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Post by Coldwarrior on Nov 9, 2011 22:49:11 GMT -5
Faribault Mills Online Store will open on November 18th. Good place to buy American made products for Christmas faribaultmill.com/store.php
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Post by Flying Horse on Nov 10, 2011 17:30:45 GMT -5
Good idea, CW. Spread it around and I will too.
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Post by Coldwarrior on Nov 10, 2011 19:32:40 GMT -5
Would somebody hit my Karma thingeez a whack? Either up or down, I don't care. Being stuck on 13 isn't just superstitious, it's clumsy.
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Post by susala on Nov 11, 2011 1:16:37 GMT -5
Those blankets are lovely. Maybe, I'll get one for my brother.
CW, I tried to give you a karma but I think that FS has made some administrative changes to the system. I'm not sure how to do it anymore.
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Post by Coldwarrior on Nov 11, 2011 1:29:48 GMT -5
Now I'm stuck on 13 for eternity. I'm starting to understand how trolls are made.
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Post by Flying Horse on Nov 11, 2011 2:03:53 GMT -5
Awww, poor CW!! You could never be a troll. You have a sense of humor which is a definite no-no in trolldom. BTW I just karmalized you!! so you've gone to 14!!
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Post by Flying Horse on Nov 11, 2011 2:24:21 GMT -5
Facebook nears privacy settlement with FTC.
Facebook is nearing a settlement with federal regulators that would require the world's most popular online hangout to obtain approval from its users before making changes that expose their profiles and activities to a wider audience, according to a report published Thursday. Citing people familiar with the situation that it did not name, The Wall Street Journal said Facebook has agreed to make the changes to resolve a nearly 2-year-old investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Both Facebook and the FTC declined to comment to The Associated Press. If the settlement is approved by FTC's commissioners, it would require Facebook to get explicit consent from its 800 million users before changing its privacy settings, according to the Journal. Seeking a user's prior consent is known as an "opt in." Facebook sometimes makes changes that it believes will improve its social network and then leaves it to users to reset the things that they don't like — a process known as "opting out." Companies introducing a feature or service generally prefer an "opt out" system because fewer people take the steps required to get out of the changes.
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Post by Flying Horse on Nov 11, 2011 2:31:15 GMT -5
Sen. Bernie Sanders: GOP only represents 'hardcore right-wing extremists.'
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that the Republican Party did not represent the vast majority of Americans. “On issue after issue, the Republican ideology represents only a tiny faction of what the American people want,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC. “You go out on Main Street, and you say to the American people, do you believe we should give tax breaks to billionaires at the same time as we cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and people will look at you and say, are you nuts? We don’t believe in that.” Sanders added that the Republican Party only represented a “small number of hardcore right-wing extremists, people like the Koch brothers, who ideologically essentially want to undo every single piece of legislation that has benefited working families in the last eighty years.” Right on, Sen. Sanders. You've summed up the GOP in a hard nutshell.
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Post by susala on Nov 13, 2011 17:15:16 GMT -5
I love Bernie Sanders!
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Post by Flying Horse on Nov 15, 2011 19:13:24 GMT -5
Rhinoceros horns seized in Hong Kong port from Cape Town shipment.
Lam Tak-fai, acting head of Ports and Maritime Command, who seized on Tuesday a total of 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory chopsticks and 127 ivory bracelets, worth about $2.23 million, inside a container shipped from Cape Town, South Africa, according a customs press release.
Ivory chopsticks, ivory bracelets and a rhinoceros horn are displayed wrapped in a "multiple layers concealment method" in Hong Kong's Customs and Excise Department Offices on November 15.
Customs officers stand guard near smuggled ivory bracelets at the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department in Hong Kong.
Customs agents X-rayed the container because its listed cargo — scrap plastic — raised a flag, said Acting Head of Ports and Maritime Command Lam Tak-fai. They found the rhino horns and ivory after peeling away layers of tinfoil, paper and plastic wrapped around the items. Wai-king Yik, a spokeswoman for the customs and excise department, said it was a record seizure of endangered species products for Hong Kong, topping the one in August of $1.6 million worth of African ivory. Several rhino subspecies are believed to have recently become extinct. Rhino horns are prized by Vietnamese and Chinese who believe they can cure an array of ailments, and the horns can fetch up to $50,000 per pound. Some 190 pounds worth of rhino horns were by the Hong Kong officials, who said they would have required the deaths of around 17 rhinos. No one has been arrested, but at least the crooks have not profited for once.
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Post by Flying Horse on Dec 16, 2011 22:36:49 GMT -5
Senate negotiators reach deal on payroll tax cut extension. Senate negotiators reached a deal Friday on a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits and Medicare payments to doctors. The deal, if approved by Congress, would require Pres. Obama to make a decision within 60 days whether to permit the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transfer oil from Canada oil sands to Gulf of Mexico refineries. The White House has resisted being forced into expediting a decision.
Key provisions of the deal:
- Lasts for two months and costs about $40 billion.
- Extends the payroll tax holiday at the current 4.2 percent.
- Slight reform to unemployment benefits, but a Democratic Senate aide said the changes were "not nearly as draconian as the GOP wanted originally."
- Fends off a 28% cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
- Pays for the extensions through higher transaction fees when folks use Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
- Requires Obama to decide whether the pipeline is in the national interest.
The Senate will vote on the bill Saturday and is expected to pass it. The House could vote on it as early as Monday. The House could always do something called "unanimous consent" when the chair passes something if nobody disagrees. But a House GOP leadership aide told NBC News: "We have not signed off on anything -- and will not until we talk to our members." It's expected that House Speaker John Boehner will let his members go on the record on this bill and the House will be called back into session to vote on it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky acknowledged that the same fights would resurface. “So we’ll be back discussing the same issues in a couple of months, but from our point of view we think the Keystone pipeline is a very important job-creating measure,” he told NBC News. What a pathetic bunch of legislators. None of them worthy of the name. A 2-month extension and then the whole thing to do all over again!! In the meantime, more and more of the populatioin falls into poverty. We are rapidly becoming a 3rd world country and none of those ineffectual, dogmatic Congressmen and Senators gives a d***. I wish that they would lose their pay and benefits until they began doing the job that we sent them to Washington to do. .
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Post by Flying Horse on Dec 16, 2011 23:03:38 GMT -5
Mexican city counts down to Mayan 'apocalypse'
A city in southern Mexico wants to live each moment as if it were the last. Tourism officials in Tapachula have installed a digital clock to count down the time left before the Dec. 21, 2012, solstice, when some believe the Mayan long-count calendar "runs out." The clock will be started this Dec. 21, a year before what many see as an apocalyptic event. Chiapas state tourism regional director Manolo Alfonso Pinot said Friday that Mayan priests will perform a ceremony at the nearby archaeological site of Izapa.
Maya experts say the apocalypse fears are a misreading of Maya texts that mention the date, saying the Mayan considered it the end of one calendar cycle and the beginning of another. Pinot said he does not believe the world will end, but looks at it as a sort of beginning, in the business sense at least. "I look at this as an opportunity for rebirth. A lot of people know they can fill their body with energy if they come to these exceptional sites," he said. "If people are interested, we have to take advantage of this."
Tapachula, best known as a gritty border town crossed by Central American migrants en route to the United States, is not a popular Mayan tourism destination. But nearby Izapa is a place where many stelae have been found, including the "Tree of Life" stone. But at Izapa, close to the Tajumulco volcano, Pinot says a Mesoamerican ball court, a carved stone and the throne of the Izapa ruler face a straight line that on Dec. 21, 2012 is expected to align with the planets. "It is hard to say what you will be able to see that day," he said.
The doomsday theories stem from a pair of tablets with inscriptions that describe the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period of 400 years, which falls on Dec. 21, 2012. Experts say the date is the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C., and the start of another.
Well all the doomsday predictotors should have a field day with this. Anyone want to book a hotel room in Tapachula for 21 Dec 2012 and watch the world come to an end? Me I want the taco concession.
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Post by Flying Horse on Dec 31, 2011 2:33:39 GMT -5
Well, that didn't take long - Verizon scraps $2 fee.
Verizon said that it was scrapping a controversial $2 fee for one-time bill payments announced just a day earlier. The announcement had immediately sparked an uproar online from customers irate about the prospect of incurring further fees simply by paying existing ones. Customers took to the Web to voice their frustrations with Verizon following Thursday's announcement. A petition against the new fee on Change.org had attracted over 60,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon. The Federal Communications Commission said it was "concerned about Verizon's actions" regarding the proposed new fee and was "looking into the matter." "At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time," Verizon CEO Dan Mead said in a statement. Verizon's quick turnaround was reminiscent of that of Bank of America and a number of other large financial institutions that were forced to cancel proposed fees for debit card use this fall in response to a backlash from customers. A victory for we 99%ers.
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Post by susala on Dec 31, 2011 12:58:43 GMT -5
I use Verizon but I'm still working off a contract. I wouldn't have been affected by this new rule but it burns me up for to see businesses find new ways to nickel and dime customers. I'm glad that they backed down.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jan 15, 2012 18:53:44 GMT -5
Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals.
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan. Perry's comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort. "The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy," McCain said when asked about Perry's position. "So it makes me sad more than anything else, because ... I can't tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image." No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week that he worried the video could be used by the Taliban to undermine peace talks. A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.
The fact that they may be "kids" does not excuse their behavior. And what they did was wrong, any way you look at it. They deserve to be punished for their actions. To use this incident in a politcal campaign is also wrong. And it should bring home to everyone that in today's world there is bound to be someone watching you and will document on their electronic device your wrongful, sinful, or whater -ful action you are doing. And the next thing you know it will be all over the internet for everyone to see and decnounce. Not only is Big Brother watching you but so is Little Sister, Little Brother, Big Sister, friend, and foe. And Gov. Perry is showing once again how unfit he is to be president.
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Post by susala on Jan 15, 2012 19:49:41 GMT -5
I couldn't agree with you more, Peg. Their actions were inexcusable. Shame on Perry for trying to use the incident to score political points.
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Post by susala on Jan 15, 2012 22:17:51 GMT -5
Per CNN, Jon Huntsman will drop out of the race to be the Republican presidential nominee on Monday. Polling a percentage point behind Stephen Colbert in SC must have been the final blow.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jan 30, 2012 1:38:33 GMT -5
UPDATE: Afghan parents, son guilty in 'honor' killings.
A jury found an Afghan father, his 2nd wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor." The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. The three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage. Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation. Judge Robert Maranger said, "It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."
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Post by Flying Horse on May 10, 2012 20:58:22 GMT -5
Maya calendar workshop documents time beyond 2012
([/i]Boston University archaeologist William Saturno carefully uncovers art and writings left by the Maya some 1,200 years ago. The art and other symbols on the walls may have been records kept by a scribe, Saturno theorizes. Saturno's excavation and documentation of the house were supported by the National Geographic Society. [/size]) Archaeologists have found a stunning array of 1,200-year-old Maya paintings in a room that appears to have been a workshop for calendar scribes and priests, with numerical markings on the wall that denote intervals of time well beyond the controversial cycle that runs out this December. For years, prophets of doom have been saying that we're in for an apocalypse on Dec. 21, 2012, because that marks the end of the Maya "Long Count" calendar, which was based on a cycle of 13 intervals known as "baktuns," each lasting 144,000 days. But the researchers behind the latest find, detailed in the journal Science and an upcoming issue of National Geographic, say the writing on the wall runs counter to that bogus belief. "It's very clear that the 2012 date, this end of 13 baktuns, while important, was turning the page," David Stuart, an expert on Maya hieroglyphs at the University of Texas at Austin, told reporters. "Baktun 14 was going to be coming, and Baktun 15 and Baktun 16. ... The Maya calendar is going to keep going, and keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future." The current focus of the research project, led by Boston University's William Saturno, is a 6-by-6-foot room situated beneath a mound at the Xultun archaeological site in Guatemala's Peten region. Maxwell Chamberlain, a BU student participating in the excavations there, happened to notice a poorly preserved wall protruding from a trench that was previously dug by looters, with the hints of a painting on the plaster. Saturno said he didn't think there'd be much to the wall, but "I felt we had a responsibility to find out at the very least how large this room was." When archaeologists worked their way into the mound, they were amazed to find that it was a richly decorated room from the Classic Maya period, dating back to roughly the year 800. One niche was adorned with the faded picture of a Maya king, wearing a blue-feathered headdress and holding a white scepter. The picture of a scribe holding a stylus, perhaps the son or brother of the king, was painted nearby with the label "Younger Brother Obsidian." Another wall showed a row of three stylized black figures, with one bearing the hieroglyphic name "Older Brother Obsidian."
([/i]The painted figure of a man — possibly a scribe who once lived in the house built by the ancient Maya — is illuminated through a doorway to the dwelling, in northeastern Guatemala. The structure represents the first Maya house found to contain artwork on its walls. The research is supported by the National Geographic Society [/size]) ( [/i]Never-before-seen artwork — the first to be found on walls of a Maya house — adorn the dwelling in the ruined city of Xultún. The figure at left is one of three men on the house's west wall who are painted in black and wear identical costumes. One of the black figures is named "Older Brother Obsidian." The figure in the center appears to be a scribe, labeled "Younger Brother Obsidian." A Maya king is portrayed at far right. Heather Hurst rendered the paintings in clearer detail below [/sixe])
Rows of numbers and hieroglyphs were painted on yet another wall. In fact, it appeared that the wall had been plastered over repeatedly and covered with new sets of figures. "What these are giving us are time spans," Stuart said. "Not so much dates, but Maya notations of elapsed time." Stuart said some sets of numbers denoted lunar cycles of 177 or 178 days, along with the sign for a patron god that was associated with each cycle. "This was, we think, a calculator for a Maya priest, an astronomer, to figure out lunar ages," he said. In a news release, Saturno said this represents the first look at "what may be actual records kept by a scribe, whose job was to be official record keeper of a Maya community." "It's like an episode of TV's 'Big Bang Theory,' a geek math problem and they're painting it on the wall," Saturno said. "They seem to be using it like a blackboard." One array of numbers would be particularly intriguing to doomsday debunkers: lists that appear to denote wide ranges of accumulated time, including a 17-baktun period. "There was a lot more to the Maya calendar than just 13 baktuns," Stuart observed. Seventeen baktuns would stand for about 6,700 years, which is much longer than the 13-baktun cycle of 5,125 years. However, Stuart cautioned that the time notation shouldn't be read as specifying a date that's farther in the future than Dec. 21. "It may just be that this is a mathematical number that they find interesting, kind of floating in time," he told me. "But it certainly is expressing a capacity of time. If they were calculating something from their time period, around 800 A.D., yeah, this would have gone way beyond 2012. But again, we're not sure exactly what the base of the calculation is." Saturno said archaeologists have been trying to get out the word that the end of the Maya culture's 13-baktun "Long Count" calendar didn't signify the end of the world, but merely a turnover to the next cycle in a potentially infinite series — like going from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 on a modern calendar, or turning the odometer on a car over from 99999.9 to 00000.0. "If someone is a hard-core believer that the world is going to end in 2012, no painting is going to convince them otherwise," he said. "The only thing that can convince them otherwise is waiting until Dec. 22, 2012 — which fortunately for all of us isn't that far away."
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