What Caught My Eye Today - Honduras, Deportation, Potpourri

Honduras - For the third year in a row, San Pedro Sula, Honduras is the world's most murderous city with 187 homicides per 100,000 residents. Quick honey, call the travel agent and cancel our reservations. I knew that all inclusion vacation to San Pedro Sula was too good to be true. The high murder rate is blamed partly on a crackdown on drug cartels in Mexico that has pushed some of the drug trade into Honduras. Oh sure, blame Mexico. Dude, that is so low. 41 of the world's top 50 murder-prone cities are in Latin America, including the rest of the top 5: Caracas, Venezuela; Acapulco, Mexico; Cali, Colombia; and Maceio, Brazil. 16 of the top 50 are in Brazil, nine in Mexico, and four in the United States (#24 - Detroit; #26 - New Orleans; #36 - Baltimore; #45 - St. Louis). The survey does not include cities located in war zones. So does that mean that Damascus, Syria, Baghdad, Iraq and Kabul, Afghanistan are not the seas of tranquility that I thought they might be?

Deportation - The voice of the people has spoken, and now the government has to respond. After topping more than 100,000 signatures on "We the People," the White House is now obligated to respond to a petition to "Deport Justin Bieber and revoke his green card." The petition reads, "We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture. We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive, and drug abusing, Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked. He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation's youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society." Yeah, the Beibs is the cause of all that is wrong with our society. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is a hack and has serious delusions of grandeur, but that doesn't mean he's a bad person. Beiber carries an O-1 visa that allows individuals "of extraordinary ability in the arts" to stay in the U.S. One must remember that "extraordinary" doesn't necessarily mean good. On all petitions, "We the People" states, "If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and we will issue a response." As of this Wednesday afternoon the petition had 104,700 signatures and climbing. The White House reviews and usually responds to petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures within 30 days. I wonder what staffer will get this plum assignment. A rival petition started a few days later on the site and pleading on behalf of the pop star had garnered less than 1,000 signatures. This guy cannot catch a break can he? Pity.

Potpourri - I call this the "Scary or Gross?" edition.

• Winter Olympics: The 2010 Winter Olympics had the same overall injury rate as the Summer Olympics in 2012, about 11%, but severe acute injuries are more common in the Winter Games because so many of the events involve high speeds. I'm going with scary on this one.  Think about it. More than 1 in every 10 athletes is going to be injured at the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi doing something voluntarily and for the most part not getting any sort of monetary compensation for. Not convinced?  Check out these statistics and see if anything jumps out at you. The top five events with the highest injury rate for male athletes are: Short track speed skating - 28%; Bobsled - 17%; Ice Hockey - 16%; Ski Cross - 15%; Aerials and Snow Pipe (tie) - 13%. The top five events with the highest injury rate for female athletes are: Snowboard Cross - 73%; Aerials - 26%; Bobsled - 24%; Ski Cross / Ice Hockey (tie) - 23%. 73% percent! Holy crap!
• Promiscuity - America's senior citizens are indulging in a lot of unsafe sex in retirement and assisted living facilities. I wonder if unsafe sex really means unprotected sex. If that is the case, I'm not sure I'd go with gross or scary here; maybe stupid or foolish.  And let's be honest here--if a horny senior has a heart condition, a condom probably isn't going to help much. Plus can you think of a more pleasant way to go into the afterlife. Over the past two years, 2.2 million Medicare recipients received free tests for sexually transmitted diseases, about the same as the number who received free colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer. Having had both sex and a colonoscopy, given the choice, I'd take sex every time.
• Diet - American adults consumed 118 fewer calories in 2010 than they did in 2006. Health experts theorize that the slight decline reflects public education about diet, pressure on fast food makers to offer healthier alternatives, and a decline in dining out due to financial struggles. I'm going scary here. It's a little disturbing to think that the inability to buy food might be the most effective means for Americans to lose weight.
• Agriculture - China has banned food crops from being grown on 8 million acres of land, an area about the size of Belgium, because the soil is too saturated with industrial pollutants. Scary. Definitely scary.
• Wealth - The combined wealth of the world's 85 richest people, $1.7 trillion, is equivalent to the wealth held by the poorest half of the world's population, some 3.5 billion people. Since tragic isn't an option, gross it is. It borders on obscene (sort of a take on gross, don't you think) that 85 people have more wealth than 3.5 billion. Perhaps if I was one of those 85 people, I might feel differently, but I'm not, so I don't.

Did You Know? #50

What is the geographic uniqueness of India's Dahala Khagrabari?

It is the world's only third-order enclave. It is a patch of India inside a patch of Bangladesh, which is inside a patch of India--all of which is surrounded by Bangladesh (see map below).

What Caught My Eye Today - Diamonds, Venezuela, Africa, Ireland, Hamburgers

Diamonds - A rare 29.6-carat blue diamond has been discovered in a South African mine. Good news, lads.  You know that stupid thing you are going to do that pisses off your significant other. Here's your get out of jail free card. The "exceptional" vivid blue stone was found in the Cullinan mine, near Pretoria.  Let me guess, "exceptional" is industry speak for butt ass expensive. The Cullinan mine has an even greater history as the place where in 1905 the world's biggest diamond -- dubbed the "Cullinan" -- was found. The 3,106-carat stone was cut up and two major pieces are part of the British crown jewels. To give you some context, a carat is 0.2 grams, which means the "Cullinan" weighs in at 621 grams or about 1 pound 6 ounces. This newly discovered blue diamond is less than one-hundredth the size. Blue diamonds are seldom hit the market and have been coveted by royals and celebrities for centuries. That makes complete sense, if you think about it. Who else but some obscenely wealth jerk could afford the price tag (no bitterness here)? A 5.30 carat-fancy deep-blue diamond sold for $9.5 million at a London auction in 2013, setting a new world record for price per carat. You know how I started off saying this gem could be your get out of jail card? Maybe jail isn't so bad.

Fred's Note: As you all know, Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez passed away last year and no one was more depressed about his passing than me. Boyfriend provided so much material for this blog and my fear has been no one would ever be able to fill that gap.  Perhaps I need not worry so much...

Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro has a new villain as he campaigns to bring down Venezuela's spiraling crime: TV soap operas. God love ya, President Maduro. Hugo would be proud. He accuses them of spreading "anti-values" to young people by glamorizing violence, guns and drugs. The criticism follows attacks last year by Maduro on violent video games and the Hollywood movie "Spider-Man." I don't know that I can fault Maduro too much for this. The last few installments of "Spider Man" have been pretty lackluster. It's unclear whether the government will take steps to restrict programming or impose harsher rules on the soap operas known as telenovelas, which are hugely popular across Latin America. I'm not sure the government would need to exert much effort here.  Inflation is so out of control, I don't think too many citizens can actually afford TVs in the first place. Analysts say arm-twisting is unlikely to reduce Venezuela's high homicide rate, which the United Nations ranks as the fifth worst globally, and they warn that Maduro's campaign could be used as an excuse to further gag media criticism of the government. . Critics have blamed the country's bloodshed on the proliferation of illegal firearms, between 9 million and 15 million by the government's count, as well as the lack of punishment for those who commit crimes. Here's a question for you. Are these telenovelas inspiring people to use firearms or is the widespread use of firearms inspiring storylines for telenovelas?  Try to wrap your heads around that one.

Africa - President Barack Obama will invite 47 leaders to a landmark US-Africa summit in August, seeking to widen U.S. trade, development and security ties with an increasingly dynamic continent to which he traces part of his ancestry. Obama will send out invites to all African nations that are currently in good standing with the United States or are not suspended from the African Union. Is it just me or does this remind you of a party that only the cool kids get invited to?  Let's see who didn't make the cut. Egypt is not eligible to attend as it is currently suspended from the African Union. Yeah, we dodged a bullet on that one. Gee guys, we'd love for you to attend (hell, no!) but you aren't part of the African Union. Darn it all. The United States maintains sanctions against the Zimbabwean government of Robert Mugabe and key officials over suppression of democracy and what Washington sees as politically motivated violence. You're a bad man who doesn't know how to play nice, so you cannot come to our party. Also not on a list distributed by the White House were Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar. Washington has concerns over the subversion of democracy in both nations. Not to mention the fact that most of the State Department probably couldn't find Guinea-Bissau on a map (I checked and its on the west side of the continent sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea). Fun fact about Guinea-Bissau--the national motto is "Unity, Struggle, Progress". So you gotta figure that getting excluded from the summit probably doesn't come as that big of a surprise to this struggling nation. There will also be no invitation for Sudan, whose president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Show of hands...who actually wants al-Bashir to show up? One notable inclusion is Kenya, where President Uhuru Kenyatta is currently awaiting a delayed trial at the ICC on charges related to violence after an election in 2007 that left 1,000 people dead. I get that one is innocent until proven guilty, but dude is under indictment by the International Criminal Court. He must have done something not good. Obama pledged during his trip to the continent last year to help build "Africa for Africans" and argued that the region's growing economic potential could help it shake off its reputation as simply a recipient of foreign aid. Translation: We don't want China to buy up the continent.  We were here first, dammit. The Obama administration has also been increasing its indirect engagement in regional conflicts in Africa and is also increasingly concerned about Al-Qaeda franchises in the continent. Translation: We don't want another Iraq or Afghanistan.

Ireland -  Ireland is reopening its embassy to the Vatican more than two years after shutting it down in the wake of sex abuse cases, in a sign relations may be thawing. In a huge blow to the Holy See's prestige, staunchly Catholic Ireland closed its embassy to the Vatican in 2011, when relations soured over Church handling of sex abuse cases.  Maybe its just me, but you'd sort of expect the roles to be reversed, right? That said, turns out this is not that big of a deal. Guess how large the staff will be at the Irish embassy? Hint: Anything more than one, is way too high. Ireland also plans to establish embassies in Thailand and Indonesia and newest European Union member Croatia, and consulates in financial hubs Hong Kong, Sao Paolo and Austin, Texas. I'm sorry, but when did Austin, Texas become a financial hub? Ireland will set up an embassy in Kenya to support an aid program there and is closing its mission in Lesotho. Anyone know where Lesotho is on a map? Does anyone care?

Hamburgers - Time magazine says White Castle's small, square "sliders" are "the most influential burger of all time," noting the "now-iconic square patty" that debuted in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas was the first burger to spawn a fast-food empire. And with it the expansion of humanity's waist line. The full list of influential burgers includes the following:
17. The Krusty Burger - The fictional Simpsons hangout was so popular, it became a real-life restaurant when Universal Studios Orlando opened a Simpsons theme park. At the risk of stating the obvious, the criteria for this list is influence. Taste has nothing to do with it.
16. The Ghost Burger - A Chicago heavy-metal-themed bar launched one of the most outrageous burgers to date: the Ghost Burger (named after Swedish metal band Ghost B.C.) was topped with an unconsecrated Communion wafer. I rest my case.
15. The Varsity Burger - The ordering lingo for this Atlanta staple is almost as well known as the burger itself: you get it “all the way” in lieu of “with onions,” and “walk a steak” replaces “to-go.” Yeah, because just saying "with onions" is way too complicated. 
14. The Umami Burger - Arguably the first “modernist cuisine” patty, the Umami Burger is meant to taste like, well, umami (a savory taste embodied in MSG), incorporating such toppings as soy-roasted tomatoes, parmesan crisps and pickled ginger. So is umami the modernist term for salt lick?
13. The Ray’s Hell Burger - President Obama treated then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to one of these patties in Arlington in 2010—Obama’s was reportedly ordered plain, while Medvedev added jalapeños, mushrooms and onions. Really, a plain burger, Mr. President? Man up, dude. 
12. The Ramen Burger - This so-called hybrid burger—two parts ramen, one part beef patty—drew vast crowds at the Smorgasburg outdoor food market in Brooklyn throughout the summer of 2013. Alas, there’s no official ramen-burger restaurant yet. Imagine that.
11. The MOS Burger - MOS (a.k.a. “Mountain Ocean Sun”) Burger, which opened in Japan in 1972. Although its signature patty mimics the U.S. classic, other items are designed around Japanese tastes; there’s a teriyaki burger and a grilled salmon rice burger. And this is influential in what way?
10. The Jucy Lucy - A twist on the cheeseburger, in which the cheese is melted inside the patty, the Jucy Lucy was reportedly invented in the 1920s. They had me a melted cheese.
9. The Lab-Grown Burger -  This burger is grown in a lab from cow stem cells, which means it may even be palatable for vegetarians. The only issue: for now, it carries a $325,000 price tag. What's the word I'm looking for here?  Oh that's right: Eew.
8. The Quadruple Bypass Burger - The Heart Attack Grill's (notorious for offering free meals for those over 350 pounds) most notorious dish is this behemoth, which layers eight slices of cheese between four half-pound patties and clocks in at nearly 10,000 calories. 10,000 calories of pure heaven if you ask me.
7. The ShackBurger - The 2004 invention—topped with a tangy, secret-recipe ShackSauce—was the first burger to start a food craze, inspiring hordes of eaters to wait in lines that stretched throughout New York’s Madison Square Park. Food craze or pathetic excuse to take a 3 hour lunch? You tell me.
6. The Gardenburger - The original veggie burger was invented in 1981 at the Gardenhouse, an Oregon vegetarian restaurant, and it consisted mainly of leftover vegetables and grains. Riddle me this. Why would a vegetarian want to eat something that reminds them of the animal flesh they are trying to avoid in the first place?
5. The Burger King Whopper - The quarter-pound patty, introduced in 1957, was the fast food industry’s first gimmick burger—developed as a premium alternative to McDonald’s, Wendy’s and others. Too bad they didn't spend as much time on the taste as they did the gimmick.
4. The 21 Burger - When the 21 Club introduced its gourmet burger in the late 1940s or early 1950s, New Yorkers were shocked that an upper-class establishment would offer something as lowly as the burger—and at the exorbitant price of $2.75, compared with McDonald’s’ 15 cents. Nevertheless, it was a hit. The luxury burger has since become a mainstay at many higher-end restaurants, from Le Parker Meridien (a high-low offering in the lobby’s Burger Joint) to db Bistro Moderne (the truffle, foie gras and short ribs DB Burger) to Hubert Keller’s (the foie gras-topped Fleur Burger, which costs $5,000 and is served with a bottle of 1995 Château Pétrus).  Now this is what I call a gimmick.
3. The In-N-Out Burger - In-N-Out focuses on food—its signature burger, which debuted in 1948, was made from locally sourced ground beef and fresh vegetables. That approach may have prevented In-N-Out’s expansion (it has just 294 locations today, compared with McDonald’s 34,000-plus). The way I heard it was the secret menu was too complicated to appeal to a mass audience.
2. The McDonald’s Burger - The original McDonald’s burger, which debuted in San Bernardino, California, spawned an empire that now spans 118 countries. You just know that In-N-Out is kicking itself over this.
1. The White Castle Slider  I've never had the pleasure. Pity.

Run, Fred, Run - Jan 2014

Fred's Note: I start calendar year #7 working my way through South Carolina and up the East Coast.  My lofty ambition for the year is to make it to New England, the first stop of which would be Connecticut. That means I need to go about 900 miles this year.  My track record (pardon the pun) does not bode well for me. My annual average is only 460 miles.  Then again, why not aim high?

Total miles to date: 3,202,2
Number of marathons (26.2mi): 122.2
States visited: 10 (CA, AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA, SC)
States to go: 23
Miles to go: 5253.8

What Caught My Eye Today - U.S. Federal Budget, Japan, Zambia, Egypt

U.S. Federal Budget - The federal budget bill that Congress passed this week authorizes $1.1 trillion in spending. Before I dump on Congress, let's pause for just a moment and applaud the lawmakers in Washington for managing to do their jobs on this rare occasion.  Okay, that's good. It is 1,582 pages long and has 370,445 words, numbers and symbols. Simple math comes up with $2.9 million per word average. By comparison, there are only 4,543 words in the U.S. Constitution, before amendments, and 1,458 words in the Declaration of Independence. Of course, if you compare the budget bill to the U.S. tax code - which comes in at 73,954 pages - it's practically a memo. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington spending watchdog, figured that senators spent slightly more than 69 hours before passing the bill, giving them just under two minutes per page to read it. It's not the two minutes per page that concerns me, but rather whether they even bothered to try to read the budget at all.

Fred's Note: Lest you think the U.S. is on a perpetual downward spiral into irrelevance and mayhem, bear in mind things could always be worse...a lot worse.  With that comforting thought in mind, I proudly present the rest of today's postings.

Japan (Part I) - The Japanese have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and at the same time, one of the highest longevity rates. Taken in the wrong context, one might conclude that sex is hazardous to one's health and/or something unpleasant and to be avoided if at all possible. As a result, the population is dropping rapidly, and becoming increasingly weighted toward older people. After peaking at 128 million in 2006, Japan's population has been falling by roughly 1 million a year. By 2060, the government estimates that the population will be just 87 million, with nearly half that number age 65 or older. And we thought we had an aging problem in the U.S. Most Japanese young people just aren't settling down. What's that got to do with doing the ba-donk-a-donk? The marriage rate has plummeted and with it the birthrate, since out of wedlock births are rare in Japan. Right then, asked and answered.  In 2005, 60% of women had never been married and 72% of men. It seems to me that this issue is easily remedied. Step 1: Take that metaphorical stick out of you ass, Japan. Step 2: Make a little love tonight.

Japan (Part II) - China's and Japan's war of words over the Japanese stance toward its war record took an unexpected turn after China invoked the evil mastermind of the Harry Potter books. Say what? China is angry over the Japanese Prime Minister's recent visit to a shrine, where some of the top Japanese leaders from World War II are buried. Quick history lesson for a bit of context.  Japan pretty much opened a can of whup ass on China in the years leading up to World War II. Basically, it was a land grab by Japan to feed its industrial complex. You see Japan is an island with limited access to natural resources, what with being surround by water, but I digress. Long story short, China still holds a bit of a grudge against Japan. A China diplomat was quoted as saying, "If militarism is like the haunting of Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine is a kind of Horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul. Japan responded by saying China was the one acting like Voldemort by claiming other countries' islands. Tough call on the more absurd aspect of this story--that a Chinese diplomat resorted to using a Harry Potter reference to voice displeasure over something, or that a Japanese diplomat responded in kind.  I'm going with the latter. Clearly, dude from Japan never bothered to ready the Harry Potter series. If he had, he would have known that Voldemort never tried to claim islands. Duh.

Zambia - A Zambian opposition leader has been charged with defamation for comparing the country's president to a potato. The man faces five years in prison for calling the president a potato or, metaphorically someone who does not list to advice. Five years in prison for suggesting that the president is a couch potato? Yeah that sounds about right. The President was elected to office in 2011 on a pledge to improve freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In fairness, the president said he would improve freedom of speech and of the press. He didn't say he would eliminate it altogether. Still, boyfriend needs to develop a thicker skin. "Couch potato" isn't exactly what I would consider to be hitting under the belt. Grow a pair, dude.

Egypt - The Egyptian regime has accused a puppet of sending coded messages to the Muslim Brotherhood. Sure, why not? Prosecutors are investigating allegations that a commercial featuring a popular Muppet-like character contains symbols and code words encouraging Muslims to attack Coptic Christians. The theory, widely mocked in the press, first surfaced on the blog of a strong supporter of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and the military. I suppose (glass half full) we can be glad that the press sees this as being as stupid as it reads. My question is this; doesn't the Egyptian justice system have more legitimate things to focus its energies on?

What Caught My Eye Today - Iran, Syria, Pope, Natural Disasters, India, Time

Iran - Having successfully curbed birth rates for two decades, Iran now is promoting a baby boom to help make up for its graying population. Here's a thought. Instead of trying to control the forces of nature, why not just let things play out and see what happens. Iran's birthrate reached a peak of 3.6 children per couple after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, among the world's highest at the time. By 1990, experts estimated Iran could be home to 140 million people if the rate was left unchecked. To combat the rise, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed birth control. The birth rate dropped precipitously, now reportedly standing at 1.8 children per couple with a population of some 77 million people. In case you were wondering, you need a birth rate of just about 2.2 children per couple to maintain a population at its current level. Experts now say that drive might have been too successful, estimating that Iran's population growth could reach zero in the next 20 years if the trend is not reversed.  Khamenei, who has final say over all matters of state, now says Iran should have a population of 150 million people or more. Some blame a drop in marriages and a rise in divorce for the falling birth rate. Others point to Iran's economy, battered by Western sanctions over its contested nuclear program. Inflation stands at 36% while unemployment officially stands at 12%, though some private experts suggest nearly one in three working-age Iranians is out of work. Leave it to the so-called civilized western world to complicate things.  Here we are trying to use economic sanctions and other political tools to reign in Iran's nuclear ambitions. Who would have that that if we just leave Iran alone, it might birth control itself out of existence.

Syria - The U.N.'s human rights office has stopped updating the death toll from Syria's civil war, confirming that it can no longer verify the sources of information that led to its last count of at least 100,000 in late July, 2013. Is this sort of like the adage, "if a tree falls, but no one is around to see it, does it make a sound"? If we cannot count the fatalities is no one actually dying? I think not. Officials blamed the failure to provide new figures on the organization's own lack of access on the ground in Syria and its inability to verify "source material" from others. The total number of dead the U.N. had estimated was based on an exhaustive effort to verify six different figures supplied by a variety of nongovernmental organizations in the region. I think the issue here is motivation rather than the ability to count. The technology to provide reliable counts certainly existing.  If a drone can gather intelligence for a pinpoint missile strike, it seems reasonable that the same drone could take some pictures of bodies lying on the ground as well. 

Pope - Pope Francis is set to name new cardinals in the next few weeks who will help him set its future course and one day elect his successor from their number. In the past, it was a fairly safe bet that archbishops of big dioceses or those heading Vatican departments would be named as cardinals, but Francis has shown little regard for precedent or tradition. Atta boy. You do your own thang, boyfriend! There are currently 14 vacancies in the College of Cardinals for cardinal electors, those who would be allowed to enter a conclave to elect a pope. Church rules, in theory, limit the number of "cardinal electors" to 120. The "in theory" part is a subtle acknowledgement that the pope can pretty much do whatever he wants, what with him being infallible.  Nice job perk, don't you think? Apart from potentially shifting the liberal-conservative balance of the College, and elevating men whose personal abilities he values, Francis could also alter its geographical distribution. In the conclave that elected Francis last March, 60 cardinals were from Europe, even though the Church on the continent has been hardest hit by falling membership. Italy alone had 28. By comparison, there were only 19 cardinals from all of Latin America, a region with the largest Catholic populations, and 11 and 10 respectively from Africa and Asia, where the Church is growing fast. Maybe, if the pope is successful in his endeavors, we won't have to wait another 1600 years for the next non-European pope.

Natural Disasters - This is one of those matter of perspective stories. Here's the first perspective. A German insurance company says some 20,000 people died in natural disasters in 2013, about twice as many as in 2012. Most of the deaths resulted from Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines, Vietnam and China in November with a loss of almost 6,100 lives. This was followed by floods in India that killed about 5,500 people in June. And now for the other perspective. The company's annual disaster report found that the economic cost of natural catastrophes was lower last year. Some 880 events cost about $125 billion, with insured losses of $31 billion. This compares with costs of $173 billion and insured losses of $65 billion in 2012. The costliest natural disasters were summer hailstorms in Germany, floods in Central Europe, and storms and tornadoes in the United States. Okay then, more people died, but the financial losses were less.  What can we conclude from this? Personally, I think the losses were less because the vast majority of those who died in the nations mentioned about probably didn't have much in terms insurance.  My guess is that they probably placed a higher priority on putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. Until, of course, Mother Nature came in and did her thing.

And finally, we have a two-fer on, of all things, the peculiarities of time...

India - Assam, a northeastern Indian state, plans to shift its clock one hour ahead of the rest of India saying the adjustment will boost the state's productivity, granting its workforce more time in the daylight hours. It is unclear whether other states in India’s far-flung Northeast will follow suit or if the move will gain official sanction from New Delhi. Despite India’s continental vastness, the country has clung to one time zone. Imagine if you will, Los Angeles and New York being in the same time zone. Sunrise in the west at 3:00am and sunset at 3:00pm. What's not too like about that?  It’s not alone in such a conspicuous arrangement: China, which rivals the U.S. in landmass, operates entirely on Beijing time. Already, there are fears that an abrupt changing of timetables will lead to disruptions in the country’s plane and railway services. I can certainly sympathize with that.  My goodness, can you even contemplate the difficulty of printing new timetables that reflect time zone differences? Neither can I. And don't even get me started on the mass hysteria that would ensue caused by having to try to read those new time tables.  Oh, the horror.

Time - At the International Meridian Conference in 1884, the world’s time standard was established from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, U.K. Greenwich Mean Time is still the global measuring stick, but not without its wrinkles and oddities.

• In 2011, the Pacific island of Samoa erased a day off its calendar by jumping over to the other side of the International Date Line — rather than being the last country to ring in the New Year, it became the first, a move that also better aligned the tiny country closer to nations in Asia. Dude, Hawaiian must be totally pissed at that move. Now they are last.
• The massive Soviet Union, on the other hand, sized up its immensity and figured it justified 11 distinct time zones of its own — a boasting, nationalist legacy that Russia has inherited. In 2010, Moscow trimmed the number of zones down to nine (some experts think just four would suffice). Poopy-gook. More is always better than less. 
•  The ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, in China’s far west, is two and a half hours ahead of India on the clock despite lying further west on the map than much of the subcontinent. In fairness, this is not exactly a unique occurrence.
• In India, a 2012 study by the National Institute of Advanced Studies suggests that if the entire country moved its clock half an hour ahead (GMT +6 hours, rather than +5:30), India would save 2 billion kilowatt-hours in electricity a year. But there’s an inertia about making the change, in part because of politics — no nation wants to lose its time-stamp (see Nepal, at GMT +5:45).  Can someone please enlighten me as to when time-stamps became status symbols? Seriously, what's this +5:45 thing all about?

Did You Know? #49

What does a Penrose Triangle have in common with a Blivet?

Both are impossible objects. An impossible object is a type of optical illusion consisting of a two-dimensional figure which is interpreted as representing a projection of a three-dimensional object although it is not geometrically possible for such an object to exist.

The top image is a Penrose Triangle and the bottom image is a Blivet (also know as a devil's fork).

What Caught My Eye Today - Canada, India, Ireland, Syria, Education, Potpourri

Canada - Canada is staking a claim to the North Pole. North Pole meets the Great White North. Sounds like the perfect match if you ask me. The nation has submitted a preliminary application to the United Nations to extend its nautical borders in a bid to control vast Arctic resources, including nearly one third of the world's untapped natural gas reserves and large deposits of oil. Then again, maybe the possibility of untold riches may have something to do with Canada's request. Canada's own surveys have shown that its continental shelf does not reach the North Pole, but government officials said new studies would be commissioned. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that these new surveys (obviously using technologies not previously available) will render results much more to Canada's liking? And sure, there might be an abundance of natural resources in the Arctic, but you have to be able to get to them in order for them to have any value and that is no easy thing to do. Just ask Brazil how well it is doing with the oil bonanza recently discovered just of its shores.

India - India's Supreme Court has re-criminalized homosexuality overturning a 2009 ruling that had found the colonial-era anti-homosexuality law unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled that changing the law should be up to Parliament, not the courts. The law calls gay sex "against the order of nature" and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Same-sex relationships are criminalized in 76 countries, almost all of which are in Africa and the Middle East. These guys really seem to struggle with sex.  I'm curious which "order of nature" this law is referring to? While it is true there is only one family in the animal kingdom where the man has the baby, try telling all those seahorses (and the other 300 species of fish in the Syngnathidae family) that nature got its signals crossed and that those males need to stop having babies right now.  Maybe instead of pondering what the "order of nature" means, India could spend some time and effort embracing slightly less ambiguous concepts, like "no means no." I'm sure all those victims of rape (both female and male) would certainly not object.

Ireland - Ireland has a modest proposal for addressing unemployment. The government is sending letters to unemployed citizens urging them to apply for jobs elsewhere in Europe. I, for one, appreciate this sort of out of the box thinking. Officials say all foreign job opportunities are voluntary and that no one will lose their benefits if they do not apply for an overseas job. Groups opposed to the initiative accuse the government of state-sponsored emigration.  A quarter of Irish people under 25 years of age are unemployed and emigration has reached record levels with 75,800 people aged 15-44 leaving Ireland in the last year. The opposition has it all wrong.  This isn't state-sponsored emigration. Far from it. This is about some really smart individuals looking out for themselves.  Think about it.  You are young and unemployed, so what's one way to pass all that time on your hands?  That's right, at the pub.  If I'm a working stiff, the last thing I want to see is some young punk drinking all my booze.  Can't find a job in this country, then get out and leave my whiskey alone. Now mind you, at some point, Ireland will find itself having to address a massive brain drain, but if the remaining citizenry has its booze, maybe it won't notice.

Speaking of job opportunities abroad...

Syria - The United States has agreed to take control of Syria's chemical weapons and destroy them on a specially adapted Navy ship in international waters. I can see the want ad now: "Make the World a Safer Place. No experience required. No family or friends considered a plus." The Syrian government agreed to give up its stockpile of chemical weapons to avoid Western intervention in September, after it was proved that sarin gas was used against civilians. Since no country will allow 500 tons of lethal chemicals to enter its borders, the weapons will have to be destroyed at sea in a dangerous and costly U.S. operation. Imagine that. No country wants to assume responsibility for processing 10,000 pounds of deadly gases. What a bunch of pansies. The weapons will also pose a risk while in transit as they could come under a security threat from any of the warring parties in the Syrian conflict. I've read a little bit about the process for treating these chemicals so that they can be properly disposed of. Basically, you neutralize the toxic material with other toxic material and what you have left is a much safer hazardous waste that can be disposed of. So to summarize, in order to make something toxic safer, you have to make it hazardous.  Kind of makes you chuckle don't it?

Education - Ivy League universities may have a case of grade inflation. First a meningitis outbreak at Princeton, now this? Dude, I am so happy I went to a state university. At a monthly faculty meeting at Harvard University, the school's dean of undergraduate education told professors that the grade most frequently awarded to students is an A. Oh...grade inflation. I get it now.  In 2002, Harvard capped the proportion of the graduating class with honors to 60% after a year in with 91% of students graduated with them. Yale University found that 62% of grades awarded to undergraduates from 2010 to 2012 were in the A- range. Isn't it possible that the students that matriculate in these fine institutions of higher learning are really that smart? And isn't it a bit cynical to suggest that students might have some expectation of high grades if mommy and daddy fund a professorship? Princeton University had instituted a policy of grade deflation to limit the awarding of high grades, but those tougher standards are currently under review. I'm sure the shrinking endowment that followed in the wake of that policy had nothing to do with Princeton's decision to revise its academic standards.  Here's a radical idea. Why not award grades based on academic achievement. If the curriculum and testing are fundamentally sound, then if 60%, 70% or the whole freakin' student body can achieve high marks then so be it.  Most experts would agree that this is statistically impossible, but why not let the student have a chance to prove them wrong?

Potpourri - Let's call this entry the "No kidding, really?" edition.

• Economic Growth - Over the past 64 years and 16 presidential terms, the U.S. economy has grown at an average rate of 4.35% when a Democrat was president versus just 2.54% when a Republican held office. Of course, these numbers don't really show the whole picture. If you start low enough, any improvement will seem large.
• Credit Worthiness - The Netherlands left an elite group of nations rated AAA by all three major rating agencies, leaving just 10 countries with the top credit rating: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland. Let's give a shout out to Australia, the only nation south of the equator (and south of the Tropic of Cancer for that matter) to make the cut.
• Nuclear Safeguards - From 1962 until 1977, the U.S. military intentionally set the launch codes at every nuclear missile silo in America to "00000000" so it could rapidly respond to any Soviet attack. It's amazing that the human race has managed to survive all these years in spite of itself.

Did You Know? #48

What do the following have in common: Sarcoline, Coquelicot, Smaragdine, Mikado, Glaucous, Wenge, Fulvous, Xanadu, Falu and Eburnean?

They are all colors: Sarcoline (flesh colored); Coquelicot (orange-tinted red); Smaragdine (emerald green); Mikado (bold yellow); Glaucous (blue-gray); Wenge (dark brown with copper undertones); Fulvous (brownish-yellow); Xanadu (gray-green); Falu (deep red); and Eburnean (ivory white).

What Caught My Eye Today - Bibles, Viruses, Immigration, Dating, Potpourri

Bibles - Costco Wholesale has been doing some serious repenting. While shopping in a store in Simi Valley, California a local pastor tweeted a photo of Bibles relegated to the store's fiction section. That did not sit well with members of his congregation. I've two questions already.  First, is a priest doing shopping at a Costco in the first place; and second, who follows their clergyman on Twitter? Once word of the misplaced gospels spread on social media and made its way onto local and national broadcasts, Costco released a statement blaming a distributor for mislabeling a "small percentage" of the Bibles in stock before they were shipped to the California. In the statement, Costco said it takes full responsibility for the incident and should have caught the mistake. Being the God fearing Christian that I am, I'm not going to argue whether or not the Bible is a work of fiction or not. However, it is worth noting that the four canonical gospels of the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – were not only written many years after the events which they describe occurred, but these four gospels were picked out of several hundred gospels nearly 500 years later.

Viruses - Don't have enough things on your mind to keep you up at night?  How about these little gems? The Center for Disease Control says three nightmare super bugs have become so virulent that they pose an urgent risk to the health of Americans. The first is a deadly diarrhea-causing infection. That sounds bad. The second is a bloodstream infection that kills half the people it infects. Yeah, this one doesn't sound too pleasant, either. The third is a drug-resistant form of gonorrhea that has evolved to become resistant to the last drug available against it, raising the prospect of a sexually transmitted global epidemic. This "super gonorrhea" tests to spread through unprotected oral sex. Sort of takes some of the fun out of sex, don't you think? I wonder if Purell could sanitize more than just your hands; not that I'm suggesting you should sanitize anything else with it.

Immigration - The Young Conservatives of Texas canceled it annual "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" event at the University of Texas, Austin, after complaints from students and faculty. Go figure. The group said the game, in which students would chase down other students wearing "illegal immigrant" signs, was meant to spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue. And yet somehow, this group's completely innocent intentions were misconstrued by college students and faculty.  If you ask me this is more of an indictment on higher education.  How could any sensible, well-educated person possible view this event as any other than the public service announcement it was intended to be? 

Dating - There is a new "female-friendly" dating application. The program is like a Yelp for women who want to know as much about who they are going to a restaurant with as they do about the restaurant they are going to. It allows them to anonymously review men who are they Facebook friends and read similar reviews from women they don't know. Users can rate men in categories and add hashtags that are used to calculate a score and rate the men. Where to begin?  First off, this smacks of sexism to me.  Where is the "male-friendly" version of this application?  Second, in my day, the whole purpose of going on a date was to get to know someone.  Why bother going through the pointless exercise of actually connecting with someone, when you can find out everything you want to know about them on Facebook?  Which brings me to my next thought.  Is it just me or does the notion of ratings based on feedback from women who no longer have any desire to date a guy seem to be a questionable premise? I'm thinking there may be some negative bias in some of those reviews.  And finally, what would motivate a girl to friend a bunch of strangers who previously dated the dude she's interested in?  If you ask me, no good could possibly come from that.

Potpourri - Quite the hodge-podge of useless trivia this time around (as if any trivia is particular useful).

• Vocabulary - The Oxford University Press declared that "selfie," taking a self-portrait with a smartphone, was the new word of the year for 2013. More proof that the art of language is in serious decline.
• Lifestyle - 27% of Americans lived alone in 2012, compared to just 17% living in single-person households in 1970. Considering that technology is well on its way to making actual human contact obsolete, I'm surprised this number isn't higher.
• Olympic Medals - The value of raw materials in a gold medal to be awarded at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia is $650. The value of raw materials in a silver medal is $335 and $5 in a bronze medal. How depressing is it that recognition of a lifetime spent getting to the pinnacle of one's sport is worth less than a premium coffee drink at the local Starbucks?

Did You Know? #47

What are the odds of finding two identical snowflakes?

There is no fundamental law of the universe that says snowflakes cannot be identical, but since each flake is made of millions of randomly arrayed water molecules that aren't quite uniform, the odds of finding twin flasks are astronomically slim, about 1 in 10 to the 158th power. Snowflakes develop when water molecules freeze together, and not every water molecule is identical. The vast majority feature oxygen atoms with 8 neutrons while some contain 10 neutrons--the molecules have subtly different shapes, which leads to slightly different forms when they freeze.

In Memoriam: Tyler Voltmer

Fred's Note:  I don't usually get personal on this blog, but recent events dictate that an exception be made.  My brother, Tyler, passed away unexpectedly on November 15.  Words seem inadequate to describe the shock and sense of loss that my family has gone through these passed couple of weeks.  Nonetheless, life does go on.  So here is a brief tribute to my dear brother.

TYLER JAMES VOLTMER 

(March 10, 1968 - November 15, 2013)

From my earliest recollections, I idolized Tyler. He was the epitome of coolness; great at sports, smooth with the ladies; in short, he could do no wrong, at least not in my eyes. I went to great lengths to find flaws in Tyler – as any younger brother would – but was rarely successful. More often than not, we managed to find trouble together. There was a time when getting sent to your room was a punishment worse than death, but when we were forced to endure such trying times, we’d be in our respective rooms huddled in our closets tapping out secret codes on the wall that separated us, just to let the other know we were okay.

My hero worship of Tyler only grew in high school. He was a senior, and I was a lowly freshman. It was at Prospect High that I first met Terry, Tyler’s future wife. Of course, I had no idea at the time; all I knew was that there was a junior, a girl no less, who would actually talk to me. I have countless recollections of our time in high school, but one that particularly stands out as indicative of the unique character Tyler possessed. He decided to join the cross-country team. The fact that participating in after school sports guaranteed you an A in P.E. probably had nothing to do with his decision. As you all know, Tyler was quite observant and quick to pick up on how to do things. Well, it didn’t take long for him to figure out that the coach doesn’t supervise your entire training run. Armed with such knowledge, Tyler applied some out of the box thinking by detouring back to our house for a quick snack, perhaps a few minutes of television, then returning at the appropriate time to finish his run. His brilliant plan was foiled at some point, and Tyler was presented with an ultimatum by the coach—Win the next race or receive an F in P.E. So what does he do, but go out and win the race. I would later realize that this wasn’t an anomaly, but just who Tyler was.

All too soon, high school was over, and Tyler began the next phase of his life. At 19 years old, opportunity came knocking, in the form of a job with American Airlines working cargo at San Francisco. Tyler learned the ins and outs of the job working with our good friend Lee Goodspeed. A couple years, later American decided to open a hub in San Jose and Tyler transferred there, where he discovered the glamorous world of baggage service. Interesting, that after that experience, Tyler would only check his bags if there was no other choice; probably just a coincidence. Throughout this entire time, Tyler and Terry dated and their relationship grew. It was pretty obvious to everyone that these two were destined for each other. However, like any good romance, trouble was on the horizon.

For some inexplicable reason, the concept of having a hub in San Jose, never really took hold, and as a result, American decided to scale back operations. Knowing what they had in Tyler, American pulled out all the stops make sure they kept him in the fold, including offering Tyler a posting in Newark, New Jersey. I know there are many of you who don’t hail from the Bay Area, so I will let you in on a little secret. It is the dream of every young boy and girl to grow up and one day move to Newark, New Jersey. Tyler got to live that dream, almost.

Terry did not make the move to New Jersey with Tyler. Practical girl that she was, and still is, Terry made clear to Tyler in no uncertain terms, “if you want this girl, you need to put a ring on her finger and marry her.” It took a bit of time, not to mention a move to Texas, but that’s exactly what Tyler did. He married is remarkable wife, Terry.

Dallas or more specifically, DFW is the center of the American Airlines universe. I got to visit Tyler in action on more than a couple of occasions, and was awed by what I saw. I didn’t understand most of what was going on, but I knew Tyler had everything under control. Yet again, I was looking up to the coolest guy I ever knew and could not have been prouder.

I got the chance to meet some of Tyler’s work friends—Ziggy, Patty and Jessy, to name just a few. Others, I’ve learned about more recently, and one thing is clear beyond doubt, that Tyler was loved by so many of you. It shows true affection to cover up Tyler’s entire car in plastic wrap to celebrate his birthday.

Years passed, and the opportunity for Tyler and Terry to move closer to home presented itself in the form of a management position at LAX. Besides, Newark, New Jersey, there is no place a Bay Area native would rather be than L.A. Needless to say, we were thrilled that Tyler and Terry were closer to home, but the transition was not easy. Tyler was not capable of giving less than 100 percent to everything that he did. His new job was pretty stressful, but as he always did, Tyler rose to the occasion and gave it his all.

Most recently, Tyler was getting ready to start the next chapter of his life at US Airways in Orange County, but that chapter will remain unfinished.

Every relationship is unique and special in its own way. My relationship with my brother was no different. As we grew into adulthood, we didn’t speak every day or even every week, but when we did talk over the phone or saw each other at a family event, it was almost as if no time had passed at all, and we were back in our rooms tapping out codes in our closets letting the other know we were there for each other. While Tyler won’t physically be here, I know that he will be inside each and every one of us giving us strength, comfort and love as we muddle our way through this crazy world.

What Caught My Eye Today: Iceland, Florida, Somalia, Asteroids, Potpourri

Fred's Note:  Let's have some fun with today's posting, shall we? See if you can figure out which of these first four news items is bogus.  I've posted the answer at the end of posting for "Did You Know? #46".

Iceland - Iceland leads the world in women's rights. Great news for the approximately 160,000 women who live there.  Not so much of a big deal for the other 3.5 billion world who live elsewhere. The World Economic Forum put Iceland at the top of its ranking of global gender equality for the fifth year in a row, based on women's access to education, political office, jobs and healthcare. The United States placed 23rd, below the Philippines (5th) and Nicaragua (10th). I'm not so much surprised by where the U.S. ranks overall so much by those countries that rank higher.  Both the Philippines and Nicaragua are predominantly Catholic, which doesn't always encourage a level playing field between genders. And then there is Burundi (22nd). How the hell, did they manage to outrank us? Pakistan and Yemen came in last. Now that, I get. The analysis shows that a smaller gender gap drives economic competitiveness. So what this study suggests is that a level-playing field is generally a good thing, right? Sounds like a bunch of hokum to me. Everyone knows that if you have a leg up on someone, the last thing you want to do is let that advantage slip away.

Florida - The Florida Corrections Department has been forced to tighten its release policy after two convicted murderers used forged paperwork to walk out of a maximum security prison. Kind of makes you question the premise of the adage, "crime doesn't pay".  The prisoners were released from jail on two separate days, having submitted fake documents that reduced there life sentences to 15 years. Authorities did not realize the two had been released until they were alerted by a relative of one of the murderer's victims.  Talk about your awkward social moment.  How would you like to have been the prison official who had to take that phone call? Since their escape in late September and early October, at least 7 inmates have been found to have used forged documents to escape from prison. You'd like to think that procedures would have been adjusted after the first incident, but apparently that wasn't the case here.

Somalia - Sea captains have an unlikely new ally in their battle against Somali pirates: Britney Spears. Ships have started blasting the pop star's music at ear-splitting volume at approaching raiders. "Oops! I Did It Again" is particularly effective at foreign bandits to stop. If you ask me, Insane Clown Posse would have been a far better choice, but what do I know. According to a merchant navy official, "These guys can't stand Western culture or music, making Britney's hits perfect. It's so effective, ships' security rarely needs to resort to firing guns." What I can't get my head around is whether or not this should be construed as a compliment or insult to Britney's musical prowess.

Asteroids - The United Nations agreed to set up an "International Asteroid Warning Group" to share information with member nations if astronomers spot a deadly, earthbound asteroid. The U.N. said it would help coordinate a mission to deflect the asteroid by flying a spaceship into it. So here's my question--what's the deal for non-member nations? I'm thinking the possibility of an asteroid hitting the planet becomes public domain knowledge rather quickly.  Seriously, are we going to let an asteroid hit Romania because it isn't a member nation? What about the European nations that did sign on who just happen to border luckless Romania?

Potpourri - By the numbers edition

• Mongolia - There are 3 million horses in Mongolia compared to just 2.75 million people. Yeah, but as long as people are the only ones with opposable thumbs, I think we are okay, even if we are in the minority.
• Scotland - The world's shortest scheduled flight lasts just 47 seconds and covers just over 1 miles on Scotland's Orkney Islands. I'm thinking the on board service isn't much to write home about either.
• Legos - It would take 40 billion Lego bricks stacked one atop the other to reach the moon. Not to mention someone (or a lot of someones) with an extraordinary amount of free time (and lack of ambition to do anything productive) to stack all those bricks.
• Ketchup - Ketchup travels .02 miles per hour when poured out of a bottle. That's why I go straight for the ketchup packets.
• Infectious Disease - 13 U.S. facilities have bio-safety level 4 labs for handling outbreaks for which there is no treatment or vaccine. 30 new contagious diseases have been investigated by the Center for Disease Control in the last 12 months. 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases among humans have originated in animals. First observation. Do you think they offer facility tours? I can think of a few people I'd like to send complementary tickets to. Second observation. 30 new diseases in the past year? And those are just the ones we've stumbled upon (probably by sheer dumb luck). It's amazing that the human race has survived this long.

Did You Know? #46

What does zenzizenzizenzic mean?

It is the eighth power of any number. 256 is zenzizenzizenzic--it is two to the eighth power (2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x2).

Answer to Nov 13 Posting: Believe it or not, all four stories are true.

Did You Know? #45

What do the following jobs have in common: Chair of the Federal Reserve, CEO of a top US Bank, Chief Justice, Vice President and President.

They are top jobs no woman has ever held. 

President Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen for chief of the Federal Reserve on October 9, a move that could make her the first female leader of the central bank, or of any major central bank in the world.

The 10 largest U.S. banks by total assets are all run by men.

President Obama has placed two women in the High Court with his nominations of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is also the court's first Hispanic justice, and Justice Elena Kagan. Sotomayor and Kagan are the Supreme Court's third and fourth female justices, respectively, but there has yet to be a woman in the position of Chief Justice.

Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin are the only two women to run for vice president on major party tickets. Ferraro ran as a Democrat alongside presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984 and Palin shook up the race when she ran with John McCain on the Republican Presidential ticket in 2008. Both candidates lost.

Women have been running for president since 1872 when Victoria Woodhull, a leader in the women's suffrage movement, ran as part of the Equal Rights Party. Still, no woman has been able to run as the presidential candidate on a major party ticket --though many have tried. Hillary Clinton came closest to winning the nomination of a major political party when she ran in 2008.

What Caught My Eye Today - China, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Economic Growth, North Dakota

China - Choking smog all but shut down Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people, in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter. An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers, reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of the city. A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20. To put it another way, the current particulate matter in Harbin  is 50 times the recommended limit. Kind of makes Los Angeles seem like a bastion of pristine air, doesn't it? The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter. All this on the first day of winter? Oy vey! Visibility was reportedly reduced to 10 meters. I'm thinking not being able to breath trumps the lack of visibility. Air quality in Chinese cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy. Pish posh. How much of a fuss can a measly 11 million people --who cannot breathe, mind you -- cause?

Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan government officials accidentally announced the re-election of incumbent President Ilham Aliyev a day before the polls opened. I've heard of calling a race a bit prematurely on election night, but a whole day before the election was held. Wow, those exit polls must be really, really good. The Central Election Commission's smartphone application show Aliyev winning a third term with 73% of the vote, with just 7.4% going to the opposition candidate. The Commission quickly retracted the results saying that it had mistakenly republished the last election's results. Surely, an honest mistake, right? However, since the opposition candidate did not run in the last election, the excuse seems implausible. Or perhaps not. The country has never held an election that Western observers deemed free and fair. Obviously Azerbaijan doesn't care a great deal about what us pesky Western's think.

Morocco - Protesters staged a "kiss in" in support of a teenage couple who were arrested after posting photos of their kiss on Facebook. Oh the horror! The boy and girl were charged with violating public decency. I say public floggings for all those involved in this heinous act. Public displays of affection? It is amazing the depths to which our civilization has fallen. An online campaign to kiss publicly in front of Parliament drew more than 2,000 supporters, but only about a dozen couples actually kissed at the protest. Way to make a statement, people. Morocco has been growing more conservative since Islamists swept the 2011 elections in the wake of Arab Spring democratic reforms. Don't these people get it? Democratic reforms are supposed to reflect what the Western world sees as acceptable, not what the people actually want. Seriously, how dense can you be?

Economic Growth - Recent studies have concluded that if not for the multiple "fiscal crises" created by Congress over the past two years, another 2 million Americans would have jobs, the unemployment rate would have dropped below 6.7%, and The growth of the GDP would be close to 4%, instead of 2.5%. And champagne would rain down from the heavens...but I digress. The study found that Congress's fiscal cliff and debt ceiling emergencies have unsettled markets and employers, kept consumers in a cautious crouch, and paralyzed the entire system with uncertainty. Apparently, the Great Recession wasn't challenging enough. The 5% annual cut in federal spending forced by the sequester has been found to be too drastic and has retarded growth. One can only assume that someone in Washington discovered that some of us still had some retirement savings that survived and decided something had to be done to remedy that anomaly.

North Dakota - Nine out of 10 workers lured by North Dakota's oil boom are men, but there is a peripheral industry that is attracting women: exotic dancing. Fascinating how opportunities arises under the most unexpected circumstances. Then again, we are talking about a lot of testosterone filled men with loads of cash and not much to spend it on. Strippers can bank over $2000 a night in oil boomtowns. Prostitution is also on the rise. I totally get this. Sit in a strip club for a few hours and you are bound to get a little hot and bothered. A clear cut case of cause and effect if ever there was one.  Hospitals note that rates of chlamydia doubled between 2010 and 2011. Yup, more cause and effect. Speaking of which, you can sort of see this last item coming from a mile away. Local women have also complained that the roving bands of unattached, restless young men have created a culture of constant sexual harassment.

Did You Know? #44

What company is the United States largest private employer?

At the end of the 2013 fiscal year, Wal-Mart employed more than 1.3 million worked in the United States. Wal-Mart has a global workforce of nearly 2.2 million. Rounding out the top five are:

2. Yum Brands (owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) - 523,000
3. McDonald's - 440,000
4. IBM - 434,246
5. United Parcel Service - 399,000

What Caught My Eye Today - U.S. Government, Climate Change, Silence, Potpourri

U.S. Government - Yes, Virginia, not only does Santa Claus exist, but the United States Congress does occasionally pass legislation. The U.S. Congress approved an 11th-hour deal to end a partial government shutdown and pull the world's biggest economy back from the brink of a historic debt default that could have threatened financial calamity. Almost sounds too good to be true. The down-to-the-wire deal, however, offers only a temporary fix and does not resolve the fundamental issues of spending and deficits that divide Republicans and Democrats. And there it is. It funds the government until January 15 and raises the debt ceiling until February 7, so Americans face the possibility of another bitter budget fight and another government shutdown early next year. Seeing as this is an off election year, political pundits and late night comedians must be thrilled at the prospect of having something to talk about for the next few months. In the end, the Democratic-led Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure on a 81-18 vote, and the Republican-controlled House followed suit 285 to 144. In addition to lifting the federal debt limit, the deal calls for creating a House-Senate bipartisan commission to try to come up with long-term deficit-reduction ideas that would have to be approved by the full Congress. Correct me if I am mistaken, but hasn't Congress been down this road before and failed? That's how we ended up with debt sequestration earlier this year. Their work would have to be completed by December 13, but some lawmakers say the panel faces an extremely difficult task. For the optimists (there must be a few of you left out there) I offer this...If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. For everyone else (myself included)... Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Seeing as the government shutdown is now over (temporarily), we have retired "Let Me Count the Days...Since the U.S. Government Shut Down" portlet, but fear not. This glorious moment in U.S. History will live on in the "Let Me Count the Days Hall of Fame" portlet.

Climate Change - If you thought the United States was in shambles, bear in mind, things could always be worse. Case in point... A Pacific islander is seeking recognition as the world's first climate change refugee in New Zealand as rising seas threaten his low-lying homeland. The man launched an appeal against a decision by New Zealand immigration authorities to refuse him refugee status and deport him to Kiribati in the central Pacific after his visa expired. The case has the potential to set an international precedent, not only for Kiribati's 100,000 residents but for all populations threatened by man-made climate change. Show of hands, please. Who would like to sit in the jury box for this case? If the appeal is successful, the man would become the world's first climate refugee. I wonder if you get to be in the Guiness Book of World Records for something like this. That would totally take the sting out of losing  your homeland to rising ocean levels.  Kiribati is among a number of island states, including Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Maldives, that the UN Human Rights Commission is concerned could become "stateless" due to climate change. Kiribati government's has raised the prospect of relocating the entire population or building man-made islands to rehouse them if predictions the sea will rise by more than 3 feet by the end of the century prove accurate. It has also moved to buy 5,000 acres of land in Fiji to act as a farm for Kiribati if salt-water pollution means the islands in the former British colony can no longer produce crops. How often have you read something containing the phrase, "wiped off the face of the Earth" and chalked it up to hyperbole? Here's a very real situation where we are talking about entire nations being swallowed up by the ocean in a matter of decades. This is serious stuff.

Silence - Struggling to come up with meaningful dinner time conversation with that special someone or maybe a business contact with whom you share no common interests? Have I got the perfect dining establishment for you. At the table, silence is golden, especially in noisy New York. That's the gamble a young restaurant owner is taking with patrons, who are prohibited from talking during four-course meals. The project, launched a month ago at Eat in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, has created a buzz in a city where restaurants are often so noisy that they trigger routine complaints. Customers have to reserve days in advance for the privilege of eating without speaking or hearing a word on Friday or Saturday night in the small room that seats 25. For an entire hour, diners savor a menu based on local organic ingredients, watch one another and don't say a word. Cell phones must also be turned off.Customers who dare break the golden rule during the $40 prix fixe meal are forced to finish their plate on a bench outside.  Truth be told, I wouldn't mind seeing that policy implemented for cell phone usage at many of my favorite restaurants. As the dinner ends, after dessert, the silence ends. Some struggle to keep serious in the face of an experience that is the polar opposite of the constant frenzy prevalent in New York.

Potpourri - For those of you who cannot swing a reservation at Eat and, therefore, have to rely on the art of conversation, I offer up these dinnertime topics...

• Oil - The United States may overtake Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and gas in 2013. The U.S.'s monthly production rate has soared to the equivalent of 22 million barrels a day, while Russia's is estimated to be 21.8 million barrels a day. Most of this domestic production comes in the form of natural gas extracted through hydraulic fracturing (fracking), so order up another round of drinks, because a tank of gas will still cost a fortune.
• Chicken - The University of Mississippi conducted analyses of chicken nuggets purchased at two national chains. The first nugget contained 50% muscle meat and the rest composed of fat, blood vessels and nerves. The second nugget contained just 40% meat and the remainder being a combination of fat, cartilage and pieces of bone. Okay, maybe you want to skip this one.
• Dogs - Two dozen cities have banned retail dog sales, meaning canine pets will only be available via shelters and animal rescue organizations. The bans are based on evidence of widespread cruelty, overcrowding and starvation at high-volume commercial breeding businesses, or "puppy mills" that supply most dogs to pet stores. Isn't there enough pain and suffering in this world without some tool mass producing dogs with no regard for their welfare? Yeah, yeah, I know the same can be said for the animals who end up on my dinner plate, but there is something about a dog that just seems to pull at your heart strings.

Did You Know? #43

How long can humans live?

Most scientists agree that the maximum human life span is currently about 125 years. Most people fall far short of that because of poor diet, self destructive habits, disease or organ failure. Advances in medicine have already extended the average human life span in most modern nations from 46 in 1900 to 78 today.

What Caught My Eye Today - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Arctic, Potpourri

Turkey - Kurds in Turkey are now allowed to use the letters Q, W and X - not found in Turkish - to spell their names. Interestingly, there are more than a handful of both boy and girl Kurdish names that start with one of these letter, to say nothing about the number of names that contain one of these letters (click here to see what I mean). The change is part of a package of reforms announced by the Turkish government that gives more rights to Kurds, including the right to use Kurdish spellings of their names and towns on official documents. The Islamist-leaning government also lifted a decades-long ban on women's headscarves in public offices, in what is seen as a step away from Turkey's rigorous separation of mosque and state. I find it curious that a movement by the government to provide more personal freedoms is seen by some as blurring the lines between church and state, or in this case mosque and state. On a completely different note, what do you think are the chances that the Turkish government's decision to allow these letters to be used will inspire the Hawaiian language to to expand beyond its current use of 5 vowels and 8 consonants?

Saudi Arabia - I've read this story multiple times and still cannot get my head around these guys were thinking. Saudi religious authorities are resorting to scare tactics to deter women for participating in a driving protest. Feminists are calling on Saudi women to defy the country's ban on women driving cars by getting behind the wheel on October 26. In addition to shutting down the campaign's website and Facebook page, religious officials are warning that driving hurts women's child bearing prospects. Prominent clerics say that driving "affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upward resulting in children with clinical problems of varying degrees."  Saudi women must shroud their faces and bodies entirely in public and many not travel without a male companion. When I think of scare tactics, the first thing that comes to mind is violence. In fact, none of the things that I can think of come remotely close to the absurdity of what these officials are saying. One questions the logic of such a ploy. Think about it. The women who are likely to participate in this protest are probably somewhat progressive thinking. I doubt such nonsense, even if it comes from "prominent clerics," will have any significant influence on these women.

Arctic - The Northwest Passage is open for trade.  Carrying a heavy load of coal the Nordic Orion became the first large cargo vessel to transport goods through the Arctic from Vancouver to Finland. The ship can carry 25% more coal on the Arctic route than it could if it had to pass through the shallow Panama Canal, and the route - more than 1,000 nautical miles shorter - saves 4 days. Global warming has made the passage possible. Cause for celebration? I find it ironic that the example cited, involves one of the materials most responsible for global warming in the first place.

Potpourri

• Life Expectancy - According to the Department of Health and Human Services, over the last 30 years, the difference in life expectancy between the poorest and richest 10% of Americans has grown. The richest 10% live more than 4.5 years longer than the poorest 10%. Lovely. Not only is the wealth gap getting wider, but now those greedy bastards have even more time to rub our noses in it.
• Fast Food - McDonald's posted its slowest ever drive-through times, an average of 189.5 seconds, more than 9 seconds longer than the industry average. The slowdown is attributed to increasingly complex recipes for fast food. Mind you, that complex doesn't necessarily mean the food tastes better, and it certainly doesn't mean that the food will be any healthier. On the contrary. My guess is that it takes longer to pack all those extra calories into the food.
• Profit - Computer maker Apple's 2012 profits outpaced the combined net profits of Coca-Cola, Google and IBM.  The company's cash reserves of $147 billion accounts for 10% of all non-financial corporate cash in the United States. I wonder what the life expectancy for Apple executives is?