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Articles Posted by Mike Darancette

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  • WWWWD

    09/30/2013 1:57:13 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 35 replies
    Huge Vanity | 9/30/13 | Me
    Given this whole shutdown BS What Would Walter White Do?
  • Is This a Hospital or a Hotel?

    09/22/2013 2:32:51 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 23 replies
    New York Times ^ | 9/21/2013 | Elisabeth Rosenthal
    As the new St. Joseph’s Hospital in Highland, Ill., prepared to open in August, its chief executive exulted, “You feel like you could be at the Marriott.” In the $63 million community hospital, patients all enjoy private rooms, with couches, flat-screen TVs and views of nature. Its lobby features stone fireplaces and a waterfall. Some hospitals in the United States, like Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, have long been associated with deluxe accommodations, and others have always had suites for V.I.P.’s. But today even many smaller hospitals often offer general amenities, like room service and nail salons, more often associated with...
  • Dinosaur Feathers Discovered in Canadian Amber

    09/16/2013 10:35:49 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 57 replies
    io9 ^ | 9/15/2013 | Analee Newitz
    Pictures of Dinofuzz at Source.
  • Laissez-faire: the political philosophy of civilization

    08/25/2013 11:14:08 AM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 5 replies
    Laissez-faire Institute ^ | August 22, 2013 | Jan Krepelka
    Dear friends, Today I'd like to make a few points that concern not so much what we believe in, but how we think about it, how we present it, and how we fight for it. It starts from a simple question: Introduction: Why don't you like the State? People often ask me, why are you against the State, what has the State done to you, personnally? Is it so terrible not be allowed to trade legally in drugs, or to pay a little money in taxes? Well, yes, it is terrible, those are crimes committed against me. But there's much...
  • The Inside Story of How the White House Let Diplomacy Fail in Afghanistan

    03/03/2013 8:56:53 PM PST · by Mike Darancette · 18 replies
    Forign Policy ^ | March 3, 2013 | VALI NASR
    "My time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience." It was close to midnight on Jan. 20, 2009, and I was about to go to sleep when my iPhone beeped. There was a new text message. It was from Richard Holbrooke. It said, "Are you up, can you talk?" When I called, he told me that Barack Obama had asked him to serve as envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He would work out of the State Department, and he wanted me to join his team. "No one knows this yet. Don't tell anyone. Well, maybe...
  • Best TV Music Score

    01/26/2013 11:15:54 PM PST · by Mike Darancette · 197 replies
    Oh the Huge Vanity | 1/26/2013 | Me
    No Politics here. What were the best music score for a TV Show/Series? I'll go first Victory at Sea Cosmos The Civil War Memphis Beat
  • Big Band Music

    01/26/2013 8:30:00 AM PST · by Mike Darancette · 6 replies
    Swinging tears ^ | 1/26/2013 | Swinging Years
    4 Hours of big band Music every Saturday & Sunday 6:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific time.
  • Eyeless Shrimp and Mutant Fish Raise Concerns Over BP Spill Effects

    04/29/2012 12:28:00 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 51 replies
    Fox Houston ^ | 4/18/2012 | MYFox Houston
    (NewsCore) - Eyeless shrimp, fish with oozing sores and other mutant creatures found in the Gulf of Mexico are raising concerns over lingering effects of the BP oil spill. On April 20, 2010, an explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and spewed an estimated 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf, in the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Two years later, scientists and commercial fishers alike are finding shrimp, crab and fish that they believe have been deformed by the chemicals unleashed in the spill, according to an extensive report by Al Jazeera English.
  • U.S. ban sought on cell phone use while driving

    04/27/2012 6:29:13 AM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 57 replies
    Rooters ^ | 4/26/2012 | Rooters
    SAN ANTONIO, April 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on Thursday for a federal law to ban talking on a cell phone or texting while driving any type of vehicle on any road in the country. Tough federal legislation is the only way to deal with what he called a "national epidemic," he said at a distracted-driving summit in San Antonio, Texas, that drew doctors, advocates and government officials.
  • How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

    02/10/2012 3:28:07 PM PST · by Mike Darancette · 30 replies
    The Atlantic ^ | Feb 2012 | Kathleen McAuliffe
    Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.
  • China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases ......

    11/09/2011 12:44:23 PM PST · by Mike Darancette · 16 replies
    Market Watch ^ | 11/08/11 | Market Watch
    , Nov. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In the run-up to the international climate negotiations in Durban later this month, China has responded to efforts to ban the trading of widely discredited HFC-23 offsets by threatening to release huge amounts of the potent industrial chemical into the atmosphere unless other nations pay what amounts to a climate ransom. China's threat comes after the European Union and other nations moved to ban HFC-23 credits from internal carbon markets in recognition of the perverse incentives created by these credits under the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The vast amounts paid for...
  • (Don't Ask Don't ..... Well)

    07/15/2011 10:41:58 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 19 replies
    Fox News ^ | 7/15/11 | FOX News
    In response to a request from the Obama administration, a federal appeals court is allowing the military to temporarily continue its "don't ask, don't tell" policy for openly gay service members.
  • US crime figures: Why the drop?

    06/22/2011 2:42:44 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 49 replies
    BBC ^ | 6/20/11 | Tom Geoghegan
    For 20 years, crime in the US has been falling and new figures from the FBI show a sharp drop in the last two years, despite the recession. Why?
  • In-N-Out Burgers vs. Five Guys

    04/08/2011 9:32:29 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 264 replies
    Me | 4/8/11 | Oh, the huge vanity
    5 guys just moved into town which is better In-N-Out Burgers or Five Guys? From what I hear 5 Guys is better but for fries, shakes, burger taste and prices. What say you all.
  • The U.S. denied any responsibility

    03/20/2011 6:50:06 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 73 replies
    FNC ^ | 3/20/2011 | Fox News
    Just Heeadline. The 4-story compound in downtown Tripoli that was home to Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi was demolished by missile attacks, according to reporters near the area. The U.S. denied any responsibility.
  • Final Inspection

    11/11/2010 2:32:54 PM PST · by Mike Darancette · 14 replies
    Vanity | 11/11/10 | Unknown
    THE FINAL INSPECTION The soldier stood and faced God, Which must always come to pass. He hoped his shoes were shining, Just as brightly as his brass. 'Step forward now, you soldier, How shall I deal with you ? Have you always turned the other cheek ? To My Church have you been true?' The soldier squared his shoulders and said, 'No, Lord, I guess I ain't. Because those of us who carry guns, Can't always be a saint. I've had to work most Sundays, And at times my talk was tough. And sometimes I've been violent, Because the world...
  • Study shakes up scientists' view of San Andreas earthquake risk

    08/21/2010 7:36:06 AM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 42 replies
    LA Times ^ | 8/21/2010 | Rong-Gong Lin II
    Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released Friday. The study, produced after several years of field studies in the Carrizo Plain area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, found that earthquakes along the San Andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed. For years, scientists have said major earthquakes occurred every 250 to 450 years along this part of the San Andreas. The new study found big temblors on the fault every 88 years, on average
  • Great Governor

    08/08/2010 6:51:03 AM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 8 replies
    From e-mail | 8/8/10 | Vanity
    Subject: Great Governor Got to love the governor of Arizona. She certainly has a backbone. The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes AZ's new immigration laws. Arizona's Governor, *Jan Brewer*, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law: "What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected....
  • BP, scientists try to make sense of well puzzle

    07/16/2010 3:58:37 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 29 replies
    AP ^ | 7/16/10 | AP
    NEW ORLEANS — In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers struggled to make sense of puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the sea Friday, trying to determine whether BP's capped oil well was holding tight or in danger of springing a new leak. No immediate leaks were spotted, which was encouraging. But midway through the testing period on the new temporary cap that was bottling up the crude inside the well, the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis. Allen said...
  • “Let’s make the Vets wait for care until they all die”

    05/26/2010 6:41:53 PM PDT · by Mike Darancette · 15 replies · 531+ views
    Canada Free Press ^ | Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | By Dr. Laurie Roth
    This seems to be the philosophy of the Veterans Services (VA) administration. Just recently I interviewed Dick Phenniger vstnow.org, a leading, whistle blower, former vet and business man, who has investigated health care abuse to our veterans for many years at the hands of the VA. He shared enough violations and horrors with the VA against our troops that I couldn’t help thinking about the dreaded IRS. In my view, both should be gutted and started again with an emphasis in common sense, real service and ethics. Oh…..but back to the bigger than life problem.