Archive for January 26, 2012
CNN Says CNN Has Breaking News About CNN’s News About CNN
CNN has breaking news tonight about CNN breaking news about CNN:
The “breaking news”on CNN is that CNN has news about CNN: It has aired the “last debate before the Florida primary.”
Stay tuned for more from CNN on CNN breaking news that CNN covers when CNN breaks CNN news.
Romney Backers Whine About the “Lefty” Media
This is my Tweet of the Day:
I think we’re going to be sicker than ever of professional Republican victims crying about the mythological “liberal media” this year.
I’d give anything if there were such a thing.
Remember When Righties Respected the Office of the President?
Remember George W? Remember those eight years during which the righties told us it verged on treason to show anything but undying reverence and respect for the office of the president?
Me too.
You Wouldn’t Believe How Big Your Small Intestine Is
It’s break time and here’s a fun fact that blew my mind:
The small intestine is made up of three segments, which form a passage from your stomach (the opening between your stomach and small intestine is called the pylorus) to your large intestine:
- Duodenum: This short section is the part of the small intestine that takes in semi-digested food from your stomach through the pylorus, and continues the digestion process. The duodenum also uses bile from your gallbladder, liver, and pancreas to help digest food.
- Jejunum: The middle section of the small intestine carries food through rapidly, with wave-like muscle contractions, towards the ileum.
- Ileum: This last section is the longest part of your small intestine. The ileum is where most of the nutrients from your food are absorbed before emptying into the large intestine.
[...]
How can the small intestine digest so much? Looking at the small intestine as a pipe, it seems hard to believe that an organ so narrow could do such a big job. However, looks can be deceiving. The absorptive surface area of the small intestine is actually about 250 square meters (almost 2,700 square feet) – the size of a tennis court!
That’s unimaginable. But hey, who am I to question the people at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center?
Wow. Just wow.
Mayor Who Mocked Latinos Gets Buried in Tacos
What an asshat. And yes, he’s a Republican:
East Haven, CT Mayor, Joseph Maturo, Jr. (R) /Jessica Hill, AP
The office of East Haven’s [CT] mayor was blasted with prank phone calls and a delivery of hundreds of tacos Thursday after his now-famous quip that he would address accusations of anti-Latino bias by eating tacos, a remark that left emotions raw in the town’s large Hispanic community.
Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has apologized several times but resisted calls for his resignation over remarks he made to a television reporter following Tuesday’s arrests of four town police officers, men described by one FBI official as “bullies with badges.”
[...]
A federal indictment accuses the four police officers of assaulting people while they were handcuffed, unlawfully searching Latino businesses, and harassing and intimidating people, including advocates, witnesses and other officers who tried to investigate or report misconduct or abuse.
The taco flap came after a reporter for New York’s WPIX-TV asked Maturo on Tuesday, “What are you doing for the Latino community today?”
Maturo’s response: “I might have tacos when I go home; I’m not quite sure yet.”
[...]
Many residents were still angry Thursday in East Haven, where 38-year-old Jose Tapia, a cook originally from Ecuador, joked, “We’ve got tacos!” as he left a bakery with a bag of bread.
“I took it as a joke, but deep inside, it’s the true version of racist, that comment,” he said.
Wow. Maturo is the ultimate in insensitive. He’s going to do something for the Latino community by eating a taco? I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry. I’m leaning toward cry. Unreal.
But hooray to the folks who sent all those tacos!
Wisconsin 2011: Jobs Under a Democrat v. a Republican
Below is a graph reflecting the state of job growth/loss in the State of Wisconsin last year (2011). For the first half of the year, former Democratic Governor Jim Doyle’s budget was in effect. Beginning in July, Republican Governor Scott Walker’s budget kicked in. “[S]ince the Walker budget passed in June, Wisconsin has lost more than 35,000 jobs.”
(Source.)
Vote Republican?
Indiana Votes to Abolish the Separation of Church and State
I went to grade school in Bloomington, Indiana. Back then, there was a thing called the separation of church and state.
Facts were taught in schools (not “theories”) and religion was taught in churches. If the Republicans in Indiana get their way, the two will merge:
Indiana’s Senate Bill 89, which if enacted would allow local school districts to “require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science,” was passed by the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development on January 25, 2012.
Good luck Indiana. Pretty soon you won’t be able to complain about the madrassas in the Middle East that combine the teaching of reading and writing and that of religion. That’s where you’re going.
Coming Soon — Palm Trees in Colorado
As an obsessed gardener, this is big news to me:
WASHINGTON — Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.
It’s the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation’s 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.
It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn’t as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.
I’ve always thought of my part of the country — Boulder, Colorado — as roughly Zone 4.5. As of Wednesday, it has been reclassified as Zone 5a.
Here is a screenshot of the new map:
To see a larger version and play with the interactive features, go here.
Gosh. I can’t wait until I can plant palm trees and bougainvillea in the backyard. Woohoo!
The United States Drops 27 Points in Freedom of the Press Index
Botswana, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Niger are among the countries that rank higher in press freedoms than the United States in a new index released by Reporters Without Borders:
“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.
[...]
“This year’s index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. This serves as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom.
[...]
Led by President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda (139th) launched an unprecedented crackdown on opposition movements and independent media after the elections in February. Similarly, Chile (80th) fell 47 places because of its many freedom of information violations, committed very often by the security forces during student protests. The United States (47th) also owed its fall of 27 places to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests.
Read more and see how other countries rank, here.
Time to hit the refresh button on what “they” tell us, that the United States is the worldwide beacon for freedom of the press.
Abolish Corporate Regulations
If you think corporations are being hamstrung by government regulations, you’ll see these guys as heroes who bucked the system:
Two executives of a family meat company in Kansas City, Kan., were indicted Wednesday on charges of selling misbranded and adulterated poultry products across the country.
Craig Cunningham of Leawood was listed as general manager of the Hitchin Post Steak Co., 1101 S. Fifth St., and his son, Jason Cunningham of Olathe, as vice president.
[...]According to an indictment returned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., the Hitchin Post received slaughtered animals and processed them into parts for shipment to customers across the country. Beginning in 2008 the company operated primarily as a poultry processor.The indictment says the two conspired to sell adulterated poultry products, meaning they were “unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome or otherwise unfit for human food” or were prepared under unsanitary conditions. Products were misbranded because they allegedly were processed outside the approved hours of USDA inspection. The two are also charged with unlawful use of a USDA inspection mark.
Yummy. Nothing like chicken with feces and rat hair mixed in. Get the government out of our food!
