Sleepless in Midland

Cartoon riots -- now it's Mickey's and Minnie's turn

Fortunately, it was just a Facebook riot.

Apparently there was a picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse dressed in full cover Muslim garb circulating on the web in Egypt, and a Christian businessman reposted them on Twitter. Oops.

Here come the Facebook protests from angry Muslims claiming to be offended. And "The prosecutor general's office said a group of Salafist Muslim lawyers had filed a complaint accusing Mr Sawiris of religious contempt." Link.

The potential for prosecution aside, isn't it nice that it's just an internet riot this time?

Texas Lege honors a spoof

Did you wonder what kept the members of the 82nd Texas Legislation so busy they didn't finish their business during the regular session?

Well, it takes time to draft things like this 400 word resolution declaring Lamesa to be the Legendary Home of the Chicken-fried Steak due to a spoof published in the capital city newspaper in 1976. Excerpt from H.C.R. No. 134 :

WHEREAS, For generations, Texans pondered the seemingly eternal mystery of who invented the chicken-fried steak; then, in 1976, came an answer: Larry BeSaw published an article in the Austin American-Statesman explaining that this wondrous combination of beef, batter, and breading had first been dropped onto a well-oiled skillet in 1911 by Jimmy Don Perkins, a short-order cook at Ethel's Home Cooking in Lamesa, Texas; according to the published story, Mr. Perkins had mistakenly combined two separate orders for chicken and fried steak into a single culinary creation whose savory goodness became famous far beyond West Texas; and

WHEREAS, Mr. BeSaw had created his article as a spoof, never intending it to be taken as fact, but the story quickly took on a life of its own; ...

WHEREAS, ... because the Jimmy Don Perkins tale is just a darn good story, it is indeed appropriate that the city of Lamesa be recognized for its role in this imaginative and imaginary incident in Texas history; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas hereby declare Lamesa the Legendary Home of the Chicken-fried Steak.

So an Austin American-Statesman reporter wrote a good story, so good it, in fact, that it created an urban legend. Then later he had to admit that he made it all up. But the story was so good the Texas Legislature immortalized it with a resolution. Sometimes a lie is just so good no one wants to call it like a lie.

An iPhone App that changes the traffic light -- real or sham?

If you are sitting at a table at a lunch gathering, and a stranger starts talking about an iPhone App that is supposed to do some unbelievable thing, do you sit quietly and listen politely, or do you go all Aspergers on them and call B.S.?

The App in question is Traffic Light . When triggered, it would either change a traffic light to green or cause a green light to stay green longer than it would have.

Many cities have traffic light devices that allow emergency vehicle drivers to change the traffic light with a signal emitting Opticom device which is mounted on the roof of the vehicle. It gets them where they want to go with green lights all the way, but it plays Hell with the traffic flow.

Naturally the folks in city traffic departments don't like for people to abuse that privilege, and they sure don't want just anyone out there meddling with the traffic light sequences.

Many states have made it illegal for anyone but police, fire and emergency personnel to interfere with traffic lights. For example, the Texas Transportation Code Sec. 544.0055 makes it a class "C" misdemeanor -- fine of up to $500.

For an iPhone to be able to operate as a traffic signal changer it would have to emit either an infra-red light or radio signal. An iPhone is already a radio transmitter, so that would seem to be the most likely means of getting the signal to the light. But the phone would have to emit just the right frequency to activate the light changer, and that's where it would get complicated, too complicated for a cheap app.

So I call B.S.

Armor vests for the Fire Marshals

The guys in the Fire Marshal's department of the Midland, Texas, Fire Department (MFD) are TCLEOSE certified peace officers and are authorized to make arrests just like police officers, although the offenses for which they exercise that duty are usually related in some way to fires. And in the circumstance in which they have to make a felony arson arrest, an armor vest is part of the uniform -- dress for success, as they say.

The vests they were using until a few months ago were getting on in years, and although they weren't useless, they had passed the manufacturer's expiration date. In any event, they no longer met national standards which prohibited their use in combined law enforcement agency exercises.

Well, Santa Claus was good to them last Christmas. A local foundation provided a generous grant, and the money was used to purchase new armor vests.

MFD Assistant Fire Marshall David Hickman models one of the nifty new vests.

Here's the back side.

But what about those old vests? Would they still stop a bullet? Inquiring minds wanted to know!

Yesterday at the police department shooting range David Hickman, James Howard Ben Pena of the MFD put on a demonstration in which shots were fired into one of the old vests to see just what would happen.

Here's a photo of the old vest before undergoing the torture test.

The vest was draped over a steel target. James Howard fired two round-nose metal jacketed .40 caliber bullets into the vest.

The entry holes were about what one might expect for a .40 caliber bullet. But notice the damage to the inside of the vest, the side that would have touched the wearer's chest. The steel target used for backing may have added to the effect, however. But one can only imagine what a human would have felt.

Next, the vest was draped over a paper target to remove that effect. There Mr. Howard used .40 caliber hollow points.

The hollow points entered the front side of the vest but didn't exit. So the vest did actually stop the bullet, but once again, the impact would have packed a powerful punch.

This photo shows the bullets that were dug out of the vest. The two on each end were the round-nose bullets, and the two middle ones were hollow points which made cute little mushrooms.

Finally, Mr. Howard pulled out the big gun, a .223 caliber AR-15.

Look carefully and you can see a cloud of dust coming from the berm in back.

The rifle bullets went clean through both halves of the vest.

Fire Marshal Assistants Hickman, Howard and Pena put on a very educational demonstration. And here's hoping that the only bullets the new vests will ever have to stop will be years from now at a similar range demonstration.

Al Capone's Colt 38 -- a bit of gangster history went on sale

A notorious gangster needs a nice shiny handgun for those special occasions when he needs to show some bling while plugging a rat. And apparently Al Capone owned a nickel plated .38 caliber Colt Police Positive. Now that would make a nice conversation piece for some wealthy collector. According to Christie's the gun just sold at auction for £67,250 ($109,080) to an anonymous buyer.

The authentication was an affidavit from Madeleine Capone Morichetti, widow of Alphonse's brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone. Hmm, Al had a brother called Bottles?

Via.

Creepy picture of downtown Houston

Apparently, the old YMCA building in downtown Houston is undergoing demolition. And Houston Press has some remarkable photos juxtaposing the partially demolished hulk with newer buildings. Link.

See the first one if none other. Creepy.

Toll roads and Gardasil - Rick Perry's stumbling blocks

As soon as a Republican appears to edge ahead of the others in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination the main stream media squashes them under a slide and puts them under a microscope to magnify all of their blemishes.

So as Texas Governor Rick Perry tests the waters of national politics all of his accomplishments are going to get scrutiny, and the nation is going to see what Texans saw over the past few years.

Perry's grand scheme for a government taking of a stretch of land from private owners up and down the state for the Trans Texas Corridor -- six vehicle lanes and six rail lanes so people and products could get from Mexico to points North -- appears to be stalled at the moment. But many voters around the time of the 2010 Texas Republican Primary were still talking about it.

Then there's Gardasil, Merck's vaccine which is supposed to prevent the papillomavirus. Perry probably envisioned that corridor as he railroaded that drug into our lives with an executive order mandating that preteen girl get the vaccination before anyone really know whether it actually worked. Many knowledgeable people took issue with that.

But the thing that caused a painful sore was Merck's grand bankroll to get that expensive drug into little girls' bloodstreams, not to mention Perry's ties to Merck's lobbyists. See Washington Examiner and Real Clear Politics.

But Texas Republicans were forgiving enough to have given him 51% of their votes in the 3/2/10 Primary and Texans gave him nearly 55% of their votes in the 11/2/10 general election. Source: Sec State. As in most elections, the ideal candidate is seldom running, and the candidate who gets the votes is the one who appears to be the least worst as of the time of the vote.

And the 2012 Presidential election will again allow voters to decide who is the least worst. As the polls show, the generic Republican consistently beats Obama. So many potential voters have already decided that it's going to take a pretty bad Republican candidate to make them skip that election.

What is a wingnut?

Question: What is a wingnut?

Many liberal bloggers toss around the word "wingnut" as if they know what it means. Saul Alinsky wanted his followers to ridicule those with whom they disagreed, and these days they try, amateurishly, by a misapplication of the word "wingnut" to mean a person who meets the description of "right wing," See previously.

In fact a "wingnut" is a very useful device used as a fastener. It is nut which connects two things together on a bolt. But it's beauty is that it can be tightened and loosened by hand. Therefore, if either one of those connected things goes bad, the wingnut can be easily loosened, and the useless thing can be quickly discarded.

Bonus tip: Lefty loosey, righty tighty.

Defining Rightwing

Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" fame used to respond to claims that he was too liberal with his own self serving definition of liberal. "If liberal means ... then yes, I'm a liberal."  And it made him seem like such a wonderful human being. But he conveniently neglected to include any of the negatives that necessarily accompany liberalism, negatives that more often hurt than help.

So what is "rightwing?" Newmarksdoor provides a link to a delightful interview with historian and documentarian Niall Ferguson who provides this wonderful description of "Rightwing." See.

"Ask me not are you rightwing, but ask me are you a committed believer in individual freedom, the values of the enlightenment? Then, yeah, if being rightwing means believing Adam Smith was right, both in the Wealth of Nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments, then I'm rightwing. If being rightwing is thinking that Karl Marx's doctrine was a catastrophe for humanity, then I'm rightwing. If you think that it's rightwing to say that the welfare state has trapped 10-20% of the population of western Europe in a dependency culture, an abyss of social failure, then I'm rightwing."

Mike Wallace could have learned a thing or two from that guy.

Coming up: What is a wingnut?

 

Dams and the resulting reservoirs may reduce rainfall

Here's an interesting report that says large dams can alter local climate and rainfall.

The theory is that a given volume of water spread throughout tributaries would have a surface area larger than the same amount of water dammed up in a reservoir. Therefore, the water in the reservoir would evaporate at a slower rate, and there would be less moisture in the air to aid in the formulation of rain.

Climate scientists have taken a huge credibility hit from from their global warming scare tactics. But this makes sense.

According to the City of Midland, Texas, website, water is supplied to the city by lakes Thomas, Spence, and Ivie. Conceivably these man-made lakes themselves could have contributed to the drought problems in West Texas. But with the lakes drained from both evaporation and pumping, their surface areas can't be very large.

So when they are gone will that mean more rain? Well, with no rain the tributaries are dry, too. And the moisture has to come from somewhere. So when forecasters say our best chance of rain is from the hurricanes then they may be onto something.

But what's this? Lake Ivie must have gotten a spot of rain last night. It's almost back to the level it was four days ago. Fill up the tub, it's bath time for Bonzo!

The Governor, the Lege, and the light bulb

There's a joke in there somewhere -- how many federal bureaucrats does it take to screw up a light bulb?

As Texas Governor Rick Perry rides into the arena with his sights on the presidency, sparks are flying as the hooves hit the asphalt.

And one such spark was a bill Gov. Perry signed into law last week aimed at the federal ban on incandescent light bulbs. It's HB 2510 authored by Representatives Lavender, Beck, Burkett and Hughes that will go into effect on 1/1/2012.

It says an incandescent light bulb manufactured in Texas on or after 1/12/2012 from materials located in Texas is not subject to federal law or federal regulation.

It's basically symbolic, of course, as there are probably no light bulbs currently manufactured in Texas. However, the bill conveniently authorizes the Texas Atty Gen, upon request by some potential manufacturer wishing to take advantage of the bill, to seek a declaratory judgment in federal court that the bill is constitutional.  But it does make the point that the states are fed up with federal meddling.

So how many federal bureaucrats does it take to screw up a light bulb? Don't know. The dang CFLs don't put out enough light to see 'em.

The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca

While it's not the most famous gunfight of the Wild West, it may be one of the most remarkable due to the lopsided match-up. And it's hard to know how much is true and how much is myth, but it's a fascinating story of grit and survival.

It's the story of Elfego Baca and the three day gun battle in the village of Frisco in the New Mexican territory that began on October 29, 1884.

Tensions were on edge between the Mexican townsfolk and the cowboys from the nearby ranches, and as the legend goes, the sheriff declined to get involved. By the age of 19 years of age Baca had already earned a reputation as one who could hold his own. So when a drunk cowboy shot up a local bar, the bar owner recruited Baca to help.

Baca disarmed the cowboy and performed either a citizen's arrest or a duly sworn deputy's arrest, depending on which fork in the legend we took to get to this point.

In either case, the other cowboys were quite dissatisfied over this treatment of one of their own. The next morning the cowboy was tried in a makeshift court, fined and released. But Baca declined to return the cowboy's Colt 45.

The 80 some odd cowboys soon became an angry mob, and a chase ensued. Baca took refuge in an adobe shack, however, it wasn't made of adobe bricks but of wooden poles coated on both sides with adobe mud. And those walls didn't offer much resistance once the bullets started flying.

Fortunately for Baca, the floor was about 18 inches below ground level, so Baca was able to avoid getting hit as the bullets shredded the house. He returned fire with his own Colt and the Colt he took from the cowboy. One part of the legend says that the cowboys fired 4,000 bullets before it was all over, but that account was probably never audited. In any event, Baca survived without injury, however from one to four of the cowboys died.

The local sheriff eventually persuaded everyone to cool it if Baca agreed to accompany him to another town and stand trial for his own transgressions. Baca was held in custody for four months and tried twice. But both times he was acquitted. Perhaps that's why he went on to study law and become a defense lawyer.

Of course, no legend of the Wild West could endue without the credibility added by a Walt Disney TV show. And on October 3, 1958, TV viewers were treated to The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca featuring a young and handsome Robert Loggia in the starring role. Watch Part 1 here, and should you decide to watch the remainder, be forewarned that the Disney version of Baca turns into a socialist about 2/3 of the way through part 4 and gives away the contents of a store because he thought the prices were too high. Or maybe it was supposed to be the Robin Hood effect, after all it was Disney.

With or without the Disney treatment, the tale of Elfego Baca is a marvelous story of strength, wit and survival.

Tatts make the man

Notice to tattoo wearers: Your tattoos make you who you are. They're proof of your individuality.

They set you apart from every other human being. Don't hide them. Show them off, especially when you rob a bank --  'Die Pig Die' tattoo identifies robber.

Dads -- what to get yourself for father's day, continued

Here's a terrific idea: A branding iron for the BBQ grill. Apply lettering to say what you want, and brand it on that steak. Via MissCellania.com.

The possibilities seem endless:

Bite me

Road Kill

RAW

Eat more chicken

Here's your steak, right here.

Interesting poll results. Texans on Perry and Obama

The Houston Press touts this poll with the giddy headline: Here's Something: Obama Polls As Well As Perry in Texas; Both Over 50 Percent.

Wait a minute, Obama popular in Texas? Sure, there are plenty of Democrats in Texas, but something doesn't add up.

The poll in question is the 2011 Texas Lyceum Poll. Out of 707 completed interviews they managed to winnow their sampling down to 303 likely Texas voters although they may refer to it as 310 in the text.

In the poll taken between May 24 and May 31, 2011, 51% said President Obama is handling his job as president very good (23%) or somewhat good (28%). That compares with 47% last year (21% and 26%). They admit that they may have been measuring the bin Laden bounce. But there's something else.

Of their sampling of likely voters only 33% plan to vote in the Democratic Primary and only 35% say they would vote for Obama if the election "were held today." Where's that other 16% who said Obama was doing a good job?

Oh, here they are: 17% haven’t thought much about it. That 17% must have their heads buried in the sand. But that's why the biggest spender is typically the front runner.

The generic Republican gets 44% over Obama's 35%.

Governor Rick Perry got 54% approval (16% strongly plus 38% somewhat). The pollsters note that Perry's disapproval rating, while staying steady between 2010 and 2011, showed a slight shift of about 3% from the "somewhat disapprove" to the "strongly disapprove" category. One suspects those are people furious over budget cuts and generally unlikely to approve of anything Perry did or does.

Post script. Another interesting result that should please establishment types: The number of folks who say they are part of the Tea Party movement is down from 2010. The Republican Party has done a pretty good job of co-opting their issues, but time will tell whether it's real or pre-election pandering.

Happy Birthday Otis Perry

Here's a big "happy birthday" shout out to Otis Perry who turns 90 years old today.

He holds the record as the oldest inmate in the Texas prison system. Must be the food.

School Shooting! (It's just a drill.)

Today at Midland Freshman High School local law enforcement agencies conducted training for a situation involving a school shooter. A drill consisted of an armed team including an EMT responding to a call, entering the building, neutralizing the shooter, and treating and evacuating the wounded. Several drills were scheduled throughout the day, and what follows is a sampling of photos snapped at the first drill this morning:

My request for an invitation to attend as "media" went unanswered.  So I had to peek through the window paparazzo style.

A young woman was hauled out on a stretcher, but she was up and around in no time.

As you can see from the 30.06 sign, the school was a gun free zone. And maybe school administrators take comfort in knowing that law abiding people wouldn't bring guns in the school.

New FBI surveillance -- prominent bloggers protected

That person climbing out of your dumpster may not be just any ordinary dumpster diver. She may be an FBI agent looking for dirt on you.

The FBI just revised the rules making it easier to conduct surveillance on citizens. Read all about it at Foxnews.com or TheAtlanticWire.com.

Dumpster diving is in there, but more threatening is the authorization to make internet searches of people without making any record of it. In the old days a person could make a request and get a copy of his/her FBI file. But with this new practice there would be no file and no trail. It's a little creepy knowing there could be unsupervised FBI stalkers out there spying on innocent people. But in practice it merely means that FBI agents can surf the net and call it work.

But here's one that should really annoy bloggers, at least those of us with small regional blogs. Spying on members of the press is considered sensitive and calls for extra supervision. However, the only way bloggers fit into this category is if they are "prominent bloggers." There's no definition, so that exception probably only applies to blogs affiliated with major newspapers.

So to the FBI agent snooping these pages, look around, have fun. Check the archives, you might find something here you like. Heck, let's meet for coffee.  Make it Starbucks.  Bring your credit card.

Greefee on ice

I'm simply amazed at the level of business the local Starbucks does. Every time I pass by there's a long line of cars in the drive through lane. Good for Starbucks. But it's a real nuisance to those of us trying to get to the nearby grocery store.

And the line is always there.  Whether the outside temperature is 40 or 104, they are lined up to buy something. Hopefully it's something cold. I can't imagine someone wanting hot coffee in the heat we've experienced lately. I would go in and see for myself if I could find a parking spot.

My own beverage preference of late is a homemade concoction of brewed green tea and old fashioned coffee made separately, mixed about 50/50 and chilled. [ Oops there goes my secret recipe. ]  Just need a catchy name: Percolatea? Teacoff? Greefee? Uh, it tastes better than it sounds.

Michael Moore and capitalism

While browsing the close-out sale at a Blockbusters store a 99 cent sales display jumped out. See photo on the right and note the movie on the far left of the display.

It's Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. I didn't buy it -- let his fans give up their own money. But that's the essence of capitalism. Let people do with their money what they want to do with their money, and an economy will flourish. And the price will reflect the value customers place on it. The fact that Moore's movie languishes at discounted prices tells us that maybe the price is still too high.

Judging from the IMDB.com plot summaries the movie is a diatribe against capitalism. Samples:

What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. ...

However capitalism as seen the United States today, which truly took hold in the Reagan era, is more about the want of the wealthy to get wealthier at the expense of all others. ...

Michael Moore himself seems have done OK by capitalism. Maybe Moore could have demonstrated his concern for those who haven't made out as well by bailing out Blockbuster, a store chain which probably contributed mightily to Mr. Moore's considerable wealth.

For a better read on capitalism, let's seek out some smarter people:

Milton Friedman:
The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

Larry Elder:
America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

Warren Buffett:
I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.

Ron Paul:
Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.

Terry McAuliffe:
I invested in many companies, and I'm happy this one worked. This is capitalism. You invest in stock, it goes up, it goes down. You know, if you don't like capitalism, you don't like making money with stock, move to Cuba or China.

Fidel Castro:
Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

Notice: Welsh Dragon Sausages don't contain dragon

Someone has made a collection of unintentionally funny product warnings. And they are always good for a laugh or two, especially when we realize that the person who thought them necessary was dead serious.

So it's in that vein that we take note of this item about Welsh Dragon Sausages which are made by Black Mountains Smokery of Powys, Wales. Source: BBC.

The dragon is probably like a mascot as it flies in the breeze on the Welsh flag. Perhaps it's so ubiquitous that some thinks it's a real animal.

And observant watchdogs had the consumer's best interest at heart. Even though the ingredients label clearly identified pork as the tasty meat, bureaucrats determined that the name "Welsh Dragon Sausages" would mislead shoppers into thinking it was dragon meat in the sausages.

You know, come to think of it, dragon meat probably tastes just like chicken.

Viral photo -- Hit my brother, please

Yahoo emailers get treated to links to vids and pics after logging out, and some of those vids and pics are too enticing to pass up. This one is a case in point. Seems that a kid took a sign to a baseball game inviting foul balls in his direction, specifically to bean his brother.

Well, sometimes brothers go after each other, that's fairly well documented. A parents job is to minimize the carnage, promote harmony, and try not to show favorites. With that in mind, take a gander at the satisfied look on the mom's face. Could she be any prouder?

In this day and age getting a photo of their mugs to go viral must be so tempting it overrides any old fashioned parenting ideas. Flash forward 40 years: "Why can't I just come live with you?"

Larry Griswold, a comic takes a dive

The first frame of this vid says "Larry Griswold, Frank Sinatra Show, November 13, 1951." ( Frank Sinatra had a TV show? )

The guest, Larry Griswold, was a comic who was also an acrobat, and he did an amazing bit on a diving board. Ya gotta see it to believe this guy's dexterity.

A tip of the hat to PH Factor for the link.

Body builder show in Odessa

Did this event happen?

An article in January's OAOA.com alerted us to watch for a body building show coming up on June 11.

No girly men there. Girly women, either. Hopefully the TV news will show some highlights.

Click for their website.

[Am I psychic or what? I saw the article in January and remembered it just today, June 11. If only my stock market timing could be as good. OK, I know, it was just a coincidence. No need to get all pumped up about it.]

Enjoy your weekend.

Why did the snake cross the road?

We'll never know. He didn't make it.

This is something you don't see every day. These pics were snapped on the side of a bank building on busy Andrews Highway in Midland, Texas, this morning.

Someone must have called the cops on a snake carcass on the road. And the friendly man in blue put it in a body bag. A police officer's job must be full of variety.

Maybe a herpetologist can tell us what brand of snake this was.

Dear Abby on accents

Every once in a while the Dear Abby column in the local paper is an attention getter. And a column in late May was one of them.

Seems that some poor soul residing in Laguna Beach, California, had relatives visiting from the South. And, heaven forbid, they spoke with a Southern accent. "They come across sounding like hicks and buffoons." Keeping-it-real-in-Laguna-Beach was mortified that someone might hear them and arrive at a guilt by association conclusion.

Dear Abby doled out some sensible advice:

The best advice I can offer would be for you to grow a thicker skin and, if that doesn't work, spend less time with your relatives. With your attitude, you'll be doing them a favor.

Yeah, I'm sure the Southern relatives were equally embarrassed about Keeping-it-real who probably kept an ear glued to progressive radio. Talk show host Stephanie Miller slams conservatives all the time on her radio show, and the morning I listened to it last April she used an exaggerated Southern accent to espouse some ridiculous principle she claimed was true of fiscal conservatives. It was a rude gesture, but she's not out to win converts, she knows her audience, and the cruel ridicule maintains conformity.

The advice seeker in Laguna Beach needs to broaden his/her horizons.

But wait. What's this? Is the Southern accent dying? How new research shows upper and middle classes are losing their drawl.

Well shut my mouth. Maybe the accent is going away -- everyone may all end up sounding alike, homogenized like milk. An element of culture would surely be missing.

Meantime, y'all come back now, heah?

Chinese Spear Phishermen

The Spear Phishing hacking attack on Gmail got all the headlines -- mainly because Google disclosed it with the added info that the attacks seemed to come from China and targeted prominent government employees.

However, China is trying to play the victim card with the claim that Google is out to settle a score. Add to that other reports that the attacks didn't all come from China. Of the six attacks, four came from China, but according to this source, two came from elsewhere, South Korea and USA.

Regardless of who is behind it, it leaves us wondering whether any of the other popular web-mail services have experienced similar attacks but either haven't discovered them or failed to disclose them. ContagioDump has a comparison of a fake versus real Gmail log in screen in this JPG. And it would probably be beneficial for the users of the other web-mail services to scrutinize any log-in screen that pops up unexpectedly.

And we all hope that our own government employees and officials will be more careful, too.  Teach a spy to phish and he can feed his overseers forever.

Ominous Vulture Sighting

These fowl friends probably don't draw the admiring gaze of ardent birders.  But they do get one's attention, especially when there are a bunch of them staring back.

There's just something ominous about a flock of vultures, sitting, watching, waiting. Makes a person want to check his pulse.

There was an old cartoon which made the rounds long before the motivational poster and the viral email.

Vulture #1 says to vulture #2, "Hell, I'm tired of waiting. I'm gonna go kill something." Come to think of it, maybe that is a motivational message.

Hug Your Cat day

It was June 4, but it's not too late to celebrate Hug Your Cat day.

So go ahead and give that furry feline a good tight squeeze.

In honor of the day Walgreen's is having a sale on band aids -- buy 2 and get 1/2 off the second one.

The war against junk science

There's a famous quote out there somewhere about how a person can very easily believe a lie if his/her income depends on that lie. We've seen that demonstrated most recently in the promotion of the man-made global warming theory.  Junk science shows up everywhere.  There's the anti-vaccination hysteria which took years to dispel.  And just a couple of short decades ago the TV show 60 Minutes promoted a trumped up charge against Alar that had mothers of young children convinced they were feeding the little tykes poison apples.

These days we are hearing how cell phones cause brain cancer. Do they? We really don't know, but WHO says, "radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans," right up there with "lead, chloroform and coffee." (Coffee???)

So it's nice to see an article come along like this one from ScientificAmerican.com An Epidemic of False Claims -- Competition and conflicts of interest distort too many medical findings. Quote:

Much research is conducted for reasons other than the pursuit of truth. Conflicts of interest abound, and they influence outcomes. In health care, research is often performed at the behest of companies that have a large financial stake in the results. Even for academics, success often hinges on publishing positive findings. The oligopoly of high-impact journals also has a distorting effect on funding, academic careers and market shares. Industry tailors research agendas to suit its needs, which also shapes academic priorities, journal revenue and even public funding.

Via NoFrackkingConsensus.com.

It takes someone willing to face the truth even if their income depends on a lie. And in the meantime rational people maintain a healthy amount of skepticism.