June 6, 2015

If only we in the South could all have neighbors like this: anonymous gift on my front porch

I stepped out a few minutes ago, and the string of buttons was lying there for me.
No note.
Just left by someone who knew me well enough to be sure of my appreciation.

I hung it at the door, along with my note

June 6, 2015

What is the reason you think our participation in the contests is so low? This is not a poll

Surely I am not alone in worrying about our low count of entries - there have in my observation been only 2 times that the entries filled up to 30 since DU3 started.
We had almost a year then when we could not poll and therefore not run contests.
When the polls came back we could no longer do private voting.

I long thought this break and the change were the reason for the lack of participation, but I'm not so sure any more because I figure people have gotten used to it by now, even I gave up flailing about it.

Could it be fear of winning and therefore having to host? Maybe, but that's nothing new.

Could it be that not being a star member prevents a person not from entering, but from hosting? Has that always been like this?

Are we just worn out and no longer interested?

Should we think of some other way to determine the host or hostess?

I'm just wondering about this as I see the struggle to get the Spring contest up to 20 entries. For heaven's sake, anybody with a camera has a photo of spring flowers.........


Thoughts?

June 5, 2015

While I’m already wearing out my welcome tonight :) here are 2 photos I took on my way home

On my way home from the shot I took for the “Water running through it” I stopped, parked precariously, and looked up to take these.
My mind was on taking pictures.

If ever we have a contest: “If you can’t hide it, feature it” one of these would be my entry - can't chose which one

June 4, 2015

Federal Computer Breach With Origins in China Exposes Personnel Data

Source: NYTimes

BREAKING NEWS Thursday, June 4, 2015 6:13 PM EDT
Federal Computer Breach With Origins in China Exposes Personnel Data
The Obama administration on Thursday announced what appeared to be one of the largest breaches of federal personnel data, involving at least four million current and former government employees, in an intrusion that federal officials say apparently originated in China.
The personal data was held by the Office of Personnel Management, which handles government security clearances and federal employee records. The breach was detected in April, the office said, but it appears to have begun at least late last year.
The breach is the second major foreign intrusion into an important federal computer system in recent months. Last year, the White House and the State Department found that their email systems had been compromised in an attack that has been widely attributed to Russian hackers.
READ MORE »


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/breach-in-a-federal-computer-system-exposes-personnel-data.html?emc=edit_na_20150604

June 4, 2015

Happy Graduation to Caitlyn - Perfect Feminist Quote in a Senior’s yearbook in 2015

Click the link, you’ll really like it

http://twitter.com/casualnosebleed/status/603085032744493056/photo/1

edited to spell her name correctly

June 3, 2015

Bush Sorry Patriot Act Repealed Before He Got Chance to Read It

CRAWFORD, TEXAS (The Borowitz Report)—Just hours after the United States Senate voted to reverse key provisions of the Patriot Act, former President George W. Bush said that he regretted that the law had been partially repealed before he ever got a chance to read it.

“At the time when it was being passed and whatnot, people around the White House were saying it was a really good law,” Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. “I remember saying to myself, ‘I really need to read that.’ ”

Bush said that right after he signed the Patriot Act into law, “I wrote on a little Post-It note, ‘READ PATRIOT ACT.’ So it was definitely something I was meaning to do. But I guess it was one of those things I never did get around to.”
Now that the law has been partially reversed, Bush said, “I suppose it’s a little late in the game to start reading it,” but he indicated that he still “might check it out just to see what all the fuss was about.”

“I think they have it down at my Presidential library, so maybe one of these days I’ll set aside some time and read it,” he said, before adding, “Ha ha, who am I kidding? That’s not gonna happen.”



www.borowitzreport.com

June 2, 2015

"I can win" - Ben Carson fantasy illustrated

June 2, 2015

Hundreds feared dead as ship sinks in Yangtze River

Source: NYTimes

BEIJING — Most of the 458 passengers aboard a chartered cruise ship were still missing on Tuesday morning more than 12 hours after it sank during a storm along the central Yangtze River, according to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

Fewer than a dozen people had been rescued, local news media reported, indicating that this could be the worst such disaster in East Asia since the sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol last year.

The ship, whose name translates to Oriental Star, was crossing Hubei Province in the middle of the country when it sank at 9:28 p.m., the report said, citing the Yangtze River Navigation Administration. Rescue work was hampered by strong winds and heavy rain.

The water where the boat sank is about 50 feet deep. Rescuers could hear the sounds of people trapped inside, according to a Twitter post by China Central Television, the main state network.

Most of the passengers were between 50 and 80 years old and had been traveling on a group tour, according to Hubei Daily. The newspaper reported that one body, which appeared to be that of a tour guide, had been discovered. Hundreds of soldiers, police and paramilitary officers were on the scene. More than 100 boats and divers were on the scene, the newspaper reported.



more at link


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/world/asia/ship-reported-sunk-in-chinas-yangtze.html?emc=edit_na_20150601&nlid=28208667&_r=0

June 2, 2015

Probably the best birth announcement ever

Getting passed around on Twitter and Facebook today is the heartwarming image of the new-and-improved birth announcement for Elizabeth Anne Bogert (b. 1995). Bogert told his parents that he was identifying as a man and his parents knocked it out of the park:




As Willy Wonka is quoted as having said:
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/02/1348885/-Probably-the-best-birth-announcement-ever?detail=emailclassic