Like we don't have enough to worry about! Well, you're gonna have to find some room between terrorism, the economy, dwindling oil reserves, Africa, pirates and obesity, because... here comes METHANE GAS!
As far as the production of dangerous greenhouse gases go, it's a horse race between cows and automobiles (that's gotta be my best mixed metaphor ever!)Believe it or not, there are more than a billion and a half cows on this planet -- one for every six humans, and their methane gas farts are three times more dangerous, CC for CC, than the toxicity from cars.
Cow scientists (yes there are such people)are working round the clock to pretty up bovine flatulence, which they think they can do by adding more nitrogen to their food.
But we won't be out of the methane woods even if cows start to smell nice, because global warming -- and rising ocean temps -- are threatening to defrost a HUGE undersea supply of, you guessed it -- METHANE HYDRATES! As one wag scientist put it, 'If that source of methane erupts to the surface uncontrolled, the Earth will boil!'
Geez! I really feel a little guilty, worrying about the Jets changing quarterbacks!
At the Democratic gathering the evening of the November election there were mixed emotions. Everyone was naturally elated by the Obama landslide, and when Council incumbent Bob Conley won early, a sweep was anticipated.
It was not to be. The race for an open Council seat, between Democrat Dan Dunham and Republican Jerry Stevenson, was neck and neck, and as the night grew long, Stevenson eked out an apparent 42 vote win. Dunham had worked hard for the job, and in his 'concession' speech to the group, he was visibly spent, emotionally and physically. Then Councilman John Elias stepped to the podium.
"This thing is far from over, folks. Forty-two votes is a razor-thin margin, write-ins are still coming in, and we will challenge this result." I don't know if Dan Dunham believed him; I don't know if anyone else really did, but WAS HE EVER ON THE MONEY!
As of this writing the final tally had shrunk to an 8 vote margin, and a requested recount brought that down further, to just a single vote!
Dunham has petitioned state Superior Court to count four more votes -- three provisional votes and one absentee ballot. The absentee ballot specified a vote for "all Democratic candidates" but did not include names, and at least one provisional ballot that was denied was a voter whose name was misspelled.
A hearing could come as early as Dec.19 -- HANG IN THERE DAN BOY!!
Look up top, on the left, in the black bar. You can get to see just how relevant (or not) Jaxonia has been over 2008 -- and if you have a favorite, the search engine will find it for you.
And they LIED about it, too! In November of 1943, the U.S. military conducted a series of tests on several VW type 82 K�belwagens they had captured in North Africa; they concluded that the vehicle was simpler, easier to manufacture and maintain, faster, and more comfortable for four passengers than the U.S. Jeeps. This statement is at odds with U.S. War Department Technical Manual TM-E 30-451, Handbook on German Military Forces, dated 15 March 1945. In this manual (p. 416), it states 'The Volkswagen, the German equivalent of the U.S. Jeep, is inferior in every way except in the comfort of its seating accommodations.'
Right from the get-go, Detroit iron hypnotized us with horsepower while shorting us on automotive advances. Think about it. We were late with radial tires, late with seat belts, and at this writing we are still using cast-iron block, push-rod engines. We use this DECADES-OLD engine technology simply because it works, and Detroit has a stockpile of them. The rest of the world has moved on to lighter aluminum blocks.
Europe also pioneered parallel stroke wipers and, believe it or not, sun roofs.
Don't cry for these guys -- Believe me, they never cared about you..
(from Jaxonia: If you are a male who grew up in the 50s, the almost forgotten magazine covers in the above tribute will transport you back. How innocent we really were!)
by Louis Sahagun, LA Times
Bettie Page, the brunette pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.
Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.
A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.
Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."
Then there are the idealized portraits of her naughty personas -- Nurse Bettie, Jungle Bettie, Voodoo Bettie, Banned in Boston Bettie, Maid Bettie, Crackers in Bed Bettie -- memorialized by such artists as Olivia De Berardinis.
"Exactly what captures the imagination of people in terms of popular culture is something hard to define," Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner once said of Page. "But in Bettie's case, I'd say it's a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern."
According to her agents at CMG Worldwide, Page's official website, www.BettiePage.com, has received about 600 million hits over the last five years.
"Bettie Page captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said Roesler, chairman of the Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, who was at Page's side when she died. "She was a dear friend and a special client and one of the most beautiful and influential women of the 20th century."
A religious woman in her later life, Page was mystified by her influence on modern popular culture. "I have no idea why I'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work," she said in an interview with The Times in 2006.
She had one request for that interview: that her face not be photographed.
"I want to be remembered," she said, "as I was when I was young and in my golden times. . . . I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form."
Bettie Mae Page was born April 22, 1923, in Nashville. She was the oldest girl among Roy and Edna Page's six children. Her father, an auto mechanic, "molested all three of his daughters," Page said in the interview.
Her parents divorced in 1933, but life didn't get any easier for Bettie.
"All I ever wanted was a mother who paid attention to me," Page recalled. "She didn't want girls. She thought we were troubleWhen I started menstruating at 13, I thought I was dying because she never taught me anything about that."
After high school, Page earned a teaching credential. But her career in the classroom was short-lived. "I couldn't control my students, especially the boys," she said.
She tried secretarial work and marriage. But by 1948 she had divorced a violent husband and fled to New York City, where she enrolled in acting classes.
She was noticed on the beach at Coney Island by New York police officer and amateur photographer Jerry Tibbs, who introduced her to camera clubs.
Page quickly became a sought-after model, attracting the attention of Irving Klaw and his sister, Paula, who operated a mail-order business specializing in cheesecake and bondage poses.
Under contract with the Klaws, Page was photographed prancing around with a whip, spanking other women, even being hog-tied. She also appeared in 8-millimeter "loops" and feature-length peekaboo films with titles including "Betty Page in High Heels."
"I had lost my ambition and desire to succeed and better myself; I was adrift," Page recalled. "But I could make more money in a few hours modeling than I could earn in a week as a secretary."
Her most professional photographs were taken in 1955 by fashion photographer Bunny Yeager. They included shots of Page lounging with leopards, frolicking in the waves and deep-sea fishing, and a January 1955 Playboy centerfold of her winking under a Santa Claus cap while placing a bulb on a Christmas tree.
At 35, Page walked away from it all. She quit modeling and moved to Florida, where she married a much younger man whose passions, she later learned, were watching television and eating hamburgers.
Page fled from her home in tears after a dispute on New Year's Eve 1959. Down the street, she noticed a white neon sign over a little white church with its door open.
After quietly taking a seat in the back, she had a born-again experience. Page immersed herself in Bible studies and served as a counselor for the Billy Graham Crusade.
In 1967, she married for a third time. After that marriage ended in divorce 11 years later, Page plunged into a depression marked by violent mood swings. She got into an argument with her landlady and attacked her with a knife. A judge found her innocent by reason of insanity but sentenced her to 10 years in a California mental institution.
She was released in 1992 from Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County to find that she had unwittingly become a pop-culture icon. A movie titled "The Rocketeer" and the comic book that inspired it contained a Bettie-esque character, triggering a revival, among women as well as men, that continues unabated.
With the help of admirers including Hefner, Page finally began receiving a respectable income for her work.
In an interview published in Playboy magazine in 2007, Page expressed mixed feelings about her achievements.
"When I turned my life over to the lord Jesus I was ashamed of having posed in the nude," she said. "But now, most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude. So I'm not ashamed of it now. But I still don't understand it."
She spent most of her final years in a one-bedroom apartment, reading the Bible, listening to Christian and country tunes, watching westerns on television, catching up on the latest diet and exercise regimens or sometimes perusing secondhand clothing stores.
Occasionally, however, Page was persuaded to visit the Sunset Boulevard penthouse offices of her agents to autograph pinups of herself in the post- World War II years of her prime.
During one such event in early 2006, Page needed about 10 minutes to get through the 10 letters of her name. As she pushed her pen over a portrait of her in a negligee with an ecstatic smile, she laughed and said, "My land! Is that supposed to be me? I was never that pretty."
(Uh oh -- don't tell me YOU FORGOT?) The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic dogma, the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin. Many, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, incorrectly believe the Immaculate Conception to mean the virgin birth of Jesus.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated on December 8, was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. He did not define the doctrine as a dogma, thus leaving Roman Catholics free to believe in it or not without being accused of heresy; this freedom was reiterated by the Council of Trent. The existence of the feast was a strong indication of the Church's belief in the Immaculate Conception, even before its 19th century definition as a dogma.
The Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus, on December 8 1854.
The Roman Catholic Church believes the dogma is supported by Scripture (e.g. Mary's being greeted by Angel Gabriel as "full of grace" or "highly favoured"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the writings of many of the Church Fathers, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin (Luke 1:48). Catholic theology maintains that, since Jesus became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, it was fitting that she be completely free of sin.
For the Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858. In Lourdes a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her. The lady identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception" and the faithful believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation, except where conferences of bishops have decided, with the approval of the Holy See, not to maintain it as such. It is a public holiday in some countries where Roman Catholicism is predominant e.g. Italy. In the Philippines, although this is not a public holiday, the predominance of Catholic Schools make it almost a holiday.
Because of the miracle of the Conception, Mary was spared death. At the end of her life she was 'assumed', body and soul, into heaven. The Assumption of Mary is also Catholic dogma; it is celebrated on August 15.
Any quest for the ultimate hamburger is a fool's exercise; there's simply too much variety out there for any burger to be all things for one person. At '21' in NYC, for example, the burger is made from shaved not ground prime sirloin (secret ingredient: duck fat). At $26, how can one compare it to the White Castle double jalapeno cheeseburger for less than a buck? Burgers of all type and description reside on the slippery slope between those two examples. The truly good ones share a few aspects: they are fresh, not frozen; they come with a plentitude of free extras, and they are grilled, fried, broiled or otherwise cooked with, if not love, at least unabashed enthusiasm.
The first 5 Guys opened in Arlington, VA in 1986 and franchised itself locally pretty quickly. Franchising racheted up dramatically starting in 2002, and now there are over 300 locations in 25 states. (Click on the title for their complete story)
The Jaxonian burger? Mayo, ketchup, tomatoes and lettuce, fried onions, mushrooms and fresh jalapenos -- For $26 eat the '21' burger, or FIVE of these!
The Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began on the morning of Sunday, 7 December, 1941. Two attack waves, totalling 350 aircraft were launched from six IJN aircraft carriers which destroyed two U.S. Navy battleships, one minelayer, two destroyers and 188 aircraft. Personnel losses were 2,333 killed and 1,139 wounded. Damaged warships included three cruisers, a destroyer, and six battleships. Of those six, one was deliberately grounded and was later refloated and repaired. Two sank at their berths but were later repaired and both rejoined the fleet late in the war. Vital fuel storage, shipyards, and submarine facilities were not hit. Japanese losses were minimal at 29 aircraft and five midget submarines, with 65 Japanese servicemen killed or wounded.
The pre-emptive strike's intent was to protect Imperial Japan's advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies � for their natural resources such as oil and rubber � by neutralizing the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Both the US and Japan had long-standing contingency plans for war in the Pacific, developed during the 1930s as tension between the two countries steadily increased, focusing on the other's battleships. Japan's expansion into Manchuria and later French Indochina were greeted with increasing levels of embargoes and sanctions from the United States.
In 1940, the US halted further shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools and aviation gas to Japan, which Japan interpreted as an unfriendly act. America continued to export oil to Japan, as it was understood in Washington that cutting off exports could mean Japanese retaliation. In the summer of 1941, the US ceased the export of oil to Japan due to Japan's continued aggressive expansionist policy and because an anticipated eventual American entrance to the war in Europe prompted increased stockpiling and less commercial use of gasoline. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had moved the fleet to Hawaii, and ordered a buildup in the Philippines, to reduce Japanese aggression in China and deter operations against others, including European colonies in Asia. The Japanese high command was certain any attack on the United Kingdom's colonies would inevitably bring the U.S. into the war. A pre-emptive strike appeared the only way Japan could avoid U.S. interference in the Pacific.
The attack was one of the most important engagements of World War II. Occurring before a formal declaration of war, it shocked the American public out of isolationism. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 "� a date which will live in infamy."
For more on this famous day, including eyewitness accounts, excerpts from diaries, official Navy statistics. FDR's Pearl Harbor speech and more, click on the title.
Rescuing survivors from the USS West Virginia