Some people are outraged after a high school track team is disqualified from competing in state finals because one runner made a religious gesture. In just a few seconds the boys Columbus High School 4 X 100 relay team went from winning the regional meet, heading to state championships to having it all stripped away. How did the “W” so quickly become “DQ”? Well. when the anchor of the relay team crossed the finish line, he won the race, raised his finger to the sky and that gesture caused the winning regional’s relay team to be disqualified.
“It’s a sad deal. I think it’s a travesty. Those kids work hard,” says K.C. Hayes. Hayes’ son Derrick Hayes is the runner who won the race then pointed to God, turning a once in a lifetime opportunity into a huge heartbreak that will likely last his lifetime. “As a team they reached their goal and in an instant it was just gone, over something we think is a non-issue. I guess someone else thinks it is an issue. He just said dad I was pointing at the heavens” says K.C. Hayes.
A judge with the University Interscholastic League or UIL, which enforces the rules for high school athletics, was there at the meet in Kingsville and made the call to disqualify the four member relay team. “For those kids the work they put in, what are we teaching them? Ok you’re going to sacrifice, work hard and do everything it takes and ok it’s just ripped away,” says Hayes.
NO COMMENT ... I will leave them up to you ......
Friday, May 3, 2013
Obama Blames U.S. For Gun Violence In Mexico
Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress. Instead, he called for the Senate to ratify a decade-old hemisphere wide treaty that would require nations to mark all weapons produced in the country and track them to make sure no weapons were exported to countries where they were banned.
“I will not pretend that this is Mexico’s responsibility alone. The demand for these drugs in the United States is what’s helping keep these cartels in business,” Mr. Obama said at a joint news conference with Mr. Calderon. “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that line our shared border.”
A Clerk .... a what?
There are not many Nevada "clerks" left, I may be one of the last. If there are any others out there I would love to hear from them. Dwayne Kling is one.
I turned out as a crap dealer in 1956, in Reno, Nevada. I had overheard some dealers referring to other dealers as "a good clerk." At the end of the year, I learned the reason for the term.
The IRS had no classification for dealers, so we were listed as "retail clerks," thus the expression, "he's a good clerk."
Not sure of the year when it changed, and dealers or casino employees had their own classification, but I imagine it was quite some time ago.
I checked the IRS site and could not make heads or tails of it, so not sure what their classification might be.
A word to the wise
Apparently, I could not find the article, there has been a rash of vandalism, or worse, someone is going around and loosening the lug nuts on cars, uncommonly dangerous and hard to detect. It is happening here in Newark, but once it gets publicity it could go nationwide ............. BE CAREFUL
Man Sues Airline Over Soda Spat
His name may mean "Wine Drinker" in Italian, but it wasn't alcohol that got Salvatore Bevivino into trouble on a Virgin American flight.
According to a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California on April 28, 2012, Bevivino, 52, a business manager for Genentech, boarded a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco, where he now lives.
According to the suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages, Bevivino had pressed the call button and asked a male flight attendant for a soda. The flight attendant told him that he had to order by using the touch screen on the back of the seat before him. "He just pointed to me, pointed to the screen and said, 'Use the console, sir'," Bevivino told ABC News. "I said, 'I don't want to turn this thing on.' He said, 'I don't have time for your attitude' and left.'"
A minute later, a female flight attendant approached Bevivino and told him to use the seatback ordering system. Once again, he refused, and said that he would complain to Virgin America. A third attendant finally brought him the soft drink.
There were no further interactions between him and the flight attendants, the suit maintains. Instead, Bevivino spent the remainder of the flight working on his computer.
Salvaged from the seabed: WW2 German bomber gunned from skies to be rescued
The Dornier 17 German bomber was blasted from the air during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and has remained beneath the waves off the Kent coastline ever since.
But work began yesterday to raise the unique wartime aircraft from its watery grave in the English Channel, in one of the most ambitious salvage operations ever undertaken in British waters.
A team of divers spotted the rare aircraft lying 50ft down and upside down on the Goodwin Sands just off the Kent coast in 2008.
Sonar scans identified the plane as Dornier Do 17Z-2, serial number 1160, and it is the only surviving example in the world.
Its main structure has been remarkably preserved and some of its undercarriage tyres are still inflated.
Apart from minor damage to the forward cockpit, observation windows and propellers the slim aluminium frame has survived the corrosive effects of the sea water.
Solar-powered plane takes off for flight across U.S.
The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, departed shortly after 6 a.m. local time from Moffett Field, a joint civil-military airport near the south end of San Francisco, heading first to Phoenix on a slow-speed flight expected to take 15 to 20 hours.
Rat meat sold as lamb in latest China food scandal
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese police have broken up a criminal ring accused of taking meat from rats and foxes and selling it as lamb in the country's latest food safety scandal.
The Ministry of Public Security released results of a three-month crackdown on food safety violators, saying in a statement that authorities investigated more than 380 cases and arrested 904 suspects.
Among those arrested were 63 people who allegedly ran an operation in Shanghai and the coastal city of Wuxi that bought fox, mink, rat and other meat that had not been tested for quality and safety, processed it with additives like gelatin and passed it off as lamb.
The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, it said.
Despite years of food scandals — from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs — China has been unable to clean up its food supply chain.
The Ministry of Public Security released results of a three-month crackdown on food safety violators, saying in a statement that authorities investigated more than 380 cases and arrested 904 suspects.
Among those arrested were 63 people who allegedly ran an operation in Shanghai and the coastal city of Wuxi that bought fox, mink, rat and other meat that had not been tested for quality and safety, processed it with additives like gelatin and passed it off as lamb.
The meat was sold to farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai, it said.
Despite years of food scandals — from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs — China has been unable to clean up its food supply chain.
Thankfully, more blog material .... just spent thirty minutes or so, waiting for my wife, sitting in the entry way of a Kroger's.
Nice sunny day out, 70 degrees, really a nice day. Why then, did that one fly, decide to pester me. I didn't have shaving lotion on, I had showered, but he lit on me a hundred times or so. I was sitting by the door, on a bench, very comfortable, watching people come in and out, when he decided to be a pest. He would land on my knee, then my forehead, the a cheek, one right after the other. He had the whole store, all that produce, the meat department, that sushi bar would have been ideal for him. But, no, just me. We are home now, he is probably out in the car, I left the window open.
Another revelation, some people enter, go get a cart, and then, prior to entering, they take a sanitizing wipe and wipe the place where the hands go, not sure what to call it. Some will end up also wiping their hands, and some will not. They get the cart, touch it, then sanitize it. It's about fifty fifty on the wipe first thing.
Some will take a sanitizing wipe and wipe the pusher prior to taking the cart. They are the smart ones, kill the germs before touching it.
WHY did that one lady, enter, talking loudly on her phone, get her cart, phone between shoulder and cheek, still talking loudly, and take off into the store, still talking loudly. Why did she think that anyone wanted to hear her conversation, I certainly didn't. Unless she was talking with her trainer about exercise (except for her mouth) and weight loss.
It was Kroger's, I saw that sign thing, it showed they needed 4 checkers, one lane was open for me, it works. I told the guy I felt the "zap" when I walked in the door. It does work, not sure how, but it does.
Nice sunny day out, 70 degrees, really a nice day. Why then, did that one fly, decide to pester me. I didn't have shaving lotion on, I had showered, but he lit on me a hundred times or so. I was sitting by the door, on a bench, very comfortable, watching people come in and out, when he decided to be a pest. He would land on my knee, then my forehead, the a cheek, one right after the other. He had the whole store, all that produce, the meat department, that sushi bar would have been ideal for him. But, no, just me. We are home now, he is probably out in the car, I left the window open.
Another revelation, some people enter, go get a cart, and then, prior to entering, they take a sanitizing wipe and wipe the place where the hands go, not sure what to call it. Some will end up also wiping their hands, and some will not. They get the cart, touch it, then sanitize it. It's about fifty fifty on the wipe first thing.
Some will take a sanitizing wipe and wipe the pusher prior to taking the cart. They are the smart ones, kill the germs before touching it.
WHY did that one lady, enter, talking loudly on her phone, get her cart, phone between shoulder and cheek, still talking loudly, and take off into the store, still talking loudly. Why did she think that anyone wanted to hear her conversation, I certainly didn't. Unless she was talking with her trainer about exercise (except for her mouth) and weight loss.
It was Kroger's, I saw that sign thing, it showed they needed 4 checkers, one lane was open for me, it works. I told the guy I felt the "zap" when I walked in the door. It does work, not sure how, but it does.
COMPLAINT - wondering why?
SO WHY to they CRAM those carts and displays in the middle of the aisles, take up more than two carts in width and make it IMPOSSIBLE to navigate around the store?
They are the largest retailer in the world, they have a computer system, second only to the Pentagon, so they are full of information, they know everything there is to know.
Why then, do't they know they will be busy around five or six in the evening when everyone is going home and stopping in for some last minute items. I know they will be busy then, Steve, our local manager knows they will be busy then, so why, does Steve stand there piddling around with something, seeing that the three aisles he has open are lined up with people, and do NOTHING about it?
I think I know why .... they have low prices .... and that is the bottom line. I call it "Retail Extortion." They know you have to shop there because of the low prices, so they offer no more, service be damned, we got low prices, that is all we need.
And those new damn cart things all over the store, I think they buy overstock from Dollar General and put in those plywood surrounded carts. One night we had to get in line to get out of the store because of all the items in the entry way, people talking and moving slow. It there had been a fire it would have been chaos. I have to wonder why the Fire Marshall has not cited them for that.
Again, WHY build a store with nice wide aisles, and then fill them with junk?
Kroger's Secret Weapon
These cameras, which detect body heat, sit at the entrances and above cash registers at most of Kroger's roughly 2,400 stores. Paired with in-house software that determines the number of lanes that need to be open, the technology has reduced the customer's average wait time to 26 seconds. That compares with an average of four minutes before Kroger began installing the cameras in 2010.
"The technology enabled us to execute at the front of the store without that additional (labor) expense," said Marnette Perry, senior vice president of retail operations for Kroger.
Reducing wait times is becoming a top priority for retailers, from high-end department stores to hardware chains to fast-food outlets. Battling both online rivals that offer at-home convenience and intensifying competition among fellow brick-and-mortar outlets, many companies see enhancing the shopping experience as a way to build loyalty.
Wildfire forces evacuation of campus, homes in California
A wildfire fanned by gusty Santa Ana winds raged along the fringes of Southern California communities on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of homes and a university while setting recreational vehicles ablaze.
The blaze erupted during morning rush hour along U.S. 101 in the Camarillo area about 50 miles west of Los Angeles. It was quickly spread by the winds, which also pushed other damaging blazes across the region.
The evacuation orders included the smoke-choked campus of California State University, Channel Islands, which has about 5,000 students.
CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports the fire spread from 75 acres to to 6,500 acres in just three hours.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Miniature fly-inspired ‘Robobee’ takes off in first flight
Insect-sized robots could fly into the sites of recent earthquakes, floods, or other such disasters to help locate trapped survivors.After a decade of work, a team of engineers has built one of the smallest aerial drones yet. The RoboBee is about the size of a fly, and just like a fly, it flaps a pair of wings to lift off the ground, dart through the air in several directions, land, and take off again.
Robert Wood, a mechanical engineer at Harvard University, built the RoboBee with Harvard grad student Kevin Ma and several colleagues by layering a flat sheet of carbon fiber materials and polymer films, and then using a laser to cut scaffolding and other designs into the sheet. They applied some delicate finishing touches with a pair of tweezers under a microscope. In all, the production took about two days.
Guidance and electrical power come in through an attached tether, flight directions transmitting in from a computer on the ground. To flap the wings, the robot’s ceramic “muscles” bend when an electrical current hits them. According to Vijay Kumar, a University of Pennsylvania mechanical engineer who was not a part of the project, the RoboBee is the smallest flapping-wing aircraft that anyone has successfully built and operated.
Ma hopes to further work the robot into a tether-less flying machine that will run with its own on-board power source and sensors. His goal is to achieve this by the time he graduates, which is only two years away.
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Just one more
Please excuse me, I want to do one more on George Jones and his funeral.
He has won every award, nominated for everything he could be nominated for, sold millions of records, appeared before millions, maybe a billion, he has mentored many, helped many, and never lost his touch with reality or the common man. Elvis and George appeared together many years ago on the Louisiana Hayride. On one handbill, George was headlined above Elvis.
A few things really stood out to me today, at his funeral. I think that Garth Brooks was a late arrival, and was seated in the middle of the room, Next thing I know, he was seated next to Mrs. Bush, and was acknowledged from the stage, rather than being a part of the funeral. He was the only one acknowledged that way.Vince Gill, broke down while he was singing I don't think he finished the way that he wanted to, he had too many tears in his eyes. I thought it was a great tribute to George. George called Gill "Sweatpea." My guess that is one of his most treasured memories.
Alan Jackson closed the ceremony as he emotionally sang Jones' signature song, "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Near the end, Jackson removed his cowboy hat as the Opry house joined him for the song's final line. "We love you, George," they said. He turned his back as he walked off the stage after his song. My guess is, he could not look back.
I have been very lethargic today, took a long nap this afternoon, and it has been just "quiet" day for me. I think I was normal until the funeral on TV, which I watched. I think I was more of a Jones fan than I realized. I have listened to him most of my life. Some of his songs instantly trigger memories at various times in my life, some I had forgotten, but were brought back, by George. Music can do that. We take for granted, many things, and we don't miss them till they are gone or taken away. I have lost a number of family members, and after their funerals, there was a "blah" time, a quiet time, I have experienced that today.
DRONES - UAVS's
I looked in the mirror and guess what I saw ................. DOLLAR SIGNS
Rorie Weisberg, an Orthodox Jewish woman in Monsey, N.Y., takes advertising claims seriously. So when she read copy for Lancôme's Teint Idole Ultra 24H foundation, which is supposed to stay on for an entire day and night of "lasting perfection," she believed it.
In April, Weisberg shelled out $45 plus tax for a one-ounce bottle on Lancôme's website, she says in her suit. When her face didn't remain fresh and dewy for 24 hours, she got so upset she sued Lancôme and its parent company L'Oreal.
Lancôme's "advertising and marketing campaign and labeling claims are false and misleading because the Product does not stay on the skin for 24 hours," she alleges in her class action lawsuit. "In reality, the Product does not live up to the claims made by Lancôme."
NO MORE hashtags ... OK, what's a hashtag?
Mississippi State has used a hashtag in the end zone for games (see above) and it had popped up on fields at spring games here and there. While it seems a little gaudy, it's not the worst idea. Although, the first time a company decided to get in on the action and we saw #McDonaldsBigMacSale in an end zone, it wouldn't seem so great. But the idea of using hashtags on the field seemed like something that was going to start spreading.
No matter, the NCAA has stepped in and stopped it.
Other rules were added. Numerals on jerseys must have a distinct color from the jersey itself. Towels must be solid white and measure between 4x12 inches and 6x12 inches. All eye shields including glasses and goggles must be clear and not tinted. Pretty mundane stuff.
The hashtag rule is the most interesting one. The rule also outlaws website URLs on the field. The move seems pretty unnecessary and just a way for the NCAA to put an end to all fun. Then again, even though hashtags on the field seemed like a decent harmless idea, the games will probably survive without them.
... he stopped loving her today
George apparently touched many lives in his time. Fans drove for many hours, some all night, from all over the Midwest, just to be a part of the service. The room was full, and I guess many outside listening.
They all realized that his death signified the end of an era, country music and their friend was no more, George Jones is gone. No one will ever fill his shoes.
Being the funeral of country's most-respected singer, it was fitting that the service ended with a song – but not just any other one. Alan Jackson took to the stage with a somber performance of the song that defined Jones' career - "He Stopped Loving Her Today," ending the song by removing his hat in honor of his mentor. The entire room was standing during this song, I thought what a great tribute.
With that 'wreath upon his door' that the lyric of the song speaks of, Jones made his final exit from the Opry House to the strains of his recording of "When The Last Curtain Falls." A procession would escort his casket to his burial place at Woodlawn Memorial Park, with his band serving as pallbearers. The funeral lasted for over two and a half hours – a fitting send off to one of music's most legendary figures.
Few people will have such a service when they pass, it was really quite a tribute.
George WHO?
I found this post on another site as a "Comment" .......... it's neat. George Jones funeral today. Have tried to listen to it or watch it, but no luck.
As security cleared the area of his bus, my wife entered the area after it was cleared not knowing anything about Jones.
He was exiting the bus and saw her and said, "Hello pretty lady, who are you here to see"?
She told him George Jones.
He KNEW that she didn't know who he was and then asked her, "Is he any good?" My wife said I think so, my husband really likes him but said that some times he doesn't show up for his shows.
George told her...."I am sure he will be here today".
After my wife returned to our seats in the second row, I asked her what took her so long at the restroom and she said some guy stopped and talked to her about the show.
When Jones came on the stage, he winked at my wife and said "Hello pretty lady,
I told you he would be here".
She told me that was the guy she was talking to. I almost passed out. Thank God she didn't say anything bad about country music. I met him after the show and he got the biggest kick out of not being recognized.
We will miss you George.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Being Green
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the 'green thing' in our day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling s. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?
I can relate to all of this, and more ......................
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