Will someone tell the flu bug to hold off until this shutdown is over?

        Good Day World!

Aaaaaah! choouuu!

Ominous reports are trickling in that a new flu season may be stalking us but we can’t do crap about it because our government has been shutdown by clowns who don’t care if you have health care!

I like to think there’s a universal justice – an accounting for being a destructive dipshit – and if is, Ted Cruz and his extreme entourage will all come down with a real nasty case of the the flu! I mean the kind where you have such a snotty nose your words gurgle, and you’re dribbling slippery shit into your underpants every step you take!

Come to think about it, those tea party toads hopping around the House probably don’t believe in vaccines so it’s only right they be struck with the worst case possible. 

America’s unofficial flu trackers say they’re seeing elevated reports of flu-like illness in a few states — California, for instance — and they worry about what will happen in coming days and weeks if officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remain on furlough.

“If this flu season hits early and we don’t have the most important national voice promoting vaccination, we will see unnecessary illnesses, some of which could be severe or fatal,” said John Brownstein, a Harvard Medical School epidemiologist who runs FluNearYou, a real-time flu tracking tool.

Google Flu Trends, another tracking tool, is reporting a slight rise in the nation’s flu activity as of Wednesday.

But those sites provide only a tiny portion of the flu picture in the U.S., nothing like the CDC’s robust FluView surveillance system that tracks the nation’s influenza ills. That site hasn’t been updated since the shutdown began on Tuesday, which means the latest data available to the public runs only through Sept. 21.

That’s to be expected with about 9,000 of the CDC’s nearly 13,000 employees on furlough, said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds. Although the agency is still collecting national flu data, the information won’t be analyzed or reported until the shutdown ends. Whole story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

What Happens when a Minority rules the Majority? Democracy Dies!

  Good Day World!

Fair warning…if you think the tea party politicians are doing the right thing in the House by forcing a government shutdown, you better not read any further…

My voice is joined by millions when I say the reason our government is being held hostage is because of the Republican Party – or to be more specific – the tea party. The extreme members in the House who have gathered under the tent of denial that they’re hurting the majority of Americans, should be duck-walked out onto the National Mall and tarred and feathered for all to see!

They’re a blight on our society. Tea party insanity has been backed by big money from the start. Not by a majority of Americans. Take a quick look at the last election. It was a mandate against the likes of those goons in the tea party. The majority of Americans made their will known.

Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia, speaking in September ahead of the 2010 elections bluntly told his Republican audience that if the Republicans won control of the House, they would shut down the government. It was a promise to be fulfilled.

Shutting down the government doesn’t bother the tea party punks.They don’t care what the majority wants. They’re untouchable right now because they managed to pull off some redistricting in Republican held strongholds in the deep south – effectively hindering those who don’t vote for them in the area.

What’s worse, in my mind, is these tea party traitors set out to shut down the government from the moment they were elected! Not even terrorists have accomplished that trick!

Knowing they’re a minority, they’ve thrown out the art of negotiating like civilized human beings and have resorted to a scorched-earth policy that would do credit to Adolf Hitler! That’s unforgiveable.

As a veteran, I’m ashamed to see our society held in the grip of an extreme enemy to democracy. I know how this happened. But,that’s not as important as what’s happening now. What are we going to do about this?

Are we going to stand by and watch this minority of cruel clowns run our already fragile economy off the cliff?

Speak out about what’s happening to your country. Write your representatives in Washington and warn them you are not going to vote for them if they can’t do the job! Speak out about your feelings!

Let those damn politicians hear from you in the social media outlets. Let the politicians who are crippling our country know you’ve had enough!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

A Tribute to Tom Clancy: You Were a Thrilling Author!

            Good Day World!

I’m sorry to report that author Tom Clancy has died. He was one of my favorite modern authors, and I really enjoyed his character Jack Ryan. He was so young, only 66 years-old, but his prolific writing will live on forever.

His latest book, the techno-thriller "Command Authority," is due to hit bookshelves on Dec. 3. 

Tom Clancy, hit box-office gold with movies such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Clear and Present Danger."

His fast-paced thrillers demonstrated Clancy's acute knowledge of the technical intricacies of Soviet weaponry and were mainly concerned with espionage and military tactics employed during and in the wake of the Cold War.

An avid reader, Clancy harbored an enduring interest in the military throughout his childhood, but was barred from participating in it because of nearsightedness.

The author penned 17 No. 1 bestselling novels throughout his career. Jack Ryan, a patriotic CIA agent-cum-politician, was the star of 12 of those books, and his fictional career reflected many of the changes in American foreign policy during the last three decades.

The character managed to transcend the world of books through on-screen portrayals by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. 

RIP…

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Food that will either tickle your tastebuds or make you shake your head

            Good Day World!

Yesterday’s post on unusual liquors was so popular that I decided to expand the subject to include food.

Wasp Cookies (left) are popular in Japan, believe it or not. Read more about this culinary curiosity here.

Ukranian Chocolate Pork Fat,"It's salty on the inside and very sweet on the outside.

It's unusual yes, but it's completely disgusting," says Dasha Khabarova in a BBC article.

Pierre Javelle & Akiko Ida (see their site Minimiam) make very special food landscapes (below) where little people go around their business among the tasty morsels we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Utilizing the variable depth of field, their photography is exceptional in creating the illusion of a miniature world.

 

(images credit: Minimiam,)

Love your favorite anime characters?

Have them with rice!

Asian creativity is put to good use in Hong Kong's fast-food establishments(right).

 It seems no matter how old we are, people worldwide like to play with their food!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: Strange Brews: I’ve got some strong drinks to share with you!

Good Day World!

Are you ready to sample some of the more unusual and occasionally bizarre alcoholic beverages from around the world today?

(top image via)

Just about every culture in the world has a traditional alcoholic drink made from the plants and other ingredients that could be found locally and some of these beverages are very old indeed.

Mead, often referred to as honey wine, can range from mild ale to strong wine in terms of its alcohol content. The origins of mead are lost in the mists of time, but it appears in the history of cultures throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Some regard mead as the ancestor of all fermented drinks.

(Polish Mead, images via 1, 2)

Chicha, a drink derived from maize in several South American countries is one of the oldest beverages on the planet.

Chicha has probably been around for thousands of years, and was consumed by the Inca, but today traditionally prepared chicha is only produced in a handful of small towns and few villages in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

(images via 1, 2)

Although maize is most commonly associated with chicha, throughout the Andes the word can also refer to numerous fermented drinks, made from other types of grains or fruit.

Another old drink is pulque, a traditional Mexican alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the maguey plant. The drink has a long history and this monkey pulque jar dates from the Aztec period. (images via 1, 2)

Lizard wine from China might not sound too appealing, but apparently tastes a little like brandy, improves eyesight and as a bonus can protect against evil spirits.

Another wine with supposed medicinal qualities, helping with everything from coughs and colds to liver disorders, is baby mouse wine from Korea (left). (images lizards & baby snakes via)

Yes, it really does contain newborn baby mice, which are drowned in rice wine, before the bizarre mixture is stored somewhere dry and dark for up to a year before it is considered drinkable.

Just like baby mouse wine, snake liquors from South East Asia are also considered cures for a variety of ailments, including impotence, back and muscle pain and hair loss. These drinks usually contain highly poisonous snakes, such ascobras.

(image of snakes in bottles via)

If snakes aren’t really for you, how about scorpions and spiders?

This distilled rice grain vodka from Thailand, complete with a farm raised scorpion (left), is banana flavored and sweetened with sugar cane.

This Thai rice whiskey (photo left – bottle left) contains a large non-venomous spider (above right) and is apparently an acquired taste. Or how about this Mekong River Eel Wine from Laos (below left image)? (images of Eel Wine & Rice Whiskey via)

If you prefer your liquor devoid of creatures of any kind, Bau Da Vietnamese rice whiskey is made from plain boiled rice and comes in this rather attractive container (right).

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Obamacare goes into effect Oct 1st – I’ve Got the Skinny if You Have a Question!

    Good Day World!

Despite this being the time of year for the annual return of the Screeching Tea Party Loon, Obamacare goes into effect tomorrow.

 If you already have insurance, nothing will change. It’s that simple. No sneaky Democrat is going to force you to cancel your insurance. So take a deep breath. 

 Already have Medicare? You’re golden. Already have a company health insurance plan? You’re good.

Don’t have any insurance plan and are one medical emergency away from bankruptcy? Guess what? This new law is going to help you! Even if you have a pre-existing condition.

If you are uninsured, the key to complying with the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare, could be the new online health insurance marketplaces, which will open tomorrow  - Oct. 1 - for shopping.

(You can window-shop here now but you can’t buy until Tuesday). Policies will go into effect Jan. 1. Seven million Americans are expected to find coverage there.

Many people will qualify for subsidies to make coverage more affordable You can find your state’s marketplace at www.healthcare.gov.

Each plan covers 10 “essential health benefits,” which include prescription drugs, emergency and hospital care, check-ups, maternity and mental health services, rehabilitation and lab services, among others.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

the last time Republicans caused a government shutdown in 1995..

McDonald’s WTF Menus Around the World!

    Good Day World!

 If you think McDonald's sells the same burgers and fries everywhere in the world, think again.

 Concessions to local tastes is the way McDonald’s has been able to become the biggest fast food business in the world. Here’s just a few examples: 

In Singapore (Left), the national obsession with rice extends to having rice cakes in your burger! Try taking a bite out of this towering concoction!

When in McDonald’s Japan, try some Seaweed Flavored Fries and don’t forget to taste their yummy tentacle snacks! (Right)

Perhaps the biggest WTF menu item (Weird and Troubling Food) that can be found at a McDonald's is in the Philippines (Left).

They have McSpaghetti on the menu, which of course you’d expect in Italy, and the way they make it is rather unusual.

 A Filipino friend explained to me that it was incredibly popular and basically consisted of spaghetti soaked in sugar.

 Ewwww.

(McSpaghetti screen grab, Philippines)

Let me repeat this: Spaghetti - Soaked In - Sugar!

Peas and potatoes make up the patty in the McAloo Tikki at McDonald's in India. Mickey D’s knows that cows are sacred, so they simply adapted. Let nothing stand in the way of making money! 

There’s a great travel site called Trifter which shows more international Mac food variations: among them guacamole (avocado paste) McPollo burger in Chile.

(McAlooTikki image via) (McPollo image via)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Concussions & Football: Is the risk for your child really worth it?

     Good Day World!

Friday means high school football.

Saturday means college football.

Sunday means professional football.

Football is only rivaled by baseball in popularity. It’s entwined into the very fabric of our society. Children begin playing at ridiculously young ages.

Last year, 3 million kids from the ages of 6 to 14  played organized youth tackle football, according to USA Football. Even some 5-year-olds are in helmets playing in the Tiny Mite division of Pop Warner (which insists that its gladiators weigh at least 35 lb.)

Tomorrow I’m going to watch my 12-year old grandson play football. He’s a defensive end. Because I’m aware of the dangers involved I’m going to be nervous throughout the game – praying nothing happens to him. He wanted to play football. His parents didn’t push him into it.

I use to be a football fan, only recently losing interest in following college and the pro games. I admit it has a lot to do with the research I’ve done on football-related concussion injuries. They scare the hell out of me! I’ve had two serious concussions in my life, and feel lucky to be typing this piece right now.

The following articles illustrates what I’m talking about. It’s sad. And it really makes you think:

 It was a question with no right answer that tugged heavy at the hearts of Damon Janes' teammates when the 16-year-old died after a hit in a high school football game: Should the season go on?

Should the players rally and play every game for their star running back, whose motto was "Giving up is simply not an option"? Or should the teenagers forget about football and take time to mourn their friend?

The Westfield-Brocton Wolverines' varsity players took a paper-ballot vote and decided that the pain was too great, that their season would end after just two games.

"I wanted to play, I love the game," said teammate Stevie Wisecarver III, a 16-year-old quarterback who has played football since third grade. "But it just wouldn't feel right without him. The team just didn't feel right." Damon took what hospital officials would later describe as a "helmet-to-helmet" hit during the third quarter of Westfield-Brocton's Sept. 13 game against Portville, a 32-6 loss. He was able to get on his feet but lost consciousness on the sidelines. He died three days later at Women & Children's Hospital in Buffalo.

Concern about increasingly hard hits among the 1 million boys who play high school football has brought renewed attention to concussion management and a national initiative to teach the "Heads Up" tackling technique. An average of 12 high school and college players die annually, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Damon's was at least the fifth high school football death this season, but his was the only team to cancel the season because of it. Read whole story here

Related:

* Last month, in one single Pop Warner football game, five preadolescent players on a team from Tantasqua, Mass., suffered serious head injuries.

* The Problem with Football: How to Make It Safer

* Concussions and Our Kids

Time for me to walk on down the road…

I’m not being snotty, but what’s with growing noses on foreheads?

          Good Day World!

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face?” For some bizarre reason it came to mind when I read about noses grown on foreheads yesterday!

It never entered my wildest thoughts. Noses that were destroyed by various means could be reconstructed and grown on one’s forehead. Whoever heard of such a thing?

Apparently, according to the following article, it’s not that uncommon. Where have I been then? Have you ever seen anyone walking around with a nose on their forehead? I sure haven’t. Maybe people wear floppy hats to hide the misplaced proboscis while it’s growing. Will wonders ever cease?

Despite his perhaps bizarre appearance, a man in China who is growing a new nose on his forehead is the beneficiary of a rather common nose reconstruction technique.

The man suffered damage to his nose and an infection after a traffic accident, and the infection had eaten away at the cartilage in his nose, making it impossible to for doctors to fix his original nose. There was no alternative but for doctors to grow the man an entirely new nose on his forehead, according to Reuters.

But despite its extreme appearance, this method is not that different from plastic surgery techniques used all the time, said Dr. David Cangello, an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan, Eye Ear and Throat Hospital in New York. read the whole story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Playground Terrors! Some real creepy places where kids play

           Good Day World!

 Like most children worldwide, I had an active imagination when I was young.

 I use to watch scary movies on television and spend the rest of the night with the light on in my room and wondering what kind of monster might be lurking in the closet!

 The little girl in the photo (left) doesn’t look too concerned that she’s sitting on a lap of a hideous H.P. Lovecraft-like gargoyle. Probably because she doesn’t know what a gargoyle is and the sculpture doesn’t move.

I may be wrong, but I think it takes a lot more to scare kids nowadays. They’re flooded with images in our society of monsters and the like via television, games, and movies.

The following creepy masterpieces of sculpture and landscaping can be found in playgrounds not only in Russia (even though this is where the majority of photos come from) but also in China, East European Countries, and even in the US - anywhere the grass-roots creativity goes bad and the bad taste gets promoted, often unintentionally.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the bizarre stuff for kids, and some of the sculptures here are downright fascinating; but others are... well, ugly as hell.

Not only kids, but some more impressionable adults are in danger to become psychologically scarred from thinking too much about these monsters and letting them into their dreams.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Finger-Print Scan Hacked within 72 hours – what took so long?

  Good Day World!

It took three days. 72 hours.

On Sunday, after the iPhone 5S went on sale, a German hacker collective became the first to claim victory over the gadget's much-buzzed-about Touch ID fingerprint security system.

And they did it pretty much the same way Bane's flunkies breached the biometric passcode on Bruce Wayne's stock exchange account in "The Dark Knight Rises," — using a copy of Batman's fingerprints (created by Catwoman after she did some light dusting around Wayne Manor).

Even before the Chaos Computer Club, one of the largest and well-known hacker collectives, crowed victory via the tried-and-true "fake finger" method, Apple's first foray into biometric security wasn't getting a lot of respect. Amid concerns over privacy — Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked if Apple might share stored fingerprintswith third parties or the government, the way tech companies do with other customer info — and hacking, the jokes kicked in.

A cat's paw, a nipple and a crowd-sourced bounty to the first person to hack Touch ID are likely just the beginning of a running gag at Apple's expense. In this day and age no gaffe gets by social media.

When I first heard about the fingerprint idea I knew that it was stupid idea, and it would only be a matter of time before being exposed. Who would want to voluntarily give up such a personal ID marker for “convenience and supposed security?” Well I guess there were some naïve consumers out there and they’re probably feeling kinda sheepish today!

Time for me to walk on down the road…