Morning meanderings and joy that there’s no rain today!

Here we are… it’s Wednesday and it’s NOT RAINING! First order of business is the following interesting email:

Mr. Stancliff,
I hope this finds you well, thank you for your time.
I read your piece “AS IT STANDS: Collecting war trophies...” with interest and was curious where the photograph of the soldiers in Vietnam originated? Do you know? I’m assuming this is something you found on the internet, but I can’t discover the source.
Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks,

Patrick Witty
International Picture Editor
TIME

My reply to Mr. Witty was basically, “I know who took it – but the person doesn’t want his name associated with it.” That person is in the photograph (center) but he doesn’t exactly go around showing it off. I have to admit it’s kinda odd (to me) that he’s kept it (and other one) all these years. He said he keeps them to remind himself of what an animal he once was. We all (combat Vietnam veterans) have different ways of coping. Update:

Dave, I really appreciate you writing me back. Should we decide to publish the image on time.com, I will certainly not mention the source. I just wanted to certify it’s authenticity with someone who would know. Again, thank you very much.
Patrick

   

                                                 Magazine Covers from Time’s Archives

I read about an interesting Supreme Court ruling this morning - Court: Eagle feathers only for American Indians -  which upheld Native American’s rights to have eagle feathers (they’re part of religious ceremonies). Non-Indians filed a discrimination claim, but lost their case.

For the second time in less than a week of an air traffic supervisor working as a controller being suspended we have this: FAA suspends second air traffic controller in one week I already have this phobia of flying, and hearing this kind of stuff just reaffirms my fears.

I’m always on the lookout for odd news stories and found this one this morning: Police: Pa. trucker saved from choking by crash It’s a case of a bad thing happening that suddenly turns out to be a good thing! How about that?

I read a good Op-Ed piece in the Times-Standard this morning, and will go so far as to say I agree with the writer, Cedar Reuben. There’s Not much to celebrate in log export from Humboldt County. It was a well-written piece and made a strong argument for not shipping off our raw materials (wood).

Looking forward to going for a walk on the beach this afternoon with my honey Shirley. I’ll take my regular walk with Millie (our Pug) first, and then we’ll go. I’m reasonably confident that it won’t rain today (gee… I hope those aren’t famous last words!) You have a great day. Live it like it’s your last!

Researchers find a new way to fight fire using a magic wand!

Gotta love the new technology that incorporates the stuff of legends – a magic wand that snuffs fires. My boyhood hero, Buck Rogers, didn’t even have that in his arsenal of scientific stuff. Pretty cool, I’d say: 

“Researchers say they've found a new way to snuff out flames using an electric field-generating wand — and the seemingly magical technique just might be put to use in future fire rescues.

The technology sounds a bit like the fictional flame-freezing charm or the Aguamenti spell mentioned in J.K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter books, and the fact that it's done with a wand-like electrode makes the story even better.”

Story Here

Bomb threat closes buildings at Humboldt State University

From the Times-Standard/Posted: 03/28/2011 12:29:51 PM PDT

A suspected bomb threat prompted Humboldt State University to evacuate both Founders Hall and Van Matre Hall around 11 a.m. today.

HSU spokesman Jarad Petroske said that University Police Department personnel was on scene to investigate the bomb threat, and that classes in both buildings have been canceled through 2 p.m. Petroske could not provide any additional information as of 12:15 p.m., except that the buildings remained closed and all available UPD officers were on scene.

I’ll post updates as I hear them. GOOD NEWS – There was no bomb. Just a note in a hallway warning of one.

Sidebar story: March 23, 2011 - “Humboldt State University text message alert system has record sign-up” at least one commentator on the T-S noted the bomb threat is on the Emergency Broadcasting System. I don’t think this is the same system. I do wonder how this text message alert system worked however. Can anyone ring in on this?

Filthy London show digs up the dirt at new exhibition

“Filth, fecal matter and grime in all its forms are the subject of a new exhibition in London. "Dirt: the Filthy Reality of Everyday Life" features around 200 exhibits ranging from vials of urine to air samples and a floor pattern made from dust found in homes, all of which are used to examine humanity's ambivalent relationship with dirt through the ages.

"Dirt is everywhere and periodically we get very worried about it. But we have also discovered that we need bits of it and, guiltily, secretly, we are sometimes drawn to it," said Ken Arnold, Director of Public Program at the Wellcome Collection, where the exhibition is being held. The exhibition takes anthropologist Mary Douglas' view that dirt is "matter out of place" as a cue to investigate human attitudes toward cleanliness.”  Story Here.

Chamber Pot plays roll in exhibition – photo source

‘She hexed me!’ Whistle-blowing witch grounded by TSA

It sounds like Wicca believers need a good PR person. They don’t cast spells like traditional witches – or so they claim. The problem seems to be when they started calling themselves witches people associated them with Satanic stereotypes.

“Wiccan is fired after complaint about casting spells — and after she complained about lax security at the airport

“Here's a situation for all you aspiring managers: If you were the boss at a U.S. government agency and one of your employees complained that she was afraid of a co-worker's religious practices, what would you do?

Would it change your decision if the religion were Wicca, and the employee feared her co-worker because she thought she might cast a spell on her?

Here's how the Transportation Security Administration handled it:

It fired the witch.”   Story Here.

As It Stands: Gaming the system -- frivolous lawsuits flourish in our courts

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 03/27/2011 02:40:32 AM PDT
I'm always amused, and sometimes disgusted, to read about frivolous lawsuits that regularly pop up like jack-in-the-boxes in the news. The most recent that caught my eye was a mom who sued a preschool for not prepping her 4-year-old for Ivy League colleges.
No, I'm not kidding. The New York Daily News recently reported it. The plaintiff is Nicole Imprescia of Manhattan, who filed suit against New York Avenue Preschool for a refund of the $19,000-a-year tuition she had paid. Why? Are you sitting down for this?
Imprescia claims the school jeopardized her 4-year-old daughter Lucia's chances of getting into an elite private school by not preparing her for the admissions exam one has to take to get in. And here's the clincher: She claims the preschool ruined her daughter's chances of being a future Ivy Leaguer.

No joke. She contends her “very smart” daughter was put in a class with kids half her age and that the focus of the class was on shapes and colors. I wonder. The school's website indicates students do more than just learn shapes and colors.
One of the many things they learn is the alphabet. There's much more, of course. The preschool had never been sued before in its 20 years of existence.
Imprescia says it's more “one big playroom” than a preschool. Oh, my. How terrible is that? We're talking about 2- to 4-year-olds. If all they learned was shapes and colors, she might have a point. Maybe. That doesn't appear to be the case, based upon available information.
That's still not the final kicker to this story. Imprescia took her daughter out of school after a mere month, according to her lawyer, Mathew Paulose.
Her daughter might have had a chance to learn the letter “C” before she pulled the plug on the preschool. In all fairness, this was her daughter's second year there, and it seems she wasn't excelling. Whose fault was that? Apparently not the daughter's, according to Mom.
She's filed a lawsuit because she thinks her 4-year-old won't get into Harvard. Is this the American way of handling things? Sue the school rather than face up to her own responsibilities as a parent?

I understand that “lawyering” is a competitive profession, but I think many lawyers have been reduced to carnival barkers. They jump though frivolous lawsuits for money like trained sea lions jump through flaming hoops. As for you legitimate lawyers, you can exhale now, secure in the knowledge that you're doing the right thing. I'm not talking about you. OK?

Arguably the most notorious of frivolous lawsuits was Pearson v. Chung. This was the case of Roy Pearson, a judge in Washington, D.C., who sued a dry cleaning business for $67 million (later lowered to $54 million). According to Pearson, the dry cleaners lost his pants (which he brought in for a $10.50 alteration) and refused his demands for a large refund.
Pearson believed a “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign in the window of the shop legally entitled him to a refund for the cost of the pants, estimated at $1,000. The $54 million total included $2 million in “mental distress” and $15,000 which he estimated to be the cost of renting a car every weekend to go to another dry cleaner.
As It Stands, Nicole Imprescia's beef with the preschool may seem pale in comparison to Pearson v. Chung, but it's another example of people gaming a system that probably needs an overhaul.

'Tricycle' can get up to 18.6 miles an hour — as you stare straight at the road

 If you’re a bicycle  enthusiast, this model ought to get your attention.

I was thinking of McKinleyville Press Publisher, Jack Durham, when I posted this. Jack rides bikes whenever he can and even has a collection of them. What do you think about this one Jack?

It's like something straight out of the mind of Tim "The Toolman" Taylor ... but German.

Dreamed up by four German design students and built like a cross between a Tron Light Cycle and our childhood tricycle, it accelerates to 18.6 miles per hour, powered by nothing but a pair of Bosch 18-volt screwdrivers. Story Here

Buy a truck, get a free Ak-47 – get cable TV and a shotgun for free!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dealer offers free AK-47 for truck buyers

I can remember the days when gas stations passed out free plates, cups, and other household items to entice customers.

Welcome to the 21st century where free weapons are handed out to get your business. It’s a damning statement about the society we live in today.

Dealer offers free AK-47 for truck buyers

SANFORD, Fla. — “A Florida car dealership trying to drum up business is offering an unusual perk for potential used-truck buyers: A free AK-47 assault rifle.

General sales manager Nick Ginetta says that since the promotion was announced on Veterans Day, business has more than doubled at Nations Trucks in Sanford.”  Story here.

Buy a cable dish, get a free gun

“A Radio Shack in Montana is offering would-be satellite television customers a bit more bang for their buck.

The Ravalli Republic reports customers who sign up for some Dish Network packages at Radio Shack in Hamilton will be rewarded with a pistol or shotgun. Those not interested in the gun offer can pick a $50 Pizza Hut gift card.” Story here

True Americana: offbeat roadside attractions wow visitors

They're weird, they're the world's largest, and they're off the next exit.

How can you pass them up? Whether oddities from a time gone by or just a way get tourist dollars for a tiny town, you'll want a snapshot with these roadside attractions.

Skip ahead to read about:

Creepy dolls in Kentucky -- Cadillac Ranch --

Hunting Bigfoot in Virginia --

The Corn Palace --  World's Largest Pistachio Nut

Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum -–The Big Blue Bug

And more here

Congress Making Themselves and Friends Richer, While Everyone Else Struggles to Make Ends Meet

It’s my honor every Sunday, to share space in the Times-Standard Opinion section with Jim Hightower.

I haven’t seen this column in the T-S, so I’d like to share it with you:

The great majority of Americans make about $30K a year. Incoming lawmakers, however? Extensive personal investments in Wall St. banks, oil giants and drug makers.

“Change is not the same thing as progress. In fact, change can be the exact opposite. It can be regressive, as we're now learning from -- where else? -- Congress.

A flock of tea party-infused Republicans has certainly changed the political dynamic there, and exultant GOP leaders are claiming that they are now the voice of "The People." But most people won't find themselves represented by this change, much less see it as progress.

That's because the newcomers in Congress, whether Republican or Democrat, tend to live high up the economic ladder, way out of touch with the people they're representing. Indeed, 40 percent of newly elected house members are millionaires, as are 60 percent of new senators.

Their wealth and financial ties might help explain the rush by the new Republican House majority to coddle these very same corporate powers. From gutting EPA's anti-pollution restrictions on Big Oil to undoing the restraints on Wall Street greed, they're pushing for a return to the same laissez-fairyland ideology of the past 20 years that got our country in massive messes.

At the same time, they're out to kill a green-jobs program, bust unions, cut Social Security, defund Head Start and generally stomp on the fingers of working families trying to hold onto the middle class rungs of the economic ladder.

The change in Congress is taking America backward, not forward, for the new majority literally is the voice of millionaires. That's not progress.

So we see corporations and billionaires wallowing in fabulous new wealth, while productive workers fall out of the middle class. And our new congress-members are just fine with that, even pushing a program of more tax breaks and subsidies for the corporate elite, while vehemently opposing efforts to create jobs and advance the middle class. Making the richest people richer is not a recovery -- it's a robbery.”

Condensed column – see Full Article Here.

- Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the new book, "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow." (Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly "Hightower Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer

Crime gangs among first to deliver Japan earthquake aid

There’s a lot of reasons that I admire the Japanese. It’s inspirational watching the people stay orderly and not panic, despite the most devastating events that have hit their country since they were nuked in WWII.

What really blows my mind is how even the criminals in Japan pitch in and help when natural disasters happen.

“Tons of relief goods have been delivered to victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami from a dark corner of society: the "yakuza" organized crime networks.

Yakuza groups have been sending trucks from the Tokyo and Kobe regions to deliver food, water, blankets and toiletries to evacuation centers in northeast Japan, the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which have left at least 27,000 dead and missing.”

Unlike here in America, where disasters like Katrina bring out the looters, the Yakuza have standards of conduct.

“Disasters bring out another side of yakuza, who move swiftly and quietly to provide aid to those most in need. The gangs' charity is rooted in their "ninkyo" code,which values justice and duty and forbids allowing others to suffer. In times such as earthquakes, they put their money where their mouths are.”

 Full Story