Friday, July 19, 2013

FIPID - 07/19/13


Fun Interesting Pertinent Information Dissemination


Top Picks
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Religious leaders help perpetuate male power and female mistreatment, the former president said.

 ‘America has no functioning democracy’ – Jimmy Carter on NSA

 Jimmy Carter: Unchecked campaign contributions are 'legal bribery' (Jimmy is on a role this month)

 Your Choice In Utensils Can Change How Food Tastes

 PISS TESTING IS A FAILURE | Vice  (Profanity)

 'Pernicious' Effects of Economic Inequality

 Sinkholes: When the Earth Opens Up (lots of pics)

 NASA uses 3-D printing to make a rocket engine injector at 70% reduction in cost and a 66% reduction in manufacturing time.

The Drone That Killed My Grandson
"I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.  The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen...My grandson was killed by his own government. The Obama administration must answer for its actions and be held accountable."

 A Philadelphia School's Big Bet on Nonviolence
In a desperately poor, dangerous part of town, Memphis Street Academy decided to ditch its metal detectors and focus on supporting students. Violence dropped by 90 percent.
Politics and Business
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 Schieffer: House farm bill 'like welfare for the wealthy'

 Costco CEO: Raise The Minimum Wage To More Than $10 Per Hour

 Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees (Surprise!  Sneaky companies take advantage of workers.)

Don’t let DOMA fool you — the Supreme Court is restricting your rights

Life without parole? No child deserves that.
...an investigation by the Center for Law and Global Justice found that the United States remains the only nation in the world known to sentence children to life without parole — a sentence to die in prison. 

 Law and Justice and George Zimmerman
The exoneration of Travyon Martin's killer is a stark reminder of the limitations of our judicial systems and the choices we make about the laws under which we live.

 Obama wins back the right to indefinitely detain under NDAA

 Justice Samuel Alito Might Have Quintupled His Net Worth in 2012

 Fifty Years of Murder in America, Mapped
Science and Technology
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 Why You Have To Scratch That Itch
Things that made a normal mouse scratch like crazy had no effect on mice with no Nppb. But when those mice were injected with the substance, they scratched, too.

 Here Be Dragons: The Mythic Bite of the Komodo
The truth, of course, is of little comfort to anyone planning to visit the islands where dragons roam. Don’t worry, you won’t die of sepsis from a Komodo bite. You’ll just die when the gigantic lizard with inch-long serrated teeth dripping with hemorrhagic venom tears your flesh to shreds.

Energy production causes big US earthquakes

Can Caresses Protect the Brain from Stroke?
Neurons cut off by a stroke may have the inherent ability to reroute blood flow and save themselves.

 All Charged Up: Engineers Create A Battery Made Of Wood



Fun, Interesting, Disturbing and Offbeat
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 From funny to fit; man sheds 155 pounds

 Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960

 In the Words of the Presidents
Jefferson coined more than 100 new words including pedicure; card-player Harry Truman popularized the phrase fair deal; George Washington added 37 terms to the lexicon, including hatchet man; and Teddy Roosevelt denounced irresponsible journalists as muckrakers.

 Ohio Man Rips Off Part Of His Penis After Taking Hallucinogenic Mushrooms: Police

 Leah Remini Flees Scientology (The King of Queens actress)

 The Ultimate Weight-Loss Incentive: Dubai Will Pay Dieters in Gold

 Christman Genipperteinga
He was a German serial killer in the 16th century, who is said to have murdered 964 individuals, from his youth and over a 13-year period, from 1568 until his capture in 1581.

 Beer drinking king dies in competition tragedy
"He had drunk six litres of beer, and when he won he lifted the trophy."
"Then he just started to vomit without stopping and he never spoke again,"
Videos
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Talented bear


Now that's a victory dance


Master craftsman makes a hatchet handle


Pics
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Complete Idiocy Makes for Pretty Amazing Fireworks Photos

Can haz halp pleez?














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Monday, July 15, 2013

Zimmerman Trial

Justice System On Trial In Court Of Public Opinion | NPR

The George Zimmerman trial has prompted a national debate on race and the American justice system. It's a far-reaching, and important, discussion, says legal expert Andrew Cohen in his recent column on The Atlantic. But it is also one that by definition is kept out of the courtroom. Host Jacki Lyden talks to Cohen about the differences between the courtroom and the court of public opinion.
JACKI LYDEN, HOST:
It's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Coming up, how one African-American parent explained the Zimmerman ruling to his son.
But first, one of the outcomes of the trial of George Zimmerman is likely to be what the jurors were able to consider and whether a legal trial can fully satisfy divided public, even when it's the only constitutional means we have.
Legal analyst Andrew Cohen examines this question in a piece for TheAtlantic.com in which he considers the limitations of our legal system. He joins us now from Denver. Andrew Cohen, thanks for being with us.
ANDREW COHEN: It's my pleasure.
LYDEN: First of all, you write that the Zimmerman verdict exonerating him is, quote, "a blunt reminder of one of the limitations of our justice system" because, again, quoting you, "criminal trials are not searches for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." And as you say, they never have been. Could you explain what you mean, please?
COHEN: Sure. Well, what I mean is a trial is a challenge of its attested evidence. Judges throw out relevant evidence all the time. They don't allow jurors to see it. Prosecutors argue to keep certain evidence away from the jury. The defense argues to keep certain evidence away from the jury. And in this particular case, we know that there was a lot of evidence that both sides wanted to give to jurors that the judge didn't allow.
The reason why this wasn't the racially tinged trial that it could've been is precisely because the judge forbid it. So we look at trials and I think sometimes we ask too much of the judicial system. We ask too much of lawyers and judges and jurors. We're not necessarily going to get the whole answer. And clearly, we don't have the whole answer even though the legal process - at least the criminal legal process now against Zimmerman is over.
LYDEN: You say trials aren't moral surrogates. And it's almost in your view as if there are two trials going on here. One is the evidence and George Zimmerman's account of his conduct. And the other is the law itself, this Stand Your Ground law, which many people would hold excessively broad. That's an interesting parallel.
COHEN: Well, the point I was trying to make in the piece and the point that I sort of lived with for the past 15 years or so as I've covered the law is that a trial is a microcosm. It is a sliver of the truth. And you can't have a trial like this and have both sides arguing about the extent of the self-defense law, for example. The reason George Zimmerman is innocent today or free today, anyway, the reason why he wasn't convicted last night, in part, is because of the broadness of the Florida law.
If people are upset by the verdict, if they don't think it's a just verdict, the solution is to try to change the law to make the self-defense defense more narrow so that it doesn't apply in situations like this. That's - the larger point I'm trying to make is there is the court that has now been concluded, and there is the court of public opinion.
And the court of public opinion is allowed to take in all of the things that are reality, the moral, the ethical, the racial components to this story in a way that the legal system not only isn't built to do but isn't allowed to do under the Constitution. The judge's job over the course of the past few weeks has been to give George Zimmerman a fair trial, to observe the bill of rights, to observe the rules of evidence. And she did that very well.
LYDEN: Let me just ask you about that. You think that she did a very good job, and that's one of the points you make here.
COHEN: Yeah. I don't think you can fault this judge in any material way. She made some ruling against prosecutors that precluded them from bringing in evidence. She made some ruling against the defense, which they objected to very strongly. Remember, just a couple of days ago, the defense objected to the inclusion of the manslaughter option, which, of course, ended up being something that wasn't relevant.
So this is a judge who kept control over her courtroom in a very high-profile case, a case that easily could've spun out of control because of its racial component. And I think that neither side really is complaining about the judge. And when you get that in this kind of a case, it means the judge has done the job she was supposed to do.
She isn't supposed to or allowed to bridge the racial divide that we have in this country. She's not supposed to look into the larger issues about racial classifications and so forth. That's not her job, especially as a trial judge.
LYDEN: Andrew, civil rights groups have been calling for a civil trial, a wrongful death civil action against George Zimmerman. What do you think? What do you expect there?
COHEN: Well, I think we'd expect that to be quite different than the one we've just seen. The rules of evidence are a little bit more lax in a civil case. The burden of proof is different in a civil case. It's only preponderance of the evidence rather than reasonable doubt. And there's no Fifth Amendment protection against self-incriminations.
So if we were to see a lawsuit, a civil lawsuit by the Martin family, George Zimmerman would have to testify under oath. He would have to be subject to cross-examination by the Martin family attorneys. And that may be, alone, an incentive for the family to go after him, even though it's apparent that he doesn't have a whole lot of money at the end of the day.
We've seen it in the O.J. Simpson case, we've seen it in other high-profile cases where the civil case looks very much different than the criminal case does. And I would bet if we get a civil case here, that's going to be the case.
LYDEN: Andrew Cohen, thank you very much for speaking with us.
COHEN: It's my pleasure.
LYDEN: That was Andrew Cohen. You can find his piece at theatlantic.com. He's also a legal analyst for CBS News.

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Monday, July 1, 2013

FIPID - 07/01/13



Fun Interesting Pertinent Information Dissemination


Top Picks
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Why Some Schools Want To Expel Suspensions
"It's simple. It doesn't cost money. It's just connecting with kids and having a strong instructional program," he says.
The year before Huerta took over as principal, there were 683 suspensions. Heurta says suspending students had become a reflex to poor behavior. But when he took over in 2010, he said, "No more." The results have been dramatic: just two suspensions in the past three years.

Tens of thousands in Iran protest against Khamenei, chant 'death to dictator' (video)

Some Tech Companies Find Ways Not To Hire Americans

Similar Diversity

Harvard Red Meat Study: Over 100,000 Subjects Studied Up to 28 Years
“This study provides clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death,” said Hu. “On the other hand, choosing more healthful sources of protein in place of red meat can confer significant health benefits by reducing chronic disease morbidity and mortality.”


From the creator of the Game of Thrones



Politics and Business
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Muslims want separate Muslim state in Oslo

What Do America’s Gay Families Get Now That DOMA Is Dead?

Next Time You Ask For A Raise, You Might Want To Round Up
We then took this into the lab and studied it in six studies involving hundreds and hundreds of people. And it all bore out the feeling that the more precise a number is, the less rounded, the better you do in the negotiation.

Internet Surveillance and Free Speech: the United Nations Makes the Connection
Communications surveillance should be regarded as a highly intrusive act that potentially interferes with the rights to freedom of expression and privacy and threatens the foundations of a democratic society.
Legislation must stipulate that State surveillance of communications must only occur under the most exceptional circumstances and exclusively under the supervision of an independent judicial authority.

BUSTED: Bankers Caught On Tape, Joking About Bailout, And How They'd Never Pay It Back

Indiana gives BP a pass on mercury
After a 2007 Tribune investigation, BP pledged to tackle its Whiting refinery's toxic discharges into Lake Michigan. Today, state regulators allow the pollution to persist.

2 Senators Say the NSA Is Still Feeding Us False Information

U.S. Mayors to Obama: Quit Cracking Down on Marijuana
Now the U.S. Conference of Mayors is begging Obama to leave them alone. At their annual meeting taking place now in Las Vegas, the mayors – among them Republicans and Democrats – unanimously adopted a resolution arguing that "states and localities should be able to set whatever marijuana policies work best to improve the public safety and health of their communities." The mayors also came out for amending federal law to explicitly allow states to craft their own marijuana policy. And they're asking Obama in the meantime not to waste federal law enforcement resources trying to undermine the will of their voters.

The Conference of Mayors has been inching up to this position for several years. Two years ago, the group adopted a separate resolution declaring the war on drugs a failure.

Ireland agrees compensation for Magdalene Laundries survivors
The Irish government has agreed to pay up 58 million euros (48.93 million pounds) to hundreds of women forced to work at the Catholic Church's notorious Magdalene Laundries after a report found that a quarter of them were sent there by the Irish state. 
The laundries, depicted in the award-winning film "The Magdalene Sisters", put 10,000 women and girls as young as nine through uncompromising hardship from the foundation of the Irish state in 1922 until 1996.



Science and Technology
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Online throttling and site-blocking to be outlawed in Europe under net neutrality plan

Google forbids facial recognition apps on Glass in the name of privacy

Boeing using robots to boost 777 output
Manually, it takes a team of painters 4.5 hours to do the first coat. The robots do it in 24 minutes with perfect quality.

Plants 'do maths' to control overnight food supplies
Mathematical models show that the amount of starch consumed overnight is calculated by division in a process involving leaf chemicals.

Why Morning-After Pill Won't Stop All Unintended Pregnancies
Part of the explanation is that women don't use emergency contraceptives every time they have unprotected sex, says Espey.
Another reason is that estimates of the effectiveness of some types of emergency contraceptive pills may be too optimistic. They prevent up to two-thirds of pregnancies — not all of them.
Although it's not as often discussed, the most effective form of emergency contraception is an intrauterine device. Inserted following unprotected intercourse, an IUD can prevent 95 percent of pregnancies.

Our Beef With BuzzFeed's Viral Article On 8 Dangerous Foods

Malware Distribution by Autonomous System (Map)

We Still Have No Idea Why Women Have Orgasms

The Secrets of Surviving Infidelity
...it turns out that 4 in 10 marriages are challenged by affairs; and it also turns out that more than half of American marriages survive the affair. These are some of the surprising findings - perhaps surprising to some - that are discussed in Dr. Scott Haltzman's new book. His book is titled "The Secrets of Surviving Infidelity"...

“Science Cop” Mugged
Fang Shimin is a writer and blogger known by his pen-name “Fang Zhouzi,” or his nickname the “Science Cop,” for his self-directed efforts to police the underworld of Chinese science. Over the years, he has investigated and exposed the kind of fraud, plagiarism, and academic malfeasance that endangers China’s ambition to produce credible world-class innovation. Most recently, he was in the news for reporting that the former head of Microsoft China, Tang Jun, held a Ph.D. from a diploma mill called Pacific Western University.
Fang was heading home over the weekend, when a man approached him and sprayed him in the face with what he later guessed was an anesthetic intended to daze him. “Another man pursued me and tried to hit me in the head with a hammer,” he wrote in a blog post, as translated by ESWN. “I kept sprinting ahead. This man chased me but could not catch up to me. He threw the hammer at my head but missed.” The hammer-thrower eventually hit Fang in the hip, though the writer escaped and is recovering with minor injuries.



Fun, Interesting, Disturbing and Offbeat
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Meet The First Female Navy SEAL, Kristin Beck
This is the journey of a girl in a man’s body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amidst the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society’s strict gender rules and perceptions. It is about a fight to be free inside one’s own body, a fight that requires the strength of a Warrior Princess.
Kristin’s story of boy to woman explores the tangled emotions of the transgender experience and opens up a new dialogue about being male or female: Is gender merely between your legs or is it something much bigger?

Greek Gods, Shields, and Spears: Ancient Hellenes Make a Comeback
The followers are an odd mix.  Leftists, who hate the Greek Church for its political power and nationalists who resent Christianity for crushing Greekness back in the days of the New Testament. 

Jeremy Upshaw has an unusual perspective.
He came to visit from Stillwater, Oklahoma and heard about the gathering online.
“It’s more deep, more philosophical than I thought it would be. I thought it would just be very ceremonial. You picture the olive branches and the togas, spiritually, it feels like there is strong energy here. There is very good energy, everybody is peaceful and kind.”

Wine-tasting: it's junk science
Experiments have shown that people can't tell plonk from grand cru. Now one US winemaker claims that even experts can't judge wine accurately. 

Jihawg Ammo: Pork-laced Bullets Designed To Send Muslims Straight ‘To Hell'

Jim Carrey’s Rant Against ‘Kick-Ass 2’ and 13 Other Stars Who Hate Their Own Films

The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Takeover Continues: Over 100 Babies Were Named ‘Khaleesi’ In 2012

Belly Dancing For The Dead: A Day With China's Top Mourner


 Videos
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Helping a momma duck get her ducklings


Nico Rosberg explains his driving position



"You can't have no more cellies"   


1959 Chevrolet Bel Air vs. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu crash test



Florida Wasp nest is larger than man



Pics
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Sean Avery- Shattered CD art





Stung by a bee


Visit from a bear looking for the food in the car.


No toenails














Arsinoitherium zitteli


Park Keukenhof near Amsterdam







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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


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No kisses

7 year old steals car to escape church


Almost Died


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Leaf Blower Potraits





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