Saturday, March 31, 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

Radiation? What radiation?

The government wouldn't lie to their own people in such a dangerous situation, would they? ... Apparently they would, they did, and they will. Fukushima No. 2 Reactor Has '10 Times The Fatal Dose' of Radiation. Meanwhile, Original Contamination Data Was Deleted The whole world was watching, taking aerial samples, checking the seawater, and we knew that it was horribly horribly bad. It's still horribly horribly bad and will remain so forever. Japan just lost a massive chunk of their island because of their nuclear program. How many accidents and disasters do we have to go through before we realize we can't handle nuclear power plant mistakes? How much more of the earth do we have to make uninhabitable?

Saturday, March 24, 2012

No BPA in food packaging!

Tell the FDA.

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Wernher von Braun

(from Boing Boing)

The thing is...

These kind of quotes are piling up daily, as if a dam has broken and all the sexism and hatred is flooding out for all to see.  These attitudes didn't suddenly spring up, they have been seeping up from deep underground for decades.  Fear of losing imagined dominance, fear of being emasculated, fear of powerful women who do not need men to live their lives....  if only those damned hussies would just get back into the kitchen....



(via Steve Bates)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

From Swedes to Sketches...

Scandinavian humor (with explanations!)

And of course, if we discuss Sweden at all, we must include: (bork bork bork)

   

Prehistoric monster snake invades New York. Think I saw this movie....

The true cost of coal:
This presents a bit of a challenge, given that the Appalachian communities where the mining takes place are extremely poor, and poverty and low education are associated with a lot of health problems. In addition, many of the problems associated with coal mining—particulates from the mining process and water contamination—don't respect the county borders that divide up the health care data. But even after adjusting for the variations in things like income and education, counties with active coal mines came out far worst in many measures of health. These include the problems you'd expect from mining, such as cardiopulmonary and respiratory issues, black lung, hypertension, and kidney disease. But they also include things like a 25 percent increase in birth defects in mining counties. Ahern summed up the fate of people located near mines rather grimly: "Their property value goes down to zero, then they get ill, then they die."
Shutting down a California Monsanto office for a day.

Etch a Sketch will live on now in perpetuity ....

Monday, March 12, 2012

Because bullies grow up to be CEOs and legislators

And people in power...

Removing Doonesbury from the comics page

To the editorial page (or censoring it all together) because he's not marching in lockstep with the anti-choicers?  It's too true to be funny?  It will scare the children?  Make the kids ask for explanations? It makes fun of middle-aged male legislators?  All of the above?

Friday, March 09, 2012

It's over 80 degrees in Southern California today....

So I thought I'd post a picture of a kitten in the snow for all you guys with actual winter....

  Photobucket

Is it my imagination....

Or is the world becoming more and more crazy by the minute?

  Photobucket

Musical architecture

One year anniversary of the Japanese quake.

Island nation of Kiribati plans mass relocation due to climate change

Top Rabbi believes Catholic Church is imposing Sharia Law on Americans over contraception

How to read gang tags and disses on LA streets

via Bryan, Iran will have the bomb... yesterday, today, any minute now....

Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany

I think I have found the way to stop wars.  Flood the area with kittens.

Study: Hate of Obama fuels 755% growth in extremist groups
Unlike traditional hate groups, “Patriot” groups subscribe to a set of conspiracy theories and see the government as their primary enemy. 
“Basically what ‘Patriot’ groups think is that the federal government is an evil cabal in the hands of bad people,” Potok explained. “The government is about to impose martial law on the country, very probably with the help of foreign troops, perhaps U.N. troops. They intend to confiscate all guns from Americans. Those liberty-loving Americans who resisted will be thrown into concentration camps that have secretly constructed by FEMA. And ultimately the government will force us all into a socialistic kind of one-world government, the so-called New World Order.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.... Kansas Republicans look to profit off abortion taxes

Gee... I wonder why? Aren't Republicans the party of family values? No love for the GOP among America's women...  Could it be because people feel free to call this 16 year old a slut?

Saturday, March 03, 2012

We're all gonna die!

Blast it or paint it: Deadly asteroid bounds towards Earth out of the blue
To avert a new apocalypse – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint, or big guns. The tough part of either scheme is that time has long run out to build a spaceship for any operation. NASA confirms the 60-meter (197-feet) asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, has a good chance of colliding with Earth in eleven months. The rock's closest approach to the planet is scheduled for February 15, 2013, when the distance between the planet and space wanderer will be under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is lower than the geosynchronous orbit kept by the Google Maps satellite.

Imagine an ocean with nothing in it...

Ocean acidification may be worst in 300 million years
WASHINGTON — High levels of pollution may be turning the planet’s oceans acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years, with unknown consequences for future sea life, researchers said Thursday. The acidification may be worse than during four major mass extinctions in history when natural pulses of carbon from asteroid impacts and volcanic eruptions caused global temperatures to soar, said the study in the journal Science.