June 16, 2013

Very Important Info on.."The Duct Tape Festival"....This weekend...Avon Ohio

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/14/18961344-how-duct-tape-patched-up-the-world-and-why-were-still-sticking-with-it?lite

another link:

http://www.ducttapefestival.com/

June 10, 2013

Joke: You Care About Your Dog???

Joke: Your Dog is Barking....



If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at
the front door, who do you let in first?
The dog, of course. He'll shut up once you let him in.

June 9, 2013

I got a higher power...the kindness of my fellow members, and....

I see that kindness and strength as being greater than me. Sometimes people reach out to me, and help that help is what it is, especially if it helps me get thru the crises I am dealing with. cause guess what...I don't do so well alone..............end of rant........Stuart......

June 9, 2013

Rich Entrepreneur, "The Wealthy Aren't Job Creators, Middle Class Workers Are" Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/06/07/2123831/rich-entrepreneur-the-wealthy-arent-job-creators-middle-class-workers-are/

Bryce Covert on Jun 7, 2013 at 3:30 pm..
from Think Progress

Nick Hanauer

On Thursday, entrepreneur and self-described one percenter Nick Hanauer warned Congress that rich people like him aren’t the engines of the economy. In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, he explained why, in fact, middle-class workers are the economy’s real job creators:


In the same way that it’s a fact that the sun, not earth is the center of the solar system, it’s also a fact that the middle class, not rich business people like me are the center of America’s economy. […]

As an entrepreneur and investor, I have started or helped start, dozens of businesses and initially hired lots of people. But if no one could have afforded to buy what we had to sell, my businesses would all would have failed and all those jobs would have evaporated.

He described what he calls a “virtuous cycle” in which middle class consumers have money to buy goods, which increases demand and therefore hiring. The rich, on the other hand, don’t fuel the economy with their consumption in the same way. “I earn 1,000 times the median wage, but I do not buy 1,000 times as much stuff,” he noted.

June 3, 2013

Tesla Motors Comes Up Short in the Lone Star State: Insider Monkey

http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-comes-up-short-in-lone-star-state-157965/

It has been well documented over the past few months that Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is looking for a way to expand its presence in new states, including Texas. While there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with this, the company has run into resistance time and time again.

This is due in large part to the way that Tesla sells its vehicles directly to consumers. As you can imagine, many dealers in the state of Texas are not happy with this sales model. For this reason, they have put up a fight and for the time being it appears they have come out on top........(further down)

Here is a brief excerpt from an Automotive News piece published earlier today:

“Tesla-backed bills that would have created an exemption to current state law restricting factory-owned dealerships failed to make it to the floor of the Texas House or Senate for voting. The Legislature's regular session ended Monday, May 27, and it won't meet again in a general session until 2015.”

another story on this subject from Automotive News:
http://www.autonews.com/article/20130603/RETAIL07/306039966/tesla-loses-its-battle-to-sell-directly-in-texas#axzz2VAwZtCVQ

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It looks like Texas talks so much about the "free enterprise system" does not want the "free enterprise system" when it comes to competition with auto dealers who are established. So.. an electric car cannot sell because it has no dealerships like the current dealers?. I will not say what I really feel about the Texas legislature...Let me say, it sucks..............

June 3, 2013

Swimmer Swept over Yosemite Waterfall.......(ignores warning signs)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/02/us/california-yosemite-search/index.html

CNN) -- Park rangers will resume their search Monday for a teenage swimmer who was swept over a nearly 600-foot waterfall in California's Yosemite National Park over the weekend.

Aleh Kalman had been swimming about 150 feet from the edge of the Nevada Fall on Saturday afternoon when he was caught up in the swift current of the Merced River, the National Park Service reported. The 19-year-old Sacramento resident had gone to the park with a church group, the park service said.

"We believe it's impossible to survive a fall like that," park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said.

Swimming above the 594-foot Nevada Fall is not illegal, but the river is marked by signs warning of the danger, Cobb said.

Searchers on foot and a California Highway Patrol helicopter crew attempted to find Kalman on Saturday but had to cut short efforts at nightfall. The grim task resumed Sunday, aided by three dog teams, the park service said.
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I have seen the signs of danger that the park service puts up near the falls. Very sad. Current is very strong at this time of year.
..I have a theory about Yosemite National Park. It is too close to large populations centers. People that only have to drive 2 or 3 hours to these parks, think they are not real parks. From San Francisco 4 hours. If it is 4 hours away, and a day trip..people think they can't be real mountains.. kinda fake mountains. put there just for California inhabitants. .. Yep..

I remember many years ago, climbing the 350 Vernal Falls trail. Steep rock stairs and very tricky trail. One needs to be sure footed and deliberate. Climbing and walking along slowly and carefully. A lady behind me was climbing up the steep stairs at the end of the trail right near the top of the falls. The rock stairs were soaked with water from the mist of the falls. Well, she slipped and broke a leg, and they had to evacuate her with a helicopter or special contraption. She was seated their in pain. She
had on what looked like house slippers, some kind of very flimsy sandals ..to climb up a one and half mile trail, then up the side of a waterfall. In the Mountains.. steep ones..
.I had on hiking boots...I always thought that is what one uses if you hike in the mountains.

June 1, 2013

Next Year's Health Plan Rates: New York Times. Editorial

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/opinion/health-plan-rates-under-obamacare-arent-so-bad.html?hp&_r=0

(they are not so bad] brackets are mine...
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Editorial

Republicans are doing their best to persuade Americans that the Affordable Care Act will drive health insurance premiums so high that consumers will experience “rate shock.” That fear-provoking tale seems much less credible now that the rates proposed by health insurers for individual coverage on the new health care exchanges have been made public in several states. For the most part, the premiums will increase only slightly or even decrease for individuals and family coverage on the exchanges, electronic marketplaces in which consumers choose among a variety of plans with differing benefits and costs.


The reported rates are in states that have elected to run their own exchanges, which are set to start enrolling people in October for coverage that begins in January 2014. Many states with Republican governors have refused to set up exchanges and have left that task to the Obama administration. In 19 states where the exchanges will be entirely run by the federal government, more health insurance companies are entering the markets and injecting competition that should help hold down costs, the administration said on Thursday.

In California, officials announced last week that 13 insurers were awarded contracts to sell policies on the state’s health care exchanges next year. The companies submitted bids, which came in much lower than virtually all experts and actuaries had forecast.

May 31, 2013

With Stand Your Ground Laws Still Standing, Two Alabama Shooters Escape Liability

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/30/2075961/with-stand-your-ground-laws-still-standing-two-alabama-shooters-escape-liability/

By Nicole Flatow on May 30, 2013 at 10:30 am

Earlier this month, a 21-year-old African American approached the home of his step-father’s ex-girlfriend in Jefferson County, Alabama, and ended up dead. The woman who lived in the home said she shot him out of fear for her safety, and as a result, no charges will be filed against her under Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law — the same law that gained notoriety after the tragic killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

The woman, whose name was not released, said she was out walking her dog when she saw a man run by her home and went inside to get a gun. When she came back out, a man she believed to be the same person was walking down her driveway. She told him to stop, and that she had a gun. But he kept approaching. She shot and he died.

Unfortunately, little else is known about the case, and likely never will be now that the inquiry has ended with the state’s Stand Your Ground law. The woman said she could not identify the man and feared he was planning to attack her. She said she had particular fear because her boyfriend had been recently robbed, according to Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls. The man, Demetrius Antuan Thompson, had no criminal record. He had no known motive for an attack or break-in.

Under Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law, the woman had no duty to retreat, and it didn’t matter that she voluntarily came outside with a gun. Even if she only feared second-degree assault (intent and execution of serious physical injury), she was authorized to use deadly force. ”This is a tragic situation, but legally she was justified,” Falls told AL.com.

May 29, 2013

joke: Woman with a Quick Wit..pretty clean..

...

Three Hell's Angels are sitting at a table in a transport cafe when in
walks a Nun and takes a seat next to them and begins to eat.
Astonished, one of them say's, "I went to my parents wedding last week
and we all got rat-assed."

Being quick on the uptake the second one says, "My dad says he will
marry my mom next year."

Despite this the Nun stays right where she is.

In desperation the third one says, "My old man will never ever marry my
mom."

The Nun looks up from her food and says, "Would one of you bastards
please pass the salt."

May 29, 2013

One of the biggest scams ever: bottled water...quote mine .article.: National Geographic

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/05/17/u-s-bottled-water-sales-are-booming-again-despite-opposition/

U.S. Bottled Water Sales Are Booming (Again) Despite Opposition

Posted by Charles Fishman on May 17, 2012

Despite organized anti-bottled-water campaigns across the country and a noisy debate about bottled water’s environmental impact, Americans are buying more bottled water than ever.

In 2011, total bottled water sales in the U.S. hit 9.1 billion gallons — 29.2 gallons of bottled water per person, according to sales figures from Beverage Marketing Corp.

The 2011 numbers are the highest total volume of bottled water ever sold in the U.S., and also the highest per-person volume.

Translated to the handy half-liter size Americans find so appealing, that comes to 222 bottles of water for each person in the country — four bottles of water for every man, woman and child, every week.

Indeed, bottled water sales aren’t just growing — it’s fair to say they’re booming. Volume increased by 4.1 percent in 2011 — five times as fast as the 0.9 percent growth in the sales of beverages overall, according to Beverage Marketing. Bottled water sales, in fact, are growing twice as fast as the economy itself.


these two next quotes from National Geographic... are in my opinion...very important:

Although the U.S. has among the safest tap water in the world, the U.S. remains the largest market for bottled water. The next two, in order, are China and Mexico, both countries in which tap water is either unavailable, or typically not considered safe to drink.

The increase in Americans’ consumption of bottled water is extraordinary — the growth having more in common with digital-era products than typical consumer products.
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This link is from their own source: (International Bottled Water Association...)

http://www.bottledwater.org/us-consumption-bottled-water-shows-continued-growth-increasing-62-percent-2012-sales-67-percent

April 25, 2013

ALEXANDRIA, VA – The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), in conjunction with Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) has released 2012 bottled water statistics, compiled by BMC, a research, consulting, and financial services firm dedicated to the global beverage industry (www.beveragemarketing.com). The new BMC data show that the overall consumption of bottled water increased by 6.2 percent and bottled water sales were up 6.7 percent.

In 2012, total U.S. bottled water consumption increased to 9.67 billion gallons, up from 9.1 billion gallons in 2011. In fact, 2012’s consumption growth was the strongest it has been in five years. In addition, per-capita consumption is up 5.3 percent in 2012, with every person in America drinking an average of 30.8 gallons of bottled water last year. Bottled water increased in absolute volume more than any other beverage category in the U.S.

Bottled water sales increased by 6.7 percent in 2012, and now total $11.8 billion.

According to Gary Hemphill, managing director, information services, at BMC, “All signs point to U.S. consumers’ already displayed thirst for bottled water continuing in the years ahead. Changes in per capita consumption indicate persistent interest in a product that consumers embrace as a healthful alternative to other beverages.”
(these next two quotes from National Geographic are in my opinion very important:



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