Why I love Stevie Nicks

•March 6, 2009 • Leave a Comment

because her great love mirrors my own:

Lyrics

Every night that goes between
I feel a little less
As you slowly go away from me
This is only another test

Every night you do not come
Your softness fades away
Did I ever really care that much
Is there anything left to say

Every hour of fear I spend
My body tries to cry
Living through each empty night
A deadly call inside

I haven\’t felt this way I feel
Since many a year ago
But in those years and the lifetimes past
I did not deal with the road

And I did not deal with you I know
Tho the love has always been
So I search to find an answer there
So I can truly win

So I try to say
Goodbye my friend
I\’d like to leave you with something warm
But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm

We were frail
She said
\”Everynight he will break your heart\”
I should have known from the first
I\’d be the broken hearted
But I loved you from the start
Save us. . .
And not all the prayers in the world–
could save us

For my Irishman.

Just for fun :)

•March 4, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I found a cute, family-friendly website that has many fun interactive games and activities guaranteed to bring many hours of enjoyment and smiles to faces young and old:

Hoops and YoYo

you can make a music video, play games or preview free Hallmark ecards to send for various occasions.  I think its a great way to entertain young and old alike but you’ll have to decide for yourself…

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Alphabet soup

•March 4, 2009 • 2 Comments

I dont know when it became mainstream but we as a society have begun to resort to abbreviations, and in many cases, merely acronyms.   This is particularly prevalent in the medical field, but Ive seen it in many areas.  Our culture has become so consumed with efficiency that we sacrifice clarity for brevity.

For example:  My daughter tells me I am OCD (she’s a nurse) and I have also been diagnosed ADD/ADHD.  These are common acronyms that we all know stand for something much more clinical sounding but too stinking long to say in a sentence!  We shorten phrases like “President of the US” to POTUS, or “Supreme Court of the US” to SCOTUS.  Some acronyms have been around for awhile, like USMC or even USSR.  Our States all have 2-letter abbreviations.  Texting has amplified this trend still further.  In the interests of saving money, vowels are thrown out and whenever possible, numbers substitute for parts of words.  One of the first, (and best) examples Ive seen of this was an album by Van Halen:  OU812.  Hilarious!

Im not bringing this up because Im against it, in many cases I applaud it.  Sometimes I think that the previous generations took words and language too seriously.  Why not make it work for US instead of making us slaves to IT?

Just a thot (<—-case in point)

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Mickey Rourke–A tribute

•February 25, 2009 • 3 Comments

Where to begin?

Oscar night.

I didnt watch the Oscars but I kept up with the winners tally via other websites. I myself was rooting for an underdog, Mickey Rourke, in his comeback role, The Wrestler. Some may remember Mickey’s early work in The Diner, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Angelheart, Rumblefish, and 9 1/2 weeks to name a few. He is an incredible actor, and megastars like Sean Penn and Brad Pitt and Robert Downey Jr have named him as their inspiration. Unfortunately, he also had a well known reputation for being a loose cannon and often expressed a disdain for Hollywood and the business in general. At one point, he turned his back on acting and took up semi-professional boxing. He admits he was never going to be the kind of boxer he had hoped to be but he threw himself into it 100%, eventually suffering face altering injuries. On top of that, the plastic surgeon who “repaired” his face actually made it worse so that by the time he was done, Mickey hardly looked like himself. Such a shame too, because we are talking about one of the best looking actors of his generation. See for yourself:

Mickey’s latest film, for which he won a Golden Globe, a Bafta (British Academy film awards), a Spirit award for best actor, and various film critic association awards, is about a washed up wrestler given one last shot at glory. By all accounts, Mickey completely shined in this movie, inhabiting the role so convincingly that up until Oscar night, it was considered that he had a very real shot at Best Actor honors. Here’s a clip:

On E! Online I saw a clip (sorry couldnt load it) where Mickey responded (when asked what he thought his chances for an Oscar were) by saying that he was grateful for being considered, he didnt know what his chances were–he knew he had a “bad boy” reputation to overcome–but if it turned out he didnt win, and Sean Penn did, he’d “clap his ass off for him” and that he loved Sean Penn like a brother. In his own words:

“If I’m fortunate enough to get up there – Sean Penn, he’s a helluva an actor. If he’s up there, I’m gonna clap my ass off. I love him like a brother.” LINK


That was particularly poingnant because the winner actually said the same thing about Mickey

Mickey, I hope that your recent successes propel you on to even greater glory, you deserve it, you’ve earned it, and I never stopped believing in you. Congrats to you. Cheers!

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JFK VS FEDERAL RESERVE

•February 20, 2009 • Leave a Comment

President John F.Kennedy,
The Federal Reserve
And Executive Order 11110

by Cedric X

From The Final Call, Vol. 15, No.6, On January 17, 1996

On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy’s order gave the Treasury the power “to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury.” This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury’s vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous.

With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificats were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the gevernment the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver.

After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion in debt has been created since 1963, and if a U.S. president had utilized Executive Order 11110 the debt would be nowhere near the current level. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to future presidents who would think to eliminate the U.S. debt by eliminating the Federal Reserve’s control over the creation of money. Mr. Kennedy challenged the government of money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt – war and the creation of money by a privately-owned central bank. His efforts to have all troops out of Vietnam by 1965 and Executive Order 11110 would have severely cut into the profits and control of the New York banking establishment. As America’s debt reaches unbearable levels and a conflict emerges in Bosnia that will further increase America’s debt, one is force to ask, will President Clinton have the courage to consider utilizing Executive Order 11110 and, ifso, is he willing to pay the ultimate price for doing so?

Executive Order 11110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289

AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended-

By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):


(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption

and —

Byrevoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.

Sec. 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.

John F. Kennedy The White House, June 4, 1963.

Of course, the fact that both JFK and Lincoln met the the same end is a mere coincidence.

Abraham Lincoln’s Monetary Policy, 1865 (Page 91 of Senate document 23.)

Money is the creature of law and the creation of the original issue of money should be maintained as the exclusive monopoly of national Government.

Money possesses no value to the State other than that given to it by circulation.

Capital has its proper place and is entitled to every protection. The wages of men should be recognised in the structure of and in the social order as more important than the wages of money.

No duty is more imperative for the Government than the duty it owes the People to furnish them with a sound and uniform currency, and of regulating the circulation of the medium of exchange so that labour will be protected from a vicious currency, and commerce will be facilitated by cheap and safe exchanges.

The available supply of Gold and Silver being wholly inadequate to permit the issuance of coins of intrinsic value or paper currency convertible into coin in the volume required to serve the needs of the People, some other basis for the issue of currency must be developed, and some means other than that of convertibility into coin must be developed to prevent undue fluctuation in the value of paper currency or any other substitute for money of intrinsic value that may come into use.

The monetary needs of increasing numbers of People advancing towards higher standards of living can and should be met by the Government. Such needs can be served by the issue of National Currency and Credit through the operation of a National Banking system .The circulation of a medium of exchange issued and backed by the Government can be properly regulated and redundancy of issue avoided by withdrawing from circulation such amounts as may be necessary by Taxation, Redeposit, and otherwise. Government has the power to regulate the currency and creditof the Nation.

Government should stand behind its currency and credit and the Bank deposits of the Nation. No individual should suffer a loss of money through depreciation or inflated currency or Bank bankruptcy.

Government possessing the power to create and issue currency and creditas money and enjoying the right to withdraw both currency and credit from circulation by Taxation and otherwise need not and should not borrow capital at interest as a means of financing Governmental work and public enterprise. The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of the consumers. The privilege of creating and issueing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Governments greatest creative opportunity.

By the adoption of these principles the long felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts, and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprise, the maintenance of stable Government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own Government. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power.

Some information on the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve, a Private Corporation One of the most common concerns among people who engage in any effort to reduce their taxes is, “Will keeping my money hurt the government’s ability to pay it’s bills?” As explained in the first article in this series, the modern withholding tax does not, and wasn’t designed to, pay for government services. What it does do, is pay for the privately-owned Federal Reserve System.

Black’s Law Dictionary defines the “Federal Reserve System” as, “Network of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves.”

Privately-owned banks own the stock of the Fed. This was explained in more detail in the case of Lewis v. United States, Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, Vol. 680, Pages 1239, 1241 (1982), where the court said:

Each Federal Reserve Bank is a separate corporation owned by commercial banks in its region. The stock-holding commercial banks elect two thirds of each Bank’s nine member board of directors.

Similarly, the Federal Reserve Banks, though heavily regulated, are locally controlled by their member banks. Taking another look at Black’s Law Dictionary, we find that these privately owned banks actually issue money:

Federal Reserve Act. Law which created Federal Reserve banks which act as agents in maintaining money reserves, issuing money in the form of bank notes, lending money to banks, and supervising banks. Administered by Federal Reserve Board (q.v.).

The FED banks, which are privately owned, actually issue, that is, create, the money we use. In 1964 the House Committee on Banking and Currency, Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, at the second session of the 88th Congress, put out a study entitled Money Facts which contains a good description of what the FED is:

The Federal Reserve is a total money-making machine.It can issue money or checks. And it never has a problem of making its checks good because it can obtain the $5 and $10 bills necessary to cover its check simply by asking the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving to print them.

As we all know, anyone who has a lot of money has a lot of power. Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money. Imagine the power these people would have. This is what the Fed is.

No man did more to expose the power of the Fed than Louis T. McFadden, who was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee back in the 1930s. Constantly pointing out that monetary issues shouldn’t be partisan, he criticized both the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt administrations. In describing the Fed, he remarked in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June 10, 1932, that:

Mr. Chairman,we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and he people of the United States out of enoughmoney to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the UnitedStates; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the maladministration of that law by which the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.

Some people think the Federal reserve banks are United States Government institutions. They are not Government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders. In that dark crew of financial pirates there are those who would cut a man’s throat to get a dollar out of his pocket; there are those who send money into States to buy votes to control our legislation; and there are those who maintain an international propaganda for the purpose of deceiving us and of wheedling us into the granting of new concessions which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds and set again in motion their gigantic train of crime. Those 12 private credit monopolies were deceitfully and disloyally foisted upon this country by bankers who camehere from Europe and who repaid us for our hospitality by undermining our American institutions.

The Fed basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the Fed banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it’s interesting to note that the Federal Reserve act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the Fed over the economy is universally admitted. Some people, especially in the banking and academic communities, even support it. On the other hand, there are those, both in the past and in the present, that speak out against it. One of these men was President John F. Kennedy. His efforts were detailed in Jim Marrs’ 1990 book, Crossfire:

Another overlooked aspect of Kennedy’s attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11,110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.

Kennedy’s comptroller of the currency, James J. Saxon, had been at odds with the powerful Federal Reserve Board for some time, encouraging broader investment and lending powers for banks that were not part of the Federal Reserve system. Saxon also had decided that non-Reserve banks could underwrite state and local general obligation bonds, again weakening the dominant Federal Reserve banks.

A number of “Kennedy bills” were indeed issued – the author has a five dollar bill in his possession with the heading “United States Note” – but were quickly withdrawn after Kennedy’s death. According to information from the Library of the Comptroller of the Currency, Executive Order 11,110 remains in effect today, although successive administrations beginning with that of President Lyndon Johnson apparently have simply ignored it and instead returned to the practice of paying interest on Federal Reserve notes. Today we continue to use Federal Reserve Notes, and the deficit is at an all-time high.

The point being made is that the IRS taxes you pay aren’t used for government services. It won’t hurt you, or the nation, to legally reduce or eliminate your tax liability.

Related Articles:

JFK vs Federal Reserve

The JFK Myth
by G. Edward Griffin

I always admired JFK and I have always wondered why we need a Federal Reserve Bank….but I never knew that anyone had tried to eliminate it, particularly a President (particularly THIS President….)  Perhaps by signing this Executive Order, he signed his own death warrant?

Personally, I’d love to live long enuff to see the demise of the Fed.  Oh YES.

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California’s fiscal meltdown: clock is ticking

•February 18, 2009 • 1 Comment

From an article in TIME magazine:

As 2009 settles in, California isn’t quite the Golden State anymore. School districts are expected to lose billions of dollars in financing for improvements and development, and health-care services for the elderly, infirm and poor will most likely deteriorate. State employees are facing payroll cuts, unpaid leaves and a hiring freeze. Money for firefighting in parched Southern California is drying up, as is financing for levees in flood-plagued northern environs of the state. And that’s just for starters as California faces a budget deficit of more than $41 billion over the next 18 months. (See pictures of the aftermath of a California firestorm.)

It would help to have a budget, but state legislators have been at an impasse for weeks, haggling over various proposals — and weighing their political consequences. On New Year’s Eve, the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a new budget plan that includes painfully deep spending cuts and $14 billion in tax increases. Although the proposal is not likely to be the one that finally passes, there is no doubt that few Californians will be untouched by the fiscal crisis. In December, unable to wait for a budget solution any longer, the state pre-emptively canceled $3.8 billion for 2,000 public infrastructure projects, including new prisons, veterans’ homes and highways.

The list of cuts and shortfalls is almost apocalyptic. According to the UCLA Anderson Forecast, thousands of lost jobs in the public and private sectors will cause California’s unemployment rate to leap to 8.5% by the end of 2009 (it was 6.5% in October 2008). If the state runs out of cash by mid-February, as has been predicted, hundreds of state vendors, such as electrical-supply wholesalers, food-service companies and building- and grounds-maintenance firms, will be sent IOUs from the state government. Deductions for each dependent may drop from $309 to $103 on Californians’ 2009 income tax forms. And, by the way, don’t count on a tax refund showing up soon after you file in April — one of those IOUs may find its way to your mailbox instead, explaining that the refund may be delayed.

Even drowning one’s sorrows may be difficult here in “fiscal Armageddon,” as Governor Schwarzenegger has referred to the budget crisis; one of his solutions is a sizable tax on booze. “At a time we should be investing for our unmet needs and stimulating the economy, we’re going in the other direction,” says California state treasurer Bill Lockyer, a Democrat. “Every day, we go deeper in the hole.”

California has found itself in this financial quagmire as a result of a collision of events. “It really has been a combination of things that have created the monstrosity that we are now in,” says Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Sacramento State University. She cites inflation, population growth and mandates (like Proposition 13, which placed a limit on state property-rate taxes that resulted in restrictions on tax increases) as having a snowball effect over the course of 30 years. Add these to California’s extremely high home-foreclosure rate and a global recession (approximately 1 in 4 jobs in the state has international-trade ties), and the deficit quickly adds up. In the past, the state would borrow or sell bonds to bridge the gap, but with the current credit crunch, few investors are willing to offer assistance.

Of course, the deficit is growing larger each day that legislators struggle to come up with a solution. California is one of only a handful of states to require a two-thirds-majority vote in the legislature to pass a state budget. The Democrats dominate both the senate, 24 to 15, and the assembly, 51 to 29. (There is one vacancy in the senate.) With such deep cuts on the line, Republicans and Democrats have squared off, arguing whether raising taxes or reducing welfare programs is the best way to go. In December the Democrats engineered a plan that could bypass the Republican vote and, with a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes on sales, gas and income, melt the deficit by $18 billion. However, this week Schwarzenegger rejected the plan, saying his demands, like limiting environmental protections on public-works construction, were not met, and the Republicans filed a suit in state appeals court in an effort to block this sort of majority-vote proposal from occurring again. The pressure is on for the parties to quickly come up with a working budget before the well runs dry in February. In the meantime, all the political feuding has left the state’s citizens wondering exactly when and where the hammer will drop.

“The longer they go, it gets even more and more serious for all of us,” says David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA). He is expecting schools to potentially take a $10 billion hit this year. Last month the CTA filed its own initiative for a 1� sales-tax increase earmarked solely for public schools and colleges. But Sanchez — like others in the state — says he will not know precisely how to budget for this upcoming year until a legislative solution is passed. “The unknown,” he says, “is very scary.”

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The theory Creationists cant “spin” away–

•February 17, 2009 • 2 Comments

We’re coming up on the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the Father of the theory of Evolution, that pesky theory that makes Bible thumpers apoplectic with fury. In spite of their pathetic attempts to debunk Evolution, the hard evidence just keeps piling up. LiveScience has this wonderful article that blows holes in many of their positions:

Fossils reveal truth about Darwin’s theory

Reinventing Darwin: Quotable things he never said AFP/File – A copy of Charles Darwin’s book “Origin of Species” is pictured in front of a stone bust …

With the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin this week, people around the world are celebrating his role as the father of evolutionary theory. Events and press releases are geared, in part, to combat false claims made by some who would discredit the theory.

One frequently cited “hole” in the theory: Creationists claim there are no transitional fossils, aka missing links. Biologists and paleontologists, among others, know this claim is false.

As key evidence for evolution and species’ gradual change over time, transitional creatures should resemble intermediate species, having skeletal and other body features in common with two distinct groups of animals, such as reptiles and mammals, or fish and amphibians.

These animals sound wild, but the fossil record – which is far from complete – is full of them nonetheless, as documented by Occidental College geologist Donald Prothero in his book “Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters” (Columbia University Press, 2007). Prothero discussed those fossils last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, along with transitional fossils that were announced since the book was published, including the “fishibian” and the “frogamander.”

At least hundreds, possibly thousands, of transitional fossils have been found so far by researchers. The exact count is unclear because some lineages of organisms are continuously evolving.

Here is a short list of transitional fossils documented by Prothero and that add to the mountain of evidence for Charles Darwin’s theory. A lot of us relate most to fossils of life closely related to humans, so the list focuses on mammals and other vertebrates, including dinosaurs.

Mammals, including us

  • It is now clear that the evolutionary tree for early and modern humans looks more like a bush than the line represented in cartoons. All the hominid fossils found to date form a complex nexus of specimens, Prothero says, but Sahelanthropus tchadensis, found in 2001 and 2002, threw everyone for a loop because it walked upright 7 million years ago on two feet but is quite chimp-like in its skull size, teeth, brow ridges and face. It could be a common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, but many paleoanthropologists will remain unsure until more fossils are found. Previously, the earliest ancestor of our Homo genus found in the fossil record dated back 6 million years.
  • -Most fossil giraffes have short necks and today’s have long necks, but anatomist Nikos Solounias of the New York Institute of Technology’s New York College of Osteopathic Medicine is preparing a description of a giraffe fossil, Bohlinia, with a neck that is intermediate in length.
  • Manatees, also called sea cows, are marine mammals that have flippers and a down-turned snout for grazing in warm shallow waters. In 2001, scientists discovered the fossil of a “walking manatee,” Pezosiren portelli, which had feet rather than flippers and walked on land during the Eocene epoch (54.8 million years ago to 33.7 million years ago) in what is now Jamaica. Along with skull features like manatees (such as horizontal tooth replacement, like a conveyor belt), it also had heavy ribs for ballast, showing that it also had an aquatic lifestyle, like hippos.
  • Scientists know that mastodons, mammoths and elephants all share a common ancestor, but it gets hard to tell apart some of the earliest members of this group, called proboscideans, going back to fossils from the Oligocene epoch (33.7 million years ago to 23.8 million years ago). The primitive members of this group can be traced back to what Prothero calls “the ultimate transitional fossil,” Moeritherium, from the late Eocene of Egypt. It looked more like a small hippo than an elephant and probably lacked a long trunk, but it had short upper and lower tusks, the teeth of a primitive mastodon and ear features found only in other proboscideans.
  • The Dimetrodon was a big predatory reptile with a tail and a large sail or fin-back. It is often mistaken for a dinosaur, but it’s actually part of our mammalian lineage and more closely related to mammals than reptiles, which is seen in its specialized teeth for stabbing meat and skull features that only mammals and their ancestors had. It probably moved around like a lizard and had a jawbone made of multiple bones, like a reptile.

Dinosaurs and birds

  • The classic fossil of Archaeopteryx, sometimes called the first bird, has a wishbone (fully fused clavicle) which is only found in modern birds and some dinosaurs. But it also shows impressions from feathers on its body, as seen on many of the theropod dinosaurs from which it evolved. Its body, capable of flight or gliding, also had many of dinosaur features – teeth (no birds alive today have teeth), a long bony tail (tails on modern birds are entirely feathers, not bony), long hind legs and toes, and a specialized hand with long bony fingers (unlike modern bird wings in which the fingers are fused into a single element), Prothero said.
  • Sinornis was a bird that also has long bony fingers and teeth, like those seen in dinosaurs and not seen in modern birds.
  • Yinlong is a small bipedal dinosaur which shares features with two groups of dinosaurs known to many kids – ceratopsians, the beaked dinosaurs like Triceratops, and pachycephalosaurs, known for having a thick dome of bone in their skulls protecting their brains. Yinlong has the thick rostral bone that is otherwise unique to ceratopsians dinosaurs, and the thick skull roof found in the pachycephalosaurs.
  • Anchisaurus is a primitive sauropod dinosaur that has a lot of lizard-like features. It was only 8 feet long (the classic sauropods later on could be more than 100-feet long), had a short neck (sauropods are known for their long necks, while lizards are not), and delicate limbs and feet, unlike dinosaurs. Its spine was like that of a sauropod. The early sauropods were bipedal, while the latter were stood on all fours. Anchisaurus was probably capable of both stances, Prothero wrote.

Fish, frogs, turtles

  • Tiktaalik, aka the fishibian or the fishapod, is a large scaled fish that shows a perfect transition between fins and feet, aquatic and land animals. It had fish-like scales, as well as fish-like fin rays and jaw and mouth elements, but it had a shortened skull roof and mobile neck to catch prey, an ear that could hear in both land and water, and a wrist joint that is like those seen in land animals.
  • Last year, scientists announced the discovery of Gerobatrachus hottorni, aka the frogamander. Technically, it’s a toothed amphibian, but it shows the common origins of frogs and salamanders, scientists say, with a wide skull and large ear drum (like frogs) and two fused ankle bones as seen in salamanders.
  • A creature on the way to becoming a turtle, Odontochelys semistestacea, swam around in China’s coastal waters 200 million years ago. It had a belly shell but its back was basically bare of armor. Odontochelys had an elongated, pointed snout. Most modern turtles have short snouts. In addition, the roof of its mouth, along with the upper and lower jaws, was equipped with teeth, which the researchers said is a primitive feature for turtles whose mugs are now tipped with beaks but contain no teeth.

Creationists make me wanna gag. Fundamentalists of any kind do, but Christian fundies bother me most of all for some reason, I guess because as a Westerner, I like to think that Christians have managed not to get trapped in the past the way the Muslims have. Sadly, I know this is not true. Christian fundies are just as misguided and backward thinking as any other religious nutz. If it werent for the brave men and women of science, we’d still all be thinking the earth was flat or that the Sun circled the Earth.

I decided to list some links that debunk creationism so folks can explore for themselves

http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/hangar/2437/

http://debunkingcreationism.blogspot.com/

http://www.huecotanks.com/debunk/index.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/opinion/28dennett.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all NY Times editorial/opinion piece

http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/ Brown University professor’s great site with lots of articles and rebuttals

Darwin, old bean–congrats on being able to consistently stir up the fundies for the last 150 years (give or take a few!)

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Toilet gets maced!

•February 16, 2009 • Leave a Comment

probably always a good idea to look before you leak eh ladies?  (to see video, mouse over link at bottom of post, then click on video to play it)Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Toilet gets maced!“, posted with vodpod

Suspect charged in deadly Australian fires

•February 13, 2009 • 2 Comments

only 2 charges brought? and one for possessing child porn?  Hmmm….good thing they’re keeping this guy’s identity and location a secret:

MELBOURNE, Australia – Authorities charged a man Friday with lighting one of the wildfires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury.

Police said the suspect was charged with one count of arson causing death and intentionally lighting a wildfire near the town of Churchill that killed at least 21 people. It was one of hundreds of fires that raged through southeastern Victoria state Feb. 7, leaving 7,000 people homeless and razing entire towns.

The suspect also was charged with possessing child pornography.

The disaster’s official death toll is 181, but efforts to find and identify victims were continuing and officials expected the final tally to exceed 200. More than 1,800 homes and 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of forests and farms were burned.

The suspect’s identity was being kept secret for his own safety, Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney told a news conference. He was brought to the state capital of Melbourne from Morwell, 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the east and near the the town of Churchill.

“He has been moved from that area and moved to the Melbourne metropolitan area for security reasons,” Moloney said.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported from Morwell that the suspect was formally charged in the town’s magistrate’s court, but that he did not appear. He was ordered to be held in custody and to undergo psychiatric evaluation, the broadcaster said.

Police said in a statement that Magistrate Clive Allsop banned publication of any details or photographs of the man that could identify him. Another court hearing was scheduled for Monday.

If found guilty, the man faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the deadly arson charge, and a maximum of 15 years on the second arson charge.

Police have said they believe foul play was the cause of at least two of the deadly blazes, including the Churchill fire. Those suspicions disgusted the country and prompted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to describe the fires as possible mass murder.

Ruth Halyburton, whose home in the town of Marysville was burned to the ground, said Friday she could not comprehend why anyone would want to light wildfires.

“Words can’t describe how I feel about them,” Halyburton told The Associated Press at a relief center in nearby Alexandra. “I’m a Christian, but I don’t think to kindly of people if they go light a match and destroy people’s property and lives. They don’t have a brain in their head.”

Marysville, a town of some 500 people, was almost completely destroyed Saturday by one of the fires — but not the Churchill blaze.

Firefighters still struggled to contain about a dozen blazes and one of them flared up Friday and menaced the town of Healesville, coming within less than a mile (1 kilometer) and sending embers dropping like rain over houses.

The threat was downgraded after a few hours, but it served as a reminder that the disaster may not be over yet.

“You can’t see anything. All you can see is smoke, and you can’t even see where the fire is actually coming from,” plant nursery owner John Stanhope told ABC radio from Healesville during the flare-up. “It’s just thick smoke everywhere and everyone is just very much on edge.”

Firefighters raced to take advantage of cooler weather, rain and lighter winds and lit controlled burns Friday in efforts to prevent further breakouts.

The catastrophe’s scale became clearer Friday. Officials raised the tally of destroyed homes by 762 to 1,831, and the number of people left homeless or who fled their homes and have not returned was raised by 2,000 to 7,000.

Officials said the nation had pledged more than 75 million Australian dollars ($50 million) in donations to various charities for survivors. Rudd ordered military bases to be opened to house some of the homeless.

The disaster increased the urgency for a nationwide fire warning system, which has been snarled for years in bickering between state and federal officials.

“I am determined to see this thing implemented across the nation,” Rudd said late Thursday. “If it means cracking heads to ensure it happens we’ll do that.”

Officials partly blamed the dramatic death toll on the number of people who appeared to have waited until they saw the fast-moving blazes coming before trying to flee. Many bodies were found in burned-out cars.

I hope they find everyone else who was responsible….

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Reinhardt.

•February 11, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Ive been remiss in my Reinhardt postage, because first of all, Ive had other things on my mind.  When I went back today to see what his site had to say, I was shocked to see that he’s gone commercial.  You cant view his site or have access to his prognostications unless you shell out $720 smackeroos…how he came up with THAT number I dont know.  Perhaps its an algorithm that correlates to 52 weeks somehow?  Anyway, I dont have that kind of discretionary income, and I dont know many who do.  In fact, in a time of economic downturn, I am incredibly surprised that Reinhardt thinks his cryptic puzzles are WORTH that kind of $$!!    I mean, REALLY!  Most folks are doing good to pay the rent and eat for crying out loud!!

I am a California State employee, at the County level.  Ive had other things on my mind lately, financially speaking.  As I posted on a forum I monitor for Reinhardt info:

I dont know about Reinhardt’s latest prediction, in fact, Im totally disappointed in him that he’s turned into a money pit…

I havent really been following the stocks, Im actually too concerned about a meltdown much closer to home:  The collapse of the California economy.  Governor Schwarzenegger has said the Legislature has until 2/13 to come up with a new budget.  I dont know if that is gonna happen or not, but Ive heard from the CAO of my county that we can only “float” for two months, then all hell breaks loose.  That means no money to pay the employees in the state, no money to pay for the services, no money period.  we are at a total red button crisis mode right now.

The reason this is important, is that California is the 6th largest economy in the world, and the 3rd largest in the US.
if California goes under, Im afraid the ripples will travel to the edges of the “pond” ie, the USA.

So….Im no Reinhardt, but Im thinking that if folks want to see what is gonna happen, pay attention to California.  Pray we get a budget passed.  Because the alternative is unthinkable.  JM

So….Ive heard that Reinhardt has predicted February is important, several dates have come and gone and we’re still limping along (Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss)…with many campaign promises unkept and many bright hopes dashed.  Obama’s Attorney General has apparently decided to adopt the same “state secrets” position as the former Bush administration re: Gitmo, and I know that the ACLU is completely tore up about it.  After all, Obama campaigned on the idea that he was an instrument for CHANGE and apparently that was just rhetoric.  Anyway….the point is, there is not much discernible difference on the surface between the outgoing Bush regime and the incoming Obama regime.

And Reinhardt’s predictions for February?  apparently NOT related to finances…..Here in California, I’d beg to differ.  I dont think it takes a “student of history” (as Reinhardt claims to be) or a mystic to predict the coming National meltdown that could occur from the potential financial meltdown of California.   After all, the collapse of the world’s 6th largest economy is BOUND to have SOME repercussions.

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