Franken Food

I just do not like the idea of cloned food. it appears that cloning is expensive and cloned animals will just be used for breeding purposes. I still do not like it.

Perhaps most angered by the FDA's decision were congressional opponents, including Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski. The Maryland Democrat has been pushing legislation to delay action.

"If we discover a problem with cloned food after it is in our food supply, and it's not labeled, the FDA won't be able to recall it like they did Vioxx - the food will already be tainted," Mikulski said in a statement, referring to the drug removed from the market in 2004 after reports of serious side effects, including deaths, among users.

I know. I sometimes rag on Ms Mikulski but she is in the right side of the issue this time.

Lion King

Pork Chops

Judged by The Results

Via Maha

Why?

Via Avedon, we get Thers wisdom:

As a matter of strict accuracy, nobody is quite clear on precisely why Democratic campaign managers and consultants are hired, especially repeatedly. Whatever the explanation, it is certainly a gross exaggeration to say that their purpose is to "win." It instead seems more their function to lose in a humiliating fashion and afterwards to collect fat paychecks and then go on TV and talk smack about the Democratic Base.

Eat Like Michael Pollan

You Know the author of the Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense Of Food. It is pretty much common sense. From the planetgreen:

His prescription: Make your own dinner. "By giving time back to our meals," he says, "you'll gain in the education and civilization of your children, you'll gain in terms of health and you'll also gain pleasure. Maybe there's a reason why, for most of human history, food has been close to the centre of life. And maybe there's much to gain by putting it back where it belongs." Here's how to eat, the Michael Pollan way:

Read the whole thing.

Drug Has No Benefit

This is what the makers say. It seems they are spinning it in their best interest. The drug Zetia may actually cause more harm.

While Zetia lowers cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent in most patients, no trial has ever shown that it can reduce heart attacks and strokes — or even that it reduces the growth of the fatty plaques in arteries that can cause heart problems.[...]
patients taking Vytorin actually had more growth in fatty plaques in their carotid arteries than those on Zocor. The carotid artery runs through the neck and delivers oxygenated blood to the brain.(My note Vytorin is Zetia with a combanation of other drugs)

One might ask where was the FDA. According to the Reagan/Bush doctrine they were doing their job. The FDA's job is to speed the process of getting drugs to the market. It has an added bonus, that when the drug fails or kills, It shows that the government does not work. They will even approve drugs for diseases that do not exist.

Body Found

A body was found on Mt Tamalpais. It was in the area where IRS agent Veronica Ruiz went missing.
Update: Authorities are saying that it was Ms Ruiz.
My condolences to her family and friends.

Wine

The more the wine costs, the more people enjoy it, a new study has found. This is not surprising in the least. People will talk themselves into all manner of things.

Researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology found that because people expect wines that cost more to be of higher quality, they trick themselves into believing the wines provide a more pleasurable experience than less expensive ones.

Their study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that expectations of quality trigger activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain that registers pleasure. This happens even though the part of our brain that interprets taste is not affected.[...]

We have known for a long time that people's perceptions are affected by marketing, but now we know that the brain itself is modulated by price," said Baba Shiv, an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and one of the authors of the study.

"Marketers are now going to think twice about reducing the price," Shiv said.

According to the study, if an experience is pleasurable, the brain will use it to help guide future choices. That conclusion has important implications for marketing that aims to influence perceptions of quality such as expert ratings, peer reviews, information about country of origin, store and brand names and repeated exposure to advertisements.

It reminded me of this study done in France about the objectivity of wine tasters.

In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn't stop the experts from describing the "red" wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its "jamminess," while another enjoyed its "crushed red fruit." Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine.

The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was "agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded," while the vin du table was "weak, short, light, flat and faulty". Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was.

I do however believe that some wines are so bad that even experts can tell they are not to good. Like this prison wine. Really, you should read this one.

Remembrance

I was not going to do any more updates about Meredith Emerson or her killer. Today, I ran across a nice piece of writing.
Update: More Hilton mayhem.

Save My Niece And Nephew

Dear Pennsylvania readers, Your governor needs to hear from you. New Jersey was able to keep their food labeling by a mail and e-mail campain. They were able to defeat Monsanto. If you want to Know what is in your food contact governor Rendell. Shira at Unbossed has the details.

The Mittster

Democrats for Mitt Romney. Via Matt Yglesias. Yglesias's blog policy:I think this blog takes a legalize-and-regulate line on prostitution, believing that this would give hookers legal recourse against maltreatment and improve their situation.

Beer Cures Cancer

OK not really. Researchers have found a substance in hops that is high in antioxidants.

"Xanthohumol has been shown to be a very active substance against cancer," says Dr Markus Herrmann, also of Munich. "It comes in small sticky beads, which you find within the hops."

Hops have always been known to possess medicinal properties and are used in herbal medicines as a muscle relaxant. Other compounds found in hops are potent phytoestrogens. Scientists say these compounds could ultimately help prevent post-menopausal hot flashes and osteoporosis.

Now scientists have discovered hops contain xanthohumol, a powerful antioxidant.

"It comes in small, sticky beads, which you find within the hops," says Herrmann.

Xanthohumol shuts down enzymes called cytochromes P-4; they can activate the cancer process. It also helps the body detoxify carcinogens, stopping tumour growth at an early stage.

Preliminary studies at Oregon State University show that xanthohumol can kill breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancers, the newswire reported.

It appears that it would take about 60 regular beers to reach the level in the tests. I somehow doubt it would take that many Hop Devils. Hops have long been used for medicinal purposes. As have their close relative marijuana.

Political Reporting

Krugman takes a swipe.

Since this is an election year, the debate over how to stimulate the economy is inevitably tied up with politics. And here’s a modest suggestion for political reporters. Instead of trying to divine the candidates’ characters by scrutinizing their tone of voice and facial expressions, why not pay attention to what they say about economic policy?

In fact, recent statements by the candidates and their surrogates about the economy are quite revealing.

It is amazing how little reporting on issues the media does. If you want to find the candidates positions click on through.

Update: I just wanted to add these two links to show you the lengths the media will go to to not inform you of what is going on. On December 11, 2001, The Washington Post had four articles about John Edwards. None of them discussed his positions on the issues. Media Matters and Daily Howler.

Sad News

The San Bernardino County Sheriff"s Office has called off the search for Dean Christy. It was done in consultation with his family. He has been in the mountains for more than a week now. My sympathies to the family.

Pot Makes You Smarter

Got your attention with that headline.

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld — Supporters of marijuana may finally have an excuse to smoke weed every day. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that smoking pot can make the brain grow.

Though most drugs inhibit the growth of new brain cells, injections of a synthetic cannibinoid have had the opposite effect in mice in a study performed at the University of Saskatchewan. Research on how drugs affect the brain has been critical to addiction treatment, particularly research on the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is an area of the brain essential to memory formation. It is unusual because it grows new neurons over a person’s lifetime. Researchers believe these new cells help to improve memory and fight depression and mood disorders.

Many drugs -— heroin, cocaine, and the more common alcohol and nicotine — inhibit the growth of these new cells. It was thought that marijuana did the same thing, but this new research suggests otherwise.

Via Libby at Newshoggers, who makes a very estute observation about the drug companies.

Meanwhile, I have mixed feelings about this research. It's good to establish that cannabinoids are useful as medicine but the focus on using synthentic compounds suggests to me that prohibitionists want to profit from marijuana without having to give up their equally lucrative war on the natural plant

Mount Blanca

P1010246, originally uploaded by Captain Chaos' Abyss.

Another hiker lost in an avalanche. This time in Colorado. Two experienced hikers were caught in a avalanche on Mount Blanca. The search has been called off due to weather and avalanche conditions.

Selling The National Parks

Not all of the land for the National Parks has been purchased.

Zion National Park, Utah - Hank and Mariangela Landau purchased a slice of heaven: 20 acres surrounded by Zion National Park and its red-rock hoodoos and towering sandstone walls.

The 2005 sale frustrated park officials, who had wanted to buy the land for years but couldn't come up with the money. The inablility of park officials to make the purchase guaranteed that private citizens will control the land for the foreseeable future.

Within less than a decade, national park officials have seen the federal budget for land acquisition slashed by 75 percent, making it increasingly difficult for administrators to purchase roughly 1.8 million acres of privately owned land inside national parks. The 2008 budget offers $35 million – a slight uptick, but far less than the nearly $140 million spent in 1999.

It seems the republicans have a lower priority for the parks than the democrats. Even with use levels going up it is hard to get the government to fund the national parks.

Europe Makes A Comeback

Krugman:

In particular, in the prime working years, from 25 to 54, the big gap between European and U.S. employment rates that existed a decade ago has been largely eliminated. If you think Europe is a place where lots of able-bodied adults just sit at home collecting welfare checks, think again.

Meanwhile, Europe’s Internet lag is a thing of the past. The dial-up Internet of the 1990s was dominated by the United States. But as dial-up has given way to broadband, Europe has more than kept up. The number of broadband connections per 100 people in the 15 countries that were members of the European Union before it was enlarged in 2004, is slightly higher than in the U.S. — and Europe’s connections are both substantially faster and substantially cheaper than ours.

I don’t want to exaggerate the good news. Europe continues to have many economic problems. But who doesn’t? The fact is that Europe’s economy looks a lot better now — both in absolute terms and compared with our economy — than it did a decade ago.

What’s behind Europe’s comeback? It’s a complicated story, probably involving a combination of deregulation (which has expanded job opportunities) and smart regulation. One of the keys to Europe’s broadband success is that unlike U.S. regulators, many European governments have promoted competition, preventing phone and cable companies from monopolizing broadband access.

What European countries definitely haven’t done is dismantle their strong social safety nets. Universal health care is a given. So are a variety of programs that support families in trouble, helping protect Europeans from the extreme poverty all too common in this country. All of this costs money — even though European countries spend far less on health care than we do — and European taxes are very high by U.S. standards.

It is important to keep the telecoms in line.

20 Bald Eagles Killed

At least 20 bald eagles were killed in a truckload of fish guts.

About 50 eagles descended on the uncovered truck Friday when it left a garage at the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant, the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News reported Saturday.

Gorging themselves, the birds pushed each other into the heavy, thick, goo and were drowned, buried and crushed, said federal wildlife officials.

The incident took only minutes and factory officials moved the truck back inside once they saw what was happening, the Daily News reported.

Huckabee

Republicans clearly lost their collective minds when Bill Clinton was elected. There was no lie that the conservative media would not propagate. No evil that was so bad, that the republicans would distance themselves from. People died for there hatred.

Tristero:

There is a crucial question the video does not address: Why did Huckabee work to release Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist? The rape that landed him in the Arkansas slammer wasn't his first. He had been implicated in others, but in at least one case, the victim was too afraid to testify. No wonder, Dumond had already been involved in a brutal murder. In that case, Dumond, turning state's evidence, denied killing the man; he only bashed the guy on the head several times with a hammer. So, again, the question:

Why did Huckabee work to release Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist?

Answer: Because Wayne Dumond was the darling of the extreme right. And Huckabee was trying to curry their favor.

Huckabee listened hard when right wing activists in New York and Arkansas claimed, without a shred of evidence, that Dumond had been framed for rape. But Huckabee never bothered, apparently, to read the transcript of Dumond's rape trial. And shamefully, he ignored the pleas of the rape victim herself not to release Dumond.

But how on Earth could the imprisonment of a serial rapist become a right-wing cause-celebre?

Answer: Dumond's victim - in the rape that landed him in prison - was a distant cousin of then-Governor Bill Clinton. According to the extreme right, Dumond was framed for the rape. In addition, Clinton may have had, according to the right, some involvement in vigilante justice, Arkansas-style. While awaiting trial for the rape of Clinton's distant relation, a drunken Dumond was castrated. He claimed that three men associated with the local Sheriff attacked and mutilated him. The far right intimated that Clinton may have put the Sheriff up to it. (Of course, the insinuation was bogus, based on nothing but imagination. In fact, investigators suspected that Dumond castrated himself when drunk, behavior that is not unheard of with rapists.)

MahaBarb has her take.

In other words, Huckabee's very first proclamation as governor was to execute the Buddhist as soon as possible. Nice. But the serial rapist Dumond (I mean he was only violating women, right?) could be pardoned entirely.

Community News

The long distance hiking community is a pretty tight group of people. We look out for each other. You can meet people for a relatively small amount of time and still feel you have developed a close relationship with that person. I got a ride to trail days, in 2001, from a fellow hiker named Freefall. I saw him a few times over the weekend and thought he was a pretty good guy.

When hikers get together we like to tell tales of our adventures. We will trade names and see if we have hiked with the same people. I have only run into Freefall one other time. At the PCT Zero Day party, in 2004. I always ask about Freefall. I have heard stories that he is out hiking and doing well.

Last night, I was looking at blogger profiles that listed backpacker among their interests. I found Freefall's Zero Day blog. He seems to be doing well. He has been to Death Valley and Point Reyes National Parks lately. Check it out.

Hell Freezes Over

Snow is being reported in Baghdad, for the first time in 100 years.

Lost Climber Survives A Week On Snow

A Japanese climber lost for more than a week was found yesterday.

Masayuki Nakamura headed into the Azuma mountain range about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo on December 30, saying he planned to be back on January 2.

But he became disoriented in the snow and wandered the area for more than a week, reports said. He had no mobile phone and his food supply ran out after a few days.

It gives me Hope that Dean Christy, who has been missing for a week, will be found alive. Rescuers have not given up the search.

Ms Mikulski

In light of new revelations about the telecoms motivations, will you withdraw your support for amnesty. In a speech on the Senate floor you proclaimed that the telecoms companies broke the law for patriotic reasons. It is not Patriotic to cut off criminal investigations for a few thousand dollars. Some of these were FISA wire taps. Not very patriotic of the telecoms.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation ''was halted due to untimely payment,'' the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

These companies started way before September 11, 2001. They involve domestic spying, and have nothing to due with keeping Americans safer.

They told us it was all about stopping terrorism. But now we've learned that the NSA's massive wiretapping and data collection program started long before 9/11 - in fact, it started in the 1990s - and was ramped up by this administration immediately after President Bush took office. The NSA also routinely collects phone records for run-of-the-mill drug cases that have nothing to do with terrorism.

• They told us they weren't targeting domestic conversations. But now we find out that the taps weren't focused on foreigners or even international calls. The Times reveals that part of what made telecom Qwest balk at a request for data in early 2001 was that the program was designed to pick up significant amounts of purely domestic communications by granting the NSA access "to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls," and that only "limited international traffic also passes through the switches."

• They told us they were gathering just the data they absolutely needed to fight terrorism. But now we know that this is not a program narrowly targeted at terrorists. Their repeated assurances that the government doesn't conduct vast dragnet operations just aren't true. As The Times reported, "The NSA met with AT&T officials to discuss replicating a Bedminster, N.J., network center here in Maryland to give the agency access to all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through it."

Please help keep us safe from the Bush administration. It is important you not help set president in giving blanket amnesty to the telecoms. Congress has never done it. Please, vote against telecoms amnesty.

Most Trusted Name In News

Apparently it is Fox. I think mostly because their viewers are zombies. I saw a link to this article by Sacred Heart University at Freakonomics. It will surely come as a surprise to some. I do not think that the media can do anything short of what Fox does to make the conservatives happy. Any how, This is how the they were rated.

The most trusted national TV news organizations, for accurate reporting, in declining order included: Fox News (27.0%), CNN (14.6%), and NBC News (10.90%). These were followed by ABC News (7.0%), local news (6.9%), CBS News (6.8%) MSNBC (4.0%), PBS News (3.0%), CNBC (0.6%) and CBN (0.5%).

I bet that the most informed viewers would be in direct opposite order, or close. Low and behold the Google confirms this. Here is an article By PIPA. PBS viewers most knowledgeable Fox least.

It would seem that perhaps Fox is not really trying to inform.

While it would seem that misperceptions are derived from a failure to pay attention to the news, in fact, overall, those who pay greater attention to the news are no less likely to have misperceptions. Among those who primarily watch Fox, those who pay more attention are more likely to have misperceptions. Only those who mostly get their news from print media have fewer misperceptions as they pay more attention.

I think news organizations can make themselves more believable by reporting the truth. Reporting republican spin is not helping. If you want to be a republican propaganda outlet like Fox, do it. Anything short is not going to make conservatives happy. The news media can make liberals happy because the actually want to be informed. As does the American public.

More Milk Labeling

Shirah at unbossed has been covering the issue in Pennsylvania. It seems the PA Secretary of Agriculture is more interested in Monsanto's bottom line than the consumers in PA. You should read the whole thing. But I want to highlight the conclusion.

Our story is that Dennis Wolff can be pro-Monsanto, pro-rBST if he wants to, and so can all of his allies. But that's NOT what they are doing.

What they are dong is subverting democracy by lying and hiding the truth. In the case of a public official, this is a gross abuse of the public trust.

So the question is: If they truly believe in what they are doing, then why are they afraid of telling the public forthrightly what they believe?

This is true with so much of our political discourse.

RIP

Sir Edmund Hillary, with the help of Tenzing Norgay, was the first to summit Mount Everest died. He was 88. Hillary had many achievements. I did not know of this failure. It brings a smile to my face, so perhaps it was not a failure after all.

In 1960 he led another Himalayan adventure, this time in search of proof of the mythical yeti or abominable snowman -- a topic of great interest since Tenzing had said his father had twice seen one.

Among the sherpa community, tales of the yeti were common but Hillary had no success. He got sick mid-way through the expedition -- possibly due to some uncertain fishcakes -- and pulled out.

Update: National Geographic has some pictures.

Grass

It seems W was on to something when he was talking about switch grass. Scientific American has an article about ethanol production. Chef is no fan of ethanol production from corn. It is bad policy and raises the price of beer!

But yields from a grass that only needs to be planted once would deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy as ethanol for every megajoule of petroleum consumed—in the form of nitrogen fertilizers or diesel for tractors—growing them. "It's a prediction because right now there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material" like that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes. "We're pretty confident the ethanol yield is pretty close." This means that switchgrass ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies.

The 25 percent is at least double the real number. And that does not include other environmental factors like fertilizer run off.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is partially funding the construction of six such cellulosic biorefineries, estimated to cost a total of $1.2 billion. The first to be built will be the Range Fuels Biorefinery in Soperton, Ga., which will process wood waste from the timber industry into biofuels and chemicals. The DOE is providing an initial $50 million to start construction.

What do you want to bet that W's friends are getting a chunk of that money. I am hoping the air car takes off myself.

Sex In A Tent

That will get some attention. A new book by New Zealand's Michelle Waltzman.

Michelle Waitzman is the author of "Sex in a Tent: a wild couple's guide to getting naughty in nature" (Wilderness Press, Oct. 2007) She lives in Wellington, New Zealand although she is originally from Toronto, Canada. She loves spending time in the great outdoors. Hiking, backpacking (or 'tramping' as they call it here in NZ), and sea kayaking are some of her favourite ways to enjoy the wilderness

She even has a blog Love in a tent.

Knut The Polar Bear

Knut the Polar Bear Cub, originally uploaded by fotoFluke.

Now it make sense. I have seen articles about the US government not wanting to put polar bears on the endangered species list. We can thank the corrupt Senator Stevens.

A Company To Watch

India's Tata Group has unveiled the worlds cheapest car. 100,000 rupees or about 2,500 dollars.

Environmentalists fear the Nano will jam up India's already clogged roads even more and add to choking pollution if it proves a winner.

"With more cars you have more emissions and that adds to global warming -- what we need is public transport," said Souparno Banerjee, an official of Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment.

Not much you can do about congestion but this is the company that has teemed up with the air compressed engine company from France. It looks like a very similar vehicle.

I Hate When This Happens

A Polish man visiting a brothel found his wife among the employees.

Zevon

Afraid

The mainstream media, republican tools for the most part, are afraid. The are afraid that the american public will associate the democratic party with good. They are refusing to poll the democratic voters to see if they are christian. In this country people think christian and good are synonyms. The media does not want you to think that democrats can be good. From Sarah at Tapped:

As was the case in Iowa, the exit polling firm that provides data to all the major networks, cable news outlets and the Associated Press, did not ask New Hampshire Democrats if they were evangelical, further enabling the extremist conservative evangelicals with the very loud voices to assert that they represent all evangelicals voters. Moderate and liberal evangelicals make up a little less than half of all American evangelicals. Surely some of them are Democrats, or at least we should be interested in finding out how many of them are? The folks at Faith in Public Life have more

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cake

• 1 package devils food cake
• 1 package chocolate pudding
  
• 12 oz of chocolate chips(semi-sweet)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 4 eggs

Add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips to a bowl and mix for 4 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake in a bunt pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes
Let cool sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Enjoy

WOW

It is hard to believe this is our elite political commentary. Chris Mathews has no respect for Hillary at all. What a republican tool.

Update:Tritero over at Digby's place has this to say.

He's absolutely right. But really now, what does it matter? To be charitable towards poor Mr. Fenn, it's perhaps an error of omission. After all, Fox represents Absolute Evil and the networks aren't in that league, right?

No. That's simply not so. And if you think so, take a trip through the Howler's archives and marvel at the unbelievably nasty and gratuitous lies and distortions in the coverage of Gore, of the Clintons, and of other major Democrats from the major networks, from the major papers, from media outlets who claim to disavow Fox's biased agenda but whose hateful coverage of leading Democrats is just as bad.

It's true. Fox is not the problem but only part of it. Whatever the reasons, the major media hated/still hate Gore, hated Kerry, hate the Clintons. By all means read all about it on the Howler. Follow the links. Read what the non-Fox media, the "better" outlets have said and done. That is why Somerby won't tolerate Fenn's failure to include the mainstream in the list of Clinton bashers:

If the mainstream press corps turns on the next Dem nominee, will voters understand what they’re seeing? Or will they assume that, since it’s not Fox, the trashing must be well-founded?

The dead of Iraq are in the ground because of the story we liberals wouldn’t tell. Peter Fenn seems like a nice guy. Last night, within the context of insider Washington, he did keep himself highly likeable.

I don't know the answer to Bob's rhetorical question, whether viewers today -given the amount of pushback from blogs and a less turgid Democratic party - will think bashing from the mainstream has some foundation. But if I had to answer it, I'd guess they will assume the bashing must have some basis. But even if every reader and viewer in America was savvy enough never to be taken in by the media's unprofessional coverage of the Clintons and other Democrats, it makes no difference. The media have a job to do and that is to provide us with dispassionate reporting. And, as we've recently seen, they are once again failing to do so, acting like sulking children. As they have done for years and years and years.

Again, Somerby is right. We should howl bloody murder at the way the media covers the candidates. The press needs to grow up, stop their addiction to Republican talking points and their lies. They need to report; how the candidates make them feel is, or rather should be, of no one's concern except to their mommies and daddies.

Update 2: Glenn Greenwald:

All of the points Brokaw made would have been just as valid even if their Wicked Witch had been crushed last night by 15 points, just as they were all hoping, predicting, and (therefore) trying to bring about. The endless attempts to predict the future and thus determine the outcome of the elections -- to the exclusion of anything meaningful -- is a completely inappropriate role for journalists to play, independent of the fact that they are chronically wrong, ill-informed, and humiliated when they do it. It would all be just as inappropriate and corrupt even if they knew what they were talking about, even if they were able to convert their wishes into outcomes.

But Matthews' response to Brokaw is perfect in several ways. The very idea of discussing issues, examining the candidates' positions, or even analyzing voter preferences does not and cannot even occur to Chris Matthews. That -- the most elementary nuts and bolts of standard, healthy journalism -- is way, way beyond the scope of what our media stars are able to do or want to do.

Update 3: Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake:

What is wrong with Chris Matthews? With all of these media people? I mean that, in all honesty, what in the hell is wrong with them? Their personal loathing of Hillary Clinton shone through in every sniggering, overwrought report this week. Their building up of Barack Obama is only their prelude and set-up for the frenzied clawing and shredding of him that is to come. And they have well and truly written off coverage of either John Edwards or Bill Richardson solely based on their current fundraising numbers, and never mind that, as of yesterday, there had been two -- count them, only TWO -- Democratic contests.

None of it has anything to do with substance. It's as if a pack of hyenas were crossbred with the characters in Mean Girls and then sent out to play at journalism.

Maureen Dowd's column this morning reads like J.J. Hunsecker in drag, although it's not exactly a shock given that its Dowd we are talking about, is it? Rachel Maddow let Matthews have it last night (C&L has the clip.) as a proxy stand-in for all the media idiocy. And Pam Spaulding nails it, calling it "'The Tweety Effect,' where the misogyny of a talking head in the MSM so enrages a demographic that they go out and vote in a manner that will put egg on the face of the talking head."

Lion King

Lion King goes through the urban wilds of Cincinnati,OH. Did you know Ohio is high in the middle and round on the sides?

These Are The Times That Try Mens Souls

Hikers go missing fairly often. Mostly the turn up in a day or two. Sometimes they die. It is a risk we accept going out into the wild alone. The murder of Meredith Emerson upsets me. As it all of the of the hiking community. It is unsettling. Emotional. Today, I read that she was alive for three days. Before Hilton killed her.
Today, I understand the wants or needs of vigilante justice. I know it is wrong to torture even if Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia does not.

Fringe Candidates

Everybody has there own idea of who is a fringe candidate. I will one day be a fringe candidate. Remember a vote for Chef is a vote for beer. Josh believes Ron Paul and Rudy Guiliani are fringe candidates. I have to say both are pretty fringe. The republican party in New Hampshire might disagree. Fox news is OK with Rudy but not Paul.

I want to talk about the candidates that finish below write-in. It seems Fred Thompson and Alan Keyes are not fringe if they can get in to the Debates in Iowa with the Republican Party's blessing.

Now lets talk about the ones on the ballet and still running that you may have heard of. Duncan Hunter a current congressman. Fred Thompson a creature from the white lagoon. Alan Keyes professional black republican.

On the Democratic side the only fringe candidate left that you may have heard of is Tom Laughlin. You know Billy Jack. He has never been given credibility by the democratic party or the media.

It is getting late and none of the republican fringe candidates are going to get anywhere near Tom's highest total in New Hampshire. In 1992 he got 3,251(2%) votes without any media support. Without any party support. This year well he is at 0%. Keyes 0%, Hunter 0%, Thompson 1%.

It is amazing who the mainstream media will bestow legitimacy on. It seems to me with the numbers of democrats voting in the primaries, Billy Jack may still kick some republican ass.

Read Crooks and Liars

Really you should read it every day. Watch Olbermann smack down republican tool Chris Mathews.

Good News

It seems the eight people missing in Saturday's snow storm in CO. Have been found safe. From Allie at The Sierra Trading Post blog.

Six snowmobilers who were lost in whiteout conditions found a cabin to hole up in until the weather cleared enough for them to call for help. Two snowboarders who were lost in southern Colorado were also found today, thanks again, to their cell phone. They’d all been missing since Saturday. Luckily, neither of these parties fell victim to the widespread avalanches reported this weekend.

I saw that the snowmobilers had been found but not the boarders. It gives me hope that Dean Christy who has been missing since Saturday will be found alive. He is in the San Bernardino Mountains in CA. I hope he is well.

Cell phones can be use full and save your life. They also have a time and place to be used. Some people are very offended by them. If you are not alone please ask the other people if they mind. many people go into the woods to get away from cell phones and other distractions of civilization. If it is not an emergency please keep it turned off. Please, do not call people and say I am on the top of whatever mountain you are on. Remember at night just because you can not see me does not mean I can not hear you.
If I hear you tell some one you can call them tomorrow because you will be in town. I will yell at you and tell you to call them tomorrow in town. Yes, that has happened. No, I did not yell after the first phone call or the second. I will now.

I am glad my fellow outdoor enthusiasts had phones and it saved their lives. I am not quite sure that I am ready for the responsibility of carrying a phone in the woods.

We Are Number One!

Oops, I see we no longer had the highest standard of living in the world. Well, at least we have the best health care.

France is tops, and the United States dead last, in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries.[...]

"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on this crucial indicator of health system performance," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, who noted that "other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less."

The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Some countries showed dramatic improvement in the periods studied -- 1997 and 1998 and again between 2002 and 2003 -- outpacing the United States, which showed only slight improvement.

White the United States ranked 15th of 19 between 1997-98, by 2002-03 it had fallen to last place.

"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially except the US," said Ellen Nolte, lead author of the study.

(bolds mine)

Where is that money going? Could it be huge profits and overpaid CEO's?

Krugman

It seems he is not happy with the jobs report.

The unemployment report on Friday was brutally bad. Unemployment rose in December, while job creation was minimal — and it’s highly likely, for technical reasons, that the job number will be revised down, showing an actual decline in employment.
It’s the latest piece of bad news about an economy in which the employment situation has actually been deteriorating for the past year. It’s no longer possible to hope that the effects of the housing slump will remain “contained,” as one of 2007’s buzzwords had it. The levees have been breached, and the repercussions of the housing crisis are spreading across the economy as a whole.

Read the whole thing.

Body of Meredith Emerson Found

Sad news but hopefully it will give her family and friends some relief. Hilton who has been charged with kidnapping is now a suspect in four murders. Meredith's, John and Irene Clayton, and a hair dresser that disappeared in 2004.
My condolences to her friends and family.
Update: Hilton is a suspect in another murder.
Update 2: Hilton will be charged in FL.

Solar Trees

Solar Tree II, originally uploaded by Gnal.

In Vienna Austria they have been experimenting with solar trees. These are very aesthetically pleasing. From Solar Power Rocks:

Street lighting accounts for roughly 10% of total European energy consumption. That amounts to a staggering 2,000 billion kilowatts or nearly three billion tons of carbon emissions. While that figure is immense, then again, it’s worth it - in urban planning circles, street lighting is a tried-and-true tactic to reduce crime, increase livability, etc. And, bonus: they look like cybernetic trees.

This is a solid example of using art and aesthetics to get solar power up and running: it’s probably no coincidence that these trees have now been planted for display outside the opera house in Milan. And if people can imagine solar power as being an integrated part of their landscape, then we’ve got nowhere to go but up.

What Would You Ask?

Tengrain asked readers of Mock Paper Scissors to place this on their blogs. The people at First Freedom First are working to keep separation between church and state. I would ask if we have a official religion do we have to tithe? A tax just for the church so it can tell us how to live our lives righteously.

Air Car

I saw this a while ago. It looks like the car runs on compressed air. From Raw Story:

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

I had saved this YouTube a while ago.

It sounds like they might go into production soon.

McStarbucks

I love the double cheeseburger for a buck. It is bad for me and bad for the planet but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. It seems McD's is going for the coffee drinker. Soft drink sails are down. Most likely because of bad press. Soft drinks are not good for you. So people are drinking coffee drinks which are more fattening than soft drinks. More fat than a quarter pound burger. My buddy Phatt Chapp loves the crap out of those caramel coffee things McD's sells. It will make them some money. Just remember that a Big Mac has less fat(29g) than a bacon crispy chicken ranch salad(16g) plus ranch dressing(15g).

Marry McCain?

Joe "the killer" Scaborough wants to move to Massachusetts's and marry John McCain. I thought he liked girls not boys. Think Progress has the video.
I am not saying that Joe is actually a killer it is just a cute little nickname. Like Bob"the Traitor" Novak. After all if he can Joke about having sex with her and killing her so can I.

Five Myths About Voters

The post has a fun article about voters. It can be summed up by this:

As the humorist Josh Billings once observed, "The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."

That is the way the media wants it.

Party BS

I was at a party recently and was discussing this article about hybrid delivery trucks. And out of nowhere one of the people involved in the conversation started ridiculing me because there are no hybrid diesels. I did not say they were diesels. I said they were hybrids. Here is what the Eaton Corporation has to say about their engines.

At the current average diesel price of almost $2.50 per gallon, those savings equate to about $9,000 to $10,000 a truck per year in operation.

I could not find a passage that said they were diesel hybrids but this pretty much confirms it to me. I was too hasty.

Eaton employs a parallel-type diesel-electric hybrid system with Eaton’s Fuller® UltraShift® automated transmission It incorporates an electric motor/generator between the output of an automated clutch and input of the transmission. The system recovers energy normally lost during braking and stores the energy in batteries. When electric torque is blended with engine torque, the stored energy is used to improve fuel economy and vehicle performance for a given speed, or operate with electric power only. The system provides energy for use during engine-off worksite operations.

I feel better now.

The Shrill One

Paul Krugman is the only columnist that can be considered liberal at the NYT. He is Dealing With The Dragon.

On the Republican side, foreign policy talk is all bluster and braggadocio. To listen to the G.O.P. candidates, you’d think it was still February 2003, when the national discourse was dominated by people who thought that American military might was sufficient to shock and awe the rest of the world into doing our bidding.

Memo: China has 50 times the population of Iraq.

The Democrats in general make far more sense. But among at least some of Barack Obama’s supporters there seems to be a belief that if their candidate is elected, the world’s problems will melt away in the face of his multicultural charisma.

Memo: It won’t work on the Chinese.

The truth is that China is too big to be bullied, and the Chinese are too cynical to be charmed. But while they are our competitors in important respects, they’re not our enemies, and they can be dealt with.

A lot of Americans, when they think about the next president’s foreign-policy qualifications, seem to be looking for a hero — someone who will stand tall against terrorists, or transform the world with his optimism.

But what they should be looking for is something more prosaic — a good negotiator, someone who can bargain effectively with some very tough customers and get the deals we need on energy, currency policy and carbon credits.

Snow

Snow!, originally uploaded by Chris Diersen.

Another hiker is missing. I hope he makes it out, I have seen no updates about this hiker today. The man was caught in a snow storm on Saturday.

The man used his cell phone Friday to tell authorities that he lost his sense of direction in the fog. Searchers last had cell phone contact with the man early Saturday.

Gee Great

More Franken Food. The FDA is set to approve cloned animals for food and milk. I just do not think this is at all wise. I do not trust the government at all with GW Bush at the helm.

NEW YORK (AFP) - The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring safe to eat as early as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

I am sure before too long evil bastards like Monsanto will make it illegal to say our meat and milk comes from real cows.

Segways In Our National Parks?

Kurt Repanshek at the National Parks Traveler asks the question. I going with no. It is a good article.

ITMFA

George McGovern thinks it is time to impeach.

Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard.[...]

As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors."

Sign Wexler's petition to Impeach.

How Racist Can You Be?

Bob Novak, the traitor, is still on TV. He is a reliable republican tool. He will not ever say a progressive thing. Lie, slander and pander to the right, he will. He channels Joe Bidden in this episode of Youtube. Saying Obama is not one of those stereotypical Negroes.

Black Beans

1. 16 oz can of black beans
2. 1/2 red pepper diced
3. 1/2 onion diced
4. olive oil
   
5. 1/2 cup frozen corn
6. 1/2 tsp chili powder
7. 1/2 tsp cumin
8. 1/2 tsp garlic powder
9. 1 tsp salt

Saute the onion and pepper until soft. Add the black beans.( I add the juice. If you do not like the juice add some water or vegetable stock) Add the corn and spices cook about ten minutes.

Tequila Lime Shrimp

1. 1 pound 21/25 shrimp peeled (deveined, If you are into it)
2. 2 limes
3. 2 cloves garlic
4. salt
5. olive oil
6. large onion
7. tequila
   

Put the shrimp in a bowl. Add the juice from the limes. Mince the garlic and add. Salt to taste.(try a teaspoon) Let marinade for about two hours.

Slice the onion, and saute in the olive oil about five minutes or so until almost soft. Add shrimp and saute for a minute or two. It is important to get pan hot before adding tequila. The tequila must boil, or it will not loose its alcohol.

Serve in tortillas with black beans.

No News

Not much has changed in the disappearance of Meredith Emerson. It seems despite being found near Emerson's dog and wallet, Hilton is not saying where she is. I believe if she was on Blood Mountain she would have been found. Hilton is the last person Known to have seen her. Blood Mountain is 28 miles from the start of the Appalachian Trail. There has been a great out pouring of anguish in the long distance hiking community. This White Blaze thread has been a good place to share information and talk about a missing hiker. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.
Update: Hilton has been charged with kidnapping. Also there is evidence of bodily harm.
Update 2: Police think she is dead. Sad news.

Snowshoeing on Mt Pilchuck

Snowshoeing the Basin, originally uploaded by otr3mba.

A girl snowshoeing on Mt Pilchuck was lost in a avalanche yesterday. This has turned out to be a very deadly year.

It was the ninth confirmed or presumed death resulting from avalanches in the region this season.

"This is certainly the worst (season) since we began doing avalanche forecasts in 1975," said Mark Moore, director of the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center.

"And we're only a month into the season," said Kenny Kramer, an avalanche forecaster and colleague of Moore's at the center.

You must " Know before you go." Also check with NOAA's avalanche center.

We Don't Need No Nukes

Cernig read now

Tupelo Honey

Tupelo honey is the only honey that does not crystallize. I will let the Lanier family tell how it is produced.

Tupelo honey is produced from the tupelo gum tree which grows profusely along the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers of northwest Florida. Here in the river swamps, this honey is produced in a unique fashion. Bees are placed on elevated platforms along the river’s edge, and they fan out through the surrounding Tupelo-blossom-laden swamps during April and May and return with their precious treasure. This river valley is the only place in the world where Tupelo Honey is produced commercially.

Real Tupelo honey is a light golden amber color with a greenish cast. The flavor is delicious, delicate and distinctive; a choice table grade honey. Good white tupelo, unmixed with other honeys, will not granulate, and due to this high fructose low glucose ratio some diabetic patients have been permitted by their physicians to eat Tupelo honey. Average analysis: fructose 44.03% glucose 29.98%. [...]
Fine Tupelo is more expensive because it cost more to produce this excellent specialty honey. To gain access to the river locations where the honey is produced requires expensive labor and equipment. In order to get fine, unmixed Tupelo honey, colonies must be stripped of all stores just as the white Tupelo bloom begins. The bees must have clean combs in which to place the Tupelo honey. Then the new crop must be removed before it can be mixed with additional honey sources. The timing of these operations are critical and years of experience are needed to produce a fine product that will certify as Tupelo honey.

The Lanier family were the bee keeping consultants on the movie "Ulee's Gold."
Van Morrison sings Tupelo Honey.

Think Equal

Same sex marriage mat come up in this years legislative session in MD. My friends at Free State Politics also had this youtube. It is kind of cute.

Help Find Meredith

There is a website with information about the hiker missing on Blood Mountain. Helpfindmeredith.com

Update: Police are trying to see if this is connected to another hikers murder.

Police investigating Emerson's disappearance are looking for Gary Michael Hilton, 61, who was seen walking with the University of Georgia graduate on Tuesday. He was wearing a yellow jacket, witnesses said.

In the Bryant case, a surveillance video recorded someone wearing a yellow jacket using the couple's ATM card at a bank in Ducktown, Tenn. — about an hour away from where Emerson was hiking.

Update: The person of interest has been found by police. Meredith is not with him. Also, her dog has been found.

Good Beer Prices Rising Soon

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting rising prices because of hops and barley shortages.

- Craft brewers are looking at increases of anywhere from 200% to 500% for their cost of hops, depending on the brewery and what contracts they have in place. A hop that a brewery paid $3 to $5/lb for last year cost them $15 to $20/lb this year. Breweries have also seen several malt price increases over the past 6 months, and the bad news likely isn't over.

The damn farm bill is driving this.

Milk Labeling

It just pisses me off that big business keeps getting its way. They have some lame ass argument. Dairies are no longer allowed to say they do not have rBST, because it says other milk is not healthy. I hate Monsanto. Really. Anyway, Shira at unbossed has a good article about there shenanigans. Here is a teaser.

And in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania papers have managed to present the issue in a way that at best gives lipservice to the issues.
In the last month or so, we finally woke up to the fact that the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, now followed by Ohio and New Jersey area all planning to ban labels on milk that tell us whether Posilac / rBST (recombinant bovine somatrophin) has been injected into the cows that produce our milk.

This is an exploration of how the media is playing the story, but for those who are new to this issue, here is a quick overview of how I see the situation.

Some of us want to know, because we are concerned about the safety of the milk. Most other countries in the world are concerned and have banned its use until it is clear it is safe. The US has taken the position that its safety is not in question and placed the burden on proving it is unsafe. There are concerns about the BST or IGF-1 in our milk, the levels and types, and hints that IGF-1 could be connected with cancer - or not - when we have had more testing. There are concerns about the rush to expose the public and children to a product without being totally assured of its safety .

IPTMFA

Impeach The Mother Fucker Already. He has no respect for the constitution. Bush has no balls. Sign the veto or the bill.

Article I, section 7 of the Constitution says that the president must sign or veto legislation passed by Congress within ten days (not counting Sundays). If he signs it, it becomes law. If he vetoes it, then Congress can override his veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses. And if he does not sign or veto it while Congress is in session, it becomes law. But if Congress is not in session and he doesn't sign it, then it neither becomes law nor can Congress override it. The bill is dead. That's a pocket veto.

So on December 28th, the president proclaimed that the defense authorization bill was dead by pocket veto. (For some background on the substance of the dispute -- why Bush doesn't like the bill and Dems' frustration with the fact that the administration didn't raise the objection until after the bill passed -- see here.) Congress will just have to start over. Keep in mind that the bill passed both houses with veto-proof majorities.

But, as Kagro X at Daily Kos first pointed out, there's a problem with that. Though the president said that "adjournment of Congress" allowed him to pocket veto, Congress was not, in fact, in adjournment.

A Cold Day On Blood

A Cold day on Blood, originally uploaded by /Sean.

A woman went missing on Blood Mountain in GA.

BLARISVILLE - Authorities planned to continue searching Thursday for a woman who went missing after going hiking in the North Georgia mountains.

Meredith Emerson, 24, a Colorado native who now lives in Buford, went hiking with her black Labrador Retriever on Tuesday morning, friends said.

Update: The crowd at White Blaze suspects fowl play. Here is a news article that says something might be fishy.

Police also found a police baton and a pair of sunglasses near Emerson's car.Another hiker told officials he saw a man with a similar baton clipped to his belt hiking on the same trail that Emerson took.Emerson is 5'4", 120 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Update 2: Police have named a person of interest.

Officials have named a person of interest in the search for missing hiker Meredith Emerson, and are searching for Gary Michael Hilton, 60.

According to investigators, Hilton owns two vehicles, both registered in DeKalb County: a white 1996 Chevrolet Astro Van with plate number 76APZ, and a white 2001 Chevrolet Astro Van with license plate number AFQ1310.

Officials said they want to know what Hilton said to Emerson on the Appalachian Trail. They said that Hilton has been named as a person of interest in the case.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Union County Sheriff at 706-439-6066.

Here is a description.

Hilton is described as white, about 160 pounds, and about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with "bad teeth." He was reportedly wearing a large backpack and a yellow jacket with black patches on the elbows.
"He also had a reddish, retriever-type dog that answered to the name ‘Danny.'" Verdone said.

Hillary

I could not help it.

ROODEE

via

Wake Up!

Edwards Add

I am not sure who I really want, but Edwards is pissing off the Republican Tools on the TV.