“There is no doubt but that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem.” --Hoffer
One fun debate is why certain areas of the country have a large criminal component. All sorts of unprovable good ideas are offered from the loss of religion to the breakdown of the family to bad diet to global warming. One suggestion never made is the lawlessness of the state providing bad example. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 defined some of the penalties for illegal immigration and the relationship between the federal government and the state governments in how those penalties might be enforced. Several cities have declined to participate in these laws and have, with pride, declared themselves "sanctuary cities" where illegal immigrants might live unmolested by immigration law. So, should we be surprised at illegality when the county's government themselves break the law on an imagined point of principle?
Chocolate has evolved into such a massive industry that between 40 and 50 million people depend on cacao for their livelihood. Over 3.8 million tons of cacao beans are produced per year.
Chocolate has evolved into such a massive industry that between 40 and 50 million people depend on cacao for their livelihood. Over 3.8 million tons of cacao beans are produced per year.
There is a peculiar article in "Aeon" written by Benjamin Dueholm. In it he argues that ISIS appeals to people seeking transcendence, as if this were insightful. "Far from being a parochially Islamic impulse or a nerd’s fantasy – something you can get involved in from ‘your mama’s basement’, as one counter-terrorism expert has said – the myth of the Caliphate echoes dreams of transcendent legitimacy that are deeply embedded in European culture and literature. To find a story of a sovereign authority long lapsed in kingship but still entitled to the allegiance of all the just, and fated to reappear at an auspicious moment, we need look no further than The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)."
Who is...Kit Harington?
The Public TV "Adams" series should be required viewing for all Americans and should be seen every July Fourth. The brilliant portrayal of Jefferson--a portrayal that is the only one that has ever made sense of that astonishing, idealistic and dangerous man--is the same actor that plays Stannis in GoT, Stephen J. Dillane.
On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol (Prohibition), including beer made at home. The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition in 1933, however, the repeal’s legislation left out the legalization of home beer making although home wine making was legalized at that time.On October 14, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, which contained an amendment sponsored by Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) creating an exemption from taxation of beer brewed at home for personal or family use. This exemption went into effect on February 1, 1979, making home brewing legal on a federal level in the U.S.. This took the U.S. off a list prohibiting home brewing that included only Iran and Malaysia.
The 21st Amendment predominantly leaves regulation of alcohol to the individual states. Thus each states’ laws regarding home brewing vary widely. Some states have very specific laws that outline exactly what can and cannot be done with homebrew, while others are vague. Mississippi and Alabama were the last two states to legalize homebrewing. Alabama law went into effect on May 9, 2013, and the Mississippi law went into effect on July 1, 2013.
From Yahoo News: "Iran nuclear talks busted through their second deadline in a week Tuesday, casting new questions about the ability of world powers to cut off all Iranian pathways to a bomb through diplomacy. But the parties agreed to continue their talks." This reminds me of the old America, brash and hopeful and unbelievably naïve. It would be charming were the world not so dangerous.
A recent report from the Kauffman Foundation ranked the Pittsburgh region dead last for startup activity among the nation's 40 largest metropolitan areas. A Brookings Institute study showed that high-tech employment here remains a much smaller share of jobs overall than in Seattle, Boston or Silicon Valley. Brookings' ranking put Pittsburgh in the middle of the pack — 45th out of 100 cities — for what it called “advanced industry employment.”
Barack Obama says that 97 per cent of scientists agree that climate change is “real, man-made and dangerous”. This is not exactly true. The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers a broad range of temperature rises that are possible; the question is, are all of them dangerous? The answer is, actually, no. The 97 per cent figure is derived from two sources. The first was a poll that found that 97 per cent of just seventy-nine scientists thought climate change was man-made—not that it was dangerous. A more recent poll of 1854 members of the American Meteorological Society found the true number is 52 per cent. The second source of the 97 per cent number was a survey of scientific papers, which has now been comprehensively demolished by Professor Richard Tol of Sussex University, who is probably the world’s leading climate economist. So....where is the correction of Mr. Obama's error? Where is the line of scientists who want to make the point of temperature change vs. danger clear? Where are the honored high priests of scientific accuracy?
"Afterimage" is visual sensation persisting after the original stimulus has been removed. A 'negative afterimage' is caused by fatigue colour receptors in the back of the eyes and brain and the negative of the original image appears.
Golden oldie:
Over the weekend China's top stock brokerages pledged that they would collectively buy at least 120 billion yuan (£12.3 billion, $19.3 billion) of shares to help steady the market, with backing from the People's Bank of China. The central bank is effectively becoming the buyer of last resort, printing money to buy up shares and prop up prices. In 1929, Wall Street's banks did something similar. JPMorgan and several other top financial firms agreed to pool resources and buy up shares to put a floor under prices. It happened after a drop of about 30% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The effort by the US banking systems had only the briefest of effects on the index, and America was eventually plunged into the Great Depression.
Former attorney general Eric Holder said today that a “possibility exists” for the Justice Department to cut a deal with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that would allow him to return to the United States from Moscow. He could buy any book he wanted, see any movie, date slender women, give interviews denouncing out stupid and rapacious government and indirectly impugn us and our system of government. But why would that be in our interest?
On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora exploded. The massive volcanic eruption lasted ten days and completely ravaged the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. Residents who managed to survive the initial explosion and the ensuing tsunami became victims of deadly lung infections caused by all the ash and toxic fumes in the air. The eruption, which was one of the most powerful in recorded history, ejected more than 10 cubic miles of volcanic material. It created a layer of ash in the atmosphere that blocked the sun, caused crop failure throughout the world with death of livestock. And starvation: 200,000 Europeans starved.
A Vermont woman named Eileen Marguet wrote of that dark summer in this poem:
On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora exploded. The massive volcanic eruption lasted ten days and completely ravaged the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. Residents who managed to survive the initial explosion and the ensuing tsunami became victims of deadly lung infections caused by all the ash and toxic fumes in the air. The eruption, which was one of the most powerful in recorded history, ejected more than 10 cubic miles of volcanic material. It created a layer of ash in the atmosphere that blocked the sun, caused crop failure throughout the world with death of livestock. And starvation: 200,000 Europeans starved.
A Vermont woman named Eileen Marguet wrote of that dark summer in this poem:
It didn’t matter whether your farm was large or small.
It didn’t matter if you had a farm at all.
’Cause everyone was affected when water didn’t run.
The snow and frost continued without the warming sun.
One day in June it got real hot and leaves began to show.
But after that it snowed again and wind and cold did blow.
The cows and horses had no grass; no grain to feed the chicks.
No hay to put aside that time, just dry and shriveled sticks.
The sheep were cold and hungry and many starved to death,
Still waiting for the warming sun to save their labored breath.
The kids were disappointed, no swimming, such a shame.
It was in 1816 that summer never came.
Cosplay: noun: Literally "Costume Play." 1. The art or practice of wearing costumes to portray characters from fiction, especially from manga, animation, and science fiction. 2. A skit featuring these costumed characters. 3. To portray (a fictional character) by dressing in costume.Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject and it is not unusual to see genders switched. Favorite sources include manga and anime, comic books and cartoons, video games, and live-action films and television series.
The description of the cosplay, portmanteau, is more interesting than the word itself, which might describe pathology (furries) at the worst or the trivial at its best. It is a portmanteau of the words costume and play, portmanteau meaning a trunk or suitcase but, also, a word which fuses both the sounds and the meanings of its components, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, or motel, from motor and hotel. Others include: Bodacious—from bold and audacious, Chortle—from chuckle and snort, Meld—from melt and weld, Neither—a combination of not and either, Snark—from snide and remark, Splatter—from splash and spatter, and Vitamin—from vital and amine. Two technical terms are Pixel—from picture and element and Transistor—from transfer and resistor.
Kit Harington showed up to Wimbeldon sporting decidedly Jon Snow-length hair.
From James Angelos' new book The Full Catastrophe. Zakynthos is an island off the western coast of the Peloponnese. It is mockingly anointed the “Island of the Blind” after nearly 2 percent of the population — nine times the estimated rate for most European countries — was found to be receiving benefit payments for sightlessness. Angelos discovers a scheme to defraud the ministry of health that extends from the single public hospital’s sole ophthalmologist to the former prefect who signed off on the payments, one of many such social-welfare scams that cost the Greek government billions of euros.
Despite its size, England drinks more Champagne than any other nation.
“Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter’s prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes’ excellent little book, The End of Laissez-Faire (l926) might, so far as it goes, serve as a useful introduction to fascist economics. There is scarcely anything to object to in it and there is much to applaud.”--Mussolini
The paper the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relied upon to show that urban heat islands (the fact that cities are generally warmer than the surrounding countryside, so urbanization causes local, but not global, warming) had not exaggerated recent warming. This paper turned out—as the skeptic Doug Keenan proved—to be based partly on non-existent data on forty-nine weather stations in China. When corrected, it emerged that the urban heat island effect actually accounted for 40 per cent of the warming in China.
Four Russian long-range bomber aircraft flew close enough to the US shores that they were intercepted by military fighter jets. The first set of two bombers flew near Alaska and just 30 minutes later a separate set flew far off the west coast of California. What motive for playing nuclear chicken could a grown-up possibly have?
Am I the only one who thinks the fouling of the Animas River is being handled very casually? Had this been done by a private company, the country would be nuts with outrage. As a matter of paranoid interest, a week before millions of gallons of toxic waste were put into the Animas River in Colorado by the EPA, a letter to the editor was published in The Silverton Standard & The Miner local newspaper, authored by a retired geologist detailing verbatim, how EPA would foul the Animas River on purpose in order to secure Superfund money. This, of course, is lunacy but this kind of thing emerges when the daily reality does not balance with the response.
High level people: A special aide to President Obama, White House Staffer Barvetta Singletary, fired a 40 caliber Glock 23 service weapon at her boyfriend after an argument over his possible infidelity. This woman works in the White House!
The inspector general for the Intelligence Community notified senior members of Congress that two of four classified emails discovered on the server Clinton maintained at her New York home contained material deemed to be in one of the highest security classifications - more sensitive than previously known. The notice came as the State Department inspector general’s office acknowledged that it is reviewing the use of "personal communications hardware and software" by Clinton’s former top aides after requests from Congress.
AAAAaaaaaannnnnndddddd.....a graph of the current Chinese stock market and the U.S. in 1929:
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