18th person freed in just one Texas county based on a post-conviction DNA analysis.
Think about that for second!
1 county ..... 18 wrongful convictions proved unequivocally by DNA.
18 murderers still on the loose.
Good going Texas.
Wow!
How many more?
Sen. Barack Obama's forceful denunciation of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, earned him praise Tuesday for confronting a searing controversy that has dogged him for weeks.
But on sensitive race issues, the Illinois senator might get no relief. He is being pounded by Republicans who say they'll continue to jab at his "questionable" judgment and by some Democrats who say his condemnation was purely political.
More: San Francisco Chronicle
The French recording of Au Clair de la Lune is 17 years older than Edison's Mary Had a Little Lamb. The recording was made by a needle etching grooves into soot covered paper.
By Maria Jones
This story becomes more surreal each day as the possibility of new victims of the Smiley Face killer emerge.
Two retired NYC detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte have been investigating a series of murders for the last 11 years that began in NYC. They believe the crimes may be tied to a nationwide network of murderers dubbed the Smiley Face Gang. A series of crudely painted smiley symbols have been found near where many of the bodies entered the water.
Video: WPTZ.com
By SANDRA CHEREB, AP
Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno are scrutinizing seismic readings and studying damage at residents' homes to try to figure out what's happening beneath the earth's surface under a northwest Reno neighborhood rocked by a seemingly endless string of earthquakes.
What they can't say is whether the hundreds of temblors that have rattled the area for two months — the largest a magnitude 4.7 Friday night — are subsiding or a prelude to bigger things to come.
Up until April 15, sizable quakes that could be felt were occurring about once every third day. Then, the rate increased, with about three, 2.0 or larger incidents occurring daily. On April 24, when the first 4.2 quake was registered, "all of a sudden we were seeing 20 (of the magnitude) 2s and larger per day," said state geologist Jon Price."This is an exceptionally vigorous sequence of earthquakes".
During the past week alone, more than 500 occurrences have been recorded.
More: Reno Quakes
Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination.
That's the argument of anthropologist of the London School of Economics. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists.
More: Religion a figment of imagination
Sen. Hillary Clinton reissued her challenge to Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, to join her in a debate –- this time she proposed it be on the back of a flatbed truck.
"I am very very regretful that my opponent will not agree to a debate in North Carolina, because I think these issues are worth debating, and, you know, the other day he turned down the debate that I agreed to here in North Carolina,"
What a refreshing idea, after years of watching debates set in a plastic studio seeing a debate take place on a flatbed truck would be a breath of fresh air.
Complete story here: ABC News
The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was suspending its briefings for retired military officers who often appear as military analysts on television and radio programs.
New York Times and
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
It's a stoner's worst nightmare: pot without the high. But a drug that offers the pain-killing and appetite boost associated with marijuana without the forgetfulness, giggles and general dopiness might appeal to cancer patients and others who would otherwise turn to medical marijuana.
The approach hinges on tinkering with our body's own natural stash of marijuana-like chemicals, endocannabinoids. Marijuana's active ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) tickles the same brain cell receptors as two endocannabinoids: one that makes you high (2-AG), while another that kills the pain (andamide).
A team led by John Casida, a toxicologist at the University of California in Berkeley, discovered that a pesticide related to the nerve gas sarin causes some of the same effects as marijuana in mice, including the painkilling and the behavioural changes.
But the drug works nothing like pot. Instead of turning on the brain's THC receptors, the insecticide gets mice high by blocking their brains from breaking down both 2-AG and andamide.
The next step will be to find a drug that stymies the breakdown of andamide, not 2-AG. But scientist will need to be careful before they mellow this high. "If your start with something derived form a pesticide you have to be particularly careful," says Casida.
Jazz musician and composer Jeff Oster has incorporated the eerie sounds of Saturn's auroras into a jazz piece called "Saturn Calling", which won a 2008 Independent Music Award in the New Age category.
Oster, a space enthusiast, got the idea for the song while listening to the ethereal sounds of Saturn's auroras. You can listen to the piece here, and check out sound files made from Cassini spacecraft measurements of things like magnetic fields and radio waves in Saturn's environment.
The sounds of Saturn's auroras help set an imaginative, other-worldly tone for the piece, and I think "Saturn Calling" makes a great soundtrack for viewing some of the astonishing images that Cassini has taken.
None of us can do much about the prices being charged at the pump these days. But once we've tanked up, there are a few things we can do to keep the needle away from "E" as long as possible. These include:
Maintain engine tune. On a modern car, that means not driving around with the "check engine" light on. That light signals a fault with a component such as the oxygen sensor, which helps the engine maintain the ideal air/fuel ratio. A bad oxygen sensor can reduce fuel economy by as much as 40 percent - and will increase your vehicle's emissions output as well.
Pump the right gas. Burning the wrong grade of gasoline can reduce economy as well as performance - in particular, using high-octane premium in an engine designed to burn regular grade gas. Octane is a measure of burn rate, not the quality of the fuel. Higher octane fuels burn more slowly than lower octane fuels. Put high octane (slow burning) gas in an engine designed to run on regular (faster burning) gas and combustion efficiency is impaired, reducing fuel mileage as well as performance. Always use the grade of gas specified by the manufacturer of your vehicle for optimum mileage and performance.
Check those tires. Under-inflated tires are commonplace because most people neglect to periodically check for proper pressure. And it's hard to notice a drop of 5-10 psi or so under normal driving. But fuel economy drops by about half a percent for each psi below recommended inflation pressures - costing you as much as a couple miles per gallon if your tires are at 28 psi instead of 35.
Check the oil, too. Following the recommended service interval will help prevent crud from gumming up your engine's internals, increasing friction and lowering efficiency. And be sure to use the recommended viscosity (thickness) oil for your engine; a thicker oil - for example, 10W-30 vs. the recommended 5W-30 - can lower your fuel economy by up to two percent. Look for motor oil that says "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol to be sure it contains friction-reducing additives.
Ride with the windows up. On the freeway, anyhow. It is more efficient - and you'll burn less gas - running your car's air conditioner than it is to roll down the windows. The aerodynamic drag caused by open windows takes more energy to overcome than operating the A/C compressor. Plus, you won't muss your hair.
Drive smoothly. Building up speed gradually, as opposed to flooring it and running through the gears at redline, can improve your overall mileage by ten percent or more. Cruise control can help maintain smooth, steady speeds with little abrupt use of the throttle. The optimum "mileage zone" to eke the best-possible fuel economy out of your vehicle is approximately 45 mph; speeds of 70 mph and faster dramatically cut down on gas mileage.
Keep it off idle. When you're stuck sitting in traffic, your engine is getting zero mpg, about as wasteful as it gets. If you are faced with having to sit still for more than a minute, turning off the engine until things get moving again will save fuel.
Dial out 4x4. If you drive a truck or SUV with a part-time 4x4 system, be certain the system is in 2H whenever you're driving on clear, paved roads. Keeping a 4x4 system in 4H when not needed will accelerate wear of major parts such as axles and transfer case and cut down on your mileage considerably, as the engine is driving all four wheels instead of just two.
Ditch the roof rack. Avoid them unless you intend to use them. These create wind resistance and increase aerodynamic drag, which can cost you two to five percent in fuel economy at highway speeds.
Empty the trunk. Every extra 100 pounds of stuff you're carting around with you can reduce your vehicle's gas mileage by as much as two percent. Don't use your trunk as a permanent storage space for old boxes full of junk or cart around an old axle housing in the bed of your pickup.
University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.
Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.
Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.
They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country--an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing and found drown.
Local North Country student Adam Falcon is believed to be one of the victims. Adam Falcon was last seen leaving a Canton, New York bar on November 13, 2004. The 20 year old was a soccer player at St. Lawrence University in Canton. The St. Lawrence County Dive Team recovered Adam's body in the Grass River on November 18, 2004. After an investigation, officials determined there was no foul play and Adam's death was ruled accidental.
Complete story & interviews here: KSTP.com
Japanese researchers from Keio University School of Medicine in
Complete story:
AP says its latest survey shows that as of now, Clinton has a 50%-41% advantage over McCain. That's a wider lead than she had the last time AP-Ipsos did such a survey. Three weeks ago, she led 48%-45%.
Complete story: USATODAY.com
The Obama campaign has long accused the Clintons of unfairly playing the race card. It appears the card in question is now held firmly in the hand of the Obamites.
"In a defiant appearance before the Washington media, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church and he rejected those who have labeled him unpatriotic."
Complete story: Yahoo! News
Starting today, if you're a member of the warehouse shopping club Sam's Club, you will not be allowed to buy more than four bags of jasmine, basmati and long grain white rices.
Is this the America we know? Rationing?
more ... ABC News
![[Is Obama Ready for Prime Time?]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BI424_oj_rov_20080423202621.jpg)
After being pummeled 55% to 45% in the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama was at a loss for explanations. The best he could do was to compliment his supporters in an email saying, "you helped close the gap to a slimmer margin than most thought possible." Then he asked for money.
With $42 million in the bank, money is the least of Sen. Obama's problems. He needs a credible message that convinces Democrats he should be president. In recent days, he's spent too much time proclaiming his inevitable nomination. But they already know he's won more states, votes and delegates.
Karl Rove writes ... more
Wall Street Journal
Troy Anderson was at the gas pump and couldn't have been happier, filling up at a rate of $5 per tank. Anderson was paying 63.8 cents per gallon equivalent for compressed natural gas, making Utah a hot market for vehicles that run on the fuel.
more ...
Del Toro wrote and directed "Pan's Labyrinth," which earned six Oscar nominations in 2006 and won three awards. He is also the director of the upcoming sequel "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," whose monsters bear the unmistakeable surreal vision of the Mexican-born filmmaker.
"I am indeed blessed to become a part of the filmmaking community that Peter, Fran and their extraordinary team of collaborators have created in New Zealand," del Toro said in a statement. "Contributing to the 'Lord of the Rings' legacy is an absolute dream come true."
Pollster John Zogby was right on the mark in predicting a 10-point victory for Hillary Clinton in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary.
“A good chunk of the undecideds were WECMs — white, ethnic, Catholic men. They did not like Hillary Clinton, but they were definitely not going to vote for Barack Obama.
“The only question was, were they actually going to vote. Sunday and Monday we started to detect that they were going to vote, and it broke heavily for Clinton.”
Complete story here: Newsmax.com - Zogby Poll Hits Bulls-EyeWhen New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, an old Clinton loyalist and Clinton administration Cabinet member, stunned the Hillary Clinton camp by endorsing Barack Obama, acid-tongued James Carville compared him to Judas, who betrayed Christ.
“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Carville said, referring to Holy Week.
Complete story here: Newsmax.com - Bill Richardson: Clintons, they're a Dynasty
Rush Limbaugh says his “Operation Chaos” played a significant role in helping Hillary Clinton achieve her 10-percentage-point victory in the Pennsylvania primary this week.
Operation Chaos is the leading radio talk-show host’s campaign to urge his conservative listeners to cross party lines to vote for Hillary Clinton. Limbaugh says the aim is to keep her in the race so she can continue battling Barack Obama and create chaos in the party, thereby aiding the Republicans this November.
Complete story here: Newsmax-Hillary
Shumilov looked at activity in the Earth's geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found that it grouped into three seasonal peaks every year: one from March to May, another in July and the last in October.
Surprisingly, he also found that the geomagnetism peaks matched up with peaks in the number of suicides in the northern Russian city of Kirovsk over the same period.
Complete story here: Earth's magnetic field - New Scientist Environment
The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.
The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
Complete story here: 70,00 years ago - Yahoo! News
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
A decade after Lasik eye surgery hit the market, patients left with fuzzy instead of clear vision are airing their grievances before federal health officials.
Make no mistake: Most Lasik recipients do walk away with crisper vision, some better than 20/20.
But not everyone's a good candidate, and an unlucky few do suffer life-changing side effects: poor vision, painful dry eyes, glare or problems seeing at night.
Complete story here: Lasik-Yahoo! News
While we love hearing about sweet rides like the $100K Tesla Roadster, a functional and economical electric car made for the rest of us would be even cooler.
This could be it: the Th!nk City electric car, a four-seater with 110 mile range and top speed of 65 mph, priced under $25,000, made from 95% recyclable materials, and available in the U.S. in 2009.
It's about time!
More pictures ... read on .....
Yoko Ono is suing the producers of a movie that challenges the concept of Darwinian evolution, saying they used the song "Imagine" without her permission and led the blogosphere to accuse her of "selling out."
Complete story here: Yahoo! News
A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States.
The high-frequency sound has been likened to fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or a pesky mosquito buzzing in your ear. It can be heard by most people in their teens and early 20s who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears.
Complete story here: CNN.com
BEIJING—Known among schoolmates for his spirited antics and ability to make light of almost any situation, classroom jokester Wei Xiang, 11, was put to death by the Chinese government for drawing a mustache on an image of Education Minister Zhou Ji in one of his textbooks, sources reported Monday. "An enemy of the state has been dealt with accordingly," government spokesman Xu Qi said following Wei's execution by firing squad. "Let this be a lesson to other children considering wising off or otherwise wasting valuable class time." The fifth-grader previously served a six-month term in solitary confinement at Qincheng Prison after referring to the Tang Dynasty as "the Stank Dynasty" during a history lesson in 2007.
from the Onion
The online auction giant eBay is suing the popular internet community ad site Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment".
The complete story here: BBC NEWS
Barak Obama could not "close the deal" in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. Hillary Clinton said so, and just about every talking head on TV used that phrase.
Why? It may be because, as Clinton argues in her TV ads, he does not have "what it takes" to be president and lead the nation in crisis.
While Clinton did not actually call Obama a wimp in Pennsylvania, she did say he was "elitist and out of touch" and "demeaning." She can also drink him under the table. (And he stinks at bowling.)
Read whole the story here: Yahoo! News
A wayward cougar killed Monday on the streets of Chicago was probably hunting for a mate on the wrong side of town, experts said.
"A mountain lion walking right into the city of Chicago makes about as much sense as you and me walking into a den of rattlesnakes,"
Dan Morrison
More: National Geographic
As Earth Day approaches, a new report finds that the United States is on track to breeze past Germany within two years as the world leader in installed capacity to spin the wind into electricity.
The U.S. led the charge with a record-breaking 5,244-megawatt increase for a total of 16,818 megawatts—enough to power 4.5 million U.S. homes.
John Roach
More: National Geographic
The cancer of the salivary gland that has afflicted Roger Ebert, America's best-known film critic, is a personal tragedy. The illness has left him unable to speak and two years ago he was forced to withdraw from his long-running television show on which, with a sparring partner, he critiqued each week's movies.
But Ebert's illness is symbolic of a greater malaise afflicting the profession of film criticism in the United States.
By Christopher Goodwin
More:
The First Post
A contaminated blood thinner from China has been found in drug supplies in 11 countries, and federal officials said Monday they had discovered a clear link between the contaminant and severe reactions now associated with 81 deaths in the United States.
The dispute is a sign of growing tensions between China and the United States over the safety of Chinese imports. China has in recent years exported poisonous toothpaste, lead-painted toys, toxic pet food, tainted fish and now, contaminated medicine.
By GARDINER HARRIS
More: New York Times
NEW YORK, April 21 (UPI) -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group based in Virginia, is offering a $1 million prize for meat produced in a laboratory.
PETA said scientists are working to develop meat using animal stem cells.
"More than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific ways," PETA said Monday in a release. "Chickens are drugged to grow so large they often become crippled, mother pigs are confined to metal cages so small they can't move, and fish are hacked apart while still conscious -- all to feed America's meat addiction."
The group said "in vitro meat" would spare animals from suffering and reduce the effects the meat industry has on the environment.
The $1 million prize is being offered to the scientist who makes the first in vitro chicken meat and sells it to the public by June 30, 2012. The winning in vitro chicken-meat product must have a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh and it must be produced in large enough quantities to be sold commercially at a competitive price in at least 10 states, PETA said.
UPI
By Doug Oakley
Fire retardants, mercury and stain-proof coatings are just some of the chemicals found in the bodies of live dogs and cats in a new study by an environmental group pushing for more regulation.
The chemicals could point to an increase in cancer and hyperthyroidism in cats and dogs, according to the Environmental Working Group, which released the study at a news conference in Berkeley on Thursday.
The group tested blood and urine from 20 dogs and 37 cats in a Virginia veterinary clinic. It found 48 industrial chemicals were present.
The pets likely ingested the chemicals because they live close to floors and lick the ground and their paws, the group said. Infants and toddlers also are close to the ground and put things in their mouths, which puts them at the same kind of risk as cats and dogs, the group said.
That scenario underscores the need for state and federal legislation requiring proof that chemicals are safe before putting them in consumer products, said Bill Walker, vice president of the group's West Coast operations.
"We need a better system of regulating toxic chemicals in this country," Walker said. "We need to test the chemicals before they are allowed on the market. Our animals are trying to tell us something here."
Gary Richter, a veterinarian at Montclair Veterinary Hospital in Oakland who attended the news conference, said he is worried about household chemicals and their effects on pets.
Complete Story: Mercury News
"The tree is, without doubt, the best image of the unity of creation: life circulates between its two extremities, from its roots, buried deep under the ground, to its branches reaching high into the sky.
But initiates have also expressed this unity by means of the symbol of a snake swallowing its tail. The head corresponds to the world of spirit and the tail to the world of matter. Spirit and matter are the two aspects of God manifest and active throughout all his creation. Nothing of what we see is separate from God: he represents the whole, and we are somewhere within him, like the cells of his immense body. And as we too are matter and spirit, we must try constantly to breathe into our own matter the life of the spirit, which is eternally renewed."
Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, representing the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important -- a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet.
More: EurasiaNet
WASHINGTON - The jet stream — America's stormy weather maker — is creeping northward and weakening, new research shows. That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North.
And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes since the jet stream suppresses their formation.
More: Storm: Yahoo! News
PARIS (AFP) - As Indiana Jones gets set to hit cinema screens with a new death-defying adventure in the "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", a Paris museum acknowledged Friday that its own star exhibit crystal skull was not what it was cracked up to be.
One of only a dozen such skulls known to exist worldwide, the Quai Branly museum's piece was acquired in 1878 from an Indiana Jones-type explorer, Alphonse Pinart, as an Aztec masterpiece believed to be hundreds of years old, the remnant of an ancient and mysterious civilisation.
More... Yahoo! News
I’m surrounded by the type of small Midwestern towns Barack Obama so carelessly labeled as full of “bitter” folk. My mother is from such a town, smack in the middle of Kansas.
Obama missed the mark with his take on the residents of small, economically unstable towns. The generalizations were a little too broad, too sweeping, about changes that began decades ago. Small-town people “cling” to neither their guns nor their religion to soothe financial trauma, as Obama suggested. Nor do they disdain all immigrants.
Complete Story:
The Cagle Post
By Dan Balz
Hillary Clinton's slender hopes for winning the Democratic presidential nomination rest on her ability to persuade the party's superdelegates that she is now more electable than Barack Obama. That was the subtext of her debate strategy in Philadelphia on Wednesday night and the argument she is pushing through the remaining primaries.
Complete Story:
The Washington Post
Members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization's 2008 West Virginia expedition also claim to have heard sounds made by Sasquatch.
Steve Willis, a Cowen native now living in Virginia, led the Pocahontas County expedition.
Willis says the tracks are believed to have been made by a Bigfoot female and juvenile. He says the group also heard sounds described as being like someone knocking a baseball bat against a tree.
The organization estimates there are up to 6,000 sasquatches living in the USA and Canada. But skeptics cite the lack of physical evidence.
USA Today
This happen back in 2004, but it's still very interesting - thousands of fluorescent bulbs lit from the emissions of the cables above. The display was called "Field".
Hundreds of people were flocking each night for a close-up look at the Richard Box artistic display of 1301 fluorescent bulbs lit only from the ambient energy surrounding the lines.
By KEVIN SITES
All Linda Katz had to do was step outside of her house to make thousands on the Internet. Now the Midwestern entrepreneur is building a business selling a piece of the old west online: tumbleweeds.
Linda started her online business, the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm, as a joke. It was 1994 and she wanted to teach herself how to design a website. Since she lived on the prairie in southwest Kansas, where rolling tumbleweeds are sometimes the only dynamic feature of an endless flat horizon, she invented a farm that sold tumbleweeds, listing prices at $15 for a small one, $20 for a medium and $25 for large.
Read on partner:
Yahoo News
Jonathan Coulton went from being just another "code monkey" to the Godfather of "Geek Rock." Here’s how he did it.
Yahoo News
"I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race."
Barak Hussein Obama
NEW YORK - Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.
Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.
He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.
WASHINGTON: Seismologists have detected a subtle and mysterious global hum, known as "Love waves", by studying records from some of the Earth's most uninteresting seismic stations.
According to a report in Discovery News, the newfound vibration is made of two-minute to five-minute, side-to-side surface seismic waves.
They are named for the British mathematician Augustus Edward Hough Love, who created the mathematical model of such waves in 1911.
The Love wave is a mode that essentially torques the Earth's north and south hemispheres against each other.
More...
The Economic Times
By Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 16, 2008
A controversial, estrogen-like chemical in plastic could be harming the development of children's brains and reproductive organs, a federal health agency concluded in a report released Tuesday.
The National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, concluded that there was "some concern" that fetuses, babies and children were in danger because bisphenol A, or BPA, harmed animals at low levels found in nearly all human bodies.
More...
Chemical in plastic may harm human growth - Los Angeles Times
By Tom Purcell
The worst week of the year is upon us, and, boy, am I miserable.
Every year, on April 15th, you see, I gut my savings account to pay the government its share of my earnings. It takes me the entire week to recover. I recover by searching the Internet for others who have suffered tax woes.
I found some quotes on death that lifted my spirits:
"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." (Will Rogers)
"The wages of sin are death, but after they take the taxes out, it's more like a tired feeling." (Paula Poundstone)
"Of life's two certainties, at least you can get an extension for taxes." (Unknown)
Here's another certainty where death and taxes are concerned: My tax burden is killing me.
Our country's founders had harsh words on government funding:
"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue." (Thomas Paine)
"I cannot lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." (James Madison)
"It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income." (Ben
Franklin)
Hey, Tom, Jim and Ben, you'd be shocked at the level of plunder, "benevolence" and taxation that's going on. The only Americans who enjoy an income tax around 10 percent these days are those who moved to Russia.
The great leaders of the 20th century -- the century that brought us the 16th Amendment and the income tax -- have different takes on taxation:
"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." (Winston Churchill)
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." (Ronald Reagan)
"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
Hey, Frankie, I don't mind paying my dues for organized society -- any thoughts on when we might get one? And why is it that as much of the world heeds the wisdom of Churchill and Reagan -- that low taxes work -- the Democrats running for president are eager to raise them, then use the government to "organize" our society?
Chemical in plastic may harm human growth - Los Angeles Times
By Peter Svensson
NEW YORK - What's scary, funny and boring at the same time? It could be a bad horror movie. Or it could be the fine print on your Internet service provider's contract.
Those documents you agree to — usually without reading — ostensibly allow your ISP to watch how you use the Internet, read your e-mail or keep you from visiting sites it deems inappropriate. Some reserve the right to block traffic and, for any reason, cut off a service that many users now find essential.
The Associated Press reviewed the "Acceptable Use Policies" and "Terms of Service" of the nation's 10 largest ISPs — in all, 117 pages of contracts that leave few rights for subscribers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23957172
ORLANDO, Fla. -- An unexplained image in a hospital prayer garden window moved some people to tears and drew groups of people to a hallway before vanishing, according to witnesses. A crowd inside the Florida Hospital Medical Complex in Orlando snapped photos of the image apparently showing the profile of Jesus Christ crying.
"There was just a whole bunch of people putting their cell phones to the window, so I went over there and I saw a glow," witness Joel Cruzada said. "When you are standing there and there is a flurry of people talking about it, you are like, 'Wow, I'm actually here.'
Another Local 6 viewer, Lorna, said she saw the image and noticed that a chaplain was snapping photos and videotaping it.
Cruzada, who was one of several viewers to send an e-mail about the image to Local6.http://www.local6.com/news/15875360/detail.html
Image In Hospital Brings Some To Tears, Prompts E-Mails - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlandocom, said his ex-wife was recently diagnosed with stage-3 cancer.
"This was just a sign for me to not worry about what is going on in my life and that everything else is under control," Cruzada said. "It was an enlightening experience."
"I brought some people from my (hospital) unit and they saw it," Lorna said.
A viewer said the image caused "a commotion" in the hallway near the prayer garden.
The hospital is calling it an unexplained image.
An official said as long as the image makes people feel good, that is all that matters, Local 6's Charnel Wright said.
Witnesses said after a few hours, the image vanished.
http://www.local6.com/news/15875360/detail.html
Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton would beat Republican John McCain in a general election match-up, but each would do it differently, according to a new Temple University poll that looks at the coalitions each attracts to get over 50 percent in Pennsylvania.
First the head-to-head stuff:
Clinton would beat McCain 51 percent to 40 percent.
Obama would beat McCain 47 to 40.
"The belief that a lengthy contest between the candidates for the Democratic nomination would benefit the Republican nominee is not being borne out in Pennsylvania," according to Michael G. Hagen, director of Temple's Institute for Public Affairs.
Where they differ, though, is that Clinton gets most of her support from Democrats, while more Republicans are open to supporting Obama, according to the poll of 1,175 registered Pennsylvanians voters conducted March 27 and April 9. The overall poll has a 3 percent margin of error.
BRETT LIEBERMAN, Of The Patriot-News
Here's what Obama said to contributors in California last weekend that is now getting some attention:
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Read on
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/04/you-decide-were.html?loc=interstitialskip
Public approval of President Bush has reached a new low in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll, driven by dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy.
Whose surprised? ... read on ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-04-10-bush-poll_N.htm?csp=34
Every single Metropolitan police officer will be 'microchipped' so top brass can monitor their movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme.
The new electronic tracking device - called the Automated Personal Location System (APLS) - means that officers will never be out of range of supervising officers.
But many serving officers fear being turned into "Robocops" - controlled by bosses who have not been out on the beat in years.
According to service providers Telent, the new technology 'will enable operators in the Service's operations centres to identify the location of each police officer' at any time they are on duty - whether overground or underground.
Some officers are concerned that the system - which will be able to pinpoint any of the 31,000 officers in the Met to within a few feet of their location - will put a complete end to community policing and leave officers purely at the beck and call of control room staff rather than reacting to members of the public on the ground.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: "This could be very good for officers' safety but it could also involve an element of Big Brother.
"We need to look at it very carefully."
Other officers, however, were more scathing, saying the new system - set to be implemented within the next few weeks - will turn them into 'Robocops' simply obeying instructions from above rather than using their own judgement.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558597&in_page_id=1770
Chloe Marshall, 17, height: 5' 10", weight: 176 lbs won the title of Miss Surrey 2008 during Miss England 2008 Regional Competitions. The Miss England GRAND FINAL will be held in London on July 18, 2008.
Say what you will but she looks pretty darn fat to me. It appears she's been eating too many family sized McChubbits.
What do you think?
