Wednesday, December 31, 2008

My Wish forYou in 2009

 


May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.


May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.


May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!


May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires


and may happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.


May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words . . . May 2009 be the best year of your life!!!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

IF YOU SEE A FAT MAN.

Who's jolly and cute,
Wearing a beard and a red flannel suit,
And if he is chuckling and laughing away,
While flying around in a
miniature sleigh,
With eight tiny reindeer to
pull him along, 
Then let's face it...
Your eggnog's too strong!
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!


Saturday, December 20, 2008

Is global warming preventing an Ice Age?

Dec. 17, 2008
Courtesy Uni­ver­s­ity of Wis­con­sin-Mad­i­son
and World Science staff
Al­though hu­man-caused glob­al warm­ing is po­ten­tially lead­ing the world in­to ec­o­log­i­cal ca­tas­tro­phe, it may al­so be spar­ing us from one of the Earth's per­i­od­ic ice ages, some re­search­ers say.

The claim, even if cor­rect, by no means in­di­cate glob­al warm­ing is good: its fu­ture ef­fects are quite un­known, sci­en­tists say, whe­re­as ice ages, while cer­tainly un­pleas­ant, at least have prece­dents.

Al­though hu­man-caused glob­al warm­ing is po­ten­tially lead­ing the world in­to ec­o­log­i­cal ca­tas­tro­phe, it may al­so be spar­ing us from one of the Earth's per­i­od­ic ice ages, some re­search­ers say. (Im­age cour­tesy USGS)

But as a mat­ter of sci­en­tif­ic cu­ri­os­ity, it's worth not­ing that "in­creased gla­cia­tion... would probably be hap­pen­ing to­day" if hu­mans weren't he­re, said John Kutz­bach, a cli­mate mod­el­er at the Uni­ver­s­ity of Wis­con­sin-Mad­i­son.

The theory is reminiscent of another re­cent piece of re­search, sug­gest­ing a bout of glo­bal warm­ing may have kept Earth from to­tally freez­ing over hun­dreds of mil­lions of years ago. Only now, re­search­ers, say, some­thing similar could be hap­pening to­day.

The con­tro­ver­sial idea—first pro­posed by Uni­ver­s­ity of Vir­gin­ia cli­ma­tolo­g­ist Wil­liam F. Rud­di­man—is based on the con­ten­ti­on that hu­man-induced glob­al warm­ing started long be­fore it's gen­er­ally ac­cept­ed to have be­gun.

The com­mon wis­dom is that the ad­vent of the steam en­gine and the coal-fueled in­dus­t­ri­al age two cen­turies ago marked the be­gin­ning of hu­man in­flu­ence on glob­al cli­mate. But Kutz­bach and like­minded sci­en­tists con­tend it really started thou­sands of years ago with large-scale ag­ri­cul­ture in Asia and ex­ten­sive de­for­esta­tion in Eu­rope.

Al­though these pro­cesses would have been a much weaker in­flu­ence on cli­mate than in­dus­t­ri­al ac­ti­vity, their ef­fect be­comes im­por­tant be­cause of the long­er time per­i­od in­volved, said Ste­phen Vav­rus, a cli­ma­tolo­g­ist at the uni­ver­s­ity.

Both an­cient and mod­ern glob­al warm­ing would have had the same source: the re­lease in­to the atmosphere of so-called green­house gas­es that act like a blan­ket, trap­ping heat on Earth.

Green­house gas­es would have tak­en the form of meth­ane from ter­raced rice pad­dies in Asia and car­bon di­ox­ide from burn­ing forests in Eu­rope. The re­sult­ing warm­er atmosphere would have heat­ed the oceans, mak­ing them much less ef­fi­cient store­hous­es of car­bon di­ox­ide, re­in­forc­ing glob­al warm­ing, ac­cord­ing to Kutz­bach and Vav­rus.

The pa­ir pre­sented their re­search along with Gwe­naëlle Phi­lip­pon of the Sac­lay Cen­ter of Stud­ies in L'Orme des Me­ri­siers, France, at a meet­ing of the Amer­i­can Geo­phys­i­cal Un­ion in San Fran­cis­co Dec. 17.

"No one dis­putes the large rate of in­crease in green­house gas­es with the In­dus­t­ri­al Revoluti­on," Kutz­bach notes. "The large-scale burn­ing of coal for in­dustry has swamped eve­ry­thing else" in the rec­ord, he added.

But look­ing ear­li­er, us­ing cli­mat­ic ar­chives such as 850,000-year-old ice from Ant­arc­ti­ca, sci­en­tists are teas­ing out ev­i­dence of past green­house gas­es in the form of fos­sil air trapped in the ice, the group said. That an­cient air, the re­search­ers said, con­tains the sig­na­ture of in­creased lev­els of at­mos­pher­ic meth­ane and car­bon di­ox­ide be­gin­ning thou­sands of years be­fore the in­dus­t­ri­al age.

"Be­tween 5,000 and 8,000 years ago, both meth­ane and car­bon di­ox­ide started an up­ward trend," ex­plains Kutz­bach.

Ice ages, or gla­cial per­i­ods, have oc­curred at reg­u­lar 100,000-year in­ter­vals dur­ing the last milli­on years. Each per­i­od has been paced by reg­u­lar and pre­dict­a­ble changes in the or­bit of the Earth known as Mi­lankovitch cy­cles, a mech­an­ism thought to kick start gla­cial cy­cles, Kutzbach and col­leagues ex­plained.

"We're at a very fa­vor­a­ble state right now for in­creased glacia­tion," said Kutz­bach. "Na­ture is fa­vor­ing it at this time in or­bital cy­cles." Im­por­tant­ly, the new re­search un­der­scores the key role of green­house gas­es in in­flu­enc­ing Earth's cli­mate, he added. Whe­reas de­creas­ing green­house gas­es in the past helped in­i­ti­ate glacia­tions, the early ag­ri­cul­tur­al and re­cent in­dus­t­ri­al in­creases in green­house gas­es may be fore­stalling them, say Kutz­bach and Vav­rus.

__________________________________________________________________________
 
it is percieved, that because the earth's eccentric orbit increases the distance from the earth to the sun, it cools  creating the conditions that have caused glacial ice ages...this might cause some to look at the above research and say that man, in his infinite simple mindedness has spared himself from the frigid tomb, but that isn't what threatens us most...we may have averted cryogenic armagedden but that salvation only means that life will become increasingly obstacle oriented for the human species...where there is now scenic and bountiful surroundings might become barren  lunar landscapes with torrencial floods that do nothing to alleviate drought conditions...
 
coastal areas will be increasingly battered by ever larger and more horrendous tropical and hurrican forces storms that will, largley wipe out all life zones within miles of the coast...think katrina and ivan on a regular schedual, maybe worse...
 
forget about arguing and going to war over oil...the future will surely see man killing on unprecedented  scales over water...and food...as hurricain size tornados clear paths across the central U.S. destroying the breadbasket of America...
 
It is more important than ever to come to grips with the scenarios presented here and endeavor to develope resources that deliver us from dependence on foreign powers that don't have our best interests on their minds...

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

2008 Darwin Awards...

Yes, it's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

Here are the glorious top 10 winners:

1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked. And now, the honorable mentions:

2. The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine and, after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5. An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

6. A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer... $15.

7. Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

8. As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, 'Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from.'

9. The Ann Arbour News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

10. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

In the interest of bettering mankind, please share these with your friends and family... unless of course one of these individuals by chance is a distant relative or long-lost friend. In that case, be glad they are distant and hope they remain lost.

*** Remember... They walk among us!!! ***

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Re: Yahoo! News Story - Obama's true colors: Black, white ... or neither? - Yahoo! News

black is the absense of color, white is the sum of all colors...what lies between are the colors that cover the canvass of life and reflect into the eye the spectrum of being...who we are...

Obama's true colors: Black, white ... or neither? - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_on_re_us/obama_s_not_black

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Scientists produce illusion of body-swapping

Dec. 2, 2008
Courtesy Karolinska Institute
and World Science staff
Cog­ni­tive neu­ro­sci­en­tists at the Swed­ish med­i­cal uni­ver­s­ity Karolin­ska In­sti­tute say they have made peo­ple per­ceive the bod­ies of man­nequins and oth­er peo­ple as their own. The find­ings are to ap­pear Dec. 3 in the on­line re­search jour­nal PLoS One.

"This shows how easy it is to change the brain's per­cep­tion of the phys­i­cal self," said the in­sti­tute's Hen­rik Ehrs­son, who led the proj­ect. "By ma­ni­pu­lat­ing sen­so­ry im­pres­sions, it's pos­si­ble to fool the self not only out of its body but in­to oth­er bod­ies too."

The re­search was aimed at learn­ing more about how the brain con­structs an in­ter­nal im­age of the body. Ma­ni­pu­lation of bodily iden­ti­fica­t­ion and self-per­cep­tion may be use­ful in vir­tu­al real­ity ap­plica­t­ions and ro­bot tech­nol­o­gy, ac­cord­ing to the re­search­ers.

In a first ex­pe­ri­ment, they fit­ted the head of a shop dum­my with two cam­er­as con­nect­ed to two small screens placed in front of the sub­jects' eyes, so that they saw what the dum­my "saw." When the dum­my's cam­era eyes and a sub­jec­t's head were di­rect­ed down­wards, the sub­ject saw the dum­my's body where he or she would nor­mally have seen his or her own.

The bod­y-swapping il­lu­sion arose, investigators said, when a sci­ent­ist touched the stom­ach of both with two sticks. The sub­ject could then see that the man­nequin's stom­ach was be­ing touched while feel­ing, but not see­ing, a si­m­i­lar sensa­t­ion on his or her own stom­ach. As a re­sult, the sub­ject de­vel­oped a pow­er­ful sensa­t­ion that the man­nequin's body was his or her own, re­search­ers said.

In anoth­er ex­pe­ri­ment, the cam­era was mount­ed on­to anoth­er per­son's head. When this per­son and the sub­ject turned to­wards each oth­er to shake hands, the sub­ject per­ceived the cam­er­a-wear­er's body as his or her own.

"The sub­jects see them­selves shak­ing hands from the out­side, but ex­perience it as anoth­er per­son," said Va­le­ria Petkova, who con­ducted the study with Ehrs­son. "The sen­so­ry im­pres­sion from the hand-shake is per­ceived as though com­ing from the new body, rath­er than the sub­jec­t's own."

The strength of the il­lu­sion was con­firmed by the sub­jects' ex­hibit­ing stress re­ac­tions when a knife was held to the cam­era wear­er's arm but not when it was held to their own, in­ves­ti­ga­tors said. The il­lu­sion al­so worked even when the two peo­ple dif­fered in ap­pearance or were of dif­fer­ent sexes. How­ev­er, it was­n't pos­si­ble to fool people in­to iden­ti­fy­ing with a non-humanoid ob­ject, such as a chair or a large block, the re­search­ers not­ed

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The monster kills the maker...

WASHINGTON – Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.
The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.
The bank's failure is a bitter irony because it is the mortgage securitization business of which Ranieri is known as a pioneer — the repackaging of home loans as bonds that are sold to investors — that was at the heart of the mortgage and credit crises. Last spring, the audit committee of the company's board found in an investigation certain weaknesses in accounting, disclosure and other issues relating to residential real estate loans.
Franklin Bank Corp. just Sunday said it had received proposals for transactions to strengthen Franklin Bank's capital position and was keeping regulators informed of the talks' progress.
The FDIC said all of Franklin Bank's deposits will be assumed by Prosperity Bank of El Campo, Texas. Its 46 offices will reopen as branches of Prosperity Bank with their normal business hours, including those that open on Saturday. In addition to assuming Franklin Bank's deposits, Prosperity Bank also will acquire about $850 million of the failed bank's assets.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Debate Rules Allow For One 15-Second Strangulation

OXFORD, MS—Amid discussions of possibly postponing the debate altogether, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) were able to agree Thursday on a new guideline that would allow each candidate one 15-second strangulation during Friday night's presidential debate. "Both candidates will receive two minutes to answer each question, five minutes for discussion, and a one-time-only option to walk over to their opponent's podium and cut off his oxygen supply for up to 15 seconds," a statement from the Commission on Presidential Debates read in part, also specifying that debate moderator Jim Lehrer can exercise his own discretion in determining whether or not the strangulations go over time. "After being choked, the candidate, if still standing, may counter with one of his two allotted empty beer bottles to the head." Because many have agreed the new rule will benefit McCain, the commission has also allotted Obama an optional double-thumbed eye gouge

 

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Depressed



I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline.











Got a call center in Pakistan, I told them I was suicidal.





They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck

Monday, August 11, 2008

Refugee Exodus Grows in Southern Philippines

MANILA — The number of Filipinos displaced from their homes since fighting began late last week between government forces and Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines reached 130,000 on Monday, officials said. The military and the police sent more troops to fight the rebels.

Social welfare officials warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as the fighting between troops and elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which had been confined to two provinces, threatened to spill over to other areas. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a separatist group that has been fighting for an Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao for several decades.

Local media reported that thousands of residents, the majority of them Muslims, had been fleeing their homes since Friday, many in carts pulled by water buffaloes.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

As Iraq Surplus Rises, Little Goes Into Rebuilding

Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year's end, according to an American federal oversight agency. But Iraq has spent only a minute fraction of that on reconstruction costs, which are now largely borne by the United States.
The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales since 2005, appears likely to reinforce growing debate about the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion.
In one comparison, the United States has spent $23.2 billion in the critical areas of security, oil, electricity and water since the 2003 invasion, the report said. But from 2005 through April 2008, Iraq has spent just $3.9 billion on similar services.
Over all, the report from the Government Accountability Office estimates, Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion. And in an odd financial twist, a large amount of the surplus money is sitting in an American bank in New York — nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007, with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates a skyrocketing surplus.
The report was requested by two senior senators, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and on Tuesday they were quick to express strong dissatisfaction over the contrast between American spending on reconstruction and the weak record of spending by Iraq itself.
"The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects," Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a joint statement with Mr. Warner. "It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank."
From the beginning of the conflict, American officials assured taxpayers and the world that Iraq would use oil money to pay for reconstruction. But that has not happened. Several senior Iraqi officials were either traveling on Tuesday or declined to comment, saying they were not familiar with the report.
 
and the only way the bush administration and the rebumbliclutzes can think of to reduce the deficit is to slash and burn domestic programs like medicare, medical and social security...


 

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:

"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE".

THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE ! AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:

"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE"

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE
ON
THE
SAND AND NOW,
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?'

THE FRIEND REPLIED
'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE I T DOWN
ON SAND, WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING
GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT ON STONE
WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT.'

LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS
ON
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS
ON STONE.

Monday, April 14, 2008

DIVORCE VS. MURDER

DIVORCE VS. MURDER
  
 A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the
 pharmacy, walked up to the
 pharmacist, looked
 straight into his eyes,and said, "I would like to
 buy some cyanide."
  
 The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you
 need cyanide?"
  
 The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."
 The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed,
 "Lord have mercy! I can't
 give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's
 against the law! I'll lose my
 license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All
 kinds
 of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You
 CANNOT have any cyanide!"
  
 The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a
 picture of her husband in
 bed with the
 pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the
 picture and replied,
 "Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you
 had a prescription."


 

 

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

walmart greeter

A very loud, unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into Wal-Mart with
her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance. The
Wal-Mart Greeter said pleasantly, "Good morning, and welcome to Wal-Mart.
Nice children you have there. Are they twins?"

The woman stopped yelling long enough to say, "Hell no they ain't! The
oldest one's 9 and the other one's 7. Why the hell would you think they're
twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?"

"I'm neither blind nor stupid, Ma'am," replied the greeter. "I just couldn't
believe someone would sleep with you twice. Have a good day and thank you
for shopping at Wal-Mart


 


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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

You Might Be In The al Qaeda If...

You Might Be In The al Qaeda If...

...You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.

...You own a $300 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.

...You have more wives than teeth.

...You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.

...You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.

...You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry plastic explosives in your robe.

...You've ever been asked, 'Does this burka make my ass look fat?'

...You've felt the urge to rub one out after seeing a woman's exposed ankle.

...You were amazed to discover that! cell p hones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

...You've ever uttered the phrase, 'I love what you've done with your cave.'

...You wipe your ass with your bare left hand, but consider bacon unclean.


 


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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year...

We have a new year ahead of us and only the most contentous election to come along since the Supremes anointed George the fecond to office in 2000. Let me see...do I want the coked out neophite, the embattled power whore or any one of the republican hacks that represent the worst cadre of worthless propagandists to pop up in the political whack-a-polemic contest since the dawn of man...

It cerntainly will be one for the record books...on the plus side...If Hillary wins Bill O'rediculous and Sham O'hammity's head will explode on national TV...