Tag: Open Thread

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Spacewalking astronauts tidy up, tackle chores

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

Tue Mar 10, 5:38 pm ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two space station astronauts ventured out on a spacewalk Tuesday to do a little maintenance work before visitors arrive.

The spacewalk 220 miles up took place on the eve of space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the orbiting outpost.

American commander Mike Fincke and Yuri Lonchakov, a Russian, wrapped up all the chores left over from a spacewalk just before Christmas. They accomplished everything faster than anticipated, in well under five hours, and accepted congratulations from Moscow flight controllers as they floated back inside.

Open Thread

Full moon is tomorrow, some call it the Full Worm Moon.

From the Old Farmer’s Almanac — NOT to be confused with the Farmer’s Almanac (without the word “old”) which is not the same thing at all! — a little about full moons in my part of the world:

Historically the Native Americans who lived in the area that is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to the recurring full Moons. Each full Moon name was applied to the entire month in which it occurred. These names, and some variations, were used by the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior.

Click on the link if you want to know the names … next month is Full Pink Moon.

Worms.  Figures.

Open thread is now open!

Weekend News Digest

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Recession on track to be longest in postwar period

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Mar 8, 10:54 am ET

WASHINGTON – Factory jobs disappeared. Inflation soared. Unemployment climbed to alarming levels. The hungry lined up at soup kitchens.

It wasn’t the Great Depression. It was the 1981-82 recession, widely considered America’s worst since the depression.

That painful time during Ronald Reagan’s presidency is a grim marker of how bad things can get. Yet the current recession could slice deeper into the U.S. economy.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

No force can stand before love, not and be untouched.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 When economy bottoms out, how will we know?

By ALAN ZIBEL, CHRISTOPHER LEONARD and TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writers

46 mins ago

When will this wretched economy bottom out? The recession is already in its 15th month, making it longer than all but two downturns since World War II. For now, everything seems to be getting worse: The Dow is in free fall, jobs are vanishing every day, and one in eight American homeowners is in foreclosure or behind on payments.

But the economy always recovers. It runs in cycles, and economists are watching an array of statistics, some of them buried deep beneath the headlines, to spot the turning point. The Associated Press examined three markets – housing, jobs and stocks – and asked experts where things stand and how to know when they’ve hit bottom.

None of them expects it to come anytime soon.

Now with World News.

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Overexposed: Imaging tests boost U.S. radiation dose

By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters

Tue Mar 3, 8:58 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Americans are exposed to seven times more radiation from diagnostic scans than in 1980, a report found on Tuesday as experts said doctors are overusing the tests for profit and raising health risks for patients.

The findings, issued by National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, add to already mounting evidence that doctors are ordering too many diagnostic tests, driving up the cost of healthcare in the United States and potentially harming patients.

While diagnostic scans give doctors valuable information and many times are necessary, doctors fear too much radiation exposure can cause cancer, especially in younger people.

Pony Party: The Six Nations!

The Pony Party is an open thread.  Please do not rec.  Chat away.

Dow 6000, Part II

A Stars Hollow Gazette

2/18 Wednesday +3.03 7,555.63
2/19 Thursday -89.68 7,465.95
2/20 Friday -100.28 7,365.67
2/23 Monday -250.89 7,114.78
2/24 Tuesday +236.16 7,350.94
2/25 Wednesday -80.05 7,270.89
2/26 Thursday -88.81 7,182.08
2/27 Friday -119.15 7,062.93
3/2 Monday -299.64 6,763.29

Well folks here it is.

Now unlike some commentators (Jim Cramer) I don’t blame Obama except to this extent- why the fuck is he listening to Tim Geithner and Larry Summers and not Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini?  Or even Jim Baker- yes that one.

Jim Cramer says we have to delay the reforms in Obama’s forward looking budget (the one Krugman likes very much) until Wall Street stablizes.

HE KNOWS NOTHING!

Fuck Wall Street.  They just want to keep running their leveraged Ponzi schemes.  They whine and whine that there are no sure investments.  Get a fucking job and work for a living losers!

We can’t afford a Carbon Tax?  We can’t NOT afford a Carbon Tax unless you’ve suddenly grown gills Jim.  You think Obama’s a socialist who’s been studying Lenin’s bank seizures?  Let me have a crack at it.

You’d be lucky to be living in a car under a bridge again Jim.  I’d put you to work digging ditches.

H/T Compound F

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 States’ budget woes will outlast the recession

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer

42 mins ago

Even after $135 billion in federal aid gets spent, many states will be staring down budgetary black holes unless they initiate dramatic spending cuts or tax increases, or both.

In the short-term, the massive stimulus will help balance budgets and keep key services, such as Medicaid, going. But economists agree the money will not quickly eradicate high unemployment, low consumer spending or distress in the housing market – the triple threats behind a nationwide tax-collection shortfall that is expected to drag on even after the economy begins to rebound.

Without higher taxes, bigger cuts to government services – or yet more federal funding – states face budget gaps that could reach $120 billion nationwide in their 2011 budgets, according to an analyst at the Rockefeller Institute, a think tank in Albany, N.Y. James Diffley, managing director of Global Insight’s U.S. Regional Services Group, says it’s unlikely budget gaps will close before 2013.

Now with U.S. News and Politics.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Leaving Iraq: Shift to south, exit through desert

By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 19 mins ago

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military map in Iraq in early 2010: Marines are leaving the western desert, Army units are in the former British zone in the south and the overall mission is coalescing around air and logistics hubs in central and northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, commanders will be shifting their attention to helping Iraqi forces take full control of their own security.

The Pentagon has not released the full details of President Barack Obama’s plan to end America’s combat role in Iraq by Aug. 31 of next year, but the broad contours are taking shape.

Now with World and U.S. News.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

So yesterday I mentioned that I life guarded at the most dangerous natural swimming hole in town.  I should temper that by saying that in mumblety-mumble years of life guarding I can only recall 2 times when any sort of rescue demanded my attention at all, both at a world class ultra modern Olympic caliber pool.

The first one scared the crap out of me.  A little kid, about 6 or 7 was screwing around on the lip of the pool and had one leg slip into the gutter and fell down.  I was sure I’d be dealing with a broken leg if not teeth sprayed out like Chiclets and a concussion.  Kid bounced up almost before I could get to him, giggled, and ran back to his mom.

Hey!  No running on deck!

The other time I was in the chair when some poor kids came in.  I know they were poor because one of them couldn’t afford a bathing suit, only a t-shirt and a bathing cap.  None of them could swim very well but they were staying by the side of the pool and not in any danger that I could see when my supervisor dove in and “rescued” the one with the t-shirt.

Personally I think it was simply for swimming while poor.

And if you happen to think that was icky you never had to deal with the severely learning disabled kids crapping their suits during lessons.  What the hell do you think the chlorine is for?

I haven’t quite gotten to my dangerous swimming hole yet but it will have to wait for another installment while I leave you with this story-

I once worked an outdoor pool in a park where, when people weren’t trying to climb the razor wire after dark, the drunks would amuse themselves by tossing their beer bottles over it so that they would shatter on the edge of the deck and spray the broken glass in the bottom.  The Budweiser and Heineken weren’t so bad, but you really had to look out for the Miller.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

When I was younger I used to go to camp in the summer.

It was a sleep over camp and as you got older your living conditions got progressively more primitive.  It’s kind of creepy to think about living in a hut with only 3 walls.  I suppose actually it was so they could keep closer track of us.

There were all kinds of activities you could pick and choose from, like Arts and Crafts (enamel work is kind of fun) and Tennis (I suck).  Being a swimmer of some accomplishment I gravitated toward waterfront activities like Boating (Row Boats), Canoeing, and Sailing (Sunfish).

My first boating experience was not very successful.  I drew the one with open oarlocks and having no clue on how to work them the oars kept popping out.  I’d call it a cruel joke on the counselor’s part except that they were pretty much given out on a first come first served basis.

The most desirable ones in my eyes were the open ones with pins through the oars because I didn’t like bothering with feathering.  As I got into the advanced classes of course I had to demonstrate my mastery of the technique, but to this day I prefer the pinned ones if only for the fact that you don’t have to deal with the locks slipping down to the blade.

Likewise the Sunfish were tricky too.  The lake was pretty much in a bowl and when you got in the lee of the hills and trees there was no telling which direction the wind would come from and you’d usually end up rowing yourself out with the tiller.  One amenity they had that I missed later in life with my family’s own Sailfish was a beach to run the boat up on when you were done so you could stay dry (unless you capsized of course).  We don’t have much of a beach at the Lake House so we have to moor the boat.  You swim or you don’t sail.

I also took some of the advanced swimming courses like snorkeling.  The big payoff for successfully completing that is they had a surface compressor with a face mask and tube that would let you go about as deep as the lake got.  I never really got a chance to use it though, the mask didn’t fit me very well and I couldn’t deal with the water pouring in from the sides.

Another thing I never did was the Gold swim.  If you were a good enough swimmer that they didn’t need to worry about you much you got a green tag to put up on the buddy board, but if you were especially ambitious several times a summer they’d take you out to a big sloping rock at one end of the lake and have you swim behind a Row Boat out to a stripe they had painted on a cliff face about a mile away.  If you made it you got a Gold tag.

Special huh?

Monster swimmers would go for double and triple Gold (not nearly as cool because all you got was a white tag with a 2 or a 3 on it), but I never tried it at all even though I’d do swim practices in the winter that were up to 10 miles long when our coach was feeling particularly sadistic after we lost a meet.

I’ve just never liked swimming in open water that much.  The darkness of it and not being able to see the bottom gives me the sensation of falling and I have terrible acrophobia.  It’s kind of odd than when I was life guarding I’d get assigned to the most dangerous of the two natural water parks in town instead of any of the 5 pools.  Oh well, at least I could shack up with my girl friend after work.

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