This year yoga lifestyle retailer lululemon gets lots of attention for promoting an Ayn Rand character on its shopping bags.
Lululemon's bag.
Ayn Rand wrote books. John Galt is in one of the books.
Image via Wikipedia
Occupy Your Yoga Pants: Lululemon’s Toxic Mix Of Commerce And Ideology
Todd Essig, Contributor | www.forbes.com | 11/21/2011
Lululemon, a company that sells high-end yoga and workout gear to people, well, people like me, really stepped in it with their new Ayn Rand tote bag. The company has shown a genuine disrespect towards customers by remaining irony-free and proudly defiant in their effort to promulgate an ideology many find repugnant, dangerous in its popularity, inconsistent with the company’s mission to date, and just plain dumb and wrong.
Just the other day, before I found out about the tote debacle, Lululemon was my first stop for an autumn running shirt suitable for a 5K charity Turkey Trot, and they had exactly what I wanted. The shirt was functionally luxurious. I was all set for Thursday; when I crossed the finish line I was going to look good and feel great.
But then I learned the company has been ginning up support for Rand’s ideology of selfish rationality: “Who is John Galt” (a character and phrase from Atlas Shrugged) is emblazoned on a new version of their hip tote bag and the company blog proudly proclaims founder Chip Wilson built Lululemon on a Rand-esque “quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness.”
“Shot-by-shot comparison of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919-1973. My love letter to Indiana Jones and the films which served as inspiration.”
Woman sees face of Jesus in sock A woman claims she can see the face of Jesus in the creases of a drying sock.
www.telegraph.co.uk | 28 Dec 2011
Sarah Crane, 38, said she was stunned when she saw a bearded man staring back at her from the laundry line.
Her boyfriend agreed the crumpled grey “holy sock” bore an uncanny likeness to the traditional image of Christ, and the couple took photographs to show their friends.
They even talked about creating a shrine to the sock but then the face was lost when they moved it.
Miss Crane, from Orpington, Kent, said: “I’d left the washing out to dry overnight – and it had probably been sitting there a bit too long when I noticed the face in the sock.
There’s fraud and then there is what these people did. Amazing they got away with it for so long.
Ex-Manhattan chiropractor living in style in Seattle?on welfare: feds?
NANCY DILLON | nydailynews.com | December 06, 2011
A former Manhattan chiropractor and his alleged wife have been living the high life in a million-dollar Seattle mansion while cashing welfare checks for the last eight years, federal authorities claim.
David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova are the subjects of a new federal lawsuit claiming they collected approximately $135,000 in housing welfare while posing as a dutiful landlord and destitute mother of two.
Investigators said contrary to their filings with welfare officials, the husband and wife have fat bank accounts, own a black Jaguar XJR4D and jet away to week-long vacations in Mexico, Paris, Israel, Turkey and the Dominican Republic.
According to a complaint filed Friday, the couple claimed they were not married, that Shimonova lived alone with her two children and that Silverstein lived at his office address.
Mr Henderson’s story is sad and scary. Hopefully Dinklage’s shout out on a global awards telecast can help others avoid a similar fate.
Peter Dinklage and Martin Henderson (Pic: Getty and SWNS)
Who is Martin Henderson? Golden Globe Winner Peter Dinklage Dedicates Award to Him [VIDEO]
By Laura Matthews | January 16, 2012 | www.ibtimes.com
When Peter Dinklage won a 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series on Sunday at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Award, the “Game of Thrones” star dedicated the award to a man name Martin Henderson.
Henderson, a fellow little person from Somerset in England, was the victim of a dwarf tossing incident that left him with serious back injuries. The BBC reported that Henderson, 37, was picked up and dropped on the ground while he was out celebrating his birthday with friends at the White Horse pub in Wincanton in October.
The attack happened when Henderson went outside for a cigarette and he told “Metro” that a drunken stranger picked him up and threw him. The toss caused Henderson to land on his back, after falling three feet, according to reports.
According to MTV News, both Dinklage and Henderson suffer from achondroplasia, which causes dwarfirsm.
Pigeons can count to at least 9. I would have guessed that like many primitive human cultures they would have counted or used numbers very simply e.g. “one, two, many.” If the pigeons, cephalapods and dolphins unite humans are in trouble.
Pigeon counting. Image William van der Vliet
Scientists Test Counting Ability of Pigeons
www.sciencenewsblog.com | December 26, 2011
Scientists at the University of Otago tested the counting ability of pigeons and found they can count up to nine. The pigeons had to compare pairs of images picturing up to nine objects and order them by lower to higher number. The pigeons received a wheat treat when they pecked the images in the correct ascending sequence.
The pigeons were initially trained with sets containing up to three objects. Pigeons were presented with 35 sets of three images, each with one, two, or three objects of different sizes, colors and shapes. Then the researchers tested to see if the pigeons could apply their knowledge learned from ordering the three images and apply it to images with larger numbers of objects. The pigeons were presented with pairs of images with between one and nine objects and tested on their ability to respond to them in ascending order. The researchers say the pigeons were successful.
The pigeons did best when there was a greater difference between the two pairs of images. Study lead author Dr Damian Scarf says that the greater the distance between the numbers in the pairs, the faster and more accurate the pigeons were.
The researchers say the tests put pigeons on par with primates. Dr. Scarf says, “Our research not only shows that pigeons are also members of this exclusive club, but, somewhat surprisingly, their performance is on a par with that of monkeys.”
The pigeons were not tested with sets greater than nine, so it is possible they can rank even higher sets of numbers in the correct ascending order. Dr. Scarf plans to next test the counting ability of kea, a New Zealand parrot species.
The pigeon counting research was published in the journal Science.
Whether you love or hate politics, you have to respect any man who dies at work, like N.J. Assemblyman Alex DeCroce recently did. Many pieces of legislation have died in the New Jersey statehouse, but Mr DeCroce may have been the first person to have done so. Condolences to his family.
Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) gestures as he speaks with Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris) (back to camera) as the Assembly session begins at the Statehouse in this 2009 file photo. DeCroce died Monday night at 75. Image TONY KURDZUK/THE STAR-LEDGER
Morris County mourns the loss of Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce
By Star-Ledger Staff | By Star-Ledger Staff January 10, 2012 | http://www.nj.com
MORRISTOWN — This morning colleagues and constituents across the state mourned the passing of Assemblyman Alex DeCroce who collapsed and died inside the Statehouse late Monday night.
DeCroce, 75, was the longest serving current assemblyman in the state and the leading Republican of the state’s lower house. He represented Morris County for 23 years and died just moments after the 214th Legislature held its final voting session.
In a statement released early this morning, Gov. Chris Christie remembered DeCroce as “one of the most kind, considerate and trustworthy people I have ever had the pleasure to know,” Christie said. “He was an enormously accomplished legislator and a tremendous servant to the people of New Jersey.”
Politicians reacted to the news on twitter sending their condolences to the late-Assemblyman’s wife and three children. Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) said in a statement posted on the website, “Alex was a true leader for the Republican caucus in the Assembly, and was loved and respected by legislators of both chambers, on both sides of the aisle….It is hard to believe we will start a new legislative session without his wit, charm, and energy.”
Not only are these huge, hermaphroditic, long living tough buggers so hungry they eat plaster and stucco they can carry meningitis bearing nematodes. This is the first time I’ve used the Florida Dept of Agriculture as a source.
Achatina fulica is originally from East Africa. Each snail can live as long as nine years. In a typical year, every mated adult lays about 1,200 eggs. Photo Credit: Andrew Derksen, Florida Cooperative Pest Survey Program
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Identifies Giant African Land Snails in Miami-Dade County
Tallahassee, FL – The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has positively identified a population of Giant African land snails (GALS) in Miami-Dade County. The Giant African land snail is one of the most damaging snails in the world because they consume at least 500 different types of plants, can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco, and can carry a parasitic nematode that can lead to meningitis in humans.
“Florida faces constant challenges from invasive pests and diseases that arrive through cargo, travelers’ luggage, air currents, and plant and animal agricultural products,” said Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. “Enlisting the help of the public in the early detection of these pests and diseases is critical to containing and ultimately eradicating them in our state.”
The Giant African land snail, Achatina fulica, is one of the largest land snails in the world, growing up to eight inches in length and more than four inches in diameter. When full grown, the snail’s brownish shell consists of seven to nine whorls (spirals) that cover at least half the length of its long and greatly swollen body whorl.
Each snail can live as long as nine years and contains both female and male reproductive organs. After a single mating session, each snail can produce 100 to 400 eggs. In a typical year, every mated adult lays about 1,200 eggs.
Get out your black cats, broken mirror, and horseshoes. Who knew there are 3 Friday the 13ths, 13 weeks apart in 2012? Um, actually, I did, but I didn’t know it was such a rarity.
Friday, January 13th is the first of 3 Friday the 13ths in 2012.
Three Friday the 13ths, 13 weeks apart, a rarity
By Wade Malcolm, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal | Friday, January 13, 2012
It’s a bad year for people who suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia — the fear of Friday the 13th.
Why? There are three this year, instead of the usual two. There was one in 2011.
That’s not all. For the first time since 1984, those three Friday the 13ths — today, April 13 and July 13 — are exactly 13 weeks apart.
Three Friday the 13ths happen every few years. The last was in 2009, and the next is 2015. What’s special about 2012 — and what won’t occur again until 2040 — is that this is happening during a leap year, says Tom Fernsler, a University of Delaware math professor who sometimes goes by the name Dr. 13.
