Saturday, January 15, 2011

60 days of nothing but spuds leaves advocate 21 lbs. lighter

I think that if I went on a diet like this I would soon be seeing eyes (right) in everything I ate. I’m a meat and potatoes guy, but this is just going too far. Gotta love what some people will do to keep their jobs however:

‘No toppings, no sour cream, no butter’: The rigors of the all-potato diet

“As the head of the Washington State Potato Commission, it’s the job of Chris Voigt to promote the spud as a nutritious, cost-effective, easy-to-grow vegetable that should be part of a well-balanced diet.

To hammer home his message, Voigt ate nothing but potatoes between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1. He had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner — about 20 potatoes per day prepared in a variety of ways.”

Canadian radio stations told to censor Dire Straits

Former "Dire Straits" lead singer Mark Knopfler performs during a concert in Bombay March 5, 2005. K..

The slippery slope of rewriting history is not good for anyone. One American scholar recently wanted to rewrite Huckleberry Finn because it used the “N” word. This latest attempt at historical censorship in Canada really surprises me.

Why is it that people feel they have to rewrite history to make it acceptable by today’s standards?

Excerpt:

“Canadian radio station have been warned to censor the 1985 Dire Straits hit "Money for Nothing," after a complaint that the lyrics of the Grammy Award-winning song were derogatory to gay men.

A St. John's, Newfoundland, station should have edited the song to remove the word "faggot" because it violates Canada's human rights standards, according to ruling this week by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.”

Friday, January 14, 2011

Forget about man biting dog for a story – try Fox shoots man!

A wild fox cub lies outside its burrow near the village of Khatenchitsy north of Minsk

I remember the old journalism saying; “It’s not a story when a dog bites a man. It is a story however, if the man bites the dog.”

“MOSCOW (Reuters) – A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter's gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said Thursday.

The unnamed hunter, who had approached the fox after wounding it from a distance, was in hospital with a leg wound, while the fox made its escape, media said, citing prosecutors from the Grodno region.

"The animal fiercely resisted and in the struggle accidentally pulled the trigger with its paw," one prosecutor was quoted as saying.

Fox-hunting is popular in the picturesque farming region of northwestern Belarus which borders Poland.”

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Matthew Jones)

I was a Scropio & now I’m a Libra because experts say that a wobbly earth means our horoscopes are wrong!

Stars shifted over 2,000 years so horoscope signs are nearly a month off

If you look to your horoscope for a preview of your day, look again: You're probably following somebody else's supposed fate.Thanks to Earth's wobble, astrological signs are, well, bunk. (Or even more bunk than you might expect.) Astrological signs are determined by the position of the sun relative to certain constellations on a person's day of birth. The problem is, the positions were determined more than 2,000 years ago. Nowadays, the stars have shifted in the night sky so much that horoscope signs are nearly a month off. [Read: Why Your Horoscope for 2011 Is All Wrong ]

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Billionaire Koch Brothers Fulfill Father's Campaign to Segregate Public Schools, End Successful Integration Program in NC

Just in case there’s any doubt that racism is still rampant in America check out this story…

In their quest to end the diversity policy, the frustrated parents have found some influential partners, among them retail magnate and Republican operative Art Pope. Following his guidance, the GOP fielded the victorious bloc of school board candidates who railed against “forced busing.” The nation’s largest tea party organizers, Americans for Prosperity – on whose national board Pope sits – cast the old school board members as arrogant “leftists.” Two libertarian think tanks, which Pope funds almost exclusively, have deployed experts on TV and radio.”

The Tea party group founded and funded by the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, led the way in destroying what was a model integration system in Wake County. 

“Today in the Washington Post, reporter Stephanie McCrummen detailed how a right-wing campaign in the Wake County area of North Carolina has taken over the school board with a pledge to end a very successful socio-economic integration plan. The integration plan, which created thriving schools in poor African-American parts of the school district along with achieving diversity in schools located in wealthy white enclaves, was a model for the nation. However, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Tea Party group founded and funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, worked with local right-wing financier (and AFP board member) Art Pope to fundamentally change Wake County’s school board.”

Proof that the Koch family bigotry infects each new generation:

“… the Koch brothers are simply fulfilling their father’s legacy. In 1958, Fred Koch — the founder of Koch Industries — joined a group of manufacturing executives and Robert Welch to found the John Birch Society, a virulent far-right group that dominated the civil rights debate.”

 

Absolutely Amazing Photography by Edgar Moskopp

 

GO HERE TO SEE MORE

‘Spirit of Adventure: British cruise ship dodges pirates in Indian Ocean

Spirit of Adventure approached by speedboat; passengers, crew are safe

“A British cruise ship avoided potential attack in the Indian Ocean yesterday when it was approached by a speedboat manned by what is thought to have been Somali pirates. The 9,570-ton, 348-passenger Spirit of Adventure, a sister line of Saga Cruises, was en route from Madagascar to Zanzibar when a suspect vessel came suspiciously close during dinner, having followed the ship at a distance for some time beforehand. A spokesman for Spirit of Adventure told Cruise Critic: "As a pure precaution, passengers were moved to the lounge and full security measures were put into place."

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Abandoned buildings in America that are good for urban exploration

Abandoned Military Island Buildings

Abandoned Man-Made Military Island

Baltimore, Maryland has a number of interesting abandonments, but none so sizable and prominent as Fort Carroll (right). Over a century old, this for was constructed in the middle of the 19th century though it never saw war. In WWII it was briefly used as a firing range for the Army and a checkpoint for ships, but has been abandoned ever since. Developers have failed to find uses for it and it has since become a habitat for numerous animals and the site of occasional urban explorations.

Abandoned Luxury Hotel Building

Abandoned Historic Hotel Building

Mineral Wells, Texas is home to a grand old abandoned hotel with the first Olympic-size swimming pool in the United States. Opened nearly 80 years ago, the 14 story Baker Hotel (above left) had visits from celebrities including Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Roy Rogers, The Three Stooges, Bonny and Clyde, Helen Keller and even Ronald Reagan before closing its doors. As per a strange promise made to the public, the hotel’s founder Earl Baker closed the hotel on his 70th birthday. The hotel was auctioned and reopened under new ownership but in the late 1960s Baker had a fatal heart attack (strangely enough) in his own grand hotel’s Baker Suite. The hotel closed shortly thereafter for good, leaving behind only pictures of this wonder. GO HERE TO SEE MORE

Art Corner: Los Angeles muralist, 94, paints the seasons of her life

Neighbors encouraged Erma Winfield's at-home project, and even the police hovered overhead to monitor her artistic progress.

House paint on fiberglass

The mural outside Erma Winfield's Mid-City home has a Grandma Moses look to it. And not just because the artist who painted it is 94, either. Story here.

PHOTO - Mid-City Artist Erma Winfield is a self-taught artist who celebrates life with paintings based on photos and her memories. She spent eight months completing the mural at her home. “It turned out great,” a neighbor says. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / January 5, 2011)

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...