AS IT STANDS

Friday, February 24, 2012

Another new sneaker release riot: What the hell is the matter with these people?

The launch of an expensive new basketball shoe — timed to Orlando's hosting of the NBA All-Star Game — triggered a melee Thursday night at Florida Mall that was quelled by deputies in riot gear.

The wild scene erupted about 9:45 p.m. as hundreds of people packed the mall's parking lot, hoping to buy the new shoe at midnight.

As the crowd grew, a large contingent of Orange County deputy sheriffs arrived, braced for problems.
Similar shoe releases have caused violence at shoe stores across the country.
Two people were arrested on trespassing charges Thursday at Florida Mall. A third person — a woman — was arrested this morning for fighting outside Foot Locker.

Here’s the difference between citizens serving their communities & politicians supposedly serving the public…

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut.

After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, “I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this week.” The florist was pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a “thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, “I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this week.” The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a “thank you” card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, “I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.” The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut!

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

BOTH POLITICIANS AND DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON!

The Blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek: family mystery solved

Illustration of Martin Fugate & his family (© Walt Spitzmiller)

Good Day Humboldt County!

Today, we’re taking a stroll down memory lane. Are you feeling blue?

Remember when a despondent Kermit the Frog sang "It's not easy being green"?

Well it isn’t easy being blue either. I mean literally blue-skinned. People with the condition have no connection to so-called Blue Bloods.” No, the blue-skinned people we’re talking about today all belong to one family!

News Snippet:

“Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy so frightened maternity doctors with the color of his skin -- "as Blue as Lake Louise" -- that he was rushed just hours after his birth in 1975 to University of Kentucky Medical Center.

As a transfusion was being readied, the baby's grandmother suggested to doctors that he looked like the "blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek." Relatives described the boy's great-grandmother Luna Fugate as "blue all over," and "the bluest woman I ever saw."

In an unusual story that involves both genetics and geography, an entire family from isolated Appalachia was tinged blue. Their ancestral line began six generations earlier with a French orphan, Martin Fugate, who settled in Eastern Kentucky.” (Read the rest of the story here.)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Flat Green Surface Becomes 3D!

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The artist behind this monumental achievement is François Abelanet.

See more of his work here.

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Turkeys Took over TV: Why did we let it happen folks?

You may have noticed.

Turkey’s are running and programing TV programs throughout the country.

All TV programs. From the news full of views, to rednecks catching big ugly fish with their fists, there’s been a movement afoot. Turkey scratchings showing senseless images of people doing stupid things.

Somehow, rafters of turkeys have consolidated their clueless agendas into our lives while we sat drooling in front of the vast panorama of boob tubes stretched across the country.

It was bound to happen. Minds were turned to mush the moment the American family gathered around little oval screens in huge cabinets and watched blurry black-and-white images of commercials selling Alka Seltzer and Ipana tooth paste.

I didn’t just notice. I just decided to vent about it. To lament the dumbing down of America. To sigh with sadness as little girls dressed up like slutty women parade on shows that must be considered “candy” to pedophiles. Where have we gone so wrong?

The turkeys don’t have limits. Nothing is too half-baked, or raw, to make a hit series. No amount of shows humiliating fat people, little people, or just plain stupid people (I’m thinking “Jackass”) seems to be enough. There’s constantly new shows coming out trying to butter up an increasingly jaded public.

As It Stands, the final irony is we have met the turkeys…and they are us! Gobble, gobble, gobble…

art source

A California Culinary Cult: ‘In-N-Out’ burgers expanding to Texas

During my high school days in Azusa, California, my favorite hamburger came from “In-N-Out,” not from the nearby McDonalds. It was the FIRST In-N-Out location. Someday, the building should be enshrined as a place to visit the birth of the best hamburger in the state.

Back in those days, a cheeseburger and fries from In-N-Out cost a tiny bit more than McDonalds, so most of the kids I knew went to Mickie’s D’s for financial reasons. I went to Mickie D’s most of the time for the same reason. But, when I wanted a treat, it was off to the In-N-Out on Azusa Ave. My future brother-in-law lived in a little green house right next to it. Whenever my friends and I visited him he’d buy us those wonderful burgers and fries.

In-N-Out has always had a mystique based on quality, scarcity (fewer than 250 locations), and apocryphal tales of secret menus and lavish, six-figure pay for employees. It's a quintessential southern California attraction— the first stop for savvy out-of-towners on the way out of LAX. The rare restaurant opening has been known to alter a city's traffic patterns and bring hours-long lines and news helicopters buzzing overhead.

In-N-Out is welcomed where other fast food outlets are not. Love for the double-double burger is publicly professed by chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Thomas Keller and influential food writers like Gourmet's Ruth Reichl and Jonathan Gold. Even Fast Food Nation's muckraking Eric Schlosser gives it a thumbs-up.

There are no freezers, microwaves, or heat lamps at an In-N-Out. Nothing is ever frozen—even the hamburger beef is butchered at their own SoCal site, which has kept outlets within a day's drive of that location. No meal is prepared until the customer orders it, the fries are cut by hand in the store, the shakes are real ice cream, and burger prices hover around $3. Except for the addition of 7-Up and Dr. Pepper, the menu has barely changed in its 60 year history.

Now the big news is that In-N-Out is planning for expansion. The company is opening a regional office and second distribution center in Dallas, making it possible to open new outlets within driving range of the fresh hamburger patties it produces in Texas. Three new locations will be up and running this spring. Maybe by April 1st. And that's no joke.

Family stumbles across the rarest collection of football cards in America

Good Day Humboldt County!

As we walk down the road of life, we sometimes stumble upon good fortune. A side road to riches not traveled by others. A turn of events that can change our lives. As surprising as a Jack-in-the-Box, these moments pop up when we least expect them.

Today’s story is a good illustration of what I’m talking about:

“A Michigan family was cleaning out an old farmhouse and accidentally stumbled across a long-sought after collection of football cards worth thousands of dollars and considered perhaps the rarest such collection in history. The set is highlighted by an "anonymous" card of former Harvard football player John Dunlop, which was first issued in 1894.

The Dunlop card alone is reportedly worth $10,000, according to Lou Brown, president of Legends Sports and Games. "If it was in the right condition, it could be worth up to $60,000," Brown told Yahoo! News in a phone interview.

There are only 10 Dunlop cards known to still exist, with some valued as high as $18,000. The entire collection is the first ever to dedicated to football players. And since there was no NFL at the time, the set focused entirely on the nation's 35 best Ivy League college players, according to the site FootballCardShop.com. You can view some of the other rare cards from the collection here.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Consumers Beware: Smartphone & Social Newtwork I.D. thefts up

Beware Smartphone users! Ominous rumblings from tech experts, Javelin Strategy & Research: Identity thieves are back in bigger numbers than ever before after last years slight decline.

Right now, this very moment, someone is checking to see if you, or some other unsuspecting Smartphone user are using a screen password. This new research claims Smartphone users are 30 percent more likely to report being hit by I.D. fraud in 2012. The survey said about 36 millions Americans have been victimized.

Disclaimer: I’m clueless when it comes to mobile phones. Smart and dumb ones. I have a dumb one that doesn’t access the internet. I still have trouble with it when it comes to make the slightest changes. I don’t text, but my wife says my phone is set up for texting.

But, I do read a lot, and after reading this article this morning I informed my tech savvy wife that her phone was at risk. She immediately took steps to rectify the situation. If I may be so bold, it would be a good idea for you to protect yourself and use a screen password if you have a Smartphone. Of course, if you already do, then you can just yawn and move on.

If, however this is news to you, consider taking action to protect your I.D. Don’t feel bad if you weren’t aware of this threat. According to the researchers, 62 percent of Smartphone users say they do not use a screen password to protect their devices.

Finally, the survey suggests some connection between active use of social networks and ID theft. Slightly more than 10 percent of LinkedIn users say they were hit (10.1 percent), while 7 percent of Google+ users and 6.3 percent of Twitter users reported being victims -- all three above average. Facebook users, at 5.7 percent, were barely above the national average of 4.9 percent.

14th Amendment: how far does it’s promise of ‘equal protection’ go?

Good Day Humboldt County!

Call me a cynic, but I have a strong feeling that the Supreme Corporate Court is preparing to turn the clock back on race diversity in higher education.

They’re confronting the issue of race in university admissions once again. This time, there’s an appeal by a white student who says she was denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas.

“A broad ruling in favor of the student, Abigail Fisher, could threaten affirmative action programs at many of the nation's public and private universities,” said Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick in a recent interview.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar and dean of the University of California Irvine's law school, has called the Fisher case "potentially momentous."

The challenge:

To what extent does the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws” permit race to be used as a factor in efforts to achieve greater diversity in higher education?

For more than three decades, the Supreme Court has said that although race may be one of numerous factors taken into account, it cannot be the predominant consideration in an admissions process. I suspect tea party groups across the country are supporting this appeal.

As It Stands, what do you think the chances are that the Supreme Corporate Court will rule in her favor?