This is almost too deep a subject for me to comment on. Never thought of it, before. I suppose there is a level of mentality that is incapable of making rational decisions, but does that then give them a "license to kill?" To know Right from Wrong ... so then .... Wrong is not always Wrong if you do not know it is Wrong ... a killer of a decisions there, so to speak................
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems likely to say that states can't rely on intelligence test scores alone in borderline cases to determine that a death row inmate is mentally able and thus eligible to be executed.
The justices heard arguments on a snowy Monday in a challenge from a Florida inmate who says there is ample evidence to show he is mentally disabled, even though most of his IQ scores have topped 70.
That score is the widely accepted as a marker of mental disability, but medical professionals say that test results have a margin of error and in any case are just one factor in determining mental disability.
The decisive vote appears to belong to Justice Anthony Kennedy and he repeatedly questioned the state's argument for a rigid cutoff.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Russia demands 2 Ukraine warships surrender
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pressed hard Monday for Ukrainian politicians to return to the Feb. 21 agreement that promised to create a new unity government which would rule until an early election no later than December.
But the proposal seemed to be a non-starter as diplomats met in Brussels, Kiev and Geneva and warnings about the dangers of Russia's military actions were issued from a host of European capitals.
On the ground, Russian troops controlled all Ukrainian border posts Monday in Crimea, as well as all military facilities and a key ferry terminal, cementing their stranglehold on the strategic Ukrainian peninsula.
They also demanded that the crew of two Ukrainian warships immediately surrender or be stormed and seized, according to Maksim Prauta, the Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman.
Four Russian navy ships in Sevastopol's harbor were blocking Ukraine's anti-submarine warship Ternopil and the command ship Slavutych, waiting for their answers, he said.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at U.N. meetings in Geneva, explained the reasoning behind Russia's military invasion of Crimea.
"This is a question of defending our citizens and compatriots, ensuring human rights, especially the right to life," he said.
There have been no reports, however, of any hostilities toward Russian-speakers in Ukraine during the country's four months of political upheaval.
But the proposal seemed to be a non-starter as diplomats met in Brussels, Kiev and Geneva and warnings about the dangers of Russia's military actions were issued from a host of European capitals.
On the ground, Russian troops controlled all Ukrainian border posts Monday in Crimea, as well as all military facilities and a key ferry terminal, cementing their stranglehold on the strategic Ukrainian peninsula.
They also demanded that the crew of two Ukrainian warships immediately surrender or be stormed and seized, according to Maksim Prauta, the Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman.
Four Russian navy ships in Sevastopol's harbor were blocking Ukraine's anti-submarine warship Ternopil and the command ship Slavutych, waiting for their answers, he said.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at U.N. meetings in Geneva, explained the reasoning behind Russia's military invasion of Crimea.
"This is a question of defending our citizens and compatriots, ensuring human rights, especially the right to life," he said.
There have been no reports, however, of any hostilities toward Russian-speakers in Ukraine during the country's four months of political upheaval.
Lindsay Davenport elected to Tennis Hall of Fame
The American was joined in Monday's enshrinement class by five-time Paralympic medalist Chantal Vandierendonck, coach Nick Bollettieri, executive Jane Brown Grimes and broadcaster John Barrett.
Davenport won the 1998 U.S. Open, 1999 Wimbledon, 2000 Australian Open and 1996 Olympic gold medal to go with three major doubles titles. She held the world's No. 1 ranking for 98 weeks in her career.
Bollettieri has coached 10 players to the No. 1 ranking, including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Boris Becker.
Monday Morning .......
Good Monday Morning to all .... no more snow in our part of Ohio, the sun is out, cold, but otherwise, not too bad. Nothing like we were anticipating. All those weathermen, all that money, and they are still batting about the same percentage, they just help the supermarkets deplete their inventory.
I missed the Oscars last night, again, watching that show is akin to going to my wife's bowling banquet. I don't really know anyone and they are all telling "inside" jokes and stories, so I think this is my fifty third time to miss them.
Just think how we are "entertained" ...... by millionaires and people with enormous amounts of money. They are all paid enormous sums to .......... entertain us and keep us glued to a tv set while they are saturating us with ............ COMMERCIALS. Selling products. Television is the winner in every event we watch. Last night was a television show, a few hours of air time, and, I imagine, a plethora of commercials. We should be pleased, in almost every instance, we are entertained, by, Millionaires. Football players, athletes, actors, actresses, TV hosts, late night hosts, ALL millionaires. I doubt that our local news folks are that rich, yet.
A record breaker last night, a group photo, retweeted well over a million times. Ellen had it taken at the Oscars last night, Tweeted out, and Retweeted sooooooo many times. Added somewhat of a personal note to the proceedings, over a million people were instantly aa part of it.
The INTERNET is unable to be comprehended by me. I keep looking for a gigantic "building in the sky" where it is all originated. Where all that money goes for "URL'S" .... and a DOMAIN NAME .... who and where does all that money go. Who is in charge of Domain Names? .I never figured that out, but "sombody got a whole lotta money." And, for doing nothing.
I was there, somewhat in its infancy, understood nothing then, and still don't. But is has become a way of life for almost all of us. I remember, years ago, looking up "names" for sale, like NFL, ABC, all for sale, and many, many others ..... I didn't see their value then. I had 20 some domain names, let them all go. I even had joedooley.com .... got tired of paying on it, an ego trip .............
I missed the Oscars last night, again, watching that show is akin to going to my wife's bowling banquet. I don't really know anyone and they are all telling "inside" jokes and stories, so I think this is my fifty third time to miss them.
Just think how we are "entertained" ...... by millionaires and people with enormous amounts of money. They are all paid enormous sums to .......... entertain us and keep us glued to a tv set while they are saturating us with ............ COMMERCIALS. Selling products. Television is the winner in every event we watch. Last night was a television show, a few hours of air time, and, I imagine, a plethora of commercials. We should be pleased, in almost every instance, we are entertained, by, Millionaires. Football players, athletes, actors, actresses, TV hosts, late night hosts, ALL millionaires. I doubt that our local news folks are that rich, yet.
The INTERNET is unable to be comprehended by me. I keep looking for a gigantic "building in the sky" where it is all originated. Where all that money goes for "URL'S" .... and a DOMAIN NAME .... who and where does all that money go. Who is in charge of Domain Names? .I never figured that out, but "sombody got a whole lotta money." And, for doing nothing.
I was there, somewhat in its infancy, understood nothing then, and still don't. But is has become a way of life for almost all of us. I remember, years ago, looking up "names" for sale, like NFL, ABC, all for sale, and many, many others ..... I didn't see their value then. I had 20 some domain names, let them all go. I even had joedooley.com .... got tired of paying on it, an ego trip .............
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Swedish Flame
What a great idea, took me 81 years to find out about it .... did a lot of camping in my younger days, with the family, would have liked to have know about this then ..............
Cut the log into wedges, leaving about 6 inches at the base.
Add a cap full of lamp oil or some tinder to the center.
An OPEN Letter to children of every age
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And then ............. a CALL from my daughter and Lisa, we talked for quite a while, BRIGHTENED my whole day. YOU, as a sibling, have no idea, what a telephone call can do to a parent .... uplifting, to say the least. We just talked, I probably talked too much, but I was happy, happy because they thought of me, enough to make the call.
My spirits have been lifted, greatly, just because, my kid, called me ........ you have no idea what that does for the person you call .......
Barack Obama Skips National Security Meeting on 15,000 Russian Troops in Ukraine
Reports indicate that a National Security meeting was held on Saturday by members of the Obama Administration to discuss policy options when it comes to Russian troops entering Ukraine to control instability.
According to Time magazine’s Zeke Miller, President Obama skipped the meeting.
“Obama did not attend the meeting, but WH official says he has been briefed by Susan Rice and his national security team,” says Miller in a tweet that went out around 3:00 pm EST, Saturday.
absent
Miller went on to tweet that Vice President Joe Biden did attend the meeting via video conference. As we reported Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been given the green light by the Russian Parliament to use military force in response to government overthrow in Ukraine. A spokesman for Ukraine’s mission at the United Nations tells CNN that currently Russia has 15,000 troops in Crimea.
Remembering Jack Twyman, the greatest teammate in the history of the NBA
“His eyes got so wide,” recalled Jay Twyman, Jack’s son. It was a Hall of Fame ring, Class of ’83. It turns out Houston was the one who should have been shaking Twyman’s hand.
The old guy’s story has been seeping back into the news, and it’s sad he had to die for most of us to remember him. “It’s something that happened so long ago,” Jay said. “I think a lot of people have forgotten about it.” Not everybody.
It was 1958. A 23-year-old white guy basically adopted a paralyzed 24-year-old black man.
Maurice Stokes played with Twyman on the Cincinnati Royals. They’d come in together as rookies three years earlier. Twyman was a skinny swingman from the University of Cincinnati with a deadly shot.
In 1959, he became the first player besides Wilt Chamberlain to average more than 30 points a game. Twyman would probably rank as one of the top couple hundred players in NBA history. Stokes was on his way to the top 10 until the night of March 12, 1958. “He was Karl Malone with more finesse,” Bob Cousy once said.
He was 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds of athleticism that had rarely been seen. Stokes had 32 points and 20 rebounds in his first pro game. He made the All-Star team his first three seasons, averaging 17.7 rebounds a game.
In the last game of the regular season, Stokes went skyward and fell backward over another player. The back of his head slammed the court, knocking him cold. These days, Stokes would have been immobilized and rushed to the hospital. In 1958, he was given smelling salts and sent back in.
Stokes did his duty that night. He played the first game of playoffs three days later. On the flight back from Detroit, the big man started shaking and sweating. He had a seizure and went into a coma.
An ambulance was waiting at the Cincinnati airport. Stokes had suffered post-traumatic encephalopathy. The blow had damaged the part of his brain that controls motor function. He would never walk again. At first, all he could do was blink.
“How would you like to be one of the premiere athletes in the world on a Saturday,” Twyman recalled. “Then on Sunday, you go into a coma and wake up totally paralyzed, except for the use of (your) eyes and brain? I mean, can you imagine anything worse?” No, unless you throw in a red-tape nightmare and no idea how to pay for a lifetime of medical bills.
Again, this was 1958. NBA stars didn’t have comprehensive medical coverage, much less entourages and Bentleys. Stokes had $9,000 in his bank account. He was single, and what family he had was in Pennsylvania and in no financial shape to help. Twyman applied to become Stokes’ legal guardian. A judge granted the request. That allowed Twyman to handle the bills, apply for workman’s compensation and chop through the paperwork.
Twyman was far more than Stokes’ bookkeeper, however. He eventually had four children, and Stokes was almost as much a part of his life as any of them.Again, this was 1958. That didn’t matter. “There was no defining a person by the color of their skin,” Jay said. “He basically adopted Maurice.”
Twyman would sit by Stokes’ bed, calling out letters. When he got to the right one, Stokes would blink. That’s how they built words and shared conversation. Twyman spent so much time with Stokes, he worried that he was ignoring his own family. He would bring his wife, Carol, and kids to visit his friend.
Carol became co-trustee of the Maurice Stokes Foundation. Her husband started it to defray Stokes’ medical bills. It eventually expanded into a charity that helped other NBA veterans. It took years, but Stokes slowly regained some movement in his upper body. It took countless hours of rehabilitation. As hard as it was, Stokes never seemed to have a bad day.
He was given a makeshift typewriter one day. With trembling fingers, he typed a short note.
“Dear Jack, How can I ever thank you?”
Twyman felt he was the one who owed Stokes.
A Sunday Morning Thought
Yet, TV shows about Alligators ..... being stabbed, hung up, harpooned and shot, horrible pictures of anguish, and no one cares, I wonder why that is. I personally don't like to see any animal abused or killed, so why do they allow so many shows about Alligators and Crocodiles being hunted, lassooed, writhing in the water, and eventually shot and killed.
Just wondered??????
The Thunderbird of George Whittell
Commissioned by Whittell specifically for Lake Tahoe while he was building his fabulous estate there, the Thunderbird was designed by famed naval architect John L. Hacker and built by Huskins Boat Works in Bay City, Michigan. Enamored of the lines of his DC-2 aircraft, also named Thunderbird, the eccentric millionaire requested that the hull and cockpit of his new speedboat resemble the fuselage of his personal airplane. Fashioned of double-planked mahogany and brushed stainless steel the new acquisition would enable Whittell to get about Lake Tahoe with unmatched speed and style. Outfitted originally with twin V-12, 550 hp Kermath engines, the vessel was capable of 60 knots. To accommodate the Thunderbird its notoriously reclusive owner ordered the construction of a 100-foot long enclosed boathouse with 600-foot tunnel that would connect it to the main residence, both blasted out of solid granite.
Completed at a cost of $87,000 (over $1.4 million in today's dollars), Whittell took delivery of the Thunderbird in 1940, and it first crossed the mountain lake's sparkling blue waters on July 14th of that year. The aging playboy used it fairly extensively that summer and the next, retrieving friends from nearby communities and showgirls from the Cal-Neva casino for lavish parties at his estate. Following the entry of the U.S. into World War II, however, Whittell became afraid that his beloved yacht or its engines might be conscripted into military service, and he hid it away in Lodge's boathouse where it remained throughout the war.
As Whittell grew older he became even more reclusive and was rarely seen by anyone in the Tahoe area. The yacht was also seen so infrequently that it seemed to some who caught a glimpse nothing more than an apparition. After Whittell broke his hip late in life and refused surgery to repair the fracture, he ended up confined to a wheelchair and unable or unwilling to use the Thunderbird.
Suspended by slings in the boathouse and ignored for most of the years following the summer of 1941, the boat was rescued by casino magnate William F. Harrah, who purchased it from Whittell in 1962. Harrah had it transported to his Automobile Collection restoration shop in Reno where it was reverentially refurbished. His workmen added a matching, brushed stainless steel flying bridge and replaced the original Kermath engines (which when removed had only 83 original hours on them) with two V-12 Allison aircraft engines, each developing 1100 horsepower. Harrah used it as his private yacht for the entertainment of his casino high-rollers and showroom headliners, such as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra and Bill Cosby, to name a few. The boat was returned to Reno every winter where the mahogany hull was meticulously sanded down to bare wood and refinished with ten coats of varnish!
Global warming slowdown likely to be brief: U.S., UK science bodies
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
OSLO (Reuters) - A slowdown in the pace of global warming so far this century is likely to be only a pause in a longer-term trend of rising temperatures, the science academies of the United States and Britain said on Thursday.
Since an exceptionally warm 1998, there has been "a short-term slowdown in the warming of Earth's surface," Britain's Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said in a report.
But, they said, that "does not invalidate our understanding of long-term changes in global temperature arising from human-induced changes in greenhouse gases."
The warming slowdown has emboldened those who question the evidence about climate change and ask whether a shift in investments towards renewable energies such as wind and solar power, advocated by many experts, is really needed.
But the report said that scientists were "very confident" that the planet would warm further this century, causing more extreme heatwaves, droughts and rising seas.
A build-up of greenhouse gases from human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels, is warming the atmosphere and the oceans, raising sea levels and melting Arctic ice, the report said, supporting the long-held view of a U.N. panel of climate scientists.
OSLO (Reuters) - A slowdown in the pace of global warming so far this century is likely to be only a pause in a longer-term trend of rising temperatures, the science academies of the United States and Britain said on Thursday.
Since an exceptionally warm 1998, there has been "a short-term slowdown in the warming of Earth's surface," Britain's Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said in a report.
But, they said, that "does not invalidate our understanding of long-term changes in global temperature arising from human-induced changes in greenhouse gases."
The warming slowdown has emboldened those who question the evidence about climate change and ask whether a shift in investments towards renewable energies such as wind and solar power, advocated by many experts, is really needed.
But the report said that scientists were "very confident" that the planet would warm further this century, causing more extreme heatwaves, droughts and rising seas.
A build-up of greenhouse gases from human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels, is warming the atmosphere and the oceans, raising sea levels and melting Arctic ice, the report said, supporting the long-held view of a U.N. panel of climate scientists.
Ukraine mobilizes after Putin's 'declaration of war'
By Natalia Zinets and Alissa de Carbonnel
KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade, creating the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," said Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, head of a pro-Western government that took power when Russian ally Viktor Yanukovich fled last week.
Putin obtained permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine, spurning Western pleas not intervene.
Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea - an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. On Sunday they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, although no shots were fired.
Russia has staged war games with 150,000 troops along the land border, but so far they have not crossed. However, pro-Russian demonstrators have marched in the east of the country and have raised Russian flags over government buildings in several cities, in what Kiev says is a move orchestrated by Moscow to justify a wider invasion.
Ukraine's security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council's secretary Andriy Parubiy announced.
The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct a call-up of reserves - theoretically all men up to 40 in a country with universal male conscription, though Ukraine would struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for significant numbers of them.
"If President Putin wants to be the president who started the war between two neighboring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, so: he has reached this target within a few inches. We are on the brink of disaster," Yatseniuk said in televised remarks in English, appealing for Western support.
KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade, creating the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," said Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, head of a pro-Western government that took power when Russian ally Viktor Yanukovich fled last week.
Putin obtained permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine, spurning Western pleas not intervene.
Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea - an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. On Sunday they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, although no shots were fired.
Russia has staged war games with 150,000 troops along the land border, but so far they have not crossed. However, pro-Russian demonstrators have marched in the east of the country and have raised Russian flags over government buildings in several cities, in what Kiev says is a move orchestrated by Moscow to justify a wider invasion.
Ukraine's security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council's secretary Andriy Parubiy announced.
The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct a call-up of reserves - theoretically all men up to 40 in a country with universal male conscription, though Ukraine would struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for significant numbers of them.
"If President Putin wants to be the president who started the war between two neighboring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, so: he has reached this target within a few inches. We are on the brink of disaster," Yatseniuk said in televised remarks in English, appealing for Western support.
Federer downs Berdych for sixth Dubai Open
I knew he still had some tournament life left ... I think Roger is a TRUE professional, not many left.
Dubai (AFP) - Roger Federer followed his best win in 18 months by taking his first title in nine months with a revenge victory over Tomas Berdych in Saturday's final of the Dubai Open.
Federer came from behind to beat world number two Novak Djokovic on Friday.
Now he did the same against Berdych, the man who saved two match points against him in last year's semi-finals, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to claim a sixth title in the UAE.
It was never a great final, for the error count was too high, but it became increasingly dramatic as the game's best known player worked his way back into it against one of the sport's most dangerous hitters.
Federer was a set and a break down and appeared to be out of it but managed to find some good returns at last, just as the match was slipping away, and broke back at once. Then his standard went up.
It extended Federer's record of Dubai titles to six, and moved him above John McEnroe's total of 77 titles into third place in the all-time title list.
Only Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors remain above the Swiss.
Most of all it helped the Grand Slam record-holder to maintain his belief that even at 32, he has another major in him.
Creamer wins HSBC Women's with wonder-putt
You just gotta love enthusiasm. Winning never gets old, that is why she is on the tour, great, winning, IS, everything.
She produced a miraculous 75-foot eagle putt on the second play-off hole to win the $1.4 million HSBC Women's Champions in dramatic fashion on Sunday.
With shades of Tiger Woods at the 2005 Masters, Creamer rolled the snaking putt across the large green, over a ridge,
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