Frisky Lion

A reporter kind of gets shown who is boss by a lion. I know the lion could have killed him in an instant if it wanted to, but why the fuck didn't he get out of the cage when it first started acting up? Some people are just incredibly stupid. You know he was thinking about the camera the whole time. Money isn't worth getting mauled by a lion, dude.

Phantom Limb Confirmed

Phantom limbs are a fascination of mine. There is a neuroscientist, Dr. Ramaschaundran, who specializes in this phenomenon and has several documentaries if you are interested. I likely spelled his name wrong. I just remember how it sounds because I had an economics professor with the same name. This story is 100% true. Click the headline to go to the article.

Doctors Confirm Woman's Imaginary 3rd Arm

Because you are likely as cynical as I am, you will notice the date on that article is April 1st. Here is a link to the same story in Scientific American. This wasn't another BBC Spaghetti Tree Hoax again.

This case study fascinates me to death.

Petraeus, Scarborough in 2012?

According to Politico, General Petraeus and Joe Scarborough are the "new" Great White Hopes for 2012.

http://www.politico.com/

Franken Surrounded by Tea Baggers

Good on Minnesota for getting this guy into office. This is a long video at nearly 10 minutes, but it is worth a watch. Apparently he is at a fair or something and gets surrounded by Tea Baggers that are just itching to bitch at him, but he keeps them calm and engages them in actual civilized conversation. I've only seen a handful of videos of Franken after he was seated and each one is amazing. If he keeps on like this, I would honestly vote for him in a presidential election. He'd have to prove himself for several years first of course, but I really really like him.

Nostalgia

It is 5 am CST and I just got home. Around 3 am I decided to drive around and jam because I was insanely bored. I drove thru the town I went to high school in, and it was a major smack in the face. I got a really a good view of what has happened to our country. You may need a little background information. I was in High School in the late 90's and early 00's - how are we saying that? Clinton was really the president of my memorable youth.

When I was in high school the town I was in was a working class town. Really, it was the type of town that I would want to bring my child up in. I'd say the average combined income of the families I knew was about 60k, mine was about 110k. In my town my family was relatively well off, but not wealthy. The city is now pretty much dead. Now all the houses appear to be lower class, and I would imagine their incomes are substantially less. All the mom and pop stuff is shut down in what appear to be abandoned buildings. The only things that are bigger and better are the hospital, banks, and schools. I feel like it is a very representative sample of the country as a whole.

Then there is where I grew up in Chicago. I lived, and my entire family lived in Wicker Park, Chicago. Now the buildings that were like 200-300k dollars are going for 1-1.5 million. That has been built up like crazy and is crazy beautiful where it was kind of sketchy before.

What happened? I remember when I was in high school corporations were doing anything they could to retain employees. They were matching 401(k)s at over 100% and now I don't think they match at all. There is nearly no opportunity anymore. I know people with master's degrees working as bartenders and serving coffee at Starbucks. When I was in school grown ups told us we couldn't handle the real world... Really? I feel like they couldn't handle the real world and that is why the majority of my generation has absolutely no real opportunity. I know it isn't fair to blame older generations, and I really don't. It is something that just happened and was obviously not intentional. I just don't think the country knows exactly how much harder it is for younger people because we are the ones who don't even get to start a real life. We are the first ones to get laid off because of seniority and we can't get the experience and so we aren't the ones who get hired. I mean seriously, the person who is giving you your coffee likely has an education level that is higher than yours. That is fucked up. They are likely 40-60k in debt trying to pay it off and pay their bills based off that minimum wage salary.

We need to get beyond this stupid fucking partisan bullshit and fix our country. We need to get back to where we were in the 90's when people were only partially miserable, but were able to escape it when they went home. Now we can't even do that. Can we agree that we need to quit outsourcing and focus on buiding jobs? Can we analyze what happens to the population when corporations grow, ie bringing in walmart to small towns. Why is all the money going to large cities? Should fixing health care on paper really take 6 months? You could get a group together at any business school in the country and they could have it fixed in a week or two. The shit that is going on is truly ridiculous and while those people are collecting millions of dollars in salary/benefits an entire generation and like 40 percent of the population is suffering, in the true sense of the word. Our country is dying. I don't even think that is a sensational statement anymore.

I don't know what it looked like when Russia collapsed, but I would venture to guess that it looked something like this towards the beginning. We are in real crisis in America. I'm truly offended by anyone saying that the recession is over. That is horseshit. The reality of the situation doesn't work in business cycles. We don't live by the quarter and we don't get bailouts.

This is a very good production that encapsulates my entire generations situation. I hate John Mayer but some of his trio stuff is really really good. He is just a tad older than me, but I mean this is the way pretty much all young people feel. Now that we did the impossible and got a black progressive into office, people are getting more and more turned off. We gave it our all to do our part and what is the result?

Olbermann on Beck

This is Keith's response last night to the clip I posted here from Glenn Beck the day before.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Police Officer Shoots Fire Chief in Court

This is simply beyond words. I will post it without comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090903/ap_on_re_us/us_shot_in_court

Baby Panda

The 29-day old baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo had its first medical exam today. It was officially determined that it is a boy. According to the Zoo, the baby panda was very calm and quiet during the exam and his mother was also very calm while separated from her baby. Here's the link to the website with more information about the exam along with new pictures:

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/

Last Chance To Stop Climate Change?

The UN climate-change summit is to take place this December in Copenhagen and it could be one of the last chances to make significant agreements to cut carbon emissions. An August meeting in Bonn ended with so many disagreements the director of the UN climate-change support team stated, "Time is not on our side"

Climate Summit Agreement Still Far Off

The very depressing part is the cap and trade bill up for debate in the Senate, if passed, will only cut US carbon emissions 13% by 2020. With the development of China and India raising those countries emissions our cut is paltry. Leading climate change scientists in a report released in Geneva say the developed world must cut emissions by 40% by 2020.

"The rapidly warming Arctic region is destabilizing Earth's climate in ways science is just beginning to comprehend."

This is scary shit and the time to act is now. I would even suggest that the participants attend the conference by video, cutting down on emissions from air travel.

Plain, isn't it?

This first effort to post might be a bit of a koan since I'm not sure what the question is. Some of the Progressive Friends have expressed an interest in my Zen practice and what it involves. It involves life. I'm afraid that probably is one of those "stinks of Zen" answers but it's a fact neverthless. I was gone on retreat ("sesshin") a few weeks ago. Well-wishers wondered what that's all about. I didn't go far, as the photo shows, it isn't fancy. I live in Orlando and we have a center over on the coast in Cocoa (yes, where "I dream of Jeannie" was set) about 15 miles to the southwest of the Kennedy Space Center.

Our building is a study in not-very-impressive Old Florida construction. It's a two building compound of cement block dedicated in 1968 by the Unitarians who remain in charge. Some are Wiccans, some are Buddhists, some are free-lance. We Buddhists have part of the classroom building for our zendo (meditation room) and the Wiccans have another classroom for their dedicated circle. When we're on retreat, we sleep on mats on the floor. It's not very comfortable and it's dormitory style so the snoring is part of that "life" I mentioned earlier.

The routine is: up at about 5 am (I get up at 4:30 and make the coffee). Our first "round" begins at 6:30 am. The schedule for a round goes like this: 25 minutes zazen (seated meditation) followed by 10 minutes of kinhin (walking meditation) and then another set of zazen/kinhin and then another 25 minutes of zazen. That brings it to about 8 am, we go to breakfast, clean the temple and the area, then start again at 9:30 with another round of zazen/kinhin, zazen/kinhin, zazen. Then it's lunch time. After lunch, more work and rest and we start another such round at 2 pm, finishing up about 4:30 or 5 and go to a meeting room to hear the roshi (the officially designated Zen teacher) give a dharma talk. After the dharma talk comes supper and then another full round as described above. In the course of all that, when your turn comes, the head monk taps you on the shoulder to go to the interview room for "dokusan" (interview) with the roshi. There's four full rounds every day.

That's a lot, isn't? It sounds leisurely and maybe it is a little bit so but it's extremely intensive because who're you dealing with? Yourself! That's the Zen of it. I'll say more later but let this be enough to start what discussion there might be.

2016 Chicago Olympics

This is how we can get progressive ideas into action. If the country were to back the bid for the 2016 Chicago Olympics we could build some high speed rail and roll out prototypes for new green building and power supply. We would also have that added benefit of billions upon billions of dollars poured into the center of the country from all around the world... Am I biased or shouldn't this be a national goal? Do people outside the area even know that we've been trying for a long time to convince the IOC to allow us to host in the city that gave the world Obama?

I think we should get guaranteed funding from the federal government. It would boost the local and national economy, be a testing ground for new technology, and show the world that we really have moved beyond the Bush years. If you're interested to see how it seems to be falling thru the cracks click here.



Chicago Parks are the best in the world and have all already hosted major events including just about every championship other than the Super Bowl (which it would with the new stadium) the Worlds Fair (now infamous) millions of people for the Obama Presidential Acceptance Speech and the Chicago Auto Show. The infrastructure is here and we have mile upon mile of protected lakefront for water sports. We have the worlds busiest airport that is expanding already, more than enough lodging, and everything else we would need. The 7 years in between now and then would be used mostly to tackle the "transportation issue." I seriously don't know why Chicago isn't the frontrunner. We are one of the only major cities built on blue collar workers who has come thru for event after event like this. One of the excuses the IOC has stated is the wind. Really? That is a misnomer. It gets mega windy in the canyon, where no athletes will be performing.

If we could build up Oprah and Obama, we can build the Olympics to be amazing too. That's a lot of "O"s. I'm not trying to be arrogant, but we have the best of everything here, including the aesthetics.... Ever wonder why everyone you've ever met from Chicago goes on and on and on about it? That is because Chicago is so fucking insanely underrated.

Things Chicago has given that are the best: Oprah, Jordan, Obama, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Siskel and Ebert, Buckingham Fountan, Sue the T-Rex, Al Capone, Sears Tower, Marshal Fields, Michigan Avenue, 3-peat Bulls, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, First World's Fair with electricity, the Chicago Picasso (I guess given to us), the best airport, the best ufo sighting, Jerry Springer, Sam Kinneson, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, the Belushi's, and practically anyone good from SNL history, the Cusacks, John Malkovich, Italian Beef (right?), the best Art Museum, the best skyline, the best fire, we tortured the shit out of the south in our civil war prisons, the best people, Eli's Cheesecake, fucking gum (Wrigleys)....ME! I think I've made my point: We don't do anything less than spectacular, unforgettable, and classy. We just don't know how. That's right I said we're fucking classy. :-) We even have the best phrases.

I'll give you one guess as to what my favorite place on this marble is.

More Glen Beck

This guy is apeshit insane. I mean he has gone so far off the deep end we just need to have him cut loose.



1. Is he saying the bible is communist now? Isaiah 2:4 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

2. Notice how instead of using the word liberal like normal he is using the term progressive. They are trying to turn it into a dirty word.

3. Artists? Really? You are going to attack art? This is where a line needs to be drawn. These works are a part of our history, if you don't like it stick a sickle up your ass.

4. If thousands of people walk by and don't notice it, how is it dangerous? I want this guy to be banished from any type of media. How can anyone work for Fox while they promote this guy? I mean it was bad enough before. Shep Smith, how can you look in the mirror?

5. Lets not forget that Rockerfeller commissioned art from Diego Rivera and before it was even completed he saw that there was an image of Lenin in the background, he paid the fee, tore down the wall, and sent Diego back to Mexico. Would he have done that if he was a fascist progressive communist blah blah blah?

Edited Note: I just realized I've been spelling this asshats name wrong... If you thought it has looked funny that is because it is Glenn Beck with two "n"s.

Making Clouds Whiter

There is a theory out there to whiten our clouds in order to reflect more sunlight and it is suggested that such a practice could buy us 25 years. We would just blast salt into a layer of our clouds over the ocean. This seems like an impossibility and who knows how it would effect the environment. What happens when the clouds make it over land and it rains salt water on our crops? Anyhow, click here to read more from the BBC.

There seems to be more and more energy and global warming solutions/theories/ideas being proposed every day. We might actually get some large scale action soon.

Japan's Energy Initiative

Japan has serious plans to send a solar-panel-equipped satellite into space that could wirelessly beam a gigawatt-strong stream of power down to earth and power nearly 300,000 homes.

More here.

This is the sort of stuff we need to be doing as a country. We need to embrace science and try to use it solve our problems. Fuck promoting corporate ventures, we need state sponsored initiatives to pursue aggressive solutions. We can win back our super power status this way (appealing to republicans) and we can actually help the world (liberal selling point). Mad props to the Japanese and Mitsubishi.

Maybe we could start using Nasa to solve real problems?

PSA

Cover your mouth.... Please.

Baby Chicks

I just watched this video and the cruelty of it towards living creatures is enough to make you sick to your stomach. Caution -- this is graphic.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery/

Is the US Economy Really in Recovery?

I have my doubts. The reality is we had to beg China to keep buying our debt. They laugh at us and in turn are putting more of their money into hard assets. The Federal Reserve steps in to buy treasury bonds in a program that will end soon.

"This will help the economy," said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia, "The challenge comes nine months from now, when the economy starts to recover and the Fed finds itself in a very delicate position. The challenge is the exit strategy."

That does not sound encouraging. It is in China's interest to keep us going, for now. All evidence is that they are slowing backing away.

The bubble economy has no where to go but down.....

Rare Photos of Now Extinct Animals

The title of the article calls them beasts but I thought perhaps animals was more dignified.

"From panthers and pandas to rhinos and tigers, dwindling animal numbers speak of the need to step up conservation efforts – if it’s not already too late. As a kind of wake-up call, we decided to take a look at seven extinct megafauna species captured on camera. With modern photography having only been invented in the 1820s, these snapshots are visible testament to just how recently the creatures shown were wiped out – and a jarring reminder of the precarious situation for many species still left on the planet."

The Coolest Mayor in the United States.

"The town's post-code is tattooed on one forearm, and on the other is a list of five dates, commemorating the local people who have died in violent circumstances during his time in charge.
"The less ink that ends up on my arm, the better-off everyone is as a community," he says, relieved that for the past 16 months he has not made any trips to the tattoo parlour"
Brought to you by the BBC.

Here he is addressing the Waxman-Markey Energy & Climate Legislative Hearing



Sure He looks like someone you would see on Lock Up but if you listen to him he makes a hell of a lot more sense than most politicians.

Our Media is Going Places

Guess who just got a job at the Today Show.

Insane Video

Is this a real sport? Are there shows in the US? This just blew me away.

No Title Necessary

Virus Scam -- Green AV

Be careful folks. I got an alert today was infected with several trojans amongst other things that could hijack my computer and that a program called GreenAV could cure it all. What was deceptive about this is the site made it look like a new anti-virus program from Microsoft. I did some checking and found it the whole thing is a phishing attempt to try and get your personal information.

Make sure your antivirus definitions are up to date, and if you don't use a spyware/malware/anti-hijack program, get one. If you need any suggestions, I know of some good ones that are reputable free software sites.

More Media Disappointment

Click here to see more amazing images from the Afghanistan elections including the bombs, violence, peace, hope and even a little pride. I don't know about you, but I think what the media has been doing borders on the definition of conspiracy. I'm so sick of being so disconnected from the rest of the world. Since Obama came into office the coverage has gotten worse. I don't think it would be outrageous to say that a large amount of people in our country don't even think we are at war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. At least with Bush, the media was reporting on shit.

Please spend some time and look at these photos. Beware there are dead bloody carcasses in some of them. You have to click through a disclaimer for those images.

Invasion of Privacy?

If you are looking for a job, you may want to edit your Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter accounts. This article is pointing out something that seems illegal to me. If it isn't illegal, it should be.

CHICAGO, August 19, 2009 - As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilizing these sites to screen potential employees. Forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Full article here.

Cannabis Poll

51% of the U.S. population views cannabis as less harmful than alcohol. In related news, 49% of the population is drunk. In all seriousness though only 19% of those polled said that cannabis was worse. Just a measly 19%. Too bad to defeat a republican moral you need 80% these days. Simple majorities or even 60% of the population can't beat our overlords in the minority.

By the way the photo is Michael Phelps hitting a bong weeks after he just proved to the world he is the fastest swimmer that has ever graced the earth and won the most medals ever. Do you think a drunk could have done that?

Rasmussen poll here.

Exploring the secrets of the Tomb of Prince Yi of Zeng Part

Ancient China has always facinated me ever since I read Lost Horizon as a child.

I loved watching this video about ornate vessels found in a tomb...
Chinese Civilization 2009-08-28 Exploring the secrets of the Tomb of Prince Yi of Zeng Part 5 CCTV-International