Wednesday, June 5, 2013

FIPID - 06/05/13

Fun Interesting Pertinent Information Dissemination


Top Picks
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Washington 'Spends' More on Tax Breaks Than on Medicare, Defense, or Social Security

Richest 20 percent get half the overall savings from U.S. tax breaks, CBO says

Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America | NPR  (Great series.  Give it a listen.  Use the All Things Considered links on the right hand side.)

Why You Should Give A $*%! About Words That Offend
If you said the "s" word in the ninth century, you probably wouldn't have shocked or offended anyone. Back then, the "s" word was just the everyday word that was used to refer to excrement. That's one of many surprising, foul-mouthed facts Melissa Mohr reveals in her new book, Holy S- - -: A Brief History of Swearing.

"In the Middle Ages a phrase like 'Oh my God' or 'By God' or especially 'By God's bones' were really, really shocking, offensive. And especially the body part ones. So people would swear in these incredibly creative ways: ... 'By God's nails,' 'By Christ's bones,' 'Christ's precious blood.' And these were believed to actually be able to injure Christ, because in Catholic tradition, when Christ died he ascended into heaven and then his physical body sits up at the right hand of God and when you would say one of these body part [swears] it was thought to actually be able to break his bones or pull out his nails."

Elizabeth Warren to Obama Administration: Take the Banks to Court, Already!

How the College-Industrial Complex drove tuition so high
Consider this: You have just paid about three times as much for your degree as did someone graduating 30 years ago. That’s in constant dollars — in other words, after accounting for inflation. There is no evidence that you have received a degree three times as good. 

The Global Afterlife Of Your Donated Clothes
About 80 percent of the donations are carted away by textile recyclers, says Jackie King, the executive director of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART), a trade association for textile recyclers. She says that means about 3.8 billion pounds of clothing that is donated each year is recycled.

Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories
What’s even more surprising is that this sort of theorizing isn’t limited to those on the margins. Perfectly sane minds possess an incredible capacity for developing narratives, and even some of the wildest conspiracy theories can be grounded in rational thinking, which makes them that much more pernicious.
In 2006, the political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler identified a phenomenon called the “backfire effect.” They showed that efforts to debunk inaccurate political information can leave people more convinced that false information is true than they would have been otherwise.

The Tricky Business Of Retirement: Hidden 401(K) Fees (Really important stuff if you have money in the markets.)
GROSS: So let me see if I understand this correctly. So say I have $50,000 in my retirement account, and I've paid a one percent fee on that this year, $500. Next year, I have $52,000 in my retirement account. I'm going to have to pay that one percent fee again not only on the extra $2,000, but on the $50,000 that I paid one percent on last year, right...

HILTONSMITH: That's exactly right.

GROSS: I'm paying one percent on that same money every year that it's in the account.

HILTONSMITH: That's a really good way to think of it actually. You pay that fee on what is in essence the same $50,000 base over and over and over and over again.

HILTONSMITH: Well in my report that I did on fees, I basically found that using some average fee numbers that I get from the industry, you could pay as much as 30 percent, basically, of your account in fees.





Politics and Business
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I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable.

Shootings by Philly police soar as violent crime plummets

Justice Department Secretly Obtains AP Phone Records
An Atrocity in Syria, With No Victim Too Small
"One rebel commander recently filmed himself cutting out an organ of a dead pro-government fighter, biting it and promising the same fate to Alawites, members of Mr. Assad’s Shiite Muslim sect."

Banks to porn stars: Your money's not welcome

Our Intellectual Property Laws Are Out of Control

Welcome to the tax shelter island known as ... Manhattan
Turns out many U.S. companies store some of their offshore profits in banks here at home.

Young, famous and newly rich: A family dilemma for pro athletes
"I can remember going to bars and clubs and I don’t even drink alcohol, and getting stuck with a $400-500 tab," Davis says. "And I’m like wait a minute, I had four sprites."

Six Facts Lost In The IRS Scandal

Elizabeth Warren Student Loans Bill Endorsed By Several Colleges, Organizations
Come July 1, some student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, prompting Warren to push for legislation that reduces the level to 0.75 percent.

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (Thomas Jefferson was one of the authors)
We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

How A Trip To Costco Can Work As An Investment Strategy


Science and Technology
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The big fat truth
More and more studies show that being overweight does not always shorten life — but some public-health researchers would rather not talk about them.

Research Reveals Yeasty Beasts Living On Our Skin
"What we found was that the human body is an even more diverse ecosystem than we had known when we looked only at the bacterial communities," Segre says.     The survey turned up dozens of types of fungi — far more than anyone knew were there. In most parts of the body, fungi from the genus Malassezia dominated. One part of the body had an especially wide array: the feet.     For example, researchers found at least 80 varieties on the heel, at least 60 between the toes and at least 40 on toenails. Elsewhere on the body, they only identified between two and five types of fungi.

People with higher IQs are slow to detect large background movements because their brains filter out non-essential information

Remote-controlled, dissolvable electronic implants have been created that could help attack microbes, provide pain relief and stimulate bone growth.

The weird and wonderful world of 3D printing (check out the pics)

Wireheading: This Strange Experiment from the 1950s Wired Pleasure Directly Into the Brain
Some of his more controversial stimulation experiments included giving a woman 30 minutes worth of orgasms, and providing a homosexual man with a prostitute to see if he could change his sexual orientation. He then began experimenting with pain centers, and there is a particularly striking description of one man’s reaction:
His face twists suddenly into a terrible grimace. One eye turns out and his features contort as though in the spasm of a horrible science-fiction metamorphosis. “It’s knocking me out … I just want to claw…, ” he says, gasping like a tortured beast. “I’ll kill you…I’ll kill you, Dr. Lawrence.”
'Soda Mouth' Can Look A Lot Like 'Meth Mouth' (pics)


Fun, Interesting, Disturbing and Offbeat
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KFC smugglers bring buckets of chicken through Gaza tunnels
Gazans with a hankering for the Colonel's secret recipe can call up a delivery company and get some finger lickin' food smuggled hot from Egypt in just three hours.

Cleared of Charges of Setting Off a School Explosion, Florida Honor Student Heads to Space Camp
An 18 year NASA vetern purchased a scholarship for her because he had been falsely accused of setting a fire when he was young.
'Marriage is serious business, but kissing is not': Mindy Kaling on why it should be OK to lock lips with others after saying 'I do'
'Just because I want to kiss someone doesn't mean I want to love that person, share a bed with him . . . tell him not to use so much salt, or share one AOL e-mail account,' she adds.
The problem with kissing, she says, is that it has been 'cheapened', and is now perceived as a gateway gesture to sex.

Hugh Jackman Reveals: It takes a lot of chicken to become Wolverine

Videos
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BOSE Active Suspension comparison



Goat Killing in the Galapagos

Skydiver's near impact and landing on top of a mountain




Pics
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From the set of TMNT





Hockey goalie before hockey masks

Tick on a tick







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Monday, May 13, 2013

FIPID - 05/13/13


Fun Interesting Pertinent Information Dissemination


Top Picks
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Too Big to Jail?




Jon Stewart's 11 Most Epic CNN Rants

Perfect Moment | The Scott Adams the Dilbert creator
I also remember what it took to get to this place. I think of all the days in my youth when I worked on my uncle's dairy farm doing back-breaking labor under the boiling sun. I think of all the mornings I got up before dawn so I could shovel snow or mow lawns to earn money for college. I think of the four jobs I held during college. I think of the three years I worked my day job while going to school at night to get my MBA. I think of the six years I worked full-time at Pacific Bell while creating Dilbert morning, nights, and weekends. I think of the ten years I worked without taking a day off.

Pew Study: Many Muslims Believe In Mixing Mosque And State (Too many facts to post.  Just read it.)

Want to know how to get all ripped and muscular?  This guy gives you lots of details of his plan.  (Use at your own risk.  Check with your doctor before trying this routine.)
20 week Competition Style Cut

The Furtive Tax 
At $70,000 total income, the worker pays almost $20,000 in federal taxes, roughly half in payroll tax and half in income tax. The investor with $70,000 in capital gains pays less than a fifth of that. This is not just an abstract discussion; it means that the 25-year-old trust funder is paying less in tax than his counterpart who fixes computers for a living.

Why it’s time to rein in CEO pay
The United States has become one of the most unequal countries in the world. Just 1 percent of Americans own about 40 percent of our wealth, gaining all of the nation’s income growth from 2009-2011. The income of the average middle class family is lower today, in real dollars, than it was 17 years ago. And 46 million people live in poverty, including about one in five children by some estimates.

Steven Pinker: The surprising decline in violence (video)
Steven Pinker charts the decline of violence from Biblical times to the present, and argues that, though it may seem illogical and even obscene, given Iraq and Darfur, we are living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence.

Obama and Bush, distinct men with policy overlaps

'Taggants' In Gunpowder Might Have Helped Identify Bombers

You’re Eight Times More Likely to be Killed by a Police Officer than a Terrorist

Fear of Terror Makes People Stupid
As I’ve repeatedly noted, FBI agents and CIA intelligence officials, constitutional law expert professor Jonathan Turley, Time Magazine, and the Washington Post have all said that U.S. government officials “were trying to create an atmosphere of fear in which the American people would give them more power”.


BP should take BP's advice

Politics and Business
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The Texas fertilizer plant explosion cannot be forgotten
The plant had 1,350 times the legally allowed amount of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, yet hadn’t informed the Department of Homeland Security of the danger. Likewise, the fertilizer plant did not have sprinklers, shut-off valves, fire alarms or legally required blast walls, all of which could have prevented the catastrophic damage done. And there was little chance that regulators would learn about the problems without the company reporting them: Not only had the Occupational Safety and Health Administration not inspected the plant since 1985 but also, because of underfunding, OSHA can inspect plants like the one in West on average only once every 129 years.

Pentagon requesting $395.9 million to buy Israel more Iron Dome batteries
If the funding is approved, it will add to the $486 million the United States has already provided for Iron Dome missile defense systems protecting Israel.
In the abstract, most Americans want a smaller and less intrusive government. In reality, what Americans really want is a government that spends less money on other people.



I am a Republican. For those who know me that is not a surprise. I live in a red state. I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. I can field strip, clean and reassemble a Remington 12-gauge pump blindfolded. And on top of it, I think we should talk about having a single payer national health care plan.

A new report by IPS and Campaign for America's Future shows that America’s top CEOs are pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies at the same time they’re pushing austerity cutbacks in government programs that benefit ordinary citizens.


Science and Technology
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What Boston Showed about Human Nature
It is in these reactions that I see beauty.  In the initial movements of the helpers—the first responders, the blood donators, the countless men and women who rushed in to do anything and everything they could to fix the gaping hole left by those Monday afternoon explosions—I see an extreme example of the human capacity for selflessness.  I see evidence that people tend to intuitively, instinctively, and perhaps automatically reach out to others in times of need.  I see that extreme situations can cause people to transcend us-vs-them thinking, uniting diverse peoples into the “us” of humankind.

NFL draft is less art, more science: A how-to guide

Stunning Video: 3 Years Of The Sun In 3 Minutes

The Myth About Homework
Both books cite studies, surveys, statistics, along with some hair-raising anecdotes, on how a rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning.

World's smallest stop-motion film made with individual atoms (video)


Fun, Interesting, Disturbing and Offbeat
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Mother Teresa Humanitarian Image A 'Myth,' New Study Says
A new study by Canadian academics says Mother Teresa was a product of hype who housed the poor and sick in shoddy conditions, despite her access to a fortune.

From BBQ ribs to pulled pork, which grill to buy?
Meathead has some advice for you.

Michael Pollan wants you to cook
As cooking shows become more popular, we're paradoxically seeing a decrease in home cooking.
Since 1977, it's fallen by half...
"All the money in the food industry is in processing," he says. "It's very hard to make money selling simple ingredients."

Controversy Brews Over Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ritual
Some reach for fruit and Altoids to kill the bitter taste. A few head to the bathroom to vomit. They settle into their chairs, position pillows and blankets to get comfortable, and then the four-hour ceremony of the Church of the Union of Plants commences with all the excitement of watching a roomful of people fall asleep in front of a TV.

Scholars Find Cannibalism at Jamestown Settlement

Two masked men wearing hoodies and wielding handguns burst into the Pine Eagle Charter School in this tiny rural community on Friday. Students were at home for an in-service day, so the gunmen headed into a meeting room full of teachers and opened fire. Someone figured out in a few seconds that the bullets were not drawing blood because they were blanks and the exercise was a drill, designed to test Pine Eagle's preparation for an assault by "active shooters" who were, in reality, members of the school staff.

Judge Doubles Down On Double Entendres In Strip Club Case

5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister with the rifle he got for his birthday

Humans Are Animals: 8-Year-Old vs. Misinformed Substitute Teacher
My friend’s 8-year-old son had an interesting day at school recently. During science class, the teacher—who, it should be noted, was a substitute—asked the third graders to name the habitat of an animal of their choice: the sea for sharks, trees for squirrels, etc. My friend’s son picked a house because, as he explained to the teacher, human beings are animals too. The teacher corrected him. Humans, she said, are not animals. “Yeah, they are,” the boy replied. “No, they’re not,” she told him, as he recalled later in an interview.

Phoenix Mom Who Said She Killed Her Baby Because She "Had Too Many Kids" Belongs to "Church" That's Not Big on Birth Control


Videos
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No kisses

7 year old steals car to escape church


Almost Died


Pics
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Leaf Blower Potraits





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Saturday, April 6, 2013

FIPID - 04/06/13


Fun Interesting Pertinent Information Dissemination


Top Picks
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Naughty dog wall of shame

Children should be allowed to get bored, expert says

Overfished and under-protected: Oceans on the brink of catastrophic collapse

IMF: Gas Prices Don't Reflect True Costs  (They suggest the end of subsidies and raising prices.  Good story.)
The IMF says that price of gasoline in the U.S. covers the cost of producing and distribution gasoline but it doesn't reflect the costs that gasoline consumption imposes on society.

America's Most Obvious Tax Reform Idea: Kill the Oil and Gas Subsidies

Online Music Piracy Doesn’t Hurt Sales, European Commission Finds

Expose A Blatant Security Hole In AT&T's Servers, Get 3.5 Years In Jail

Supreme Court OKs Discounted Resale Of 'Gray Market' Goods
The 6-3 decision — likely worth billions, even trillions of dollars — could have repercussions that extend from U.S. trade policy to local yard sales.

Hedy Lamarr: Movie star, inventor of WiFi  (Not Hedley Lamarr)

Godwin's law
It states given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.

Lots of Sand sculpture pics

Former NBA Player Adrian Dantley Now a School Crossing Guard







Politics and Business
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Sen. Paul: Obama, Bush ‘lucky’ they weren’t arrested for smoking pot as kids

What Makes A Good Tax Haven?  (The US is a great tax haven for foreigners.)

States plagued by fiscal woes rethink their stance on the death penalty 
Studies show that administering the death penalty is even more expensive than keeping someone in prison for life. The intensive jury selection, trials and appeals required in capital cases can take over a decade and run up a huge tab for the state. Death row, where prisoners facing execution are kept in separate cells under intense observation, is also immensely costly.

Cost of the Iraq war? 6 Trillion
Since we borrowed to pay for much of the war, we're facing nearing $4 trillion in cumulative interest between now and 2053, according to the 30 researchers who worked on the Costs of War report for Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.
U.S. Probes Abuse Allegations Under Worker Visa Program

Unfit for Work

In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government.

The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined. Yet people relying on disability payments are often overlooked in discussions of the social safety net. People on federal disability do not work. Yet because they are not technically part of the labor force, they are not counted among the unemployed.

Bills Would Mandate Warrant for GPS Tracking, Cellphone Location Data

When A Famous Hospital Didn't Want An Expensive New Drug
Zaltrap costs about $11,000 per month — about twice as much as Avastin, Saltz said....After the op-ed ran, Sanofi, the company that co-markets the drug, started offering hospitals a discount of 50 percent on Zaltrap.

Parent of Sandy Hook victim at a hearing
"I don't care if you named it 'James' law,' I don't want (another law)," he said during the first of a series of meetings set up by a legislative task force assigned to review the state's gun laws.
"I think there's much more promise for a solution in identifying, researching and creating solutions along the lines of mental health."

Post analysis of Dow 30 firms shows declining tax burden as a share of profits

'Stop the bull#$%&' in wireless pricing says T-Mobile CEO John Legere
Science and Technology
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There are zombies among us (Parasitic mind control.  Cooool.)

To Control Asthma, Start With The Home Instead Of The Child

Synesthetes Really Can Taste The Rainbow
These people have synesthesia – a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense (e.g. taste) produces experiences in a totally different sense (e.g. sight).

‘Salt Sugar Fat,’ by Michael Moss
But there is a much larger segment of America whose members heedlessly eat processed foods that make them overweight and unwell. Michael Moss, a dogged investigative reporter who neither scolds nor proselytizes, is here for them.

Sugary drinks linked to 180,000 deaths worldwide

Why A Hoosier State Scientist Is Stuck On Oysters  (What if science could make a glue that sets in a watery environment?  Science is cool.)
Fun, Interesting, Disturbing and Offbeat
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Ohio School Shooter TJ Lane Laughs, Gives Finger at His Sentencing
Ohio school shooter TJ Lane spewed vile and unprintable words today at the families of three students he killed, gave them the finger and then laughed and smiled as they described him as an animal and a monster.
...Lane arrived at his sentencing hearing today wearing a blue button down shirt. After he sat down, he unbuttoned the shirt to reveal a white T-shirt with the word "killer" emblazoned across the front in black marker.

Creating the All-Terrain Human
A few years ago Jornet ran the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail and stopped just twice to sleep on the ground for a total of about 90 minutes. In the middle of the night he took a wrong turn, which added perhaps six miles to his run. He still finished in 38 hours 32 minutes, beating the record of Tim Twietmeyer, a legend in the world of ultrarunning, by more than seven hours.

Famous Veterans: Mr. T  (I pity the tree!)
In July 1976 his platoon sergeant punished him by giving him the detail of chopping down trees during training camp at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, but the sergeant did not specify how many trees that were to be cut down -- so Tureaud single-handedly chopped down over 70 trees in the span of three and a half hours before being relieved of the detail.

Andrew Jackson's Big Block of Cheese
"...four feet in diameter and two feet thick, weighed nearly 1400 pounds"  After 2 years since the cheese was given as a gift, Jackson threw a party and let 10,000 people eat from the block of cheese.  It was gone in 2 hours, but the smell of 2 years of cheese remained.

Prosecutor: Paterson pastor stalked mistress before stabbing
"A Paterson pastor stalked and terrorized his longtime mistress and colleague before stabbing her 27 times just days before her marriage to another man...She was stabbed in her face, she was stabbed in her neck, she was stabbed in her arm, she was stabbed under her arm, she was stabbed in the chest, she was stabbed in the back, and she was stabbed in the abdomen...[he] insisted it was not a premeditated act and denied he ever wanted to kill Shields.

An admitted Free Stater, Szabo, in an interview with Bedford Patch compared abortion to slavery and said he'd condone the use of deadly force in extreme circumstances pertaining to abortion.


‘Quarantine her!’ Top Tunisian Islamist says topless girl needs stoning
A Tunisian Salafi preacher has called for a 19-year old girl who posted her topless pictures on Facebook to be “quarantined” and stoned to death before she starts “an epidemic.”

Why Grain Storage Bin Rescues Are Risky And Complex
It can 200 rescuers and helps hours to save a person. 

High school teacher under investigation for saying “vagina” during anatomy lesson
High school science teacher Tim McDaniel is being investigated by Idaho’s professional standards commission because he allegedly used the word “vagina” while teaching a 10th grade biology lesson on reproduction and anatomy.

Survey: Adults text more than teens while driving


Videos
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The First Honest Cable Company (Profanity)

Woman gives accurate description of hail storm!! KAPOOOYA!!


Good Russian Parenting

This firefighter can climb a ladder faster than you can fall off of one


Eagleman sells you car insurance

This dog has mad skilz

France: world's first car backflip. Guerlain Chicherit flips a Mini Countryman



Two guys in their 90s racing the 100 meter dash!



MAD tv - Bon Qui Qui at King Burger





Pics
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718 lb boar in Turkey




Wyoming

Homemade Pencil Case

Fried mice in your fried rice

A dog ate a whole bottle of gorilla glue, this is what we removed from his stomach.







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