So to start off the 2nd week's installment of "The Sunday News According to Me" and otherwise known as "My Sunday Ramblings"-I figured a story that SHOULD be important to EVERYONE WHO INHABITS THIS PLANET WE CALL HOME should be the first story of the day.
Contents:
- Be Worried, Be Very Worried (Story about Global Warming)
- Unreleased 911 Calls from 911 (Story about Emegency calls from victims of the Twin Towers)
- Hee Haw (Story about one of the host's (Buck Owens) death and a little Hee Haw TV history)
- Missing Link Possibly found in Africa?? (Story about the elusive missing link between modern man and the extinct "Homo Erectus")
- Gas-Gas-Gas (story on the ever increasing price of automotive gasoline-and crude oil, which is its base)
- Beavis and Buthead Missing (Two little black boys missing from Milwaukee area more than week now)
- Bird Flu-Part Two (Story about how the most recent thinking on this flu's inability to attach to humans may be wrong)
- Monkey Business (A story on how Chimps and Humans have very similar behaviors)
- Strange and Crazy News (a mix of different insane stories from around the globe)
- End Notes (sort of like a weekly Editorial from a publisher of a newspaper)
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Our Planet is hurting right now, more so than probably any other time in recent history. Many people have warned about Global Warming and the effects that it will have on our enviroment. Things such as droughts, floods, fires, ozone depletion....and more.
Well folks, all of this is happening right now and at a very increased rate.
I have heard people talking about a "Tipping Point", where the all the forces of nature and space decend upon a planet and a sort of "feedback loop" starts where things just start falling apart due to one thing affecting another and so on and so fourth.
The following articles from Time Magazine talks more about this very real and current danger to all who inhabit this "3rd Rock from the Sun". (At least we inhabit it now...who knows how much longer we really have).
Click on link below to read the article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/coverstory/index.html
And for the entire cover story from Time Magazine, click this link:
http://jrepinski3.blogspot.com/2006/03/time-magazine-cover-story-global.html
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Unreleased 911 calls from 911
So.... due to a lawsuit that was filed by members of victim's families as well as various News media outlets, audio recordings of what must certianly be many people's "last phone calls" from the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, are being released to the "Next of Kin" of these victims.
The story as CNN is reporting it says in part:
The mayor's office is sending form letters this weekend to the families of 24 victims of the 9/11 attacks, informing them of unreleased recordings of 911 calls made by their loved ones.
At least one recipient called the letters "totally crass."
"I had one family member call me today, she was hysterical. She actually fainted," said Bill Doyle, whose son died after two planes crashed into the WTC towers. "She opened it up in an elevator and she couldn't believe it, because she never heard from her husband that morning, but apparently he called 911."
The article from CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/WTC.911.calls/index.html
Watch the CNN Video-which I have linked to-for the details on this one:
Click on link below:
World Trade Center victims' final words
(2:24) Broadband connection best for viewing.
__________________________________________________________________________Hee Haw.....
Buck Owens passed away Saturday.
Alot of today's youth won't know (or probably care) who this guy was.
I remember him though from watching the tv series "Hee Haw" on saturday nights when I ws a kid, with my parents.
I always thought it was a funny show and though some of the jokes were very corny to say the least, the show was one of the "Main Stays" of television viewing back in the 70's (which is the decade that I grew up in) and I know for a fact that this tv show helped launched a lot of "Country Superstar's" careers and kept a whole slew of other's in the public eye in addition to having many other guest stars of tv and movies make appearances on the show. They did funny "skits", had really dumb jokes, and lots of country music. If I had to relate this show to any other (esp. for the younger generation to know what I am talking about in the least) then I would have to say that it was kind of like a "Country Saturday Night Live" show.....
Some not very well known trivia facts about the show:
-After being cancelled, the show moved to first run syndication where it ran for an additional 21 years.
The first season including the pilot was done in studio A at WLAC-Tv in Nashville. The station is now WTVF Newschannel 5.
-The show was originally scheduled to be shot entirely in California, but the general manager of WLAC talked CBS into doing the show at his station. The reason: "I could stand on the front porch of the station, blow a whistle, and have any country singer we need."
-A victim of the infamous rural purge in 1971 along with "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962), "Mayberry R.F.D." (1968), "Green Acres" (1965) and the "Toast of the Town" (1948). These shows were perceived by then CBS executive Fred Silverman to only appeal to people who lived in rural areas and older people, so he decided to cancel them even though they were all still hugely popular at the time.
Funny that I never see it in syndication on any tv channels. But then again I don't watch tv all that much, so maybe it is on somewhere within the 200 some odd channels that are available via my Time Warner Cable set up.....
An article on Buck Owens passing, via CNN, can be read by clicking the link below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/25/obit.owens.ap/index.html
And for those who want to take a trip down memory lane or maybe just want to learn a little more on what this "Hee Haw" tv show was all about-then click some of the links below:
http://www.heehaw.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hee_Haw
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Missing Link found in Africa??
Where else would this elusive "missing link" be found but in Africa. Most scientists, archeologists and others in the field of ancient human history now believe that man first emerged out of Africa. That is where "Lucy" one of man's ancestors, was found as well as a host of other specimens that bear striking resembelances to us "human beings". This latest find was unerarthed about 5 weeks ago in Ethiopia.
(Isnt that where all the famine jokes came from back in the 80s??)
Click below for the article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/03/25/missing.link.ap/index.html
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Gas-Gas-Gas
The oil companies are reaping in massive profits and believe it or not there is still plenty of crude oil, yet gas prices continue to increase. The price here in Racine for "Regular Unleaded" is currently at $2.57 a gallon at most places. According to a recent article I read, the cheapest prices by far are in Utah, with Salt Lake City prices being around $2.28 a gallon (Wonder why those Mormons are being treated so good??).
A link below to one article talking about the rise:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_PRICES?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
So here I go digging a little more and I may have come up with a few differennt reasons.
One possible scenario is outlined below:
Some people think the real reason we invaded Iraq was not 911, but oil. Now Greg Palast writes in The Guardian that the Iraq war IS all about oil, but according to Palast, we didn't invade Iraq three years ago in order to have more oil, we went to war so we'd have less (and the oil companies would have higher profits).
Palast reports on a conversation he had with ex-CIA oil analyst Robert Ebel about a secret meeting he attended a month before the invasion of Iraq, with Saddam’s former oil minister. The meeting was not about freeing up more oil for the West, it was about making sure that Iraq joined OPEC, so the West would get less oil, at higher prices. The Guardian obtained a copy of a secret memo drafted by the US State Department about this.
The US government wants Iraq to support OPEC, which is notorious for its high oil prices, which cause the price of US gasoline to rise. Saudi Arabia, which filmmaker Michael Moore showed us has close ties to the Bush family, basically runs OPEC and if Iraq was tied to this organization, Iraq's oil would be parceled out slowly, in order to keep the price high.
Iraq was hurting due to US sanctions, and Saddam was undoubtedly tempted to get more money by pumping more oil, but that would have gone against OPEC's mandate and driven prices down, affecting all OPEC countries, as well as lowering profits for the oil companies.
So there you have another "conspiracy". By clicking on some of the underlined links in the above paragraphs, you can learn a little more.
Like I have said before, there is a lot more going on with all of this than we are being told.
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Beavis and Buthead Missing...
Oops, I meant that to read "Purvis and Quadrevien" Missing.
This story has been pretty much in the headlines for a week now. Two young black kids dispapeared from their Milwaukee neighborhood last week and the search is picking up quite a bit of "national exposure". CNN has even dedicated some time to this.....
Click below to read the CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/milwaukee.boys/index.html
(By the way who would name their kid "Purvis" and his middle name "Virginia"?? I can just imagine the ribbing he must take in school. As we all know, kids can be cruel....maybe he ran away to change his name. And the other kid having pig tails just like a girl?? Maybe they are pre adolecent lovers and took off on a little two week long tryst).
How much you wanna bet that they are both either in the clutches of some "sexual predator" that likes little "chocoalate popicles" or that they are on the bottom of Lake Michigan because of same thing.
The police in Milwaukee seem to think that other people know what is going on but that they are not coming forward for some reason....
A quote from one of the police spokeswomen:
"We have reason to believe there are individuals with information that is pertinent to this investigation who for reasons unknown to us right now aren't coming forward," Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said at a Friday afternoon briefing.
Maybe they are like me, when I was their age.... and hopped a freight train to see where it would take them.
I almost made it 30 miles away from home before I was realized by the train conductor and sent back home.
There is a $35,000.00 reward for info leading to their whereabouts.
A hotline to call also is available and that is: 1- 877.628.3804
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: 1-800-843-5678
A few links below to this story:
http://www.henningparker.com/
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=410896
Well in any event, I hope for the best for these two little ankle biters. But I have a feeling that they will not be returned to their families the way in which they left. Just a gut feeling...and I don't think I am alone in that thinking.
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Bird Flu-Part Two
There have been quite afew articles on how some think that the "Bird Flu" now may NOT affect humans the way alot of people thought it would. But I personally think that they may be jumping the gun just a bit.
Bird flu is a killer when it infects human beings, but so far it has not mutated into a virus that people can catch from each other. Now scientists are learning why. Scientists are learning why the avian flu virus H5N1 has not yet mutated into a strain that can be transmitted between humans. It turns out that the avian strain can't bind to human cells. But only one major mutation is needed for the flu to become transmittable between people. Is this mutation likely to occur?
Click link below for the rest of the story:
http://jrepinski3.blogspot.com/2006/03/full-story-on-bird-flu-part-two.html
Somehow I do not think we are "out of the woods" on this one yet.....
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Monkey Business
Humans and chimpanzees are almost identical genetically, and we often act alike as well.
Now it turns out there are primate police. Monkeys also like to scratch each other’s backs AND monkeys are willing to pay for sex.
LiveScience.com has a very interesting article where I got most of my info for this piece.
(click on link below for full story):
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050128_monkey_business.html
Anyway, there is new research that reveals that monkey cops help make their fellow primates behave through intimidation and seniority (like human police). If you remove the primate police from a group, the rest of the groups gets more violent and aggressive. One of the ways they keep order is by getting in between warring groups or by chasing misbehaving monkeys away.
But these primate police aren't dictators—they are voted in by the group. Monkeys vote for a candidate by baring their teeth in order to "elect" their favorite candidate.
The author of the "Monkey piece" writes in LiveScience.com that monkeys also "pay" for sex. Male monkeys will give up their juice rewards for a glimpse of a female monkey’s bottom, just like human males do in a strip show. They also enjoy looking at images of higher ranking male monkeys, the way we humans like to read about movie stars and other famous folk.
Monkeys like to scratch each other’s backs, and it's been discovered that one monkey tells the other just where to scratch, which is another thing we humans do too. Anthropologist John Mitani says, "The more we learn, the more we see chimpanzees employing remarkable, seemingly human-like behaviors."
All I have to say on this is "Here Cheeta".
I wish I could get Scrappy to do just one of those things!!!
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Strange and Crazy News
- The Rape of a "poodle"-A quote from the news article: "Sassy will survive but will never be the same".It seems some crazy dogophile is on the loose in Pheonix Arizona. And I thought all the whackos lived in either California, Florida or Wisconsin. http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=4682151
- Come to an "After Bar" NOW and Leave Dead LATER- A quote from the news article: "Someone invited the killer to the home on Republican for an after-party which continued through the night. Some of the witnesses interviewed by police said the shooter was "quiet and humble" when he was initially at the after-party, Kerlikowske said.Just before 7 a.m., he left the home. " What in the heck? Maybe some Meth abuse or he got "rebuffed" when he tried to make a pass at some hottie? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/264372_shooting25ww.html
- Worms that Come out of your Hand (or Feet or Eyes)-A Quote from the news article: "Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert.
For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or even eye sockets — of victims, forcing their way out by exuding acid under the skin until it bubbled and burst." Ok, so I am so glad I ate before reading this one. It seems that Jimmy Carter (our former president is trying to help eradicatte this little pest from the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/international/africa/26worm.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=5851475b059fc8ea&hp&ex=1143349200&partner=homepage&oref=slogin
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End Notes
There is so much going on in these times. The above are just a few of the things that are going on in our very strange and crazy world at this moment in time.
On a more personal note, my friend and buddy of the last few years is retiring on Monday. She has been a loyal companion for the last three years and she went with me when I took my road trip out west a few years ago. We had the greatest time on that trip and she helped me "close some doors" out there in Colorado, which I had wanted to do for such a very long time. She has carried my butt all over Wisconsin and Racine.
So it is with great sadness that I take my friend to the retirement home on monday morning. I will miss you my little "2003 model Ford Ranger 4by4 Off Roader"......may your remaining years be filled with peace and happiness.
Warm Regards to all for a great week coming up....
J.R.
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