Sheldon Adelson, casino mogul defending decision to donate $10 million to Romney super PAC:
"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it"
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
No End To Soaring Beef Prices Seen: Consumers Are Turning To Other Alternatives
It won’t be long before people will be saying “Where’s the beef?” in grocery stores and fast food restaurants, as rising prices start taking it off the restaurant menus and grocery stores.
Consumers are turning to pork, chicken, and other options to beef. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing however.
From what I’ve been reading in the last decade, beef has been under assault for things like steroids in it and lapses in the industry safety net resulting in diseases like e-coli happening too often.
I also think there’s more Americans eating less beef, not just because it’s expensive, but out of safety concerns and a growing vegetarian trend in the middle class. I actually know people who quit eating hamburger after the “pink slime” controversy came to light. I admit to being a bit queasy about hamburger meat myself. So here’s what’s happening according to the experts:
“Mealtime choices are changing across America, a country that has raised generations on red meat and potatoes. The beef is disappearing.
Americans are eating less beef, and the size of the cattle herd has fallen to its smallest since 1952. Beef prices are rising, and fast-food chains and other companies are worried about increasing materials costs.
Beef consumption has fallen for six years straight, Bloomberg reports.
There are a number of reasons, including the "pink slime" controversy over treated meat. Americans are also more concerned about their health. And beef has become very expensive - ground beef hit an average of $3.02 a pound in March, the highest since 1984.
The Livestock Marketing Information Center predicts record beef prices this year, Bloomberg reports. We could see those higher costs at stores and at restaurants.
The main reason beef prices are climbing is that there are fewer cows - only 90.77 million head at the beginning of this year, a decline of 2.1% from the year before, Bloomberg reports. Drought across America has forced farmers to keep herds low.
Don't expect many changes, either. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts beef stocks to decline further in 2013, though beef imports may rise slightly to help meet the shortage.
These higher prices are weighing heavily on the minds of executives at fast-food companies and grocery stores. Costco (COST -1.21%) said it's dealing with rising beef prices this year, Bloomberg reports. Wendy's (WEN -0.90%) and McDonald's (MCD +0.53%) are feeling the pain as well.
The result? America will continue to move away from beef to pork, chicken and other options. Prices are simply getting too high. A juicy steak will become an indulgence, a treat that we can't afford too often.”
(source)
Happy Birthday or Not? Study says we’re more likely to die on the day we were born than any other day in the year
Good Day Humboldt County!
Birthdays are an interesting subject. When you’re young you look forward to them because they represent a certain day of the year when friends and family all give you presents.
However, as the years turn to decades, many of us would rather skip the whole birthday thing and not be reminded that we’re another year older. Mortality becomes a subject to avoid. Of course this is a sweeping statement because there’s a lot of people who enjoy celebrating their birthday no matter how old they are.
As I’ve cautioned in the past, we must take studies with a grain of salt and consider everything that goes into them. My thought on a study like the following one is that it’s interesting, but hardly the last word on the subject.
In (less than) full disclosure, I’ve let my birthday slip by more quietly every year for several decades until now it’s almost a state secret!
“A new study suggests that men and women are 14 percent more likely to die on their birthday than any other day of the year. This effect was strongest in people aged 60 and older, who were up to 18 percent more likely to die on their birthday.
In this large study, which was published in the Annals of Epidemiology, researchers analyzed data from more than 2.4 million Swiss people who died between 1969 and 2008. They tried to determine if there was any relationship between when people died and the cause compared to their birthdays.
"We were surprised that our findings apply to specific causes of death," says Ajdacic-Gross. Both violent causes, such as suicides and falls, as well as strokes and cardiovascular deaths were tied to birthdays. "In addition, older people are distinctly more vulnerable than younger people," he adds.
Men were more likely to have a violent demise on their birthday, as their chances of suicides spiked by nearly 35 percent and their odds of being accident victims rose by almost 29 percent. Deadly falls in men rose by 44 percent on their birthdays, and, interestingly, the number of falls started to increase about four days before the celebration took place.
When it came to natural causes of deaths, women were at greater risk -- almost 22 percent -- of passing away from a stroke on their birthday. For both ladies and gentleman, there was a nearly 19 percent increase in dying from heart-related reasons.” (Read more here)
Time for me to walk on down the road…
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Looking For An Exciting Career? No Problem - Crocodile Handlers Wanted, No Experience Required
I know it’s the Great Recession, but I can’t imagine too many people wanting to work with up to 15-foot long crocodiles on a daily basis. Just look at the attitude of the croc on the left.
A day on the job might well be your last day on the job. Even in my younger years when I displayed little sense in most things that I did…I would not have taken up capturing wild crocs.
Nope. it takes a special person to want to spend their days with these reptilian monsters.
“Looking for a job with a little adventure to it? Florida conservation officials are recruiting "crocodile response agents" to help corral the wayward reptiles. No experience required.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is planning to hire two to four more part-time agents — there is currently just one — to respond to calls when crocodiles stray onto human turf in the Florida Keys, the string of wetland islands at the southern tip of the state.
Crocodile response agents "assist in handling human-American Crocodile conflicts," wrote Carli Segelson, spokesperson for the Florida commission’s south region, in an email response to msnbc.com questions. "Their duties include, site visits, captures, translocations, carcass recoveries, other duties as needed." (Read the rest here)
A random illusion: The Devil Is Near…Can You See him?
Another thing that I noticed: is that sun eclipse we are seeing that gives devil horns effect, or is it rather a Moon? In my opinion it couldn’t be so big and evil Moon. Or could it?
If you want to see some more devil appearances, be sure to check WTC Devil, as well as Aphex Twin’s Devil optical illusion.
This photo was originally taken by Peter Wienerroither, visit his page for more cool photos! Peter said: “It was an eclipse of the sun in May 2003, photographed near Vienna/Austria.
“And this glorious moment didn’t have anything devilish about it – quite the contrary was true.”
(source)
Help sought to solve Civil War mystery – Who were the two little girls?
I’ve always been a history buff, and in particular have been fascinated with the Civil War.
I have relatives that fought for both sides coming from Connecticut, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
I never tire of hearing new stories about those tumultuous times, and the people who lived in them.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
I recently read that The Museum of the Confederacy is publicly releasing eight images recovered on battlefields of unidentified persons. Curators are hoping that by some remote chance a descendant might recognize a facial resemblance or make a connection the battlefields where the photos were found.
“The names of the two little girls are an enduring mystery, their images found among crumpled bodies on Civil War battlefields. Each is posed primly on chairs, ringlets cascading past the rouged cheeks of one, the other dressed in a frilly hoop dress. But no one knows the identities of the girls in the photographs, or the stories they might tell.
The photograph of one girl was found between the bodies of two soldiers - one Union, one Confederate, at Port Republic, Va., 150 years ago this June. The other was retrieved from a slain Union soldier's haversack in 1865 on a Virginia farm field days before a half-decade of blood-letting would end with a surrender signed not far away at Appomattox.
Though photography was in its infancy when the war broke out, its use was widespread. Many soldiers carried photographs of loved ones into battle and for the first time, photographic images of war were available - and the Museum of the Confederacy has its own vast collection of images today, many of them identified.
But now museum officials are releasing the unidentified images of the two girls, along with six other enigmatic photographs, on the admittedly remote chance someone might recognize a familial resemblance or make a connection to a battlefield where they were found. There is no writing on the backs of these photographs. No notes tucked inside their wallet-sized frames. For a museum that prides itself on knowing the provenance of its holdings, the photographs offer few clues.
"We don't know who they are and the people who picked them up did not know who they were," said Ann Drury Wellford, curator of 6,000 Civil War images at the Richmond museum that has the largest collection of artifacts of the Confederate states, civilian and military. "They evoke an utter and complete sentimentality."
Museum officials can only speculate on the children and adults, including soldiers, shown in the photographs. But whether they were sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, or siblings the prospect of identifying each grows dimmer with the passage of time.
Typically they were found by another soldier and handed down through generations. Ultimately an attic would be cleared or a trunk would be emptied and the photo would be given to the museum. Some have been in the museum's possession for 60 years or more.
Even in its infancy, photography was booming during the Civil War. Photographers were assigned to Northern divisions and traveling photographers were the early version of photo booths as they visited encamped troops between battles and photographed them.
Photography was evolving from daguerreotype to ambrotypes and other mediums in which images were produced through a wet emulsion on glass and were more accessible to a wider audience.
"It had more versatility than it had ever had," according to Jeffrey Ruggles, a historian of photography. "It was the early blossoming of photography. The war just happened to hit at a time when people were very interested in seeing these pictures."
Bob Zeller, president of The Center for Civil War Photography, said soldiers carrying photographs of wives, children and other loved ones off to battle was common. Finding a photo on the battlefield without a clear connection to a dead soldier was uncommon and highly evocative.
"Much of it is the unknown factor that the image carries," he said. "It's something that everyone cherishes, a photograph of their loved ones, but there it is out on this battlefield with these seemingly nameless, faceless corpses."
Zeller, the author of several books on Civil War photography, including "The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography," described such photos as the link for many Civil War combatants to "a reality that, for many of them, had just disappeared."
Sometimes, the story behind an unidentified photo is eventually told. Zeller relates the story of a Union soldier who died at Gettysburg, clutching a photograph of his family. Widespread efforts in the North to identify the family ultimately proved successful in tracing his family to upstate New York.
As for the girl's photos, there is no hint of who these subjects are and the connection to the combatants who once cherished them is lost.
Unlike modern soldiers, few Civil War troops had the modern-day version of dog tags and few carried identification. The Civil War also did not have the kinds of mortuary units that now strive to collect all the possessions of the war dead and return them to their families.
Each photograph is in a hinged case with a leather or composite exterior. The cases protected the fragile images, which include early photographic processes such as tintypes and daguerreotypes.
"We're very fortunate that we know where they came from and how they were found, and many people who donated them were hopeful a family member would see them and identify them," Wellford explained. But the museum official said it would be too costly and time-consuming, she said, for curators to do their own detective work.
Pvt. Thomas W. Timberlake of the 2nd Virginia Infantry found the portrait of the girl with the ringlets and hand-colored pink cheeks on the battlefield of Port Republic between the bodies of the two dead soldiers.
Fought in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's forces turned back Northern troops led by Brig. Gen. James Shields, who lost 67 men. The Union troops hailed from Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The other girl, who had short hair parted down the middle, was found by Pvt. Heartwell Kincaid Adams of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry in the haversack he found on a Union soldier's body at the battle of High Bridge in Virginia, only days before the war ended at Appomattox in 1865.
"I think they're utterly compelling, especially the little girls," Wellford said. "You can see that they're dressed well and they're posed in elaborate studios. There was a lot of thought and effort that went into taking those pictures."
The other photographs released by the museum offer scant information on their origin. Many lack the dates they were found and locations, but Wellford hopes the public at large could help.
Wellford said the photographs show there was more to the war than combat and death. "You have these guys out their killing each other and all sorts of bloodshed and he's carrying a picture of a little girl," Welllford said. "It shows the humanity."
Museum officials said, even 150 years later, it remains important to return the photos to families who had a link to the Civil War. The two girls, they said, still evoke powerful emotions. "You think about these little girls at home and their daddies never return and they don't know what happened to them," said Sam Craghead, a spokesman for the museum. "It's just a really, really human story." (source)
Time for me to walk on down the road….
Monday, June 11, 2012
Religious Hypocrites: When Holy Men Go Bad All Hell Can Break Loose
GOOD DAY HUMBOLDT COUNTY!
Bad preachers/pastors are the biggest hypocrites in our society. When exposed, their crimes can range from losing their temper and committing violent acts short of killing (Creflo Dolar); preaching that homosexuality is a sin yet engaging in it themselves (Ted Haggard), to being mass murderers (James Jones).
It wasn’t that long ago here in Humboldt County when Pastor Dino Cardelli (left)of Cavalry Chapel Church, was sentenced to prison for having sex with an adopted daughter. He seduced her with Bible verses. His wife committed suicide rather than live with the knowledge.
You have pastors like Terry Jones (right) of Gainesville, Florida who is trying to start a holy war against all Muslims worldwide and who gets his kicks out of burning Korans. Even extreme conservatives avoid being associated with his brand of senseless hatred in the name of Christianity.
Cases like the Baptist Youth Pastor - Randy Lee Morrow Right) - who got 135 years for having sex with young parishioners. It seem like when these holy men go bad they do it with a vengeance.
I could go on all day, but I believe I’ve made my point about preachers and pastors can be the biggest hypocrites in our society. They are passionate men with twisted outlooks on life and religion. They seek to lead people with their purported closeness to God. Their fall from grace is usually a shock to everyone.
Time for me to walk on down the road…
Sunday, June 10, 2012
AS IT STANDS: Why I’m nice to people who serve me food
Why isn’t there a national holiday for food servers? (If there is please don’t share it with me and ruin this column!)
There should be. They don’t get paid anywhere near what politicians and others do for serving the public. Yet, what would we do without them? Stand in a line at restaurants and place our order with an overworked cook?
Waiters and waitresses lead challenging lives. Anyone who has ever tried serving food knows this to be true. No surveys need to be taken. There are a lot of mean jerks out there! Some folks feel so entitled they treat the waiter/waitress like donkey dung. They criticize their server’s every move and do petty things like sending steaks back because they “don‘t look right.”
This is not a wise thing to do. You can only humiliate and antagonize someone for so long before expecting retaliation. Think about what they can do to that steak with vicious delight? It’s not a pretty picture.
I’d like to think most people have enough sense not to mess with waiters and waitresses. After all, they handle your food. This somewhat intimate exchange comes with expectations that your food hasn’t been tampered with, and your server’s wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
It’s a two-way street. Be nice to them, and they’ll be nice to you. So why would anyone risk revenge? I’d write a book if I had the answer, but the short story is there are an incredible number of rude people in this world who do not think before engaging their mouths. It’s true, and I’m sure you’ve seen examples of same.
In making my argument for a national holiday, I would like to include various types of food servers, such as those in fast food restaurants staffed with pimpled teenagers and seniors who are unable to retire. They get treated to drive-by rude encounters in addition to counter customers complaining there wasn’t enough salt in the French fries.
Perhaps you’ve seen a movie about how fast food servers strike back at the public for perceived mistreatment. Maybe you’ve read a story or two about “luggie burgers” and much worse. That happens and a lot more. I’ve heard of hamburgers batted around on the floor like a hockey pucks and then served to unwitting customers.
I’ve seen firsthand what can happen to food if you torment your waiter or waitress. You should also be aware they have many devious ways of getting back at you if you treat them badly. It isn’t always your food they mess with, sometimes it’s your head.
I sensed something was up when Larry handed him his credit card to pay the bill. The waiter came back smiling and said it was no good!
You should have seen Larry. He sent that waiter back twice with the same results and grew more mortified each moment. I finally stepped in and paid the bill. After we left, Larry practically frothed at the mouth (luckily I was driving) and asked me to pull over to a local bank with ATMs out front.
He stormed over to the ATM and for a tense moment it looked like his card wouldn’t work again, but then it started spitting money out. He slowly walked back to the car, coming to the painful conclusion the waiter had messed with him big time. His embarrassment was complete. The moral of the story is simple; don’t screw with someone serving your food. They have many ways to return the favor.
Personally, I have nothing but respect (even if it is born from the abject fear of my food being tampered with) for waiters and fast food servers. I always smile and say “Thank you,” even if I get the wrong order! I always leave tips.
Needless to say I never ate anything there. After a while, I couldn’t stand it any longer and moved on to another menial job that didn’t involve working with the public.
What’s that? How about rude food servers? Not right now my friend, that’s the stuff of another column.
As It Stands, we need to show our appreciate for waiters, waitresses, and fast food servers somehow. If not a national holiday, then how about how we treat them well every day?
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Mining Lore: A quick take from today, and a short history on the Yreka Mine
For a brief period of time, from 1992-94, I had the gold fever and was searching in the Siskiyou’s with a couple of buddies.
We spent a lot of time at the BLM office pouring over old records of mines. Some were still active, but most had reverted back to the state.
Long story short…never found enough to make our efforts worthwhile. I recall one day when the three of us went to the Siskiyou County Court House and saw a fabulous display of gold nuggets in the lobby behind a glass case.
We all wondered about how secure they were there. There was no apparent way to stop someone from doing a smash and grab. One in particular caught my eye – it looked like a big fat dog bone! We decided no one would be stupid enough to rob this display in such a public place. There were cops wandering around the halls a lot. (graphic - Yreka Mine, 1860)
On February 1, 2012, the LA Times reported:
“Thieves in Yreka, Calif., made off with $3 million in gold nuggets Wednesday after breaking into the Siskiyou County Courthouse and smashing a glass case that contained a display on the area's mining history, officials said.”
So much for someone being stupid enough to rob it. How about some local history about Yreka to wrap this post up with”
It was March, 1851 and gold had recently been discovered about 30 miles south of here on the Scott River.
A group of six men... while striking camp the next morning, Thompson observed something extraordinary. Because of heavy rains the ground was soaked, and the bunch grass, serving as breakfast for the pack mules, was being pulled out of the ground, exposing the roots. And on those roots, Thompson noticed, were flecks of gold. He and his men decided to stay.
Unbeknownst to Thompson, he had just spent the night on what would soon become known as “the richest square mile on earth.” As well, his accidental discovery set in motion the creation of a new town.
With so many gold-seekers already in California due to the ’49 gold rush, it wasn’t long before word got out, and within six weeks of Thompson’s discovery there were 2000 miners on Yreka flats. In those early days it was known simply as Thompson’s Dry Diggings, and was basically a huge camp full of transient gold miners. By August of that year, as the miners discovered that this area was the “second mother lode,” the population swelled to 5,000. At that time, the town, now called Shasta Butte City, moved to its present location, in order to be closer to the nearest water supply (Yreka Creek).
Slowly but surely, the new town was taking shape, and the first real structures were going up on Main Street (today’s Miner Street). In early 1852, with the population continuing to grow, the State Legislature created Siskiyou County. At that time, because there was another town called Shasta in the region, Shasta Butte City changed names again, this time choosing the local Indian word for Mt. Shasta—Yreka.
from "The Boomtown That Didn't Go Bust--A History of Early Yreka"
Richard Barter, also known as Rattlesnake Dick ...[d]uring California’s Gold Rush days, [settled] in at Rattlesnake Bar, a small mining camp in Placer County.....
However, Barter was unsuccessful in his quest for gold and soon decided to turn to a life of crime. ... In 1856, Barter learned from a drunken mining engineer that large gold shipments were being sent down Trinity Mountain from the Yreka and Klamath River Mines.
Barter sent George Skinner and three others to intercept the gold shipment, which was packed on mules. George and the other bandits stopped the mule train outside of Nevada City, California holding guns on the muleskinners. Meekly the men turned over $80,600 in gold bullion to Skinner and his men, without a shot being fired.
The bandits then made off with the shipment to keep a rendezvous at Folsom with Barter and Cy Skinner. However, George Skinner found it next to impossible to take the heavy gold shipment down the mountain passes without fresh mules. Soon, he split up the gold shipment burying half of it in the mountains.
Making their way to Auburn, the outlaws were soon intercepted by a Wells Fargo posse and gunfight ensued. In the melee, George Skinner was killed and his confederates fled. The lawmen recovered $40,600 of the stolen loot and though they searched diligently, they failed to find the remaining $40,000. ...
The treasure has never been recovered and is said to be somewhere on the slope of Trinity Mountain, said to have been buried about 12 miles south of the hold up point.
-- from Legends of America
America’s National Parks under siege: environmental threats, invasive species and climate change to blame
Good Day Humboldt County!
The reasons why our national parks face such challenges today can be attributed to several things.
I recall working as an editor of a small town newspaper (The Desert Trail) during the 1980s, and going to Joshua Tree National Park numerous times; both recreational and on the job when a hiker would get lost or something along those lines. Today, Joshua Tree National Park is suffering from air pollution, among other things.
Joshua trees face peril from air pollution and climate change, which could leave Joshua Tree National Park with just 10 percent or less of the trees by 2100
“Disappearing glaciers, decreasing air quality and foundation species pushed to the brink of survival. America’s national parks are facing environmental threats that range from tiny invasive species to the planet-spanning impacts of climate change. In some cases, the situation is dire; in others, progress is being made. In aggregate, the issues point to how important — and how fragile — these special places are.
“Each unit in the system has its own unique challenges,” said Al Nash, spokesman for Yellowstone National Park, “but they all reflect a component of who we are and where we’re going. They’re about our shared experience as Americans.” (source)
Time for me to walk on down the road…
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