Sorry to hear you’re embarrassed, squee lil’ tiger tot… but you have to understand, when your mama embarrasses you like this, all of us here in squee land just can’t get enough of it! So we’d never even dream of asking her to stop!
Friday, September 30, 2011
I Haz an Embarrassed…
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
In decades-old program, Uncle Sam provides pot - Life - msnbc.com
Don Ryan / APElvy Musikka, 72, who suffers from glaucoma, displays her marijuana cigarettes, which she regularly receives from the U.S. Government, at her home in Eugene, Ore.By NIGEL DUARA
EUGENE, Oregon — Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye.
She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S. government.
The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and her physician, the troopers handed her back the card — and her pot.
For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country's first legal pot smoker.
Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a glaring contradiction in the nation's 40-year war on drugs — maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.
Government officials say there is no contradiction. The program is no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, Steven Gust of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse told The Associated Press.
At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. Now, there are four left.
The government has only continued to supply the marijuana "for compassionate reasons," Gust said.
'I have no pain'
One of the recipients is Elvy Musikka, the chatty Oregon woman. A vocal marijuana advocate, Musikka relies on the pot to keep her glaucoma under control. She entered the program in 1988, and said that her experience with marijuana is proof that it works as a medicine.They "won't acknowledge the fact that I do not have even one aspirin in this house," she said, leaning back on her couch, glass bong cradled in her hand. "I have no pain."
Marijuana is getting a look from states around the country considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.
Marijuana was legal for much of U.S. history and was recognized as a medicine in 1850. Opposition to it began to gather and, by 1936, 48 states had passed laws regulating pot, fearing it could lead to addiction.
Anti-marijuana literature and films, like the infamous "Reefer Madness," helped fan those fears. Eventually, pot was classified among the most harmful of drugs, meaning it had no usefulness and a high potential for addiction.
Video: Medical pot could cost man his daughter (on this page)In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide Robert Randall of Washington, D.C. with marijuana because of his glaucoma — no other drug could effectively combat his condition. Randall became the nation's first legal pot smoker since the drug's prohibition.
Others join federal program
Eventually, the government created its program as part of a compromise over Randall's care in 1978, long before a single state passed a medical marijuana law. What followed were a series of petitions from people like Musikka to join the program.President George H.W. Bush's administration, getting tough on crime and drugs, stopped accepting new patients in 1992. Many of the patients who had qualified had AIDS, and they were dying.
The AP asked the agency that administers the program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for documents showing how much marijuana has been sent to patients since the first patient in 1976.
The agency supplied full data for 2005-2011, which showed that during that period the federal government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients.
Agency officials said records related to the program before 2005 had been destroyed, but were able to provide scattered records for a couple of years in the early 2000s.
The four patients remaining in the program estimate they have received a total of 584 pounds from the federal government over the years. On the street, that would be worth more than $500,000.
All of the marijuana comes from the University of Mississippi, where it is grown, harvested and stored.
Government pot production
Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who directs the operation, said the marijuana was a small part of the crop the university has been growing since 1968 for all cannabis research in the U.S. Among the studies are the pharmaceutical uses for synthetic mimics of pot's psychoactive ingredient, THC.ElSohly said the four patients are getting pot with about 3 percent THC. He said 3 percent is about the range patients have preferred in blind tests.
The marijuana is then sent from Mississippi to a tightly controlled North Carolina lab, where they are rolled into cigarettes. And every month, steel tins with white labels are sent to Florida and Iowa. Packed inside each is a half-pound of marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-wrapped joints.
With Musikka living in Oregon, she is entitled to more legal pot than anyone in the nation because she's also enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Neither Iowa nor Florida has approved marijuana as a medicine, so the federal pot is the only legal access to the drug for the other three patients.
The three other people in the program range in ages and doses of marijuana provided to them, but all consider themselves an endangered species that, once extinct, can be brushed aside by a federal government that pretends they don't exist.
All four have become crusaders for the marijuana-legalization movement. They're rock stars at pro-marijuana conferences, sought-after speakers and recognizable celebrities in the movement.
Irv Rosenfeld, a financial adviser in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been in the program since November 1982. His condition produces painful bone tumors, but he said marijuana has replaced prescription painkillers.
Rosenfeld likes to tell this story: In the mid-1980s, the federal government asked his doctor for an update on how Rosenfeld was doing. It was an update the doctor didn't believe the government was truly interested in. He had earlier tried to get a copy of the previous update, and was told the government couldn't find it, Rosenfeld said.
So instead of filling out the form, the doctor responded with a simple sentence written in large, red letters: "It's working."
via msnbc.msn.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
You Can Call Him Grumplestiltskin...
… because his scrunched up little fennec face spins grouchiness into squee gold.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Huge sun storm may super-charge northern lights- Space.com - msnbc.com
NASA/SDO/HMISunspot 1302 has already produced two X-flares (X1.4 on Sept. 22 and X1.9 on Sept. 24). Each of the dark cores in this image from SDO is larger than Earth. The sunspot's magnetic field is currently crackling with sub-X-class flares that could grow into larger eruptions as the sunspot continues to turn toward Earth.By Mike WallParticles that were blasted from the sun by a huge eruption over the weekend have reached Earth, causing geomagnetic storms on our planet, which will likely trigger a stunning northern lights show for some lucky skywatchers.
The particles reached at Earth at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT) Monday, kicking off moderate geomagnetic storms at lower latitudes and more serious storms closer to the Earth's poles, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These storms can disrupt GPS signals, radio communications and power grids, but no such effects have yet been reported, NOAA officials said.
The storms should also give skywatchers in select locations a treat, creating dazzling auroras (phenomena also known as the northern and southern lights). [ Photos: Auroras Dazzle Northern Observers ]
"Aurora watchers in Asia and Europe are most favorably positioned for this event, though it may persist long enough for viewers in North America," officials with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) wrote in an update today.
A powerful solar eruption
The sun unleashed a powerful solar flare and an event known as a coronal mas ejection (CME) on Saturday. CMEs are massive clouds of solar plasma that can streak through space at 3 million miles per hour or more.Luckily, this CME delivered a glancing blow. If it had hit Earth directly, the geomagnetic storms — and, possibly, the damage — could have been more serious. But we're not out of the woods yet, SWPC officials said.
The storm erupted from a region known as sunspot 1302. Sunspots are temporary dark patches on the solar surface caused by intense magnetic activity. The area around sunspot 1302 may be brewing up more trouble. [ Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Closest Star ]
"Region 1302 remains capable of producing more activity and will be in a favorable position for that activity to have impacts on Earth for the next 3-5 days," SWPC officials said.
For now, however, the biggest effect of the geomagnetic storms may be the auroras, so skywatchers in favorable locations should look up when they get the chance.
People in the mid- to high-latitudes should be alert for auroras after nightfall. The best hours to spot the northern and southern lights tend to be around local midnight, according to the website Spaceweather.com.
Sun ramping up
Sunspot 1302 has been particularly active lately, spouting off multiple X-class fares — the most poweful type — over the last few days. And that restlessness is part of a larger pattern, experts say.Solar activity has been ramping up over the last few months as the sun has roused itself from an extended quiescent phase in its 11-year cycle of activity.
Just last month, for example, the sun let loose with an X6.9 solar flare, which was the most powerful solar storm since December 2006, NASA scientists said.
And the storms should keep coming over the next few years. Scientists expect activity in the current cycle — known as Solar Cycle 24 — to peak around 2013.
Editor's Note: If you snap a photo of the supercharged aurora and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a story or gallery, please send to managing editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.
via msnbc.msn.com
Star light, Star bright.....
Star light, Star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Holy Crap, its the Satellite !!!
Record Haul Of Silver Found On World War Two Shipwreck Off The Coast Of Ireland | Sky News
7:38pm UK, Monday September 26, 2011
A team of shipwreck explorers has discovered the largest known haul of precious metals ever found in the sea.
The SS Gairsoppa was torpedoed by a German U Boat in 1941
Odyssey Marine Exploration located the wreck of the SS Gairsoppa in international waters, around 300 miles off the coast of Ireland.
The British cargo ship was sunk by a German U Boat in February 1941 while in operation as part of the war effort.
It was torpedoed two months after leaving India with its cargo.
The vessel had run low on fuel and became separated from the rest of its convoy when it was spotted by the Germans.
Only one of the 32 crew who managed to escape in lifeboats survived.
The hole in the SS Gairsoppa caused by the German torpedo
It is believed it was carrying more than seven million ounces of silver, worth £600,000 according to the valuation at the time. That is £132m at today's prices.
The wreck is 4,700 metres (2.92 miles) below the surface.
Video and photo footage of the Gairsoppa were obtained by the team after sending a remotely operated vehicle to the wreck.
Only one member of the SS Gairsoppa crew survived
Neil Cunningham Dobson, Odyssey's Principal Marine Archaeologist, said: "Even though records indicate that the lifeboats were launched before the ship sank, sadly most of her crew did not survive the long journey to shore.
"By finding this shipwreck, and telling the story of its loss, we pay tribute to the brave merchant sailors who lost their lives."
The contract to recover the wreck was awarded to Odyssey by the government in 2010.
As part of the deal, the company will retain 80% of the value of the silver recovered.
The stern compass of the SS Gairsoppa was captured on camera by wreck experts
via news.sky.com
Friday, September 23, 2011
Fox News Pulls Poll Showing Ron Paul Debate Victory, Claims Mitt Romney Won
Poll showed Paul trouncing Romney by 11,000 votes
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, September 23, 2011
The establishment media’s relentless campaign to denigrate Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign has manifested itself once again, after a poll showing Paul had won last night’s Orlando debate was pulled by Fox News who later published an article claiming Mitt Romney had instead claimed the victory.
When we took a screenshot of the poll at around 5am CST this morning, the result showed Paul easily beating his nearest rival Romney by 11,000 clear votes, with Paul at almost 40% and Romney trailing at just under 23%.
After our screenshot of the poll was posted on the ever-popular Drudge Report website, Fox News pulled the page that had previously housed the poll entirely. But the network went further, subsequently publishing an article by National Review editor and Fox News contributor Rich Lowry opining that Mitt Romney had in fact won the debate, thereby completely ignoring their own website poll, which restricts users to one vote per IP address.
Indeed, Lowry didn’t even mention Ron Paul once in his 13 paragraph piece, despite giving praise to Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Herman Cain – all of whom performed miserably in Fox News’ own post-debate poll. Ron Paul got nearly double the amount of votes in the poll than all three of them put together, but Lowry completely omitted Paul’s name from his report.
As we have previously documented, Fox News, even more so than the likes of MSNBC and CNN, have constantly undermined Paul’s campaign with dirty tricks, including playing the wrong audio of a crowd booing Paul at this year’s CPAC event.
See the results of the original poll before Fox News pulled it below.
via infowars.com
Goat tree/ arbre à chèvres
Goat tree/ arbre à chèvres
In Morocco, the native Tamri goats are so enticed by the berries of Argan trees that they have become adept at climbing the branches to reach their food. Even stranger still, the goats' droppings contain seed kernels which local farmers then grind into an oil that is used in cooking and cosmetics.photo belongs to l'insouciant1
via flickr.com
Aurora Time-Laps from the ISS
Aurora Time-Laps from the ISS
This gorgeous view of the aurora was taken from the International Space Station as it crossed over the southern Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011. The time-laps made from still images spans the time period from 12:22 to 12:45 PM ET.
While aurora are often seen near the poles, this aurora appeared at lower latitudes due to a geomagnetic storm – the insertion of energy into Earth's magnetic environment called the magnetosphere – caused by a coronal mass ejection from the sun that erupted on September 14. The storm was a moderate one, rated with what's called a KP index of 6 on a scale that goes from 0 to 9, caused by just a glancing blow from the CME. As particles from the incoming CME moved into the magnetosphere they traveled around to the back side -- or night side, since it is on the opposite side from the sun -- of Earth and then funneled down onto Earth's poles and even lower. As the particles bombarded oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, the atoms released a photon of light that we see as the beautiful colors of the aurora.
Credit: NASA
via flickr.com
World's Deadliest Volcano Not Likely To Repeat Killing Blast | Fox News
By Brett Israel Published September 23, 2011 | TechMediaNetwork
AP Photo/KOMPAS Images, Iwan SetiyawanOct. 19, 2010" Mount Tambora's 10 kilometer wide and 1 kilometer deep volcanic crater, created by the April 1815 eruption, is shown. Bold farmers routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanos in Indonesia, but those on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month, Sept., 2011.
Mount Tambora in Indonesia has been stirring lately, but don't expect another massive eruption from the so-called "world's deadliest volcano," one scientist said.
Tambora is famous for its 1815 eruption, the largest in recorded history, according to the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program. Tambora is a stratovolcano that forms the entire 37-mile- (60-kilometer) wide Sanggar Peninsula on northern Sumbawa Island. The 1815 eruption was so massive that pyroclastic flows — fast-traveling streams of hot ash and rock — reached the sea on all sides of the peninsula, killing 60,000 people.
The sulfur dioxide and other chemicals that the eruption spewed into the atmosphere circled the planet, blocking sunlight and cooling Earth's average temperature, creating a so-called "year without summer."
"It makes the St. Helens eruption look small," said Erik Klemetti, a volcanologist at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and the author of the Big Think's Eruption's blog.
But Tambora's eruptions aren't always so huge, and there's no reason to think any looming eruption would be so deadly. In fact, having had such a large eruption as recently as 1815 (geologically speaking) makes it less likely that a similar eruption will happen anytime soon, Klemetti said. [Related: The World's Five Most Active Volcanoes]
The volcano has had at least three smaller eruptions since 1815. The 1815 eruption was rated a 7 on the Volcanic Explosively Index (VEI), a classification system somewhat akin to the magnitude scale for earthquakes. The highest VEI is 8. The later eruptions were of VEI 0-2, mostly small eruptions from vents along the mountainside and lava flows. Tambora is thought to have last erupted around 1967.
Any new eruption would likely be similar to these smaller eruptions, because as with most volcanoes, there are long periods between huge eruptions, which take time to build up. For very large eruptions, the period in between can be upwards of hundreds to thousands of years.
Still, when a volcano with such a deadly past starts rumbling, people take notice. Indonesian volcanologists recently raised the alert level at the volcano due to an increase in shallow volcanic earthquakes and steam plumes rising from the caldera (large volcanic crater). When a volcano's alert level is raised, it's because officials want people to be aware of the threat of a potential eruption, not that something catastrophic is about happen.
"Although something big and bad at Tambora did happen in the recent past, there's no suggestion that what's going on there is going to be big and bad," Klemetti told OurAmazingPlanet.
* Image Gallery: Volcanoes from Space
* 7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye
* 7 Most Dangerous Places on Earth
* 7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye
* 7 Most Dangerous Places on Earth
via foxnews.com
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Faster-than-light neutrinos? Astounding! - msnbc.com
CERN scientists ask for confirmation of discovery that could rewrite laws of nature
CERN
The CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso experiment sends muon neutrinos through a tunnel at the French-Swiss border in the direction of a detector in Italy, more than 450 miles away.By Frank Jordans and Seth Borenstein
GENEVA — A pillar of physics — that nothing can go faster than the speed of light — appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein's theories.Scientists at the world's largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity — the famous E (equals) mc2 equation — just doesn't happen.
"The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization, known as CERN, hosted part of the experiment, which is unrelated to the massive $10 billion Large Hadron Collider also located at the site.
Gillies told The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements before claiming an actual discovery.
"They are inviting the broader physics community to look at what they've done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements," he said Thursday.AP
This undated file photo shows famed physicist Albert Einstein, whose special theory of relativity —the famous E (equals) mc2 equation —could be at risk.
Scientists at the competing Fermilab in Chicago have promised to start such work immediately.
"It's a shock," said Fermilab head theoretician Stephen Parke, who was not part of the research in Geneva. "It's going to cause us problems, no doubt about that — if it's true."
The Chicago team had similar faster-than-light results in 2007, but those came with a giant margin of error that undercut its scientific significance.
Other outside scientists expressed skepticism at CERN's claim that the neutrinos — one of the strangest well-known particles in physics — were observed smashing past the cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).
University of Maryland physics department Chairman Drew Baden called it "a flying carpet," something that was too fantastic to be believable.Anja Niedringhaus / AP
The globe of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, is illuminated outside Geneva.
CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. But given the enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there were no flaws in the experiment.
"We have not found any instrumental effect that could explain the result of the measurement," said Antonio Ereditato, a physicist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, who was involved in the experiment known as OPERA.
The researchers are now looking to the United States and Japan to confirm the results.
A similar neutrino experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research. The institute collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory for the experiment at CERN.
Katsanevas said help could also come from the T2K experiment in Japan, though that is currently on hold after the country's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of nature.
Einstein's special relativity theory that says energy equals mass times the speed of light squared underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now."
He cautioned that the neutrino researchers would have to explain why similar results weren't detected before.
"This would be such a sensational discovery if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully," said Ellis.
via msnbc.msn.com
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Sure, Department Store Staff Can See Into Your Dressing Room. They Aren't Pervs, They Just Think You're a Thief
If you ever feel like you're being watched while you try on clothes in the department store dressing room, well, maybe you are. A CBS2 undercover op reveals that the doors of several area department stores are deliberately designed so that store employees can see in. Oh, but don't worry, it's not because they're pervy, it's because they think you're a thief.
CBS2 interviewed a Macy's employee who asked to remain anonymous:
"I was shown the fitting room by another detective who was a man," he tells us. "In the women's department of the store, the slats or louvers of the doors were not pointed down, but they were pointed up where from the outside. When the door is closed, you can see in, and pretty plainly see in."The whistleblower says he was told dressing room doors were intentionally hung in a way that allowed employees to monitor customers to prevent shoplifting.
In addition to finding these kinds of doors at Macy's, CBS2 says they found similar doors in dressing rooms in adult and children's departments all over the city, at stores like Ann Taylor Loft and Saks Fifth Avenue as well. Macy's faced a similar probe in Florida this year, as well.
So is this legal? A rep from the ACLU says California law states that "anyone who looks through a hole or opening of a changing room or fitting room - which the occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy - with the intent to invade privacy is breaking the law." He deems what Macy's and other stores are doing "playing with fire" when it comes to treading the fine line between loss prevention measures and invasion of privacy.
Seems like if you don't want to be seen stripping to your skivvies while you shop for new duds, you might want to either buy on the spot and return what doesn't fit after you check it out at home, or, uh, just drape some clothes over the slats while you're in the stall and beat them at their own game.
Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
via laist.com
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Protesters invade NYC Financial District - msnbc.com
Eric Thayer / ReutersProtesters demonstrate Saturday near New York's Wall Street against banks and corporations.
NEW YORK — More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on New York City's Financial District on Saturday for what could be a days-long protest of what they said was corporate greed favoring the rich at the expense of ordinary people.
The rally, dubbed #OccupyWallStreet on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook where word was spread, spurred the New York Police Department to lock down Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, local media reported.
Police set up checkpoints to allow only those who could prove they lived or worked on Wall Street to enter, the New York Daily News reported.
Pictures posted on Twitter and elsewhere showed police and barricades around the famous bronze bull statue on lower Broadway.
"A protest area was established on Broad Street at Exchange Street, next to the stock exchange, but protesters elected not to use it," police spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement reported by The New York Times.
Demonstrators gathered in parks and plazas in Lower Manhattan and said they were determined to stay at least through the weekend so they could confront Wall Street workers on Monday morning.
Some protesters said they would stay weeks or months and likened their rally to demonstrations earlier this year in Egypt, Israel and Spain.
"It's a worthy cause because people on Wall Street are blood-sucking warmongers," Bill Steyerd, 68, a Vietnam veteran from Queens, told the New York Daily News. "I'm here, and in spite of these dinky barricades, we're going to shut down Wall Street with people power."
Counterculture magazine Adbusters and hacking group Anonymous were among the organizers asking participants to set up tents, kitchens and peaceful barricades, NY1 television station reported. Organizers hoped to draw at least 20,000 during the weekend. Satellite demonstrations were held in Los Angeles and Seattle under a Day of Rage banner, and in Barcelona, Spain, and elsewhere.
Participants tweeted pictures of a free food station loaded with jars of peanut butter to help sustain protesters.
Saturday evening, the protesters shown in livestream video were deciding where to spend the night, on Wall Street area sidewalks, the nearby Staten Island ferry plaza or parks.
Protesters set up at Zucotti Park on Broadway but it was not immediately clear if police would let them stay there overnight.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday that the protesters have a right to be heard, as long as they do not interfere with others' rights.
"CEOs, the biggest corporations, and the wealthy are taking too much from our country and I think it's time for us to take back," one protester told NY1.
"What I hope to accomplish is that people who have gotten in trouble on Wall Street actually pay an equal share for what they've done," said another.
Dave Woessner, 31, a student at Harvard Divinity School, was among those marching near the bull statue early in the afternoon.
"When you idealize financial markets as salvific you embrace the idea that profit is all that matters," he told the Times.
"A lot of us feel there is a large crisis in our economy and a lot of it is caused by the folks who do business here," said Jason Ahmadi, 26, from Oakland, Calif., told the Daily News.
Several hundred at nightfall tried to reach Wall Street after marching through nearby streets, the Times reported. However, police blocked them and the march ended at a building housing Cipriani Wall Street, a high end restaurant built into the former home of financial institutions, and from where patrons could be seen in tweeted pictures raising drinks in their honor.
Protesters responded by pointing at them and chanting "pay your share," the Times reported.
Some said they plan to heckle President Barack Obama, who will be at the United Nations General Assembly during the week.
via msnbc.msn.com
Friday, September 16, 2011
Future of Technology - The wild possibilities of printing food
Courtesy of Fast Company
By Lakshmi Sandhana
Fast CompanyTypically, 3-D printers are discussed in light of the efficiencies they bring to industrial design and fabrication. They will soon help chefs create foods that can’t be made by hand if Cornell Creative Machines Lab, or their peers in the industry, can make them accessible.
The newest 3-D food printer, now being honed at CCML, can produce: tiny space shuttle-shaped scallop nuggets (image above); and cakes or cookies that, when you slice into them, reveal a special message buried within, like a wedding date, initials (image below) or a corporate logo. They can also make a solid hamburger patty, with liquid layers of ketchup and mustard, or a hamburger substitute that’s made from vegan or raw foods.
Courtesy of Fast Company
The CCML food printers require edible inks and electronic blueprints called FabApps. This machine prints food using multiple cartridges, going line by line until the desired shape is extruded. "The electronic blueprint specifies exactly which materials go where — it is essentially a blueprint of the food item," says Hod Lipson, head of the lab.
Other food printers, including those in prototype and design phases at MIT, could scan QR-code recipes.
With most 3-D food printing concepts today, the inks are the foods themselves in fluid form — think molten chocolate, cheese or cookie dough. Foods that can’t be readily extruded from a syringe such as meats and vegetables are ground and mixed with other liquids to create novel food inks.
While printing pyramids of pastry or hemispheres of ham sounds whimsical, food printing is about more than decorative presentation. It’s a way to create new flavors and forms of food by varying its chemical properties. "It’s a huge 'design space,' and the combination of tastes and textures, geometries and colors that can be achieved is enormous,” says Lipson.
The head of the project at CCML, Jeffrey Ian Lipton, has developed a new printing technique that allows the printer to change the texture of the food being printed. Called stochastic printing, or squiggle printing, the food buckles and coils as it comes out of the syringe instead of falling in a straight line. This results in very porous structures whose absorbent quality can be completely controlled.
Using corn masa dough, the lab team along with Chef David Arnold printed a new form of corn chip in the shape of a flower that could be deep fried evenly. "If it were solid you would burn the outside before the inside was fried," says Lipton. "By making it porous we can deep fry the whole thing at the same time. Therefore we can make much larger objects to deep fry."
Courtesy of Fast Company
Controlling texture finely means being able to change the texture of a single food material and have it be different in different parts of the shape. A tortilla could be made to go from crispy and dense on the edges to light and airy on the inside. "We can make an object softer, or stringy or absorbent," says Lipton. "You can get things to more evenly steam or deep fry, or hold more juices inside."
The Cornell group on the Fab@Home project has teamed up with the French Culinary Institute to create new foods and different forms of existing foods with novel materials. Lipton believes that stochastic printing, leveraged with food printing, will enable chefs to innovate and create new things that have never existed before faster, essentially allowing rapid prototyping of food.
"Foods that aren’t considered ‘food’ will become food in the future," says Homaro Cantu, executive chef at the Moto Restaurant in Chicago. He is exploring making foods look and taste like something they're not. "The fact is Americans will never give up their cheeseburgers and French fries, so we need to replace them with healthy raw ingredients. The home cook may never have the skill set to actually produce (the healthiest) foods — this is where food printing or what I call food transmogrification can step in and fill the void."
CCML's Lipton is working on finding more food materials whose properties can be altered to make them more delicious. The team’s efforts have caught the attention of many companies.
Essential Dynamics, a tech startup in New York, plans to bring out a commercial version of the 3-D food printer that will retail for $1,000 initially. Its founder, Jamil Yosefzai, believes that the desire to customize foods will make 3-D food printers an essential part of everyone’s kitchen in due course. “Customization of foods has played an integral role in our 250,000-year history,” says Yosefzai. "As time passes, 3-D food printing we will go from novelty … to utility … to indispensability."
CCML's Lipton added: "People like to play with food. They like to express themselves in food. This allows them to express themselves in not just what the food is made of, but what its shaped like. We can make health food more fun, interesting and appealing with this technology. What kid wouldn't eat a space shuttle, even one made of peas?"
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Visible Only From Above, Mystifying 'Nazca Lines' Discovered in Mideast
By Owen Jarus | LiveScience.com – 4 hrs ago
The giant stone structures form wheel shapes with spokes often radiating inside. Here a cluster of wheels in the Azraq Oasis. CREDIT: David D. Boyer
They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.
They are the Middle East's own version of the Nazca Lines — ancient "geolyphs," or drawings, that span deserts in southern Peru — and now, thanks to new satellite-mapping technologies, and an aerial photography program in Jordan, researchers are discovering more of them than ever before. They number well into the thousands.
Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across. [See gallery of wheel structures]
"In Jordan alone we've got stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," said David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.
Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use.
His team's studies are part of a long-term aerial reconnaissance project that is looking at archaeological sites across Jordan. As of now, Kennedy and his colleagues are puzzled as to what the structures may have been used for or what meaning they held. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]
Fascinating structures
Kennedy's main area of expertise is in Roman archaeology, but he became fascinated by these structures when, as a student, he read accounts of Royal Air Force pilots flying over them in the 1920s on airmail routes across Jordan. "You can't not be fascinated by these things," Kennedy said.
Indeed, in 1927 RAF Flight Lt. Percy Maitland published an account of the ruins in the journal Antiquity. He reported encountering them over "lava country" and said that they, along with the other stone structures, are known to the Bedouin as the "works of the old men."
Kennedy and his team have been studying the structures using aerial photography and Google Earth, as the wheels are hard to pick up from the ground, Kennedy said.
"Sometimes when you're actually there on the site you can make out something of a pattern but not very easily," he said. "Whereas if you go up just a hundred feet or so it, for me, comes sharply into focus what the shape is."
The designs must have been clearer when they were originally built. "People have probably walked over them, walked past them, for centuries, millennia, without having any clear idea what the shape was."
(The team has created an archive of images of the wheels from various sites in the Middle East.)
What were they used for?
So far, none of the wheels appears to have been excavated, something that makes dating them, and finding out their purpose, more difficult. Archaeologists studying them in the pre-Google Earth era speculated that they could be the remains of houses or cemeteries. Kennedy said that neither of these explanations seems to work out well.
"There seems to be some overarching cultural continuum in this area in which people felt there was a need to build structures that were circular."
Some of the wheels are found in isolation while others are clustered together. At one location, near the Azraq Oasis, hundreds of them can be found clustered into a dozen groups. "Some of these collections around Azraq are really quite remarkable," Kennedy said.
In Saudi Arabia, Kennedy's team has found wheel styles that are quite different: Some are rectangular and are not wheels at all; others are circular but contain two spokes forming a bar often aligned in the same direction that the sun rises and sets in the Middle East.
The ones in Jordan and Syria, on the other hand, have numerous spokes and do not seem to be aligned with any astronomical phenomena. "On looking at large numbers of these, over a number of years, I wasn't struck by any pattern in the way in which the spokes were laid out," Kennedy said.
Cairns are often found associated with the wheels. Sometimes they circle the perimeter of the wheel, other times they are in among the spokes. In Saudi Arabia some of the cairns look, from the air, like they are associated with ancient burials.
Dating the wheels is difficult, since they appear to be prehistoric, but could date to as recently as 2,000 years ago. The researchers have noted that the wheels are often found on top of kites, which date as far back as 9,000 years, but never vice versa. "That suggests that wheels are more recent than the kites," Kennedy said.
Amelia Sparavigna, a physics professor at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, told Live Science in an email that she agrees these structures can be referred to as geoglyphs in the same way as the Nazca Lines are. "If we define a 'geoglyph' as a wide sign on the ground of artificial origin, the stone circles are geoglyphs," Sparavignawrote in her email.
The function of the wheels may also have been similar to the enigmatic drawings in the Nazca desert. [Science as Art: A Gallery]
"If we consider, more generally, the stone circles as worship places of ancestors, or places for rituals connected with astronomical events or with seasons, they could have the same function of [the] geoglyphs of South America, the Nazca Lines for instance. The design is different, but the function could be the same," she wrote in her email.
Kennedy said that for now the meaning of the wheels remains a mystery. "The question is what was the purpose?"
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
via news.yahoo.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Is Your Kid Drinking Arsenic?
By Dr. Manny Alvarez
I’m very proud of Dr. Oz for his report today on potentially dangerous levels of arsenic found in certain brands of apple juice, which may classify some of them as unsuitable for consumption. He’s sounding the alarm for an issue that I believe needs to be brought to attention.
Arsenic, a naturally occurring and inorganic heavy metal, is a very problematic substance for children, especially when it comes to brain health and early development.
Dr. Manny Alvarez
It has also been linked with cancer and kidney problems. Too much arsenic, of course, is capable of killing a person.
The FDA has set a limit of 23 parts per billion (ppb) of inorganic and organic arsenic to determine whether foods or beverages for public consumption are a public health risk or merit concern. If the product reaches or exceeds that level, the FDA re-tests a sample to measure the inorganic arsenic.
The government organization claims that Dr. Oz’s calculations are off because he merely measured the total levels of arsenic in juice, rather than the harmful inorganic levels by themselves.
I’m not going to comment about the methodology in calculating the arsenic levels in apple juice until I see more information released.However, arsenic levels in apple juice – at any level – especially levels that supersede acceptable levels that have been set by FDA itself should not be tolerated.
Dr. Oz’s show addressed a few common themes in America today, globalization and the importation of consumer products from other countries, which often have little or no supervision in regards to ensuring the safety of consumers.
This practice, I believe, is often at the expense of our own children, who are growing and developing and especially affected by harmful exposure to metals and chemicals.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but just look at the growing levels of learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders and other diseases that seem so prevalent today as compared to decades ago.
I know that some folks will criticize Dr. Oz for bringing this story to parents' attention, but I will not. Instead, I am applauding him for his much-needed report, and I hope more people will follow his lead in bring these ignored issues to light.
via foxnews.com
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Greatest Kitteh Home of All (Space and) Time!
O. MAH. TIMELORD! Ebery kitteh needz wun ob dese, aifinkso! Iz praktikally purrfekt! Teh wun fing dey gawt rong iz dat iz nawt biggur awn teh inside den awn teh owtside:
Butt (!) we won’t hold dat aginst dem, rite? ‘Cuz iz pritty hard 2 harness teh powerz ob Timelord teknologee 4 a simpul kitteh hoam. Sew wut doez u fink? Gratest fing eber? Or 2 much for ur kitteh?
Friday, September 9, 2011
Search under way for 10 workers from Gulf of Mexico oil rig - CNN.com
(CNN) -- Ten workers are missing from a U.S.-owned oil rig in the tropical-storm-roiled Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex said Friday.
"We will continue to help with the search and rescue of the 10 workers of the Geokinetics company who were evacuated today at 12:30 from the 'Trinity II,' owned by the same company," Pemex said in a news release.
The 10 disappeared after being taken off the rig amid high seas stirred up by Tropical Storm Nate, which is sitting nearly stationary to the south, near the Yucatan Peninsula.
The workers were contracted by Geokinetics, based in Houston, Texas, the company said.
Two Pemex-chartered rescue boats have been unable to find the missing workers, the company said.
via cnn.com
Thursday, September 8, 2011
San Diego hit by major power failure - US news - msnbc.com
SAN DIEGO — A major power failure hit a large part of Southern California on Thursday, including San Diego, the nation's eighth-largest city.
The problem, which extended into Mexico's Baja peninsula, cut electricity to millions of people, including 1.4 million in San Diego.
San Diego Gas & Electric Co. officials said there was a problem with a transmission line between Arizona and California and that two units at the San Onofre nuclear plant north of the city went offline as a result.
The utility officials told a news conference that they were unsure how long it would take to restore power but said electricity might be out in some areas into Friday. They said the priority was to get power back into central San Diego, then out to substations and to customers.
They said there was no indication that the problem was the result of a terrorist attack.
San Diego police spokeswoman Andra Brown said that 13 police stations were without power but were able to continue operating and taking 911 calls by using generators.
At the San Diego airport, no outbound flights were going out, but inbound flights were still coming in. There was no estimate on how long flights are being delayed; passengers were advised to check with their airline before coming to the airport.
via msnbc.msn.com
Longshoremen storm Wash. port over labor dispute
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) -- Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.
Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.
No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of other union laborers.
Thursday's violence was first reported by Kelso radio station KLOG.
Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday.
"We're not surprised," Duscha said. "A lot of the protesters were telling us this in only the start."
One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said. "One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of discretion."
The train was the first grain shipment to arrive at Longview. It arrived Wednesday night after police arrested 19 demonstrators who tried to block the tracks. They were led by ILWU International President Robert McEllrath, who said they would return.
The blockade appeared to defy a federal restraining order issued last week against the union after it was accused of assaults and death threats.
EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said it was unfortunate that law enforcement needed to make arrests.
via hosted.ap.org
Obama Preparing for Martial Law During Hyperinflation
In August of 2009, the city of Paterson, New Jersey, proposed the implementation of martial law by imposing an adult curfew at night in an attempt to curb violence. This unprecedented proposed ordinance would have made it illegal for adults to leave their homes and be out in the public in Paterson between the hours of 12AM and 7AM, with a penalty of up to a $2,000 fine and 90 days in jail. This ordinance would have been completely unconstitutional, especially being that it was a non-emergency situation.NIA actually determined that violence in the city was down that year and trending downward over the previous few years. We thought for sure that there was more to the story than what was being reported by the mainstream media, so we traveled to Paterson City Hall and attempted to interview then-Mayor Joey Torres on camera. The mayor turned down the interview and refused to answer our questions even off camera.
As we left the mayor's office, we met a city employee who overheard our conversation and introduced us to then-City Council President Jeffery Jones, who agreed to an interview and invited us into his office. Jones explained to us that he is the City Council President and the first time he ever heard of this proposal was from the Associated Press, after Torres already announced it on the steps of the police department saying, "we're trying to think outside the box" in regards to solving crime issues. Jones expressed disbelief that the mayor would want to lock down an entire city including the people who aren't committing crimes. He was also surprised that the AP already had a list of the 30 shootings that occurred in the city during the previous year, when this was undisclosed information that even he didn't have at the time.
Jones was flabbergasted that this ordinance was even being considered since it completely lacked logic. He said that in the past before any other ordinances were publicly announced by the mayor, there would always be a comprehensive discussion about it between local government officials. Not only was there no discussion about it, but Torres hastily added it to the City Council's agenda for a vote at their very next meeting. Jones was perplexed not just by the total lack of discussion and rush to get it passed, but by the total lack of details in the ordinance regarding the roles of departments, agencies, and the police department's capacity to do the work. Using common sense, Jones said that if the police department had the capacity to enforce the ordinance, we wouldn't even be discussing it.
NIA agreed with Jones that if the police department couldn't prevent the 30 shootings from taking place in the city, there is no way on earth that it will have the ability to enforce an ordinance keeping 146,199 residents in their homes at night. Torres must have known that and must have also known that proposing this ordinance would be career suicide. Therefore, we see no logical explanation as to why Torres would propose this during a time when crime in the city was declining and he was up for reelection the very next year. Even a preschool child with no political experience would focus on taking credit for the reduction in crime, instead of giving the impression that the city has no protection or safety for its residents by proclaiming they must all be locked down.
Paterson is one of the largest recipients of federal funding per capita in the U.S. It makes total sense to NIA if the Federal Government was forcing Torres to propose this ordinance. The government most likely wanted to gauge the public's reaction and see what type of outrage there would be in response to this proposal. The government wanted to see just how many residents would be willing to so easily give up their freedom and liberty in the name of safety by supporting the ordinance. The government wanted to know how difficult it would be to get the ordinance passed and if it was passed, they wanted to see what it would take to enforce it. A real life trial of martial law in one of the largest cities in the New York metropolitan area would allow the military to be better equipped to handle all types of situations when martial law takes place on a nationwide basis during hyperinflation.
The reason why we believe the ordinance was so vague with no details about enforcement is simple, the police department was never intended to enforce the ordinance. In the event that the ordinance was passed, there would immediately be thousands of brand new criminals breaking the law in Paterson and Torres would have a need to ask the Federal Government to bring in the U.S. military to detain the thousands of criminals who were disobeying the law. The Federal Government would in effect be creating a phony conflict in a city with a high crime rate so that they can justify using the U.S. military at home.
Last year, President Obama signed an Executive Order "Establishment of the Council of Governors", which Obama claims is an order to strengthen further the "partnership" between the Federal Government and State governments to "protect" our Nation and its people and property. It orders that a council be created of 10 State Governors appointed by the President who will meet to exchange information with the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, and many other government officials related to the military. Their meetings will concern matters involving the National Guard of the various States, homeland defense, civil support, synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.
From our experience, we know that the words "partnership" and "protect" are being used in this order to deceive the public into believing the Executive Order serves some kind of a noble purpose, which to us shows malicious intent behind the creation of the order. "Civil support" in this Executive Order can't possibly mean anything other than martial law when civil unrest takes place inside of a city. This Executive Order is an attempt to invalidate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and make it legal for the military to enforce civilian laws inside of a city like Paterson. You would think that an Executive Order this outrageous and disturbing would have all Americans up in arms, but the mainstream media completely ignored this latest attempt by Obama to transfer power from state and local governments to the Federal Government, and didn't have one single report about it.
Interestingly, Obama was just in Paterson this past Sunday touring parts of the city damaged by Hurricane Irene with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and newly elected Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones. (Jones in late-September 2009 rejected the adult curfew ordinance of former-Paterson Mayor Joey Torres and in 2010 ran against him for mayor, defeating him despite being outspent 17 to 1.) Hurricane Irene caused the worst flooding crisis in city history. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for parts of the city, forcing thousands of people out of their homes and hundreds of businesses to close. All across Paterson, store shelves were empty with no food, water, batteries, or flashlights available to purchase anywhere. With most of the main streets and bridges into the city flooded, trucks weren't able to enter the city to replenish stores with supplies.
As bad as the flooding from Hurricane Irene was for Paterson residents, it is nothing compared to the devastation and destruction that will be caused by a different kind of flooding from Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Obama and Bernanke have been flooding the world with trillions of U.S. dollars with the false belief that because Treasury yields have been falling to record lows, Obama can run trillion dollar budget deficits with Bernanke leaving the Federal Funds Rate near zero forever. Their actions are setting up the next major U.S. financial crisis, which will be massive price inflation that eventually results in hyperinflation and leads to government price controls. The empty store shelves in Paterson from Hurricane Irene are finally being replenished now that flood waters are subsiding. Unfortunately, the empty store shelves that will arise from hyperinflation and government price controls, will be permanent.
The 77-foot high Great Falls and river that was responsible for most of the flooding in Paterson, was previously used for centuries to power dozens of surrounding mills that produced textiles, firearms, and railroad locomotive products. Paterson eventually became one of the world's largest producing cities of silk, with 50% of U.S. silk production coming from Paterson, and was later named the "Silk City". Immigrants from all around the world who moved to the U.S., came to Paterson from Ellis Island to get their first job in America at one of Paterson's many factories.
Today, there are no more silk mills left in Paterson and unemployment in the city is nearly double the national average. With 30% of Paterson residents living below poverty, Paterson is one of the U.S. cities that will be hurt most by the massive monetary inflation of the Federal Reserve. The majority of people in Paterson are relying on government entitlement programs just to survive and don't have the financial resources to accumulate physical gold and silver.
While in Paterson, Obama pledged Federal Government funding to residents who were devastated by the hurricane. The White House has estimated that the U.S. government's cost for Hurricane Irene relief will be around $1.5 billion, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) only has $800 million in funds left. FEMA will soon be asking Congress for billions of dollars that our government doesn't have and the Federal Reserve will be forced to print. By printing the FEMA funds to be provided to people in Paterson, the food stamps, unemployment checks, welfare checks, and other government entitlements that Paterson residents depend on to survive, will all lose their purchasing power, making residents more dependent on government than ever. This is Obama's strategy to get reelected, promise people more government handouts that instead of helping them, cause the U.S. dollar to lose its purchasing power and make the people as dependent on government as possible.
NIA believes the main reason Obama went to Paterson was to see exactly how residents responded to mandatory evacuations and empty store shelves. He knows that Paterson is a microcosm of what the whole entire U.S. will soon look like during hyperinflation. That is why the Federal Government was so eager to run martial law tests and trials in Paterson. They know that the city is practically on the verge already of having rioting, looting, and civil unrest, before hyperinflation arrives. By providing Paterson with more federal funds, we are sure a secret deal will be worked out that will allow the Federal Government to push through their plans for a martial law trial in Paterson without any resistance from local government officials
NIA believes that the Federal Government has no business providing funds to victims of hurricanes and other natural disasters. There is absolutely nothing in the U.S. Constitution that authorizes it. Most Americans are afraid to speak out against helping victims of natural disasters, but FEMA is a bureaucratic waste that needs to be eliminated in favor of free market solutions. During Hurricane Katrina, thousands of Americans volunteered to help out in disaster relief, but instead of being put straight to work they were told to sit around for hours, which turned into days, and many of them decided to just go home. FEMA spent an outrageous $416,000 per person to provide temporary housing for several hundred Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Alabama. FEMA even paid $800 million to manufacture 11,000 mobile homes to be used as shelter for Hurricane Katrina victims, but they were never used and were left to waste away in Arkansas.
The most shocking FEMA debacle is when they decided to give out thousands of debit cards with $2,000 on them to Hurricane Katrina victims. Many people ended up using these debit cards at strip clubs. A jail escapee convicted of murder was even able to say he was a Hurricane Katrina victim and get a free $2,000 FEMA debit card, which he used to buy beer and drugs, before paying a limo driver to transport him far out of the area. A Red Cross volunteer was convicted and jailed for stealing $250,000 worth of these debit cards and we are sure that others got away with stealing millions of dollars worth of them.
If Americans didn't have the mindset that FEMA will always be there to rescue them, more Americans would have full insurance coverage on their homes. One Paterson resident who we saw on the nightly news crying about his home being flooded and how he didn't have money for flood insurance, had an iPhone in his hand. The average annual flood insurance policy costs less than the average annual mobile phone bill. If the cost of insurance to cover flood damages is extraordinarily high in certain areas because the locations are prone to flood, then Americans shouldn't be living there. Americans who are smart enough not to build a home on the edge of a cliff or next to a river, shouldn't be forced to pay for incompetent Americans who did. It is the existence of FEMA that encourages Americans to build in risky locations without thinking of the consequences.
Ever since Christie was elected Governor of New Jersey, he has surpassed the expectations we had for him, taking dramatic steps to cut wasteful spending in the state. Unfortunately, he appears to have changed his beliefs due to a Category 1 hurricane. He now doesn't even think it is necessary for the Federal Government to cut enough spending in parts of the budget to cover its spending on hurricane relief. The fact is, if Christie wants to help residents of New Jersey, he should have reserves set aside to do so on his own. If anybody in government is responsible for helping New Jersey residents hurt by Hurricane Irene, it is Christie himself. Instead of state and local elected representatives putting funds aside for a rainy day, it seems as though their entire purpose is to beg the Federal Government for relief.
NIA expects Sarah Palin to announce her candidacy for the Republican Nomination for President of the United States this month. It was a prediction that NIA originally made in its top 10 predictions for 2011 back in January. We give her credit for helping build $14 billion in state reserves while she was Governor of Alaska, before quitting the job that she was nominated for. If a natural disaster strikes Alaska, they will be able to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, these Alaskans would in effect be punished for their good decisions by being forced to pay for the reckless decisions of other states. Many other states would also have large reserves for a rainy day if it wasn't for the Federal Government creating a moral hazard by providing funding to state and local governments for disaster relief.
If Alaska was smart they would secede from the union and become their own country. Alaska currently has no state income tax or sales tax, and if Alaskans no longer had to pay federal income tax to support the reckless wasteful spending of U.S. politicians, millions of people from across the U.S. and all around the world would want to move to Alaska. As the U.S. dollar continues to rapidly lose its purchasing power, the likelihood of Alaska and other states moving towards secession will greatly increase. In 2006, an organization collected the required signatures to place on Alaska's fall ballot an initiative to have Alaska secede from the union, but the State Supreme Court ruled any attempt at secession to be illegal and unconstitutional.
NIA believes that U.S. states have the legal right to secede from the union. U.S. courts have proven time and time again that they will incorrectly interpret the U.S. Constitution in order to protect the government's destructive illegal actions while selectively ignoring provisions that protect American's rights. The U.S. is addicted to waging illegal wars against countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and soon to be Syria. The U.S. is also addicted to money printing, in large part to pay for its illegal wars. These dangerous addictions are unconstitutional, because the U.S. Constitution said wars must be approved by Congress and only gold and silver shall be used as legal tender. The act of secession is a very powerful tool that should only be used during times in which the Federal Government's actions threaten the freedom and liberty of the citizens they swore to protect. Secession is legal and constitutional because without it there is nothing to keep the Federal Government in check and force them to rein in out of control deficit spending that threatens our very existence as a sovereign nation.
via inflation.us
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Women who drink alcohol daily stay healthy | abc7.com
A new study says middle-aged women who have a drink a day are more likely to stay healthy than those who don't drink. (KABC Photo)
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Middle-aged women who have a drink a day are more likely to stay healthy than those who don't drink.
That's according to a new study from researchers at Harvard University.
They found that women in their late 50's who averaged about three to 15 alcoholic drinks per week had nearly 30 percent higher odds of being free from chronic illness and mental health problems at age 70.
Researchers say the key is spreading out alcohol consumption throughout the week.
The study was published in the journal PLoS Medicine.
via abclocal.go.com
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)