October 23, 2014

Social media & dog-loving trucker takes Koda on 1,380-mile ride home, lost bull mastiff

http://journalstar.com/news/local/dog-loving-trucker-takes-koda-on--mile-ride-home/article_4e00fc80-c2a0-54a1-8423-7312039b152b.html



Koda, the runaway bull mastiff, was reunited with her family in Arizona thanks to the power of dog lovers and social media.

Within one hour of Koda’s story being posted on the Lincoln Journal Star website Friday evening, a cross-country truck driver from Ashland volunteered to let the 95-pound dog ride shotgun on a 24-hour haul. By Monday night, the long-lost dog was back home with her family, doggedly insisting that Dani Windham, her “mom," hold her paw and snuggle....

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Dimmitt had heard about Koda from a Facebook friend, Mindy Mahoney, who knew he often traveled cross country as a long-haul truck driver.

It just so happened that Dimmitt was home in Ashland, preparing to head out to California at 6 p.m. Sunday.

“There was no hesitation on my part,” said Dimmitt, a self-declared dog lover.

The only caveat, he needed to have Koda by 5 p.m. Sunday.

And that launched a race to find someone with the veterinary clinic who could release the dog.

“It took an army of volunteers and caring angels to pull this off,” Dani Windham said.

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Meanwhile, Lost Pets of Lancaster County put together a “go bag” for Koda, complete with food, treats, a collar, leash and harness.

Along the route, Dimmitt and his girlfriend, Lori Wischmann, texted the Windhams updates and photos of Koda in the big rig.


LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A dog-loving Nebraska trucker has taken a lost 95-pound bull mastiff on a 1,380-mile trip back to her owners in Arizona.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (http://bit.ly/ZGjMEo ) Dani and Jason Windham were getting ready for their Aug. 4 wedding in Nebraska when their three dogs knocked down a fence and ran. Animal control found the other two, but not Koda.

Seven days later, the Windhams moved to Camp Verde, Arizona. Last week, Koda was found after a farmer reported a dog chasing his cattle about 40 miles away from where she disappeared.

The Windhams couldn't afford to fly her back, so a lost pets group in Nebraska put out a call for help. Truck driver Jimmy Dimmit answered.

Koda got to ride in the front seat during the 24-hour drive. She was reunited with her happy owners Monday.

http://www.netzero-news.net/news/read/category/Top%20News/article/the_associated_press-nebraska_trucker_returns_bull_mastiff_to_arizona-ap

October 22, 2014

conservatives angered by rise in divorce in Iran.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Rise-in-divorce-in-Iran-linked-to-growing-individualism-among-women-379470

41-year-old woman, a chemistry graduate who is now head of public relations at a Tehran factory and who has a teenage daughter, said she divorced her husband because he was an abusive drug addict.

It took four years to deal with the government bureaucracy. "They don't like divorce to come from the side of women," she told Reuters, asking that her name not be used. But in the year since the divorce "I've been in heaven".

While she was married, an aunt had told her not to wash the dishes at a certain time in case it gave her husband a headache.

"I said to hell with the headache, why doesn't he get up and do the dishes himself?"

She had never been to one of Tehran's notorious divorce parties, but added: "The day that I got my divorce finalized I invited some friends over to celebrate too."

The marriage law in Iran traditionally favors the husband, who has the right to ask for a divorce. But in most cases being brought to court now, the husband and wife have generally come to a mutual agreement to separate, Iranian lawyers say.

October 22, 2014

New Yorkers taunt and shout "F*** the police" as they watch unjust arrest

Anger after video shows police officer arresting Brooklyn subway musician - after the cop recited the law saying he COULD be there
Andrew Kalleen, 30, was arrested at a Williamsburg subway stop on Friday
A video of the incident shows an officer approaching him and telling him he needs a permit to be there, which Kalleen calmly disputed
Kalleen pointed him to the correct part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rules of conduct, which showed he was allowed to be there
But the MTA's rules differ from state law, which says an entertainer can be arrested for loitering at a station unless he's been authorized to be there
The cop called backup and several officers cuffed Kalleen and pulled him out of the station as other travelers yelled at the police
Kalleen and other musicians held a rally in the station on Tuesday


Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2801824/Buskers-rally-arrested-NYC-subway-performer.html




The officer removes theguitar from the shoulders of Kalleen, who continues to sing a cappella.

'I'm being oppressed,' says the musician, wearing hot pink socks, no shoes, a jacket, a tie and a fedora.

Meanwhile, straphangers taunt the officer and ask if there are more serious crimes he should be policing, with one pointing out there are crack dealers operating in the city, while others say they see the musician every day and enjoy listening to his music.

Eventually, several other uniformed and plainclothes police officers arrive at the station and force Kalleen to the floor before handcuffing him - as he continues to sing - and dragging him out.

As he is pulled up the stairs, travelers shout 'F*** the police'.

The video was posted online and has been viewed more than 800,000 times.




Kalleen was arrested on a charge of loitering and will appear in court on Friday. Police

Kalleen, also speaking evenly, refuses to leave and tells the officer he has a right to be there performing, then directs him to the section in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rules of conduct that says artistic performances and solicitations of donations are allowed.

The flustered officer reads the section aloud and discovers that the musician is indeed right but decides to elect him anyway.

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October 22, 2014

Just finished a long phone political survey - got to rate the Koch brothers on scale 0 to 100

20 minute survey - dems vs repubs, economy, abortion, tea party, Obamacare, and on and on.

October 21, 2014

6 Americans just moved into 1300 sq ft dome - they'll stay there for 8 months to mimick trip to Mars

In a Dome in Hawaii, a Mission to Mars

On the way to Mars, Neil Scheibelhut stopped by Walmart for mouthwash and dental floss. “We’re picking up some last-minute things,” he said via cellphone last Wednesday afternoon from the store.

Mr. Scheibelhut is not actually an astronaut leaving the earth. But three hours later, he and five other people stepped into a dome-shaped building on a Hawaiian volcano where they will live for the next eight months, mimicking a stay on the surface of Mars.


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The crew members are granted some exceptions. They can check a few websites, like their banking accounts, to ensure that their earth lives do not fall apart while they are away. There is also a cellphone for emergency communications; If a hurricane (a distinctly un-Martian weather pattern) were to threaten the dome, as almost occurred over the weekend when Hurricane Ana veered south of Hawaii, mission control would not delay telling the crew to evacuate.

Some 150 people applied to participate. Dr. Binsted said the three men and three women of this Hi-Seas crew were chosen to have a similar mix of experience and backgrounds as real NASA astronauts, and many indeed aspire to go to space.

The commander is Martha Lenio, 34, an entrepreneur looking to start a renewable-energy consulting company. Other crew members are Jocelyn Dunn, 27, a Purdue University graduate student; Sophie Milam, 26, a graduate student at the University of Idaho; Allen Mirkadyrov, 35, a NASA aerospace engineer; and Zak Wilson, 28, a mechanical engineer who worked on military drone aircraft at General Atomics in San Diego.



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/science/taking-minds-on-a-journey-to-mars.html



The habitat is based on a dome supplied by Pacific Domes International with internal two-story structure. The first floor has a kitchen, dining area, common work space, exercise area, and lab. The second floor contains six crew-sleeping quarters and a bathroom.

Although numerous space analog studies have been conducted over the years, this is the longest U.S. study to-date. Worldwide, only the Mars500 study during 2010-2011 surpasses this one in total duration.

Simulated space walks will provide HI-SEAS members with a chance to experience the outdoors, but only while wearing bulky simulated space suits.

http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-nasas-hi-seas-team-hawaii-mars-mission-02220.html


http://hi-seas.org/?p=1278











he habitat, based on a dome supplied by Pacific Domes International with internal two-story structure designed by V. Paul Ponthieux of Envision Design, was built by the Blue Planet Foundation of Honolulu, Hawaii. The geodesic dome is 36 feet in diameter , enclosing a volume of 13,570 cubic feet. The ground floor has an area of 993 square feet (878 square feet usable) and includes common areas such as kitchen, dining, bathroom with shower, lab, exercise, and common spaces. The second floor loft spans an area of 424 square feet and includes six separate staterooms and a half bath. In addition, a 160 square foot workshop converted from a 20-foot high steel shipping container is attached to the habitat.

October 20, 2014

huge dog takes over the news

Ripple, a dog from Edmonton Humane Society, steals the show from weatherman during the weather forecast.

October 20, 2014

big increase in surgery to repair stretched earlobes . warning picture

After seven unsuccessful job interviews, 24-year-old Luke Clark began to think something other than his CV was playing havoc with his job prospects.


http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/19/cosmetic-surgeons-repair-stretched-earlobes

Potential employers didn’t seem to like the 4cm “flesh tunnel” holes he had in each ear as much as he did.

Clark had begun stretching his lobes at university several years earlier, and the problem was that when he took the plugs out his stretched earlobes looked terrible.

Now one of the fastest-growing cosmetic procedures in the UK is repairing stretched earlobes.

The piercings are created either by gradually placing a cone-shaped taper into the ear and pushing it through a little more each day, or by having larger-sized tunnels placed into a pierced ear every few weeks to slowly widen the hole. Once the holes stretch past 1.5cm in diameter, the earlobe will never spring back to its original shape.

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October 19, 2014

Dems take comfort in new early voting numbers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/10/17/morning-plum-dems-take-comfort-in-new-early-voting-numbers/

a hallowed political tradition: Campaigns that are losing in the polls claim their vaunted “ground games” will make up the difference, in early voting and voter mobilization on Election Day.



This time, Democrats insist that it really is going to happen — and they have new early voting numbers in Iowa, shared with this blog, that are meant to bolster their case.

The premise of the DSCC’s voter-mobilization program is that overcoming the Democrats’ “midterm voter drop-off problem” will require more than just getting out unenthusiastic voters. It will also require a hyper-targeted effort to mobilize voters who did not vote in 2010 — a very deliberate effort to expand the electorate beyond the one showing up in polls.

According to new figures from the hard-fought Iowa Senate race supplied by the DSCC, this may be happening. The DSCC says that as of yesterday, over 170,000 Iowans have already voted in 2014, a 63 percent increase over 2010. This comports with early voting numbers compiled by political scientist Michael McDonald. A DSCC official emails:

Among those ballots cast, nearly 7,000 more registered Democrats have voted than registered Republicans. Our models show that Bruce Braley has a lead of over 15,000 votes among those who have already voted, thanks to a 25-point lead among the unaffiliated voters who have already voted.

The recent Des Moines Register poll also showed Braley leading among early voters. But here’s the key nuance. The DSCC official says its model shows Dems are bringing in significantly more non-2010 voters than Republicans are:

October 19, 2014

market in Calif. still uses 100 year old cash register

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Paying-by-smart-phone-Town-prefers-100-year-old-5830679.php#photo-7015113



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Jack Wood operates the 3-foot-high, brass cash register at Young’s Market on Main Street in Taylorsville (Plumas County) that has rung up sales reliably for nearly 100 years.




100-year-old Cash Register In Taylorsville, CA
S
TAYLORSVILLE, Plumas County — High up in the Sierra at the end of a twisty mountain road, this tiny town is going to have a 100th birthday party Saturday for its oldest and most revered resident: a huge, brass cash register.

The birthday gal — and it is a gal, its owner insists — will be working, like it always is. It’s been whirring up totals and clattering open its drawers dependably at Young’s Market on Main Street since the day it was made in 1914 to replace one blown up by robbers.

At Young’s, you fork over the cash and owner Kelly Tan or one of her relatives punches the century-old buttons and cranks the handle on the 3-foot-high register, a wonder of curved surfaces and panels decorated with stamped-in columns and curlicues.
A bell rings. The money drawer pops open, and bills and coins go in and out of Tan’s hands. Done.
The only nod to modern computation at Young’s is a calculator the clerks keep handy for any time a sale goes over $99.99, the maximum possible on the cash register.

October 18, 2014

GoPro plunging after reports that camera mounting may have caused Michael Schumacher's accident

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/14/investing/gopro-stock-bubble-burst/index.html?hpt=hp_bn6&iid=obnetwork

Remember when GoPro shares went up nearly every single day regardless of what was happening in the broader stock market? Those days are over.
Since hitting an all-time high of $98.47 on October 7, GoPro (GPRO) stock has plunged more than 20%. The bubble has burst.

Shares fell nearly 10% on Monday alone after reports surfaced that a GoPro camera may have caused a brain injury in a well-known German race car driver

Formula One driver Michael Schumacher's skiing accident in December left him in a medically-induced coma for several months. He is now being treated at home.


According to reports in several British newspapers, French journalist Jean-Louis Moncet claimed after visiting with Schumacher's son Mick that it was the mounting of a GoPro camera the elder Schumacher was wearing that caused his brain injury.