2014-03-30

Snow, rain expected across much of Utah Sunday | FOX13Now.com

Much snow here. Most of it not sticking...

http://fox13now.com/2014/03/30/snow-rain-expected-across-much-of-utah-sunday/

How iPads and smartphones are killing jobs

A testing ground for this is the debate over whether to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10, as President Obama and many Democrats would like. Historically, raising the minimum wage has usually had no meaningful impact on hiring, regardless of what partisan advocates may claim. But this time may, uh, be different. Up till now, automation has mostly been used to streamline industrial assembly lines and other complex systems. Now, technology has gotten so cheap that a few iPads outfitted with ordering and purchasing software may be cheaper than a staff of retail clerks earning minimum wage. If the pay threshold were to rise to $10.10, it could boost overall costs at some employers by nearly 10%, according to BlackRock analysis. That may be enough to persuade a whole range of companies to replace workers with gizmos wherever possible.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/how-ipads-and-smartphones-are-keeping-people-out-of-work-175925590.html

 

 

Earthquake rattles Yellowstone National Park

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/earthquake-rattles-yellowstone-national-park/

 

… I consider this significant because of a potential for super volcano eruption.

 

Underweight Equally Dangerous As Overweight

http://www.thealmagest.com/underweight-equally-dangerous-as-overweight/11993

 

The study further reported that most of the people who are underweight were heavy on alcohol, involved in drug abuse, were malnourished, chain-smokers, were poor, and had poor mental health or poor self esteem…. (which means the study proved nothing?)

 

2014-03-22

Gun Myths

Full-auto is only really used for suppression, that is, to make the bad guys duck their heads and hunker down while your people maneuver into position. In fact, virtually all bullets are used for this. For each insurgent killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, 250,000 shots are fired that hit absolutely nothing. About three tons of ammunition for every one dude killed. Picture Arnold lugging that 

http://www.cracked.com/article_18576_5-ridiculous-gun-myths-everyone-believes-thanks-to-movies.html#ixzz2whZfBHhP

Gutfeld: The Toxic Effects Of ‘Cool’ - Fox Nation

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/03/21/gutfeld-toxic-effects-%E2%80%98cool%E2%80%99

2014-03-19

Big Bang Discovery Opens Doors to the "Multiverse"

To cosmologists, our universe looks disturbingly fine-tuned for life. Without its Goldilocks-perfect alignment of the physical constants—everything from the strength of the force attaching electrons to atoms to the relative weakness of gravity—planets and suns, biochemistry, and life itself would be impossible...

If ours was the only cosmos spawned by a Big Bang, these life-friendly properties would seem impossibly unlikely. But in a multiverse containing zillions of universes, a small number of life-friendly ones would arise by chance—and we could just happen to reside in one of them.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140318-multiverse-inflation-big-bang-science-space/





Fwd: Tawain



‘Hundreds of students remained barricaded in Taiwan's Legislature early Wednesday in protest of the ruling party's push for a trade pact with China, which demonstrators claim will hurt the island.

 

The protesters, mostly university students, entered the main assembly hall inside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on Tuesday night and blocked the entrances with chairs, according to images and accounts filed from the scene with CNN iReport.

 

Police responded but had not dispersed the protesters, who also filled the streets around the Legislature in the center of Taipei.

 

The students said they plan to occupy the Legislature until Friday's session, when the pact was to be deliberated.

 

Taiwan's state news agency reported that 38 police officers were injured when more than 400 protesters took over the Legislature…

 

Police said there were more than 2,000 protesters both inside and outside the building, with a equal number of officers on the scene.

 

"We do not want to clash with the police," said protester and iReporter Shanny Chang, 19. "We just have to let the government know that never try to fool the people."

 

One CNN iReporter said that after the protesters took over, hundreds gathered outside the building, with some making speeches and singing songs.’

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/taiwan-student-protests/

 

When Did Chickens Cross The Pacific Ocean? DNA Shows ‘No Evidence’ Of Pre-Columbian Contact

NASA: Earth JUST dodged comms-killing SOLAR BLAST in 2012

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/19/nasa_scopes_show_how_earth_missed_devastating_solar_storm_by_nine_days_in_2012/

 

Fat Gene Can Worsen Obesity When Eating Fried Foods

http://www.hngn.com/articles/26876/20140319/fat-gene-can-worsen-obesity-when-eating-fried-foods.htm

2014-03-14

Behold, the TITCHY T-REX that prowled the warm Arctic of long ago * The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/13/tiny_trex_nanuqsaurus_hoglundi_in_arctic/

5 Ways to Spot a Problem Employee - Salary.com Business

http://business.salary.com/5%2Dways%2Dto%2Dspot%2Da%2Dproblem%2Demployee/slide/2/

VIDEO: Why You're BANNED From Going Here

http://www.weather.com/video/why-youre-banned-from-going-here-45352?

Pi Day: Great for math and tastebuds (+video) - CSMonitor.com

http://m.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2014/0313/Pi-Day-Great-for-math-and-tastebuds-video

Crimeans Under Lenin's Statue Embrace Russia as West Unheeded - Businessweek

http://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2014-03-14/crimeans-under-lenin-s-statue-embrace-russia-as-west-unheeded

Civil war ?

US Airways passengers re-live harrowing moments of plane hitting runway - Daily News

http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1721378#bmb=1

2014-03-11

Fwd: Senate aids took classified documents


‘Congressional aides involved in preparing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s unreleased study of the CIA’s secret interrogation and detention program walked out of one of the spy agency’s top-secret facility with classified documents that the CIA contended they weren’t authorized to have, McClatchy has learned.

 

After the CIA confronted the panel in January about the removal of the material last fall, panel staff concluded that the agency had monitored computers they’d been given to use in a high-security CIA research room in Northern Virginia, a McClatchy investigation found.

 

It remained unclear Wednesday if the monitoring, the unauthorized removal of classified material or another matter were the subject of a recent CIA request to the Justice Department for an investigation into alleged malfeasance in connection with the committee’s top-secret study.’

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/07/220273/senate-staffers-slipped-secret.html

 

Ukraine

‘The vote is being billed as a chance for the Ukrainian territory’s peoples to decide fairly and freely their future, but it emerged on Tuesday that there is no room on the ballot paper for voting “Nyet” to control by Russia.

 

The ballot paper for the contest, which was published by parliament, disclosed that Crimean voters will be given two options: either immediate “reunification” with Russia, or adopting the “1992 constitution” — which gives parliament the power to vote to join Russia.

 

The status quo, whereby Crimea has autonomy within Ukraine, does not appear on the ballot paper. In practise, experts said that this amounted to giving voters the choice between joining Russia immediately or joining Russia after a short delay.

 

“Those citizens who were content with Crimea remaining part of Ukraine on the same basis as it has been for the last 20 years do not have a voice in this referendum. There is no third option available,” said Keir Giles, an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House.

Related Articles

 

The referendum has been called at only 10 days’ notice. Rallies in favour of staying in Ukraine have been attacked by pro-Russian mobs. International observers have been excluded from monitoring the contest, with some having live rounds fired over their heads at Crimea’s new border with Ukraine.’

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10691386/Join-Russia-now-or-later-asks-Crimea-ballot-paper.html

 

VIDEO: Tornadoes Rev Up in March

http://www.weather.com/video/sponsored-video/tornadoes-rev-up-in-march-45469?collid=/news/video-of-the-day

2014-03-09

Fwd: Ukraine


‘In Putin’s world, all demonstrators in Moscow streets are paid agents of Hillary Clinton, and now John Kerry, a student deserves two and a half years in jail for injuring a heavily-armored riot policeman with a lemon,  the tiny Georgian army attacked Russian forces without prvocation as rabid Georgians killed and maimed the embattled citizens of Abkhazia, the Maidan demonstrators are Nazis and skinheads who burn innocent bystanders alive, Yanukovich’s Berkut riot police bravely held their ground as anti-Semitic snipers dropped them one by one, Yanukovich is the legitimate president although Ukraine has no president,  the new Crimean governor (who last commanded a whopping 4% of the vote) has the unanimous support of the people, desperate Russian-speaking Ukrainians turned to Russia for humanitarian support, and the Russian uniforms worn by Crimean “local self defense forces” were purchased in second-hand stores.

 

Chancellor Merkel should not be surprised by Putin’s lack of touch with reality, or that he is living “in another world.” After all, she grew up behind a wall, erected by Putin’s KGB heroes for the express purpose of keeping out “enemy provocateurs,” not to keep the people from fleeing. The likes of John Kerry and Barack Obama, however, face Putin’s KGB alternative universe for the first time. Let’s hope they come to understand Putin’s uncivilized provokatsia,  desinformatisia, maskirovka, and the tried-and-true “big lie” as quickly as possible.

 

Know thy enemy. If he is in the gutter, you’ll need to get your hands dirty.’

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/03/07/putin-hasnt-lost-touch-with-his-reality-welcome-to-kgb-russia/

2014-03-03

Fwd: Bannanas


‘And at $8.9 billion, bananas grown for export are only a fraction of the $44.1 billion in annual banana and plantain production—in fact, bananas are the fourth-most valuable global crop after rice, wheat, and milk. Where are the rest of those bananas sold? Nearly nine-tenths of the world’s bananas are eaten in poor countries, where at least 400 million people rely on them for 15-27% of their daily calories. And that’s the really scary part. Since the first Panama disease outbreak, bananas have evolved from snacks into vital sustenance. And this time there’s no back-up banana variety to feed the world with instead.’

 

http://qz.com/164029/tropical-race-4-global-banana-industry-is-killing-the-worlds-favorite-fruit/

 

FW: Ukraine

The simplest  way to explain what has happened…

A country divided nearly fifty-fifty between ethnic and culturally Russian and Ukrainian, voted in a Russian leaning President, who promised to work toward moving toward Europe.

As the European push neared signatures he went against his campaign pledges, after strong encouragement from Russia.

This began months of protests(in bitter cold), mainly by ethnic Ukrainians, but also somewhat by ethnic Russians, who wanted to move toward European freedoms while staying friendly with Russia.

He then increased his and the states power.

Once violence was used by the President, the parliament was about to arrest him, and he ran to Russia.

Parliament elected a temporary President and scheduled elections.

Russia expanded out of a Naval base they had on lease for decades to come.

They sent in and are sending in more troops and kicked Ukrainians out of several of their military bases.