Police: Rescue of kidnapped girl a 'Christmas miracle' - CNN.com

Police: Rescue of kidnapped girl a 'Christmas miracle' - CNN.com

OK, but what happened to the 'Christmas Miracle' for THIS little girl?

Body of missing Maryland girl is found near Delaware

Television evangelist Oral Roberts dies - Faith- msnbc.com

Television evangelist Oral Roberts dies - Faith- msnbc.com

His ministry hit upon rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded, and Roberts' widely ridiculed proclamation that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million.

How to Become Invisible

The Evidence Against Amanda Knox

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Aggressive Atheism - Pat Condell

4 Police Officers Shot Dead Near Washington State Air Force Base

SEATTLE —  Four police officers were shot dead in an ambush at a Washington state coffee house, a sheriff's official said Sunday.
The attack occurred east of McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash., about 35 miles south of Tacoma.
Authorities said two suspects entered Forza Coffee Co. and opened fire on the four police officers who were sitting inside, Fox affiliate q13fox.com reported.

Police are now searching for the two suspects, one white male and one black male, q13Fox.com reported. The black male is believed to be between 5'7" and 5'10" tall, wearing a black coat and blue jeans. There are no details on the physical description of the other male suspect.
The officers were going over paper work and drinking coffee before starting their shift when they were killed, q13fox.com reported.


"It was just a flat out ambush," Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577691,00.html

Tiger Wood's "Accident"

The Windemere Police Department says Tiger's wife went outside, saw that her husband had struck a fire hydrant and a tree, and then went back inside the house for a golf club to use to try and extricate him from the vehicle. But we've learned Nordegren told a very different story to the Florida Highway Patrol, and it does not involve going back in the house for a club. Our sources will not allow us to be more specific.

Tiger's Wife Changed Her Story

'Facilitated Communication' Not to Be Trusted - Experts are against this method of contact - Softpedia

Facilitated communication is the name given to a procedure in which a comatose patient, or someone who is otherwise significantly impaired, guides their hand over a touchscreen keyboard to type a message, while their hand is being held by someone else. This method came under increased criticism lately, when the case of the Belgian man that allegedly came out of a coma after more than 23 years surfaced. Those close to him say that he is leaving them messages through facilitated communication, but scientists warn that everything having to do with this method needs to be “red flagged.”

'Facilitated Communication' Not to Be Trusted - Experts are against this method of contact - Softpedia

Broken Promises

Martin E. Crevina, as he looked as a young man, and as he looks in a typical pose today, (he is NOT laughing, that's how he really appears)  promised me a lunch when I moved back to New Jersey. As yet, that has not occurred. It is on record in this blog, and this will serve to update that promise. How shameful is it that he hasn't delivered?   

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.
The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.
Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.
Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Unimaginable. Truly Hell on Earth.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

200,000 animals face slaughter at festival - South and Central Asia- msnbc.com

200,000 animals face slaughter at festival - South and Central Asia- msnbc.com

More religious nonsense.

Peter Fiduccia - November 3rd, 2009

Peter R. Fiduccia age 68 of Wayne died Tuesday, November 03, 2009 at Hospice of New Jersey,Wayne, NJ.

He was born in Passaic having been raised in Lodi and Garfield before moving to Wayne twenty-seven years ago.

Peter was always interested in fashion and clothes and got a job as a regional representative for a Midwestern “Made to Order” clothing company. Often clothes would not fit correctly and returns to the factory meant weeks of waiting for his customers. Because of this waiting time problem he took it upon himself to go to pattern making school so he could alter the clothing himself.

Once proficient at making the adjustments to the clothing he took the next step and began custom making the clothing himself. He started in his basement making custom clothing for Rock Bands in the 60’s and 70’s and expanded his business, “Fiduccia Custom Shirts”, to having a storefront in Hackensack specializing in custom shirt making. A fire in the Hackensack building had him search for a new location which he found in Carlstadt. He initially rented the building then purchased it 6 months later.

He met the love of his life, Joanna Carbone, through mutual friends and went to New York City to deliver clothing on their first date. They married on July 12, 1970 at the Corpus Christi Church in Hasbrouck Heights. They have enjoyed thirty-nine years of loving and devoted marriage.

Peter is the loving husband of Joanna Carbone Fiduccia of almost 40 years; loving father of Gary Fiduccia of Wayne and Dena Fiduccia of Wayne and her fiancé Walter Quiroga; loved brother of John F. Fiduccia and his wife Diana of High Crest Lake; loved brother-in-law of Vincent Carbone of Franklin, NY; and nieces and nephews Cheryl, Frank, Michael and Julie Ann.

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury 'Why They Did It' - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury 'Why They Did It' - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Dems Seek Fundraising Boost in War With Palin - FOXNews.com

Dems Seek Fundraising Boost in War With Palin - FOXNews.com

Fox News Poll: Approval of President Obama Hits New Low - FOXNews.com

Fox News Poll: Approval of President Obama Hits New Low - FOXNews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Blowin’ In The Wind Lyrics

Yep, you've heard the song hundreds of times, but after a while some just tune it out. Here are the lyrics, just to read, so maybe you will appreciate them again. This will be the first in a series. I haven't come up with a proper title yet.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
How many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Merged With The Universe On This Day

LyricRat Names That Tune with Whatever Lyrics You Can Remember

Ever have a catchy tune stuck in your head but have no clue what the name of the song is, never mind who sings it? Enter web site LyricRat, who searches lyrics, finds the song, and then some.

Hit up the site, enter the lyrics you know (or think you know), and click search. LyricRat will return the result, as well as some possible alternatives, along with the album info and even a sample of the song (all linking to Amazon.com). The site does well with lyrics commonly mistaken, too; we tried the commonly misheard lyrics to the song in the screenshot and LyricRat still got it right.

What sets LyricRat apart from other search engines or even just a Google search is the ability to tweet your lyrics to @LyricRat and get almost-instant results with a link to the page on LyricRat for the full information.

http://www.lyricrat.com

YouMail

HighlightCam Is a Quick and Easy Motion-Sensing Security Cam

HighlightCam, a web site that does the same thing but adds easy off-site backup and doesn't require you to install anything.

The site is simple enough. Just head to the Get Started page (you don't even need to register to try it out), allow the site to use your computer's webcam, and hit Start Recording.

The recorder watches for motion and only records at those times. When you're finished with a recording, just stop the recorder and check out the results on the site. All the dead space where there's no motion should be cut out, and all you're left with is the interesting stuff.

Granted, other desktop apps already handle this, like previously mentioned Motion Detection or Yawcam, and in many ways they're the superior option, since they don't require you to share videos of your home to a third-party web site. Still, if you'd prefer the better features of HighlightCam—like motion alert notifications sent via email and off-site backup in case your computer goes missing with the intruder—it might be worth a try.

HighlightCam is available as both a free and premium service, but the free option offers plenty.

HighlightCam

The Wrong Guys Were Nominated Last Year

Bacon wrapped Smokies; a Perfect Low Carb Finger Food

A common question received is "what low carb snack can I bring to the party/cookout, I mean other than a veggie tray?" Well this is an easy to make snack that should satisfy low carb dieters and non-dieters alike.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound sliced bacon, cut into thirds
1 (14 ounce) package beef cocktail wieners

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Wrap each cocktail wiener with a piece of bacon. You can either secure the bacon with a toothpick or lay the wiener face down on top of the bacon seam.
Place on a large, greased baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes in the preheated oven (you can also try baking at 325 for 20 minutes and then 350 for the last 10 minutes). If you want to get the bacon extra crispy, you can put them under the broiler for a few minutes but be careful not to burn the toothpicks.

VARIATIONS
For a spicy treat, you can pickle the raw bacon in jalapeño brine (left over from a jar of peppers) before wrapping the wieners. For a sweet treat you can soak the raw bacon in some DaVinci sugar free syrup (carmel or butter rum flavor), or try sprinkling some Splenda brand brown sugar over them before placing them in the oven.

Xena - "You're So Damn Hot"

Ryan O'Neal is Basically Not a Good Person

During Farah Fawcett's last days, Ryan O'Neal did everything he could to remain in the spotlight, granting daily interviews, updating the media, and publicly mourning his long time partner as much as possible. Now that she's in the ground, he's going to have to figure out a new technique to stay in the news. Unfortunately, more info coming out unsurprisingly casts him in a Joe Jackson Light, flourishing off the attention cast on Fawcett's illness. Remember, the two had a pretty tumultuous relationship: guns were pulled, cops were called, accusations of spousal abuse. Fawcett tended to be infatuated with that sort of relationship: her ex-husband, Lee Majors, also had a rather violent history with her.

It seems that while cameras were allowed into Fawcett's funeral on Tuesday, O'Neal's own son Griffin, who drove 300 miles to attend, wasn't. Griffin, 44, insisted Fawcett would have wanted him at the funeral, informing Extra that his dad is, essentially, 'a bad guy'. Isn't it so nice to watch a bunch of people who have been culturally irrelevant for years bask in the glory of a deceased cancer victim? Everyone grants interviews! Long gone are the days when people want to mourn and remember with close family and friends. Let's usher in the Lindsay Lohan way of coping with tragedy: selling your story to a tabloid.

Author: Sabrina Brody

Why Are There Still Chimpanzees?

REPORT: Farrah Fawcett Leaves Fortune to Troubled Son, Not Ryan O'Neal

Farrah Fawcett excluded Ryan O'Neal from her 2007 will, instead leaving everything to her son Redmond O'Neal.

That's what England's Daily Mail is reporting, saying Farrah's troubled, 24-year-old, currently incarcerated son Redmond stands to inherit his mother's approximately $6 million estate.

"Farrah appointed two trustees to make sure the money supports her son's journey into sobriety rather than giving him the means to destroy himself," a source reportedly told the paper. "Redmond’s inheritance will be tightly controlled."

Redmond was in jail on drug-related charges and unable to be by his mother's side when she died. O'Neal said he asked Fawcett to "please forgive him, that he was so very, very sorry."

The "Charlie’s Angels" star died of cancer at age 62 on June 25. The paper says she wrote her last will in 2007 after she learned her anal cancer had recurred and spread to her liver.

Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal had a 15-year relationship which ended in 1997 and reunited after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.

Fawcett documented the trials and tribulations of her battle with cancer in the NBC documentary "Farrah’s Story."

3D Projection Gives Building Fantastical, Undulating Skin

Good Grief - Another Hot Dog Joint

Madonna - DisGROSSting

Nothing says aging gracefully like an overly worked out pair of monstrously sculpted and bloodcurdling veiny corpse arms.

The Tudors Season 3 Opening Credits

19 Arrested In Canary-Fighting Investigation

SHELTON, Conn. -- Police said 150 birds were seized in a canary-fighting investigation in Shelton on Sunday.

Police said canaries and saffron finches were seized and 19 people were arrested at a Ripton Road address.

“There was 100 canaries fighting, and they were betting on them 'til they were dead. It’s absolutely shocking,” said neighbor Marion Sega.

Police said they served a search warrant at the home after receiving a tip that an illegal bird fight involving 150 canaries and finches was scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Canaries are popular beginner pet birds and saffron finches, another small species of bird, can be spiteful and intimidating.

Police said 150 canaries and finches, their cages and $8,000 in cash was seized from the Ripton Road home.

Shelton police said the homeowner and 18 others found near or in the home’s garage were arrested on animal cruelty and illegal gambling charges. They said some of the suspects only speak Portuguese.

“I feel so bad, especially with two young boys and to have that going on in that house,” Sega said. “The house is so beautiful, the people seem so nice and a quiet neighborhood, couldn’t believe what I heard.”Authorities raided a home in Harwinton earlier in the month, confiscating dozens of roosters. Investigators in Shelton said canary and finch fighting may be a new trend about which they are just learning.

“When canaries are bred, they’ll fight to the death and they don’t make the noise that typical roosters make and they don’t smell,” said Sgt. Robert Kozlowski. “They fall under the radar because we wouldn’t think it suspicious if people have a lot of canaries.”

Shelton police said the birds were discovered while executing a search warrant with the help of state police, state animal control, the Department of Agriculture and Fairfield police.

Police said the investigation may spread into other states as well.

A Partial List of Celeb Deal Breakers

Whether it's because they are assholes in real life, morons on the screen, or I just plain-old don't like them for whatever reasons, here is a PARTIAL list of celebs who turn me off and I will avoid seeing their films. (There are minor exceptions...I like Whoopi Goldberg in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but she's not in every show.)

Send Your Name to Mars

Fill in your information and your name will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!

http://mars9.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/index.cfm

'Disgraceful': Cops Angry After Obama Slams Arrest of Black Scholar

BOSTON — Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.

It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.

The Cambridge Police Patrol Officer's Association president also strongly criticized the president's remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post.

"That was totally inappropriate. I am disgraced that he is our commander-in-chief," Stephen Killion said. "He smeared the good reputation of the hard-working men and women of the Cambridge Police Department. It was wrong to do. It was disgraceful," the web site quoted him as saying.

"I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM.

Gates was arrested July 16 by Sgt. James Crowley, who was first to respond to the home the renowned black scholar rents from Harvard, after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Gates said he had to shove the door open because it was jammed.

He was charged with disorderly conduct after police said he yelled at the white officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after Crowley demanded Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home. The charge was dropped Tuesday, but Gates has demanded an apology, calling his arrest a case of racial profiling.

Obama was asked about Gates' arrest at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

Cambridge police Commissioner Robert Haas said Obama's comments hurt the agency.

"My reponse is that this department is deeply pained," Haas said at a news conference Thursday. "It takes its professional pride seriously."

"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president's alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Case of Cross in National Park

The Supreme Court said today it would decide whether the government can maintain a cross in a national park to honor fallen soldiers in the latest test of church-state separation.

The cross case will give the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts its first chance to weigh in on the 1st Amendment's ban on an "establishment of religion." In the last decade, the justices have been closely divided on whether religious displays, such as the Ten Commandments, can be kept on public property.

At issue now is an 8-foot-tall cross in the Mojave National Preserve in Southern California. It was first erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1934 and has been maintained as a war memorial by the National Park Service.

The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the cross and filed a suit on behalf of Frank Bruno, a Catholic and former Park Service employee. The suit noted that the government had denied a request to have a Buddhist shrine erected near the cross.

Two years ago, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the ACLU and declared the cross an "impermissible governmental endorsement of religion."

Congress has intervened to try to save the cross by transferring a small parcel of land with the cross on it to a private group. However, the 9th Circuit judges were unswayed. This "would leave a little donut hole of land with a cross in the midst of a vast federal preserve," the appeals court said.

Bush administration lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court last fall and said the "seriously misguided decision" will require the government "to tear down a cross that has stood without incident for 70 years as a memorial to fallen service members." The government also questioned whether Bruno should have standing to challenge the cross, since he lives in Oregon and suffers no obvious harm because of the Mojave cross.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the VFW, the American Legion and other veterans said the 9th Circuit's ruling, if allowed to stand, could trigger legal challenges to the display of crosses at Arlington National Cemetery and elsewhere.

The court said today it had voted to hear the case, now relabeled Salazar vs. Bruno. Arguments will be held in October, and Obama administration lawyers will be in charge of defending the Interior Department and its right to maintain the cross.

Famous Taco Bell Chihuahua Dead at 15

The famous Taco Bell Spokesdog – who charmed audiences with the catchphrase “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” – has died.

Gidget, the 15-year-old Chihuaha, suffered a fatal stroke Tuesday night, according to a report from People magazine.

The “mostly-retired” canine also appeared in the film “Legally Blonde 2,” starring as Bruiser’s mom. In addition, she appeared in a commercial for the ‘90s edition of Trivial Pursuit.

When she wasn’t starring in films and commercials, Gidget enjoyed taking hikes, sunning her fur and sleeping for 23 hours, her trainer Sue Chipperton told People.

“She made so many people happy,” Chipperton said. “Gidget always knew where the camera was.”

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

The Big Book of Everything

What is the Big Book of Everything?

In a nutshell, it is a notebook filled with all of the information anyone could possibly need to know about you. The idea is that in our lives we have countless things that we are involved in. On rare occasions, other people need this information and no one knows how to get it. That's where the Big Book comes in. By filling this out and keep current, you can simply the effort others have to take on your behalf.

Uses for the Big Book are:

• After you pass away. People will know what accounts to cancel, have access to your email, know where important papers are kept, and otherwise streamline what is already a painful process.
• Filling out applications. The information in the book is often found on various applications, by having the book you can look that stuff up at a moments notice.
• Making sure you know what your assets are. By going through and inventorying all of your assets, you have a better idea of where you are financially.
• Forcing you to prepare for emergencies. By filling out the forms, it will force you to be better prepared when an emergency strikes.

http://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm

Atheists Choose 'de-baptism' to Renounce Childhood Faith

Up until last summer, Jennifer Gray of Columbus, Ohio, considered herself "a weak Christian" whose baptism at age 11 in a Kentucky church came to mean less and less to her as she gradually lost faith in God.

Then the 32-year-old medical transcriptionist took a decisive step, one that previously hadn't been available. She got "de-baptized."

In a type of mock ceremony that's now been performed in at least four states, a robed "priest" used a hairdryer marked "reason" in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a "de-sacrament" (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had "freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition."

For Gray, the lighthearted spirit of last summer's Atheist Coming Out Party and De-Baptism Bash in suburban Westerville, Ohio, served a higher purpose than merely spoofing a Christian rite.

"It was very therapeutic," Gray said in an interview. "It was a chance to laugh at the silly things I used to believe as a child. It helped me admit that it was OK to think the way I think and to not have any religious beliefs."

Within the past year, "de-baptism" ceremonies have attracted as many as 250 participants at atheist conventions in Ohio, Texas, Florida and Georgia. More have taken place on college campuses in recent years, according to Hemant Mehta, chair of the board of directors for the Secular Student Alliance, a group that promotes atheism among high school and college students.

"If we're having a winter solstice or summer solstice get-together or some other event, we might say: 'Who wants to get de-baptized?' " said Greg McDowell, the Florida state director for American Atheists, an advocacy and networking group. "It's a bit of satire. People will play the fool by waving their arms in the air and saying, 'I got de-baptized!' But the paperwork is still legit."

Some of the so-called "de-baptized" have used their certificates to petition churches to remove their names from baptismal rolls. One argument: they were baptized without their consent as children and should now be declared de-baptized.

Some churches, however, aren't budging on what they regard as an irreversible sacrament.

Atheist Gary Mueller recently mailed his de-baptism certificate to St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord, Calif., and asked to be dropped from its baptismal record. The church told him, in effect, that he was all wet.

"While we do not remove a name/person from a Baptism register, we can note alongside your name that 'you have left the Roman Catholic Church,' " the Rev. Richard Mangini replied in an e-mail. "I hope that God surprises you one day and lets you know that He is quite well."

Not all American non-believers have warmed to de-baptism rituals. Secularist Phil Zuckerman, a Pitzer College sociologist who studies apostates, said he would never take part in such an event because it "feels intrinsically negative" and "immature."

Even so, he said, de-baptisms may serve a cathartic function for some participants, as well as a political one.

"For a long time, non-religious people in the Bible Belt just kept quiet, but they aren't keeping quiet anymore," Zuckerman said. "I think that's largely a reaction to George W. Bush's presidency. (Atheists) were saying, 'The government is being taken over by very religious people. We need to stand up and say: 'We're here. We're secular. Deal with it.' "

F/A-18 Hornet

And Look Where the Hell We Are Now

President Bill Clinton's last State of the Union address to Congress on January 27, 2000 was the best report card to the American people in U.S. history. It was a record of historic successes that marked a decade of unprecedented economic prosperity under the first two-term Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They won campaigns. They drove the national agenda through fierce opposition, and they got results.

Now look what Bush has done in only 8 years, and Obama isn't far behind. Wait and see.

Sigh...Here We Go Again

More bullshit, but this time from an unexpected source who should know better then to listen to dysfunctional individuals who have a history of deceitfulness.

No need to ask what's wrong because I KNOW I did nothing wrong. It's indeed correct that true friends don't buy shit about you before checking it out with you first. But then, that's a good way of knowing who the true friends really are.

Ah, well.

Apollo 11 - 40th Anniversary

Look What I Have!

How exciting is THAT? It's actually the SUPER Stop & Shop.

My first NJ Supermarket card!

More to come!

Which Side of Your Brain is Your World Like?

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Camera Shy: Neil Armstrong's reflection in Buzz Aldrin's visor is one of the few photos of Armstrong on the moon NASA

By Craig Nelson

This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.

1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it.

4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.

5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.

6. The "one small step for man" wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want "another Tang."

10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”

Sure I Can

Rutt's Hut - Rippers - Updated

Open a Banana Like a Monkey

There is a strong chance that you've been opening bananas wrong your whole life. Take a cue from our simian friends and start opening a banana with the efficiency of a hungry monkey.

It's possible you've been opening bananas the most efficient way, but more likely you've been opening them—like we have—the completely backwards and frustrating way. Most people start by grabbing the stem of the bananas and using it like a pull tab to get the banana open. This usually works with a somewhat high degree of success, high enough to keep people doing it and writing off the occasional banana opening mishap as problem with a faulty banana and not a problem with their technique. Watch the video below to see a demonstration of how monkeys open bananas:

If you watched the video and said "That's how I do it!" good for you, you're a primate most efficient. If you were amazed by the simplicity of the upside down maneuver, congratulations you've just learned a simple and effective way to chow down on your favorite yellow fruit.

Dude-Vorce

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Joy the Baker

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup brown sugar & 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray.
2. Mix the peanut butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the salt, baking soda, and chocolate chips.
5. Spoon dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place them on the cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.
6. Smash with a fork and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Move to a wire rack and cool. Make sure you don't overbake. They will set up and you want them to be soft.

Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus

Americans keep putting on the pounds — at least according to a report released this week from the Trust for America's Health. The study found that nearly two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

But you may want to take those findings — and your next meal — with a grain of salt, because they're based on a calculation called the body mass index, or BMI.

As the Weekend Edition math guy, I spoke to Scott Simon and told him the body mass index fails on 10 grounds:

1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.

The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a 200-year-old hack.

2. It is scientifically nonsensical.

There is no physiological reason to square a person's height (Quetelet had to square the height to get a formula that matched the overall data. If you can't fix the data, rig the formula!). Moreover, it ignores waist size, which is a clear indicator of obesity level.

3. It is physiologically wrong.

It makes no allowance for the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body. But bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, so a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low fat will have a high BMI. Thus, athletes and fit, health-conscious movie stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight or even obese.

4. It gets the logic wrong.

The CDC says on its Web site that "the BMI is a reliable indicator of body fatness for people." This is a fundamental error of logic. For example, if I tell you my birthday present is a bicycle, you can conclude that my present has wheels. That's correct logic. But it does not work the other way round. If I tell you my birthday present has wheels, you cannot conclude I got a bicycle. I could have received a car. Because of how Quetelet came up with it, if a person is fat or obese, he or she will have a high BMI. But as with my birthday present, it doesn't work the other way round. A high BMI does not mean an individual is even overweight, let alone obese. It could mean the person is fit and healthy, with very little fat.

5. It's bad statistics.

Because the majority of people today (and in Quetelet's time) lead fairly sedentary lives and are not particularly active, the formula tacitly assumes low muscle mass and high relative fat content. It applies moderately well when applied to such people because it was formulated by focusing on them. But it gives exactly the wrong answer for a large and significant section of the population, namely the lean, fit and healthy. Quetelet is also the person who came up with the idea of "the average man." That's a useful concept, but if you try to apply it to any one person, you come up with the absurdity of a person with 2.4 children. Averages measure entire populations and often don't apply to individuals.

6. It is lying by scientific authority.

Because the BMI is a single number between 1 and 100 (like a percentage) that comes from a mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. But it is mathematical snake oil.

7. It suggests there are distinct categories of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese, with sharp boundaries that hinge on a decimal place.

That's total nonsense.

8. It makes the more cynical members of society suspect that the medical insurance industry lobbies for the continued use of the BMI to keep their profits high.

Insurance companies sometimes charge higher premiums for people with a high BMI. Among such people are all those fit individuals with good bone and muscle and little fat, who will live long, healthy lives during which they will have to pay those greater premiums.

9. Continued reliance on the BMI means doctors don't feel the need to use one of the more scientifically sound methods that are available to measure obesity levels.

Those alternatives cost a little bit more, but they give far more reliable results.

10. It embarrasses the U.S.

It is embarrassing for one of the most scientifically, technologically and medicinally advanced nations in the world to base advice on how to prevent one of the leading causes of poor health and premature death (obesity) on a 200-year-old numerical hack developed by a mathematician who was not even an expert in what little was known about the human body back then.

Rigging Apollo 11 on the Moon

The more we find out about the Apollo moon missions, the more we find they were operating closer to the edge than anyone outside of NASA knew. In an excerpt from Buzz Aldrin’s new book, “Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon”, he tells about a crucial circuit breaker he and Neil Armstrong found broken on the floor of the moon lander. Aldrin rigged the circuit by inserting a felt-tip pen, and hoped it would work during their liftoff.

The liftoff from the moon was intrinsically a tense time . The ascent stage simply had to work. The engines had to fire, propelling us upward, leaving the descent stage of the LM still sitting on the moon. We had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia to retrieve us. We had no provision for another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours.

Link -via Digg

Jackie's Doomed Love - With RFK

Jackie Kennedy had a four-year love affair with Bobby Kennedy that began not long after JFK's assassination and grew so intense that when RFK was gunned down, it was she -- not his wife -- who instructed doctors to pull the plug, an explosive new book claims.

The married senator and father of 11 kids was the former first lady's one "true love" -- and his wife, Ethel, along with the rest of the Kennedy clan, knew about their romance, according to "Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story."

"Everybody knew about the affair. The two of them carried on like a pair of lovesick teenagers," the late Franklin Roosevelt Jr., who served as JFK's undersecretary of commerce, says in the book.

"I suspect Bobby would've liked to dump Ethel and marry Jackie, but, of course, that wasn't possible."

The book, which hits shelves this month, also includes recollections of the steamy affair from a host of other Kennedy family intimates, including Pierre Salinger, Arthur Schlesinger, Jack Newfield, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote and Morton Downey Jr.

Author C. David Heymann said he spent nearly two decades researching the tome, even digging through old FBI and Secret Service files about the clandestine couple. Tapes of his exhaustive interviews are available at the SUNY Stony Brook library.

The book's most shocking claims include:

* Six months after JFK's death, during a May 1964 dinner cruise on the presidential yacht the USS Sequoia, Bobby and Jackie "exchanged poignant glances" before disappearing below deck, leaving Ethel upstairs. "When they returned, they looked as chummy and relaxed as a pair of Cheshire cats," according to Schlesinger

* At the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate during Christmas 1964, socialite Mary Harrington saw Jackie sunbathing topless, with Bobby kneeling at her side.

"As they began to kiss, he placed one hand on her breast and the other inside of her bikini bottom," Harrington recalled.

"I was shocked. It was clear that Bobby was sleeping with his sister-in-law."

RFK later told Harrington -- who had her own affair with RFK -- he loved Ethel but "felt just as strongly about Jackie."

* When Commerce Department administrator Kenneth McKnight arrived for a late-evening meeting with Sen. Kennedy in July 1966, he found Bobby sitting on a sofa -- with Jackie "straddling his lap, her arms around his neck."

* At one point, Ethel Kennedy implored family friend Frank Moore to "tell Bobby to stop sleeping with Jackie." Instead, Moore told her to find a marriage counselor.

* Shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis -- RFK's rival for Jackie's attention -- once threatened to "bring down" Bobby by going public with details of the affair. "I could bury that sucker," Onassis said, "although I'd lose Jackie in the process."

By all accounts, the romance between Jackie and Bobby sprang from their shared grief over the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"It was the coming together of a man and a woman as a result of his bereavement and her mental suffering at the hands of her late, lecherous husband," according to Jackie confidant Truman Capote.

"It was passionate, [but] it was doomed."

According to Gore Vidal, "The one person Jackie ever loved . . . was Robert Kennedy."

"You had to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see it," recalled Kennedy family friend Chuck Spalding, who often traveled with the pair.

Ethel -- who stayed home with the kids in Virginia -- knew about their relationship, but "evidently chose to ignore it," Heymann writes. She was confident RFK would never leave her or their family.

Still, whenever Jackie visited Bobby in Hyannis Port, "Ethel would jump up and leave the room."

By mid-1967, Jackie -- who had also been dating Onassis -- was contemplating marriage to him. She agreed to wait until after Bobby's 1968 presidential run.

RFK told Pierre Salinger, "She'll marry that man over my dead body."

On March 16, 1968, Bobby announced his bid for president. The next morning, a "morose" RFK called Jack Newfield from Jackie's apartment.

"If I had to hazard a guess," the late Post columnist recalled, "I'd say this must have been their last romantic occasion together."

On June 4, minutes after winning the California primary, Bobby was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Jackie flew to his bedside -- and Ethel allowed her time alone with the dying RFK, according to the book.

Bobby was brain-dead, but a distraught Ethel refused to pull the plug, and brother Ted Kennedy was in no shape to make the call, Heymann writes.

At 1:20 a.m. June 6, 1968, Jackie Kennedy ordered the respirator shut down and signed the consent form, the book reveals.

That October, she married Onassis.

Anything But THAT!

The Media on Overload: Palin or Jackson ?

If You’ve Never Seen a Spaceship With Your Own Eyes, Now’s Your Chance.

The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built.

Check NASA’s ISS Tracker for flyby times.

The ISS has been under construction for nearly 11 years, and it has grown very large and very bright. The station is now more than 350 ft wide (wider than a football field), has 12,600 cubic feet of labs and living quarters, and on Earth would weigh about 670,000 lb. Sunlight illuminating the massive outpost makes it shine fifteen times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

Sometimes it is even brighter than that. Sunlight glinting from the station’s flat surfaces (mainly solar arrays) produce dazzling flares as much as six hundred times brighter than Sirius. For astronomers: On the scale of visual magnitudes, space station flares register -8.

“The station flared spectacularly on May 22nd when it passed over my backyard observatory in the Netherlands,” reports amateur astronomer Quintus Oostendorp. “I knew the ISS was coming, so I had my telescope ready and I was able see exactly what happened.” Click on the image to launch a movie he recorded through his 12-inch Newtonian reflector:

At present, the flares are unpredictable. No one knows when they will happen or exactly how bright they will be. Any given flyby could be interrupted by one—and that’s what makes the watch so much fun.

The marathon of space station flybys won’t stop until mid-to-late July (depending on your location). That gives space shuttle Endeavour, currently scheduled to launch on July 11th, time to reach the space station and join the show. As the shuttle approaches station for docking, many observers will witness a memorable double flyby—Endeavour and the ISS sailing side by side across the starry night sky.

Endeavour is on yet another space station construction mission. This time it will deliver a “space porch” to be added to Japan’s Kibo science laboratory module. The porch is not a place where astronauts can sit, relax and watch the stars drift by (although that is not a bad idea); it is a science platform. When an experiment needs to be exposed to the hard vacuum or energetic radiation of space, it can placed outside on the porch to take advantage of the space station’s unique research environment. The official name of the porch is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and it will add its own small contribution to the station’s reflected luminosity in the night sky.

Discrimination, Anyone?

Residents want sign promoting atheism removed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Community residents are protesting a billboard they call offensive to Christians.

The recruitment billboard put up by the Florida Atheist and Secular Humanist Society stands just east of Interstate 95 on Sunrise Boulevard and 27th Avenue, next to a business owned by an African-American preacher.

The members of the community cite two main problems: born-again Christians own the business right next to the sign, and the billboard is located right in the middle of an African-American community.

Neighboring businesses have called to try to get the sign removed. "Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Christian, whoever you are, we all believe in a spiritual higher being. When you have something like this here, people don't want to come and patronize us anymore," said Theodore Hamilton, an employee at a nearby business. "We don't agree with this. We don't like this here in our community, and this is a spiritual based community."

The sign states: "Being a good person doesn't require God. Don't believe in God? You're not alone. www.FreeThoughFlorida.com."

Ken Loukinen, President of FLASH, said he had no intention of offending anyone when he paid to put the sign up. "We didn't want to incense anybody or put a derogatory statement in there," he said. "The two statements there, the first one, is basically to the public to let them know that atheists can be good, moral people, and the second part of the message is to other free thinkers who are in Broward County or in the area that may see this, that there is an organization that supports them."

http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI124870

So Much For the Virgin Mary on Grilled Cheese

A Drug That Could Give You Perfect Visual Memory

Imagine if you could look at something once and remember it forever. You would never have to ask for directions again. Now a group of scientists has isolated a protein that mega-boosts your ability to remember what you see.

A group of Spanish researchers reported today in Science that they may have stumbled upon a substance that could become the ultimate memory-enhancer. The group was studying a poorly-understood region of the visual cortex. They found that if they boosted production of a protein called RGS-14 (pictured) in that area of the visual cortex in mice, it dramatically affected the animals' ability to remember objects they had seen.

Mice with the RGS-14 boost could remember objects they had seen for up to two months. Ordinarily the same mice would only be able to remember these objects for about an hour.

The researchers concluded that this region of the visual cortex, known as layer six of region V2, is responsible for creating visual memories. When the region is removed, mice can no longer remember any object they see.

If this protein boosts visual memory in humans, the implications are staggering. In their paper, the researchers say that it could be used as a memory-enhancer – which seems like an understatement. What's particularly intriguing is the fact that this protein works on visual memory only. So as I mentioned earlier, it would be perfect for mapping. It would also be useful for engineers and architects who need to hold a lot of visual images in their minds at once. And it would also be a great drug for detectives and spies.

Could it also be a way to gain photographic memory? For example, if I look at a page of text will I remember the words perfectly? Or will I simply remember how the page looked?

I can't see much of a downside for this potential drug, unless the act of not forgetting what you see causes problems or trauma.

via Science

Report: Palin resigning as Alaska governor

WASILLA, Alaska - Sarah Palin plans to resign as governor of Alaska in a few weeks, KTUU-TV reported Friday.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, made the announcement at her home Friday morning, the station said.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take over at the end of the month, KTUU reported.

With her at the announcement were Parnell and most of her cabinet.

There was no immediate word as to why she will step down before the end of her first term, though some have speculated in the past that she may be interested in running for president in 2012.

Carl Sagan (Some of the Best Scenes from Cosmos)

Ban the Burka - Pat Condell

'Informercial King' Billy Mays Found Dead in Home

Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday, MyFOXTampa.com reports.

Commentary: Farrah in the morning

By Bob Greene

(CNN) -- She would come walking across the lawn just after sunrise.

The days and nights had been long; everyone else, as darkness turned into dawn, looked wrung out and worn down and weary.

She just glowed.

"Morning!" she would say, flashing that zillion-watt smile, greeting each of us by name.

"Morning, Farrah," we would say back, feeling gray and dull in her presence.

This was at the La Quinta resort near Palm Springs, California, almost 20 years ago. The only piece of writing of mine that was ever turned into a feature film was being shot there. Farrah was one of the female leads.

At least she, and we, thought she was. More on that later.

She seemed to be an awfully nice person. That much I can tell you, from my limited time with her as she made that movie. She did her best to try to make the people around her forget just how all-reaching her fame was. There is a stratum of renown that is separate from the variety that accrues to most performers; Michael Jackson, who died on the same day as she, knew that type of renown, and so did she. Regardless of the role, she was always destined to be, in the eyes of the public, Farrah. That had to have been both a blessing and an encumbrance.

Most people in show business would do just about anything to possess that level of connection with the people out in the seats -- to move through life having everyone in the world feel they know you. It must be difficult, though, to bury yourself in a fictional part when, inside, you are resigned to the idea that, to the unseen ticket buyers in the darkness, you are, now and always, Farrah.

Any person with whom she had contact, however brief, would remember it for years. She understood that. She was golden, literally; it was her calling card. At breakfast, on the mornings she would join the crew, we would sit around long wooden catering tables, and there was a what's-wrong-with-this-picture aspect to the scene. These were mundane meals, and she was anything but. Or that's what we thought. Farrah? She was just getting ready to put in a day's work.

The movie itself -- it was called "Funny About Love"-- turned out to be quite forgettable. The male lead was played by Gene Wilder; the three women in his life were played, as the script was written, by Christine Lahti, Mary Stuart Masterson and Farrah. Everyone on the set seemed to get along, but what do I know? I'd never been on another set. After a lifetime of grunted hellos from assistant city editors, this was quite a change. Those dawns on the desert, those cast-and-crew breakfasts, those "Morning!"s from Farrah as she strolled across the grass.

Steve Allen, a luminary in the early days of television and a cogent observer of the world around him, said that when people see a person who is regularly on TV, it is as if the television performer emits a glow. The glow is invisible, yet it's there. And when a person who once was constantly on television suddenly isn't on television anymore, Allen said, it is as if the glow evaporates. It's gone.

Maybe he was right -- but with Farrah, the glow endured. It never went away. Another accomplished television performer -- Phil Donahue -- argued that there was no essential difference between Frank Sinatra's fame and the fame of a local TV weathercaster. Donahue's point was that you're either famous or you're not; there's no in-between. If you deliver the weather news on your town's most popular station, then everyone within the county line knows you. You're Sinatra.

The theory made a certain sense, but there was that qualitative difference to Farrah's fame. She could not have gotten rid of it if she had wanted to.

Yet no one always wins. The most blessed among us are subject to hurt. Here is what happened with that movie that was filmed on the desert:

Months after the final scenes were shot, I received a phone call from one of the producers. Opening weekend was approaching.

"Farrah's not in the movie," he said.

I didn't process the words.

"She asked for her name to be taken off the credits?" I said.

"No," he said. "She has been cut out of the final film."

The powers that be with the authority to make such decisions, the story went, after some screenings in front of test audiences had decided that the movie didn't work well with Farrah in it. So every single one of her scenes had been excised. The movie had been recut as if she had never existed.

Even when you're golden, it seems, life can blindside you and try to make you feel small. Even when, to those on the outside, it appears that you have everything, it can vanish. Somewhere, in metal film cans on some shelf or other, there are colorful motion images of a beautiful woman doing her job, images the world has never seen. "Morning!" she would call on her way to breakfast. She carried the sunrise with her.

Chocolate Banana Pops

Ingredients and Materials:

3 bananas not overly ripe
5oz semi-sweet chocolate
5oz white chocolate
3tsp shortening
Rainbow sprinkles
Chocolate sprinkles
6 popsicle sticks
Parchment paper
Measuring spoons
2 small bowls
2 spoons
Cutting board

Recipe makes 6 chocolate banana pops.

Directions:

Step 1: Peel the bananas and cut each in half. Push a popsicle stick part way through the cut end of the banana so it looks like a popsicle. Set the popsicles on a cutting board or plastic plate, and place them in the freezer while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Having the bananas cold will help the chocolate harden faster.

Step 2: Lay a sheet of parchment paper on the counter. Set out sprinkles. Put semi-sweet chocolate and 1½tsp of shortening in a bowl. Microwave the chocolate at 100% power for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat. Repeat a third time, if necessary, until the chocolate is completely melted. Repeat the process with the white chocolate.

Step 3: Take 1 banana out of the freezer at a time. Place it on the parchment paper and pour your chocolate of choice over the top. Turn the banana to coat all sides.

Step 4: Decorate the banana with the desired sprinkles. Hold it for about a minute so the chocolate can set, then replace it in the freezer.

Step 5: Scrape extra chocolate off of the parchment paper and add it back to the respective bowl. Re-melt it in a microwave for 30 seconds if the chocolate becomes too thick to pour. Repeat the coating and decorating process with the remaining bananas.

After all the bananas have been covered in chocolate and decorated, keep them in the freezer for 45–60 minutes. Enjoy!