A Promise Broken: Black Lung disease still the bane of coal miners

       Good Day Humboldt County!

The following story is another example of corporations ignoring weak laws set down by Congress. With no one to enforce the laws, it’s business as usual for coal mine operators who are looking to cut corners at every opportunity. Even when those opportunities endanger worker’s safety and ultimately their lives:

Via PBS: Deadly Black Lung disease rises among coal miners

Via Open Channel on MSNBC: Deadly black lung surges back in coal country

“Amid strikes throughout the West Virginia coalfields, Congress made a promise in 1969: Mining companies would have to keep dust levels down, and black lung would be virtually eradicated.

The disease's resurgence represents a failure to deliver on a 40-year-old pledge to miners in which few are blameless, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and NPR has found. The system for monitoring dust levels is tailor-made for cheating, and mining companies haven’t been shy about doing so.

Meanwhile, regulators often have neglected to enforce even these porous rules. Again and again, attempts at reform have failed. In the hard-won 1969 law, Congress demanded that dust be controlled and new cases of disease be prevented. The idea was that, even if black lung didn’t disappear, there would be a small number of mild cases.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Hang Around For Humor: Louis CK Takes a Stand on Smoking Pot

Sit back, but don’t relax…this guy keeps ‘em coming!

             Good Day Humboldt County!

 There’s nothing like taking a stroll down humor lane when you need a “pick-me-up.”

 The weight of the world slides away, and the sound of your laughter makes your own day.

Is there a funnier comedian than Louis CK right now?

 I am a huge fan of the late Mitch Hedberg, but outside of a few legends, CK is owning the comedy scene right now.

 He has the wit of George Carlin, the balls of Bill Hicks, and a voice all his own. He is the comedian who says what we are all thinking, but says it way cooler and funnier than any of us could. Take for example, his personal stance on smoking pot. The hilarity lies in just how right on he is.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Take your time: How many creatures can you see in this image?

The most prominent is the Elephant, at the top of the head, followed by the white rabbit on his nose.

This is because our brains are drawn to the most obvious, straightforward, image first.

This is an effective illusion; on the whole it resembles a portrait of the human face with its muscle tones revealed, beneath the skin, particularly with the use of reddish brown tones.

Illusions such as this have become popular posters for their artwork.

Count the animals. can you see them all?

(source)

Drive-in theaters are making a comeback across the USA–but don’t expect it to last

           Good Day Humboldt County!

Back when I was growing up in the 1950s, going to a drive-in movie was a weekly experience for my family. When I got into high school, drive-in theaters took on a new importance; making out! If you were lucky enough to have a van you backed it up to the screen, opened the rear doors and got real comfortable.

Most of us had cars however, and it was common to try and sneak in by hiding in the trunk. Imagine if you will (because it did happen) one guy driving up to the ticket window driving a big old Chevy …alone…and smiling as he purchases a lone ticket.

Sometimes we turned our headlights off and drove in the exit. About half of the time we were busted by roving attendants who followed our car to a parking place. That practice ended about halfway through high school when theaters started using “dragon’s teeth” for those who tried entering the exit!

When my buddies and I were so broke that we couldn’t even afford to pay to drive in a theater, we use to sit behind the rear fence – turned on the whole row of speakers and and watched the movie from there. Sometimes attendants came back and turned them off and told us to scoot. We’d wait until they were gone then hop the fence and turn them back on again.

Oh, those were the days! My first kiss! My first girlfriend! My first speeding ticket, as I raced to get my girlfriend home on time on our first date! It’s nice to see this comeback… but note at the end of the article what’s coming down the line:

“Load the family in the car. Drive-in theaters are making a comeback.

New outdoor theaters are opening, and shuttered ones are being revived as people rediscover the pleasures of watching movies outdoors with no restrictions on chatting, screaming kids, cellphone use or smoking, says Kipp Sherer of drive-ins.com.

The website, which tracks and celebrates the industry, says there are 364 drive-ins in the USA, down from their peak of at least 4,000 in 1958. In 2007, there were 406. The first drive-in theater opened in Camden, N.J., in 1933.

"People love the communal experience," Sherer says. Bart Lower and his family decided to build a drive-in, Danny Boy's in Ionia, Mich., after Google told him that more than 90,000 people in Michigan search for "drive-in movie" each month. The theater opens this month.

"It's going to be a new way to see a movie for a lot of people," Lower says. Paul Allsup hopes to rescue the Linton Drive-in in Linton, Ind., which opened in 1948 and closed in 1999. He expects to open in late August or early September.”

Elsewhere:

•Tulsa's Admiral Twin, which opened in 1951 and burned down in 2010, reopened June 15. "The community kind of rallied around us and started actually just giving us money to rebuild," co-owner Blake Smith says.

"There is definitely a resurgence of drive-ins," he says, maybe because people "are tired of the sterile environment" in multiplexes. Rising land values a few years ago "pretty much caused all the drive-ins to go away," Smith says.

•The Full Moon Drive-in opens July 20 in San Diego. "People are really connecting with nostalgia," partner David Adler says.

•Cameron Grimm and Paul Goodson have formed a foundation and plan to operate the Skyvue Drive-in in New Castle, Ind., as a non-profit. They hope to reopen it in May.

•The Blue Starlite Drive-in opened Wednesday in Austin. It can accommodate 50 cars and 100 walk-in customers; a parking lot that owner Josh Frank had been using had room for far fewer.

Sherer warns that the revival might not last long: The movie industry is switching from 35mm film to digital, and many small drive-ins can't afford digital projectors. "A lot of drive-ins most likely won't open next year," he says.”

Time for me to walk on down the road..

AS IT STANDS: Who would you like to have lunch or dinner with?

                     

                     By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
I wouldn’t pay to have lunch or dinner with anyone. Flat out. No way. I don’t care who they are, just the thought makes me cringe.   
So when I see people bidding to have lunch with Warren Buffet in an annual charity fund raiser, I can’t help but roll my eyes in amazement at how much cash people will pay for the pleasure of dining with the Nebraska billionaire.
This year was a record-breaker; the highest bidder ponied-up $3,246,789! Can you imagine? Can you imagine having that much money to throw away? Oh excuse me! Not throw away; donate.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that the money is raised for a charitable purpose. But where’s the thrill? You have to admit, as far as prizes go, this one is kinda weird. Unless, of course, you’re a rich person who would like to see if you could get richer by rubbing elbows with Buffet.
Someone is probably standing nearby during that power lunch, snapping photos for posterity. The winner can frame them and put them on his/hers bragging wall. Autographed too, I’m sure. After all, for that much loot it’s the least they can do.

 I wonder. If you had a choice of who you’d like to have lunch or dinner with, who would it be? While you’re mulling over my question over, allow me to make some recommendations for your consideration.
 How about Steve Carell? You want to have some fun during your lunch? This guy will make you laugh so hard you’ll gasp for breath. I’m sure he’d be a kick to eat with. I like him because he edited a newspaper - just like me. Of course he was in high school at the time, and when I did I was married with three kids.
 How about Keith Morrison of Dateline fame? It’s entertaining just listening to the guy talk with his perfect pitch and timing. He could tell mystery stories during lunch. I can see other diners stop what they’re doing to hear his fluid and eerie voice describe a murder scene.

 How about Derek Amato? Who is he, you ask? He’s a guy who stupidly jumped into the shallow end of a pool while clowning around and cracked his skull. However, that fateful accident brought Amato an unexpected gift: it turned him into a musical savant. Now he plays the piano like a virtuoso and writes his own music.

 How about Emmelyn Roettger? She’s 3-year-old, with an IQ of 135, currently the youngest member ever admitted to Mensa. I can only imagine what a fresh outlook this child must have on issues in our society. I think it would really be fun to watch her eat messy food and calculate the mass of a city block.
  How about Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran (yes, including the comma), an Iranian refugee who has been living in the departure lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport since August 8, 1988?  Caught up in a passport snafu between two countries, Sir, Mehran could probably give you some good travel advice - like does and don’ts of living in an airport. Where else can you get that kind of first hand information?

  How about David Icke? This former professional football player, BBC television sports presenter, and British Green Party national spokesperson will probably give you the creeps, but his story is entertaining.
 Since 1990, he has been what he calls a "full-time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world: reptilians.” He dresses only in turquoise and believes the world is ruled by a secret group called "The Elite," a race of reptilian humanoids, known in ancient times as the Babylonian Brotherhood.
 He says George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and Kris Kristofferson are descendents of “The Elite.” Who am I to argue? A lunch or dinner with this guy might even convince you he’s on to something…like drugs!
 By now, I imagine you’ve given it some thought and have come up with a better selection than I’ve offered here. If that’s not the case, and you get the opportunity to go out to lunch with one of my suggestions, please let me know how it goes.
  As It Stands, friends and family often say I’m “out-to-lunch,” but at least I’m entertaining!

Here’s how to say, “Do you want to have lunch/dinner with me in Thai”: “Yark phai gin khao duay gun mai?”…just in case you wondered…

Big Announcement: Meet Mellow Molly LovePug a new member to my family

 

Millie, our 8-year old pug (above) is checking out Mellow Molly, 5 weeks-old (right) this morning after introductions.

Afghan Taliban show what dispicable cowards they are by killing women and children under sharia (Islamic law)

Make no mistake, the Afghan Taliban are a bunch of hypocritical, murdering, cowardly bastards. No sane culture murders women and children so indiscriminately, and claims it’s the will of their god.

When America pulls out of Afghanistan in 2014, the whole country will instantly slide back to strict sharia law and all the gains women have made in the last decade there will be lost.

In the following news story we find out that two Taliban commanders were sexually involved with a woman in Parwan, either through rape or romantically, and decided to torture her and then kill her to settle a dispute between the two of them!

“In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province.

Earlier this week a 30-year-old woman and two of her children were beheaded in eastern Afghanistan by a man police said was her divorced husband, the latest of a string of so-called "honor killings".

One thing to keep in mind, Americans aren’t going to change these people’s beliefs. Nor is it, in my opinion, our job to do so. The best policy is to stay out of other countries business, even when we don’t agree with their beliefs. I think it’s sad that the future is so bleak for those women and children in Afghanistan, but it won’t be something new. Other Muslim countries still embrace sharia law today too. 

My point : like any religion there are extremists that form their own world views while outwardly embracing major religions to gain some measure of validity. It takes cowards to murder women and children and despite claiming to be holy men, no amount of insane rationalizing will change that.

Lesson For The Day: Jazz and Xena Show People How to Live In Harmony

              Good Day Humboldt County!

  When it comes to learning how to live with one another, humans could really take some pointers from the animal kingdom.

  We have problems living with one another if our skin color is different, or if we speak different languages. Can you imagine what problems we would have with another so-called intelligent species?

  Now take a look at these two buddies (photo by Jamie Hanson / Rex USA) and behold, no barriers).

“A pig and a parrot may seem an unlikely pair of friends, but Xena and Jazz are bosom buddies. Xena the miniature pig and his best mate, Jazz the Quaker parrot (also known as a monk parakeet), live with their owner, Nichole Willett, in Brisbane, Australia. According to Nichole, despite being from completely different species, 5-month-old Xena and 16-month-old Jazz are like brother and sister.

In particular, she says, the pair love nothing better than chasing each other. Nichole comments: "Xena is the wild one, she loves to chase Jazz around the house." "I guess it is unfair because Jazz can fly, but if he lands on the ground, Xena has got him." (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Things Get Out Of Hand During Pot Dispensary Raid, Volunteer Files $1 Million Claim Against City

When you watch this video it’s like watching a home invasion…but under the guise of Federal law.

This claim could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting back at cops who get too frisky while raiding marijuana dispensaries.

If they can make an example of the clowns who got too excited while bullying the staff, maybe the cops will ease up on the strong-arm tactics.

It would take money out of the bullies bosses (who in return can get back at the Rambo’s who brought them the grief in the first place). I figure money being paid out will mean some change in their methods. Perhaps sensitivity courses for future raiders!

“Lawyers for a medical marijuana dispensary worker allegedly hurt in a police raid at a Long Beach shop filed a claim on Thursday seeking $1 million in damages from the city of Long Beach.

The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, alleges that a police raid of a pot shop June 19 was illegal and that the officers involved used excessive force. The claim, filed Thursday with the Long Beach City Clerk’s office, alleges officers injured a volunteer employee, violated his civil rights and violated the state’s disabled persons act. It also alleges officers "engaged in conduct that violated various provisions of the state and federal constitutions.

The claim stems from a YouTube video that shows officers smashing surveillance cameras and stepping on a suspect at THC Downtown Collective in the 300 block of Atlantic Boulevard. The video was posted by user "Long Beach Raids" on July 1. Officials said they learned about the video on July 3.”

A Culture of Firsts: There is no place for being second in our society

           Good Day Humboldt County!

Ever wondered why you always wanted to be first at – insert your favorite sport or past time here?

How many times has someone cut you off while you were driving your car and darting out in front of you to be… first.. to go where?

We are a culture of firsts. We worship the first new hi tech gadget that comes our way.

Being first, means winning (as Charlie Sheen once said). What is it with firsts anyway?

“A new study finds that people prefer the options that come first, whether it’s the first college to offer an acceptance letter or the first salad on the menu.

In three experiments, when making quick choices, participants consistently preferred people or products presented first as opposed to similar offerings in second and sequential positions.

“The order of individuals performing on talent shows like ‘American Idol,’ the order of potential companies recommended by a stockbroker, the order of college acceptance letters received by an applicant — all of these firsts have privileged status,” said Dana Carney, Ph.D., assistant professor of management at the University of California.

The study found that, especially in circumstances when decisions must be made quickly or without much deliberation, preferences are unconsciously and immediately guided to those options presented first.”

Read the rest here

Time for me to walk on down the road…