Friday, January 24, 2014

24 Jan - Blogs I'm Following II

Cover of January, 1915 National Geographic Mag...Cover of January, 1915 National Geographic Magazine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Geography GirlGeography Girl (Photo credit: brentdanley)
10;28pm MST

Who's up for a jography quiz? Plus Garrison Keillor's "personal geography" of "home"

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 28 minutes ago
*The cover story of the February 2014 NationalGeographic is "The New Science of the Brain."* *by Ken* I don't know how long National Geographic was including a monthly geography quiz on the mailing insert that includes the subscriber's address on subscription copies before I noticed it. But however long it was, it spared me that many months' or more likely years' worth of humiliation. Because once I started looking at the quizzes, I started stinking at them. So let's not kid ourselves, the fact that this month I suddenly got all five questions right probably has something to do w... more »

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 36 minutes ago
A winter sunrise in Norway. [National Geographic photo]

Fossil fuels are immoral?

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 44 minutes ago
Are they? Center for Industrial Progress president Alex Epstein tells John Stossel “we live on the cleanest, safest planet in history … *because* we burn fossil fuels.” Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)

On Teaching: An Open Letter to Marc Tucker

deutsch29 at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 hour ago
Marc, I have read your article, On Writing, and I am wondering about a couple of issues that I address in this post. The first issue is pronoun-centered– who “we” are. The second involves your discourse on “lower ranking” teachers. I end by offering my own suggestions. Who Are “We”? One of the striking quotes in your […]

The Paleo Rodeo is up...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 hour ago
*some great links.* *Paleo Rodeo*

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 2 hours ago
Oh, let's not just pick on California. It's the whole country, too... - CP

"Heroes Are Rare..."

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 2 hours ago
"Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divid... more »

Global Warming Hits the Philippines, Part 3

Nonoy Oplas at Government and Taxes - 2 hours ago
It is rather cold these days in the Philippines that many legislators are seen with their hands in their own pockets. Partly joke, partly true. Cold mornings, even at noon time, are common these days in Metro Manila and the rest of the country. A friend of a friend posted this image this morning. 14 C in Binan, Laguna, just a few kilometers south of Metro Manila. Wow. The cold spell has been with us since last December. Coldest so far in M. Manila this month was 17.5 C last Sunday. In Baguio City, 8.1 C also last Sunday. From wunderground, it says projected temperature tonight ... more »

"Why Are You Waiting?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 2 hours ago
"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?" ~ Stephen Levine

Thomas Berry, "The Meadow Across the Creek"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 2 hours ago
*"The Meadow Across the Creek"* by Thomas Berry "I was a young person then, some twelve years old. My family was moving from a more settled part of a Southern town out to the edge of town where the new house was still being built. The house, not yet finished, was situated on a slight incline. Down below was a small creek and there across the creek was a meadow. It was an early afternoon in May when I first looked down over the scene and saw the meadow. The field was covered with lilies rising above the thick grass. A magic moment, this experience gave to my life something, I know n... more »

Global warming hits the Philippines, part 3

Nonoy Oplas at Government and Taxes - 3 hours ago
(Note: in this series, here are Part 2 and Part 1) Global warming threatens to sink half of Navotas By TJ Burgonio Inquirer, First Posted 01:58:00 04/30/2007 MANILA, Philippines -- Global warming threatens to submerge parts of Manila and wipe out entire islands, a conservation group warned, as it brought its campaign to cut carbon dioxide emissions to the Philippines. “The Philippines is extremely vulnerable to the ravages of climate change,” the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said. “Food and freshwater shortages, receding coastlines and an increase in political and economic ... more »

Economist's Absurd "Divided Thailand" Commentary

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 3 hours ago
*January 24, 2014* (ATN) - The Economist has recently floated a narrative that the current Thai regime could flee to the north and "separate" the region from Thailand. Far from a legitimate government seeking to "preserve democracy," it a Western-backed proxy regime carrying out the tried by true modern imperial agenda of divide and rule. First, it should be remembered that the Economist publishes paid-for op-eds. It is not news, it is not analysis, it is simply the message told by the highest bidders - the corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London. These interests ar... more »

"Fight or Flight: Who Runs Your Life?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 3 hours ago
"Fight or Flight: Who Runs Your Life?" by Tony Schwartz "Think, for a moment, about the life you're living. You skitter from activity to activity. The consequence is that you don't do anything particularly well. You're easily distracted and have difficulty paying attention. You rarely read anything challenging, if you read much at all, which is why so much of your knowledge is superficial. The same is true of your relationships. How does that description strike you? Have I got it pretty much right? My suspicion is I do, even if you are compelled to deny it. Okay, now take a moment... more »

Dana Milbank notches a threefer of phony apologies -- from NJ Guv KrispyKreme, ex-VA Guv "Handsome Bob" McD, and -- wait for it -- Glenn Beck!

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 3 hours ago
*Say it ain't so, Glenn B! Did you really "ma[k]e an awful lot of mistakes" that "help[ed] tear the country apart"?* "Chris Christie is terribly sorry that his staff lied to him about things they did without his knowledge, and he feels remorse that the partisan media are targeting him with a witch hunt. "Bob McDonnell is really sorry that an overzealous federal prosecutor is going after him for doing perfectly legal things. "And Glenn Beck feels just awful that people were so 'fragile' that they allowed his rhetoric to tear the country apart. . . . "Christie's problem is the fault... more »

“Solar Lull Could Trigger Another 'Little Ice Age,' Sun Scientists Say”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 3 hours ago
*“Solar Lull Could Trigger Another 'Little Ice Age,' Sun Scientists Say”* By Macrina Cooper-White “If you thought the polar vortex was bad, get a load of a new climate phenomenon that just might be coming our way. Scientists say we could be headed for another "Little Ice Age," given how eerily calm the sun has been in recent years. First, a bit of background. The sun goes through cycles that last roughly 11 years, marked by the ebb and flow of sunspots on its surface. At peak sunspot activity, the so-called solar maximum, the sun sports lots of sunspots and is steadily unleashing ... more »

Ukraine: America leads/EU follows- no compromise and time for sanctions

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 3 hours ago
*All the ducks are lining up...* [image: http://socketsandlightbulbs.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ducks-in-a-row.jpg]ducks in a row- militarized ducks *Cue t**he peaceful protests that were not peaceful * *Up the violence * *Make demands that can never be met* *Up the violence* *Make more insane irrational demands * *And always continue escalating* *In a no holds barred/no win situtation* *First up-* *Klitschko- Situation could get out of control* I am going to highlight the interesting bits in three articles. Ready? DW: How can further violence be stopped? Vitali Klitschko:* I will ... more »

Something Ominous May Be Coming At Us - let's connect some dots ! First , Earlier this week 30-day/4-wk T-Bills were auctioned off a 0% rate. Intra-day, after the auction, the rate went negative. Negative short term rates were last observed in 2008, before the Lehman/AIG/Goldman collapse occurred ....... Second , we see JP Morgan Gold Vault sees its biggest one day withdrawal -- ever ! Third , we read China considering teaching investors a lesson in moral hazard with allowing a Trust Default (

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 3 hours ago
http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2014/01/something-ominous-may-be-coming-at-us.html FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 Something Ominous May Be Coming At Us Earlier this week 30-day/4-wk T-Bills were auctioned off a 0% rate. Intra-day, after the auction, the rate went negative. Negative short term rates were last observed in 2008, before the Lehman/AIG/Goldman collapse occurred. Of course, Lehman was allowed to implode and Goldman, who's ex-CEO was the Treasury Secretary, was bailed out. AIG was the beneficiary of that bailout because Goldman had impaled itself on AIG nuclear waste. The po... more »

Geneva 2 opens up ...... Some items of note on the Syria Conference !

Catharsis Ours - 3 hours ago
Russia Today..... ​Syrian opposition refuses to meet govt face-to-face at Geneva 2 talks Published time: January 24, 2014 00:41 Get short URL [image: Syrian National Coalition (SNC) leader Ahmad Jarba gives a press conference on the "Geneva II" peace talks, on January 23, 2014 at the Intercontinental hotel in Geneva.(AFP Photo / Philippe Desmazes)] Syrian National Coalition (SNC) leader Ahmad Jarba gives a press conference on the "Geneva II" peace talks, on January 23, 2014 at the Intercontinental hotel in Geneva.(AFP Photo / Philippe Desmazes) <div id="___plusone_0" style="backgroun... more »

YRC Temasters start voting on revised Labor contract this Friday with additional voting sessions on Saturday and Sunday ! What are the stakes here — The financial future of trucking company YRC Worldwide again depends on the outcome of a vote on a revised labor contract with Teamster members,

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
http://www.todaystrucking.com/yrc-teamsters-to-vote-on-revised-labor-contract YRC Teamsters to Vote on Revised Labor Contract Posted: Jan 23, 2014 03:48 PM | Last Updated: Jan 23, 2014 04:04 PM OVERLAND PARKS, KS — The financial future of trucking company YRC Worldwide again depends on the outcome of a vote on a revised labor contract with Teamster members, which will be held this weekend. “Our members made their voices heard about the company’s initial proposal, and we went back to the company and negotiated significant improvements that will give the members another opportunity... more »

A Rocking Musical Interlude: Outlaws, “Green Grass and High Tides”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 4 hours ago
Outlaws, “Green Grass and High Tides” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R82OM5tzcrk *Turn it up!*

Europe's Modest Proposal To End Unemployment: Slavery --- here is the skinny from Zero Hedge ....... " Having spent weeks talking amongst themselves about the chronic and dangerous rise of youth unemployment in Europe (as we warned here), the Center of planning and Economic Research in Greece has proposed a controversial measure. As GreekReporter reports, the measure includes unpaid work for the young and unemployed up to 24 years old, so that companies would have a strong motive to hire young employees. "Unpaid" work sounds a lot like slavery to us... but it gets better; the report also suggested "exporting young unemployed persons." No comment... " Of course , why not Spain with their evergrowing unemployment and high youth unemployment ? But where do they propose to " export " young unemployed youth to - and how much do they think they might get in exchange for said " exports " ????

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 4 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-24/europes-modest-proposal-end-unemployment-slavery ( I have an idea , let's start with the worthless Greek politicians .... ) Europe's Modest Proposal To End Unemployment: Slavery [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/24/2014 18:10 -0500 - Greece - Unemployment inShare Having spent weeks talking amongst themselves about the chronic and dangerous rise of youth unemployment in Europe (as we warned here), the Center of planning and Economic Research in Greece has proposed a controversial measure. As GreekRep... more »

"a Tory minister who fell from grace"

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 5 hours ago
Moving back in time to the Tuesday 21st January edition of *Newsnight, *let's turn to the programme's remarkable savaging of UKIP for some of its member's distinctly un-PC comments. Kirsty Wark's introduction to this feature dripped drooled with unfriendly sarcasm and Emily Maitlis's subsequent report did that thing of showing Emily sitting pretty in some unfamiliar part of the *Newsnight *studio speaking on the telephone to some poor chap from UKIP who'd committed the unforgivable sin of tweeting something that wasn't to *Newsnight*'s taste - a jokey tweet calling Barack Obama "I... more »

'Working Street'

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 5 hours ago
Following on from the completely-and-utterly one-sided pro-drug (khat) piece on Wednesday's night's *Newsnight*, what can we say about the rest of that edition? Well, it contained three other topics: (a) the latest unemployment figures, (b) Syria and (c) sex pests (in the light of the Lord Rennard story). Let's look at the first of those. The bias in the khat piece can be excused (at a push) by saying that it was a non-BBC 'personal view'. The 'latest unemployment figures' report, in contrast, was an entirely inhouse report. It came from the BBCs Andy Verity. It's framing imagery... more »

What does "China" and "JP Morgan have in common?

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 6 hours ago
What does "China" and "JP Morgan have in common? ..... a gold vault!? Oh darlins.... it just keeps getting better and better!!!! On January 23... the same day that purportedly CNN got hacked and "someone" posted that China had dumped US Bonds on the market..... the very same day JPMorgans gold vault has the BIGGEST withdrawal EVER!!! ... Pop Quiz: Who now owns JPMorgan's gold vault? http://removingtheshackles.blogspot.com/2013/10/massive-global-financial-facepalm-but.html JPMorgan's Gold Vault Has Biggest One-Day Withdrawal Ever [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by... more »

Argentina: A Humanoid at El Rincón Viejo? (01.21.2014)

Inexplicata (IHU) at Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology - 6 hours ago
*Argentina: A Humanoid at El Rincon Viejo? (01/21/2014)* By Luciano Mazzoni *The First Encounter* Around 21:30 on Friday, 17 January of this year, seven (7) people were traveling in a Ford F100 pickup truck at a speed of some 40 kilometers an hour. Franco and Javier were in the payload of the vehicle with their two siblings. Their parents and grandmother were inside the cabin. They were returning from San Eduardo, Santa Fe, and in order to reach the field where they live it was necessary to traverse the 15 kilometer stretch that separated them from their destination. Amid the soy... more »

Just sayin' .....

leftdog at Buckdog - 6 hours ago
*We are well into 2014. The Canadian political scene has remained relatively quiet in the post Christmas/New Year period. The current lull should not be considered an accurate reflection of the raucous year that ended 2013 for the embattled Harper Conservative administration.* *Expect things to heat up at the national political level very soon. In a big way ... * *Just sayin' ..*

John Kane named interim host of First Voices Indigenous Radio

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 6 hours ago
John Kane interim host of First Voices Indigenous Radio WBAI-FM in New York City By Liz Hill Censored News WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 23, 2014) – John Kane, Mohawk activist and national commentator on Native issues, has been named Interim Host of the long-running weekly one-hour radio program, “First Voices Indigenous Radio” (FVIR) at WBAI-FM 99.5 in New York City. Starting Thursday,

Look what the khat dragged in!

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 6 hours ago
As someone who (for my sins) has been deeply immersed in the world of blogs about BBC bias for many years now, I think I can safely say that there's a perception about that the BBC advances a liberal position on drugs - from the many, many, many blogposts of Home Editor Mark Easton which report (uncritically) the statements of some pro-liberalisation group or bigwig through to Andrew Hussey's *Heroin* on Radio 4. Wednesday night's *Newsnight *tackled a drugs story. At issue was the UK government's decision to ban khat - a drug popular with Somali immigrants. I suppose you might ... more »

Friday Nerd Blogging: Mocking the New and the Old

Steve Saideman at Duck of Minerva - 6 hours ago
Because we are late with Friday Nerd Blogging, we have a two-fer–one that is mocks a TV program to come and one that mocks an old show but lovingly so: And for the kids out there, Bosum Buddies is among the very best short-lived TV shows. No spaceships (Firefly) but realistic portrayal of the desperation Continue reading

GOP seeks weak Tea

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 6 hours ago
Old guard GOPers looking to avoid the bloodbath of 2012 primary season have a plan to shut down Tea Party conservatives. A Republican National Committee meeting to compress the 2016 primary schedule grew heated Thursday, as supporters of rule changes beat back repeated attempts by a handful of conservative activists to torpedo them. The push to shorten the presidential nominating process and have an early summer convention is an effort to give the eventual nominee time to raise money, unite the GOP, and hopefully avoid excessive infighting in the party. Many Republicans believe th... more »

How much income inequality is explained by varying parental resources?

Greg Mankiw at Greg Mankiw's Blog - 7 hours ago
When people think about inequality of incomes, a key issue is inequality of opportunity. Some people are born to rich parents who can afford private schools, summer camp, SAT tutors, etc., while others have poorer parents who cannot easily afford such things. One might wonder how much of the income inequality we observe can be explained by differences in the resources that people get because of varying parental incomes. Let me suggest a rough calculation that gives an approximate answer. The recent paper by Chetty et al. finds that the regression of kids’ income rank on parents’ inc... more »

Enthusiasm Gap? More Than A Few California Republicans Want Their Pathetic Party To Endorse Jerry Brown This Year

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 7 hours ago
Crackpot Tim Donnelly could signal the end of California's Republican Party No one serious thinks there's a Republican who can defeat California Governor Jerry Brown in November. He turned Schwarzenegger's deficits into surpluses and, other than zombie-partisan rightists, voters love him. In 2010, despite Meg Whitman's jaw-dropping $160 million spend, Brown beat her by over a million votes and she limped ito the finish line with a mere 40.9%. This coming November, the Republicans will be lucky if they go much beyond 33.3%-- and they know it. But they need a plausible candidate and a ... more »

When conservatives commit campaign fraud

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 7 hours ago
Funny thing about conservatives. The same people who vigorously defend voter suppression laws because, five Democratic voters in all of America were caught casting fraudulent votes will instantly wail selective prosecution when one of their own is caught breaking the law. And of course, our Lady of the Winebox, Ms. Althouse is not alone in inquiring if indicting the perp isn't just so much overkill for such a minor crime. To be clear, I'm not big on the schadenfreude. I take no pleasure in seeing the tiresome blowhard Dinesh D'Souza indicted for campaign finance fraud. I do however... more »

It’s another form of brotherly love!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 8 hours ago
*FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014* *The cheating spreads to Philly:* Stop reading if you’ve heard this one before. But today's report in the New York Times took us back quite a few years. The report by Motoko Rich concerns the latest cheating on standardized tests. This time, it happened in Philly. Here’s how the report started: RICH (1/24/14): The first sign that something was wrong appeared more than two years ago when a company grading student tests from Philadelphia noticed that *erasures from wrong to right answers showed what investigators delicately called “statistical evidence of ... more »

A New Year for a New You at Cafe Fraiche and Vivesque Hair Salon

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 8 hours ago
It always seems like everything changes right around the new year. I always find myself in deep cleaning mode in my house. Everything I have been saving for that yard sale I always say I am going to have end up in the donation pile. I scrub everything down and set goals for pretty much every aspect of life. I usually end up with somewhere between 30-50 resolutions, a completely crazy amount. On the list for this year was to feel better by eating better and to finally find a hairstyle and color that I love which are low maintenance. Cafe Fraiche at Brick Canvas is one of my favorit... more »

Burning through Teachers and KIPP's Public Shaming of Children

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 8 hours ago
Here is a tiny clip from one interview with a former KIPP teacher that I have been re-reading today. Sadly, it represents the norm for the total compliance testing camps where these former teachers taught: . . . the first thing I would say would be, like I said, there is zero down time. And they are completely understaffed. For example, because the school was on such a ____________, we couldn’t get hot lunch deliveries. And there was no kitchen in the building because it was an office building that was, you know, leased to KIPP. So one thing that the teachers had to do, every teach... more »

China Dumps US bonds? Part 2

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 8 hours ago
Further to the article I wrote earlier today: "Did China Dump US Bonds? ...and does it really matter?",I am posting a couple of follow up comments and links. So, the spin doctors are of course stating that CNN got hacked- their Twitter and Facebook accounts- which begs the question: how did the hackers of Twitter and Facebook manage to post an article on CNN? Really? REALLY?! And of course since the whole was just a joke/hack and nothing really happened.... then of course, nothing happened in response to the alleged Hack, Right? http://www.marketwatch.com/story/short-term-t... more »

"Google Chrome Can Hear Your Conversations!"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 8 hours ago
*"Google Chrome Can Hear Your Conversations!"* By Live Free or Die “This newly released video report from Tal Ater is very bothersome and shares that a bug with Google Chrome allowers malicious websites (or others) to ‘listen in’ to your conversations after remotely activating your microphone. According to our videographer, by exploiting bugs in Google Chrome, malicious sites can activate your microphone while listening in on anything and everything that is said around your computer, EVEN AFTER you’ve left those sites. As if ‘big brother’ wasn’t bad enough, this new information is ... more »

These professors today just keep letting us down!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 8 hours ago
*FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014* *Is Richard Sherman a thug:* Is Richard Sherman a thug? We’re the wrong people to ask. As far as we know, we’ve never called anyone a thug. And if we were going to start, we certainly wouldn’t start with Sherman, a former Pacific-10 great. We support *all* former Pacific-10 greats around here, especially those from Stanford. Not to brag, but we took an official recruiting trip to The Farm at one time ourselves. This is the game we officially saw. We even sat in the card section holding up cards. If Richard Sherman is a thug, that basically makes us one t... more »

Shame on THIS Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 9 hours ago
THIS magazine's 4,000-word cover story, "No Choice: Why the pro-choice movement won't let women grieve after abortion", is a piece of crap. First the title, sheesh. Next the deck (likely not written by author): The anti-abortion movement has newly latched onto Post-Abortion Syndrome, a controversial diagnosis that it claims mimics PTSD. No. Not 'newly latched onto'. The tactic is more than 30 years old as the article itself acknowledges a few paragraphs down. Next, your *de rigeur* pseudonymous, but like totally believable victim of the piece, "Yana", who is 23 years old but wh... more »

BBC technology boss John Linwood sacked

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 9 hours ago
Google News is invaluable in letting you track how a new story spreads around the media. I can't quite tell whether it was *Broadcast* or the *Guardian* which broke it first, but the* Guardian* certainly published the story at 16.19 this afternoon: *Broadcast*'s version states: *BBC technology boss John Linwood sacked* The BBC has revealed that John Linwood, the technology boss that oversaw the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco, was formally relieved of his duties in July last year. The *Guardian*'s version says: *BBC boss in charge of scrapped DMI project left without a pay... more »

Now that we don't have to worry about Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, we can shift our focus to Justin Bieber instead of paying attention to what's really going on in the world...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 11 hours ago
*seriously.* While there are plenty of people in this country who are working two or more jobs, have families to raise, money worries, and maybe some health issues, it isn't going to exempt them from the fire storm that is getting ready to ignite. *Here are some things to read and ponder.* The Sleuth Journal: * The Psychology Of Being A “Non-Conspiracy Theorist”* Liberty's Torch: *Writing On The Wall Dept.* The Blaze: *This obscure French pamphlet from 1850 predicted today’s America* ** * * * The BBC documentary "The Century of the Self", is becoming almos... more »

Congressman Clay Aiken (D-NC)?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 11 hours ago
North Carolina's second congressional district was carefully drawn to skirt Fayetteville in the south and Greensboro in the north and to stay clear of Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Democrats live in those cities and Art Pope's bought and paid for legislature was determined to make sure this Piedmont swing district would be safe territory for a conservative Republican who could vote for any unpopular, crackpot legislation Pope deemed important without worrying about reelection. Drastically altered, it went from a Republican-leaning district Democrats could win (R+3) to a solidly red he... more »

THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: What in the world is a traffic study?

bob somerby at the daily howler - 11 hours ago
*FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014* *Part 4—The Times on the head of a pin:* Is it even possible? Is it possible that David Wildstein was trying to conduct a traffic study when he closed two access lanes from the town of Fort Lee? That wouldn’t be our first guess. That said, guesswork is massively overrated—and everything is possible! In this case, that possibility hasn’t yet been disproven. That wouldn’t be our first guess! But whatever Wildstein was trying to do, he went to a lot of trouble to do it—and he burned the time and energy of quite a few state employees in the process. You’d n... more »

Market Driven Economy VS Performance Driven Society

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 11 hours ago
Can you imagine how varied our streets would be today, if at the cessation of hostilities in 1946 the US goverment had mandated all brands selling cars in the USA must have one model line made of Aluminum. To kickstart this they could have offered a hundred year supply of aluminum in the form of surplus aircraft etc. Aluminum is the most common alloy on our scarcely resourced planet. It is also one of the easiest to recycle. Mined once used forever. If this goverment intervention had been planned today Aluminum would be incredibly cheap. Likely used instead of plastic in most app... more »

Maajid Nawaz on Jesus and Mo

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 12 hours ago
I'm a bit late to the Maajid Nawaz Jesus and Mo controversy, but there are a couple of points I think have lost amid the hubbub. First things first, I don't think religion-baiting is particularly smart politics. As Nawaz is a liberal I cannot speak for him, but as a socialist politics is, or should be, about getting as many people into the labour movement as possible. The sharing of common endeavours, of being part of a collective condensation of broadly similar interests as working people, our movement has and remains the most fertile grounds for socialist ideas. This is not an e... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 12 hours ago
*Rejoice, rejoice! We have no choice… (Part 1) ~moosedenied**~Welp. Welcome to another offseason, bitches. Might wanna grab yourself a drink and settle in for a while, because we're about to go all TL;DR on your asses. Even moreso than usual, that is. * WARNING: There will be math. Lots and lots of math. Lies, damn lies, advanced lies and statistics (both advanced and remedial.) We will also be pulling some things straight out of our asses and asking you to accept it as credible analysis. So while we eagerly await what are sure to be incredibly entertaining 2013 post-mortem pieces fr... more »

Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 12 hours ago
Freedom House has just published its 2014 report and here's the freedom figures for the Middle East and North Africa from that report, first for 2010 - 2014 and then just for 2014 In case you are wondering, the Palestinians are not forgotten, the Gaza Strip and 'West Bank' appear under a list of territories, here's their 2014 ranking for comparison... In the above tables, "PR" stands for "Political Rights," "CL" stands for "Civil Liberties," and "Status" is the Freedom Status. Political Rights and Civil Liberties are measured on a one-to-seven scale, with one representing the ... more »

If they are that ignorant then they shouldn't be allowed a vote

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 13 hours ago
From the BBC report on the Lords blocking the possibility of a EU Referendum following the next general Election comes this passage: 'As it stands, the bill states that voters should be asked: "Do you think that the UK should be a member of the EU?" ... The Electoral Commission has already said the existing question needs further thought, suggesting that some people are not aware that the UK is already a member and might not understand the premise as a result.' If people aren't aware that the UK is already a member of the EU then they shouldn't have a vote on anything.

“The Persian Deck” – An Interview with Diba Salimi

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 13 hours ago
Aces in “The Persian Deck,” original playing cards with hand-drawn designs and artwork by Iranian artist Diba Salimi “I am hoping to make my art accessible by designing products that play parts in your lives,” writes Iranian designer and artist Diba Salimi about her latest project, “Surena: The Persian Deck,” a set of beautifully hand-drawn playing cards inspired by Persian art and history.

An acknowledgement of debt recommences the limitation period

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 13 hours ago
Limitations Act: *Acknowledgments* *13.* (1) If a person acknowledges liability in respect of a claim for payment of a liquidated sum, the recovery of personal property, the enforcement of a charge on personal property or relief from enforcement of a charge on personal property, the act or omission on which the claim is based shall be deemed to have taken place on the day on which the acknowledgment was made. 2002, c. 24, Sched. B, s. 13 (1). *Interest* (2) An acknowledgment of liability in respect of a claim for interest is an acknowledgment of liability in respect of a claim ... more »

My Article in the Washington Post on January 23, 2014

deutsch29 at @ THE CHALK FACE - 13 hours ago
Below is the text of my article entitled, A Challenge: Teach Eighth Grade Common Core Before Endorsing It, published in the Washington Post on January 23, 2014. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ On January 21, 2014, Valerie Strauss’ Washington Post education blog, The Answer Sheet, ran a supposed “reaction to” education historian Diane Ravitch’s January 11, 2014, speech at the Modern Language Association […]

Friday Morning Trance

Southern Man at Southern Man - 13 hours ago
So Southern Man arrives at the high school for his early-morning concurrent-enrollment Astronomy course only to find that the public schools were cancelled because of - cold. They sure didn't do that back when *he*was a lad. So instead of teaching this morning Southern Man is scouring the web for the morning's entertainment and came up with some trance music by French composer VJ Aurel set to a mash-up of footage from dozens of science fiction films from the past several decades. Hat tip to Optimal Human Modulation.

Questions from Congress, Part 2: Responses to Rep. Suzanne Bonamici

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 13 hours ago
*U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES* *COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY* *Subcommittee on Environment* *RESPONSES OF ROGER PIELKE, JR. TO* *Hearing Questions for the Record* *The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici* *A Factual Look at the Relationship between Climate and Weather* Dr. Pielke 1. In your testimony you acknowledge that anthropogenic climate change is a real phenomenon with real consequences for the climate. You also condemn “activists, politicians, journalists, corporate and government agency representatives and even scientists” for making claims about climate change bei... more »

Questions from Congress, Part 1: Responses to Representative Lamar Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 13 hours ago
*U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES* *COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY* *Subcommittee on Environment * *RESPONSES OF ROGER PIELKE, JR. TO* *Hearing Questions for the Record* *The Honorable Lamar Smith* *A Factual Look at the Relationship between Climate and Weather * Dr. Pielke 1. Everyone from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the President to the journal Nature have admitted it is very difficult to attribute specific weather events to climate change. However, Dr. Titley and Dr. James Hansen have argued that man-made climate has resulted in the deck being s... more »

Dream Destroyer still in REM mode

Steve at Thinking Aboot - 13 hours ago
The Boeing Dreamliner was supposed to be the apogee of subsonic passenger aircraft. It firmly remains a work in progress. Its like a luxury sedan, fantastic when it works but so disappointing due to continual nagging deficiencies that place it on hold. IMHO the key reason the Dreamliner has had such a troubled takeoff is Boeing's spiteful biting its nose off to punish Seattle Unions. First the move of HQ to Chicago. Next outsourcing almost everything. The Dream liner is to big to fail so Boeing will find a way to make it work. But instead of being a triumph it will be a bitter hub... more »

March 28-30, Denver, CO: Be There

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 14 hours ago
*"Parents in this year’s opt-out movement are standing up for something larger than their own child’s test-day happiness: the conviction that all children have better things to do with their days than fill in bubbles on a multiple-choice sheet, and that all children have better things to do with their heads than bang them against a table in despair." --The New Yorker, 01.23.14* Be a part of the Action in Denver March 28-30. Registration details HERE.

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 14 hours ago
*A quip on Twitter lands me a public audience with Louisiana’s coastal chief, but it could have been worse ~Mark Moseley, The Lens* *Rob Ryan: Uniquely New Orleans ~Ryne Hancock* *Gusman’s son works at law firm with lucrative contract with sheriff’s office ~WWLTV* *Excitement Builds Over Refresh Project* *A Hurricane Katrina tale of love and loss ~Sheila Stroup* *Creole Families of New Orleans ~ Denise Olson, Moultrie Creek Books* *Sunday Second Line: Ladies and Men of Unity Parade, January 26 ~WWOZ*

Dinesh D'Souza-- Prison Or Deportation? Or First Prison And Then Deportation?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 15 hours ago
To American right-wingers Dinesh D'Souza is a household name. Many normal people are vaguely aware that D'Souza is a right-wing operative who appears on right-wing owned and operated media to spread Republican Party propaganda. He's well-paid for his efforts and even made a movie he thought would win Romney the election, the little seen *2016: Obama's America*, which was based on his 2010 book, *The Roots of Obama's Rage*. The film, like all D'Souza's work, was widely panned outside of extreme right-wing circles. Most people just see him as a kind of slightly less tawdry male Ann ... more »

U.S. Investigating Dennis Rodman for Busting Sanctions - did Dennis Rodman simply become too much of an annoyance to further ignore ?

Fred Walton at Catharsis Ours - 15 hours ago
Photo by Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters [image: Josh Rogin] Josh Rogin - facebook - tweet - post U.S. NEWS 01.24.14 U.S. Investigating Dennis Rodman for Busting Sanctions Dennis Rodman reportedly brought thousands of dollars in luxury gifts to Kim Jong Un for his birthday. Now, Washington's looking into whether those gifts violated U.S. sanctions. Dennis Rodman was already having a rotten month, between the trip to rehab and the global condemnation for cozying up to a dictator. Now things may be about to get much worse. The U.S. Treasury Department is investigating whether he viol... more »

Turkey updates January 22 , 2014 -- Here Are 350 Billion Reasons Why Banks Want You To Ignore Turkey's Turbulence ..... Turkish Lira Crumbles To New Record Low As Erdogan Blames Fed Not Politics .... Political instability continues as corruption scandals percolate !

Catharsis Ours - 15 hours ago
Turkey's building financial turbulence..... Turkey to repay $168 billion in foreign debts in 2014 [image: Write Comment] 0 <iframe class="fb_ltr" id="f3afab3188" name="f3f3e209b4" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?action=recommend&api_key=&channel_url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter.php%3Fversion%3D28%23cb%3Df3327edc94%26domain%3Dwww.todayszaman.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.todayszaman.com%252Ff2cd58ee1%26relation%3Dparent.parent&colorscheme=light&extended_social_context=false&font=verdana&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.todayszaman.... more »

Hot Air

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 16 hours ago
Stephen Harper likes to crow about his government's management of the economy. But the facts are out of synch with the hype. Two days ago, Alex Roberts tallied up the record after eight years of Conservative stewardship. The report should be read in full. But consider just a few excerpts: National unemployment rate in January, 2006: 6.6 National unemployment rate in December, 2013: 7.2 Increase in the number of unemployed in Canada since January 2006: 236,200 Youth unemployment rate, January 2006: 12.2 Youth unemployment rate, December 2013: 14.0 Rank of Canada’s unemployment rate ... more »

Did China Dump US Bonds? ...and does it really matter?

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 16 hours ago
Well considering my article yesterday about China's financial troubles, this piece is very interesting!! **side note: 6 hours later.... this is another long one my friends- go get a coffee!* First off, this is the screen shot I took: This is a screen shot of a CNN page from yesterday, January 23rd, 2014. It can only be found in a search of their web cache. It is literally gone gone gone. Now, Daily Kos is calling this a hoax, saying that CNN was hacked: CNN Hacked: Fake story about China dumping bonds and S. China Sea Hacked CNN Reports "China Dumps All US Bonds" CNN 1 min... more »

Gold news and views January 21 , 2014 -- Grant Williams missive covering 2013 ( for the seismic events concerning gold ) ..... Fixing the London gold Fix a topic of the day.... Chinese Gold Leasing : A Hidden Danger -- Koos Jansen ..... Additioanl items to ponder including a further look at Germany missing gold and their attempts to regain same ...... .

Catharsis Ours - 16 hours ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-21/things-make-you-go-hmmm-gold-bullion-gordon-brown-growling-bundesbank Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Like Gold Bullion, Gordon Brown, & A Growling Bundesbank [image: Tyler Durden's picture] Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/21/2014 20:34 -0500 - AIG - American International Group - Central Banks - Goldman Sachs - goldman sachs - LIBOR - None - United Kingdom inShare *2013 was an absolutely seismic year for gold*, but, as Grant Williams details in his latest letter, the way in which the tectonic plates sh... more »

Monopoly Money, "IOUs" and Where's the gold anyway?

urupiper at Yesterday 's Lies - 16 hours ago
Removing The ShacklesThursday, 23 January 2014Time for another episode of "*As the world Turns*... its stomach!" In our last episode, we saw the Federal Reserve making up new magic tricks to try to save their asses by inventing $200 Billion for their bankrupt cousins, the Tobigtofail Family. ..... This week, just so that our viewers don't think that this is just an Americancentric show, we introduce you to the Chinese kingpins that also seem to of lost their checkbook!!!! .... ok enough with the cheesy 80's TV!!! ............ although seriously? It kinda is like watching a real... more »

Everything you ask Google sounds a lot more stupid when you actually ask Google.

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 17 hours ago
What if Google was a guy? Quite amusing...

Compliance with regulatory order not mitigating factor on sentence

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 17 hours ago
*Ontario (Labour) v. Flex-N-Gate Canada Company*, 2014 ONCA 53 deals with an employer which breaches a provision of the *Occupational Health and Safety Act* (*OHSA*), R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1, resulting in a workplace accident. A government inspector investigates the accident and orders the employer to comply with the provision. The employer does so. In sentencing the employer for breach of the *Act*, should the court treat the employer’s “corrective action” as a mitigating factor? The Court says no: [20] This court discussed the objectives of the *OHSA* in *R. v. Ellis-Don Ltd.* ... more »

Digital Warming

Martyn Daniels at Brave New World - 18 hours ago
Global warming is effecting our weather and being blamed for the extreme weather we are witnessing around the world. This year alone we have had exception gales and flooding across the UK, a heat wave down under and polar freezing weather in the US and Canada. We understand some of the causes, but we still appear powerless to predict the future weather past the short term. Publishing has been effected by its own digital warming which has seen the extreme performance of some, demise of others and a general unpredictability of most. Is there a critical digital point which tips the ... more »

CONTEMPT FOR THE AUTHORITIES?

Anon at aangirfan - 19 hours ago
Gregory M. Pyle (above) was a northern Illinois sheriff's deputy in charge of investigating child pornography. Pyle has admitted in court documents that he took a 9-year-old boy from suburban Chicago to Milwaukee in 2008, sexually abused him and posted the photos online. McHenry County Ex-Deputy Pleads Guilty in Federal Child Sex Case -3 Jan 2014 How much contempt do we have for law enforcement? *Kimberly Epperson* An Army sergeant who recorded herself sexually assaulting her 3-year-old sonhas been sentenced. Kimberly Epperson, 25, stationed at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio,... more »

Greg Hunter, “Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.24.14”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 19 hours ago
*“Weekly News Wrap-Up 1.24.14”* By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com “Syria is the top story. Before the second round of Geneva peace talks even started, Iran was uninvited to the talks by the U.N. It was because Iran would not agree that the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, should be removed as part of any peace plan. The Syrian peace talks have turned into a name calling event with both sides posturing. This is why the headlines say things like peace talks get off to “Belligerent Start.” The Syrian Foreign Minister says, “The West claims to fight terrorism publically while they f... more »

TGIF

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 21 hours ago

Quantum gravity in AdS/CFT is inevitably stringy

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 21 hours ago
One of the favorite lies emitted by the coalition of the dishonest, deluded, and brainwashed anti-stringy demagogues and imbeciles is the claim that the AdS/CFT correspondence doesn't really "need" string theory. See this question to check that this myth is alive and kicking. *Leonard got it right – and he got the well-deserved reward, too.* The truth is that everything in the AdS/CFT has to be stringy for both sides of the duality to work and for their equivalence to hold. After all, one of the sides in AdS/CFT is a quantum theory of gravity in an Anti de Sitter space and string/... more »

Cinesite FX - Beanz - comedy short

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET BLOG - 21 hours ago
Free Planet is usually down on advertising as it's (generally) selling you 'all the crap your life doesn't need'. And sometimes an advert isn't an advert AT ALL, it's just a bit of fun at the expense of the Industry. *DAMP AND MISERABLE JOGGING NEWS:* jogged out in the drizzle today, I looked out of my window and it kinda inspired me. I thought, "I'm going to jog farther than I've ever jogged today," and I did. Botley to Oxford to Headington... which I've done before in 100 mins. But this time I extended the jog from Headington shops all the way to the ring road at the end ... more »

Suspicious Observers - Galactic star flux - Real weather reportage

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET BLOG - 21 hours ago
instead of just listing the *atmospheric symptoms*, like most terrestrial weather reports, Suspicious Observers has been putting together unique weather reports that reflect the Earth's connectivity to the Sun, the galaxy and the galactic superstructure (which he claims might act like *one massive electromagnetic neural network*). Very interesting pseudo-science topic, and (for me, personally) this is how inclusive ALL EVERYDAY TERRESTRIAL REAL WEATHER REPORTAGE should sound:

The Common Core and Voluntary Reading

skrashen at Schools Matter - 22 hours ago
Sent to the New York Times, January 23, 2014Charles Blow's inspirational testimonial ("Reading is fundamental," January 22) in support of reading is supported by mountains of research showing that voluntary reading results in tremendous growth in all areas of literacy. Is this the same Charles Blow who enthusiastically endorsed the Common Core Standards in the Times a few months ago ("The Common Core and the Common Good," August 21)? Because of its rigid curriculum and constant testing, the Common Core allows very little room for self-selected reading, and insists that children onl... more »

thursday linkage

Josh Busby at Duck of Minerva - 23 hours ago
As sleet and ice descend upon Austin, Texas this Thursday evening, here are some stories in keeping with this wackadoo weather. Rick Perry and weed at Davos with Kofi Annan, Downton Abbey goes on safari, Putin warns gays to stay away from kids, GDELT goes dark, and scientific findings that may be flashes in the Continue reading

Bitcoin news January 21 - 23 , 2014 -- Cryptocurrency Exchange CoinMKT Announces US Banking Partner ... Las Vegas Casinos Accept Bitcoin, But Not for Gambling ..... University of Cumbria - first university in UK to accept bitcoin , while Bylls allows Canadians to pay bills in bitcoin ....... Finland classifies bitcoin as a commodity.....

Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
http://www.businessinsider.com/jp-morgans-jamie-dimon-on-bitcoin-2014-1 Jamie Dimon Goes On The Attack On Bitcoin SAM RO 35 MINUTES AGO 0 - - inShare - - - EMAIL MORE [image: jamie dimon bitcoin] CNBC The fact that we're still talking about Bitcoin seems to suggest that it has some staying power. However, Jamie Dimon believes its standing as a currency will eventually end. Dimon, who is the CEO of JP Morgan, spoke with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin about the so-called digital cryptocurrency. And he went on the attack. "It's a terrible store of value," said... more »

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
A wish for our planet. [AFSC image]

Looks Like Huckabee Missed Those RNC Classes On How Republicans Should Talk To About The Ladies

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
This week, a 20-year old woman in Subalpur in West Bengal was sentenced to be gang raped by the sick, deranged conservatives who run her village. The village chief and the 13 rapists were arrested yesterday. After she couldn't pay a 25,000 rupee fine ($459) for dating a Muslim man, the village council decreed she be raped. She's in the hospital after the brutal assault but has identified all 13 of her attackers. Condemning the incident, a member of the National Commission for Women, Nirmala Sawant Prabhavalkar, highlighted the plight of women in West Bengal state and said that ju... more »

Holistic Living - A Definition

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 1 day ago
Since receiving your comments asking for posts on holistic living, I've given the topic a lot of thought. While the way I live my life is holistic in many ways, I've never really thought about it or considered it's relationship to living green. To get us started, I'd like to share my thoughts on what holistic living means to me. It is, by no means, the absolute definition ... it is simply my definition and what I'll use as the basis for future posts. Ready to explore the subject with me? [image: Holistic Living - A headache can cause irritability.] Have you ever noticed how a very sm... more »

Frye Festival: Frye & McLuhan (Video)

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 1 day ago
*Wikipedia:* Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. An international literary festival The Frye Festival, named in Frye's honour, takes place every April in Moncton, New Brunswick. An excerpt from, *"Northrop Frye, 78, Literary Critic, Theorist and Educator, Is Dead"* by Peter B. Flint, The New York Times, January 25, 1991: The professor, who tracked voluminous themes and images to the Old and New Testaments, was hailed by many scholars and reviewers as the... more »

Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, and former Wall Street bond trader, Dave Kranzler, deduce how and why the Fed has been manipulating the price of gold, and they come to the stunning conclusion that the Fed has been stealing gold bullion loaned to them by foreign banks and selling it cheap to China. They further believe that the Fed has very little physical gold left, the selling of which has been the source of their cash to continue Quantitative Easing. When they finally run out of gold the "too big to fail" banks will fail anyway, and the currency markets will depreciate the dollar, making Chinese products much more costly for American consumers. Take heed America ...because you will not hear this from the "mainstream" media until it is too late.

David L Griscom at Cherchez la Verite - 1 day ago
------------------------------ *Is the Fed’s ability to manipulate the price of gold running out?* ------------------------------ January 21, 2014 | Original Here Go here to sign up to receive email notice of this news letter Is the Fed’s ability to manipulate the price of gold running out? Paul Craig Roberts interviewed on USAWatchdog by Greg Hunter http://usawatchdog.com/fed-they-do-not-have-any-more-gold-paul-craig-roberts/ ------------------------------ *Blogger's Note:* The following video is what you would find, together with sel... more »

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
"This lovely starfield spans some seven full moons (about 3.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. Just right of center it holds the famous pair of open or galactic star clusters, h and Chi Persei. Also cataloged as NGC 869 (right) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 light-years away and contain stars much younger and hotter than the Sun. Separated by only a few hundred light-years, the clusters are both 13 million years young based on the ages of their individual stars, evidence that they were likely a product of the same star-forming region. *Click ... more »

PUTTING THE PEACE ISSUE ON THE TABLE

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 1 day ago
- This art work above was made by Suzanna Lasker here in Maine. She's become one of the most prolific political artists in the state. Maine has a wonderful organization called the Union of Maine Visual Artists. They support one another across the state and have been a great resource to our progressive movements. - The printer delivered our Global Network *Space Alert* newsletter today and I began filling the many bulk orders that have come in from all over the US and around the world. We didn't used to get many bulk orders for our newsletter but o... more »

Say, aren't Floridians -- white ones, anyways -- SUPPOSED to carry guns (and stand their ground with 'em)?

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
*Robert Marucci -- "an admirable young man" in more than one way* *"I think he's the most awesome person in the world. He stood up and he was the man of the house when I couldn't be."* *-- Robert's mother, Melyssa Lieb* *by Ken* Earlier versions of this story, it appears, have been circulating online since the weekend, but I didn't catch up with it till a friend forwarded the AOL Jobs account below (links onsite), with the subject line "An admirable young man." One aspect of his admirableness is reflected in the photo above. (Alas, AOL didn't include any video. One suspects that t... more »

The Badasses Saddle Up

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago

Children's Authors Beg Obama for Relief from Testing Insanity

Jim Horn at Schools Matter - 1 day ago
Wish in one hand, and spit in the other; see which one fill up first. From MSNBC, of all places: Famed author and poet Maya Angelou and 120 other children’s book authors are challenging President Obama’s national education policy over what they call an “overuse and abuse” of standardized testing. They say the focus on testing hurts children’s imaginations and has a negative impact on children’s love of reading. Obama’s signature education program, “Race to the Top,” has been criticized for heightening the value placed on students’ performance on standardized tests as an indicato... more »

An Opt Out must read.

Chris Cerrone at @ THE CHALK FACE - 1 day ago
I have been involved in the Opt Out movement for two years and have read many articles and opinion pieces about boycotting high-stakes standardized testing. This essay from the The New Yorker hits home on many levels, including the history of testing, is the best piece I have read to date. A must read: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/01/the-defiant-parents-testings-discontents.html?mobify=0 […]

Thailand protests force Government to declare sixty day Emergency period for Bangkok ! Note the military is keeping a close watch on violence by the Government and a military coup has not been ruled out !

Catharsis Ours - 1 day ago
Thailand Government Declares State of Emergency for BangkokMeasure Takes Effect Wednesday and Will Continue for 60 Days Email Print Save↓ More Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn - smaller - Larger By WARANGKANA CHOMCHUEN CONNECT Updated Jan. 21, 2014 7:16 a.m. ET Thai antigovernment protesters waved national flags as they marched through downtown Bangkok on Tuesday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images BANGKOK—The Thai government declared a state of emergency for 60 days in Bangkok and nearby provinces to deal with the continuing antigovernment protesters who h... more »

Two step test for Summary Judgment

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
*Hryniak v. Mauldin*, 2014 SCC 7: Summary judgment motions must be granted whenever there is no genuine issue requiring a trial. There will be no genuine issue requiring a trial when the judge is able to reach a fair and just determination on the merits on a motion for summary judgment. This will be the case when the process (1) allows the judge to make the necessary findings of fact, (2) allows the judge to apply the law to the facts, and (3) is a proportionate, more expeditious and less expensive means to achieve a just result. The new fact‑finding powers granted to motion judge... more »

China’s Coming Default?

Peter Cresswell at Not PC - 1 day ago
*NZ’s rock star economy is relying heavily on China this year for our economic progress. In this guest post, David Howden wonders how long China’s own progress can last un-busted– and is pessimistic.* Last June I pointed to four unfortunate facts in the Chinese economy. 1. Overall credit had increased to $23 trillion dollars, up from $9 trillion as recently as 2008. 2. This amount of credit was over 200 percent of GDP, an increase of 75 percentage points in just five years. (By comparison over the same period the United States’ ratio of debt-to-GDP increased by 40 p... more »

Mariaromocasino Moves to the Edge:  The Wagons Circle And Declare Wall Street Healed (Eyes, Ears and Noses Tightly Closed), PR Firms Solidly Engaged? (A Major Bust!)

I'm sure you've heard that the money honey, bond babe, Maria Bartiromo of CNBC, has joined with the forces of evil, Fox News, and will now be hawking her wares to the real rubes. I guess when the fake rubes won't buy anymore, she's got to move on. My guess is she'll just be the first to leave CNBC for Fox. As economic times worsen, the floodgates will open and all Hell will descend on those

Your awakening from the illusion, from the unreality in which you have apparently been immersed for eons is imminent!

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 day ago
City Awaken by Younhee Paik *Jesus Message from John Smallman* *Your awakening from the illusion, from the unreality in which you have apparently been immersed for eons is imminent!* There is only the ONE! You all know that, even if many of you have trouble accessing that knowledge, that deep inner knowing. God, our Father, the Source of all that exists and in which all is contained, just IS. And the Source is infinite, limitless, without boundaries – there is no beyond, there is only within, which has neither beginning nor end, it just IS, ALWAYS, EVERYWHERE. It is inevitable, una... more »

Raging libido

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
Well you can't spell Huckster without the Huck and here comes Mike Huckabee peddling his own special brand of social populism. Huck is here to tell us the GOP is not waging a war *on* wimmin, it's waging a war *for* the little ladies. The real enemy is those evil oppressive Democrats. Huckabee said Democrats rely on women believing they are weaker than men and in need of government handouts, including the contraception mandate in Obamacare. "If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providin... more »

Smoke On the Water and Fire in the Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Niles) at DAMMIT JANET! - 1 day ago
Facts are inconvenient truths. The above statement is a trope. It's a truism. It's many variations on the sardonic commentary that you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Nobody likes it when they discover that you're just making shit up as you go along, *lying* to get your own way. Facts push non-factual accounts further and further and further out onto a ledge where more and more witnesses can examine the merits and find them so wanting that it's a 'meh' reaction when the non-factual account finally leaps off into oblivion. One of the defenses of non-factual... more »

9/11: Some Numbers

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago
*"The Earth looked very beautiful from space, but I did not see our Great Wall," * *Yang Liwei,* *First Chinese Man in Space* *"As an interstate agency, the Port Authority was not subject to local laws and regulations of the City of New York including building codes."* *Some numbers: * Number of properly issued death certificates in Lower Manhattan on the day of 9/11: *3* Claimed loss of life on 9/11* - * *2996* Number of Fatalities claimed by live reportage by CBS News from St. Vincent's Hospital, Lower Manhattan, around 6pm on the Day of 9/11: *6* Public funds (initially... more »

Monopoly Money, "IOUs" and Where's the gold anyway?

D ... Breaking The Silence at Removing The Shackles - 1 day ago
Time for another episode of "*As the world Turns*... its stomach!" In our last episode, we saw the Federal Reserve making up new magic tricks to try to save their asses by inventing $200 Billion for their bankrupt cousins, the Tobigtofail Family. ..... This week, just so that our viewers don't think that this is just an Americancentric show, we introduce you to the Chinese kingpins that also seem to of lost their checkbook!!!! .... ok enough with the cheesy 80's TV!!! ............ although seriously? It kinda is like watching a really terrible 80's Soap Opera!!! Bill posted thi... more »

Jan Schakowsky Draws A Pair Of Fringe Crackpots

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
Today's Illinois Republican Party… very sad Any list of the most effective and dedicated progressives in Congress wouldn't be complete without 8 term Chicagoland icon Jan Schakowsky. The former public school teacher has been representing IL-09 since 1999, a safe (D+15) blue district that covers the north end of Chicago's lake front from just above Diversey Harbor, through Evanston, Wilmette and Winnetka, across to Northbrook, Des Plaines and way out west to Arlington Heights. Although some progressives grouse she is too ready to give Obama's less savory agenda items the benefit of th... more »

More bears

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago

Thaksin's Mad Dash to Sham Elections (Op-Ed)

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
Terrorism, boycotted elections, and now a draconian emergency decree are the ingredients of dictatorship, not democracy. *Image: Not entirely unlike North Korea, Thaksin Shinawatrais presiding over what are essentially one-party elections,under a state of emergency that allows him to censor, arrest,and otherwise silence all opposition. This state of emergencywas enacted after a terror campaign admittedly carried out byhis own supporters. It is not difficult to understand whyprotesters are desperate to dislodge Thaksin from power.**January 22, 2014 *(ATN) - Torn from the pag... more »

The Secret War in Libya

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
*January 23, 2014* (Eric Draitser - Stop Imperialism) - The battles currently raging in the South of Libya are no mere tribal clashes. Instead, they represent a possible burgeoning alliance between black Libyan ethnic groups and pro-Gaddafi forces intent upon liberating their country of a neocolonial NATO-installed government. On Saturday January 18th, a group of heavily armed fighters stormed an air force base outside the city of Sabha in southern Libya, expelling forces loyal to the “government” of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, and occupying the base. At the same time, reports from ... more »

Playful bears

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago

Why We Fight

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago

You know what they say about men with big feet!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014* *Can Salon repeat:* Early this morning, we clicked to Salon. This was the excitable site’s featured news report: *BIGFOOT EROTICA EXPERT SPEAKS* Salon talks with Virginia Wade, author of highly popular sasquatch smut, about the appeal of "monster porn" TRACY CLARK-FLORY At the start of the month, we made the announcement: Salon’s deliberate, spectacular dumbnification had been the media event of 2013. Somewhere in the great northwest, big ol' Sasquatch is strutting his stuff. In Las Vegas, smart money says the gang at Salon may repeat.

Occupy Bangkok’s Quest to de-Thaksinize Thailand

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
[image: Occupy Bangkok 01-23-14] January 23, 2014 (Eric Draitser - Stop Imperialism) - As hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the streets of Bangkok demanding the ouster of the Shinawatra government, the Western media continue their one-sided portrayal of events in Thailand, misrepresenting the protests as anti-democratic. On January 13, 2014, the largest Thai protests in decades officially came together under the banner*‘Occupy Bangkok’*. Demanding an end to the regime of Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, the protesters, who come from all social classes and all walks of life, h... more »

AMERICA'S NUCLEAR RADIATION COVER UP 1946 - 1958 / BARBARIC RACISM

Allen L Roland, Ph.D at Allen L Roland's Weblog - 1 day ago
*Bravo nuclear explosion / Project 4.1 / March 1st, 1954* *The Public Broadcasting Industry paid for and is now suppressing a documentary film "Nuclear Savage" that explored nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands 1946-1958 ~ that exposed Pacific Islanders to deadly overdoses of radiation just to send a message and get more data on killing and maiming people: Allen L Roland* *The Republic of the Marshall Islands covers nearly a million square miles of picturesque islands, thriving coral atolls, and crystal clear blue waters …. undoubtedly one of the most interest... more »

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago

"Treating Extreme Wealth As a Disease"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
*"Treating Extreme Wealth As a Disease"* By Rob Kall “Psychiatry has been shifting to a model that is designed to identify psychiatric pathologies in most of the population. If there are no biological markers or indicators then the psychiatric diagnostic manual puts together patterns of behavior. Once it's characterized there's, very conveniently, a drug for that. Using this Big-Pharma driven model of diagnosis creation, I'm partially playfully and partially seriously offering some potential diagnostic categories for the very wealthy. Remember, this is half satire, I am not a m... more »

Ben Ginsberg surrenders some billable hours!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014* *Gets praised by the nation’s top liberal:* We really felt sorry for poor Jackie Calmes this morning. Calmes strikes us as the sanest person at the New York Times. Through absolutely no fault of her own, she had to report the recommendations from Obama’s blue-ribbon panel about the best ways to reduce voting delays. In the real world, this is what you call pap. Remember, these are just recommendations—*nonbinding* recommendations: CALMES (1/23/14): *Among the commission’s recommendations:* *All citizens should be allowed to register to vote or update t... more »

Employment Stats UK

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 1 day ago
In preparing this week's forthcoming *Newsnight *reports I found myself having a read of the latest Office for National Statistics report on UK employment. It's not something I usually do (no, honestly!) but I might well be doing so again as they are very interesting - as I hope you'll agree. So here are the nation's latest stats:. • The number of people in employment in the UK is 30.07 million, • The number of UK born people in employment in the UK is 25.68 million. • The number of non-UK born people in employment in the UK is 4.38 million. • The number of men working full-time is... more »

Guess what today is...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 day ago
*besides Thursday.* It’s National Handwriting Day As a product of the 1950’s, I was taught Palmer Method handwriting. Today most schools are abandoning the teaching of cursive all together. It’s just another way of dumbing down the populace. It’s been years since I taught religious ed at my church, but I still remember the shock at the inability of the 7th through 12th graders to write cursive and forget about even being able to write a complete sentence. Punctuation? Forget it. These modern day geniuses couldn’t even print very well. Sadly, since I type so much, my han... more »

No basis for US spinning Geneva communiqué to demand Assad’s resignation

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 day ago
Preconditions placed on attending the Geneva 2 conference insisted on by the United States are detrimental to building a conducive environment for ending the fighting in Syria. Despite months of effort by diplomats and the international community, the long-awaited Geneva 2 peace conference is in disarray. The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) – an exiled umbrella organization supported by Western and Gulf states that represents a negligible segment of rebel groups on the ground – has agreed to attend the talks under heavy pressure from their backers. Division runs deep for... more »

Evidence

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago

'When writing the SPM, the authors are facing a dilemma: either they speak as scientists and…recognize that there are too many unknowns to make reliable predictions…or they try to convey what they “consensually” think…at the price of giving up scientific rigour. They deliberately chose the latter…they have distorted the scientific message into an alarmist message…'

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 1 day ago
'When writing the SPM, the authors are facing a dilemma: *either they speak as scientists* and…recognize that there are too many unknowns to make reliable predictions…*or they try to convey what they “consensually” think*…*at the price of giving up scientific rigour*. *They deliberately chose the latter*…they have *distorted* the scientific message into an alarmist message… [bold added; click here for the full, unedited version]' These are the words of one of the world's most distinguished physicists, Pierre Darriulat. For nearly 50 years, his professional life has been devoted to... more »

Newton's Third Law of Cartoon Physics

Paul Coker at News Spike - 1 day ago
*Newton's Third Law of Cartoon Motion: * *"Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter."* Also called the *"silhouette of passage"*, this phenomenon is the speciality of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction. If you found the above image either physically repulsive or actually offensive, and the one immediately above it no... more »

RoboCon Pop Quiz : Spot the Difference!

Alison at Creekside - 1 day ago
Thwap asks a very good question : What exactly is the difference between 1. Elections Canada and federal prosecutors granting immunity to Con deputy campaign manager Andrew Prescott this month in the 2011 Guelph robocall election fraud case, and 2. Elections Canada refusing to grant immunity to a group of donors willing to testify about giving $1,000 each to Dean Del Mastro’s campaign, allegedly in return for receiving $1050 back from Del Mastro's cousin. *July 2012 : Elections Canada refuses immunity request for donors to Dean Del Mastro* "Elections Canada has rebuffed an offe... more »

'FALSE FLAG ATTACK COMING IN INDIA'

Anon at aangirfan - 1 day ago
*David Headley's name is not on record in any US prison database.* *"For all you know he may be back in Mumbai or Delhi laughing his head off while plotting another attack!"* David Headley's Last Laugh *Ken Haywood 'of the CIA'. KEN HAYWOOD AND 'CIA TERRORISM' IN INDIA. The Tehelka newspaper revealed that, in India,over 100 US Christian evangelical groups were fronts for the CIA. (Tehelka)* *A big false-flag terror attack is expected in India within the next few months.* *According to Satya Sagar: * "A strategic terrorist attack" or "an abrupt and devastating economic crisis en... more »
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