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[jandros]

De nada Frankie, it just seemed like the right thing to do. And yes it's always just about people, regardless of border or whatever ideology may exist (or sometimes be imposed). Yeah I've been on ATL for almost 3-1/2 years and there have been almost countless discussions on one topic or another ... which can also be good in its way, if we can all just remember that we have to share this world together

[jandros]

I think this is so so true ... more and more ..... sometimes "freedom" is not all it's cracked up to be

Paradox of modern life: so many choices, so little joy
Christian Science MonitorJim Sollisch - Fri May 20, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20110520...JhZG94b2Ztb2Q-

Cleveland – As a person who manages creatives at an ad agency, I'm in a constant battle to provide my teams with the right amount of input. Too much information is paralyzing. But surprisingly, too much freedom is even worse. Give a creative team the world of potato chips to explore, and they freeze. Give them the word "crunchy" and watch them go. Creatives think they hate boxes, but it's in boxes that the creative process thrives.

And not just boxes: really small boxes. I use a technique you might call "Making the problem harder." I tell teams working on print ads to start by creating a billboard. If you have a TV campaign with a $300,000 production budget, try solving the problem for $10,000. Or do the whole spot only using type and sound effects.

Too much freedom can be bad for creatives, but there's significant evidence that it makes regular folks unhappy, too. I've long been fascinated by the arguments put forth by Barry Schwartz in "The Paradox of Choice." He says that when people have too many choices, especially in small matters, they freeze. And when they do choose, they're often left with buyer's remorse, convinced they missed a better opportunity.

It's not as counterintuitive as it sounds. The theory explains why you might be avoiding the smoothie place down the street with 98 flavors, not including the add-ons and power boosts. And in part why Chipotle is so successful. They present a limited range of options that makes choosing easy – just enough variation to make you feel it's your burrito but not so many that your head explodes.

But can the paradox of choice tell us something about the big issues in our lives? I think so.

Let me give you an example. My wife and I have five kids, which means that we spent the better part of 20 years with very limited choices in our personal lives. We were simply too busy to join book clubs, take glass-blowing classes, or even stay late at the office. Then our last kid went to college, and we weren't as happy with all that freedom as we expected to be. We missed the structure that our kids' schedules provided. Empty Nest Syndrome? Maybe Unlimited Choice Syndrome is a better name.

I suspect the paradox of choice also explains why so many people are disappointed with retirement. There's no structure for choices. (In design, this is called choice architecture.) And conversely, the paradox of choice also explains why so many of the workaholics I know seem so happy. They have fewer choices to make. They don't have to pick which TV show to watch because they're returning e-mail. Their lives are focused and purpose-driven – which is a big part of what makes humans happy.

The truth is most of us hate it when the world is our oyster. Exhibit A: recent liberal arts grads, who don't know what they want to do with their lives. We've provided them with such poor choice architecture – telling them they could do anything – that they can't seem to imagine themselves doing anything but working at Starbucks.

We humans are so complicated. Give us too little freedom and we'll stand up to dictators in Cairo and fighter planes in Libya. Give us too much freedom (and too many channels), and we'll sit in front of the TV, mindlessly flipping through our options, watching nothing.

[jandros]

The Science Behind This Terrible Tornado Season

Andrea Mustain, livescience.com – Wed May 25, 3:40 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...NjaWVuY2ViZQ--

So far, 2011 has proved a year destined for the tornado record books.

Nearly 1,200 tornadoes have swarmed the United States this year, according to preliminary numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Four of these storms have been rated at the highest tornado strength, an EF-5. The death toll from these tornadoes has likely topped 500, a number not seen since 1953.

But why has this year seen so many and such devastating twisters? Scientists point to several large-scale climate factors, some of which have been at work behind the scenes since winter. And at least some of the mind-boggling tornado numbers, believe it or not, can be chalked up to humans — there are more of us around to see them.

La Niña's exit

Some of the blame for the wild tornado streak lies with La Niña, a cyclical system of trade winds that cools the waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. (El Niño is La Niña's warm-water counterpart.)

Although we were in the grip of one of the most powerful La Niñas on record this last year, La Niña made a sudden exit about three months ago, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

"La Niña would have been beneficial for all these people that have been so clobbered," Patzert said. "If La Niña had maintained its strength, perhaps we wouldn't have seen so many tornadoes."

How do trade winds in the Pacific relate to deadly storms in the southern and central United States? It has to do with the jet stream, a high-speed air current that is essentially an atmospheric fence where cool, dry air meets up with warm, moist air — two of the main ingredients for severe storms. [Related: Why Tornado Forecasting is Tough]

La Niña has a stabilizing effect on the jet stream, and pushes it to higher latitudes.

Without La Niña around, the jet stream has gone rogue, Patzert told OurAmazingPlanet. "This time of the year it should be farther north," he said.

Instead, the jet stream has spent April and May draped across the middle of the country, where it has the chance to violently mix cool, dry northern air with warm, moist southern air.

And in 2011, those two air masses have been on the extreme ends of the temperature scale.

Hot and cold

Patzert said lingering effects of last winter's record snowfalls and snow packs have kept northern air especially cold, and the strong La Niña fueled unusually hot conditions in the southwest.

In addition, the sea surface temperature of the Gulf of Mexico is between 1.8 and 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.0 to 1.5 degrees Celsius) warmer than average, said Jake Crouch, a climatologist at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Crouch said the warm, moist air is the perfect fuel for severe weather.

"If there's more moisture and the atmosphere is warmer, it's more unstable, so there's more potential there for severe thunderstorms to develop," Crouch told OurAmazingPlanet.

Like gasoline on a fire, those extremes provide the potential for more storms, and more powerful ones. And when powerful thunderstorms run into the windy conditions that occur each spring, they often begin to spin — and sometimes with horrifying consequences.

The tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., killing at least 125 people, is not only the deadliest single tornado to strike the United States since 1947, but the storm has now been upgraded to an EF-5, the most intensely damaging tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds in excess of 200 mph (322 kph).

It is the fourth EF-5 tornado this year. In contrast, a single EF-5 hit the United States in 2008, one hit in 2007; before that, the last EF-5 hit in 1999.

Numbers game

However, scientists say it's important to take a hard look at the numbers before jumping to any conclusions about the sheer numbers of tornadoes in the United States, and whether those numbers are going up.

"Just because we've seen an increase in the number of tornadoes doesn't mean there has actually been an increase in the number of tornadoes," said Greg Carbin, the warning coordination meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.

Decades ago, when the country was more sparsely populated — and not everyone had a camera-equipped cell phone — there were simply fewer people around to spot and report tornadoes, Carbin said.

In addition, Carbin said, many initial tornado tallies include tornadoes that are counted more than once.

According to NOAA's preliminary count, April saw 875 tornadoes. "That's a gigantic number," Carbin said. "It may turn out there were that many tornadoes, but I can guarantee that many of those were not significant tornadoes, but they get into the database now because everyone has a tornado they want to report."

The highest number of tornadoes on record for any month is 542, from May 2003. Carbin said he suspects that once all the data are compiled, April's numbers will be closer to the May 2003 numbers.

In addition, both Carbin and Crouch pointed to the fact that with increasing urbanization, more people are affected when storms do hit, putting tornadoes in the spotlight.

Numbers and climate conditions aside, one thing is for certain, the scientists said — this tornado season has been unusually violent, as the horrific images splashed across the evening news attest, and it's not even close to being over.

[Maviii]

This Saturday is International Left-handers day
August 13 2011

Unlike most daft days though, like Play Your Ukele Day (2nd May)
or Town Crier Day (11th July), we think lefthanders are well-worth
their own entry in the calendar.

How many lefties are there?

Around ten per cent of the world’s population is left handed - that’s 640 million-odd people - and there are so many famous lefties whole websites
have been set up to list them all.

A bizarrely high percentage of US presidents are southpaws, including
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Ditto ace tyrants Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon.

In the acting world Robert De Niro and Nicole Kidman use their left hands, as do sports stars Pele, John McEnroe and Mike Tyson.
Art giants Michelangelo and Leonardo Di Vinci were also left-handed.

No wonder lefties have a reputation for being rather special.

Perhaps the last two chaps explain their reputation for being
more creative, but the lucky ten per cent also earn more money
according to some studies. This one 7 by the National Bureau of
Economic Research, found that left-handed college graduates in
the US earned ten per cent more than right handed alumni.

Is it better to be a leftie?

Back in the day lefties also had an advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
Because a righty fought with his shield on his left, a left-handed
swordsman could make a surprise attack on the opponent's unprotected
right side.

In Aztec times lefties were celebrated for
their magical and healing abilities,
while in Russia, the word levsha (lefty), came to mean ‘skilled craftsman’.

Paradoxically however, in other parts of the world our left-handed friends
got a raw deal.

Take the Romans. The Latin word ‘sinistra’ originally meant ‘left’,
but came to represent ‘evil’ and, eventually, ‘sinister’ today.
Compare that to their word for right-handed – ‘dexter’ – meaning dexterity
or skill. That’s just not fair.

Then there’s the term ‘cack-handed’. For many it means clumsy,
but can also stand in for ‘left-handed’ and derives (apparently)
from the ancient tradition of eating with the right hand and, er,
wiping oneself with the other.

Crackdown on southpaws

Until relatively recently left-handed schoolkids also had a hard time.
As late as the 1960s it was common for British children to have their
left hands tied behind their backs and then be forced to use the
other hand. The poor mites would then be punished because (duh)
their handwriting was shoddy.

Even today, many schools still aren’t properly equipped for
southpaws, and lack the right scissors, fountain pens and desks,
while ‘forced conversation’ of kids still goes on in countries such
as Japan and Taiwan.

With so much cultural baggage around left-handedness, both bad
and good, it’s not surprising that boffins have been studying the
cause for centuries.

So, why are people left handed?

Despite this, the common consensus today is that, well, there is
no consensus. Hundreds of causes and factors have been linked to
hand preference, but no-one really knows for sure.

One theory is that it’s all in the genes.
We spoke to top geneticist Dr Clyde Francks, who helped discover
that a particular gene – LRRTM1 - appeared to increase the odds
of being left-handed.

The human brain is asymmetrical, which means that the
two sides of the brain are used for different functions.

In right-handed people the left side of the brain controls
speech and language. According to Dr Francks however, in a “fair proportion”
of left-handed people either both sides, or the right side, will control speech instead.

The LRRTM1 gene contributes to this switch-around and influences whether
you are left or right handed, amongst many other things.

Dr Francks admits though that genetics only explain around one quarter
of the predisposition for left-handedness.

So what about the other 70-odd percent?

Another theory is that environmental factors determine handedness.
Some research suggests that the baby’s development in the womb,
including exposure to hormones, may influence hand preference.

Or perhaps ‘modeling’ is the cause? Some children choose what hand
to use to by copying their parents. This doesn’t happen in all cases though.

Does gender play a role?

A child’s sex could be another reason. Slightly more boys than girls
are left-handed, which lead some researchers to speculate that male
hormone testosterone can influence hand preference.
Dr Francks believes all of these theories could possibly decide
what hand you use, but only for a tiny minority of people.

“There are no grand explanations,” he said. “There are hundreds of
different reasons as to why people are left-handed. I believe it’s a
much more heterogeneous thing.”

Myths about the lefthanded

He also says there isn’t enough evidence that suggests lefties are
more creative or higher achievers.
“It’s a myth,” he said. “There are numerous scientific studies out there,
but typically the sample sizes are too small.”

The idea that left-handers are also prone to certain diseases is
also ruled out by Dr Francks, even though his research into LRRTM1
suggested carrying the gene slightly increased the risk of developing
mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

“Some people weren’t happy about that, but it will only be a tiny influence,
it would not be a case that all people with this gene would have a slightly increased risk.”

In short then, left-handedness is not, according to all the evidence,
something positive or negative, just a “really interesting part of normal
human variation”.

Don’t let this put you off celebrating left-handed day this Saturday however...

source / by yahoo!

[safe1]

does this affects me too? I'm left handed

[MoonRide*r*]

Left-handers should rule the world? ...... no never mind.

__________


This is insane. Beyond insane. With the current climate (for the past 3-4 years) so antagonistic (and rightly so) against "bonuses" and unmitigated greed that's even turned entire governments upside down (derivatives and the like), how the hell could anyone expect to get away with this kind of crap?....


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Mica: Embattled GSA Employees Got $44M in Undisclosed Bonuses
Wednesday, 01 Aug 2012 10:14 AM

It pays to be a GSA employee.

The embattled government agency 's employees are reaping 10 percent of the entire federal government's bonus checks which accounted for $44 million last year alone, according to House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla.

Mica opens a new round of hearings Wednesday on the GSA probe.

The $44 million amount, Fox News reports, exceeds previous reports as part of the probe of the agency, which has been under fire for lavish and expensive conferences, among other scandals.

Mica, who is in charge of the House investigation, said bonuses totaled $44 million, with many bonuses worth $50,000 apiece. Some employees now under investigation received bonuses. One employee got a $79,000 bonus, for nearly $260,000 in total compensation.

Lawmakers also said overtime payments were excessive. Mica cited one case where a worker with an $84,000 salary received $115,000 in overtime.

"There's something wrong at GSA when you have to pay an employee $115,000 in overtime," he said.

Though agency bonuses were worth 10 percent of all government bonuses, GSA staff makes up just 1 percent of the total federal workforce.

The embattled GSA investigation is also expanding. Another 77 conferences are under investigation.

New documents show the extent to which the agency poured money into questionable conferences, including one where millions of dollars in bonuses were handed out, Fox News reported. More than 3,700 employees received bonuses averaging about $1,000 apiece at the conference at a cost to taxpayers of $3.6 million. The conference was held in 2010 in Crystal City, Va., where employees spent hours drumming in what administrators billed as a "team-building" exercise, according to Fox News.

The scandal originated when the agency organized an $823,000 Las Vegas conference complete with a mind-reader, clowns, and a $75,000 bicycle-building exercise. Its employees also were sent on cooking classes costing up to $3,350-a-time in a bid to build “team spirit.”

The GSA helps keep government running by providing supplies, accommodations, and communications, and is under a top-down review after the lavish Vegas conference was revealed earlier this year. It is also being investigated after it was discovered it spent $330,000 to relocate a single employee from Denver to Hawaii.

Several officials have either been fired or have resigned as the spending scandal unravels.

Practices like this have drawn the ire of government watchdogs.

Also troubling is the discovery that several of the conferences have no record of spending, Fox News reported.

"The private company that hands out bonuses and rewards far beyond its ability to pay is going to be out of business. In the government, it seems to matter less because so many people seem to qualify," Tom Schatz, of Citizens Against Government Waste, told Fox News.

"It wouldn't surprise taxpayers to learn that these kinds of omissions occur at every agency. The lack of accountability is so bad that it's impossible to fire anyone," Schatz said. "It takes a hot-tub scandal to get rid of people at these agencies."

"They tried to do everything they could to cover up the October 2010 Las Vegas fiasco. Now, we're hearing there are dozens more. We're going to drag in all the parties involved and get to the bottom of this scandal," Mica told Fox News.

A spokesman for the General Services Administration said in a statement, according to Fox: "As of April 2012 all spending for events, including training conferences, leadership events, team building exercises, award ceremonies, were suspended. The 2010 awards ceremony was an annual event and has been in existence going back to 2002. Under the new GSA leadership these events and this type of spending are not tolerated."

But this week, even as Mica’s panel meets, the agency is holding yet another conference at the sprawling Opryland convention center in Nashville, Tenn., Fox News reported, complete with a night on the "General Jackson" steamboat, with a reception and entertainment.

The 2012 GSA SmartPay Training Conference runs from Tuesday to Thursday this week. The conference is for banks investing in the agency's SmartPay system, but a range of agency officials are attending, Fox reported.

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"Several officials have either been fired or have resigned".... I'm sure some of those people should probably have their sorry ***es thrown in jail.

source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gsa...8/01/id/447222

[Teshka]

It's time for some chill sweetie, no more of this, go to moods <33

[safe1]

Left-handers should rule the world? ...... no never mind.

...... They do, never mind.

[Frankie Jasmine]

"They do, never mind. But they're bored to death." (Just sayin'.)