Interesting Articles Or Coincidences

[kevjohn]

40 whales die in mass stranding in India

Updated: 04:14, Friday October 26, 2012

About 40 whales have died in a mass stranding on the west coast of India's remote North Andaman island in the Bay of Bengal, wildlife officials say.

'The short-finned pilot whales were found by fishermen who alerted us and investigations show it was a case of mass stranding,' said Ajai Saxena, a wildlife official in Port Blair, capital of the islands.

Saxena said no previous mass stranding had been reported in the Andamans, but it was a natural phenomenon that occurs when whales get disoriented and are unable to swim back into deep water.

Stranding is also thought to occur when a pod follows a sick or an injured whale into the shallows, experts say.

Emergency teams and local volunteers headed to the beach near Elizabeth Bay on the North Andaman island where the whales were stranded, but they were unable to help.

'The mammals are so heavy, it is impossible to move them back to the waters,' Saxena told AFP.

A post-mortem examination has been conducted on one of the adults, which weighed two tonnes.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are Indian territory, though they are at least 1000 kilometres from the mainland and are closer to the coast of Burma.

From Sky News

http://www.skynews.c....aspx?id=809609

[kevjohn]

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef found to have thriving deep water coral.

October 26, 2012 -- Updated 0623 GMT (1423 HKT)

(CNN) -- A recent survey of the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef has found coral flourishing in deep waters,

a stark contrast to the shallower reefs that have seen a drastic decline over the last few decades.

The healthy coral populations were discovered to be below 30 meters -- beyond the usual reach

of most scuba divers -- and even found at depths of 80 meters, according to the Catlin Seaview Survey.

"The Holmes and Flinders Reefs in the Coral Sea are renowned for having been badly damaged" said Pim Bongaerts,

of the University of Queensland's Global Change Institute, who was leading the deep reef survey.

"Yet we have found their deep reef zone is hardly disturbed at all. In fact the most striking thing is the abundance of coral on the deep reef.

What has blown me away is to see that even 70 to 80 meters down, there are significant coral populations."

Earlier this month a report, by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the University of Wollongong,

revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover in the last 27 years.

Researchers say most of the damage to the shallower coral was wrought in recent years by a succession of powerful cyclones. Other threats that are hindering its ability to recover include the crown-of-thorns starfish, or COTS, a native species which feeds on coral, and coral bleaching that occurs when water becomes too warm.

The deep reef survey team used remote operated vehicles able to reach depths of 100 meters, giving scientists a new view of hitherto unexplored reefs.

"It is surprising in this day and age, that below some of the most well-known reefs, which are so popular with divers, there is an almost entirely unexplored world and as a result an enormous amount of science to be done," said Bongaerts.

So far the team has completed four of its ten planned surveys at areas along the length of the 2,300 kilometer-long reef system and outlying atolls.

Bongaerts believes that the deep-water reefs might be able to help the shallower ones recover, as they have been seen to live in both depths of water.

"At the moment we know little about the extent of larval movements between the shallow and deep reef, but we are seeing species that exist in both zones," he said."There are clear differences we're observing. Corals are much flatter, more plate-like than the branching and domed shapes seen nearer the surface. This is the corals responding to the reduced light conditions and spreading out to maximize their exposure to light. So far below the surface, the light is blue because all other parts of the spectrum have been filtered out. It is a monochrome world until you turn on strong lights to reveal amazing, beautiful, fantastic colors."

From CNN

http://edition.cnn.c...ter-coral-reef/

[kevjohn]

Sweden runs out of garbage, forced to import from Norway

Sweden, a recycling-happy land where a quarter of a million homes are powered by the incineration of waste, is facing a unique dilemma: The nation has run out of much-needed fuel.

Thu, Oct 25 2012 at 9:30 AM EST 9

Sweden, birthplace of the Smorgasbord, Eric Northman, and the world’s preferred solar-powered purveyor of flat-pack home furnishings, is in a bit of a pickle: the squeaky clean Scandinavian nation of more than 9.5 million has run out of garbage. The landfills have been tapped dry; the rubbish reserves depleted. And although this may seem like a positive — even enviable — predicament for a country to be facing, Sweden has been forced to import trash from neighboring countries, namely Norway. Yep, Sweden is so trash-strapped that officials are shipping it in — 80,000 tons of refuse annually, to be exact — from elsewhere.

You see, Swedes are big on recycling. So big in fact that only 4 percent of all waste generated in the country is landfilled.

Good for them! However, the population's remarkably pertinacious recycling habits are also a bit of a problem given that the country relies on waste to heat and to provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes through a longstanding waste-to-energy incineration program. So with citizens simply not generating enough burnable waste to power the incinerators, the country has been forced to look elsewhere for fuel.

Says Catarina Ostlund, a senior advisor for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency: “We have more capacity than the production of waste in Sweden and that is usable for incineration.”

Public Radio International has the whole story (hat tip to Ariel Schwartz at Co.Exist), a story that may seem implausible in a country like garbage-bloated America where overflowing landfills are anything but scarce.

As mentioned, the solution — a short-term one, according to Ostlund — has been to import (well, kind of import) waste from Norway. It’s kind of a great deal for the Swedes: Norway pays Sweden to take its excess waste, Sweden burns it for heat and electricity, and the ashes remaining from the incineration process, filled with highly polluting dioxins, are returned back to Norway and landfilled.

Ostlund suggests that Norway might not be the perfect partner for a trash import - export scheme, however. “I hope that we instead will get the waste from Italy or from Romania or Bulgaria or the Baltic countries because they landfill a lot in these countries," she tells PRI. "They don’t have any incineration plants or recycling plants, so they need to find a solution for their waste."

From the Mother Nature Network

http://www.mnn.com/l...y?fb_ref=recbar

Edited October 27, 2012 by kevjohn

[Ron19]

[Ron19]

Click on image to enlarge.

12:13pm November 5, 2012

|

Czech archaeologists have uncovered the 4500-year-old tomb of an Egyptian princess south of Cairo.

Princess Shert Nebti's tomb was found along with four other tombs of "high ranking officials" from the ancient society, according to Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Mohammed Ibrahim.

The researchers, from the Czech Institute of Egyptology, said discoveries at the site were still ongoing and further excavations would be completed before the site was open to the public.

Inscriptions on four limestone pillars surrounding the tomb indicate the princess was the daughter of King Men Salbo.

The officials buried nearby also dated to around 2500 BC.

[kevjohn]

REMEMBER NADIA COMANECI?

She was the Romanian athlete who at 14 years, in the 1970's, won medals in the OLYMPIADS and would attend

competitions holding a teddy bear. The first Gymnast to get a perfect 10 out of ten.

THIS IS HER GRANDDAUGHTER

Edited November 6, 2012 by kevjohn

[kevjohn]

Not in English but you will understand what it is about

[Ron19]

Breaking the language barrier could be made easier than ever with new technology that translates speech in real-time - without even changing the sound of your voice.

Microsoft's chief research officer Rick Rashid demonstrated the technology at an event in China last month, and video of the event was posted online yesterday.

The clip shows Mr Rashid's voice being translated into Mandarin as he speaks to the crowd, with just a few seconds of delay.

"There's much work to be done in this area," Mr Rashid says in the video.

"But this technology is very promising and we hope in a few years that we'll be able to break down the language barriers between people.

"Personally, I believe this is going to lead to a better world."

Rick Rashid demonstrates the new system in China.

Mr Rashid said the new system was not only fast but was more accurate than other speech recognition technology.

He said the technology had attracted public interest since the demonstration in China but researchers had not yet used it to speak to someone outside the company.

"What I've seen is some combination of excitement, astonishment and optimism about the future that the technology could bring," Mr Rashid told MIT Technology Review.

"We don't yet know the limits on accuracy of this technology - it's really too new.

"As we continue to 'train' the system with more data, it appears to do better and better."

ninemsn is a 50/50 joint venture between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co.

Source: MIT Technology Review, WebProNews, Reddit

Author: Alexandra Pleffer, Approving editor: Henri Paget

http://youtu.be/yBf6f4mQoXw

Edited November 9, 2012 by Ron19

[kevjohn]

Apple Shells Out $21Mn To License Ripped-Off Clock Design

BY SOLON HARMONY DOLOR

NOV 11TH 2012

IN APPLE

Apple has paid the Swiss Federal Railways service $21 million to license the clock design Apple is said to have ripped off in iOS 6.

The controversy and subsequent licensing by Apple stems from a complaint the Swiss Federal Railways service (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen or SBB) fired off in September.

The SBB Argued then that Apple copied its iconic clock design – a clock face which can be seen in Swiss train stations since 1944 – without permission for the iOS 6 mobile operating system.

According to a report from the Agence France-Presse, Swiss publication Tages-Anzeiger reported on Saturday that Apple paid 20 million Swiss Francs (US $21 million or 17 million Euros) as a lump sum payment to compensate the SBB for their design.

Furthermore, the lump sum payment ensures that Apple can continue using the clock face in its products, the Swiss publication says, basing on information given by unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

When contacted by the AFP, the SBB said that they are looking forward to discussing why the iPhone-maker began to use the clock face for iOS 6 without seeking permission from the Swiss government agency.

“She said at the time that SBB was more interested in bringing clarity to where and how Apple could use the logo than in raking in cash,” the AFP reports.

Below follow pictures of the iOS 6 clock and the SBB clock face.

More here: http://socialbarrel....k-design/46179/

[kevjohn]

Total solar eclipse inspires tourists to travel to Australia

From: news.com.au November 12, 2012 10:00AM

Total eclipse of the sun visible from Australia

Hotels have been booked three years ahead

"Time sort of stops, but you know it's only going to last a minute"

TOURISTS are flocking on far north Queensland in the hope of seeing a spectacular two-minute solar eclipse.

Shortly after dawn at 6.39 (local time) on November 14, the temperature will drop slightly in northern Australia and the sky will grow darker as the moon begins to pass in front of the sun.

"Totality" - the darkness resulting from a total eclipse of the sun - will last just over two minutes.

Weather permitting, sky-gazers will see a black disk with the sun's glowing corona stretching beyond it.

The full eclipse will be only visible from Kakadu National Park, passing over Far North Queensland and the South Pacific, finishing just off the coast of Chile.

In all other areas sky-gazers will only see a partial eclipse of the sun.

More here: http://www.theaustra...6-1226507537555

[kevjohn]

Aussie scientists cure inherited disease

9:59pm November 16, 2012

Scientists say they are closer to helping people with hereditary diseases after restoring almost normal heart function to members of a family who suffer from a dangerous cardiac disease.

Medical researchers cured the family of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease that causes heart rhythm disorders, using technology to identify mutated genes which they targeted with drugs.

The research, led by a team from Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Institute and St Vincent's Hospital, has been published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The researchers began by screening the 42 members of the family who had a history of DCM.

They were then given drugs which genetic sequencing led researchers to believe would target and "specifically reverse the consequences of the gene defect", Victor Chang Cardiac Institute Professor Jamie Vandenberg said.

Drugs can slow the progress of DCM, but when it inevitably reaches what researchers call "end stage" the only option for sufferers is a heart transplant, Prof Vandenberg said.

Thanks to new research and the decreasing costs and difficulties of gene sequencing, it is now possible to identify mutated genes and prescribe medication that targets the cause of hereditary diseases.

In the case of inherited DCM, it's as close to a cure as is yet available, Prof Vandenberg says.

"Some of these patients went from having a life expectancy of six to 12 months to now having almost normal heart function again," he told AAP.

"If you do understand what the underlying gene defect is, there's a possibility that you can identify a specific drug that will work and will work very effectively.

About 1 in 2000 Australians are affected by DCM, which accounts for about 10 per cent of heart failures.

From ninemsm: http://news.ninemsn....herited-disease

[kevjohn]

Researchers document world-first fire tornado

By Jessica Nairn

The world's first confirmed case of a fire tornado has been documented by Canberra researchers, using evidence collected from the devastating 2003 Canberra bushfires.

Researchers have long speculated about the ability of a fire to produce a tornado, but until now they have not been able to scientifically prove it.

The study involved collecting a vast quantity of evidence from the Canberra bushfires and has been published in the scientific journal Natural Hazards.

Lead researcher Rick McRae says the fire tornado formed in the ranges west of Canberra before pushing into the city's suburbs.

"The one that we looked at showed that as it approached the edge of Canberra, its basal diameter was nearly half a kilometre, and the damage indicates that the horizontal wind speeds around it were in excess of 250 kilometres per hour," he said.

"There is also a vertical wind in it at 150kph."

He says tornados are different to the whirls often associated with fires.

"The fire whirl is attached to the hot ground," he said.

"A fire tornado, like a true tornado, is attached to the underside of a thunderstorm."

Mr McRae says the study provides crucial information on fire behaviour.

"Our analysis indicates that the tornado had a rating of at least a two on the enhanced Fujita scale of tornado severity [scale of 0-5, with five being the worst]," he said.

"It had major effects on the behaviour of the fire on the urban edge and had enough force to remove roofs from houses and to blow cars off the road.

"It's given us an ability to recreate the behaviour of this thing and for the science community, document what a fire tornado may actually be."

Mr McRae says he hopes the case will help emergency authorities better understand the nature of bushfires.

More here: http://www.abc.net.a...tornado/4380252

[BookMan]

I'm renaming this the Kevjohn and Ron thread!

[kevjohn]

A sight for snore eyes: Glasses stop you getting jet lag by emitting green light

High-tech glasses reset body clock to combat insomnia and beat jet-lag

Could help keep shift workers more alert and get teenagers out of bed

Inventor is Professor Leon Lack of Flinders University in South Australia

By DAVID GARDNER

PUBLISHED: 17:14 GMT, 21 November 2012 | UPDATED: 07:39 GMT, 22 November 2012

Light work: Researchers in Australia have launched world's first spectacles which reset your body clock to combat insomnia and beat jet-lag

Using the device, called the Re-Timer, means long-haul air passengers can step off the plane feeling fresh, even after a flight from Britain to Australia, say the sleep researchers who created it.

Inventor Professor Leon Lack said the glasses could also help insomnia sufferers, keep shift workers more alert and get teenagers out of bed in the morning.

‘The light from Re-Timer stimulates the part of the brain responsible for regulating the 24-hour body clock,’ said Professor Lack, of Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia.

‘Using a light device allows you to transition your body clock to a new time zone in small steps. This eliminates the sudden change people experience after flying and reduces the symptoms of jet lag.’

The scientists say the light exposure changes the behaviour of a gland at the base of the brain which controls the body clock.

In the dark: Sleep researcher Prof Leon Lack said a green light helps to readjust the body's internal clock

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It sends signals to the rest of the body, triggering the production of hormones, which create daily cycles known as circadian rhythms.

Those who wanted to sleep and wake up earlier should wear the device for 50 minutes in the morning, while those who want to sleep and wake later should wear them for 50 minutes before bed to delay the body clock, say the researchers.

The battery-powered glasses, which are on sale in the UK on the Re-Timer website for £162, can be worn while completing normal daily tasks such as working on the computer or reading.

Almost 94 per cent of passengers experience jet lag after a long flight.

This is because travelling through different time zones confuses the body clock, which uses cues from the outside world – such as light, dark, silence and noise – to tell the body when it should be asleep or awake.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz2D6bsX5Je

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Edited November 24, 2012 by kevjohn

[krisb]

• Coincidences of John Kennedy and Abe Lincoln
  
• 
  
• Both presidents were elected to the presidency in '60.
  
• Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in '46.
  
• Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vice-president in '56.
  
• Both their Vice Presidents and successors were Southern Democrats named Johnson who were born in '08.
  
• Both presidents were concerned with the problems of black Americans and made their views strongly known in '63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which became law in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, and the same year was the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
  
• Both presidents were shot in their heads.
  
• Both presidents were shot from behind.
  
• Both presidents were shot in presence of their wives.
  
• Both presidents were shot on a Friday.
  
• Both presidents were accompanied by another couple.
  
• The male companion of the other couple was wounded by the assassin.
  
• Both presidents had a son die during their presidency.
  
• Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre; Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in a Lincoln automobile, made by Ford.
  
• Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theatre; Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas.
  
• Both presidents' last names have 7 letters.
  
• Both presidents have five syllables in their full name (which counts Kennedy's middle initial).
  
• There are 6 letters in each Johnson's first name.
  
• Booth ran from a theatre to a warehouse; Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre.
  
• Both assassins have 3-word and 15-letter names.
  
• Both assassins were born in the late '30s.
  
• Both assassins were southerners who sympathized with organizations that were adversarial to the United States.
  
• Both assassins were killed within the same calendar month before they could be put on trial.
  
• Both assassins were killed in states located immediately west of the states of their births.
  

Edited November 30, 2012 by krisb

[SteeleJoe]

• Coincidences of John Kennedy and Abe Lincoln
  
• 
  
• Both presidents were elected to the presidency in '60.
  
• Both presidents were elected to the House of Representatives in '46.
  
• Both were runners-up for the party's nomination for vice-president in '56.
  
• Both their Vice Presidents and successors were Southern Democrats named Johnson who were born in '08.
  
• Both presidents were concerned with the problems of black Americans and made their views strongly known in '63. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, which became law in 1863. In 1963, Kennedy presented his reports to Congress on Civil Rights, and the same year was the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
  
• Both presidents were shot in their heads.
  
• Both presidents were shot from behind.
  
• Both presidents were shot in presence of their wives.
  
• Both presidents were shot on a Friday.
  
• Both presidents were accompanied by another couple.
  
• The male companion of the other couple was wounded by the assassin.
  
• Both presidents had a son die during their presidency.
  
• Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre; Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in a Lincoln automobile, made by Ford.
  
• Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who told him not to go to the theatre; Kennedy had a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln who warned him not to go to Dallas.
  
• Both presidents' last names have 7 letters.
  
• Both presidents have five syllables in their full name (which counts Kennedy's middle initial).
  
• There are 6 letters in each Johnson's first name.
  
• Booth ran from a theatre to a warehouse; Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre.
  
• Both assassins have 3-word and 15-letter names.
  
• Both assassins were born in the late '30s.
  
• Both assassins were southerners who sympathized with organizations that were adversarial to the United States.
  
• Both assassins were killed within the same calendar month before they could be put on trial.
  
• Both assassins were killed in states located immediately west of the states of their births.
  

There are loads of weaknesses in this list but I'll point only the one that is just plain wrong: Lincoln did not have a secretary named Kennedy.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

[krisb]

Well how bout this;

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

[SteeleJoe]

Well how bout this;

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Wow, I knew Kennedy was reportedly insatiable but that's just gross -- Marilyn Monroe died over a year before he was assassinated (and he dumped her before she died).

Yeah, I know it was a joke -- but also historically weak!

Edited December 1, 2012 by SteeleJoe

[krisb]

Well how bout this;

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Wow, I knew Kennedy was reportedly insatiable but that's just gross -- Marilyn Monroe died over a year before he was assassinated (and he dumped her before she died).

Yeah, I know it was a joke -- but also historically weak!

SteelJoe...stop being a kill joy!....its just for fun this thread.

Im sure you could pull almost any coincidence apart if you wanted.

[SteeleJoe]

Well how bout this;

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Wow, I knew Kennedy was reportedly insatiable but that's just gross -- Marilyn Monroe died over a year before he was assassinated (and he dumped her before she died).

Yeah, I know it was a joke -- but also historically weak!

SteelJoe...stop being a kill joy!....its just for fun this thread.

Im sure you could pull almost any coincidence apart if you wanted.

Sorry. (But the truth is some things are genuine coincidences -- and thus can't be 'pulled apart' -- and some simply aren't)

[Neeranam]

I don't believe in coincedences - everything happens for a reason in this world of causality

[Neeranam]

What about Prince Charles is the reincarnation of Mahatma Ghandi as the birth death day are close.

[hopdafru]

How Full is Your Glass?

Happiness works in many different ways and has many different affects on people. There are some you could say, that have a good solid grasp on it and seem to last the entire ride. While there are others that wouldn't know happiness if it knocked them in the head. If they did know it most of the time they will tell you the bad they see in it.

This brings in the glass, half empty or half full. Happy people tend to be more giving and always looking at the positive. One example, your team lost the game but for the first time in three games the offense has showed hustle and moved the ball well. Whereas the half empty person would add who cares we lost. These people miss so much when they take a negative position on life and thinking that good things never happen. On the other side of the glass, the half full side that is. These people are thankful for what they have and everything in their lives. They seem to be closer with their families and friends and also with god.

No one can change you and the way you feel but you. Try to find that negative that is hidden within you. Many say if you find it and throw it out and accept the good. You then will have more good things and things to be thankful for than a person knows what to do with. This will affect your life your surroundings and also help put you at peace with yourself. I'm sure we can all agree that sometime or another we have all thought that we had the worst day ever. But really if you think about your life, wouldn't you agree that you are truly blessed compared to others around you and the troubles they are caring with them. No matter how bad it is, there is always someone worse off than you. Be happy you are able to see that and that you have the will and ability to change that. With that done you can then turn and lend a helping hand to someone on their cloudy day.

it's a repost but fits in pretty well...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/W86jlvrG54o?rel=0

[rene123]

Weird Sex Laws

A law in Fairbanks, Alaska, does not allow moose to have sex on city streets.

They don't allow moose to have sex in Thailand, either.

[Ron19]

WHAT Happened to Workplace Health &Safety?

More Guts Than a Sausage Factory. What a girl she must have been. And no parachute. NUTS!

Take a look at this film. Fabulous footage, although grainy due to time and bad equipment in those days compared to today, but what nerve this gal had.

Gladys Ingles was a member of a barnstorming troupe called the 13 Black Cats in the 1920s. Ingles was a wing walker;

in this film, she shows her fearlessness in classic barnstorming fashion to save an airplane that has lost one of its main wheels.

Ingles is shown with a replacement wheel being strapped to her back and then off she goes as "Up She Goes,

" a duet from the era, provides the soundtrack.

In the film, Ingles transfers herself from the rescue plane to the one missing the main landing gear tire.

She then expertly works herself down to the undercarriage only a few feet from a spinning prop.

It's certainly a feat many mechanics wouldn't even try on the ground with the engine running.

She died at 82

BG-Mid_Air_Repair (1).wmv

Edited December 3, 2012 by Ron19

[Ron19]

THE 1960s Re-visited Timeline & History

President John F. Kennedy asked Americans "not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" and established the Peace Corps in 1961. His assassination in 1963 shocked the nation and is a tragedy that will never be forgotten. One of the most radical periods in U.S. history, the 1960s was a decade of sex, drugs, and cultural change.

While Neil Armstrong was landing on the moon in 1969, hippies dressed in tie-dye print and bell-bottomed jeans found other ways to get high by smoking excessive amounts of marijuana or tripping on LSD.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for peaceful revolution and made enormous steps in the Civil Rights Movement. Under President Johnson, he "war on Poverty' began in 1964, along with the Civil Rights Act. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was designed to further eliminate overt discrimination.

The Beatles invaded America and changed the music industry forever. During the week of 4 April 1964, The Beatles held twelve positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the top five positions. The top five songs were "Can't Buy Me Love", "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and "Please Please Me." The feat has never been matched by any other artist.

Known as the era of singles, hits from popular bands like The Four Seasons, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Rolling Stones streamed through the radio. Bubblegum pop came forward as well with hits by acts such as 1910 Fruitgum Company (with hits like 'Simon Says' and "1,2,3 Redlight"), The Archie ('Sugar, Sugar') and Ohio Express ("Yummy, Yummy, Yummy".)

Toward the second half of the decade, America's youth began to rebel against the social conformity of decades past, creating a counterculture movement that challenged taboos of the time. Americans questioned the government, campaigned for equal rights, and became increasingly open and promiscuous with their sexual activity. There was the summer of love in 1967 and the invention of the mini skirt in 1964. It wasn't called the Swinging Sixties for nothing!

Pop culture flourished like never before during this tumultuous time and the movies and music of the time reflected these new ideas. The New Hollywood portrayed violence, drug-use, and sex in ways it never had before and produced classics like Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Graduate. The black comedy 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' satirized the (at the time) very real threat of nuclear war.

The Old Hollywood hadn't lost much of it's own steam, with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon's Beach Party Movies, the big budget musicals like The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly, Oliver and My Fair Lady, and epics like Laurence of Arabia and

An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music

Hippies from far and wide flocked to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in 1969, one of the most pivotal events in the history of popular music. Around 186,000 tickets were sold for $18 to $24 for the event, which simply became too large, making Woodstock, by default, a 'free show." It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, about 43 miles from the town of Woodstock, and lasted an extra day. A film about the event won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

The drug-usage, feelings of disunity, "free love" and hippie culture of the sixties spilled over into the next decades and influenced generations to come.

[Ron19]

A school of catfish in south western France appear to have taught themselves how to leap out of the water and catch pigeons to eat.

Catfish usually trawl the bottom of freshwater lakes and rivers for food, but scientists from the University of Toulouse have observed fish in the Karn River exhibiting very different behaviour.

Researchers spent five months watching the catfish from a bridge over the river and discovered they had adapted their hunting techniques to include pigeons amongst their prey.

Video shows the catfish squirming their way into shallow waters before lunging at birds.

The catfish temporarily beach themselves in the process, leading the researchers to dub them "freshwater killer whales".

After catching a pigeon, the catfish violently drag their prey back into the water.

The catfish's efforts succeeded 28 percent of the time.

Source: The Week magazine

Author: Emily O'Keefe

"http://www.youtube.com/embed/txqlZ_y9P88"

Edited December 9, 2012 by Ron19

[Ron19]

A school of catfish in south western France appear to have taught themselves how to leap out of the water and catch pigeons to eat.

Catfish usually trawl the bottom of freshwater lakes and rivers for food, but scientists from the University of Toulouse have observed fish in the Karn River exhibiting very different behaviour.

Researchers spent five months watching the catfish from a bridge over the river and discovered they had adapted their hunting techniques to include pigeons amongst their prey.

Video shows the catfish squirming their way into shallow waters before lunging at birds.

The catfish temporarily beach themselves in the process, leading the researchers to dub them "freshwater killer whales".

After catching a pigeon, the catfish violently drag their prey back into the water.

The catfish's efforts succeeded 28 percent of the time.

Source: The Week magazine

Author: Emily O'Keefe

"http://www.youtube.com/embed/8ZEoO9-Y80o"

[Ron19]

Corruption runs much deeper than a few bad MPs

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's international corruption ranking will never improve as long as people in the national anti-corruption body, and the elite, maintain their narrow perspective on corruption by simply pointing the fingers at politicians.

Thailand has dropped further in the international corruption index compiled by Transparency International (TI), falling eight places from last year to 88th on the 176-country list for 2012.

It's easy to say, as national anti-graft commissioner Wicha Mahakun put it, that corrupt politicians have brought the country down - but such an assessment will never lead to any good solution.

Wicha's analysis of the root cause of corruption in Thailand is very shallow as he blames only politicians for the corruption. Politicians sought power in the administration in order to have a chance to exploit the national budget for their own benefit, he said. And politicians who intervene in the reshuffle of senior officials merely want to create a patron-client network within the bureaucracy for their own interest and that of their associates.

National Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Panthep Klanarongran shared the same idea, saying: "Politicians might not have a good image [regarding] corruption, but they have to accept reality and cooperate on fighting corruption."

The Thai elite, who feel uncomfortable with electoral democracy, tend to blame politicians for all that is wrong with this country.

They have managed to have former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra shown as a bad guy in this political discourse. Any politicians associated with Thaksin and his camp would never be good or clean. Many people in this country try to make themselves look good simply by criticising Thaksin.

The elite, who subscribe to this perception, often imagine Thailand would be clear and clean from corruption if it had no politicians. The country and administration must be run by good people from the bureaucracy, in particular the military, which usually holds moral authority.

The Thai elite - mostly well-educated persons in the capital - tend to consider elected provincial politicians, whom money or modern day populist policies can often buy, corrupt. They invest a lot to get power, so they want a return when they manage to achieve that power.

Of course, it's difficult to deny there is corruption among politicians, but they are not involved in corruption as a single group. Corruption indeed has deep roots and has spread throughout this country for a long time, perhaps from before its formation centuries ago.

The bureaucracy, the military, the police, the legislature, the courts - even the anti-corruption commission office itself - have never been free of corruption. Those who have good memories should not forget the scandal in the office of the auditor-general or the case of raising the salaries of anti-graft members in 2005.

Bribe-taking is common in many bureaucratic agencies and is perhaps established in the culture of this society. Motorists are willing to pay Bt100-Bt200 to Traffic Police for traffic infringements during commuting, rather than take tickets and pay the costly charges.

Project developers at all levels, with or without the involvement of politicians, need to pay between 15-35 per cent of construction costs to "responsible and authorised persons" as commission fees. Those who call for transparency or do not want to pay, will never get the job.

The patron-client system, which Wicha blamed politicians for creating, has been a part of Thai culture since ancient times, long before the formation of the modern state. Frankly speaking, the patron-client system was created by the elite. Politicians who came later just adapted and applied it for their political benefit.

Corruption has been implanted and embedded in the culture for centuries. Pointing a finger at any particular group does not make anybody in this country look good and cannot solve the problem.

-- The Nation 2012-12-12

[Ron19]

A pair of boaters came up with a novel method for putting out a fire after another vessel became engulfed in flames on a lake in New Zealand's South Island

A group of people filmed the blazing boat at the edge of Lake Lyndon and posted the footage online on Thursday.

The footage shows black smoke billowing the small vessel as a man says, "If it goes bang… the fire's going to spread everywhere".

As the group of people onshore continue to panic about how to deal with fire, a sprint boat, a type of racing craft, suddenly appears on the lake heading straight for it.

A man onshore yells "What are you doing!" but seconds later the boaters' plan becomes clear, as they make a sharp turn next to the flaming vessel to shower it with water.

The sprint boaters circle around the lake and continue to splash the other vessel until the flames are put out.

Author: Alys Francis. Approving editor: Nick Pearson.

Source: Haywiredigital