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Report: computer malware hit five sites in Iran

From a report in the New York Times:

The Stuxnet software worm repeatedly sought to infect five industrial facilities in Iran over a 10-month period, a new report says, in what could be a clue into how it might have infected the Iranian uranium enrichment complex at Natanz.

The report, released Friday by Symantic, the Norton antivirus publishers, said there were three waves of attacks.

The team was able to chart the path of the infection because of an unusual feature in Stuxnet that recorded information on the location and type of each computer it infected which allowed the authors of Stuxnet to know if they had successfully reached their intended target.

By taking samples of Stuxnet they had collected from various computers, the researchers were able to build a model of the spread of the infection. They determined that 12,000 infections could be traced back to just five initial infection points.

More here.

WW11 Japanese mass grave on Iwo Jima

Japanese officials bow at a mass grave site on Iwo Jima island on Dec. 14, 2010 where the remains of Japanese soldiers, who died in the battle for Iwo Jima, have been discovered.

In a rare visit to Iwo Jima, now known in Japan as Ioto , Japan's Prime Minister offered prayers at two recently discovered mass grave sites and vowed to find the more than 12,000 fallen soldiers whose bodies have yet to be recovered from the remote island where some of World War II's fiercest fighting took place.

Eeek! Rat delays flight from Seattle to Denver

An Alaska Airlines jet was grounded after a rat was spotted running around the cabin Friday morning.

The rodent was discovered running around Flight 676 from Sea-Tac to Denver just before takeoff.

The plane immediately returned to the gate and passengers were put on a different plane, which left about 90 minutes later.

The plane has been taken out of service until an exterminator can make sure it's clean of rodents.

All rats without tickets will be taken off the plane.

Link

Giant penny made from 84,000 pennies

A single mom in Michigan turned 84,000 pennies into a priceless work of art.

After going through a difficult period in which she was forced to pinch pennies, Wander Martich decided to create this massive 1-cent piece, which was recently acquired by Ripley's Believe It or Not.


The giant penny measures 8 feet in diameter and weighs approximately 1,200 pounds.

Weird swim gear at London's Tooting Bec lido

Swimming at the Cold Water Championships isn't easy -- no bull.

Competitors put on wacky costumes, like these horns, before swimming laps in the frigid waters at the Tooting Bec lido in South London, England.

Reports indicate that the water was about 37 degrees during this year's event

Disable touchpad on your Toshiba laptop

Tired of dealing with a "flying curser" while typing a document? This happens when your thumbs drag across the touchpad as you type sending the curser to a different part of the document - sometimes several lines away from where you were typing.

Even if you use the touchpad for everything else, the "flying curser" will drive you bonkers while typing a document.

If you use a USB mouse instead of the touchpad, a way to disable the touchpad is even more important.

Here is how to accopmplish it on a Toshiba: press two function keys simultaneously - the FN and F9 keys.

To restore use of the touchpad press the same two keys simultaneously.

(FN is next to the CTRL key on the lower left of keyboard)

Air Show disaster

The pilot had no control over his aircraft at low level. It narrowly missed a crowd gathered for the air show before it slammed into four buildings.

One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside the buildings.

For an amazing photo of the event click HERE.

Skiing moguls

Deborah Scanzio of Italy competes in the women's moguls finals at the freestyle skiing world championships at Deer Valley near Park City, Utah.

Bumpity bump bump…

Is Director of National Intelligence watching CNN to get his info?

Egyptian President Mubarak is out of power but where is he? Is he still in Cairo? At this point it is anyone's guess.

As Power Line's John Hinderaker writes:

Your guess, in fact, is probably as good as the CIA's. Based on recent revelations, it appears that the Director of National Intelligence (James Clapper - pictured below) is most likely watching CNN so that he can brief Congress on developments.

The Obama administration has gone out of its way to offer support for the Muslim Brotherhood's participation in the next government.

That is unpardonably obtuse, and if the administration has actually worked behind the scenes to support the ambitions of the Brotherhood, it is unpardonable, period.

Beyond that, the administration has put on a pathetic show throughout the Egyptian crisis. It has seemed that President Obama's principal object has been to give the appearance of being in the know and of having some control over events, when in fact the administration has generally been clueless and has been at best a bystander.

This accounts, I think, for the inconsistencies in the administration's position from day to day. As events shift, Obama shifts with them, like an irrelevant player who tries to get in front of a crowd so as to create the illusion that he is leading it.

This all reminds us of Jimmy Carter's handling of Iran.

As we have said before, Barack Obama is becoming Jimmy Carter even faster than Jimmy Carter became Jimmy Carter.

The Power Line report is here. Link here for our impression of Obama's clueless intel chief.

Mubarak resigns - Egyptian military now in power

Egypt's Hosni Mubarak resigned as president and handed control to the military on after 29 years in power, bowing to a historic 18-day wave of pro-democracy demonstrations by hundreds of thousands. "The people ousted the president," chanted a crowd of tens of thousands outside his presidential palace in Cairo.

The photo above shows anti-government protesters, and Egyptian soldiers on top of their vehicles, make traditional Muslim Friday prayers at the continuing demonstration in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt.

Link

Rolling tires in the snow

Firemen attend a cold-endurance training at the Changchun Culture Square in Changchun of Jilin Province, China.

The Al Gore - Keith Olbermann soap opera continues

More on the Keith Olbermann Al Gore connection from the Hollywood Reporter:

Less than 24 hours after Keith Olbermann (above left) anchored his last edition of Countdown on Jan. 21, Al Gore (above right) placed a call to his friend inviting him to join Current TV.

A contract was quickly hammered out. But it was Gore who convinced Olbermann to join the network, say sources. The former vice president and co-founder of Current was a fan of Countdown where he had also been a guest in the past.

Current averaged 18,000 homes in primetime for fourth quarter 2010, lower than any other network measured by Nielsen.

From one commenter:

18,000?

That would be 11,000 people that fell asleep and rolled over on the remote control, 6,000 small children that were looking for Sponge Bob and just dropped the remote, 560 people in homes where they just turned on the TV and accidentally got this channel, 424 people with a really bad home work assignment, 15 people that work for Al Gore, and then there is Al himself.

Link

Clueless Intel chief retreats from Muslim Brotherhood secular claim

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (pictured) is backing away from comments he made Thursday calling Egypt's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement "largely secular."

A spokesman for Mr. Clapper quickly tried to explain away the gaff.

In these dangerous times a mistake of this magnitude by the National Intelligence Director can't be explained away.

In actual fact the Muslim Brotherhood uses the slogan, "Islam is the answer," and generally advocates for government in accordance with Islamic principles.

Link

Massive federal study shows no electronics fault in Toyota vehicles

Lawmakers who made a lot of noise last year about alleged deadly malfunctions in Toyota vehicles didn’t have much to say on Wednesday as a clear winner has emerged in the federal government vs. Toyota fight. The winner is Toyota.

Shown above is a Toyota Venza crossover.

The federal government has been on a year-long vendetta against Toyota but the feds came up short.

The Obama administration is down on Toyota for two reasons. First, Toyota is the number one competitor to Government Motors alias General Motors. Second, many Toyotas are built in non-union plants.

An intensive 10 month investigation into possible causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota cars found no fault with the automaker's electronic throttle control systems, the Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.

So far there are three known causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles: improperly installed floor mats, sticky pedals, and driver error.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, "We enlisted the best and brightest engineers to study Toyota's electronics systems, and the verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas."

If the feds had found electronic problems in their massive federal study Toyota would have been forced to recall nearly every vehicle produced in the last several years nearly bankrupting the company.

"We believe this rigorous scientific analysis by some of America's foremost engineers should further reinforce confidence in the safety of Toyota and Lexus vehicles," Toyota's chief quality officer Steve St. Angelo said in a company statement.

Link

Labor Unions may be losing strength in economic hard times

A report at the link below asks:

Is big labor losing muscle amid economic hard times?

Labor unions staged just 11 major work stoppages throughout the country in 2010, the second mildest spate of such strikes or lockouts in more than 60 years amid one of the toughest job markets in American history.

At a time when large amounts of unemployed Americans are searching for jobs, is not good time for organized labor to demand better compensation or working conditions.

Link

Child labor

A seven-year-old girl holds her tools after finishing her work of breaking coal in a brick factory for the day on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.

Hotmail now has disposable e-mail addresses

Microsoft's Hotmail service has added a new feature that lets you use an e-mail alias completely separate from your regular e-mail address that funnels directly into your main Hotmail account.

In true Microsoft style, the feature is impossible to find but if you hover over the "Inbox" link in Hotmail, a little gear icon will appear and you can create a new alias that way.

Aside from all the weird, tasteless, mind-numbingly awful stuff you can now secretly subscribe to, Microsoft's blog post points out a more mundane use.

Let's say you're in the market for a new car. There are a bunch of websites that will email you price quotes, sales alerts, etc. During your car search, these messages are helpful, but once you're done, they become clutter that can be difficult to stop. By using an alias on these websites instead of your main email address, you can avoid this. And when you're done, just turn the alias off, ensuring future unwanted messages that are sent to that alias don't land in your inbox.

Link here and here.

ObamaCare - what could go wrong?

From a reader comment posted in our local newspaper:

ObamaCare was written mostly behind closed doors by a committee whose chairman didn't understand it and rammed through by a former Speaker of the House who said they had to pass the 2,000+ page bill so they would know what was in it.

Forced through the Senate at midnight on a weekend by lawmakers who hadn't read it, signed by a President who was a smoker, overseen by an obese Surgeon General, funded by a Secretary of the Treasury who hadn't paid his taxes when he got the job and financed by a country nearly broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

AL Gore and MSNBC in a brawl

There is an LA Times report at the link below titled, Al Gore and MSNBC get in shoving match after Keith Olbermann's move to Current TV.

Al Gore, the Nobel laureate beloved by many liberals for his passionate espousal of environmental causes, has gotten into a dust-up with MSNBC, the cable-TV home of liberal opinion.

The fracas started Tuesday after Gore and other officials of Current TV, the network founded in 2005, announced they had nabbed former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann to lead a new nightly program starting later this spring. Olbermann will also become chief news officer of the low-rated Current, which has about 60 million subscribers in the U.S.

Hinting at the potential Current has despite its low viewership, the former vice president declared during a phone call with reporters, "We have more subscribers today than MSNBC had when Keith Olbermann began working for them" in 2003.

And so the mudslinging goes. Maybe we will pop some popcorn if this continues - the fight could get quite entertaining.

As one commenter wrote, get ready to be amused by the two biggest clowns in the 'news' industry -- the only thing missing is Chris Matthews and a dancing chimp on a rope.

It's coming down to IMSNBC and Al Gore fighting over what's left for them in the bottom of the barrel.

Link

Second blizzard in the heartland

As if they hadn't had enough another strong blizzard howled through the nation's midsection Wednesday, piling up to 2 feet of new snow on parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas still struggling to clean up from last week's epic storm.

The blowing snow brought traffic to a halt, and the National Guard was summoned to rescue stranded motorists. Subzero wind chills forced ranchers to work desperately to protect their herds.

Link

This is a drill - This is a drill

Indonesian flight attendants swim to safety during an aircraft emergency evacuation training in Jakarta.

Catholic Confession app for iPhone

The Catholic Church has approved a 'Confessions' app for the iPhone.

A Catholic bishop in Indiana has, for the first time, given his official imprimatur -- or blessing, if you will -- to an iPhone/iPad app. "Confession: A Roman Catholic App" prepares people for the church ritual of confessing their sins to a priest.


Would the user actually be confessing to an iPhone?

No, this application was never designed as a substitute for Confession, it just prepares the user for the sacrament of confession so don't expect the iPhone to tell you how many "Hail Mary's" to say.

Link

Winter can't be all bad…

A child enjoys snow tubing in Oregon.

Washington state man saving $1million in pennies

A man in Mount Vernon, Washington is trying to raise $1 million - in pennies - to help needy families in his town.

Rand O'Donnell has already raised more than $4,000 for the "Mountain of Hope" fund.

Mr. O'Donnell recently used a wheelbarrow to deposit 56,600 pennies - $566 - at the North Coast Credit Union. The load weighed more than 300 pounds.

Link

Poll Americans think Obama would lose in 2012

From a report at the link below:

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Tuesday, shows 51 percent of registered voters, and the same percentage of adult Americans, believe Obama will lose if he runs for re-election. 46 percent say he would win.

And more voters say, at the moment, they will vote against Obama.

Fully 51 percent say they definitely or probably will not vote for Obama, while 47 percent say they're predisposed to vote for him.

Independent voters would vote against Obama by a 44 percent to 53 percent margin, while he would win moderates by a much larger 55 percent to 45 percent margin.

Link

Keith Olbermann has new job on Al Gore's Channel

Jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

Keith Olbermann (pictured) was suddenly fired from MSNBC and is now said to be moving to Al Gore's Current TV.

Might work for both Olbermann and Current.

I watched a program on Current TV once but then had to watch a rerun of Captain Kangaroo to get me out of the doldrums after watching uninspiring teens moping around complaining about the environment.

It was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

All in all this Olbermann and Current TV thing should be a perfect fit. It will be someone few like to watch going to a channel few like to watch.

Link

Snowman in NY China Town

People walk past a giant snowman in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York.

Long Beach: Pull up saggy pants in respect for black history month

Long Beach, California has two requests for teens: pull 'em up and keep 'em up.

Bishop William Ervin along with Carson City Councilman Mike Gipson are calling on black children and teens to “pull up their pants on their waist” as a sign of respect during Black History Month.

KNX Radio's Ron Kilgore reports their message to young men who wear their pants down around their knees is simple: “You can have the swag without the sag”.

Community leaders say the plan is not just to honor black history month, but may have legal benefits as well: sagging pants are often used for profiling purposes by law enforcement agencies.

Link
losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/02/03/long-beach-tells-teens-to-pick-up-saggy-pants/

Reminds us of the General Platt appearance on American Idol below:

Ground beef recalled for possible E. coli

Another E. coli scare.

A California company has recalled more than 3,000 pounds of fresh ground beef patties and other packages of ground beef products that may be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.

Some of the products may be frozen and in restaurant freezers.

E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and in severe cases, kidney failure. Babies, seniors and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.

Hmm…maybe this is a good time to go vegan -- or at least meatless.

Link

Need to cancel your AOL account? Good luck!

We used AOL for a short time in the middle 1990's. Didn't like the inflexibility and the very long wait to get online as shown in the editorial cartoon below.

The AOL "walled garden" concept didn't allow for third-party apps. If you hated AOL e-mail, and many people did, you were out of luck.

When AOL said "you've got mail" - they meant AOL mail because nothing else would work.

Report: Conservative Democrats switch to GOP across the Deep South

From the report at the link below:

Defections reflect the Democrats' drubbing in the midterm election and Republicans' consolidation of power in the South.

Since the midterm election, 24 state senators and representatives have made the switch in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

In some cases, the ramifications have been profound: In Louisiana, defecting Democrats gave Republicans a majority in the state House for the first time since Reconstruction; in Alabama, they delivered the GOP a House supermajority. Republicans have 65 votes to the Democrats' 39, enough to pass constitutional amendments over Democratic opposition.

Democrats may remain competitive in some parts of the South in 2012. The Democratic Party's announcement last week that it will hold its national convention in Charlotte, N.C., may help President Obama's chances in what has become a Southern swing state — and one that he narrowly won in 2008.

Many Democrats in the South were in the Democrat Party more out of habit and family tradition than out of any deeply held philosophical belief.

The tradition of being Democrat just because your parents and grandparents were, is starting to fade. After all, the Democrat Party of today is not your father's Democrat Party.

Although Ronald Reagan was not from the south, he was once a Democrat who famously said in 1962, "I didn't leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left me."

Link

Al Sharpton hit with another tax lien

From a New York Post report:

The Rev. Al Sharpton (pictured), who has vowed to clean up his fiscal house, has a new tax lien to pay.

Sharpton owes $359,973 to the IRS for 2009 personal income tax, according to documents on file with the city.

Public records show he owes a total of $3.7 million in city, state and federal taxes, including penalties, dating to 2002. But Sharpton's spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger, said that he had paid back "well over seven figures" as part of agreements with the state and IRS and that the liens remained on the books as "a matter of bureaucracy."

What is meant by a matter of bureaucracy?

If the IRS went after him like they should, he and his attorneys would cry "racist."

Link

Riding the turnip wagon...

A Pakistani man sits on the back of a vehicle loaded with vegetables in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Too many cooks spoil the broth? Tell Mayor Bloomberg

When Mayor Bloomberg came into office there was just one executive cook at Gracie Mansion (pictured below), the official residence of the Mayor of New York City.

Today there are three chefs to make the VIP feasts - costing taxpayers a whopping $245,000 this year.

And despite the big spending cuts the mayor has ordered across every city agency -- too many cooks won't be spoiling the broth at the city-owned mansion.

According to figures revealed by the New York Daily News, his longest-serving man in the kitchen, Feliberto Estevez, picks up $97,000.

His pastry chef Jerry Montanez who was hired in 2007 is paid $68,000 while Jose Velazquez is on $80,000 after getting a $10,000 pay rise last July.

Last autumn, there were cutbacks in the police, fire and schools and there are more job losses to come across the board.

Although the 69-year-old billionaire Bloomberg prefers to live at his upper East Side townhouse, he does a lot of entertaining at Gracie Mansion.

More here.

Obama advisor thought 4-star general was a waiter

At the link below CNN reports that the controversial Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett mistook four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli -- the No. 2 general in the U.S. Army -- for a waiter and asked him for a glass of wine.

The charitable general excused her stupidity by saying "it could happen to anyone."

But doesn't this point out the incompetence of some of the people advising the president? A waiter wears four stars on each shoulder and a coat full of medals? C'mon, give me a break.

Wouldn't it have been rich if he had replied, "Ma'am, aren't you the lady on the syrup bottle? I'm sorry, I hardly recognized you," but of course he wouldn't have: he is an officer and a gentleman.

CNN's whitewashing of the incident is here.

Climbing the border fence at Tijuana

Deported migrants climb a fence at the U.S.- Mexico border as they prepare for the 6th annual Marcha Migrante, or Migrant March in Tijuana, Mexico.

President Reagan remembered on 100th Birthday

John McCain spent five and one half years in a prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam.

At the link below McCain writes about what he found when he returned home from Vietnam:

We came home to a country that had lost a war and the best sense of itself; a country beset by social and economic problems.

Assassinations, riots, scandals and contempt for political, religious and educational institutions gave the appearance that we had become a dysfunctional society.

Patriotism was sneered at. The military scorned. The great, robust, confident republic seemed exhausted.

Ronald Reagan believed differently.

He possessed an unshakable faith in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time.

We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

He possessed an unshakable faith in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time.

We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

Let us honor his memory by holding his faith as our own, and let us, too, tear down walls to freedom. That is what Americans do when they believe in themselves.

Link

Underemployed hits 19.2%

Gallup Daily: U.S. employment shows:

Unemployed - 9.9%

Underemploued - 19.2%

Gallup's U.S. employment measures report the percentage of U.S. adults in the workforce, ages 18 and older, who are underemployed and unemployed, without seasonal adjustment.

"Underemployed" respondents are employed part time, but want to work full time, or they are unemployed.

"Unemployed" respondents are those within the underemployed group who are not employed, even for one hour a week, but are available and looking for work.

Link

NBC employee fired for posting 1994 'What is the Internet' video

An NBC worker posted an old clip from the "Today" show.

In the clip Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel and Elizabeth Vargas are wondering, "What is the Internet anyway?"

Filmed in 1994, the clip features Gumbel demanding, with a befuddled expression: "What is the Internet anyway?" and Couric stumbling to define it as: "that massive computer network, the one that's becoming really big now."

In the clip, Gumbel also complains about e-mail addresses, particularly "that little mark with the 'a' and the ring around it."

NBC has fired the employee for posting the embarrassing yet hilarious clip.

The clip can be seen at the link below.

Link

Obama approval dropped 9% in last 7 days!

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14

poll-feb-11.jpg

The president’s Approval Index ratings have fallen nine points since a week ago Monday as the crisis in Egypt unfolds.

This is a devastating drop in just one week. Don't look for this to be covered or even acknowledged by most of the media.

Lawsuit: New York Mets owners owe Madoff victims $300,000,000

A previously sealed lawsuit made public last Friday says the owners of the New York Mets turned a blind eye to Bernard L. Madoff's massive fraud, reaping $300 million in false profits and using a large chunk to run the team.

The lawsuit claims the owners were so dependent on the disgraced financier's too-good-to-be-true returns that it "faced a severe and immediate liquidity crisis" when Madoff's crimes were revealed in 2009.

The lawsuit names Sterling Equities, along with its partners and family members, including Mets owner Fred Wilpon (pictured), team President Saul Katz and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon, the owner's son.

The complaint alleges the partnership "received approximately $300 million in fictitious profits" from hundreds of accounts opened with Madoff's firm. Of that, it says, $90 million of "other people's money" was withdrawn to cover day-to-day operations of the Mets.

As it turns out, Mets owner Fred Wilpon may have been a big loser in Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Link

Bernie Madoff's secret revealed…

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Super Bowl commercials

Super Bowl attendees face pat downs and long list of banned items

Everyone entering the stadium must pass through a magnetometer, such as those used at airports, and get a patdown as part of the screening process.

NFL and federal authorities are limiting what fans can bring to Cowboys Stadium.

Small bags are allowed, but will be searched, and jackets will be X-rayed.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Items fans can't bring into Cowboys Stadium:

Weapons, mace/pepper spray, fireworks

Camcorders, tripods, camera cases and binocular cases

Umbrellas, strollers

Grills, tents, poles, sticks

Banners, noisemakers, horns, beach balls, Frisbees, laser lights and pointers

Containers of any type, coolers of any size, backpacks

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Items fans can bring into Cowboys Stadium:

Small cameras and binoculars, but not camera cases and binocular cases

Small bags

Items purchased in Fan Plaza on Game Day

Link

String of failures found in Fort Hood attack

From a report at the link below:

An extensive investigation by a Senate committee says the massacre at the U.S. Army Base at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 32 others were wounded should have been prevented, but a “string of failures” by the FBI and the Army allowed a “ticking time bomb” to open fire at a crowded deployment center in the worst domestic terrorism ambush since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee investigation, released Thursday by Chairman Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, and the ranking Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, says the FBI and the Army failed to act on evidence “in plain sight” that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, had become an increasingly radicalized Muslim and was in communication with radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.

Much more here.

Global warming has become global weirding

From a report in the Boston Herald:

Meet the global weirdos. They’re the ones telling you that all the snow outside is proof that it’s getting warmer. Only, they don’t call it “warming” anymore.

No, that was back in the “Earth has a fever” days. Back when Al Gore was predicting that the ice caps were melting, the polar bears were drowning and Manhattan would sink beneath 20 feet of water “in the near future.”

Is the "near future" past? Has Manhattan sunk beneath 20 feet of water? Boy, these guys really are weird.

The report goes on:

But then something happened. Since 1998, temperatures have been relatively flat.

We’ve got more polar bears than ever, and Manhattan is buried under snow.

For a planet-roasting crisis that threatened the human race with extinction, there doesn’t seem to be much actual warming.

That's when the chant became “climate change.” The liberals formerly known as “warmists” began predicting that we would experience fundamental changes in our weather.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia — the Harvard of climate change — said snow would be “a very rare and exciting event.” Children wouldn’t know what it was.

We all know how that turned out. Europe has had three winters in a row of snow and cold temperatures.

If the cold and snow in winter prove global warming why doesn't the heat in summer prove global cooling? These people will never admit they are wrong. They are accustomed to saying anything they want knowing 80% of the media will either quote their reports as factual or ignore their reports - as the American media did when they said children in the UK would grow up never seeing snow.

Link

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Cairo demonstrator with makeshift helmet

An Egyptian anti-government demonstrator protects his head with a kitchen pot

Cars stranded on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago

A scene from across America this week

Thousands flock to rice paddy crop circle in Indonesia

People gather to see the 70-meter-wide crop circle that appeared over last week in a rice field in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Thousands of curious onlookers are flocked to central Indonesia to look at the facture which looks like an intricately designed flower following rumors it was formed by a UFO.

Masked model at Fashion Week

A model wears a creation by Alexandre Herchcovitch during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Unusual style! Looks like the model is ready for "look like a bandit" day.

She would look right at home with the protesters on the streets of Cairo.

Cairo protesters - from camels to burka's

Falling ice at Super Bowl site injures 7

Seven people were injured -- one critically -- when ice fell from the roof of Cowboys Stadium this afternoon.

Five of the seven people were taken to area hospitals.

Photo shows the Cowboys Stadium surrounded by snow.

"The ice and snow melting off of the Cowboys Stadium roof has caused several sliding snow falls onto the plazas,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an e-mail sent to the Dallas Morning News.

The accident forced officials to shut all but one entrance to the stadium, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Link

Endless stream heading for US border

Central American migrants ride on top of a northern bound train during their journey toward the U.S. border.

America crushed by snow and ice of Global Warming

From a report at the first link below:

As the deadly two-day blizzard finally passes, huge swathes of America must now brace for more snow and ice over the next three days as a storm brewing in the South and Texas is projected to move north by Saturday, dumping even more snow on top of already record-setting accumulation totals.

Snow is expected to fall over parts of Texas with rain over Louisiana, which will turn to snow over the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. A separate snowstorm will blow over much of the West, just as Chicago is recovering from its most damaging snowstorm in decades.

This week's storm was so catastrophic that buildings were crushed under the weight of the ice and snow.

At the second link below Al Gore claims that this snow and ice is actually caused by 'global warming.'

Remember Al Gore? He is the so-called climate guru who refuses to debate his climate science. He won't allow reporters access to his climate lectures. He relies on the friendly liberal media to give him a pass without challenging his climate science.

At the third link below is a report about a climate scientist in the UK who claimed that Europe would soon not see snow again and that children would grow up not knowing what snow was like.

Didn't Al Gore and the UK climate scientist remember the warnings in the 1970's about a coming ice-age such as the Time Magazine warning about another ice age.

Links:

The "crushed by global warming snow and ice" report is here.

The Al Gore claim that this snow and ice is actually caused by man-made global warming is here.

The claim (with link) that "children in the UK would grow up never knowing what snow was like" is here.

The 1974 Time Magazine 'another ice age' report is here.

New York City smoking ban in parks and beaches

Many believe the Big Apple has become a nanny state.

Smokers have just one message for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members: butt out of our business.

"We’re outside. We should have freedom to smoke."

The smoking ban will cover 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches plus boardwalks, marinas and pedestrian plazas.

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