When I was a teenager we use to kid about contemplating our navels to reach enlightenment.
It was back in the 60s and there were gurus and yogis everywhere.
Recently, scientists from the Belly Button Biodiversity project went navel-gazing and discovered 662 new species of bacteria.
Yuckkkk…read all about it here.
While it is often joked that cats have nine lives, a certain species of jellyfish has been deemed “immortal” by scientists who have observed its ability to, when in crisis, revert its cells to their earliest form and grow anew.
That means that these tiny creatures, 4 mm to 5 mm long, potentially have infinite lives.
The creature, known scientifically as Turritopsis nutricula, was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea in 1883, but its unique regeneration was not known until the mid-1990s.
Muscle cells can become sperm or eggs, or nerve cells can change into muscle cells, “revealing a transformation potential unparalleled in the animal kingdom,” according to the original study of the species published in 1996.
Given the sheer number of people on Facebook — and given the vast number of parents who have no problem saddling a child with a name that will require an explanation for its entire lifetime — it was inevitable that someone out there would be so inspired by Facebook that they would name their kid after the site's "Like" button.
"We named her Like because it's modern and innovative," said the little girl's father. "I checked that the name does not exist anywhere elsewhere in the country, that was the main condition for me." The new pop says his baby girl's name is going over well, at least with his Facebook pals: "When I posted her picture and name on Facebook I got 40 'likes,'... Considering that I have only a little more than 100 friends on the network that's a lot."
A man wearing Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms and an accomplice robbed a Family Dollar Store in north Harris County, officials said Wednesday.
Investigators said the first robber was a black male in his late teens to early 20s, 5 feet 5 to 5 feet 7 inches tall, 200 to 220 pounds, with short Afro hair and a light complexion. He wore a light blue McDonald's work shirt with yellow Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms.
This burglar couldn't wait to get his hands on the merchandise.Police said they caught a man inside a sex shop in Woodbridge in Virginia's Prince William County, Inside Nova reported. It happened early Tuesday morning at the MVC Late Night adult store along Jefferson Davis Highway. Police found Justin Dale Little Jim, 28, in the closet with a blow-up doll, prosecutors said. According to Inside Nova, law enforcement said Jim was caught "attempting sexual relations" with the plastic doll. He’s now charged with burglary, grand larceny and felony destruction of property, police said.
A tax collector who pleaded guilty to raiding town coffers of nearly $800,000 and using some of the money to pay a dominatrix is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Leo Hernandez said Bartolozzi, a Secaucus city employee for the past 25 years, stole about $750,000 in tax funds between February 2008 to May 2009. He also stole about $25,000 from the local municipal union, according to prosecutors.
Bartolozzi made 19 wire transfers to a dominatrix, named "Tara Juliana," at addresses in five different states and internationally, prosecutors said. The dominatrix's website at one time included a picture of Bartolozzi, the dominatrix and others, the Journal reported.
Woman wearing purse on head tries to rob store
A woman wearing a purse on her head who claimed she was armed with a gun attempted to rob the Grill & Grocery store on Highway 700 in Ruffin on Saturday, Rockingham County deputies said.Deputies said the clerk asked the woman to show her gun, but the woman refused. She did have a bulge under her shirt, deputies said. Deputies said the woman left after being given no money and drove away in a red car that according to a witness was parked in a nearby driveway.No video of the incident was captured because the store's video surveillance system wasn't working properly, deputies said. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Crimestoppers at 336-349-9683. Editor’s Note: the photo is not of the woman who robbed the store in the story. Just a way of helping you envision what she might have looked like.
That’s all for now junior crime stoppers. It’s time for me to head on down the road…
Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion.
Posted on July 6, 2011 by Rania Khalek
“Just after midnight on May 16, 2010, a SWAT team threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of a 25-year-old man while his 7-year-old daughter slept on the couch as her grandmother watched television. The grenade landed so close to the child that it burned her blanket. The SWAT team leader then burst into the house and fired a single shot which struck the child in the throat, killing her. The police were there to apprehend a man suspected of murdering a teenage boy days earlier. The man they were after lived in the unit above the girl’s family.
The shooting death of Aiyana Mo’Nay Stanley-Jones sounds like it happened in a war zone. But the tragic SWAT team raid took place in Detroit.
Clearly, the mission of the police officer is incompatible with that of a soldier, so why is it that local police departments are looking more and more like paramilitary units in a combat zone? The line between military and civilian law enforcement has been drawn for good reason, but following the drug war and more recently, the war on terror, that line is inconspicuously eroding, a trend that appears to be worsening by the decade.”
Good Morning Humboldt County!
Pull up a chair, or a stool, and have a cup of coffee or tea with me. This morning already shows the promise of another beautiful day. Let’s get started shall we?
Too shy to go? Bathroom stage fright a real condition
Given the choice, you probably prefer your home porcelain throne to using a public toilet. But for more than 20 million people in North America, peeing in a public restroom is no simple matter.
People with a "shy bladder," a real condition also known as paruresis, are fearful of urinating when other people are nearby.
"What people worry about is being in a bathroom near other people and not being able to urinate, and that others will notice and form judgments about them -- that they're weird, defective, inferior, or for men, not masculine," says Carl Robbins, director of training for the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland in Baltimore, who has worked with paruresis patients for more than 20 years.
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Store bans drunken customers from buying puppies
A New York City pet store that's surrounded by bars has banned drunken puppy-buying.
Workers at Le Petite Puppy in Greenwich Village say customers tend to stumble in after happy hour and purchase a dog without thinking.
Drunken customers now are forbidden to even hold the puppies, because they can drop them.
Store owner Dana Rich tells WINS-AM that she instructs people who have clearly been drinking to come back the next day.
Employees say they stress how much work it is to own a dog. They say they would rather lose a sale than send a puppy into an unsafe home.
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Someone has to turn on the lights in life. Someone has to do the jobs we take for granted. But you’d think Tyrone Curry would kiss his trash sack goodbye.
Five years ago, the Evergreen High School custodian won the Washington State Lottery’s Quinto game. “I was dumping garbage,” he says. “Just like today. This is where I was when I found out I won the jackpot and took off running."
You see, Tyrone isn’t just the Evergreen High School custodian; he also coaches the track team. And that’s where he decided to splurge with his lottery winnings.
“I’m getting excited!” he says, watching runners circling toward him on the school’s old cinder track. This summer he’s building them a new one. State-of-the-art. Cost him 40,000 bucks.
His track team captain, DeVante Botello, is having a tough time. The 18-year-old's mother died of a heart attack, just before his graduation.
“We were really close," DeVante says. “Her death left a void at home. I slept in the living room after her heart attack and woke up waiting to go help her.”
But she was gone. “My family is in shambles. I’m kind of floundering. I don’t know what to do.”
‘A real hero’
The honor student was just dragging his pen across paper, until his track coach showed him how to play the game of life. “He taught me perseverance,” DeVante says. “How to hold on and deal with the cards you're dealt. ‘Power through,’ ” Coach said. “ ‘Life is hard.’ ”
DeVante's eyes glisten. “Coach has this soft chuckle and then a nod. That power nod gets me every time. He just wanted to let me know that he was there for me.” He swallows hard. “Coach said I didn't have to feel alone.”
When life throws curves, people often dwell on the terrible things that happen. They isolate themselves in grief. Tyrone asked DeVante to notice those who were willing to put their hands on his shoulders and help him get through the ordeal. The boy’s father was not around. Tyrone offered to pay for college.
“When I was coming up, I just had my mom,” Tyrone says with a shrug. “So I'm here for him.”
“Coach is probably the most amazing man I'm ever gonna meet,” DeVante says. “He's my hero — a real hero.” One who hasn't gone to the moon or scored a touchdown, doesn't have a reality show, hasn't written a book. “Why do you need to write a book when you just live the way he does and reaches out and affects so many lives?” DeVante asks.
DeVante's plans now include college. “Whatever I do with my life is gonna be in honor of Tyrone. He is always gonna live on through my actions. I wish I was as good as him. I work for it. I work for it every day. Tyrone Curry, track coach, janitor. I’m never going to forget him.” The millionaire who cares more for other people's dreams than he does his own — the luckiest man alive.
Time for me to head on down the road…
I know that I’m not privy to everything the jurors were told to do in this case, and what they were allowed to consider, and what they were told to throw out because of technicalities…but someone killed that little girl. The duct tape evidence presented during the trial proved that. Just not who put it around her nose and mouth. That was left for speculation.
Someone got away with murder today. Was it Casey? Or, was it her father and mother? Or, a combination of the three? The mother was caught lying about using the home computer to search for chloroform. The state proved she was at work on her computer at the time those searches were made. So they know she lied to cover something up. Is the mother going to be tried for lying to the police like her daughter is? And how about dad? How many lies did he tell?
I can’t wait to see how many years (?) Casey Anthony is sentenced to. I have a sick feeling she’s not going to do one more day behind bars because she’ll be credited for time served awaiting the trail. By the weekend, I expect to hear all about Casey’s celebratory tour of local bars and strip clubs.
There was no justice today for little Caylee Anthony. It reminds me of another sensational trial back in the day – O.J.s Simpson’s – where justice was mocked and subverted by clever lawyers employing every trick in the book to save his life. Yes, some karma has hit O.J. and he’s in jail right now for a lesser offense, but it doesn’t change the fact he got away with murder.
As for Casey Anthony and her parents…the way I look at it is they have to live with their shared dark knowledge until the day they die. They know why the duct tape was put there. They know she didn’t accidently drown. So, perhaps justice has been served, just in a more oblique way.
UPDATE: Internet explodes over Anthony verdict
I’ve been reviewing the case since the “not guilty” verdict was handed down this morning. Some more thoughts; it was the State who failed little Caylee Anthony.
Why? Because they reached too far. They went for Murder One and the death penalty rather than take the safer conviction route of manslaughter which would have been easier to prove in a circumstantial case like this. The real pity resulting from this miscalculation is that Casey Anthony can’t be retried – it’s called “double jeopardy,” and prevents the accused from ever being tried for the same crime again.
If you’re outraged that Casey got off because of the State’s stupidity, I agree with you. If this case would have been handled more professionally (by all concerned) from the very beginning we might not even be having this conversation. The jury would have convicted her.
I can’t go so far as to say our system worked perfectly in this trial. Too many troubling aspects and wild stories later proven to be false that the defense threw out against the wall and hoped would stick. True or not. The judge and the jury knew this dysfunctional family all lied to authorities at one time or the other. Their guilt came out in the course of 33 days of multiple testimonies.
Yet, knowing the family was obviously obstructing justice (they were recorded lying) the jury still took their side. Casey’s side. What happened to common sense? When someone lies in a murder trial they’re doing it for a reason. Why did Casey run the police around in the first place? She was hiding something. Not an accidental drowning because there’s not one iota of evidence to that possibility.
The duct tape evidence was a smoking gun – you don’t tape up someone’s nose and mouth and expect them to live and you sure don’t duct tape up a dead body – so why was it there? The defense never provided a believable reason why the duct tape was wrapped around that poor child’s skull…instead they said she drown accidently.
Forget about that duct tape. The problem is I can’t forget about the duct tape. Someone put it there for a reason. No matter what it was, it was wrong. I have a four-year-old granddaughter and perhaps that’s why I’ve been following this damn case…hoping little Caylee’s murderer is brought to justice so I can believe our system works.
The idea that Casey Anthony is now going to forever be a celebrity – and probably will make a lot of money because of this terrible case sickens me. I think about her “happy tattoo” that she had done while Casey was missing and my common sense tells me she could care less about that baby. How could any mother react like she has? And how can Casey Anthony get away with murder? I blame the state in this case, but I also have to question our justice system. Who is it really slanted for? The victim? Or the murderer? You tell me.
Finally, who believes justice was done? I certainly don’t.
Jump start your morning with a cup of coffee or tea, and we’ll see what we see:
Peak-a-boo!I see you in that bag!
A teenager tried to smuggle out her common-law husband serving a 20-year sentence for illegal weapons possession from a Mexican prison.
Iowa teen survives being run over by train
A 17-year-old boy suffered only cuts and bruises after being run over by a train in northwestern Iowa.
The teen, identified as Christian Latshaw by the Des Moines Register, told police he had been drinking at a music festival when he blacked out Sunday night.
For a decade, the people of Libby have longed for the day when they will be rid of the asbestos that turned their town into the deadliest Superfund site in America.
Now they are being forced to live through the agony all over again, thanks to two giant piles of bark and wood chips on the edge of town.
Thanks for stopping by. Time for me to head on down the road…
Happy Fourth of July... if you're a Republican.
That's one takeaway from a recent Harvard study by political scientist David Yanagizawa-Drott and economist Andreas Madestam. They found that attending Fourth of July parades makes you more likely to identify as a Republican, vote Republican, vote period, and give money to political causes. Conservatives are jumping on the study as Ivy League–certified proof that Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats — or that liberal eggheads are plotting to do away with our national birthday. What does the study really say? Here, a brief guide:
What does July 4 have to do with the GOP?
The researchers concluded that "the political Right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century," and that nowadays, "there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican Party." And since Republicans tend to be more invested in the celebrations, GOP-dominated areas have "more politically biased" parades that "socialize children into Republicans."
How much does July 4 boost the GOP?
Significantly. Children who attend at least one rain-free Fourth of July parade before age 18 are at least 2 percent more likely to identify as Republican in adulthood, 4 percent more likely to vote Republican by age 40, about 1 percent more likely to vote at all, and 3 percent more generous with campaign contributions. Yanagizawa-Drott says he and Madestam were surprised that childhood experiences with July 4 celebrations appeared to have "a permanent impact on political beliefs and behavior."
How did they come up with those numbers?
By studying the weather, and taking the expression "rain on your parade" literally. Since rain either cancels a Fourth of July parade or slashes attendance, the researchers looked at historical weather data, using the randomness of rain to correct for other influences on children who attend the parades, like family and education. Then they compared this data to political beliefs and actions later in life.
Is this study believable?
Of course, Republicans are "more patriotic that Democrats, says John Hinderaker at PowerLine. But Fourth of July parades turning your kids into Republicans seems "far-fetched." It makes sense to me, says Doug Powers at The Powers That Be. What's more Republican than our "American flag waving, tradition embracing, God fearing, gun firing, bomb exploding, US military appreciating celebrations of the founding of the United States of America." No, I call "bullsh*t" on this "ridiculous" study, says Janet Shan at The Hinterland Gazette. Seriously, "I would love to know who paid to fund" it, and what better use they could have put their money to.
Sources: Harvard, Hinterland Gazette, Huffington Post, New York Post, Power Line, Powers That Be, US News
View this article on TheWeek.com
I finally hit the wall today. I can't think of what to say about all of the madness going on in this country right now. I'm a writer...
