of giant trees in the world (like our beloved Redwoods) but this one in Santa Barbara is big in a novel way.
Just off Highway 101 you can see this fig tree, which was planted by a little girl in 1874, who got the seed from an Australian sailor. On the Mapquest aerial photos you can see it as a big dark round spot. The branch span is 170 feet and they claim that 16,000 people could stand under the tree.
You used to be able to climb up the buttresses, and see homeless people camped out in the hollows. Not sure if that’s still happening.The picture doesn’t do it justice. I’m just saying…
I looked into the situation and was pretty disgusted at what I found out. Just as I was preparing to write something about it someone emailed me this link which sums up the situation better than I could.
Excerpt:
Talk of limited government is appealing until you see what it actually means in practice: a society in which it's every man for himself.
“Thanks to 30 years of right-wing demagoguery about the evils of “collectivism” and the perfidy of “big government” -- and a bruising recession that’s devastated state and local budgets -- we’re getting a peek at a dystopian nightmare that may be in our not-too-distant future. It’s a picture of a society in which “rugged individualism” run amok means every man for himself.
Call it Ayn Rand’s stark, anti-governmental dream come true, a vision that last week turned into a nightmare for Gene Cranick, a rurual homeowner in Obion County, Tennessee. Cranick hadn’t forked over $75 for the subscription fire protection service offered to the county’s rural residents, so when firefighters came out to the scene, they just stood there, with their equipment on the trucks, while Cranick’s house burned to the ground.
According to the local NBC TV affiliate, Cranick “said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning.”
“An 8-year-old girl who was abducted while playing outside a Fresno home escaped from her captor Tuesday morning after a driver cut off the suspect's vehicle, police said.
Elisa Cardenas was found in Fresno about 11 hours after she disappeared around 8:30 p.m. Monday, triggering a statewide Amber Alert. Police arrested Gregorio Gonzalez, 24 (pictured here), of Fresno.”
State and local government budgets are by all accounts in dire straits.
Last year, collectively, they faced a $100 billion budget shortfall. After 12 months of belt tightening, emergency aid, layoffs and tax hikes, things are even worse.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a report this year that the gap could be $140 billion. And last week, respected analyst Meredith Whitney suggested that state governments will collapse unless the federal government offers a trillion-dollar bailout that will rival the bank bailout of 2008.
And yet, across America, many government workers are getting rich off taxpayer-funded salaries. City managers get free luxury cars, firefighters get half-million-dollar lump payments and, in California, one city worker is being paid $500,000 annually during retirement. In New York state, $100,000 salaries can’t be called rich, but at a time when unemployment remains near 10 percent, there are 99,000 state and local workers bringing home six figure salaries.
1. Phoenix – double-dipping top cop
Two frequent causes of outsized government worker pay are so-called “double-dipping” and lump sum retirement payouts due to banked sick time, vacation and other benefits. In the case of Phoenix top cop Jack Harris (pictured above), we have both.
Sources:
1. Muscle does not turn to fat if you stop exercising
2. The red juice in raw meat isn’t blood
3. Ostriches don’t hide their heads in the sand
4. Shaving does not affect hair growth
5. Sushi is not raw fish
6. The Sun isn’t yellow, it’s white
7. You actually use all of your brain, not 10%
8. Twinkies go bad after 25 days
9. The direction water spins down your drain has nothing to do with the hemisphere you are in
10. The tongue doesn’t have taste zones
This is an impressive case of corruption – buying and selling votes -and will be remembered for a long time in Alabama:
“The owner of Alabama's largest casino, four state senators and several lobbyists face federal charges of conspiring to buy and sell votes for millions of dollars to get electronic bingo legalized, according to an indictment released Monday.
One lobbying firm employee has pleaded guilty to offering $2 million for the vote of an indicted senator.”
Photo: VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor (waving like an idiot above) and four state senators and several top lobbyists have been indicted on federal charges accusing them of vote buying on a bill to legalize electronic bingo
I’ve been getting a lot of interesting feedback the last 24 hours about my column Humboldt Officials miss drug disposal opportunity.
Perhaps the best bit of news I’ve heard thus far comes from Supervisor Jimmy Smith who emailed me this morning regarding the column.
In it, he admitted not knowing anything about the program, but he also got proactive real quick – and is checking with the Humboldt Health Department to see what they know about the prescription drug disposal program, and why our county didn’t get involved.
I want to thank Jimmy Smith both for his honesty and his proactive reaction. He’s always had my vote, since I first met him at the 1st Humboldt County Stand Down for veterans in Ferndale. Like all politicians, he has his critics. It’s part of the game. I’m really hard on most politicians because I don’t believe half of what comes out of their lips. Every now and then though a good one comes along like Jimmy Smith.
How did the rest of the nation do on that big prescription disposal drive? Here’s some links to very impressive results from the program:
Arizona residents dispose of over three tons of prescription drugs
Virginians turn over two tons of prescription drugs
Residents turn in 24 pounds of prescription drugs during 'take back' day
prescription drug take-back nets over 5 lbs.
6K lbs of Mich Take Back meds collected
DEA destroys 160 pounds of pills from Cowlitz County
Statewide 'take back' nets tons of prescription drugs
Statewide Prescription Drug Roundup Nets 389 Pounds of Medications
What can Americans expect from the upcoming Nov. 2 elections? Answer: the same old shit! Isn’t that encouraging?
As time before midterms draws short, lots of charges but few solutions
“If you don't like the economy, blame President Barack Obama and Democrats because they're making times tougher, Republicans are telling voters entering the four-week homestretch to an election the GOP hopes will return the party to power in Congress.
Look, Democrats say, it's the Republicans who caused the financial meltdown and recession. Do you want them to do it again? As bad as high unemployment, record home foreclosures and bankruptcies are, they'd be worse if the GOP had succeeded in blocking financial and auto industry bailouts and Obama's stimulus plan, Democrats claim.”
Like voters all over the world, I think most politicians are clowns. I’ve said so numerous times on this blog and will continue to. I fully expect more than one “clown” to be elected on Nov.2nd.
“Voters the world over complain about having clowns for politicians, but Brazilians embraced the idea on Sunday by sending a real one to Congress with more votes than any other candidate.
Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, better known by his clown name Tiririca, received more than 1.3 million votes in Sao Paulo state in Brazil's presidential and congressional elections. That was more than double the votes of the second-placed candidate in Brazil's most populous state.”
It's time to expose the dark secret about political polls . We , the people, don't need them. However , the media market needs them ...
