As It Stands goes au natural…

DID YOU KNOW?

The blue morpho butterfly, which lives in Central and South America, has tiny ears on its wings and can distinguish between high- and low-pitch sounds.

The butterfly may use its ears to listen for nearby predatory birds.

The ochre starfish or sea star pumps itself up with cold seawater to lower its body temperature when exposed to the sun at low tide.

It is equivalent to a human drinking 1.8 gallons of water before heading into the midday sun, scientists say.

Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider.

It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals.

 

The eyes of the mantis shrimp possess a feature that could make DVDs and CDs perform better.

By emulating this structure, which displays color wavelengths at all ranges, developers could create a new category of optical devices.

Alert! Be on the look out for two people in gorilla costumes and third one in chicken suit

I guess the Halloween pranks are coming early to one little town in Suffolk County. I know it’s not funny, but the idea of three costumed thugs stealing a person’s bike while they’re on it is kinda bizarre. Don’t you think?

Can you envision the person in the chicken suit barreling down the road on the purloined bicycle? Didn’t this person think anyone would notice the costume? Or, is it possible that was the whole point? Punks will be punks at any time of the year.

(AP) Police say the thieves who stole a New York teenager's bicycle were, well, animals.

Suffolk County police say two people in gorilla costumes and a third in a chicken suit took the boy's bike Monday in Rocky Point, on the north shore of Long Island.

Police say the three confronted him while he was riding along Route 25A around 1:15 p.m. Police say one of the gorilla-suit suspects punched the teen in the head and knocked him off his bike, and the person in a chicken costume rode off on it. The ape-suit duo ran away.

The teen was treated at a hospital for minor injuries. He's been released.

Detectives are searching for the suspects.

Mati Suri Illusion is unsettling…like it’s suppose to be

Seeing an optical illusion in this “new” poster for “Mati Suri” the movie, shouldn’t be too hard.

It works in the same way the Premonition poster did, only there are skulls.

This is my last movie poster for the day…

In honor of endless summers and surfers…

With this Indian Summer were experiencing in Humboldt County, I thought it would be fun to share an iconic surfing poster in honor of THE ENDLESS SUMMER. If you recall seeing this poster when it came out, then your a Boomer like me…

 

poster source

U.S. failure to retaliate for USS Cole attack rankled then — and now

Declassified docs show U.S. officials urged Clinton, Bush to strike al-Qaida

The US government failed to go after Bin Laden when they knew (almost immediately) that his followers were responsible for the attack on the USS Cole.

Two presidents let the ball drop and the next terrorist attack (perhaps emboldened by their success with the Cole) was 9/11. If our top leaders would have listened to their security sources, and Yemen officials who captured two of the terrorists, we would have struck the al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan right after the Cole attack. But no.

Instead, President Clinton, and Bush, spewed plenty of patriotic rhetoric and then did absolutely nothing after the Cole attack. Zero. Nada. Both presidents claim they didn’t have surefire evidence of who attacked the Cole. This claim is bullshit, as the released documents show in this article. Was the fate of the 9/11 victims assured because of this terrorist success? You have to wonder.

Here’s some really cool tree houses for adults who never grew up

Children’s play and children‘s joy in tree houses are eternal.

So eternal, that some adults build them in honor of their childhood.

Some of them are restaurants and hotels with magnificent views and the twittering of birds instead of alarm clocks. Some are comfortable homes for the holidays and some are primary homes.

 GO HERE TO SEE MORE EXAMPLES

Woman in labor robs Walmart, police in Ohio say

Some moms-to-be like to stay active right up until delivery

“Police in Alliance, Ohio, say a woman in labor robbed a Walmart with an accomplice, NewsNet5.com reported.

Katurah Petty and Staniel Petty were arrested Thursday and charged with theft and forgery.Police say the women stole $271 worth of computer software. The two women used computer-generated serial number adhesive labels to steal the merchandise, Fox19.com reported.Katurah Petty was in labor during the theft, and police transported her to the hospital after the arrest, according to Fox19.com. No information was available on the condition of mother or child.”

Photo source

Some returning veterans get pink slips instead of their jobs back

Prolonged wars, poor economy create tough situation for returning soldiers

“Last year Mike Vahey returned from a four-year enlistment, including duty in Iraq and Kuwait, where he was a sergeant on an Army diving team inspecting ports for bombs. When he returned home he expected his job as an engineer at a General Motors plant in Newport, Del., would be waiting for him.

“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that my job would be there when I got back,” said Vahey, 40, who had worked for GM since 1997, most recently as a quality launch engineer. “I didn’t give much thought to it. I felt I was protected and had nothing to worry about.”

Unfortunately, instead of getting tickertape for serving his country Vahey got a pink slip. Soon after he got back, the plant where he worked was shuttered, leaving Vahey and hundreds of other civilian autoworkers jobless.” Read the rest here.

PHOTO: Soon after returning from service, a GM plant closure left Mike Vahey jobless.

Too much screen time can psychologically harm kids

Negative effects occurs no matter how active children were during the rest of the day, study finds

“More than two hours a day spent watching television or playing computer games could put a child at greater risk for psychological problems suggests a new study. British researchers found the effect held regardless of how active kids were during the rest of the day.

"We know that physical activity is good for both physical and mental health in children and there is some evidence that screen viewing is associated with negative behaviors," lead researcher Dr. Angie Page of the University of Bristol told Reuters Health in an e-mail. "But it wasn't clear whether having high physical activity levels would 'compensate' for high levels of screen viewing in children."

As It Stands: 10-10-10: What are you doing today?

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 10/10/2010 01:24:54 AM PDT

There are three possible outcomes for today's unique date, 10-10-10. Something good will happen, nothing special will happen or something bad will happen.

There's something special about dates: George Orwell's “1984”; the cannabis culture's call to action -- 420 -- and Proposition 19; the Y2K Bug in 2000; and the world coming to an end in 2012 are examples that seem to spark the imagination.

We respond to the date 9-11 with anger and sadness. We call 911 when we're in trouble and 10-4 is a common police, ham radio, and military term for “I hear you” or “yes.” Cats are reputed to have nine lives.

One national thing happening today is an environmental event titled “Global Climate Awareness Day.” The organizers ask the public to “Please leave your cars at home (can you imagine everyone walking to work on the freeways?) and consider your impact on the environment.”

An environmental group, www.350.org (named for the targeted number of CO2 particles per million in the earth atmosphere), is sponsoring a Global Work Party Day today. It's an Earth Day of sorts for companies and organizations -- a time-out for employees to work together on a green solution for their company or to go out into their community and participate in one of the thousands of events listed on the group's website.

I think it's a good idea to be as environmentally conscious as possible without joining groups. If we recycle and pay attention to other small things in our everyday life, we can make a difference. I'm all for getting rid of the “throw-away mentality.” Fix things instead of buying new ones.

Moving on, here's another interesting thing about today: Both a yin and Yang situation are incorporated into this date. For example, 10-10-10 (base two binary) equals 42 (base 10). Oddly enough, this is evenly divisible by the number of days in the week (the lucky number 7); and equally as odd, it's also divisible by the number 6, thought to be an unlucky number.

 In addition, the binary attribute of 101010 lends itself to use by the sciences of fractals (recursive geometric shapes) and chaos theory (the butterfly effect). When you think about it, this day sums up to be interesting.

The number 10 is considered special for many other reasons, but think how often we hear it nearly every day. For example, how about those ubiquitous Top 10 Lists? You know the ones I mean.

We have the Top 10 Musical Hits for the Year; Top 10 Jokes of the Year; Top 10 Dumb Things to Do; Top 10 Serial Killers; Top 10 Cake Designs; Top 10 Amusement Parks; and countless other Top 10 lists of activities involving animals, people and travel locations.

The only exception to the number 10 as something positive occurred when I was in Vietnam. The locals told us GIs our trading offer was “Numba 10” when they thought it was a bad offer. If they didn't like you, they'd say you were “Numba 10.” For whatever reasons, the Vietnamese thought the number 10 sucked.

Just because we have an unusual date doesn't mean something will happen. However, if something really fantastic happens today, we won't have any trouble recalling it years from now.

”Remember 10-10-10 when the Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on a law that actually meant good news for the average American?” Now, that would be something, don't you think?

I don't ask for miracles today. However, I allow my innate optimism to have its way and I won't be too surprised if something good does happen.

 I hope something good happens for you today, making it a day to remember. I heard somewhere a lot of weddings are planned for today.

I want to give a shout-out to my good friend, author/ editor Margaret Searles of McKinleyville, whose birthday is today!

As It Stands, more than likely, for me, it will be just another day in paradise -- Humboldt County.

UPDATE: web sites carrying this column:

Yahoo Answers

Action News Now (Oct.10)