or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEI5GUCPj4U

or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfIhFhelm8 if that doesn't work.

Melamine as a method for increasing the appearance of protein in gluten, without actually increasing the protein count:

http://scholarsandrogues.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/food-contamination-investigation-expands-how-trustworthy-is-the-fox-guarding-the-henhouse/

FDA may potentially eradicate all health supplements – replacing them with FDA DEVELOPED supplements derived from big pharma methods

http://www.wellnessresources.com/news/042407.php

Massachusetts town – “mass casualty incident” from water treatment plant introducing too much lye into the water supply – chemical burns from showering.

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_21276935.shtml

Privatization of US water resources by foreign firms – a genuinely poor idea

http://alternet.org/envirohealth/50994

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps


From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

Tuesday April 24, 2007

Why does the Bush administration have a list of everyone who has ever used anti-depressants?

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/why-does-bush-administration-have-list.html

I'm not in favor of gun registration, at all, will never be - so the opinion expressed in the above blog doesn't perfectly mirror my own.

However, when I say that neocons are Stalinist hyperleftists in GOP clothing, this is what I'm talking about.

Let's not forget that in order for this to work, the medical establishment as a whole had to play along, obviously in a very quiet way. "Feeling bad? Go to your friendly doctor." Sure.

End of line.

It's great.

From "Fresh Memories of War" by Kandea Mosley, The Ithaca Journal (New York), 25 May 2002:

"We were told there were no friendly forces," said [Army Private Matt] Guckenheimer, an assistant gunner with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. "If there was anybody there, they were the enemy. We were told specifically that if there were women and children to kill them."

http://www.thememoryhole.org/kill-afghans.htm

Pilot program - now your driver's license is your debit card!

What could possibly go wrong. Mumble mumble no buying or selling mumble mumble mark of something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeS2j7yK66k

Maybe I should think about beef flavored ramen too. 'Cause they could run out of chicken flavor, you know.

Analyst: Subprime Borrowers May Hurt Harley
R.M. Schneiderman, 03.14.07, 6:40 PM ET

oh I also included some of "Today's Top Stories" headlines because they're also lovely to contemplate - JD

• Citi May Be Planning 15,000 Job Cuts
• Housing Data Sends Stocks Lower

Americans not only bought homes they couldn't afford, they also spent money they didn't have on Harleys.

In a note on Wednesday, Edward Aaron, an analyst for RBC Capital Market, said that Harley-Davidson (nyse: HOG - news - people )'s financial unit has seen increased delinquencies and losses on loans given out over the past few years.

One reason for that phenomenon, he said, is the same reason that the subprime lenders are in financial turmoil -- that is -- they lent money to risky borrowers.

"While we don't know which borrowers are accounting for the acceleration of loss rates in Harley's loan securitizations, it's stands to reason that the lower credit quality customer's would be accounting for most of that change," he said.

That doesn't mean Harley is on the verge of implosion, Aaron said in an interview. But it may cause the motorcycle company's earnings to sputter over the next few years.

Another reason for the increased delinquencies and losses on loans is a greater level of supply, which have caused bikes to depreciate.

"We are concerned that a lackluster rate of underlying demand growth in the U.S. has been marked to some extent by increased supply and credit exposure," he said in the report.

Aaron reduced his price target on the company to $61 from $71.

Last week, subprime lenders came under more pressure from investors after New Century Financial (nyse: NEW - news - people ) said it would stop lending to potential borrowers because it no longer has money to do so.

---

http://housingpanic.blogspot.com is a joy. No... it really is.

Step 1: get greedy and decide to invest heavily in China as an emerging market

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1996/news.release.960418.html

Step 2: have China build a lot of your parts for you (for cheap!), and get training and support like crazy

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/boechina.html

Step 3: invest in cases of Ramen (hmmm... chicken, or beef flavor?) as China takes your technology and builds competing aircraft. (for cheap!)

http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_031207BUKchina_largeaircraftJM.612da0f.html

Bonus points for providing aircraft equipped with the QRS-11 guidance chip to foreigners. (Uhm, that lets "emerging powers" have easy peasy 1-2-3 guidance chips for lots of fun toys like moon rockets, cruise missiles, ICBMs, all kinds of toys.)

http://technocrat.net/d/2006/4/8/2195

Did someone say "moon rocket?"

http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaMoonflight.html

My oh my, the speed with which China's space program has progressed. How did they do that so fast, I wonder. They can even knock out satellites!

http://www.dailywireless.org/2007/01/18/chinese-asat-tested/ (fantastic, super linky, lots of good stuff here)

Why they might even decide to challenge the space superiority of the US. Or maybe they already have.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2125489&C=america

Or they could just disable our computer chips. You know... the ones they made for us.

http://www.willthomas.net/Convergence/Weekly/Faulty_Chips_US_Military.htm

Or hell, they don't have to fire a shot to destroy us. They could just dump our debt. Would they? Naw. Oh wait...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0703100152mar10,0,4916055.story?coll=chi-business-hed

---

Let's not forget that China allows foreign companies to manufacture goods within their borders ONLY IF you form a "joint venture" with the Chinese in order to manufacture there.

"The U.S. is one of China's primary suppliers of power-generating equipment, aircraft and parts, computers and industrial machinery, raw materials, and chemical and agricultural products. However, U.S. exporters continue to have concerns about fair market access due to China's restrictive trade policies and U.S. export restrictions. Intellectual property theft makes many Western companies wary of doing business in mainland China. Some Western politicians and manufacturers also say the value of the Yuan is artificially low and gives export from mainland China an unfair advantage. These and other issues are behind the recent push for greater protectionism by some in the US Congress, including a 27.5% consumer tax on imports."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China

GM, Ford, and others... you think you have problems now.

I prefer chicken flavored Ramen, so I guess the question for me is, should I learn to say "I for one welcome our Chinese overlords!" in Cantonese or Mandarin?

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL1470530620070314

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Commodities investment guru Jim Rogers stepped into the U.S. subprime fray on Wednesday, predicting a real estate crash that would trigger defaults and spread contagion to emerging markets.

"You can't believe how bad it's going to get before it gets any better," the prominent U.S. fund manager told Reuters by telephone from New York.

"It's going to be a disaster for many people who don't have a clue about what happens when a real estate bubble pops.

"It is going to be a huge mess," said Rogers, who has put his $15 million belle epoque mansion on Manhattan's Upper West Side on the market and is planning to move to Asia.

UT Scientist advocates killing 90% of global population with ebola (on the SAS website no less)

http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_2006/2006-04-07/feature1p/index.html

Russian Academy of Science – global COOLING?

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/08/25/globalcooling.shtml

The giant explosion in the sky might have something to do with it. (I've seen this very same article linked as proof that it's human activity causing global warming. Whee!)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/18/ixnewstop.html

And the rest of the solar system is heating up without our help.

http://magicstatistics.com/2006/05/06/global-warming-on-other-globes/

The coming Amero currency and US blindness to same - CNBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FOCMxMA_48

NAU not a myth – ask Lou Dobbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ernLnhIR8uI

Toll interests buy TX newspapers (blatant racketeering) to silence criticism of NAU TTC

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1570.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CvoC551i2E

Nip it in the bud, Ange!

Interesting times.

Mander pander poked me and said I should say something, and I suppose she's right...

I moved into my new house (new to me anyway - built in 1956 it's actually the newest house I've ever bought and lived in.) It's old enough to be characterful (and dare I say, a little odd) but new enough that modern things added to it don't contrast starkly. Plus, first time I've owned a garage of any sort, and the Bayerische conveyances both fit, albeit slightly awkwardly. It is a one-car garage, after all. It even has a rolly-up door. With windows! But not Windows(TM) because I draw the line at crappy software. (OK OK I have a MySpace account but it's because I was pressured into it.)

Heck, I even have a hot tub/jacuzzi bathtub thingy. No... really. With squirty jets and everything. Just the ticket for mild hydrophobes. (Female readers - I don't actually have it, I'm lying, please don't show up with towel in hand. I'm a big fat liar. Seriously. I'm big and fat and I lie.)

Now don't go carryin' pictures of Chairman Mao or anything, but I signed up with Green Mountain Energy (purveyors of water and wind generated electricity) for power, and I got me some of those compact flourescent bulbs to replace all the incandescents. So far I've replaced 14 60-watters with 13-watters. Math is hard, but I can spot savings.

I can also spot insanity, and if oil is so precious that we'll kill for it, die for it, and save it up in strategic supplies... I suppose it's a good ideer to maybe conserve where we can, no? I know, I'm unamerican. Future plans include solar cells, batteries and transformers, and a wind turbine. My neighbors are going to loooooove me. Am I going green? Well sort of. Green as in "oil is only going to go up, making everything more expensive, and I'm not 100% sure this country is going to remain solvent, let alone stable." Ok maybe that's not green. But it is forward-thinking. I also intend to give Mountain House and perhaps Alpine Air some of my money, and if you don't know who that is, it's OK. Those of you who do... you're probably way ahead of me. Don't get me started on my new precious metals collection, either.

I'm about 90% settled and so far have been too busy (or lazy, or something) to unpack those last few boxes. You know... the ones with the crap that you have no idea where they should go. I think a trip to Lowe's for more baker's racks is in order - they have swell shelving of that sort for cheep. (Target is hit or miss on their selection, and the last Chinese slave-built armoire I got there is, in fact, the last Chinese slave-built thing I'll ever buy if I can help it.) Oh and if anyone knows where I can get compact fluorescent bulbs that are NOT made in China I'd sure appreciate it. I could use the "series of tubes" and The Google(TM) and buy stuff online, I guess, if I could determine where the stuff I want is made - not as easy as you think, see Chinese slave goods commentary above.

No cable TV for me anymore, though. Hrmm, purchase a product (paid for monthly, at a cost that could be better put into savings or my IRA or, god forbid, BOOKS) that encourages me to do nothing for hours at a stretch, or pocket the savings and get my life back? Gee whiz, what should I do...

As far as my state of "wellness" I suppose that's anyone's guess. Recently, I performed what I saw as my duties and did that until I was drained, and haven't really filled up again. I suppose you could say that I feel more than a little dead inside, but I don't want to have to scrape out the dead cells and, you know, "deal with stuff" anytime real soon. I think I'd be better served by relaxing as much as possible. That's my main problem anyway, I tend to wind up over time until I'm almost rigid. Tough luck, big pharma... I don't want your pills. I think I'll just get one of Dr. Nick's swell earthpulse.com devices, and synchronize my brain or somesuch. What could possibly go wrong?

I still have to get a dryer (I have a washer - but no dryer. Not real handy) which I should be able to pick up from Mike The Drummer For Matt White - he has 2 dryers and a washer, hoarder of clothes-processors that he is. (His house came with a dryer, but no washer... people! These things are meant to be PAIRED.)

LOL; lol.

Once I get my mitts on the kitchen table & chairs from Uncle Bob's House of Storage Stuff (you know who you are - and ok it is my fault but only recently have I stopped being ridiculously busy, don't h8 yo), and bother to clean up the last of the boxes, then indeed I shall (as has been suggested) have a housewarming of sorts. You're invited! Because you make yummy food, don't you. Oh yes you do. And you have to bring it over.

Hello to my new neighbors Troy and LonnyFred.

Oh and the series of tubes brought me this. Not genuinely news... and yet - newsworthy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzu9M6dUCac

If you'll excuse me I have a food in the oven... and as always, screw you LJ cut. You're on notice.*

*but your spell-check is a RIOT. Suggested spellings for "earthpulse:"

earth pulse, earth-pulse, ampules, birthplace, Ethyl's, ethyl's, impulse, apples, Ethel's, ampule's, ampoule's, Apple's, apple's

and for LonnyFred:

Lonny Fred, Lonny-Fred, Winnifred, Linefeed, Onofredo, Winfred, Lingered, Winifred, Manfred, Louvered, Unfired, Conferred, Laundered, Leningrad, Hunfredo, Levered

Still do I LOL!

Long ago, the great Frith made the world. He made all the stars, and the Earth lived among the stars. He made all the animals and birds, and at first, he made them all the same.

Now, among the animals in these days was El-Ahrairah, the prince of rabbits. He had many friends, and they all ate grass together. But after a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere, multiplying and eating as they went. Then Frith said to El-Ahrairah, 'Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them.' But El-Ahrairah would not listen. He said to Frith, 'My people are the strongest in the world.'

This angered Frith, and he determined to get the better of El-Ahrairah. And so, he gave a present to every animal and bird, making each one different from the rest. When the fox came, and others, like the dog, and cat, hawk, and weasel, to each of them, Frith gave a fierce desire to hunt and kill the children of El-Ahrairah.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with a swift warren. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.

Could you guys do me a favor?

If anyone has pictures of Wylie they could post in comments, I'd appreciate it. I don't have any and I'd really like some.

Directory links work too. Thanks.

Xtine and I are headed for Seguin soon, to help Pap get his head wrapped around this. I'm trying to help as best I can.

Pax Vobiscum old friend. I am not angry... just very much stunned.

This is what happens when you let your friends wander around your recording session with a freakin' video camera.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1EbEEno8N_I&mode=user&search=

It shows up years later on the internets. *sigh*

Sports group stops raffle with gun prize
Associated Press

WEAVERVILLE, N.C. - A youth athletic association stopped the sale of raffle tickets for an Uzi submachine gun after parents complained that the tickets were being sold at a concession stand.

Gary Chandler, commissioner of the North Buncombe Youth Athletic Association, said his group didn't approve the raffle tickets, which were sold Saturday during football practice at North Buncombe Park.

"It was a parent who was doing soliciting out in the community," Chandler said. "This individual or parent did not think it through."

With a few exceptions, it is illegal to possess a machine gun.

*sigh*

1) Raffling off guns is nothing new, I bought raffle tickets from a local high school a couple months ago where one of the prizes was a Benelli shotgun. This is not news. In fact I'm disappointed I didn't win the shotgun, or the Xbox, or anything for that matter.

2) Personally, I can't confirm one way or another that this Uzi was in fact full-auto. It could have been a semi, easily... the press is notorious for getting this detail wrong "accidentally." If it was a full on full-auto Uzi, then whoever was raffling it off had damned well better have been asking for $100 a ticket or more. Those things don't come cheap and they're not a lot of fun to federally transfer, not to mention the fact that it has to be a 1986 or older model to even be transferrable to civilian hands. Plus, they're increasingly rare because civilians can't get anything newer than 1986 models, so the prices are RIDICULOUS. I think they're literally worth their weight in gold. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a semi, and probably one of the ugly useless 16-inch barrel models. Not much of a prize, there are far better carbines to be had.

3) It used to be that nobody cared who procured what gun in NC because we all pretty much had guns, and we all knew it, and we were by and large a polite society. When I went to summer camp as a kid, we practiced shooting with rifles and had a tournament at the end of our stay (which I always won.) No freakouts, no injuries, no AP stories, nothing. My how things have changed. "Not news" becomes news, if you put a perfectly legal gun in it. "Ice cream being sold at the GUN SHOW! Children lured to GUN VIOLENCE! Film at 11."

4) Hey AP: With a few exceptions, it is quite legal to possess a "machine gun." It is, however, quite a hassle. And next time if you'd be so kind as to tell me about it while I can still buy a raffle ticket, I'd appreciate it.