Random News Stories

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17694009-uruguay-approves-gay-marriage-second-in-region-to-do-so?lite

I, FOR ONE, AM GLAD TO LIVE IN THE FREE-EST NATION ON EARTH.

URUGUAY, STOP SHOWING OFF.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22102649

A man who lived as a hermit in the Maine woods for nearly three decades committed more than 1,000 burglaries for food and supplies, police say.

Christopher Knight was arrested last week after setting off a motion sensor in an alleged break-in at a youth camp.

On Tuesday, police said they found the site where the so-called North Pond Hermit was said to have lived for 27 years with virtually no human contact.

His existence has become part of local lore in the small Maine town of Rome.

Police say Mr Knight, 47, treated a nearby camp for disabled children and adults like a "local Walmart", pillaging it for supplies when needed, the Kennebec Journal newspaper reported.

[Junkenstein]

More Pope fun

But can Bergoglio's efforts to be a witness for justice during the dark days of the military regime compare with those of Oscar Romero, the archbishop from El Salvador, whose uncompromising criticism of government death squads and oppression of the poor led to him being assassinated in 1980 as he celebrated Mass?

"Bergoglio was not a Romero. Very few people were like that," says Ivan Petrella, religious affairs commentator at think tank Fundacion Pensar in his Buenos Aires office.

But if Romero scored 10 on a 10-point scale for his courageous stand, how had the current Pope fared? "I´d say 7.5," says Petrella. "Allegations against him have no basis in evidence."

But there is another story that demands answers - the supremely toxic affair of "disappeared" pregnant women, who gave birth to their children while being held in detention centres. Most of the mothers were murdered and their children handed on to "deserving" couples who were well connected with the brutal military junta.

This is very much a live political issue. A number of the children have discovered the painful truth about their past, while hundreds more still remain blissfully ignorant of their parentage. The campaigning grandmothers assert that many priests and nuns were complicit in what happened and are still at large in society. They show no sign of letting the matter rest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22064929

Timing and tone of this article is no no way related the falklands at all.

[Junkenstein]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/28/study-packages-sealed-with-atheist-tape-10-times-more-likely-to-disappear/?iid=obinsite

Atheist Shoes calls itself "a cadre of shoemakers & artists in Berlin, Germany" that hand-make artsy shoes for "people who don't believe in god(s)." The company describes its shoes as "Bauhaus-inspired," referring to a German crafts and arts school that operated in the early 20th century, eschewing ornamentation and emphasizing harmony between an object's function and design. The company also claims to have "lots of customers" in the United States.

And yet it says shipments to U.S. customers sometimes "take longer than they should to arrive" and "even go missing." When U.S. customers began requesting that Atheist Shoes not box shipments with packing tape trumpeting the company's name and ideology — the word "atheist" displayed repeatedly — Atheist Shoes wondered if the USPS, or at least some of its employees, might be up to no good.

Thus the ad hoc study: The company says it sent two packages each to 89 people (178 packages total) canvassing nearly every U.S. state — one package with the Atheist-branded tape, one without. And this is where the results suggest something fishy: According to Atheist Shoes, company-branded packages took on average three days longer to reach their destination and were 10 times more likely to disappear outright. An Atheist-branded package sent to Michigan arrived 37 days later than its non-branded companion. What's more, the company ran a series of "control" tests in Europe which it claims "demonstrate no such bias."

What's up with the USPS? Who knows, but Atheist Shoes says it's no longer using Atheist-branded packing tape, that delivery times are already improving and to "please order with confidence, our godless American friends!"

[Junkenstein]

Well this could explain a lot:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22099990

Analysis of commercially available rice imported into the US has revealed it contains levels of lead far higher than regulations suggest are safe.

Some samples exceeded the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a factor of 120.

The report at the American Chemical Society Meeting adds to the already well-known issue of arsenic in rice.

The FDA told the BBC it would review the research.

Lead is known to be harmful to many organs and the central nervous system.

It is a particular risk for young children, who suffer significant developmental problems if exposed to elevated lead levels.

Because rice is grown in heavily irrigated conditions, it is more susceptible than other staple crops to environmental pollutants in irrigation water.

Recent studies have highlighted the presence of arsenic in rice - prompting consumption advice from the UK's Food Standards Agency and more recently from the FDA.

However, other heavy metals represent a risk as well.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well this could explain a lot:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22099990

Analysis of commercially available rice imported into the US has revealed it contains levels of lead far higher than regulations suggest are safe.

Some samples exceeded the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a factor of 120.

The report at the American Chemical Society Meeting adds to the already well-known issue of arsenic in rice.

The FDA told the BBC it would review the research.

Lead is known to be harmful to many organs and the central nervous system.

It is a particular risk for young children, who suffer significant developmental problems if exposed to elevated lead levels.

Because rice is grown in heavily irrigated conditions, it is more susceptible than other staple crops to environmental pollutants in irrigation water.

Recent studies have highlighted the presence of arsenic in rice - prompting consumption advice from the UK's Food Standards Agency and more recently from the FDA.

However, other heavy metals represent a risk as well.

WHAT, food imported from countries who make all of our consumer goods cheaply due to a nearly complete lack of environmental regulation TAINTED?

HOW COULD THAT BE

I AM SURPRISE!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/28/study-packages-sealed-with-atheist-tape-10-times-more-likely-to-disappear/?iid=obinsite

Atheist Shoes calls itself "a cadre of shoemakers & artists in Berlin, Germany" that hand-make artsy shoes for "people who don't believe in god(s)." The company describes its shoes as "Bauhaus-inspired," referring to a German crafts and arts school that operated in the early 20th century, eschewing ornamentation and emphasizing harmony between an object's function and design. The company also claims to have "lots of customers" in the United States.

And yet it says shipments to U.S. customers sometimes "take longer than they should to arrive" and "even go missing." When U.S. customers began requesting that Atheist Shoes not box shipments with packing tape trumpeting the company's name and ideology — the word "atheist" displayed repeatedly — Atheist Shoes wondered if the USPS, or at least some of its employees, might be up to no good.

Thus the ad hoc study: The company says it sent two packages each to 89 people (178 packages total) canvassing nearly every U.S. state — one package with the Atheist-branded tape, one without. And this is where the results suggest something fishy: According to Atheist Shoes, company-branded packages took on average three days longer to reach their destination and were 10 times more likely to disappear outright. An Atheist-branded package sent to Michigan arrived 37 days later than its non-branded companion. What's more, the company ran a series of "control" tests in Europe which it claims "demonstrate no such bias."

What's up with the USPS? Who knows, but Atheist Shoes says it's no longer using Atheist-branded packing tape, that delivery times are already improving and to "please order with confidence, our godless American friends!"

Wish they'd posted the actual numbers.

I'd totally buy these: http://www.atheistberlin.com/shoes/the-charlie-d-blue-grey-ich-bin-atheist-sole-1.html because they're adorable and handmade, except I don't really want my footprints to proclaim my religion, even if I was an atheist.

[Junkenstein]

It's a shocker isn't it?

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition in humans and other vertebrates caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms

Surely the reason for the western world's retardation couldn't be massive global widespread poisoning? No. That's just being paranoid.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17691775-social-conservatives-warn-priebus-they-could-abandon-gop?lite

MELTDOWN.   

CUT 'EM LOOSE.

PREDICTION: The GOP cuts their most radical social conservatives loose, and begins making a slow arc towards social progressiveness. Meanwhile, the Democrats will continue their slide into conservatism.

You're probably right about this... the Blue Dog Democrats are holding the door open for these people, and once the GOP finds its footing with a coalition between social progressives and fiscal conservatives, the parties will probably return to their original configurations -- Republicans for banksters, and Democrats for .. uhh.. well, also banksters. But their sales pitches, at least, will swap places, as you predict.

Uhhh...weren't the repubs originally a coalition of antislavery forces?

They were opposed to [expanding] slavery, sure. But it wasn't all moral high-horse. It was also "let's take what we perceive as an unfair economic advantage of the South away from them." The moral argument was convenient, not necessarily primary.

Yeah, true.

But it would still be an improvement on their current TUFF ON SMUDGEY PEOPLES stance.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17691775-social-conservatives-warn-priebus-they-could-abandon-gop?lite

MELTDOWN.   

CUT 'EM LOOSE.

PREDICTION: The GOP cuts their most radical social conservatives loose, and begins making a slow arc towards social progressiveness. Meanwhile, the Democrats will continue their slide into conservatism.

You're probably right about this... the Blue Dog Democrats are holding the door open for these people, and once the GOP finds its footing with a coalition between social progressives and fiscal conservatives, the parties will probably return to their original configurations -- Republicans for banksters, and Democrats for .. uhh.. well, also banksters. But their sales pitches, at least, will swap places, as you predict.

Uhhh...weren't the repubs originally a coalition of antislavery forces?

They were opposed to [expanding] slavery, sure. But it wasn't all moral high-horse. It was also "let's take what we perceive as an unfair economic advantage of the South away from them." The moral argument was convenient, not necessarily primary.

Yeah, true.

But it would still be an improvement on their current TUFF ON SMUDGEY PEOPLES stance.

Totally. I mean, you're never going to convince either major party to divorce themselves from the interests of the mega-wealthy. In that respect, the (future) Republican emphasis on individual liberty might be attractive to me. The problem will be that they're still going to be for "small government," which means continuing to do everything they can to gut public welfare, health care, and retirement programs. Then again, in that regard, they're not too much different from Obama these days.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's a shocker isn't it?

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition in humans and other vertebrates caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms

Surely the reason for the western world's retardation couldn't be massive global widespread poisoning? No. That's just being paranoid.

Well, in terms of actual science, that is pretty ridiculous.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

BIGASS TRIGGER WARNING

Anti Gay Activist Lisa Byron Found Guilty of Child Porn Etc.

[Junkenstein]

It's a shocker isn't it?

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition in humans and other vertebrates caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms

Surely the reason for the western world's retardation couldn't be massive global widespread poisoning? No. That's just being paranoid.

Well, in terms of actual science, that is pretty ridiculous.

Ergo, just plausible to be a FOX headline. Somedays I dream of a career in propaganda and PR.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It's a shocker isn't it?

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition in humans and other vertebrates caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms

Surely the reason for the western world's retardation couldn't be massive global widespread poisoning? No. That's just being paranoid.

Well, in terms of actual science, that is pretty ridiculous.

Ergo, just plausible to be a FOX headline. Somedays I dream of a career in propaganda and PR.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I wish I had the source so I could look into it properly, but one of my professors showed us a graph that displayed a correlation between incidence of lead poisoning and rates of certain types of crime, offset by about 20 years. As lead-containing stuff became less prevalent, fewer children grew up with associated brain damage.

Of course, "I saw it on a graph once" is about as robust a source as a fortune cookie, so take that with a few grains of (lead-free) salt.

It would be really nice to believe that we could cure more of society's ills by identifying and removing more toxins from our food and products, though.