March 16, 2013

Two WWII BBC Dramas both rating 8 or higher

Secret Army:

In this series, inspired by real events during World War II, the kind, intelligent and worrisome Albert Foiret runs both a café, which is the only notable public house in a small Belgian town, where locals therefore naturally mix with the Nazi occupation forces, and a just as publicity-shy (even his bed-ridden wife knows nothing) network of the Belgian resistance, devoted to the evacuation of shot-down Allied pilots to Britain. He and his secret 'army' (including some of his staff and the Brussels Dr. Pascal Keldermans), taking orders by illegal radio from London, constantly risk their lives -and if caught by the professionally torturing Gestapo, possibly everyone else's- to find the pilots, hide, nurse and prepare them for the long, dangerous journey out of the Reich under the Nazis' noses, a never ending cat-and-mouse game against specialized German hunters, run by the gentleman Luftwaffe (Air Force)- Major Erwin Brandt and the ruthless Nazi 'secret state police' run by the cunning,... Written by KGF Vissers

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075579/?ref_=tt_ov_inf

Colditz

This grim and claustrophobic drama chronicles the lives of the prisoners in Colditz Castle from the arrival of the first British prisoners after Dunkirk until the liberation of the castle by the Americans in 1945. Colditz was a "special" camp, designed by the Nazis to hold high-risk and politically important prisoners. Many of the series' plots are based on real events.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068059/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5


High production values and acting in both series, edge of your seat suspense.
Highly recommended.

March 15, 2013

Trump Tops Eastwood’s Rambling ‘Empty Chair’ Speech With Rambling ‘Empty Room’ Speech

n a display of “Huh?” worthy of Clint Eastwood and the Empty Chair, Donald Trump gave what Business Insider is describing as “confusing and terrible:”

Trump said he was upset that President Barack Obama did not return his calls about a free ballroom he offered to build. He also made a strange statement about how he wants the U.S. to go back to Iraq to take some oil.

Conservative writer David Freddoso tweeted that the crowd stopped applauding before Trump had even left the stage. He also said:

“I feel dumber for having listened.”


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/15/trump-tops-eastwoods-rambling-empty-chair-speech-with-rambling-empty-room-speech/

March 14, 2013

A new Leader has been chosen

Got ya........
Go Canada

Astronaut Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station this afternoon, when he officially took the reins of the orbiting laboratory.

Outgoing NASA Commander Kevin Ford, who has held the role since November 2012, passed responsibility for the Station to Hadfield during a transfer-of-command ceremony at 5:10 p.m. ET.

Expedition 34 will end tomorrow when Ford and his crewmates undock from the Station.


[Hadfield] has a vision for [Expedition] 35. He knows what's going to happen," Ford said from the ISS. "He's really a people person. He's out there, he shares things with everybody. He's a uniquely talented person on the planet and he's now a uniquely talented person off the planet."

Hadfield arrived at the Station in December, where he has been conducting experiments and sharing his experiences on social media.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/03/13/sci-chris-hadfield-iss-handover.html

March 14, 2013

A new Leader has been chosen

I thought this was amusing and science related.
Go Canada.

March 13, 2013

Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll Resigns .. Racketeering?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll announced her resignation Wednesday, a day after she was questioned by authorities investigating an Internet cafe company that she once represented.

Carroll’s resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott, dated Tuesday, offered no details about her reason for leaving. But Scott’s chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, said she was interviewed by Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers Tuesday regarding her work with Allied Veterans of the World.

She resigned to ensure her ties to the company would not be a distraction for the administration, he said. Carroll, a Navy veteran, had owned a public relations firm that represented that company.

While serving as a state lawmaker, Carroll’s ties to the company were also questioned when she proposed a bill that would benefit internet cafes.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fl-lieutenant-governor-resigns.php?m=1

March 13, 2013

Report: Man behind Romney ’47 percent’ video will reveal himself Wednesday

The Florida bartender responsible for capturing former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” remarks will reveal his identity in an interview with MSNBC host Ed Schultz that will air Wednesday.

Both Schultz and Mother Jones, which released the video in September 2012, announced the interview on Tuesday, with Schultz playing clips from the interview.

“I debated for a little while, but in the end I really felt it had to be put out,” the bartender said of his decision to leak the video, secretly filmed at a May 2012 fundraiser for Romney. “I felt I owed it to the people who couldn’t afford to be there themselves to hear what he really thought.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/13/report-man-behind-romney-47-percent-video-will-reveal-himself-wednesday/




A real hero

March 13, 2013

Neanderthals Doomed by Vision-Centered Brains

Neanderthals' keen vision may explain why they couldn't cope with environmental change and died out, despite having the same sized brains as modern humans, new research suggests.

The findings, published today (March 12) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that Neanderthals developed massive visual regions in their brains to compensate for Europe's low light levels. That, however, reduced the brain space available for social cognition.

"We have a social brain, whereas Neanderthals appear to have a visual brain," said Clive Gamble, an archaeologist at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the study. As a result, the extinct hominids had smaller social and trading networks to rely on when conditions got tough. That may have caused Neanderthals to die off around 35,000 years ago.
snip

Neanderthals were has been a long-standing debate.
"Either they get regarded as lumbering brutes, or the other side says, 'No, they weren't that stupid. They had enormous brains, so they must have been as smart as we are,'" said study co-author Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford.

snip

http://news.yahoo.com/neanderthals-doomed-vision-centered-brains-002516901.html

March 12, 2013

Official CPAC dress attire

Wow. Sounds like fun. They are bringing fashion (and politics) into the nineteenth century.



http://dcist.com/2013/03/fashion_recommendations_for_cpac_ye.php

March 12, 2013

Anti-gay Cardinal sleeping above the biggest gay sauna in Europe which is in Rome

An apartment building in Rome currently occupied by Cardinal Ivan Dias is also home to the biggest gay sauna in Europe.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that Cardinal Ivan Dias is living just one floor above the Europa Multiclub Sauna and Gym, which contains a king Turkish bath, Finnish sauna, giant whirlpool, waterfall whirlpool and other attractions for its gay patrons.

The socially-conservative Cardinal, who previously served as Archbishop of Bombay, has described homosexuality as an “unnatural tendency” and a disease of the soul.


The Vatican purchased about 20 apartments in the building in 2008. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is said to be behind the purchase.




http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/11/anti-gay-cardinal-sleeping-above-the-biggest-gay-sauna-in-europe/#.UT6dUz3WQl8.reddit

March 12, 2013

Peruvian Pyramid Older Than Egypt, Civilization Rivals Sumerians In Age, 1200 Years Without War

The lost Pyramids of Caral are older than suspected, construction began in 3000 B.C (300-400 years before the people of Kemet, Egypt began the Pyramid of Djoser). These cities flourished peacefully for more than 1,200 years. Something very different from all other civilizations is that this people lived without fears, in peace. No traces of warfare have been found, a finding that had to make archaeologists in the world to re-invent their thinking and theories about why tribal people built and moved into large cities.



The Andean Center for Archaeological Research, CIARA, has made an extraordinary discovery in the Huaca Rosada Urban Center, located in the district of Ventanilla, Callao and which dates from 4500 years.The pyramid Huaca Pink belongs to the architectural tradition of Caral , which shows that the nation state of Caral is one of the oldest civilizations to be discovered. Caral was located in the Peruvian Barrranca provinces covering Huaura, Huaral, Lima, Callao, Huarmey and Casma, as well as the Central Coast area and north-central Peru and influencing the Midwest of our country.



http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and-technology/2013/03/peruvian-pyramid-older-than-egypt-civilization-rivals-sumerians-in-age-2555356.html?utm_campaign=&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fawe.sm%2Fq0D6y&utm_source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&utm_medium=facebook-post&utm_content=awesm-fbshare-small