palsgraf_polka

After reading about this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090924/ap_on_re_us/us_census_worker_hanged_11

AP source: Hanged Census worker had 'fed' on chest

"MANCHESTER, Ky. – A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending....

( as someone who worked the census in 2000 I am horrified )

Right under my fucking apartment building. Woke me up and startled the hell out of me.



Now it's time to go back to sleep for my last hour.

Always able to argue both sides of an issue at the drop of a hat.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090902/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_pfizer_settlement

An article about a huge fine imposed on Pfizer for illegal promotional tactics. Here's the part which made me chuckle:

"In an unusual twist, the head of the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder, did not participate in the record settlement, because he had represented Pfizer on these issues while in private practice."

LOL

RIP Ted Kennedy. Your legacy in the Senate in many ways outshines that of your two more famous brothers. Thank you for being a liberal champion these last few decades. I appreciate your service to this country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-flynt/common-sense-2009_b_264706.html

Common Sense 2009
By Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and free speech advocate

The American government -- which we once called our government -- has been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "economic royalists," who choose our elected officials -- indeed, our very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not control the government. In America, corporations are the government.

( It's a really worthwhile read )

It was a political skirmish between a Georgian and a pro-Russian sympathizer that broke Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and Blogger yesterday.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/55202

Ron Paul, a man I usually don't like very much and can't get behind on many many issues, showed to us today that he has the balls to stand up to the congress and refuse to join in on the masturbatory solipsism that produced these two bills today in the house and the senate.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-approves-iran-bill-405-1-2009-06-19.html

House approves Iran bill 405-1

The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday in support of Iranian dissidents as that country’s top cleric warned protesters to end demonstrations.

The resolution was approved in a 405-1 vote, with two members voting present. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was the only lawmaker opposed to the resolution.

( the rest of the story )

You know, these two bills are so stupid. Obama has been *extremely* careful not to publicly do anything about what's going on in Iran, lest Ahmadinejad use it as an excuse to promote even more violence against the opposition, on the pretext that the opposition movement behind Moussavi is just a puppet of the US, which is not true. But Ahmadinejad would love to do it and polarize Iran even more than it already is.

And McCain writing the Senate bill? Mr. "Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran" himself? Jesus Christ. And everyone feels they have to vote for it or else they will look unpatriotic.

So the House and the Senate will just ignore what Obama is trying to do and make things worse. Not to mention what the definition of "support" is. Is that Moral support? Military Support? Monetary support? This is so vague and it just makes me angry.

So, Dr. Paul, thank you for being the only one ballsy enough to stand up and vote your conscience and do what's right.

So at about 1:30 this afternoon the winds picked up.

This is at 1:45:



This is about 2 minutes later:



The wind is now blowing in the direction of our office, so if the wind keeps blowing this way, my office might be in a mandatory evacuation zone in the morning. We'll see. For the time being, I'm fine, and I can see the fire right from my window, so I can see if it moves toward us to a danger point. So don't worry all your pretty little heads. :)

And I have class tonight! Woohoo!

ETA 2:48pm winds have picked up and fire is now out of control.



ETA2 3:41pm: The lights keep flickering and parts of the city have already lost power. There is a big transformer right over by the fire so we might lose power any minute. Keep you posted!

ETA 6:25pm: Home now, 53 miles away from the fire. Let's see if my office is still there tomorrow (in a sick sort of way I hope it burns - is that bad karma?).

5 cm. fir tree removed from patient’s lung

"A five-centimeter fir tree has been found in the lung of a man who complained he had a strong pain in his chest and was coughing blood.

The 28-year-old patient, Artyom Sidorkin, came to a hospital in the city of Izhevsk in Central Russia last week, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports.

Doctors x-rayed his chest and found a tumor in one of the lungs. Suspecting cancer, they made a decision to perform biopsy, but when they cut the tissue, they were amazed to see green needles in the cut.

“I blinked three times, and thought I was seeing things. Then I called the assistant to have a look,” says Vladimir Kamashev, doctor at the Udmurtian Cancer Center.

The five-centimeter branch was removed from the patient’s body.

“They told me my coughing blood was not caused by any disease,” Sidorkin says.

“It was the needles poking the capillaries. It really hurt a lot. But I never felt like I had an alien object inside of me.”

It is obvious that a five-centimeter branch is too large to be inhaled or swallowed, doctors say. They suggest that the patient might have inhaled a small bud, which then started to grow inside his body.

Meanwhile, the piece of lung with the little fir tree has been preserved for further study."

Source