Lessons Without Seatbelts (conclusion) ...From Paris

I suddenly felt the sting of frigid air harshly brush against my face; I grimaced and pulled my eyes tight. I was frozen stiff, like a statue.

"Why did I ever agree to this trip? I can't believe this is happening to me," I repeated in a loop of self doubt. "First, we were pulled over for an illegal U turn, now this?"

"Listen here", the firm stiff voice interrupted my thoughts. "You're on the baby bunny hill (Seriously. I think it was actually called the Baby Bunny Run). "There is nothing to be afraid of. You are standing on a nearly flat surface, so open you eyes and lean forward. Look at all the toddlers passing by. You can do it!" the voice continued with authority.

And with that, I slid down soft squishy snow with toddlers.

Olympic skiers with the risk taking gene? I'm certain they never wore seat belts, and always passed by adult skiers on the slopes.

A Beige First...From Paris

I think I fell in love with beige linen in the 60s. Do you remember when Lucy and Ethel wore burlap feedbags? Silly transformed into Haute Couture. Beige Linen. Always classic. Never silly.

Beautifully Organic...From Paris

There is something beautifully organic about beige linen.

Beautifully Beige Linen...From Paris

This photograph of the 'Bonepile' reminds me of beige linen.

I was also 15 and dreaming of driving…anything

 Back In 1967, This Was Your Average Camcorder

Actually, the Ampex VR-3000 backpack—only $42,000 for the basic recorder without accessories—with BC-300 BW Camera—just $12,685—was the only camcorder available. It changed TV forever, moving the entire broadcast television industry from film to video

5 years ago most archaeologist said David was a myth. This is the 4th major discovery supporting the Biblical Narrative of David and Solomon.

Archaeologist Sees Proof for Bible in Ancient Wall

Israeli archaeologist says fortifications recently excavated support Biblical narrative

Archeologist Eilat Mazar, who is leading the excavation of newly discovered fortifications outside...

Archeologist Eilat Mazar, who is leading the excavation of newly discovered fortifications outside the Old City walls, talks to journalists in Jerusalem, Monday, Feb. 22, 2010. Mazar says the ancient fortifications newly excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of the Bible's King Solomon and offer evidence for the accuracy of the biblical narrative.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history — including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar — others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

The fortifications, including a monumental gatehouse and a 77-yard (70-meter) long section of an ancient wall, are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount

The Boneyard

#aircrafts

Google Earth's View of the Boneyard, Where Planes Go to Die

The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), also known as the Boneyard, is a four square mile site in Arizona housing 4,000 retired aircraft—or at least one of almost every US armed forces plane since WWII

I really like Hulu. Highly recommended. Link at bottom

The Criterion Collection Comes to HuluIf you love movies, you love The Criterion Collection. It's as simple as that. So get excited, because the CC now has a channel on Hulu.

As of right now, it only has the first six features from the Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman series, but more should be coming in the near future

http://www.hulu.com/

The Brits admit there is no GW consensus and it is time to start again.

After the firestorm of criticism called Climate-gate, the British government's official Meteorological Office has decided to give its modern climate data a do-over.

At a meeting on Monday of about 150 climate scientists in the quiet Turkish seaside resort of Antalya, representatives of the weather office (known in Britain as the Met Office) quietly proposed that the world's climate scientists start all over again on a "grand challenge" to produce a new, common trove of global temperature data that is open to public scrutiny and "rigorous" peer review.

The new effort, the proposal says, would provide:

• "verifiable datasets starting from a common databank of unrestricted data"
• "methods that are fully documented in the peer reviewed literature and open to scrutiny;"
• "a set of independent assessments of surface temperature produced by independent groups using independent methods,"
• "comprehensive audit trails to deliver confidence in the results;"
• "robust assessment of uncertainties associated with observational error, temporal and geographical in homogeneities."

Fashionable

Snoop Dogg and IRS

IRS Slaps Snoop Dogg With $600k Tax Lien

The IRS has slapped rapper Snoop Dogg with a $598,309 tax lien:

The IRS filed a $598,309 lien against Snoop Dogg (real name Cordozar Calvin Broadus) and his wife on Jan. 19 with the Los Angeles County Recorder of Deeds.

Laughing at the Pledge of Allegiance, guess which party?

YouTube

Ask a duly sworn member of the United States House of Representatives to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at a public meeting, and most Americans would expect a patriotic hand-over-heart response — then there's Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., and his good friends at the Service Employees union.

This is what they do…

Roll Call: “Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) has accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of trips to China from a development corporation in his hometown that he aided by securing earmarks and other federal assistance worth millions of dollars.”

Best Argument against ObamaCare

Canadian Premier on US health procedure: 'This was my heart, my choice and my health'...

Another reason to never trust gov’t

Philadelphia school uses laptops to spy on children at home

Blake Robbins and his 18-year-old sister both attend Harriton High School and were among the 2,300 students in the district to receive the Apple laptops.

Last November, Blake Robbins was called to the office by the vice principal to talk about what she called his “improper behavior” at home. Vice Principal Lindy Matsko allegedly cited as evidence a photograph taken with the computer’s webcam that had been activated in Blake’s bedroom. Robbins claims that the Matsko accused him of selling drugs when she saw him holding up what she believed to be pills. The 15-year-old says he was simply holding his favorite candy, “Mike And Ikes,” which are small oblong, chewy jelly beans.

Horse Power Wars: 800 hp!Wow. What is next? 1 hp per 2 lb.?

Switzer P800 Porsche 911 Turbo: 800 Horses, No BuckingAchieving big power with turbochargers is relatively easy, but making huge horsepower while retaining driveability is an enormous task. Peak at the dyno charts and you'll see Switzer's 997 Porsche P800 makes no sacrifices on the road to 800 HP.

NYT is paying the piper

The Story the New York Times Won't Touch

A little more than a year ago, when the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim increased his stake in the New York Times Company (NYT), I wrote "I pity the Times Mexico bureau chief who has to tiptoe through who is and isn't out of favor with the paper's new sugar daddy." Now we have a very clear example of how the Times treats Slim within its pages; it's not pretty, and the journalistic compromise can be seen well beyond Mexico. 

For the last several days, bloggers and many business news outlets have been revealing truly astounding details from a court case involving J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and two large Mexican telecom companies, one of which is Slim's.

According to the account in Saturday's Wall Street Journal, the way that the proposed transfer of a $225 million loan was structured would have effectively required Grupo Televisa's Cablevision division to hand over to its competitor information including its "budgets, tallies of capital investments, strategic plans, contract terms for its subscribers and plans for improvements at its growing digital network in Mexico City."

This is a scandalous story, involving one of the world's largest banks, a powerful federal judge, and two Mexican telecom giants. Under any other circumstances, the business section of the Times would be expected to cover it, as the Journal and Bloomberg have. Yet as of Saturday midday, I cannot find a single mention of any aspect of this case, anywhere in the physical New York Times, or on its Web site--not even a blog post or a wire story

Ever notice that Dems defend the status quo in campaign financing debates. Here is why. From Jody. Time Frame is 1989 to 2010

Rank	Organization	Total '89-'09	Dem %	Repub %	Tilt
1	AT&T Inc	$44,214,960	44%	55%
2	American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees	$41,941,811	98%	1%
3	National Assn of Realtors	$35,595,518	48%	51%
4	Goldman Sachs	$31,437,825	64%	35%
5	American Assn for Justice	$31,424,029	90%	9%
6	Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$31,407,507	97%	2%
7	National Education Assn	$30,097,067	92%	6%
8	Laborers Union	$28,978,400	92%	7%
9	Service Employees International Union	$27,933,232	95%	3%
10	Carpenters & Joiners Union	$27,767,683	89%	10%
11	Teamsters Union	$27,728,124	92%	6%
12	Citigroup Inc	$27,101,058	50%	49%
13	Communications Workers of America	$27,025,396	99%	0%
14	American Federation of Teachers	$26,282,491	98%	0%
15	American Medical Assn	$26,282,446	39%	60%
16	United Auto Workers	$25,774,502	98%	0%
17	Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union	$25,105,777	98%	0%
18	National Auto Dealers Assn	$24,344,808	32%	67%
19	United Parcel Service	$24,183,691	36%	63%
20	United Food & Commercial Workers Union	$24,123,333	98%	1%
21	American Bankers Assn	$22,414,966	41%	58%