AdamSmith

Longtime journalist Helen Thomas dead at 92 By Mariano Castillo and Deb Krajnak, CNN updated 10:25 AM EDT, Sat July 20, 2013 Journalists Ralph Harris, left, Sam Donaldson, Thomas and Bill Plante listen during a press briefing on Libya on March 25, 1986. (CNN) -- Longtime White House journalist Helen Thomas has died at age 92 after a long illness, sources told CNN Saturday. Thomas covered 10 presidents over nearly half a century, and became a legend in the industry. She was a fixture at White House news conferences -- sitting front and center late in her career -- where she frequently exasperated government spokesmen with her pointed questions. Legendary journalist Helen Thomas dies Thomas began covering the White House for United Press International when John F. Kennedy became president in 1961 and was a fixture there until her retirement in 2010. She was a trailblazer and the considered the dean of the White House press corps because she was the longest-serving White House journalist. Her career, however, came to an end under a cloud of controversy. Thomas, then working for the media conglomerate Hearst as a syndicated columnist, was blasted for comments she made regarding Jewish people. In 2010, a YouTube video surfaced showing her saying that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine," and that the Jewish people should go home to "Poland, Germany ... and America and everywhere else." Thomas apologized for her remarks, writing, "They do not reflect my heartfelt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon." She announced her retirement one week later. In 2012, Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi presented Thomas with an award. Thomas, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, was born in Winchester, Kentucky, on August 4, 1920. She was one of nine children. Thomas was raised in Detroit, Michigan, where she attended Wayne State University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1942. In October 1971, Thomas married Douglas Cornell; he died in 1982. She wrote three books: "Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times" (1999); "Thanks for the Memories Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom from the Front Row at the White House" (2002); and "Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How it Has Failed the Public" (2006). In describing her job, Thomas once said, "I've never covered the president in any way other than that he is ultimately responsible." Along the way, she broke some barriers by becoming the first female president of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association and Washington's Gridiron Club. "I hope there are many women following me right in this same spot," she said. Well into her 80s, she was a mentor to many young journalists. Thomas left UPI in May 2000, when the wire service was sold to a company controlled by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. Two months later, Hearst News Service hired her as a syndicated columnist, and she returned to the White House for fodder for her columns. Colleagues remember her as a genuinely fearless woman who asked the toughest questions of presidents, no matter their party. In January 2009, as President George Bush was preparing to leave office, Thomas aimed her editorial guns at him and his administration. Among her criticisms: that before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, administration officials ignored "significant early warnings of an imminent strike against the U.S." In a January 2009 commentary, she slammed Bush for what she considered his failings, including leading the country "into a senseless war against Iraq, a calamity still under way as he leaves office almost six years after the invasion." She considered him "the worst president ever." Thomas embraced the freedoms of a columnist with vigor. "I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter," Thomas told an audience at the Massachusetts of Technology (MIT) in late 2002. "Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'" One afternoon in October 2009, she targeted President Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, during the daily briefing. Health care reform was being debated at the time, and Thomas asked Gibbs every day whether a public option would be part of the package. In the back-and-forth that ensued, Thomas said that she already had reached a conclusion but could not get a straight answer from the presidential spokesman. "Then why do you keep asking me?" Gibbs inquired. "Because I want your conscience to bother you," Thomas replied. The room broke into laughter as Gibbs turned red. http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

A real ad from 1938... ...from this mag: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/issue/?pubname=ModernMechanix&pubdate=2-1938

P.S. Now I know what to get you for Christmas...

Monty Python's Flying Circus - "Are You Embarrassed Easily?" The Players: Eric Idle - First Announcer;Michael Palin - Dr Karl Gruber; John Cleese - Assistant; Carol Cleveland - Lady in Restaurant; Graham Chapman - Second Announcer; John Cleese - Alan Hutchinson; The Scene: Soft introduction music plays... FIRST ANNOUNCER: Are you embarrassed easily? I am. But it's nothing to worry about; it's all part of growing up and being British. This course is designed to eliminate embarrassment, to enable you to talk freely about rude objects, to look at awkward and embarrassing things and to point at people's privates. The course has been designed by Dr Karl Gruber of the Institute of Going a Bit Red in Helsinki. Here he himself introduces the course. DR KARL GRUBER: Hello! My name is Karl Gruber. Thank you for inviting me into your home. My method is the result of six years work here at the institute in which subjects were exposed to simulated embarrassment predicaments over a prolonged fart - PERIOD! - TIME!! [farts] Sorry. Lesson one: Words. Do any of these words [farts] embarrass you? ASSISTANT: "Shoe" ..... "Megaphone" ..... "Grunties". DR KARL GRUBER: Now let's go on to something ruder. ASSISTANT: "Wankel Rotary Engine". DR KARL GRUBER: Now lesson two: noises. Noises are a major embarrassment source. Even words like "tits", "winkle" and "vibraphone" cannot rival the embarrassment potential of sounds. Listen to this if you can: [embarrassing noise] DR KARL GRUBER: How do you rate your embarrassment response? (a) High ( Hello © Good evening. If ©, you are loosening up and will soon be ready for this: [embarrassing noise] DR KARL GRUBER: Well, how did you rate? (a) Embarrassed ( Hello © Good evening. Now lesson three, in which these rude and dirty sounds are combined with smutty visual suggestions into an embarrassment simulation situation [fart]. You are the waiter at this table: LADY IN RESTAURANT: [Charles, I've got something to show you ..... embarrassing noise] DR KARL GRUBER: Score (5) for no embarrassment, score (3) for slight embarrassment, and (1) for ..... SECOND ANNOUNCER: Good evening. A Book at Bedtime. Alan Hutchinson reads another extract from a series of bedside books. ALAN HUTCHINSON: Number 32. The lady lies with her left leg planted firmly on the ground and the right hand waiting. The gentleman with the melon switches on the battery and places his left thigh on the edge of the swivel table, keeping the neck of the ..... (fades out to music)

Or as in our recent cartoon here: If someone says "You suck," just answer "Not for free."

Can you give examples? Everything I read indicates that "life without parole" is explicitly that: a sentence of no way out, except for clemency (and I can't find any examples of clemency granted for life-without-parole convictions), overturning of a sentence on finding of wrongful conviction, or escape. Parole is not an option. Life without parole is entirely distinct from multiple life sentences. Manson for instance is eligible for parole review specifically because he was not sentenced to life without parole. One of many such sources: What is life in prison without parole? General Reference (not clearly pro or con) Law.com, an online resource for legal news and information, in a dictionary entry accessed on Aug. 18, 2008, defined life in "prison without the possibility of parole" as the following: "[A] sentence sometimes given for particularly vicious criminals in murder cases or to repeat felons, particularly if the crime is committed in a state which has no death penalty, the jury chooses not to impose the death penalty, or the judge feels it is simpler to lock the prisoner up and 'throw away the key' rather than invite years of appeals while the prisoner languishes on death row. Opponents of capital punishment often advocate this penalty as a substitute for execution. It guarantees the criminal will not endanger the public, and the prospect of never being outside prison is severe punishment. Contrary arguments are that this penalty does not deter murderers, there is always the possibility of escape or killing a guard or fellow prisoner, or some soft-hearted Governor may someday reduce the sentence." Aug. 18, 2008 - Law.com Derral Cheatwood, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, San Antonio, in his entry for the 1996 edition of the Encyclopedia of American Prisons titled "Life Without Parole," wrote: "A life-without-parole sanction is a legal provision that specifies that the remainder of the criminal's natural life will be spent in prison. The life-without-parole sanction gained popularity as people realized that a normal life sentence, even a 'natural life' sentence, does not necessarily mean that the offender will be behind bars for life. Almost every state has a provision in its laws so that an offender sentenced to life becomes eligible for parole after a set number of years, or can accrue 'good time' credits and thus be released. Further, in most states the governor, sometimes in concert with a board, may commute a prisoner's sentence or may pardon an individual. In those states, a governor could pardon a prisoner with a life sentence outright, or could commute a life-with-out-parole sentence so that the individual would then be eligible for parole... There are two fundamental types of life-without-parole statutes. One addresses the problem of habitual offenders or career criminals, while the other reflects a just-deserts morality toward the most serious criminal offenders. In the vast majority of the states with such statutes, the sanction may be applied for a single crime, most commonly first degree murder, rather than for any pattern of criminal behavior. Since the majority of these statutes apply to first degree murder, they are referred to as capital offender statutes. As of 1990, approximately thirty states had some variation on a life-without-parole sanction for capital offenders. The laws are quite similar, with minor variations in each state. In six states the life-without-parole provision is found among the legislated duties and responsibilities of the parole board or parole commission. These laws restrict the authority of the parole board to consider parole or early release in specified capital cases. The penalty may be an alternative to capital punishment or to a normal life sentence, depending upon the circumstances of the offense and offender..." 1996 - Derral Cheatwood, PhD Adam Liptak, JD, Legal Correspondent and Columnist for the New York Times, in an Oct. 2, 2005 article titled "To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars," wrote: "A survey by The New York Times found that about 132,000 of the nation's prisoners, or almost 1 in 10, are serving life sentences. The number of lifers has almost doubled in the last decade, far outpacing the overall growth in the prison population. Of those lifers sentenced between 1988 and 2001, about a third are serving time for sentences other than murder, including burglary and drug crimes. Growth has been especially sharp among lifers with the words 'without parole' appended to their sentences. In 1993, the Times survey found, about 20 percent of all lifers had no chance of parole. Last year, the number rose to 28 percent. The phenomenon is in some ways an artifact of the death penalty. Opponents of capital punishment have promoted life sentences as an alternative to execution. And as the nation's enthusiasm for the death penalty wanes amid restrictive Supreme Court rulings and a spate of death row exonerations, more states are turning to life sentences. Defendants facing a potential death sentence often plead to life; those who go to trial and are convicted are sentenced to life about half the time by juries that are sometimes swayed by the lingering possibility of innocence. As a result the United States is now housing a large and permanent population of prisoners who will die of old age behind bars. At the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, for instance, more than 3,000 of the 5,100 prisoners are serving life without parole, and most of the rest are serving sentences so long that they cannot be completed in a typical lifetime... Fewer than two-thirds of the 70,000 people sentenced to life from 1988 to 2001 are in for murder, the Times analysis found. Other lifers -- more than 25,000 of them -- were convicted of crimes like rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, assault, extortion, burglary and arson. People convicted of drug trafficking account for 16 percent of all lifers" Oct. 2, 2005 - Adam Liptak, JD

The 7 Most Beautiful-But-Deadly Flowers in the World 7. Daphne Also known as lady laurel or paradise plant, Daphne is a 1-1.5 meters tall shrub, usually grown for its scented flowers. All parts of the plant are poisonous, but the greatest concentrations are in the sap and berries. Daphne contains mezerine and daphnin, two powerful toxins that cause stomach aches, headaches, diarrhea, delirium and convulsions. If Daphne berries are consumed, the victim might fall into a coma and even die. 6. Lily of the Valley Just like the Daphne, Lily of the Valley may look beautiful and harmless, but it is entirely poisonous. Eating one or two of the plant’s bell-shaped flowers won’t hurt you very much, especially if you’re an adult. Eaten in large quantities, Lily of the Valley causes pain in the mouth, nausea, vomiting, cramps and diarrhoea. People with heart conditions should be most careful since the toxins cause the heartbeats to slow down or become irregular. 5. Belladonna Known as one of the most poisonous plants in the Western hemisphere, Belladonna contains potentially lethal tropane alkaloids. The entire plant is harmful, but its good-looking berries pose the most danger, especially to kids. The symptoms of Belladona, or Deadly Nightshade poisoning are dilated pupils, blurred vision, headaches, hallucinations, delirium and convulsions. Atropine, the toxin contained by Belladona, can kill a person by disrupting the nervous system’s ability to regulate breathing, sweating and heart rate. 4. Angel’s Trumpet Despite its name, there’s something very evil about this plant. The toxins it contains can be fatal to humans and a number of animals. Known as a powerful hallucinogen, Angel’s Trumpet should not be used for recreational purposes, since the risk of an overdose is very high. Angel’s Trumpet plants contain a variable amount of tropane alkaloids, like atropine and scopolamine, and it is used in shamanic rituals by indigenous tribes in western Amazonia. 3. Rhododendron This popular evergreen shrub, featuring large, beautiful blooms, has been known for its toxicity since ancient times. Xenophon recorded the odd behavior of a group of Greek soldiers who had eaten honey from rhododendron flowers. Rhododendron contains andromedatoxin which causes nausea, severe pains, paralysis and even death. Azaleas, members of the same plant-family as rhododendron, are also poisonous. 2. Oleander Oleander is known as one of the most poisonous plants on Earth, often used in suicidal cases around southern India. The numerous toxic compounds contained in the entire Oleander plant, including oleandrin and neriine, affect the nervous, digestive and cardiovascular systems, all at the same time. Oleander poisoning leads to drowsiness, tremors, seizures, coma and even death. The plant’s sap causes skin irritation and severe eye inflammation. 1. Autumn crocus One of the most endangered plants in the world, Autumn crocus is also probably the most poisonous. It contains colchicine, a deadly drug used effectively in the treatment for gout. Unlike other toxins found in the flowers above, colchicine, an arsenic-like poison has no antidote. Autumn crocus poisoning leads to reduced blood pressure and cardiac arrest. http://www.hotelclub.com/blog/deadly-flowers/

What a pain. I have to say for all their faults, Verizon has built one hell of a wireless network. I've always used them and never had coverage problems anywhere I've traveled.

Actually liquid lunches considerably cushion the blow. But FourAces has mentioned before that he barely drinks.

Confirmed! They are from Apollo 11. Chills, for those of us of a certain age and temperament... Amazon CEO says discovery is Apollo 11 rocket engines By Elizabeth Landau, CNN updated 2:40 PM EDT, Fri July 19, 2013 A team of researchers led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has recovered pieces of the engines of the Saturn V rocket that sent astronauts to space during the Apollo era. This is the "Saturn V stage structure." (CNN) -- Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos rescued sunken treasure in the Atlantic this year: components of two F-1 rocket engines. Now he says he has verified that they are engines from Apollo 11, the first mission that took U.S. astronauts to the moon. The timing, as Bezos is aware, is appropriate. Saturday is the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing. "44 years ago tomorrow Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and now we have recovered a critical technological marvel that made it all possible," Bezos wrote on his blog. Bezos congratulated the conservation team at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, for its efforts. One of the conservators discovered that the number "2044" had been stenciled in black paint on the side of one of the massive thrust chambers. He found it while using a black light and a special lens filter. This 2044 was not a mystery. According to Bezos, it corresponds to NASA number 6044, the serial number for F-1 Engine No. 5 from the Apollo 11 mission. The conservator continued his work on this thrust chamber and, after removing more corrosion, found a stamp on the metal surface that said "Unit No 2044." "Conservation is painstaking work that requires remarkable levels of patience and attention to detail, and these guys have both," Bezos said of the Kansas conservators. Jeff Bezos said a conservator identified a serial number proving the a rocket engine came from the Apollo 11 program. An Internet retail mogul might seem an unusual patron of Apollo 11 artifacts and history. But Bezos said he was inspired to dream big by watching the original moon mission as a 5-year-old in 1969. The Amazon chief announced in March that his team of researchers had discovered a set of giant rocket engines that he described as "an underwater wonderland -- an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines." They were found in 14,000 feet of water off the Florida coast. F-1 engines powered the Saturn V rocket carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. At an altitude of about 38 miles, the first stage of the spacecraft, including the engines, separated. These parts were considered destroyed or lost forever. Bezos had said in 2012 that he wanted to find the Apollo 11 rocket engines but noted that many serial numbers are completely or partly missing. "The components' fiery end and heavy corrosion from 43 years underwater removed or covered up most of the original serial numbers," he wrote on his blog Friday. Each of the engines weighs nearly 9 tons, and they came in a cluster of five. They provided 32 million horsepower by burning 6,000 pounds of fuel every second, and together, they lifted the largest rocket in history 38 miles above the Earth in less than three minutes. After separation, the rocket engines made their re-entry at 5,000 miles per hour, Bezos said, and then plummeted into the ocean. That's where they remained, undiscovered for decades, until Bezos' team found them using sophisticated sonar. "The technology used for the recovery is in its own way as otherworldly as the Apollo technology itself," Bezos wrote in March. "The Remotely Operated Vehicles worked at a depth of more than 14,000 feet, tethered to our ship with fiber optics for data and electric cables transmitting power at more than 4,000 volts." His team felt the echoes of the moon mission as they probed the icy depths of the ocean: "The blackness of the horizon. The gray and colorless ocean floor." Having taken space venturers to the moon, the engines are now the treasure of a different breed of explorers. Bezos said he intends to put the hardware on display "where just maybe it will inspire something amazing." http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/tech/innovation/amazon-apollo-engines/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

...But wait, there's more! http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2013/jul/19/sharknado-shark-movie-posters-in-pictures

Signorile had some interesting speculation on that point. Is Pope Francis Waving a White Flag on Gay Marriage? Michelangelo Signorile Editor-at-large, HuffPost Gay Voices Posted: 06/14/2013 12:02 pm This week we saw reports about Pope Francis cryptically acknowledging the existence of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, about which he supposedly believes something has to be done. But if I were on a crusade against gay marriage, like Maggie Gallagher or Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage (both devout Catholics), I don't think I'd be very happy with this pope so far. In fact, I'd say he stinks. Let's put all of this in some perspective. In the time since Francis became pope, France became the largest predominantly Catholic country to pass marriage equality, right in the Vatican's backyard. In the U.S., three states, including Rhode Island, which has the highest percentage of Catholics in the country, passed marriage equality. Predominantly Catholic Mexico continues to move forward on the issue in the courts, and Brazil's National Council of Justice green-lighted gay marriage in that country, which would become the largest country in South America and the largest predominantly Catholic country in the world to allow gay marriage. Another Latin American country near the Argentine pope's old stomping grounds, Uruguay, passed marriage equality in recent months, as did New Zealand. And Pope Francis had nothing publicly to say about any of it. Zero. Zilch. Nada. He was busy washing the feet of the poor and tweeting about how selflessness is a virtue. Go figure. Back when Spain passed marriage equality in 2005, Pope Benedict whirled himself into a frenzy, railing against it regularly. He told Catholic officials there that any support of the law would cost them their jobs and told secular public servants who are Catholic to flout the law and refuse to marry gays. He traveled to Spain and railed some more, oblivious to protests of his trip. From then on, he regularly attacked gay marriage, even calling it a "threat to the future of humanity." And now here is Francis allegedly saying, according to a Chilean newspaper that quoted a source who took notes inside a private meeting of the Latin American Confederation of Men and Women Religious during a discussion about corruption inside the Vatican, that "they speak of a 'gay lobby,' and that is true. It is there.... [W]e will have to see what we can do [about it]." No context was offered as to whether Francis asked about it or brought it up on his own (nor was there an elaboration of exactly what Francis would do about the "gay lobby"), and the Vatican ran from the statement, declining fuller comment, saying that it was a private meeting, not for public consumption. Later, CLAR released a statement refuting the statement entirely, saying that the assertion that there is a gay lobby at the Vatican "cannot be attributed with certainty to the Holy Father." The backtracking likely happened under pressure from the Vatican, which underscores that Francis just doesn't seem as if he wants to be out front on this issue. That was even clearer when Francis met this morning with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who'd railed against gay marriage in the United Kingdom, which is about to pass marriage equality. According to the Associated Press: In his remarks to Welby, Francis said he hoped they could collaborate in promoting the sacredness of life "and the stability of families founded on marriage." ... Significantly, though, Francis didn't specify that marriage should be based on a union between a man and woman, which is how Benedict XVI and John Paul II routinely defined it in a way that made clear their opposition to same-sex marriage. Vatican officials said Francis' phrasing was a diplomatic attempt to make his point without making a provocative pronouncement.... A diplomatic way of being against gay marriage? Wow. Once politicians start doing that -- such as when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both stopped defining marriage as "between a man and woman" a few years back -- they eventually support same-sex marriage. I'm not saying Francis is anywhere near there (though he did reportedly support civil unions, as I noted in a post a couple of months back). But having harshly railed against gay marriage back when he was in Argentina, only to lose that battle, he may be seeing that the handwriting is on the wall and that he's got better things to do with his time. And that can only be seen as a loss for Maggie Gallagher and other anti-equality advocates who hoped the pope would loudly lead their crusade. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/is-pope-francis-waving-a_b_3442274.html