November 10, 2013

WTH ? The Florida Gators lost to Vanderbilt ?

Will wonders never cease. Their season is sucking. I went to school there twice (never got a degree unfortunately from there ).

Vanderbilt snaps 22-game losing streak vs. Florida

November 9, 2013

Rules to Require Equal Coverage for Mental Ills

(yes actual headline in NY Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/us/politics/rules-to-require-equal-coverage-for-mental-ills.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday will complete a generation-long effort to require insurers to cover care for mental health and addiction just like physical illnesses when it issues long-awaited regulations defining parity in benefits and treatment.

The rules, which will apply to almost all forms of insurance, will have far-reaching consequences for many Americans. In the White House, the regulations are also seen as critical to President Obama’s program for curbing gun violence by addressing an issue on which there is bipartisan agreement: Making treatment more available to those with mental illness could reduce killings, including mass murders.

In issuing the regulations, senior officials said, the administration will have acted on all 23 executive actions that the president and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced early this year to reduce gun crimes after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. In planning those actions, the administration anticipated that gun control legislation would fail in Congress as pressure from the gun lobby proved longer-lasting than the national trauma over the killings of first graders and their caretakers last Dec. 14.

“We feel actually like we’ve made a lot of progress on mental health as a result in this year, and this is kind of the big one,” said a senior administration official, one of several who described the outlines of the regulations that Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, will announce at a mental health conference on Friday in Atlanta with the former first lady Rosalynn Carter.

November 5, 2013

Report: 2 armed men in Denver school

By Lateef Mungin, CNN
updated 4:14 AM EST, Tue November 5, 2013

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/05/justice/denver-school-guns/

(CNN) -- Denver police are investigating a report that two men armed with rifles broke into a school, police said early Tuesday morning.

The report came from an employee at Rachel B. Noel Middle School in Denver who said he saw the suspects, who were also carrying backpacks, enter the school at about 10 p.m. Monday, Sgt. Steve Warneke said.

Nobody was in the school when the break-in occurred, Warneke said.

Officers have surrounded the school, but Warneke would not say if they have communicated with the suspects.

*the end*

Wow are things going completely nuts lately ? AGAIN ?? The NJ mall guy was just found dead by suicide.

November 4, 2013

Column: Why Scandinavian women make the rest of the world jealous

(yes the actual headline)

https://socialreader.com/me/content/liI0a?chid=80082&_p=trending&utm_source=wp&utm_medium=Widgets&utm_campaign=wpsrTrendingExternal-1-opt

https://res.cloudinary.com/socialreader/image/fetch/c_scale,w_620/c_crop,g_faces,h_1240,w_620/

Icelanders are among the happiest and healthiest people on Earth. They publish more books per capita than any other country, and they have more artists. They boast the most prevalent belief in evolution — and elves, too. Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation (the cops don't even carry guns), and the best place for kids. Oh, and they've got a lesbian head of state, the world's first. Granted, the national dish is putrefied shark meat, but you can't have everything.

Iceland is also the best place to have a uterus, according to the folks at the World Economic Forum. The Global Gender Gap Report ranks countries based on where women have the most equal access to education and healthcare, and where they can participate most fully in the country's political and economic life.

According to the 2013 report, Icelandic women pretty much have it all. Their sisters in Finland, Norway, and Sweden have it pretty good, too: those countries came in second, third and fourth, respectively. Denmark is not far behind at number seven.

The U.S. comes in at a dismal 23rd, which is a notch down from last year. At least we're not Yemen, which is dead last out of 136 countries.

*rest of article is pretty interesting also*

November 3, 2013

Charlie Crist files to run for Florida governor as a Democrat

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/charlie-crist-to-make-campaign-plans-official-at-10-am-monday-in-st/2150298

ST. PETERSBURG — Charlie Crist is running for Florida governor as a Democrat.

The worst-kept secret in politics was confirmed Friday afternoon when the Republican Party of Florida spotted Crist's official filing with the state Division of Elections.

The former Republican governor turned Democrat plans a formal announcement at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Petersburg's Albert Whitted Park, 480 Bayshore Drive SE, but the state GOP beat him to the punch.

"Gov. Crist looks forward to discussing his priorities for moving Florida forward on Monday morning," said Steve Schale, a spokesman for Crist who led President Barack Obama's successful 2008 Florida campaign.

*end of excerpt*

How bad of a Republican was Charlie ? I have to admit ignorance with him.

November 2, 2013

Britain Embraces Halloween and Cashes In on Ghoulish Celebration

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/business/international/uk-makes-halloween-big-business.html?_r=0

LONDON — This Halloween, skintight full-body leotards are a sellout in Britain.

Morphsuits, the Scottish company behind the goofy, often garish bodysuits, transformed a drunken prank at a stag party into a multimillion-dollar costume phenomenon, thanks in part to the growing popularity here of celebrating All Hallows’ Eve each Oct. 31.

Much to the consternation of some, Halloween, with all its silliness, is even eclipsing Guy Fawkes Day, the 400-year-old British festival on Nov. 5.

“We are very much in the throes of Halloween mayhem at the moment,” said Gregor Lawson, one of three founders of Morphsuits, a unit of AFG Media based in Edinburgh. “Halloween seems to just get bigger and bigger and bigger, in more and more countries and the United Kingdom is certainly catching up.”


Queen Elizabeth II meets children making Halloween cakes in Lewes, England.