Here’s What’s Happening To Your Thanksgiving Turkey Right Now Business Insider. Hah, we are having duck.
Robbing A Bank Is Much Trickier If You Show Up After Business Hours Are Over Consumerist
English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet Atlantic. Atrios helped!
HPV: Sex, cancer and a virus Nature (Chuck L). Aieee.
‘Monster’ cosmic blast zipped harmlessly by Earth Associated Press (Lambert)
Ison: The comet of the century BBC
Twitter toughens encryption to thwart online snooping Agence France-Presse
Typhoon Haiyun and a Global Strategy for Protecting Coastal Populations Triple Crisis
Toxic Lakes From Tar-Sand Projects Planned for Alberta Bloomberg
Near Zero: ECB Interest Rate Cuts Hit Savings Hard Der Spiegel
Top Diplomats Converge on Geneva Seeking Iran Pact Bloomberg
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
ACLU asks court to end NSA surveillance program that collects phone call data Washington Post
Latest Snowden leak reveals NSA’s goal to continually expand surveillance abilities RT
8 Years Later, NSA Still Using Same PR Strategy to Hide Illegal Wiretap Program Marcy Wheeler
Dahlia Lithwick and Me on Why Metadata Matters Just Security
Kennedy Assassination
JFK and Federal Budgetary Policy New Economic Perspectives
The Kennedy Assassination (November 22, 1963) 50 Years Later Paul Craig Roberts (Chuck L)
Ford: “The Kennedy Brothers Thought the Civil Rights Movement Was a Nuisance at Best” Real News Network
Obamacare Launch
Tension and Flaws Before Health Website Crash New York Times. This article is really damning. The Administration didn’t just want a site that worked, they wanted it to be cool and cutting edge. Yet they seem to have no experience with big tech, or pretty much any big project, like a renovation: they NEVER get done on time. You need to build in buffers. And get a load of this:
And the architecture of the system that interacts with the data center where information is stored is so poorly configured that it must be redesigned, a process that experts said typically takes months.
How do you do THAT on a live system? The list of self-inflicted wounds is mind-bogglingly long.
State-run health insurance exchanges report November ‘enrollment surge’ Washington Post. Yes, but the overall numbers still aren’t impressive.
Crack-Smoking Mayor Rob Ford More Popular Than Obama, Congress Huffington Post
Fannie-Freddie plan stirs contention Financial Times
This is your brain on poverty: Sanders and Warren probe insidious consequences of being poor Raw Story (furzy mouse)
Decrease Your Chances of Being Arrested with These Tips from an Ex-Cop LifeHacker. Lambert: “Article meh but comments super.”
IT’S KIDNAPPING’: HOSPITAL TAKES CUSTODY OF TEEN BECAUSE HER PARENTS WERE ‘TOO ACTIVE IN PURSUING’ HER CARE The Blaze (furzy mouse). This is the Blaze, so take it with a grain of salt. I did check with Snopes and there’s nothing either way as of now.
Military Lending Act Has Loopholes Says NY Times Dealbook Nathalie Martin, Credit Slips
How To Fine A Fine Blogger And Shoot Yourself In The Foot Ilargi
Desperate to Taper Tim Duy
Corporate credit markets back to frothy levels Walter Kurtz
Are Low Claims a Warning? Global Economic Intersection
What’s holding back the recovery? BBC. Krugman v. Stiglitz
The strange world of negative interest rates Frances Coppola, Pieria
Loanable funds — an inconsistent nonsense theory Lars P. Syll
Antidote du jour (furzy mouse). A California red-sided garter snake.
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What a gorgeous animal!
indeed. the colors are mesmerizing.
“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.”
John Ruskin
One suspects those colors have been amped up in post-processing.
Either that, or it’s GMO grass that glows from the inside.
One would assume snakes are not colorblind; otherwise won’t be able to pass on genes otherwise.
The colors are appealing for mere human eyes in a photo, but ironically enough in person they scream get the fck outta here, I am not your friend.
More ironically for snakes of the ilk, the IR spectrum emission is just plain irresistible.
HDR have become very popular these days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging
Yeah, that’s some serpent.
Anyone here know what brand it is?
It’s species designation is in the title, but I have no idea how it refers to itself. It’s a living jewel.
See what happens when you scroll too fast?
“A California red-sided garter snake.”
Description
The California Red-Sided Garter Snake is dark olive to nearly black. The head is red or orange. The head is olive. It has prominent yellow stripe down the back and less prominent stripes along the sides. There are red bars alternating with the background color along the sides above the lateral stripes. The underside is yellow-green or blue. Juveniles are similar to adults. The California Red-Sided Garter Snake is a good swimmer, and often escapes into water when threatened.
Size
38-77 cm
Environment
found in forests, mixed woodlands, grassland, chaparral, farmlands, often near ponds, marshes, or streams.
Food
Eats amphibians, fish, birds, bird eggs, small mammals, reptiles, earthworms, slugs.
Breeding
live young are born in spring to fall.
Range
The California Red-Sided Garter Snake is endemic to California, ranging from Humboldt County south, along the coast ranges and east of the San Francisco Bay to just below the Monterrey Bay.
Notes
Garter Snakes have toxins in their saliva and the bite can produce mild reaction in humans. They are not considered dangerous to humans, although they excrete a foul smelling musk when handled
Same thing happened to me. I tried to use my awesome google skills to figure out what it is… failed but found this instead:
http://imgace.com/pic/2012/11/colorful-regal-ringneck-snake/
Here’s a more naturalistic version
http://www.sonic.net/~shwand/reptiles/california_red_sided_garter_snake_6347.jpg
It’s still a “don’t messssss with me” dude, though
all those colors tell my reptilian brain is “run away!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAp9sFVdERQ
“Krugman v. Stiglitz”
CRIPPLE FIGHT!
dunno, at least Stiglitz still has his dentures.
I’m not sure what the purpose is in posting a link to yet another JFK assassination crackpot.
“Those who cannot face the music will never be able to confront the facts regardless of what I or anyone else writes or reveals.”
That’s rich, since so many of these conpiracists refuse to acknowledge actual facts when confronted with them. One of the big problems with these people is that they have allowed their mistrust of the government to color their perceptions of the events surrounding the assassination. Another problem is that they seem to be projecting back onto the Kennedys their own desires for how events should have turned out. The only real “evidence” that Kennedy would have withdrawn from Vietnam are some self-serving statements that RFK and others made after the fact. There is nothing in JFK’s career up to that point that would indicate that he would have withdrawn – he was a cold warrior, through and through. It seems that Kennedy died before he could disappoint his supporters.
Have you really delved deeply enough into the historical record to make such confident assertions? As Paul Jay says in the following interview, there are hundreds if not thousands of books arguing JFK’s Cold Warrior cred — is it really so b&w? I’ll admit I have NOT read even a tenth of the literature, but his interview subject Peter Kuznick probably has, and he claims JFK’s views were evolving during his presidency. I’ve seen similar views from other commentators I like, so I’m with-holding judgment for now, leaning toward the idea that at the very least there was a lot of tension between JFK and various wings of the establishment.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11049
***
BTW, The Real News is having another fundraiser — thought they just did that a month or so ago, or am I mis-remembering.. Oh well, I wish them luck, I really like many of their “Reality Asserts Itself” interviews.
I doubt that there are even hundreds of books discussing JFK and the Cold War…that being said, there isn’t a whole lot to go on regarding what Kennedy would have done had he lived. When people claim that he would’ve changed course, what reasons do they give? Some statements made by people close to him, after that war had already become a mess? A couple of speeches that he gave? Even his two most important foreign policy triumphs (the limited test ban treaty and the Cuban missle crisis) are hardly reflective of someone who was seeking to change course. The treaty had been in the works since the ’50s, and with Cuba he threatened them with war (and in fact, a blockade is an act of war). Kennedy was handed a mess in Vietnam by the Eisenhower administration, and he chose to escalate American involvement.
Also, Kennedy was the one who brought the best and the brightest into government – many of them involved in the escalation under Johnson. I wouldn’t put too much stock in speeches that he made, either…haven’t we already learned that lesson with Obama?
The guy was a trained marksman who’d defected to Russia and returned, and tried to shoot the governor of Texas a few weeks earlier, right?
Then fate brought the president to the door of his workplace.
I need some really convincing evidence that he wasn’t just some weird, society hating contrarian freak who got exceptionally lucky, and I haven’t seen any.
Ever wonder why they call it the “magic” bullet? Without the “magic” bullet accomplishing all that it supposedly did, the whole single shooter conclusion unravels.
Who was conveniently killed before he was allowed his say, cutting the evidence trail dead. My, wouldn’t it have be interesting to have Oswald’s take on what happened?
Of course if you’re confining your research to mainstream sources, you’re swimming in propaganda that will omit key facts and marshall all the evidence to paint the picture they desire you to see. There’s TONS of weird stuff about Oswald, from credible documented sources, that is simply ignored by the official myth-makers, because they can.
For instance did you know Oswald pretty clearly had a shadowy spook handler in the months leading up to the assassination? What else could it be when a man called George de Mohrenshildt, a Russian emigre born to Russian nobility, friend of the Bush family and “uncle” figure to the young George H.W. Bush, with connections to the intel world, takes an interest in this insignificant “loner” and provides aid to him? Read Russ Baker’s fascinating _Family of Secrets_ for more on that story.
Here’s a short doc that likewise raises some questions that suggest Oswald is not exactly as the media portrays him. Includes transcript and sources beneath the video:
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-278-meet-lee-harvey-oswald-sheep-dipped-patsy/
Oh please, do you buy into that lone assassin claptrap. Oswald was a mediocre shot in the Marine Corp, and even trained marksmen had to attempt numerous shots to recreate the fictional 3 or so shots in six seconds Oswald supposedly got off. Numerous witnesses heard gunfire and saw gunsmoke from the grassy knoll; There are witnesses who saw people with rifles running from the grassy knoll. What was a bogus secret service agent doing by the knoll showing his badge and telling people running up the knoll that there was nothing to see there?????? Parkland doctors upon examining Kennedy saw a huge ass gaping exit wound in the back of Kennedy’s head and a small entry wound in the front right temple consistent with a shot to the front. There is considerable information out there that contradict the corporate media spin on the JFK hit if you choose to look into it.
Not to mention the distance and, especially, the angle.
Anyone who says Oswald did the whole thing is saying he fired two incredibly well-aimed shots on a moving target in less than 2.4 seconds on a shitty Italian bolt action rifle.
The best snipers the FBI had couldn’t shoot and load a second round on that same rifle that fast, much less aim the thing.
That calls for an explanation, wouldn’t you say?
Anyone who says Oswald did the whole thing is saying that one of his two bullets, a high velocity copper jacketed rifle bullet moving at 1890 feet per second, a bullet designed to shatter on impact, passed through 15 layers of clothing, a car seat, 7 layers of skin, 15 inches of human tissue, one necktie knot, blew out 4 inches of rib, and shattered a wrist radius bone before falling out all by itself on a hospital gurney completely undamaged.
No rifling marks from having been fired.
No sign of impact with anything.
No scratches, just a little flattening on the bottom edge consistent with someone prying it off its brass with pliers.
see “Magic Bullet” on Wikipedia for the details.
A bullet fired from a rifled barrel will show rifling marks. A high velocity slug that hits even a ripe tomato will have a flattened or even a shattered tip. As you know, bodies, bones and automobile seats are firmer than ripe tomatoes.
How did this one bullet escape rifling marks? How did it cause all these bone-shattering wounds in two men without deforming?
This one bullet can hardly be from Oswald’s rifle, for it has no rifling marks at all. Much less can it be a bullet that wounded a ripe tomato even once, or two grown men seven times.
And if Oswald didn’t fire two bullets in 2.4 seconds, and if one of his two bullets didn’t do all seven of those body wounds before falling out pristine on a hospital gurney, then he was not the only shooter.
If you can explain the Magic Bullet Theory originally put forward by Arlen Specter then you will be the first person ever to do so.
The Warren Commission wouldn’t stand by the Theory. They later repudiated the Magic Bullet Theory to a man, but never returned to the topic to explain it.
You probably shouldn’t stand by it, either.
>on a shitty Italian bolt action rifle.
I always love it when comments like this come up in relation to JFK. They only serve to show that the person speaking knows literally nothing about firearms and is talking out of their ass. Neither Italian manufacture nor bolt-action are evidence of ‘shitiness’. Further, the rounds that killed JFK and injured Connally and Tague were 6.5×52mm Mannlicher-Carcano, so if you’re going to make the argument that Oswald didn’t kill him that still means the real shooter was using a Model 91/38 or similar weapon.
As for the claims that the weapon didn’t have the accuracy and/or couldn’t chamber a new round fast enough, that’s complete nonsense. You refer to FBI field tests, but having actually bothered to do research instead of regurgitating tired conspiracy nonsense, I see that the results of those tests were literally the exact opposite of what you claim.
There are hundreds of books on JFK, and surely many of them touch on his political views; I’m not saying they’re entirely about that subject.
As I said, I have not read all the books so I can’t debate specifics, and my mind is not made up. I’m arguing “from authority,” that if an historian like Peter Kuznick thinks there’s a case that JFK was breaking with the generals, CIA, etc, and others concur, then I’m not going to assume JFK was a cold warrior “through and through” and that it’s so self-evident. I’m going to hear them out.
Telling phrasing and word choices:
… “another JFK assassination crackpot”… as though anyone who questions the official accounts of what occurred is insane.
… “Kennedy died”… rather than “Kennedy was assassinated, and then his alleged assassin was in turn murdered… as though the assassination of a president is just something that happens in the natural course of events, so what’s the big deal?
It’s been fifty years, pal. What are you so afraid of?
I think a fair critical read by C. Gardiner
“There is nothing in JFK’s career up to that point that would indicate that he would have withdrawn –”
I think Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban missle crisis demonstrates his general mistrust of the military brass/RAND assessments and is a reasonable indication that he wasn’t necessarily that easily bamboozled by same.
There was no clear strategic necessity for a military presence/escalation in Vietnam, I think it’s reasonable to contemplate that Kennedy understood this.
translation: Kennedy’s big mistake was in trying to -govern-, as he had been taught the president had a right/responsibility to do.
and people wonder both why Obama changed so much and became Bush II while in office? ’tis no mystery–they all figure out what’s going down after the first briefing. some revel in their role as hostage/actor (Reagan) and others chafe or don’t do as well.
all are given the golden parachute at the end, so as long as they hold the line (not their line. THE line). all will be well with them.
mouse..
and people wonder both why Obama changed so much and became Bush II while in office?
He did not change. He is the state of the art political Rorschach test. BHO has always spoken in platitudes, allowing people to perceive what they want to believe without correcting misconceptions.
The fact that he isn’t semiliterate in stark contrast to his predecessor was leveraged into the mistaken notion that he is also wise and honest.
Adolph Reed pegged obama early on: http://progressive.org/mag_reed0508
I backgrounded obama during the 2008 campaign and I expected him to be status quo with a little decorative stitching around the edges, what he had always been. I thought him somewhat better than McCain. Never dreamed he’d be as bad as he is. And does he never shut up? The man is going to die with his mouth open. His former IL senate colleagues must be laughing their asses off: they pegged him as a man who liked to hear himself talk first thing he arrived to take his seat.
well, one could say that you are incredibly accurate there.
one might also say that no one who isn’t capable of such performances has a chance in hell of getting elected anymore. they don’t audition ‘governors’, they audition actors.
I have no idea really whether “he” changed, but his rhetoric surely did. we have no idea what he really thinks, and I make no assumptions that we ever did, truly. that’s the problem with humanity, I guess. you can only judge by what people say and what they do, and whether the two match up well.
although, in this situation, is what any of them (presidents) want, really relevant? they are captive to the role, and those interests who own the dispensing of it and one’s continuance in it.
This is classic nyah-nyah-nyah from some CIA suckup running from the facts that he invokes. Note the vapid features of his Juche:
– ‘assassination crackpot’ introduced as a predicate to weasel out of supporting argument, garnished with ‘conspiracists’ – CIA name-calling that’s been trite since the lame coverup of the seventies.
– ‘mistrust of the government,’ the latest CIA slogan, tucked in mid-sentence with lots of meaningless psychobabble: ‘color their perceptions,’ ‘projecting.’ What kind of moron trusts this government?
– conflating two separate questions, (1) whether JFK delivered war for his CIA handlers with (2) whether CIA cutouts killed JFK. It’s an interesting question whether JFK was killed for being an insubordinate puppet ruler of the CIA, or merely an unenthusiastic one. But it’s irrelevant to the overwhelming mass of forensic-quality documentary evidence that proves CIA killed JFK in a coup d’état.
Russ Baker, Dan Hopsicker, James Douglass, Mathias Broeckers, or any ARRB worker bee could wipe the floor with you. But why bother? Every Joe Blow knows that you, and your beloved totalitarian state, are full of shit. Your cherished fake democracy’s a joke.
My must-read links this week:
How Elite Overproduction Brings Disorder – Social Evolution Forum/Peter Turchin
(The more nuanced, empirical, better sourced, and ultimatley more scientific version of the Bloomberg op-ed Yves linked to yesterday)
New Evidence on Social Isolation and Mortality – Inequalities Blog/Daniel Goldberg
(Gist: people who have weaker social networks really do have poorer health as a whole).
Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt I — The Scholar’s Stage
(Good look at terrorism’s demographic roots. See part II and III also).
CDC Threat Report: Anti-biotic Resistance – CDC
(Since everyone is freaking out about post antibiotic future, thought it would be good to share the facts. See also the press interviews that went along with the report)
well, given my tendency towards depression (seasonal and dysthymic) and isolation, i should be dead any day now. that should free up so future SS funds for someone.
thanks for the link on antibiotic resistance.
‘Because’ has become a preposition, because grammar…
What is the appeal of fashionably slangy, ungrammatical trends and memes such as “because X”?
“Many of us – especially younger generations – seem to take special pleasure in wordplay that upends standard grammatical conventions. But why? According to one psychological theory, humor is fundamentally about detecting something that violates our expectations, but in a nonthreatening way… Given grammar’s relatively low stakes, then, it is fodder for immediate humor. (And it always has been, though unfortunately the laughter has generally come at the expense of those who speak a nonstandard dialect, not with those who purposefully opt to violate the rules of a standard one.)”
http://theamericanscholar.org/much-reading-wow/#.UpCFAcKA2lg
“You needn’t use or like this usage of because, and you might even find it annoying, but there’s nothing linguistically problematic about it. Because grammar weirds, because language.” – Language blogger Stan Carey
When applied to others it can imply weak reasoning; when applied to ourselves, it is being efficient, since brevity is the soul of wit [Shakespeare’s Hamlet].
Because language…
‘Modern English Lesson,’
http://www.funnytimes.com/playground/cartoon.php?id=13427#.UpB8KcKA2lg
Like and language ideology: disentangling fact from fiction:
“The selective attention paid to the language of adolescents has led to the enduring belief that young people are ruining the language and that, as a consequence, the language is degenerating. One feature of contemporary vernaculars that is often held up as exemplification of these ideological principles is like, the “much-deplored interjection… that peppers the talk of so many of the unpliant young these days”…
http://americanspeech.dukejournals.org/content/82/4/386.abstract
According to the textbook “English in Action 3” which was published in 1960, “because” has always been a preposition. I keep the book on the shelf for reference “because anal-retentive.”
“A preposition shows the relation of a noun or a pronoun (or a prepositional phrase which may be used as a noun) to another word.”
The real language story should be: because sound the same, the words there, their and they’re are now interchangeable and the words “written” and “communication” must never be used together in the same sentence.
That bad. I like. Be grammar creative.
Beefie..
Get Creative, not Be Creative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_HReR_McQ
@ Ford: “The Kennedy Brothers Thought the Civil Rights Movement Was a Nuisance at Best”
What a GREAT interview!
The massive PR and educational campagin to recreate the Kennedys as the great Civil Rights messiahs has to be one of the greatest propaganda successes of all times.
But it is far from the truth. “We must face the appalling fact that we have been betrayed by both the Democratic and Republican parties,” wrote the Rev. Martin Luther King in “Facing the Challenge of a New Age.” “This coalition of southern Democrats and northern right-wing Republicans defeats every proposed bill on civil rights.”
There is great danger in the special-interest history being created by Democratic Party operatives and New Left educators. Henry Giroux touches on its perils in an interview with Bill Moyers (hat tip rich):
In Mexican Americans Peter Skerry charges the New Left’s and Democratic Party’s synthesis of protest and elite-network politics is “profoundly antipolitical.” “It teaches those without political power that it can and should be bestowed on them by elite benefactors, whether Anglo or Latino.”
And therin lays the great danger that inheres in the Democratic Party’s historical fiction. It flies in the face of what the Rev. King wrote in his letter from Birmingham City Jail:
The falsity of the Kennedys as great Civil Rights messiahs…
The Kennedys came from a rich and privileged Irish-American family. But in Boston, the Kennedy’s were held at arms length by the elite rich families who saw their Irish background as vulgar and the family’s wealth as lacking class. One would think that this introduction to bigotry and discrimination would have given the Kennedys an empathetic understanding of what life was like for African Americans. However, the opposite was true: “John Kennedy and Civil Rights” @
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/john_kennedy_and_civil_rights.htm
It is also surprising, given the history of the Irish slave trade, there wasn’t more empathy on their part.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-irish-slave-trade-the-forgotten-white-slaves
But then, one must remember how the Irish [Boston, Irish and Catholic] became white:
“Ironically, Irish Catholics came to this country as an oppressed race yet quickly learned that to succeed they had to in turn oppress their closest social class competitors, free Northern blacks. Back home these “native Irish or papists” suffered something very similar to American slavery under English Penal Laws. Yet, despite their revolutionary roots as an oppressed group fighting for freedom and rights, and despite consistent pleas from the great Catholic emancipator, Daniel O’Connell, to support the abolitionists, the newly arrived Irish-Americans judged that the best way of gaining acceptance as good citizens and to counter the Nativist movement was to cooperate in the continued oppression of African Americans.”
“Irish and Africans Americans had lots in common and lots of contact during this period; they lived side by side and shared work spaces. In the early years of immigration the poor Irish and blacks were thrown together, very much part of the same class competing for the same jobs. In the census of 1850, the term mulatto appears for the first time due primarily to inter-marriage between Irish and African Americans. The Irish were often referred to as “Negroes turned inside out and Negroes as smoked Irish.” A famous quip of the time attributed to a black man went something like this: “My master is a great tyrant, he treats me like a common Irishman.” Free blacks and Irish were viewed by the Nativists as related, somehow similar, performing the same tasks in society. It was felt that if amalgamation between the races was to happen, it would happen between Irish and blacks. But, ultimately, the Irish made the decision to embrace whiteness, thus becoming part of the system which dominated and oppressed blacks. Although it contradicted their experience back home, it meant freedom here since blackness meant slavery.”
“And so, we have the tragic story of how one oppressed “race,” Irish Catholics, learned how to collaborate in the oppression of another “race,” Africans in America, in order to secure their place in the white republic. Becoming white meant losing their greenness, i.e., their Irish cultural heritage and the legacy of oppression and discrimination back home. Imagine if the Irish had remained green after their arrival and formed an alliance with their fellow oppressed co-workers, the free blacks of the North. Imagine if they had chosen to include their black brothers and sisters in the union movement to wage a class battle against the dominant white culture which ruthlessly pitted them against one another.”
http://www.pitt.edu/~hirtle/uujec/white.html
Tremendously interesting and informative links.
It is remarkable how little things change. Fast forward to today.
One would expect that Israeli behavior toward their Palestinian neighbors would be informed and moderated by the holocaust experience. Yet Israel fiercely defends and protects its right to persecute the weaker Palestinians as brutally and relentlessly as the Nazis persecuted them.
Go figure.
Thanks for the Bill Moyers link.
There is another issue, known as the Sheep Problem, not to be confused with the Sheeple Problem.
The Sheep Problem is one where one can’t tell a sheep from a wolf.
So, when someone says he’s running to serve the country, you don’t know if he/she is doing it for power/glory/money.
It could be
1. you have a sheep wanting to serve the country, but not for personal gains.
2. you have a wolf doing it selfishly, but disguising as a sheep.
3. you have a sheep/wolf hybrid wanting both.
Unfortunately, our watchdogs, our sheep dogs, in the media don’t ask the question to eliminate the possibility of ‘the truth, but not the whole truth,’ or just plain lies.
‘I am doing this for our great country.’
That’s never followed up with a ‘so you will refuse speech fees or a job on Wall Street afterwards? Can you swear to that?’
The same Sheep Problem is present with the Big Government mantra.
“We need Big Government”
Well, I believe the sheep is sincere abut that, but wouldn’t that be perfect for empire builders or empire maintainers? How do we keep the wolf out?
You won’t know what they have…………
Über-warehouses for the ultra-rich
Ever more wealth is being parked in fancy storage facilities. For some customers, they are an attractive new breed of tax haven
Nov 23rd 2013
This new addition to one of Europe’s busiest air-freight hubs will not hold any old goods, however. It will soon be home to billions of dollars’ worth of fine art and other treasures, much of which will have been whisked straight from collectors’ private jets along a dedicated road linking the runway to the warehouse.
The world’s rich are increasingly investing in expensive stuff, and “freeports” such as Luxembourg’s are becoming their repositories of choice. Their attractions are similar to those offered by offshore financial centres: security and confidentiality, not much scrutiny, the ability for owners to hide behind nominees, and an array of tax advantages. This special treatment is possible because goods in freeports are technically in transit, even if in reality the ports are used more and more as permanent homes for accumulated wealth.
If anyone knows how to game the rules, it is the super-rich and their advisers.
Because of the confidentiality, the value of goods stashed in freeports is unknowable.
It is thought to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and rising. Though much of what lies within is perfectly legitimate, the protection offered from prying eyes ensures that they appeal to kleptocrats and tax-dodgers as well as plutocrats. Freeports have been among the beneficiaries as undeclared money has fled offshore bank accounts as a result of tax-evasion crackdowns in America and Europe.
The concept is an old one.
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21590353-ever-more-wealth-being-parked-fancy-storage-facilities-some-customers-they-are?
It is often forgotten that King’s August 28, 1963 “I have a dream” speech was a departure from the written remarks he had prepared. Those can be found at the King Institute Encyclopedia site:
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documents_contents
and include the following:
“In good conscience, we cannot support the administration’s civil rights bill, for it is too little, and too late. There’s not one thing in the bill that will protect our people from police brutality.”
snip
“We are now involved in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. What political leader here can stand up and say “My party is the party of principles”? The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater. Where is our party?”
snip
“The revolution is at hand, and we must free ourselves of the chains of political and economic slavery. The non-violent revolution is saying, “We will not wait for the President, the Justice Department, nor Congress, but we will take matters into our own hands and create a source of power, outside of any national structure that could and would assure us a victory.” To those who have said, “Be Patient and Wait.” we must say that, “Patience is a dirty nasty word.” We cannot be patient, we do not want to be free gradually, we want our freedom, and we want it now. We cannot depend on any political party, for both Democrats and Republicans have betrayed the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence.”
snip
“The revolution is a serious one. Mr. Kennedy is trying to take the revolution out of the street and put it in the courts. Listen, Mr. Kennedy, Listen Mr. Congressmen [sic], listen fellow citizens, the black masses are on the march for jobs and freedom, and we must say to the politicians that there won’t be a “cooling-off” period.
All of us must get in the revolution. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and every hamlet of this nation, until true Freedom comes, until the revolution is complete.”
@ “JFK and Federal Budgetary Policy”
What a wonderfully concise encapsulation of Keynesian economic policy, a trip down memory lane and the Golden Age of Capitalism.
Too bad it didn’t last, and fell victim to the free market Gestapo.
WTF from mexico, when last was there a “free market”?
re, llargi how to fine a fine blogger & shoot yourself in the foot
my curiosity wandered off the beaten path and can’t believe i backed into this:
Bank America Sues Itself
http://www.banklawyersblog.com/3_bank_lawyers/2012/04/bank-of-america-sues-itself-yawn.html
snip; Other knowledgeable commenters make similar points, and also discuss various reasons why the bank as junior lender may be “hanging in there” as opposed to merely releasing the junior lien. One of those potential reasons may have to do with the adverse tax effect on the borrower of debt forgiveness. Admitting that there may be a method to the madness doesn’t fit the ideological agenda of either HuffPo or Professor White, who blogs at Credit Slips. That blog is known as the former hangout of Liz Warren and a purveyor of fevered screeds that bash banks with arguments that don’t pass the smell test. Obviously, he’s the kind of “go to” talking head HuffPo loves.
(am i going to have to start adding jigger(s) of alcohol to my morning java:-/)
On the Story about Weidmann: German workers mentioned: zero times.
Savers mentioned: 15 times.
Very balanced article. Also there are claims which are just stupid: “The inflation rate is already higher than the rate of return on many investment products.”
Well, in Oktober inflation was at 1.2 percent, acording to destatis. So only idiots “investing” in savings accounts lose money.
On the “insurance policies” that the article talks about. Those actually still pay a guaranteed rate of 1.75 percent. That minus capital gains tax is still higher than current inflation. The German government lowered the interest (from 2.25 percent in 2012) to help Allianz and not the savers. German link:
http://www.focus.de/finanzen/versicherungen/lebensversicherung/lebensversicherung-in-der-krise-garantiezins-soll-stabil-bleiben_aid_1097368.html
Weidmann shouldn’t and doesn’t care about German savers. He cares about “reform pressure” aka using bad monetary policy to force countries into terrible “reforms”:
http://gqjftw.blogspot.de/2013/11/krugman-weidmann-and-why-it-is-actually.html
Germans should realize that if the yield on 10 year Bunds is 1.75 percent and 2.75 percent in the US with the additional chance of the euro falling if the ECB engages in QE for example, then the talk about the “poor German savers” in times of very low inflation is nothing but propaganda.
Although I tired of JFK stories early last week –
I must opine on the never ending battle between conspiracy buffa and naysayers.
Powerful men and women CONSPIRE each day to find ways to the ends they desire. Power CONSPIRES – period.
That said, Young Harry looks too much like daddy Hewitt for me to believe the old battle ax in the castle didn’t order moms murder.
Too much airline stock was shorted in the days before 9/11, for me to believe the ’surprise’ – just ask the ladies of the condominium where the Saudis’ lived – they told cameras in Europe in the days after the attack “they were nice young men, with ISRAELI FRIENDS…” hmmmm
I saw that interview in Belgium… along with an interview of a flash messenger in Manhattan who was told by his Israeli boss not to bike anywhere near the Trade Center that day.
As for Kennedy… I really don’t care. He is another legend created by a dynasty. I know his wife sounded more like a breathless Monroe impersonator than the Billerica white trash clip I heard recently… amazing transformation. Jackie was coiffed, edited and shuffled away before anyone in the 60’s saw the real thing, and it wasn’t royalty.
S
A Galveston medical student describes life and death in the so-called safety net.
http://www.texasobserver.org/a-galveston-med-student-describes-life-and-death-in-the-safety-net/
Because Internet.
Like Valley Girl speak has won over the internet.
Like, reallys? Because, I like, cant remember something like that like, happening, you know?
/sarc off
But seriously though where the hell do you hear ‘valley girl’ speak on the internet?
OMG, fer sure, fer sure.
FRANK ZAPPA — VALLEY GIRL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeIe-p_HNmw
Re How To Fine A Fine Blogger And Shoot Yourself In The Foot.
When I first read of Mish’s fine for a blog post, I had this question: Will any of the several corporate-empowering “trade” treaties make fines like this collectable?
Will sites like NC be at the mercy of rulings by foreign regulatory agencies? (Mish has promised never to set foot in France, so he is safe for now.)
Weirdly, I can’t find any good Google links, but Switzerland has long had a laws which make saying bad things about banks (I believe both particular banks and the Swiss banking system generally) a crime. One American writer, I am pretty sure Andrew Tobias, was incarcerated in Switzerland and described his experience (it was very Club Fed). But this was in the 1980s, and the 1980s does not exist on the internet unless the New York Times reported on it.
I’m sure this rule is real because I have a buddy who is an international tax expert who is a prominent writer and conference speaker has been very critical of Swiss banks who won’t go there because she says she is sure to be arrested.
So shorter: France is going the Swiss route, but with fines only. So far, anyhow.
Mr. Krugman is a clever man and one begins to believe that is all he is. It astounds that he could make the argument that inequality – as gross as it is in the United State – is irrelevant to explaining the massive fail in the economic recovery for hundreds of millions of American citizens.
It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever. — Nigel Tufnel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InwMfeT2FdY
Clever, often as not, is just stupid that worked out. Don’t recommend it as a lifestyle but it’s worked out for me.
It’s such a fine line between stupid and professionally obtuse. Mr. Krugman is paid and paid well in money, status, and the chance to be heard. In return, he colors within the lines determined by his and our Lords and Masters.
His disagreements with elite orthodoxy are tolerated because he helps maintain the illusion of intelligent discussion and helps police the outer boundaries of acceptable discourse.
RE: NSA
a German cartoon..
A young boy sitting on a park-bench next to BHO
Boy: “My daddy says you’re a bad man, you’re spying on him”
BHO: “Let me tell you something, he’s not your daddy”
Would a court have to recuse itself if the NSA ever spied on it?
Who is left to judge then?
the mob with piano wire nooses.
‘Countries that believe in our model, really cherish our values, want to be moving more toward our example.
‘We have to make those decisions that reassure America’s leadership at home and abroad.’ — Hillary ‘R’ Clinton
http://tinyurl.com/k8nvzez
What model is that — maintaining a global garrison state, and periodically blowing up dusty corners of the Third World?
I don’t know of a single country that ‘cherishes our values’ or wants to ‘move toward our example.’ Unbelievable that a former Sec State wallows in such delusional, narcissistic nationalism.
Note her malapropism of using ‘reassure’ for ‘reassert.’ Because grammar.
Just a small point to make here: The most offensive phrase that makes my teeth hurt is “Leader of the Free World.” We have our very own PM and lots of us don’t like him much but he IS the leader of OUR free world.
Hillary’s values:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/world/middleeast/a-yemenis-long-trip-to-seek-answers-about-a-drone-strike.html?hp&_r=0
She’s going to run the most transparent administration in history!
That is, um, Hilary-esque.
Together with Bill, they are Billarysque.
A much needed and well written explanation of the debilitating effects of poverty…
…and perhaps another debilitating blow to the intertemporal, utility-maximizing, rational agent theory…(if one was really needed)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html
Recently promoted to headline on HP. Quite a good read with a crystal clear and hard-hitting delivery.
these headlines from MSN are sometimes hilarious:
http://now.msn.com/shane-smith-colorado-man-signs-up-for-obamacare-but-accidentally-enrolls-his-dog/
Pet insurance is not cheap.
I think I will try to get my cat on it.
Years ago, when we took our Cocker Spaniel puppy to the vet for his first visit, there was a brochure for pet health insurance in the lobby waiting area. As naïve first time pet owners, we thought that was hilarious. We had never heard of such a thing. Pet insurance was not cheap. Months later, we were quite unprepared for the high expense of his referral to a veterinary ophthalmologist and “Cherry Eye” surgery.
One hears the damnedest things while riding airport shuttles. A couple of years ago I was riding with a couple of ophthalmologists returning from a conference. One of them had just had his dog in for cataract surgery, and was lamenting that the bill was a factor of 10 higher than the amount he would have received as insurance reimbursement for the same procedure on a human.
Vet bills are not cheap.
Michael Alden Peck, Mondragon’s North American delegate, posted a blog entry on the Fagor Electrodomestics bankruptcy today, in response to the Economist’s barely contained glee at the co-op’s plight.
As Peck points out, the real story isn’t that an appliance manufacturer went under during the longest economic slump in living memory, it’s what Mondragon’s response has been…but no one seems to be covering that story. Here’s Peck:
how to avoid getting arrested–i’m sorry, but everything I’ve ever seen in life tells me that list is almost completely wrong. except for the ‘blend in, and be polite, and don’t look strange” part.
a) don’t be black
b) if you are any kind of minority, try to look as much as possible like you are on your way to work, or an important appointment.
c) whatever your race, don’t look like a gangbanger. unfortunately, due to fashion choices of the young, they often inadvertently look like gangbangers.
d) do NOT take evasive maneuvers. if you cross the street, they will come to get you because crossing the street looks like you have got something to hide.
e) don’t do anything harmless but technically illegal, like jaywalking. they want an excuse to start chatting you up.
f) although it IS illegal to search your car without a warrant, in real life they will get whatever they want. they have a gun, and the more resistant (translation: expecting to receive legal rights) you are, the more you are ‘trying to hide’ something.
g) being polite sometimes works. sometimes, they can tell it’s a manipulative put-on (“yes sir, whatever you say, sir”) and it can very easily be construed as sarcasm. in other words, you must be polite but not -too- polite. acting confused sometimes helps.
h) being pathetic has never worked that I have ever seen. many homeless and actually pathetic people have been shaken down right in front of me, and their tales of woe have absolutely no effect. “I was doing x because of y” will simply earn you a “you shouldn’t be doing x OR y!”. if you give a reason like that, prepare to act confused.
i) defensive maneuvers for each and every person and each and every situation cannot be devised. this is the ultimate ad-lib situation. if you look like a gangbanger or a homeless person, just surrender and pray the swiss army knife in your pocket or whatever will be excused. don’t offer too many ‘reasons’ or ‘excuses’. don’t talk too fast. try not to come off as smart, or sarcastic in ANY way. don’t be too friendly. generally, acting polite but puzzled works. the most important thing is to not be an asshole if you DO have social standing, and to just not get on their radar at all if you don’t have social standing.
*special advice: if a cop hits on you (it won’t always be blatantly obvious) try to work your long-term boy/girlfriend into the conversation somehow in an oblique manner. perhaps show some vacation snaps, or photos of the kids if you have them on your phone.
With being hit on, wouldn’t mentioning STDs be more of a turnoff? I have to think saying you have HIV due to a transfusion would be a major cause of dickus shrinkus.
Then you don’t need props like photos.
I have a single MD friend that is a partner in an Infectious Disease medical practice, a diminutive Asian lady with a very dry wit. When meeting someone for the first time she can stovepipe the direction of the situation at will by explaining what she does professionally.
Incredibly funny stories for the screenplay.
um, I’ve seen the cold shoulder tried. it doesn’t turn out too well. granted, those were (always) limited cases, but the attitude was like “hey, what’s wrong with ME?” and actually got more insistent.
added to a lot of different incidents I’ve read about over the years, i personally would just try to avoid the risk of offending a person like that. not that they are all “like that”, but…well.
anyway…
a more thought-out response might be, because you don’t want to tick off a cop.
in my hometown & place, that is a survival-level skill.
also, my assessment of that situation would be that they can potentially do a lot more damage to you, if they wanted to, because they have both the skills, resources and can ‘find a reason’ to, than you have to redress or repair against them.
i don’t always advocate ‘wimping out’, but as a person who as witnessed and experienced much interpersonal, physical conflict and have been present during a number (not large, but not miniscule) of police-to-public transactions, it’s better to avoid tangling at all if possible, and if not possible then it’s best to not run afoul of someone who can make your life a whole lot of hell very quickly. also, not all of us have a lawyer or even know a lawyer. and some of us, even if we had both, wouldn’t have any way to pay one either.
i don’t think cops are evil, even. i think the role does something to some number of them. they may find it necessary or they may even like it. but it’s something I’ve seen firsthand with abusive relationships as well, and it’s not anything i like or want to relive.
and one can survive those types of occurences, if they do not have the power to fight back (think child in an abusive step-parent household) if they are as passive and inoffensive as possible, and if they run the hell away at the first opportunity.
Hawking a loogie is fairly off putting as well. Just be sure not to aim in the wrong direction.
Nation Building
How do you adjust demographic data for non-participating labor?
The Fed is hoping to hold the line on State government, while the private sector reboots itself, which depends upon local removal of regulatory dams. Last time I checked, yesterday, the local Nazis were still damming up access to what little water remains, through the normal municipal bankruptcy, eminent domain circle jerk, for development kickbacks and city revenue.
The function of real estate agency is? Who really owns Century 21, Coldwell Banker, the lot? What is the function of local government incorporation, in terms of the bankruptcy feed lot? What is the pecking order on county tax liens? What does the data tell you?
If six billion people are doing the wrong thing in the wrong place, at the wrong time, opportunity will seek you out, if you are capable of recognizing it, if you are unique, but that requires W-O-R-K, upstream against the currency gradient, which, as you can see, is a racket. You must be able to time the work of others to increase their standard of living, which is the point of family.
New family formation is the tip of the spear. You have to carve out an area free of Family Law. Farmers do it all the time. War always boils down to food, destroying your enemies supply. Develop your own seed. Monsanto isn’t evil; it’s a conspiracy of stupid, on a global scale.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, during WWII, the Pacific Fleet commanders told the Atlantic Fleet to go F itself, and ignored Family Law as well. The argument that Silicon Valley was disillusioned by the Vietnam War is bullsh-. SV was an extension of IBM, which at the time had an unhappy reputation associated with building the information network that hunted down and prosecuted the Jews, and any one else with wealth to steal, to prop up the dying union cartel.
Who do you think put Edmund and Jerry Brown in office? California has a surplus of credit debt, digital money from the Fed, not wealth, on its books, and it has been replicated globally. The spy network isn’t going to free anyone. The State seized my assets, destroyed my credit, fired me and took my kids in an attempt to stop me from working. So the F what?
You have the kernel, a transparent public system, and privacy, get you’re A to work. Create space. When you go into a supermarket, you are looking at the outcome of war. Americans have had the luxury of being stupid, like their predecessors, because they leased the war machine, with compliance, but that ship is sinking, and Twitter cannot begin to fill the void.
Silicon Valley, the spy education network and its politicians, is welcome to form its own nation. I look forward to destroying it, without doing a D thing, but looking at it from a distance, when I have nothing better to do.
Attn: Hunger Games and Harry Potter Fans
The Hunger Games Are Real: Teenage Fans Remind the World What Katniss Is Really Fighting For: What if we used fantasy not as an escape from our world, but an invitation to look deeper into it? How teenage fans are fighting injustice—in real life. ~Yes! Magazine
Because just because,
That is all I have to say
Just because… BECAUSE!!!
Also too, because;
haiku poetry was
just a passing fad
Because language really is recursive. Chomsky is right. He just puts me to sleep… ‘Because’ is the logical connection to a metaphor. Meta is the most meaningful syllable here. I don’t know what Phor means. Because the sun looks like pizza. Because the sun is pizza? Maybe this is what’s wrong with computer code. Because they clearly don’t do language. As we know it. In Italian we would ask say: ‘perque blahblah.” Right? in answer to “Per que?” – why? So why and because are virtually synonymous logically. Else there would be a different word. I think we should turn language over to the capitalists so they can create demand for clarity by devising a new market for accurate words.
this is really insightful comment into the current use of ‘because’–the “why” and “because” are mates and identical in other languages.
this is how I’ve sorta seen it used. kind of like the thing you would tell a kid when they asked some question that seemed simple, but really had an extremely complicated answer and thus “because–x” becomes a natural response.
of course, this is being used ironically. like -x- ever really explains anything.
meta is because;
abstraction is the goal
phor, analogy
opps. corrected to 5-7-5
meta is because;
an abstraction is the goal
phor, analogy
altho wiki says modern haiku doesn’t have to be 5-7-5.
I never met a phor I didn’t like.
i just caught this. i’m not the sharpest tool.
The dread essence beyond logic…
The fireworks show of a lifetime… a gamma ray burst in a far-off galaxy… had it been closer, Earth would have been toast.
“We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.” – Nikos Kazantzakis
Origins and ends…this vast and awesome cosmos…the very scale and elegance of the universe…cataclysms and catastrophes on the most staggering scale – when millions of worlds and countless life forms are obliterated.
“Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules.” – Thomas Henry Huxley [Darwin’s Rottweiler]
“Toxic Lakes From Tar-Sand Projects Planned for Alberta”
If a wound like that appeared on someones skin, it would probably be late stage malignant melanoma.
Because stupid.
And illiterate.
RE: ‘Monster’ cosmic blast zipped harmlessly by Earth Associated Press (Lambert)
Billy: It’s finding the center of your story, the beating heart of it, that’s what makes a reporter. You have to start by making up some headlines. You know: short, punchy, dramatic headlines. Now, have a look, what do you see?
[Points at dark clouds at the horizon]
Billy: Tell me the headline.
Quoyle: Horizon Fills With Dark Clouds?
Billy: Imminent Storm Threatens Village.
Quoyle: But what if no storm comes?
Billy: Village Spared From Deadly Storm.
~Shipping News –2001
The insidious consequences of being poor…
The “truth” about poverty: bad choices, not a bad economy, are to blame. Poverty in America results increasingly from the choices that people make, not our economic system’s supposed shortcomings. Poor people have only got themselves to blame for making bad decisions.
[“Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.” – Vladimir Lenin]
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_chicsuntimes-the_truth_about_poverty.htm
Poor people – like us all – make some bad choices. Bad decisions don’t make you poor. Being poor makes for bad decisions, as illustrated by “Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts,”
http://killermartinis.kinja.com/why-i-make-terrible-decisions-or-poverty-thoughts-1450123558
The study published in Science, “Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function,” illustrates how poverty-related stresses about finances consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. This explains why the poor often behave in less capable ways, which further perpetuates poverty.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976
The bootstrap myth, aka the meritocracy myth…
“It’s an appeal as old as America: This is an extraordinary country populated by hard-working, big-dreaming, freedom-loving people graced by God when they’re not pulling themselves up by the bootstraps.” – Ron Fournier
It is time to stop telling barefoot people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.” – Thurgood Marshall
The best way to help the barefoot poor help themselves is to eliminate poverty.
“If banks fail it is a tragedy. If people die of hunger it’s nothing. Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.” – Pope Francis
RE: HPV oral & throat cancers.
I remember, not too long ago, when the viral origin of cancer was considered imaginary, absurd, and downright laughable. It was the province of folklore and other amateurs. In other words, a bunch of ignorant rubbish.
The credentialed ones will always protect their sandboxes, to the detriment of the rest of us, but it’s a badge of pride to be a barbarian at the gate. Not every official line is wrong, but none should go without question. And being official is no real proof.
Many gates out there.
“what do you do, Ms. Chisik?”
“i am a Turkey Inseminator, sir.”
When it comes to jellyfish on Australian beaches, getting stung may be the least of our worries.
Earlier this year, Whyalla faced a wipe-out unrelated to the predicted effects of the carbon tax when a massive jellyfish bloom threatened local fisheries and ecosystems.
Last month, the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in Sweden shut down a reactor after jellyfish clogged its seawater pipes, the latest in a series of similar incidents.
Wreaking havoc: Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant shut down a reactor after jellyfish clogged its seawater pipes.
Wreaking havoc: Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant shut down a reactor after jellyfish clogged its seawater pipes. Photo: Bella Galil
”Most people just don’t have any idea about the havoc that jellyfish are causing,” said Lisa-ann Gershwin, a CSIRO research scientist and author of Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean. ”It’s right around Australia.”
Deadly box jellyfish and their peanut-size irukandji relatives are spreading further south along the Queensland coast as waters warm, harming tourism.
But a bigger threat is likely to come to fisheries in much cooler waters that are already being crowded out by blooms, many of them non-stinging jellies.
Virtually everything humans do to the biosphere seems to be to the advantage of jellyfish. Overfishing is removing their predators, such as anchovies, while discarded plastic bags choke sea turtles on the hunt for jellyfish.
Warmer seas resulting from the build-up of greenhouse gases also happens to be to the jellies’ liking, especially as breeding seasons are lengthened. Since warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen, predator fish spend more of their precious energy breathing.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/jellyfish-winning-the-fight-for-food–against-humans-20131123-2y2m6.html
Skippy… now for something completely different: WASHINGTON — Representative Trey Radel (R-Fla.) pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday morning, admitting he had purchased the drug as a booster to keep him going during long hours of attempting to derail President Obama’s legislation.
“I am so sorry to be here,” Radel said Wednesday. “I have let my constituents, my country and my family down. I want to come out of this stronger and I intend to do that, to be a better man, a better husband and continue blocking this administration’s agenda.”
According to authorities, on the evening of October 29, Radel and an acquaintance met an undercover officer who sold the pair 3.5 grams of cocaine. The congressman was arrested in his D.C. apartment later that evening.
“Obamacare is horrible, and I found myself desperate for an extra boost,” Radel admitted in a statement released today. “Obviously I never would have turned to drugs had it not been for the way this legislation is destroying the very fabric of our great nation.” – newslo
Obviously!
Obviously, he is sacrificing himself for a greater good and just desperately wants to get back to spending more time with his family and his recreational hookers and beer!
And God Bless America