Japan tsunami broke huge chunks off an iceberg, halfway around the world

It's amazing that a tsunami could send a wave halfway around the world to tear off massive blocks of ice in Antarctica.

NASA says that the swells of water swarmed toward an ice shelf in Antarctica, 8,000 miles away. It took about 18 hours for the waves to reach Antarctica.

According to historical records, this particular piece of ice hadn't budged in at least 46 years before the tsunami came along. Photo - Chunks of ice - twice the surface area of Manhattan - break away from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf on March 16, 2011, following the Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011.                                                                         source

‘Haves’ show less empathy than ‘Have-nots’, bats on planes, and how music hijacked our brains

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Pull up a seat and have a cup of coffee, or tea, and check out what I have for you this morning. 

The rich are different — and not in a good way, studies suggest

“Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.

In fact, he says, the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest."

It's a bird ... no, it's a bat! On a plane!

Passengers on Atlanta-bound Delta flight 5121, operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, had to duck and cover when an unidentified creature started flying around the cabin about 15 minutes after take-off early Friday.

A video taken by a passenger and posted on CNN shows what looks to be a bat or a bird taking several passes over the heads of passengers.

How music hijacked our brains

If you think about, there's no escape, really. Music holds humanity in a vise grip. Every culture you can think of has it, hears it and taps their feet to it.

So how did music first take hold? A new analysis proposes that music hijacked our ancestors' ability to hear and interpret the movements of fellow human beings.

That claim is at the heart of “Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man,” a new book by neurobiologist Mark Changizi.

 

Time to walk on down the road…

A Pox on both political parties in 2012 – clean sweep would be sweet

Politicians in Washington D.C. better get their acts together quickly. The American public has had enough of their infantile ideological posturing while the economy spirals down the drain. 

Members of Congress who face re-election in 2012 should be getting nervous. Very nervous. Just 24 percent of people in a new USA Today/Gallup poll said that most Members of Congress deserved to be re-elected while 67 percent said they did not.

That’s right. Among registered voters, the numbers were even worse. Just 21 percent said Members of Congress deserved re-election while 70 — yes, 70 — percent said they didn’t! There’s going to be a price to pay for holding the public hostage. I can’t wait to see the final result.      image

Drought stories in America: Imagine fighting a fire without water?

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

This drought America is suffering from, is causing chaos for people, animals, crops, and now even firemen.

Record-setting temperatures have been almost Biblical in the Midwest and eastern United States while the heat wave persists across the southern Plains and coastal Southeast, according to national forecasters.

Severe thunderstorms are expected to drench much of the Midwest and eastern United States today.

Shout Out To Ernie Branscomb: You’re a fireman Ernie. Can you imagine not having water to fight a fire? Has it ever happened to you?

Reflection on Survival Skills: most people would be surprised at what they would do to stay alive in a bad situation

I’ve heard many interesting survival stories about people beating the odds. I’m actually fascinated with the subject, and from time to time, I like to share people’s stories.

Here’s a good one: A 28-year-old preschool teacher, Pamela Salant, who survived three cold nights in the wild, using moss for a blanket and making a meal out of bugs and slugs until searchers finally found her. She told NBC News, "I didn’t realize I had it in me … I definitely surprised myself.”

Oh! The rest of the story: She fell 50 feet off a cliff and fractured her left tibia, and her leg was split open. She also sustained back injuries as she scooted to a nearby river in hopes of being found quickly.

graphic

Jackie O says Johnson killed Kennedy, Be Bopping in a Bufalino, and Tesla’s ‘Black Magic’ touring car

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Come on in and have a cup of coffee, or tea, with me. I’ve got a few stories that you may find interesting today. Enjoy:

Jackie Onassis claims Lyndon B. Johnson killed Kennedy

Secret tapes of Jackie Onassis expressing who she felt was behind her husband’s assassination will soon be released.The former first lady believes Lyndon B. Johnson was the mastermind behind her husband’s murder, but he didn’t act alone. According to the former first lady he was part of a bigger conspiracy. She became convinced that Johnson and several businessmen planned the shooting with Lee Harvey Oswald.

It was the former first lady’s wish to have the tapes released 50 years after her death, allegedly due to the fear of retaliation against her family. It has been 17 years since her death but her daughter, Caroline Kennedy, has agreed to release the recordings early.

ABC will air the tapes featuring the former first lady’s revelations and ABC’s executives claim the tapes to be “explosive.”

Have car will travel - Be Bopping around in the Bufalino

'Bufalino' by German industrial designer Cornelius Comanns is a small camper which is equipped to meet the basic needs of one person. the concept behind the project
is to offer absolute flexibility during periods of travel. the minimalist construction is based on the existing Piaggio APE 50 three wheeled light transport vehicle; a model chosen for its economic and fuel efficient benefits. However, the more complex structural components
such as the frame, the chassis, and engine are derived from the original Piaggio model. more photos

Nikola Tesla’s “Black Magic” Touring Car

Supported by the Pierce-Arrow Co. and General Electric in 1931, Nikola Tesla, inventor of the AC generator, took the gasoline engine from a new Pierce-Arrow and replaced it with an 80-horsepower AC electric motor with no external power source.

You would never have to recharge this vehicle. You would never have to pay 1¢ to any electrical company. Since the source of energy that powered Tesla’s electric car in 1931 was energy harvested from EM waves that is everywhere this type of electric car had unlimited range.

Tesla used an antenna to capture this free energy and he was able to drive for hours with no stopping whatsoever for a recharge. If he drove and ended up in the middle of nowhere he could stop and rest and continue on in a couple of hours or even days without ever having to worry about running out of power.

Time to walk on down the road…

Don’t you love neon signs? Here’s a gallery of them just for you:

 

GO TO THIS COOL SITE for more of these babies…

Nightmare on Wall Street: welcome to reality Fanny and Freddie!

Today was the sixth-worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years…

The Vix, a measure of market volatility and fear among investors, shot up 50 percent. That was its steepest rise since February 2007…

 What will tomorrow bring? Will Freddie fail? Will Fanny wail?

Todays installment on this horror show:

Nightmare on Wall Street; Dow takes 635-point tumble after S&P downgrades US credit

                                                                     graphic

Another sign of the times: Historic buildings commissioned during the Depression are disappearing

 

Are you aware of the steady loss of historic post offices in this country? Built as symbols of pride during the New Deal, these historic buildings are following the rest of this country’s crumbling infrastructure.

American pride has taken a public beating during the last two weeks. You may have noticed that the story of these disappearing historic sites has gone largely uncovered in the mainstream media.

According to the website Save The Post Office:

“ Fifteen of them have recently been put up for sale, and there are 35, as well as several pre-1933 buildings, on the closure lists released last week by the Postal Service.

The post office contains nine original wall murals in the lobby, commissioned by the Treasury Relief Arts Project. The oil paintings were done in 1937 by Ray Boynton, with the assistance of several local artists, and they depict agricultural scenes: plowing, sorting and harvesting grapes; irrigating orchards; meat and cheese packing; grain harvesting and feeding cows.

Also known as the Modesto Federal Building and the El Viejo, the building was always occupied by a post office, but in 1967 work on a new postal facility was completed and downtown Modesto was demoted from a main post office to station status.

It’s unlikely that the El Viejo is going to remain an active public building.  Non-profit groups, working through county officials, did express interest in buying the building, but the GSA decided to auction it to the highest bidder.

That’s the saddest part of the whole story.  The federal government built thousands of beautiful buildings during the early decades of the 20^th century as part of the City Beautiful movement, and the New Deal put up over 1,100 during the depths of the Depression.  These buildings were intended to be a source of pride and they symbolized the power and prestige of the federal government.

The post office on 1125 I Street in Modesto, California, closed on June 3, 2011, and it’s been up for auction since June 9th.

You can follow the bidding today at GSA auctions page

UPDATE: The GSA has extended the auction again and again.  It's up to $777,000, and supposedly ending today, August 8, at 7:06 p.m., but they'll probably extend it again.

Wall Street rout, snore rooms for seniors, NBA to announce first Hispanic majority holder for a team

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Grab a cup of coffee and check out these headlines today. It’s another wild and wooly Monday as the earth turns..

Holy crap!! US stocks tumble as downgrade rattles investors 

Wall Street tumbled at Monday’s opening bell amid a rout in global stocks after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time.

That's it honey, I'll be in the snore room

Builders specializing in communities for “active seniors” over 55, such as PulteGroup’s Del Webb brand and D.R. Horton, are offering new home designs featuring snore rooms near the master bedroom for couples who can’t always catch a good night’s sleep together due to differing schedules, nocturnal habits or medical conditions.

Hawks to be sold, but stay in Atlanta

Alex Meruelo and the Atlanta Hawks are poised to make NBA history.

The Hawks have scheduled a news conference today to announce the team and Philips Arena are being sold to Meruelo, a person familiar with the deal said Sunday.

The son of Cuban immigrants is a California developer and pizza chain owner. He is expected to become the NBA’s first Hispanic majority owner.

Time to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: Politics and pledges hold us all hostage

By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard

Posted: 08/07/2011 02:30:25 AM PDT

Once upon a time saying the Pledge of Allegiance wasn't a controversial issue. While growing up in the 1950s, I said it every morning in my classroom. Sometime during the 1960s, the Pledge of Allegiance disappeared from classrooms.

It's so politically incorrect today that generations of students have never heard about it. Progress? That's a matter of perception. A lot of people don't like making pledges of any kind. The commitment that comes with a pledge is inflexible and sometimes conflicts with common sense.

A pledge can be good or bad. It depends on the subject and how it's applied in everyday life. A pledge to quit smoking cigarettes would be a good one. A politician's pledge not to compromise is a bad one.

When Republican interest groups insist that presidential candidates take a pledge not to co-operate with anyone who doesn't agree with their demands, they short-circuit the democratic process that built this federal republic.

As the world looks on in stunned amazement at how polarized our political process has become, faith in the world's leading democratic bastion fades. Economists around the world are on the brink of declaring our economy a disaster. World markets suffer as inflexible pledges shackle political candidates to conservative ideology. We're seeing the result: chaos.

A simple statement around a popular principle -- keeping taxes low -- puts pressure on politicians to back that cause forever or risk losing possible supporters.

The oldest and most pernicious of these pledges was dreamed up by Grover Norquist, the leader of “Americans for Tax Reform.” He's managed to get 95 percent of all Republicans in Congress to pledge never to raise taxes for any reason.

Norquist's anti-tax the rich plan has superseded the representation the Republicans are supposed to provide for all their constituency, and has become a roadblock in negotiations. In a pledge outbreak, Republican candidates are pressured to take a slew of divisive pledges.

Recently, Ryan Hecker, a Tea Party activist who helped craft the 10-point Contract From America said he's withholding support from any GOP candidate who declines to take his pledge.

Another group, The Susan B. Anthony List, which supports anti-abortion advocacy, pressures GOP candidates to sign its “Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge.”

Why are GOP candidates capitulating and conforming to pledges? Don't they realize they're being asked to slip on straitjackets that'll restrain their effectiveness? Signing denies them flexibility -- a must for any politician hoping to successfully negotiate with an opposing party. Like it or not, we do have two major political parties. Compromise is a must to pass legislation. We're not a dictatorship yet.

There are hopeful signs that not everyone is going down this primrose pledge path. Freshman Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told the Associated Press, “I think I've kind of supported enough pledges. I've restricted myself too much this Congress.”

One of Sarah Palin's conservative “Mama grizzlies” who signed Norquist's anti-tax pledge has decided she won't sign any more. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said, “I support the concepts in their pledges, but what matters most is my pledge to uphold the United States Constitution.”

The Republican Conference Chairman, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, also said, “My only pledge is to the United States of America.” I believe defying the political pressures to pledge projects strength. Those who do so will be rewarded and re-elected, because they demonstrate concern for all Americans, not just the pro-corporate wealthy.

A good example of how crazy some of these pledges are is the bizarre “Marriage Vow,” in which candidates agree to oppose same-sex marriage, reject Shariah law (Muslim law under the Koran) and pledge personal fidelity to their spouses. Sanity won out and this was changed after a public outcry.

These pledges should be looked upon as political poison, and not the cure for solving America's economic woes. Pledging to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution is the only promise required of a new president.

I'm still comfortable with the Pledge of Allegiance I recited as a child in school, and when I went into the United States Army in 1969. I still believe in America, despite what's currently happening to our political process in Congress. I still believe the majority should rule, as outlined in our Constitution, and not an extreme minority.

As It Stands, united we stand, and divided we fall. Sound familiar?

Websites carrying this column:

#1 American family values #2 Stop Smoking #3 Interceder/Tea Party #4 Political News Live #5 Hilham Overton Tennessee 38568 #6 Senator Kelly Ayotte News #7 Chewalla Tennessee 38393 #8 Dixon Springs Trousdale Tennessee 37057 #9 Security Forces for Hostile Environments