XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Monday 11 April 2011

Feral chickens have proliferated in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina - dart across streets and nest in the trees -

Feral chickens have proliferated in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina - dart across streets and nest in the trees -





Since Hurricane Katrina, Ruby Melton's 9th Ward enclave has welcomed a new species of neighbor: clucking, crowing, prancing chickens that dart across streets and nest in the trees.


"We don't have stray dogs any more," said Melton, 68. "But everyone I talk to has stray chickens."
Most people figure that the wild birds descended from domesticated fowl that escaped backyard coops after the storm. Since then, the population has boomed, with the local SPCA chapter now dispatching officers weekly to catch feral chickens, spokeswoman Katherine LeBlanc said.
Most calls hinge on neighbors' irritation with ear-piercing squawks, she said, rather than complaints about chicken droppings or attacks on pets or children. The birds don't appear to be fugitives from the growing number of New Orleans homesteaders who raise chickens for eggs and meat.
Animal control officers place the stray chickens with a farmer they call the Chicken Man, LeBlanc said, noting that capturing the creatures is "extremely hard" and often requires the effort of several officers.


The job hasn't proved as vexing for a band of swift, persevering kids who have invested countless hours stalking and nabbing the feathered bandits, said Ed Buckner, director of the Porch, a cultural organization in the 7th Ward. When Buckner a few years ago started a Mardi Gras Indian tribe for youth at the Porch, he wanted to call it "Akanka," after the Choctaw word for chicken.
"Until they started sewing, these boys were running around chasing chickens all day," Buckner said.
The boys opted to call their tribe the Red Flame Hunters, which they thought sounded cooler. But they admitted to a knack for capturing chickens that roost in nearby trees. They sneak up and grab the birds over their wings, and they try to avoid the roosters' spurs, which can tear deeply into flesh, said Nas Jackson, 12.
Several 7th Ward chickens commute between two empty lots on opposite sides of Touro Street. Cynthia Stampley, who has lived on the block for 30 years, said that until Katrina, she'd never seen such a proliferation of wild chickens.


Read more - http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2011/04/feral_chickens_have_proliferat.html

Chevy Recalls Cruze After A Steering Wheel Falls Off - Imagine you’re speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel -

Chevy Recalls Cruze After A Steering Wheel Falls Off - Imagine you’re speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel - 




Imagine turning your car’s steering wheel, or giving it a gentle tug, and having it break away from the steering column. Now you’re speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel.
It sounds like a vision from a cartoon, or every driver’s nightmare. And it happened to at least one driver of a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze compact car last month, and General Motors Corp. is recalling 2,100 of the cars as a result.
While the recall affects a relatively small number of vehicles, it is an unpleasant development for Chevrolet, which has been riding high on the success of its new small car. Chevrolet sold 50,205 Cruzes through the end of March. That’s well short of the 76,821 units Toyota sold of the Cruze’s main rival, the Corolla, but it is ahead of the 37,379 Cobalts Chevy sold in the same period. The Cruze replaced the Cobalt and is supposed to be a departure from that uninspired model.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the car maker said it traced the problem with that particular car to a case in which the wrong wheel was put in a car and replaced later in the assembly process with the correct one. But the new wheel wasn’t attached properly, the car maker says.
When the wheel separated from the steering column, the driver was able to get the car to the side of the road safely, and the company says it has tested other cars from the production run and found no similar problems. General Motors says it believes this was an isolated incident.
Chevrolet says it has changed the production process to make sure the machine used to attach the steering wheel can accommodate only the correct one. The company is recalling cars that were built before it made the change.
Under the recall, dealers will inspect the steering wheel to make sure it is properly attached. This service is free of charge and the recall is expected to begin on or before April 8, 2011. Owners may contact Chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438.

Millions of mummified puppies found in Egypt -

Millions of mummified puppies found in Egypt - 


About 8 million mummified dogs lie in the ancient Dog Catacombs in Egypt, a team of archaeologists reveals.
“We weren’t expecting such a high estimate,” Dr. Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University told theStar on Monday. “That was something of a surprise.”
Many of the animals appear to be puppies, bred at farms nearby entirely for mummification.
“This isn’t some cruel, bloodthirsty mass ritual sacrifice,” explained Nicholson. “This would have been a pious act. Pilgrims would have paid for the correct mummification. They were Egyptians doing a good deed. The dogs would have served as their representative to the deity.”
The deity would have been Anubis, the jackal-headed god. Indeed, some of the mummies in the Dog Catacombs belonged to jackals or foxes.
Almost all are dogs, though, in the decayed remains of bandages and excavated from 50 dark corridors running through the labyrinth.
And while many appear to be just a few months old, others had spent their full natural lives as sacred animals in the nearby Temple to Anubis before being interred.
“The point to get over is that this is not just a hundred years. This covers a span of centuries” from the Late and Ptolemiac Periods of 747 to 30 B.C.
Discovered in 1897 by the French Egyptologist Jacques De Morgan as part of the necropolis of Saqqara in Memphis, “virtually nothing” has been known about the Dog Catacombs before Nicholson’s work.
The goal of the Cardiff University-Egypt Exploration Society Mission to the Dog Catacombs, of which Nicholson is director, is to glean as much information as possible while disturbing the remains as little as possible.
They work in only one of two dog catacombs; the other is inaccessible.
The 8 million estimate, which he figures is quite close, is a product of counting the mummies in one area and multiplying. Further research will help determine the mummies’ ages, sex and species — “what sort of dogs they were. Not breeds, which is a modern concept.”
Radio carbon dating will help establish the catacombs’ span of time and allow archaeologists to estimate how often the dogs would have been mummified as offerings to Anubis.

Genetically Modified (GMO) corn / soybeans leads to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice, livers and kidneys -

Genetically Modified (GMO) corn / soybeans leads to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice, livers and kidneys -



A new paper shows that consuming genetically modified (GM) corn or soybeans leads to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice, particularly in livers and kidneys. By reviewing data from 19 animal studies, Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini and others reveal that 9% of the measured parameters, including blood and urine biochemistry, organ weights, and microscopic analyses (histopathology), were significantly disrupted in the GM-fed animals. The kidneys of males fared the worst, with 43.5% of all the changes. The liver of females followed, with 30.8%. The report, published in Environmental Sciences Europe on March 1, 2011, confirms that “several convergent data appear to indicate liver and kidney problems as end points of GMO diet effects.” The authors point out that livers and kidneys “are the major reactive organs” in cases of chronic food toxicity.


“Other organs may be affected too, such as the heart and spleen, or blood cells,” stated the paper. In fact some of the animals fed genetically modified organisms had altered body weights in at least one gender, which is “a very good predictor of side effects in various organs.”


The GM soybean and corn varieties used in the feeding trials “constitute 83% of the commercialized GMOs” that are currently consumed by billions of people. While the findings may have serious ramifications for the human population, the authors demonstrate how a multitude of GMO-related health problems could easily pass undetected through the superficial and largely incompetent safety assessments that are used around the world.


Read more - http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/1340

Space-Earth Flute Duet - NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Perform First Space-Earth Flute Duet -

Space-Earth Flute Duet - NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Perform First Space-Earth Flute Duet -

Harmony reached new heights recently as NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, circling Earth aboard the International Space Station, and musician Ian Anderson, founder of the rock band Jethro Tull, collaborated for the first space-Earth duet. 

Coleman, an amateur flutist, and Anderson played a portion of the song "Bourree," an arrangement of which Anderson and Jethro Tull performed during their 1969 U.S. tour as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon. Coleman played her part from 220 miles above Earth late last week. Anderson played his part while on tour in Perm, Russia, during the weekend. The two parts were then joined. 
Video from the performance is on NASA's website at: 



Coleman and Anderson's performance saluted 50 years of human spaceflight and the anniversary of the first launch of a human to space. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed that milestone on April 12, 1961. 

"Thanks Col. Catherine Coleman in the International Space Station," Anderson said following the performance. "We should remember that today's cosmonauts, scientists and astronauts are still every bit the rocket heroes they were 50 years ago." 

Coleman is an avid fan of Anderson's and carried one of his flutes with her for a six-month stay aboard the station, along with her own instrument. She also carried a penny whistle and Irish flute from members of the musical group The Chieftans. 

"It is really different to play up here," Coleman said earlier during her stay on the station. "I've been having the nicest time up in our cupola. I float around in there. A lot of the times I play with my eyes closed." 
Read more - http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/apr/HQ_11-108_Coleman_space_duet.html

Money Problems That Never Seem To End: 25 Reasons To Be Absolutely Disgusted With The U.S. Economy -

Money Problems That Never Seem To End: 25 Reasons To Be Absolutely Disgusted With The U.S. Economy - 


It seems like wherever you turn there is bad news for the U.S. economy.  Unemployment is rampant, the cost of gasoline is going up, the cost of food is going up and American families are getting poorer.  Millions of jobs continue to leave the country and everyone is wondering why it seems like the “American Dream” is dying.  American consumers are absolutely swamped with staggering levels of credit card debt, student loan debt and mortgage debt and each year the consumer debt crisis only seems to get worse.  For millions of American families the money problems never seem to end.  Meanwhile, our politicians are doing next to nothing to fix our horrific national debt problem.  So yes, there are a whole lot of reasons to be absolutely disgusted with the U.S. economy.  We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and anyone with half a brain can see that we are heading for complete and total disaster.
A lot of Americans do not like to read about economics, but what has been going on over the last few years has been nothing short of extraordinary.  The Federal Reserve has basically tripled the adjusted monetary base.  We have now been conditioned to accept that trillion dollar deficits are “normal”.  The U.S. dollar is being systematically destroyed right in front of our eyes and most Americans don’t even seem alarmed about it.
Our entire financial system is coming apart.
The signs are everywhere.
The following are 25 reasons to be absolutely disgusted with the U.S. economy….
#1 There are now 6.4 million fewer jobs in America than there were when the recession began.
#2 In Southern California, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is $1.00 higher than it was at this time last year.
#3 The average price of gasoline in the United States has jumped about 20 cents in just the last two weeks.
#4 Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%.
#5 In the 8 days leading up to the “historic” $38.5 billion budget deal, the U.S. national debt increased by $54.1 billion dollars.
#6 The $38.5 billion in budget cuts that the Republicans and the Democrats have agreed to represent approximately one percent of the federal budget.
#7 During the 2010 campaign, the Republicans promised voters they would cut $100 billion from the budget for 2011.  Instead, they gave in when the Democrats offered just $38.5 billion.
#8 The Obama administration had been estimating that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2011 would be approximately 1.6 trillion dollars.  Now it will likely be somewhere around 1.55 trillion dollars which will still be an all-time record.
#9 According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping875,000 Americanswere “medical tourists” in 2010.
#10 The median pay for CEOs increased by 27 percent during 2010.
#11 Thanks to globalism, U.S. workers now must directly compete for jobs with workers in places such as Indonesia.  In Indonesia, full-time workers make as little as two dollars a day.  So how are Americans supposed to compete with that?
#12 Last week, the price of gold set a new all-time record on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday and on Friday.

#13 The price of silver rose almost 7 percent last week alone.

#14 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
#15 According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost 25 percent of U.S. households now have zero net worth or negative net worth.  Back in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent.
#16 Americans now owe more than $903 billion on student loans.
#17 According to the New York Times, as of 2009 the wealthiest 5 percent of all Americans had 63.5 percent of all the wealth in America.  Meanwhile, the bottom 80 percent had just 12.8 percent of all the wealth.
#18 According to a recent report from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries accounted for 40 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months but only 14 percent of the job growth.  Lower wage industries accounted for just 23 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months and a whopping 49 percent of the job growth.
#19 The first week of air strikes in Libya cost the U.S. government about 600 million dollars.
#20 The price of corn has more than doubled over the past year.
#21 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. is now an all-time record 39 weeks.
#22 Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue.  Today they account for less than 7 percent of all federal revenue.
#23 If the U.S. government eliminated all discretionary spending and all defense spending it would still not balance the budget.
#24 It is being projected that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDPby the year 2050.
#25 Americans spend approximately 27.7 billion dollars a year preparing their tax returns.
That last statistic really gets me.  During the month of April the American people are going to be spending massive amounts of time and money to prepare their taxes.
But what do Americans get in return for their taxes?
What they get is a government that is completely and totally incompetent.  Our “leaders” are running the greatest economy in the history of the world into the ground, but unfortunately most Americans have no idea what is happening.
Why are Americans so clueless?
Well, the truth is that over time we have been turned into a nation of idiots and morons.
To get an idea of just how “dumbed down” we have become as a nation, just check out this Harvard entrance exam from 1869.
I wouldn’t have a prayer of passing that exam.
What about you?
Thanks to the slothfulness of society, the deficiencies in our education system and the toxins in our food, air and water it has become hard for most of us to think clearly.
Most of us are fat, dumb and totally clueless.  The entire economic system is being shredded and most of us just drool and turn up the television a little louder.
If we have money problems, most of us just run out and apply for another credit card.  If our state and local governments run into financial problems they just borrow even more money.
Of course the biggest offender of all is the federal government.  What our politicians are doing to future generations is not just criminal.  It is beyond criminal.  It is absolutely unconscionable.
So please excuse me if I am absolutely disgusted with the U.S. economy.
We took the greatest economy in the history of the world and we wrecked it.
How in the world are we going to explain this to our children and our grandchildren?


Read more - http://www.blacklistednews.com/Money_Problems_That_Never_Seem_To_End%3A_25_Reasons_To_Be_Absolutely_Disgusted_With_The_U.S._Economy/13445/0/0/0/Y/M.html