Thursday, October 22, 2015

GOP vs Trump: ‘Are You Ready to Rumble?’

Good Day World!

In the past, Republicans have trusted a Hollywood entertainer/actor, Ronald Reagan, enough to make him president. To many Republicans he’s still considered the very personification of conservatism.

But these days the Republican establishment is turning it’s back on another Hollywood entertainer/reality show host, Donald Trump. Apparently they don’t think he has the right stuff to sit in the Oval Office.

Plus, they’re getting tired of being made clowns of by Trump. It’s been like a Turkey Shoot as The Donald verbally tears apart his competition. Jeb Bush has been like a deer caught in the headlights every time he tries to exchange words with Trump.

Enter former South Carolina Republican Party chair Katon Dawson (a former member of The Whites Only Club). Just call him the Trump Killer. He’s out to ruin the reality star before next year’s election.

Dawson is busy forming a Super PAC devoted to attacking Trump’s credibility and ability to lead the country. He’s got his hand out for donations from establishment Republicans who are getting increasingly uneasy about Trump’s popularity.

Dawson is getting help from another source that fears Trump.

The head of the Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group, told the Washington Examiner this week it is also trying to raise millions to fund some kind of broader effort to defeat the real estate mogul. The group already spent $1 million in ads this summer arguing that he is not a true conservative.

Does anyone think Trump would take all of this sitting down?

Trump Campaign Reportedly Threatened To Sue Washington Post Over Super PAC Story

As Michael Buffer so often says, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Underestimate elderly people at your own risk

Photo -Elderly woman fights off attacker by grabbing his balls and squeezing them!

Good Day World!

In some circles my age, 65, is considered elderly. I’m actually pretty spry for a an old guy.

Which leads me to today’s topic – don’t underestimate old people, they can surprise you.

How, you ask? (I’m glad you did)

* When a teen armed with two large knives threatened his young chess students, 75-year-old Army veteran James Vernon sprang into action. He kicked the guy’s ass!

* Ruth Lampe isn't letting her age slow her down. The 102-year-old volunteer got her high school diploma recently… after cooking a meal for a senior center.

* 93-year-old Louise Edlen had been waving to passing students for years. See how she teaches kids compassion.

* Unstoppable 100-year-old works 6 days a week. This woman is amazing!

* Would be robber fended off by 95-year-old WW II veteran who used his cane.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A Look at Big Feet… Not Bigfoot !

"Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”

-Sherlock Holmes

Image: The shoes of Jeison Rodriguez (L), the living person with the largest feet in the world, are seen next to the shoes of his nephew at his house in Maracay, Venezuela

                                       Good Day World!

Some of my earliest memories were people telling me that I had big feet.

Look at those big boats” my father often commented. “Don’t worry,” he’d say, “You’ll grow into them.”

Or, my siblings calling me “Frog,” because I had “big flippers.”

I now know that I got a bad rap back then.

Those supposedly big feet of mine ended up being a size 11 extra wide. Not very impressive by today’s standards. Two of my three sons have bigger feet than I do. One of my grandsons has a size 12 extra wide.

And, just look at some of the professional athletes today. Shaq O’Neil, and every center in professional basketball, have gunboats that start around size 16.

But if you want to talk about really big feet – world class examples – then you have to see Jeison Orlando Rodríguez Hernandez’s massive foundations!  Hernandez, who lives in Venezuela, has feet measuring nearly 16 inches each and his shoes are size 26.

That’s big enough to be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest feet.The previous record was held by Sultan Kösen, his feet measuring 14 inches.

We should all be proud of our feet. Without their foundation we’d be crawling. I agree with Leonardo da Vinci who said, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Monday, October 19, 2015

Investigations Agree: No Corporation in the World Has Done More Damage to the Earth Than Exxon

Good Day World!

No matter where you live on this planet, you’ve been affected (one way or another) by the misdeeds of Exxon.

In the last three weeks, two separate teams of journalists—the Pulitzer-prize winning reporters at the website Inside Climate News and another crew composed of Los Angeles Times veterans and up-and-comers at the Columbia Journalism School—have begun publishing the results of a pair of independent investigations into ExxonMobil.

Though they draw on completely different archives, leaked documents and interviews with ex-employees, they reach the same damning conclusion:

Exxon knew all that there was to know about climate change decades ago and instead of alerting the rest of us denied the science and obstructed the politics of global warming.

To be specific

I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it angers me. Monumental greed has led to nearly irreversible climate damage.

Exxon management knew what was happening and even circulated internal memos admitting that “human-induced climate change” was taking it’s toll on the planet.

I have one question for all the governments in the world…

When are you going to put Exxon out of business and try all of it’s mangement team for crimes against humanity?

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Oh Snap! Fox commentor arrested for lying and fraud

Good Day World!

It’s an open secret that Faux Fox News is not the place to go if you’re looking for credible reporting.

Here’s the latest example of the quality of commenters it hires:

Wayne Simmons, a 62-year-old who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by federal authorities following his indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing major fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.

Simmons has been interviewed by Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto and has appeared on "Fox & Friends." He has discussed a wide range of issues on the network, including CIA interrogation techniques and, ironically, a former CIA official found guilty on fraud charges.

Simmons claims to have worked for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, and "used that false claim in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The question is, doesn’t Fox vet it’s people for at least a modicum of truth?

Federal prosecutors say that Simmons had a "significant criminal history, including convictions for a crime of violence and firearms offenses, and is believed to have had an ongoing association with firearms notwithstanding those felony convictions.”

Another faux pas for Fox…another day in the “Spin Zone” for the Republican Party.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Silence is Golden in World’s Quietest Room

“I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down…”

-Buffalo Springfield

Microsoft File Photo

                                          Good Day World!

In our noisy world the lack of sound can be golden.

You might think that a library reading room or well-insulated basement is a quiet place, but compared to the anechoic chamber in Microsoft's audio lab, they're about as quiet as a jumbo jet.

The chamber, housed in Building 87 on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, was recently verified by (who else?) Guinness as being the quietest place in the entire world, reaching an eardrum-bending -20.3 decibels. (Source)

Microsoft and others use chambers like this to test equipment for noise levels, to provide a perfectly silent environment for training voice recognition, and so on.

You can learn more about sound ratings and the B87 anechoic chamber at Microsoft's website.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Friday, October 16, 2015

If I had a hammer, I’d…

“If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land…”

-Peter,Paul, & Mary

Good Day World!

Marvel Comic fans know all about the Norse Thunder God, Thor.

His hammer – Mjolnir – can not be picked up by just anyone. They have to be worthy – like Thor. As far as I know, the hammer has never found someone else worthy enough to fling it…but that’s another subject.

Enter…Allen Pan, aka Sufficiently Advanced on YouTube, who decided to replicate Mjolnir. The guy is an electrical engineer and pretty darn clever!

He used powerful magnets, and a microwave oven transformer electromagnet in the head. This creates a very strong magnetic pull, strong enough that the hammer, when placed on a metal surface (that can't be lifted, such as a locked manhole cover), feels too heavy to lift.

So how does Pan lift it?

The handle is attached to a capacitive touch sensor, which in turn is attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay, which serves as a switching device. As soon as someone grasps the handle, the electromagnets switch on, attaching the hammer to the metal surface.

The hammer can be turned off via a fingerprint sensor keyed to Pan's thumbprint. When Pan grasps the hammer, the magnets switch on. When he moves his thumb over the sensor, it switches off again, allowing Pan to lift the hammer.

Apparently Pan has a sense of humor and took his hammer to Venice Beach, California, and put it on a manhole and challenged people to pick it up.

All Pan has to do now is harness lightning (it shouldn’t be a problem for an electrical engineer) and train his hammer to come back to him when he throws it!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Why lower gas prices this year will hurt millions of Americans next year

                                     Good Day World!

Lower gas prices this year has been good news for the American consumer.

But, those low gas prices are going to take an unexpected toll on over 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population, next year.

Why?

The main reason for no benefit increases next year for millions of people is…believe it, or not, low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. This year, because gas prices have dropped, no one will get a cost of living increase in 2016.

It’s Official: No COLA in 2016

That affects retirees, disabled workers, and spouses with children, who get Social Security benefits.

That also goes for 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor. (Source)

It seems ironic to me that when something good happens for consumers in this country, it comes with a caveat.  

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Pass the Burrito Challenge and Get 10% of a Mexican Restaurant

Image: The 30 pound burrito at Don Chingon's in Brooklyn, New York.

                                      Good Day World!

Although I have no experience in the restaurant industry, I’m thinking about becoming a partner with Don Chingon, a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Yawn, right?

Not so fast. You could do the same thing, if you wanted. It’d help if you had a huge appetite.

All you have to do is eat a 30-lb burrito and drink a ghost pepper margarita in under an hour and you’ll own 10% of Don Chingon’s Mexican restaurant.

BTW – no bathroom breaks or discharge of bodily fluids allowed during that hour. The restaurant also will not accept responsibility for illness or death incurred while participating in the challenge.

You should also know why George Shea, a partner in the International Federation of Competitive Eating, calls the contest a "great PR stunt." He’s sure no one on the planet can meet that challenge.

Perhaps not… but, I’d try if there wasn’t a $150 entry fee!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Meet Florida’s Candidate for US Senate: He plans on Starting a 2nd Civil War!

Augustus Invictus

Good Day World!

So, you thought Donald Trump was a crazy political candidate. You haven’t seen anything yet.

Meet, Augustus Sol Invictus, an Independent running for a US Senate seat in Florida. He believes he was born to start a 2nd Civil War in America.

Even Trump can’t top that thought. 

Invictus has repeatedly vowed that it is his destiny to start a second civil war in America.

In a 2013 memo to his colleagues, he wrote, “I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War, I would begin it myself.” (Source)

Trump’s campaign slogan of Make America Great Again may be misleading, but when you take a look at Invictus’s campaign logo you’ll find yourself blinking in disbelief. It’s nearly identical to that of Benito Mussolini’s. He also likes to display swastikas in his published campaign materials.

Crazy enough for you?

But wait! There’s more: He has expressed support for a eugenics program, which would sterilize, euthanize or forcibly abort 'the weakest, the least intelligent, and the most diseased.”

If that doesn’t convince you he’s a true Loony Tune, the US Senate hopeful has admitted that he sacrificed a live goat and drank its blood. He’s a Pagan by the way.

FYI: Invictus has a frequently asked questions section on his website .

Sound’s like the Republican and Democratic candidates in Florida seeking senate offices are really going to have a challenge for the “crazy vote” in that state.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Whatever you do, don’t say…

Good Day World!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Who was chasing me? You're slow as ***!" like this DUI suspect did after claiming his dog was driving his car.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I left town because Hollywood Star-Wackers were hunting me,” and expect authorities to forget you committed a felony and had been hiding for five years when you got caught crossing the Canadian border into Vermont – like actor Randy Quaid did!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Just give me some (expletive) bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese." A University of Connecticut student faces criminal charges over a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn't let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “Officer, come over to my house quick. I’m too high on marijuana!” like one 22-year old Youngstown, Ohio, man did recently and not expect to be the butt of jokes for the rest of your natural life! 

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I’m a federal agent and I need a free pass to catch a fugitive at this event (Comic Con in Salt Lake City),” and actually just be a dweeb trying to scam a freebie.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “There’s a bomb here,” at your workplace just so you can get fired. There’s got to be an easier way!

Time for me to walk on down the road…  

Confused and Abused: Average Americans Don't Know What or Who to Believe In

The last decade has been a turning point in American society where traditional norms and truth have fallen alongside the wayside and chaos ...