Author: luimbe

World Cup Fever

World Cup 2010 South Africa - Vuvuzela - Haters gonna ha-BBBRRRRRRR
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World Cup 2010 South Africa - Vuvuzela - Haters gonna ha-BBBRRRRRRR

World Cup 2010

It explains why my posting has been erratic.

  • Vuzuzela your website with Vuvuzela Time!
  • ESPN 3 (formerly ESPN 360) has live webcasts and replays of all the matches with highlights marked throughout the matches. ESPN.com also has great world cup coverage with highlights summarized into Speed Games
  • Sky Sports has it’s own match live-blogging/commentary for the entire World Cup
  • Need to figure out when and what to watch? Here is a schedule by time zone courtesy of FIFA, the not so shadowy control body of all soccer.
  • Puma, Adidas and Nike are all featuring world cup ad campaigns and specialty shops in time for you to buy some swag and jump a bandwagon.
  • In Philadelphia? Fado shut down the block. Dark Horse was a mob scene for USA v England, O’Neals Pub is probably the best bang for you buck. All of those are good bets for World Cup revelry

If you don’t care….all i have to say is….hater’s gonna hate

This is just like that South Park…

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Just because the writers of a show can find humor in everything…doesn’t mean they’re right about everything.

The 32 centrifuge machines, which a Costner-funded team of scientists have spent the past 15 years developing, are to be deployed to help tackle the spill, now believed to be gushing 40,000 barrels a day into the Gulf.

The devices, manufactured by Ocean Therapy Solutions, are carried to the spill area by barges before separating the oil and water. The largest of the machines, the V20, can clean water at a rate of 200 gallons a minute, according to the company’s website.

Once separation has occurred, the oil is stored in tanks. The water is then more than 99% clean of crude.

“This is the key,” Costner told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s certainly a way to fight oil spills in the 21st century.”

The actor has been developing the machinery since the early 1990s with the help of a team including his brother, a scientist.

via BP oil spill: Kevin Costner’s oil-water separation machines help with clean-up | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Hopefully, this actually works.

No-Fault Divorce in NY

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About time.

For decades, New Yorkers have been bedeviled by divorce laws that critics said prompted endless litigation and custody fights that were both unnecessary and cruel.

Under current divorce law, one spouse must take the blame, even if both sides agree that a marriage cannot be saved. To get a divorce, one party must allege cruel and inhuman treatment or adultery or abandonment, or the couple must be legally separated for one year.

The new legislation still has to pass the State Assembly, which is considering two bills that would include some version of no-fault divorce. But advocates said Tuesday that they believed that victory in the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans until last year, gave the measure momentum and a high likelihood of gaining approval in the Assembly, which is also controlled by Democrats.

via New York Senate Approves No-Fault Divorce – NYTimes.com.

Quack Glossary: Naturopathic Medicine

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If it’s on the internet, it must be true is a myth quacks love to take advantage of. The folks at Science Based Medicine break down

Recently David Gorski sent around a link to an e-book, Natural Cancer Treatments, that epitomizes the dark underbelly of health misinformation on the internet.

The book opens up with the standard disclaimer that ostensibly is to protect the public but in reality is simply legal cover for the purveyors of misinformation – it says to seek the advice of your physician and that this book is not meant to discourage anyone from seeking standard therapy for cancer. This is boiler plate CYA for quacks.

via Science-Based Medicine » Complete Cancer Quackery Resource.

Heed the garbage that is noted in this e-book by quacks for the gullible named “Naturopathic Medicine”.

You can go to just about any page on the book and find gems like this one, under the entry for colloidal silver:

“Naturopathic Medicine regards Cancer as a viral and fungal [candida septicemia] process. Microorganisms depend on a specific enzyme to breathe. Colloidal Silver is a
catalyst that disables these enzymes, and as a result they die. To this day, there has been no recorded case of adverse effects from it when it is properly prepared. There also has been no recorded case of drug interaction with any other medication. Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which destroy beneficial enzymes, Colloidal Silver leaves the tissue-cell enzymes intact.”

Further, colloidal silver is not a safe or effective treatment for infections. Silver can be used as a bacteriostatic compound to prevent contamination of equipment, but it is not safe and effective when used internally. It is also highly misleading to say that there are no recorded adverse effects “when it is properly prepared.” This is a lie – there are numerous case reports of argyria, a permanent skin disease resulting from use of colloidal silver. Developing argyria also has nothing to do with how the colloidal silver is prepared – it is a matter of dose. But what they are trying to do is dismiss adverse effects as being due to improper use. This is like saying that there are no adverse effects to any surgical procedure properly performed, because all adverse effects from surgery were due to improper technique. It’s a semantic game meant to mislead.

You are just as likely to be cured from cancer by treating it “Naturopathically” with colloidal silver (whatever the hell that means) as you are by going to get Benny Hinn’s hands laid upon you…

The FDA has ruled that products containing silver or colloidal silver are “not safe and effective” and may not be sold as having any medicinal benefits. Despite this, colloidal silver is readily available.

via The Culture of Chemistry: December 2007.

But people still flock to Hinn, don’t they?

Obama’s Presidential Address

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Gawker got it pretty much right.

What We Got

  • A liability fund, paid into by BP and administered by a third party. I guess this was the “mad Obama” part of the speech? He’s so mad at BP, he’s going to set up a trust and make them put money in it. It’s no Tony-Hayward’s-head-as-a-paperweight, but it’ll do.
  • A “long-term plan to restore the unique beauty and bounty of [the Gulf Coast] region.” Obama says he’s asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to develop such a plan.
  • A new head for the Minerals Management Service, the federal body that oversees drilling regulation. Michael Bromwich, a former prosecutor, will take over the MMS, and hopefully, you know, do the job he’s supposed to do (“regulate offshore drilling”) instead of the job all the old MMS heads did (“get invited to parties by oil executives”).
  • A moratorium on oil drilling. Like, duh.

What We Didn’t Get

  • Carbon pricing. Placing some kind of tax on carbon emissions is, according to basically anyone who pays attention (so, no one in the Senate), the only way to actually address the systemic problems with our energy consumption and the catastrophic effects that consumption has on the environment. Obama didn’t rule it out (he said he’d listen to any proposal from either party, which, you know, LOL, can’t wait to hear any Republican plan for solving anything), but its (expected) absence isn’t a great sign for anyone who doesn’t want to irrevocably fuck the planet, forever.
  • Specific goals or benchmarks for renewable energy. It’d be nice to hear Obama set new, ambitious goals for our totally necessary and yet still endlessly delayed move toward a renewable grid. But he didn’t. Why? Because Americans just don’t give a shit about this.
  • A time machine, that we could go back in, and make this not happen.

via What Did We Get Out of Obama’s Oil Spill Address?.

Not an inspiring address at all.

Teen Confesses to Murder of Sabina Rose O’Donnell

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A teenager has confessed to the brutal strangling of Sabina Rose O’Donnell, according to police sources. He is 17 or 18 years old.Tips calls came in from people who watched the surveillance video police released last week. Investigators brought the suspect in late Tuesday night.

via Teen Confesses to NoLibs Murder: Sources | NBC Philadelphia.

I’m extremely glad this murderer was caught. Kudos to the Philadelphians who recognized this murderer and fingered him from the surveillance video.

How many corners did BP cut?

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At least five were found by the congressional report.

‘Questionable Decisions’

BP, the biggest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, made five “questionable decisions” aimed at cutting costs and speeding completion of an overdue project in the days and weeks preceding the disaster, U.S. Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Bart Stupak of Michigan wrote in a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward that was released yesterday.

via Exxon Distances Itself From BP’s `Dramatic Departure’ in Gulf – Bloomberg.

And it looks like BP’s management was directing all the corner cutting.

BP also apparently rejected advice of a subcontractor, Halliburton Inc., in preparing for a cementing job to close up the well. BP rejected Halliburton’s recommendation to use 21 “centralizers” to make sure the casing ran down the center of the well bore. Instead, BP used six centralizers.

In an e-mail on April 16, a BP official involved in the decision explained: “It will take 10 hours to install them. I do not like this.” Later that day, another official recognized the risks of proceeding with insufficient centralizers but commented: “Who cares, it’s done, end of story, will probably be fine.”

via Documents reveal BP’s missteps before blowout – Disaster in the Gulf- msnbc.com.

This is directly contrary to the claims of BP’s CEO on the Today Show (video below) in early May where he blames TransOcean (who owned the rig, not the well which is what failed) and left the window open to further spread blame to well construction subcontractor Halliburton.

Internal e-mails basically show that BP management willfully ignored Halliburton recommendations for well construction, sent home Schlumberger consultants from the Rig. Who knows what further investigation will reveal but BP, Halliburton and TransOcean are all lawyered up and AG Eric Holder has begun a federal probe into BP’s behavior before and after the well failure, rig explosion and oil geyser opening into the gulf.

Areas the government could be probing include whether the companies violated any regulations, whether they subverted the regulatory process by seeking favors with Minerals Management Service or other Interior employees, or whether BP acted criminally by keeping away cameras that could have revealed earlier the extent of the spill, Green said.

“They’re going to be looking for evidence of criminal malfeasance,” Green said.

via BP, Halliburton, Transocean Build Legal Teams – NYTimes.com.

At the bottom of all this, I agreee with Joan Walsh when she says that the Obama Administration substantially associated themselves with offshore drilling by lifting the ban on new offshore drilling without truly reforming MMS.

– from delays in cleaning up the Minerals Management Service, distrusting scientists who correctly reported the spill was much bigger than BP said, and waiting more than a week to declare the crisis “an Oil Spill of National Significance,” which corralled new services. Maybe the most damning section of Dickinson’s piece comes when he quotes the president proudly announcing he’d reversed his stand against offshore oil drilling. “It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills,” the president said. “They are technologically very advanced.”

via Protecting the Obama brand – Joan Walsh – Salon.com

We know now, that explode, spill, gush, leak is exactly what oil wells can do when run by irresponsible leadership cultivated by CEO Hayward’s BP and deregulated by an understaffed and business friendly MMS. The lesson here is pro-economy is not exactly pro-business. Pro-business is allowing companies to do what they want to make the most money as they exist. Pro-economy is promoting a business environment that is safe and fair to workers and able to grow and fail without destroying other sectors of our economy. The Obama Administration trusted BP’s guidance during the early weeks of the spill and that was more pro BP than pro US economy.

Where’s Mrs. Garrett from “The Facts of Life” when you need her?

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When two White House aides last weekend stripped off their shirts for an afternoon of drinking with friends at a Georgetown bar, there was widespread agreement that it exposed something — beyond the pectorals of speechwriter Jon Favreau and press aide Tommy Vietor — about Washington in the age of Barack Obama.

There was no agreement about what that something was.

…

But some White House observers said the episode revealed something else: The Obama team needs to get an Evelyn Lieberman.

Lieberman made an unwanted cameo on the public stage during the Clinton years, when she became briefly famous as the White House staff member who tried to shoo Monica Lewinsky away from Bill Clinton after she noticed that the intern seemed to be “spending too much time around the West Wing.”

Lieberman ostentatiously failed in that mission. But among Clintonites she was celebrated as the person who usually succeeded in demanding that people who work at the White House not forget they are working at the White House — and comport themselves appropriately.

…

Favreau did not return a request for comment, and Vietor declined to discuss the incident. Both aides are well-liked by most colleagues and White House reporters, which may have limited the fallout, which was mostly limited to criticism from conservative websites.

…

Contrary to the original reports, the group was not playing beer pong. And their shirts were off because the group had gotten caught in a rainstorm before repairing to Old Glory in Georgetown.

via Are Obama staffers overexposed? – Marin Cogan and John F. Harris – POLITICO.com.

Oh there is agreement on what this reveals:

  • One, Evelyn Lieberman was a failure at being a den mother. But someone around Capitol Hill thinks we should be paying some person like her to take a ruler to the knucles of anyone who works in the white house caught drinking, being shirtless, smoking cigars or all of the above.
  • Two, some 20 something year old, single, shirtless dudes at what looks like a boring party, with a few women and some libations in 90 some degree weather is tantamount to a married dude getting a blow job from an intern in his office. Except it’s not, but it reminds you of that type of thing and is sort of in the same category of debauchery. Except it’s not.

Breitbart Etheridge would have us believe Bob Etheridge is a maniac

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So says Brietbart’s hit site by way of Mediaite. I’ll believe it when they show unedited video, show the faces of his questioners and the time leading up to and from his seeming flip off the handle. Elected Democrats, don’t be fooled. Breitbart got you with edited videos at ACORN. Tried to get you with Landrieu. Nothing he posts can be trusted.

UPDATE: To be clear. Not to say Etheridge is a good guy, but until they have a full video that shows the actions of Breitbart’s team prior to engagement with the congressman, I won’t believe their account. Breitbart’s intent is to provoke their subject, distort the reaction in the worst possible light, and Etheridge made it easy, but I can’t trust the edited videos.

UPDATE TWO: Etheridge apologizes. Regardless, Democrats are realizing that Breitbart is just trying to generate anti-progressive propaganda. Would be better to not get physical with one of Breitbart’s goof balls.

UPDATE THREE:Longer video has been posted and coupled with Etheridge’s apology is confirmation enough that the congressman is in the wrong. People can say full video doesn’t matter, but if someone invaded his space or threatened him prior to him pushing the young man, then it would change the circumstances of the video. Nothing that comes through Breitbart’s filter can be taken at face value because of his prior chop jobs on video. Regardless, the right thing to do from here on out: press charges, press charges, press charges. The video is the evidence, the congressman apologized for his actions, put him through the paces of justice. For Democrats, right thing to do politically is in their next caucus meetings have a discussion on how to and not to deal with a questioner on the street. Getting angry is fine, attacking someone unprovoked is not.

Salt Lake Pipeline Bursts as Utah GOP insists on “drill, baby, drill”

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Props to Think Progress for flagging Governor Gary Herbert (R) and Senator Bob Bennett (R) still riding the drill baby drill wave 4 days ago:

“Why are we drilling in the middle of the ocean where there is extreme environmental risk when we could be meeting the demand for domestic production from on?shore development in areas with minimal environmental risk such as Utah?”

Here is what minimal environmental risk is:

The spill, in the well-to-do neighborhood surrounding Salt Lake’s largest park, was gushing 50 gallons of crude per minute when responders arrived in the morning.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that residents 3 miles away smelled oil at 4am, the spill was officially reported at 6:45am, and the pipe was successfully shut-off by 8am. By then the oil had reached Liberty Pond (shown above) and was reported flowing into the Jordan River.

“In Liberty Pond the geese were brown – they’re normally white – I’ve probably known those geese for years, because I’ve gone to that park all the time,” said Ashley Anderson, a local climate activist.

Anderson gave me this account of the ground-zero-like scene at Liberty park during the press conference. “There were 25 firetrucks and hazmat suits everywhere. It smelled like the inside of a garage with a diesel truck running. The air was pretty bad.”

Chevron officials told the media what had happened and promised to clean it up. “One resident had gathered up a bucket of rocks from the creek that were coated in oil. He brought them with him to the press conference and got in Chevron’s face, saying ‘you’re going to pay for all this.’ The Chevron spokesperson said ‘of course we are’.”

via Breaking: 400 barrel Oil Spill in Salt Lake City « It’s Getting Hot In Here.

The Duke of Akron

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Michael Wilbon on LeBron James’ disposition.

A former league executive, a former coach and a current general manager all told me LeBron is one of the most spoiled and coddled players of this generation and as a result isn’t particularly accountable, as evidenced by his refusal to shake hands with the Orlando players after they whipped him in last year’s Eastern Conference finals. It’s a particularly disappointing thing to hear repeatedly because, if true, it suggests LeBron has this AAU mentality that values individual accomplishment over winning. I could live with hearing this about, say, O.J. Mayo, but LeBron James?

via Michael Wilbon – Will LeBron James make a basketball decision or a personal one?.

I would have disagreed with this until the time between the Cavs dominating win over the Bulls and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Celtics. Larry Bird was a contemptuous guy, he was not friendly with competitors nor a big post game hand shaker, but he was also a team player, clutch and a winner. He played to win championships. Same with the magnanimous Magic Johnson. He played to win the biggest glory.

I thought Lebron was at this level until he held the pep rally to celebrate his MVP award in his hometown of Akron between the Bulls and Celtics series.

As everyone at this pep rally now knows, Rajon Rondo’s Celtics pounded the Cavs out of the playoffs, Cavs Coach Mike Brown into the unemployment line and James into free agency. This rally may just be a going away party which makes a fool out of everyone involved.

I have to wonder why James didn’t accept it in Cleveland pre-game or at half time like many other league MVP, defensive MVP, scoring title and 6th man of the year winners. There would have been ample time to visit Akron with an NBA trophy. I remember Kobe saying LA was now his home when he beat his closest thing to a hometown team, the Philadelphia 76ers in 2000 for his championship. I don’t remember Dwayne Wade jumping to Chicago to have a pep rally when the Heat won in 2006. It’s unfathomable to think that such pageantry would ever be something conceived by or associated with Tim Duncan.

The Celtics and Lakers are in the throes of their umpteenth battle for the NBA championship while the off season has begun with the citizens of Cleveland and Akron wondering if their home grown royalty will remain their native son. I think they know deep down that Joakim Noah was right and have nightmares of Lebron wearing Yankees hats or dapping up Jay-Z.

Regardless, Duke of Akron isn’t a title those of us outside of Northeast Ohio care about.

No Silver for you.

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Production of United States Mint American Eagle Silver Proof and Uncirculated Coins has been temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins. Currently, all available silver bullion blanks are being allocated to the American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin Program, as the United States Mint is required by Public Law 99-61 to produce these coins “in quantities sufficient to meet public demand . . . .”

The United States Mint will resume the American Eagle Silver Proof and Uncirculated Coin Programs once sufficient inventories of silver bullion blanks can be acquired to meet market demand for all three American Eagle Silver Coin products.

Update: Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Silver Proof Coins will not be produced.

via U.S. Mint Online Product Catalog.

All the gold and silver anyone can buy is being bought.

Buffett emphasized the non-productive aspect of a gold standard for the USD in 1998 at Harvard:

“It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

via Warren Buffett – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Happiness Poverty Line: 60K/yr and up

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Daniel Kahnemann, father of behavioral economics says that, below it, you have a greater chance of being miserable.

This is based on a survey of 600,000 Americans:

“Below 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. Above that, we get an absolutely flat line. I mean I’ve rarely seen lines so flat.”

“Clearly… money does not buy you experiential happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery,” he said. But the real trick, Kahneman said, is to spend time with people you like.

via Happiness Is Earning $60,000 A Year? » My Money Blog.

Now, i haven’t watched the video yet, but I would assume its 60K for every working adult in the household, not per household. I also wonder if this 60K number is adjusted for cost of living (I just was in NYC this past weekend and there, 60K ain’t jack, but in my hometown of Harrisburg its pretty damn good).

Flotilla Raid

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What. The. F*ck.

“Israel has targeted innocent civilians,” said the foreign ministry in Ankara. “It has shown yet again that it does not care about human lives or peace initiatives.”

Noting that the dawn raid occurred in international waters, Ankara hinted at demanding legal redress.

The Turks convened an emergency meeting of generals and security ministers and called off military exercises with Israel, as did Greece.

The United Nations security council was expected to meet last night in New York over the incident.

“I heard the ships were in international water. That is very bad,” said Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

The Obama administration, while regretting the death toll, reserved judgment on apportioning blame.

“The United States is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy,” said White House spokesman William Burton.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, cancelled plans to visit Obama at the White House today.

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity, Israeli ambassadors were summoned in Stockholm, Madrid, and Athens, while Spain, holding the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, called a session of the EU’s political and security committee.

Foreign governments deplored the loss of life and voiced outrage at the Israeli conduct. But amid a propaganda war between the Israeli government press machine and pro-Palestinian lobbies over who started the fight and whether any of the activists on board were armed, they were also wary of going further than verbal condemnation.

The common response in Europe was to condemn what was seen as Israel’s disproportionate use of force. Even Germany, generally reluctant to criticize Israel because of the Holocaust, voiced horror at what Palestinian leaders dubbed a massacre.

via Gaza flotilla attack: world unites in condemnation of Israel’s actions | World news | The Guardian.

Cable news coverage, of course is on 24 hours, but only has enough time for one major story at a time.