an animal's perspective

the museum of animal perspective has posted a bunch of short videos shot with cameras mounted on the backs of all sorts of animals----

go ahead, waste some time

r.i.p. emmett

they murdered emmett till on this day in 1955 - his casket is going to the smithsonian (he got a new casket when he was reburied after an autopsy a few years ago) - this was the casket his mother insisted be open so that everyone could see what had been done to her 15-yr-old son---

olden times

i've gotten to 1967 in scanning iris' slides---i've gotta get done with that project

now these are awesome waves

check out this site---you've never seen wave action like this---don't miss the embedded video

food venues

the old gold star cafe & bakery is getting a do-over---will open shortly as the "bakeshop"---hope they will serve breakfast---















if not, there will soon be two waffle houses downtown---those students are scarfing up the sausage

the health care "debate"

"You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into."

hotels and nightlife

the new nightclub by the people that brought us the vision hotspot a few years ago is getting close to opening---it's at least got the plywood off the sidewalk and is making the building look better than it has in a while---the dogleg at p'tree and 11th has been eliminated, too, for the convenience of the loew's hotel on the opposite corner---ought to be an interesting area in a few months

filming on peacthree place

they got the sidewalk (and all the parking lots) all clogged up with people and equipment and catering wagons and what not as they are filming something at the palmer house apartments on p'tree place---and they've fitted out the north side of metropolis as the main terminal of s bus station, including benches and shelter for a city bus stop---a little aggravating since they messed up the sidewalk installing the (temporary) bus-stop shelter

how to ruin an historic site

first, take a fine italianate house, c. 1878, home to a florida governor and now part of a national "historic preserve"---built by a river pilot, it is, or rather was, across the road from the st. john's river near jacksonville, and had an expansive view of the river's mouth and "pilot town," now mayport, across the river---the park thought it had some assurance that the view would never be compromised, but then there were a few changes in ownership in the private property between the highway and the river, culminating in the property's acquisition by a total philistine who constructed a three-story boat docking facility precisely in front of the house


























but there's still a fine view from the belvedere if you look the other way

hahaha

The government is seizing Dinosaur Adventure Land, a creationist theme park in Florida., to satisfy the debts of the tax-dodging hucksters who founded it.

the "green concert"

looks like "green" is starting out with a lot of diesel engines idling on tenth street----oak hill has been entirely fenced off and at noon there were already several hundred people waiting for the gates to open at five

cheese and crackers

sargento cheese, you should hire glenn beck as a spokesman with the new slogan, "sargento cheese: beloved by crackers." colbert report, last night

whole-wheat reactionary

for those of us for whom high prices were not enough to make us quit:

The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, just penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. It sounds like something written by Dick Armey with the help of Sarah Palin and the teabag brigade

oh, my

your tax dollars at work

asteroidic impact

asteroid impacts on earth as viewed from space---a great series of images

unfortunately we may not know about the next one until it's too late---

Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.

but at least we won't have socialized medicine

apropos

his was the last honest assessment of the role race has played in our history, especially in the south --- it is really sad what racism has done to the south and to the entire country for the last two hundred years --- and continues to do today

You are kept apart that you may be fleeced separately of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of the financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.

that was tom watson, populist congressman who pushed through legislation establishing rural free delivery (r.f.d.) of mail, which was a big deal in 1893 --- he came so close to creating a viable populist alliance of black and white in the early 1890s that the democratic power structure, on behalf of the state's moneyed interests, resorted to some of the most blatant and wide-spread election fraud this state has ever seen (which is saying something) in order to defeat him ---

big gummint

from an anonymous post from somewheres:

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

12th and midtown

great webcam of the development going up, beginning with 1010 --- hit "time lapse" for the entire sequence

big snake

the people speak

it's hard to be consistent when you're half crazy with fear i guess

Surely the oddest thing about the town hall protests is the number of elderly screaming at the top of their lungs about euthanasia, eugenics--by far the largest contingent. These folks have single-payer health care paid for by the government, and have had it for decades. It's called Medicare. Yet somehow, they vehemently want to deny it to everyone under 65. What's up with that?

hyper bill mays

autopsy found cocaine in his system, which is somehow not very surprising

anniversaries

the oldest known non-clonal organism, a great basin bristlecone pine (pinus longaeva) known as prometheus and estimated to be nearly 5,000 years old, was cut down on this day in 1964, apparently by mistake

raw fear

this from today's wapo, and you really need to follow the link for the whole thing:

Between Jack Nicholson's 1989 portrayal of the Joker in "Batman" and Heath Ledger's 2008 characterization in "The Dark Knight," something sinister happened to the villain's iconic makeup. What had been a mask, with the clearly delineated lines of a carnival character, became simply war paint, and not very well applied.

and then this in today's email from one of ma's cousins [unedited, for clarity]:

You may fwd this "FISHY" e-mail to your buddy Obama.I have a message for him.The message is,

I didnt vote for you because I reckonized you for what you are.You fooled a lot of ppl with your velvet tongue and your gift for gab as long as you have a telepromter but I think most Americans have finally woke up and are begining to regret their vote.

I firmly believe that you are on a path to right what you consider as wrongs to ppl brought here from Africa as slaves.I have allways thought that decendents of slaves that were brought here should be thankful that they have it pretty good here compared to most any place in Africa.Some might say that if you were still in Africa that instead of enjoying a plate of grits,bacon and eggs here that you might may very well be chasing down dinner wearing a loin cloth waving a hatchet.

So,if you want to send your "FISHY POLICE " to get me for being against everything you stand for,be my guest.I have nothing to hide,im just a plain old country that was very quick to comdem,social security,medicare,health care reform ,cap & trade,bailouts Cash for clunkers etc,etc.Health care reform should begin with reigning in trial lawyers,cut out free diabets,free breathing,free scooters,etc for the elderly,fix the fraud which is prevelant in medicare and medicade.I could go on but i think my point has been made.Have a nice day Joe Hart Alamogordo,New Mexico

kinda left me speechless --- being him must be a bitch

cognition

Most every animal in nature, when confronted with a mirror, will interpret the image therein as another animal, possibly a threat, and may attack the image, or, be scared away. After awhile, the animals habituate and ignore the reflected image entirely. But the gorilla–a “higher” ape–recognized the image as its own, a feat that require a degree of abstract thought and cognitive association.

so gorillas, dolphins, and now elephants have been shown to be self-aware----

holy writ

my favorite line: "how do you tell? is there an asterisk or something?"

birthday people

that is not the most favorable image ever made of helen thomas

getting them off the road

for a while there ten years or so ago, it seemed like the g.d. suvs were going to completely take over the roads---so i like this:

The number one vehicle destroyed under the Cash for Clunkers program, the Transportation Department says, was the Ford Explorer (1998 edition). Number two, the Ford Explorer (1997). Number Three...you guessed it. The '96 model.

let's all get mad

Angry Obama Birther

clear and present danger

this is why all the b.s. about the "angry left" from o'riley and the right wingers is so ludicrous

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service. Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history. [...]

between that and the right wing's overall disrespect for democracy, in spite of all of their goddam flag pins and patriotic rhetoric, god help us all

politics of race

you need to read frank rich today

It’s also stupid to look at Harvard as a paradigm of anything, race included. If there was a teachable moment in this incident, it could be found in how some powerful white people well beyond Cambridge responded to it. That reaction is merely the latest example of how the inexorable transformation of America into a white-minority country in some 30 years — by 2042 in the latest Census Bureau estimate — is causing serious jitters, if not panic, in some white establishments.

a lot of people are just not ready for what's going on

modern living

claudia is off in the wilds of texas and sends us this, which is apparently for real

prohibition 2.0 fail

it was a bad idea then and it still is

"Legal Age 21 has not worked." Of course, any 20-year-old could, and probably would, tell you that. But the quote in question was written by Dr. Morris Chafet, a psychiatrist who served on the presidential committee that pushed to have the legal drinking age raised to 21. That push paid off on July 17, 1984, when President Ronald Reagan signed the new drinking age into law.

scheduling

this is absolutely true and few managers actually understand that:

There are two types of schedule, which I'll call the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule. The manager's schedule is for bosses. It's embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals. You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default you change what you're doing every hour. When you use time that way, it's merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you're done. Most powerful people are on the manager's schedule. It's the schedule of command. But there's another way of using time that's common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can't write or program well in units of an hour. That's barely enough time to get started.

"willful and weaponized stupidity"

Daily Kos polling continues to humiliate the Republican Base and the southern region of our country. This week, the polling reveals that 58% of Republicans either don't believe the president was born in the United States or are unsure. This compares to 7% of Democrats and 17% of Independents. Also revealed, Republicans do not know or believe in basic geology. Asked if they believe that America and Africa were once part of the same continent (they were) 76% of Republicans said 'no' or 'not sure.'

broken down by region, the poll also finds the south continuing to live down to its reputation

corrupting the system

fascists never respect the body politic---how do you fight that?

The lobbyist-run groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, which orchestrated the anti-Obama tea parties earlier this year, are now pursuing an aggressive strategy to create an image of mass public opposition to health care and clean energy reform. A leaked memo from Bob MacGuffie, a volunteer with the FreedomWorks website Tea Party Patriots, details how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress: