The half-time show:
More Who:
And regardless of the 'grading', all the ads are here (except they only did *Super Bowl* ads, so they left the clown stomping on the unicorn figurine out--which was my favorite).
So I went to a local bar that was showing the Super Bowl so that I could see 'the commercial' and The Who!
I didn't find it offensive.
Maybe I should clarify. I am in favor of a woman's 'right to choose' (I'd never inflict my morals on another w/o proof).
But I'm personally, 'pro-life' (never aborted anyone, don't plan on it in the future, not even by proxy). There are plenty of ways to ensure that a child doesn't occur. I was married to *two* fertile women (for the most part, not counting the last few years with the latter one), and the first one was *TRYING* to make a 'mistake', and I still didn't have an accident. Even if you only count eighteen years of missing the mark, one *can* do this.
On the other hand, it's a human life. It's obvious in this society that this is not only *NOT* *sacred*, it's freakin' DISPOSABLE.
Now, if you want to make a point about how we shouldn't kill the BAY-BEEZ, perhaps we might start with a conversation about how we aren't going to be killing the adults.
I find myself in an utterly defensible and sensible position, often between such ludicrous positions as 'pro-death-penalty/pro-life' and 'pro-choice/animal's rights'.
One can't be 'pro-life' and be in favor of a) the death penalty, b) war (of any sort).
One can't be 'pro-choice' and be anti-anything that's choice oriented (like smoking, eating meat, wearing leather, using cannabis). If it's *your* body, it's *mine* too.
Leastways, not w/o also being hypocritical, but that seems to be the human condition. People want their *own* freedom, but don't generally give much of a shit about other people's freedoms. That's how slavery got by for so long, and how women got the short end of the (less than thumbs'-width) stick, and how gay people are still being maligned.
But, would I abort my own child? Sure, if I thought it the right thing to do. I've avoided that predicament so far, but should I be presented with (for example) a Down's syndrome baby (whose DNA differs more from a standard human than a chimp's does), sure.
If I knew my child would starve (or die some other horrible death), I might even commit infanticide.
If I knew my child were evil (like a sociopath/psychopath), I might even commit murder.
The latter is a self-defense statement, the middle a quality-of-life statement, and the first just a quality statement. I've got some standards, yano?
I'm pro-life, but I'm pro-*QUALITY*-life. Worthless life is (by definition) worthless.
Maybe I'd be a little less caustic on this point if (at this moment) Texas wasn't about to kill someone who they *refuse* to test DNA on to determine innocence, and we weren't *still* killing all sorts of innocents in *two* countries.
I'm still pro-life, but I understand mercy killing, and I know the difference between human and not.
One shouldn't just go about killing things as a standard method of doing *anything*. It's just the wrong approach. It's not aikido. It should always be a dance. There should be a partner in death if it's not natural.
So I went to look up *why* we call football soccer, and this game we play with the hands, football (handball was apparently already taken, heh).
It turns out that the original term is British, not American. The proper name for the game one plays with only ones feet (mostly) is 'Association Football' which was shortened eventually by the Brits to 'football' with 'Association' becoming 'soccer' (slang shorthand for Association) along the path. It was called 'soccer football' when the Americans came up with their sport.
American football descended from 'rugby football' (as did Canadian football). It's always been differentiated from soccer football, but over time lost the 'rugby' prefix over here (as it differentiated itself), much as the Brits lost their 'soccer' prefix over there.
The funny part is that the Brits tend to get a bit picky on this word, yet it's *their* term.
They left this one out.
A faggot is a kind of meatball. Faggots are a traditional dish in the UK,[1][2] especially the Midlands of England.[3][4][5] It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork.[3] A faggot is traditionally made from pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with caul fat (the omentum membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked. A similar dish, almôndega, is traditional in Portugal. Another variation of Faggot is Pig's fry wrapped in pig's caul: the pig's fry and boiled onions are minced(ground) together then mixed with breadcrumbs or cold boiled potatoes, seasoned with sage, mixed herbs and pepper. All beaten together and then wrapped in small pieces of caul to form a ball. These are then baked in the oven. Usually served cold. This is from British Cookery edited by Lizzie Boyd. The first use in print cited in the OED is in 1851, from Thomas Mayhew, although this appears to be a calzone- or pasty-like dish, with an outer wrapper of caul, covering a filling of mixed pork offal. This was in London. The dish saw its greatest popularity with the rationing during World War II but has become less popular in recent years[citation needed]. Faggots are usually homemade and are to be found in traditional butchers' shops and market stalls. A popular dish is "Faggots and Peas". This is a common combination in the Black Country area of the West Midlands, especially so since the 18th century industrialisation onwards, but also for hundreds of years prior. It is still common to see small butchers shops in the area selling Faggots to their own (sometimes secret) recipe for a cheap price. Commonly, the faggot consists of pork liver and heart minced, wrapped in kel, with onion and breadcrumbs. Often, the Faggot should be cooked in a crock, with gravy and served with peas and mashed potato. Faggots are also known as "ducks" in the Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire, often as "savoury ducks". "In Leigh market in 1905 you could buy a savoury duck rolled up in an oatmeal cake." The best-known commercial brand is Mr Brain's Faggots, a frozen food product available in Britain, which is made of liver and onions rolled into meatballs and served in a sauce. These faggots differ significantly from the traditional recipe. Pictures of the product are a popular joke in some Western countries because of additional meanings of the name. Faggots were used as the subject of an infamous 2004 radio advert by the UK supermarket chain Somerfield.[6] The commercial featured a husband challenging his wife's repetitive routine of a set meal for each day of the week. While he wanted lasagne, he was told that, as it was Friday, he was to have faggots. He responded: "I've nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them." This advert was subsequently deemed to have breached the rules on Good Taste, Decency and Offence to Public Feeling of the Advertising and Sponsorship Code, and was banned from future re-broadcast by the industry regulator, Ofcom.Industrially-made faggots
There's a lot to be said for not just them, but only-child families, too.
I'm in a family of five. When my folks send me something, it goes through a kind of 'echo chamber' where I often get it back again.
I spent a couple of hours cleaning out my mailbox when I got back from my trip. I mostly did pruning of old things, and rearranging, so that my IMAP po-box wouldn't get over-full (I've got a 100mb limit there, and I was often getting up into the eighties).
After the clean job, it was down to eleven mb.
One week's worth of giant attached messages bounced back and forth a bit?
Back up to sixty mb.
I'm listening to Mike Malloy, and he's pointing out that the pass of the undie-bomber through security was at the behest of the intel community.
Now, I try to be rational. Have you heard this *anywhere* else?
A jealous ex-boyfriend has been accused of a 'rape-for-hire' plot after his girlfriend was brutally assaulted, on his orders.
A former U.S. Marine posed as his girlfriend to post an advert on the internet site Craigslist.
Angry at being dumped, the advert read: 'Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women.'
He posted his girlfriend's photo on the site and after receiving a reply from Ty McDowell entered into an email correspondence.
A week later McDowell broke into the 25-year-old woman's home in Natrona County, Wyoming, tied her up, blindfolded and gagged her before carrying out the rape.
An arrest warrant said he held a knife to her throat while carrying out the sex assault.
The bizarre rape-for-hire case was revealed as McDowell went on trial for rape.
Prosecutors said the ex-Marine had wanted revenge on his girlfriend after she broke off their relationship.
Two days after the advert for an 'aggressive man' was posted on Craigslist the woman spotted it and complained to authorities.
It was removed from the site but by that time McDowell, 27, was already in correspondence with the man believing he was the woman.
McDowell claimed the 'woman' sent him emails saying she wanted to be humiliated and told detectives he believed she had wanted to act out a rape fantasy.
The man, whose name has been withheld to avoid identification of the victim and who was thrown out of the Marines for misconduct, has also been charged with rape.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1242958/Jealous-ex-boyfriend-used-Craiglist-arrange-womans-rape.html#ixzz0eUnn8Emd
It sure looks like it. From: indymedia.org.uk
1974
"In 1974, the Russian researchers Eskov and Sapozhnikov found that bees generate electromagnetic signals with a modulation frequency between 180 and 250 Hz when they do their communications dances. (It is important to note that our GSM mobile system is modulated with 217 Hz). Hungry bees react to those frequencies by erect-ing their antennae [8]. Warnke reported that the communication impulses of the antennae when touched by a fellow bee can be measured with an oscillograph [9]."
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/bigbeedeath_0407.pdf
"In 1974, the Russian researchers Eskov and Sapozhnikov found that bees generate electromagnetic signals with a modulation frequency between 180 and 250 Hz when they do their communications dances. (It is important to note that our GSM mobile system is modulated with 217 Hz). Hungry bees react to those frequencies by erect-ing their antennae [8]. Warnke reported that the communication impulses of the antennae when touched by a fellow bee can be measured with an oscillograph [9]."
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/bigbeedeath_0407.pdf Here's what 217Hz sounds like:
From: patentstorm.us
A particular problem is the 217 Hz sending frequency radiated by a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) transmitter of a mobile phone operating in accordance with the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard. This noise interference when heard by human ears resembles the sound of a bumblebee and is thus known as bumblebee noise.
From: physorg.com
Mobile phone towers a threat to honey bees: study
August 31, 2009Honeybees on flowers outside the Presidential Palace in New Delhi. The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in India has concluded
An experiment conducted in the southern state of Kerala found that a sudden fall in the bee population was caused by towers installed across the state bycellphone companies to increase their network.
The electromagnetic waves emitted by the towers crippled the "navigational skills" of the worker bees that go out to collect nectar from flowers to sustain bee colonies, said Dr. Sainuddin Pattazhy, who conducted the study, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
He found that when a cell phone was kept near a beehive, the worker bees were unable to return, leaving the hives with only the queens and eggs and resulting in the collapse of the colony within ten days.
Over 100,000 people in Kerala are engaged in apiculture and the dwindling worker bee population poses a threat to their livelihood. The bees also play a vital role in pollinating flowers to sustain vegetation.
If towers and mobile phones further increase, honey bees might be wiped out in 10 years, Pattazhy said.
(c) 2009 AFP
I'd never really paid *that* close attention to 'Video Killed the Radio Star', but I'd always wondered what the significance of the kid sitting in front of the dryer was.
It's a radio (a *BIG* radio).
So, what would you call a video mondegreen?
Actor Rip Torn a Conn. character
The "30 rock" actor is well known around Salisbury, especially within the town's active winter bar scene, and few residents were surprised when he was arrested in a bank after allegedly breaking in while intoxicated.
The Hartford Courant
APRip Torn, pictured in this mug shot, after his arrest for driving while intoxicated in Dec. 2006.
SALISBURY, Conn. -- The report of the arrest, released by state troopers over the weekend, achieved near perfection in cop jargon.
"On 0-1/29/10, at approximately 9:42 pm, Troopers from the Connecticut State Police were notified of a burglary alarm at the Litchfield Bancorp located at 326 Main Street in Salisbury. Troopers were dispatched to the scene and upon their arrival they observed a broken window at the rear of the building. Observed inside the bank was a lone white male walking within the premise."
That lone white male walking within the premise, as millions of gossip Web site visitors learned over the weekend, was Elmore "Rip" Torn, 78, an actor whose legendary list of film credits now seems threatened only by his ability to stretch the longevity of movie bad-boy behavior.
Torn is a well known and loved figure around Salisbury, especially within the town's active winter bar scene, and few residents were surprised by the details, or the explanations that the police and Torn's lawyer provided about the event. After a night of drinking, Torn was headed home to his modest clapboard house on Farnum Road, just around the corner from the bank. But the bank, which is built in a remodeled clapboard home, looks remarkably like Torn's house, and that is where he thought he was. When his key didn't work, Torn broke a window to get inside and then neatly placed his cowboy boots and a wool cap by the back door.
Add a few more details -- the troopers tested Torn at 2 1/2 times the legal limit of alcohol, and he was carrying a loaded .22 revolver -- and the event takes on the kind of senior roguishness that has made Torn an almost folkloric hero in this genteel corner of the state. Police said that Torn looked unsteady on his feet, that his fly was open and that he repeatedly complained about being handcuffed and then taken from what he thought was his own home.
18th September, 2009
Studies in Kerala have brought out evidence to support the theory of colony collapse disorder (CCD) among honeybees due to bioactive microwave radiation from mobile phones and their relay towers, which leads to extensive disappearance of entire worker bee colonies. This could result in disruption in food production because most of the crops depend on bees for pollination.
Although the theory of mobile towers leading to CCD is yet to be proved anywhere in the world, experts say this is highly possible and the phenomenon could cause unimaginable food troubles to most Indian States, especially Kerala which is already food-scarce. The State has the highest density of mobile towers.
The phenomenon of (suspected) mobile tower-induced CCD and resultant crop loss were first noticed in the US several years ago, but this had spread to most European countries by 2007. Now, experiments by Sainuddeen Pattazhy, a researcher and dean in the department of zoology at SN College, Punalur, Kerala, have found that worker bees fail to return to their hives when their navigation skills are interfered by the mobile microwaves.
Sainuddeen had conducted his experiments by placing mobile phones near beehives (as some scientists in the West had done earlier). He found that these hives collapsed totally in five to 10 days with the worker bees failing to return to their homes, leaving the hives with the queens, eggs and immature bees. The vanished bees were never found, but the assumption was that they died singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
"The navigation skill of the worker bees is dependent on the earth's magnetic properties. The electro-magnetic waves emitted by the mobile phones and relay towers interfere with the earth's magnetism, resulting in the loss of the navigation capacity of the bee. Then it fails to come back. Also, the radiation causes damage to the nervous system of the bee and it becomes unable to fly," said Sainuddeen.
The researcher had earlier led a study on the impact of mobile phones and towers on ecology, in which other environmentalists had participated. The study revealed that bioactive radiations from mobile towers threatened the very existence of home sparrow, which lived in colonies close to human habitats, even in crowded cities.
Pattazhy, however, is not the first scientist to notice the phenomenon of CCD occurring in bees due to mobile phone-tower proximity. A limited study at Landau University in 2007, headed by Dr Jochen Kuhn, had found that bees refused to return to their hives when mobile phones were placed nearby. As back as in late 1990s, a researcher, George Carlo, had headed a massive study sponsored by the US Government and the mobile phone industry in America, had said, "I am convinced that the possibility is real."
Apiarists in Idukki, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad districts confirm that they have been noticing the massive play of CCD for the past four or five years, but they have never thought of the relation between mobile tower-induced radiations and their bees.
A beekeeper in Thodupuzha, Idukki said he had lost 13 of his 17 hives in the past three years. Three years ago, three mobile towers were erected on the hillock near his farm.
"But I have never thought of the relation. I, like other farmers, was thinking that climatic changes and pesticides used in the rubber plantations were the reason," he said.
Scientists warn that Kerala, which already has a large number of mobiles and towers, could face not just CCD-created hive losses but even a crop disaster if the mobile craze continues to grow.
"Honeybees can be wiped out in Kerala and many other Indian States and cities if there is no system to control the unscientific increase in the use of mobile phones. It can in turn lead to a disaster in the food front as bees are responsible for pollination in most of the food crops," said a biotechnologist at a Coimbatore college.
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
The case against handsets
Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.
Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.
Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.
Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.
Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.
(now in the home bar on the right)
