"Paladin" in Have Gun -- Will Travel.

Photo courtesy of Les Rayburn. Man in Black

On September 14th, 1957, a new western debuted on the CBS television network. Richard Boone played the man called "Paladin" in Have Gun -- Will Travel. The catchy title survives today, in countless incarnations in advertising and other media -- or have you never heard the phrase "Have ______, Will Travel"? Well, now you know how it was popularized. The half-hour show aired Saturday, at 9:30 p.m., just before another western, Gunsmoke, and ran for six successful seasons. (It opened as the #4 rated show for the year, then followed up with three years ranked #3.) Its dramatic opening had Paladin aiming his gun and his words directly at the audience, and the series always featured a no-nonsense approach and intelligence rarely evident on the small screen. Until recently, HGWT had seldom been seen in syndication, apparently because it was filmed in black-and-white, and because it's "tainted" by violent content. The latter rationale seems especially ludicrous, considering the graphic mayhem depicted in today's programming. Paladin killed many men, true enough -- but his victims were always deserving -- and almost none of the violence in the show was gratuitous. The best epsiodes put today's television drama to shame. http://www.hgwt.com/ 

Lingerie Football: Super Sexy or Sexist?

[image]                            

Juju Chang More from Juju »

Correspond

It is -30 C in Saskatoon.theweathernetwork.com By JUJU CHANG and ALLISON MARKOWITZ: With war paint smeared on their faces, football pads on their shoulders and garters dangling from their lace-trimmed shorts, the all-female football team known as The Chicago Bliss filed into their locker room at halftime. They were beating their Midwest rivals, the Green Bay Chill, but their coach was not at all pleased with how they were playing.

"Get your s--- together, that girl is kicking your f---ing ass," he yelled at one of the players.

Welcome to the Legends Football League, where ladies dressed in nothing but a bra, booty shorts and a hockey helmet play seven-on-seven football -- ground-stomping, body-bruising football.

In short, these ladies are no powder puffs -- but is the sport super sexy or just plain sexist?

With 12 all-female teams participating in two conferences, Eastern and Western, LFL promoters say this is the fastest growing pro-sports franchise in the country. The ladies fill arenas with all sorts of fans, drawing them in with shameless sex appeal and hoping they will stay to appreciate the athleticism...Read here...

Juju Chang More from Juju »

Correspondent

via Nightline

Breaking News from ABC | ABC Sports News 

Related: vancouversun.com. Photos Canadian Lingerie Football League

An early winter from Cosma Beny on Vimeo.

An early winter from Cosma Beny on Vimeo.
Everything that's born has to die..just to be reborn again. It's amazing how a tree in the middle of the winter cold, covered up with snow, has the power to bloom again in the spring. Just like that, in all of our lives, at one point there will be a terrible winter, an obstacle that seems imposible to overcome, but in all of us there is strength, there is faith, there is summmer.
We made this video at the end of this Octobre, in Germany. Actually this is the first snow of this year and we thought that
such an ocasion deserves a video. We just you guys you'll like it.

Filmed & Edited by Beny Cosma

Canon 7D
Lens: 28 mm f/2.8
50 mm f/1.8

Filmed full hd

Music: Roy Todd - Twillight
www.benycosma.com

Remembering Harry Nilsson

The legacy of Harry Nilsson

Deschooling America, and the world, over Israel

by Michael Curtis: 

Everyone concerned with genuine education must be distressed that a body called the American Studies Association responds to a call from extreme anti-Israel lobbyists in almost identical language. This is anti-Semitism pure and simple.

    The disgraceful resolution of the American Studies Association (ASA) passed on December 15, 2013 honoring the call from “Palestinian civil society” to support the academic boycott of Israel has brought to the forefront a problem that ought to disturb all concerned with the educational system in the United States and elsewhere.

    Once upon a time one assumed that college faculty members were paid to address and make statements on subjects on which they had some competence. The ASA has shown that this practice is no longer the case. With the enthusiasm of short- sighted detectives the members of ASA have obeyed the call of a Palestinian lobby group to pursue an academic boycott of a country of which they have little or no scholarly knowledge.
    Moreover, that pursuit has no relevance to the supposed concerns of American Studies. Parents of students attending classes taught by the 1252 of the eligible 3853 members who voted for the resolution might legitimately inquire about what goes on in the learning and teaching behavior of this faculty.
    The problem is acute. Of the 18 members of the ASA National Council who voted unanimously to endorse the boycott resolution, none appears to have any connection with Middle East studies. At least seven appear to have gender studies and sexual politics as a major, or one of their major, interests. The others state their primary research interests are race, film, “imperialism,” and Hawaiian and Latino cultural studies.
    At their 2013 convention the ASA National Council and a third of the ASA membership members by their vote showed they were concerned with issues completely outside of  their stated scholarly interests and intellectual competencies. The National Council endorsed and recommended panels on “Palestine in crisis,” and “Academic Freedom and the Right to Education: the Question of Palestine.”
    At the convention, eight sessions were devoted to something called “Middle East American Studies,” (a seemingly ludicrous and non-existent form of enquiry), another four on “United States/Israel/Palestine,” another two on “settler colonialism that discussed the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” and yet another on “Boycott as a non-Violent Strategy of Collective Dissent.”
    What did any of these have to do with American Studies or the contributions of Americans to literature, art, science, and culture.
    However, over eight days the members of ASA, none of whom has apparently taught a course on the politics, economics, and culture of the State of Israel, or on the history of the Middle East, attended these sessions and eventually passed the boycott resolution against Israel.
    It is important to note that the ASA boycott follows the call, if not the exact words of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
    This Campaign, started in 2004, is a remarkable demonstration of the Palestinian Narrative of Victimhood with its half-truths and falsehoods. Referring to the democratic State of Israel, and ignoring the increasing visibility and role of Israel Arabs in Israeli life, including the many Arabs who attend Israeli universities, it speaks of the “entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa.”
    In addition to the offensiveness and inaccuracy of this assertion, the Campaign called for no participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.
Everyone concerned with educational issues must be distressed that a body called the American Studies Association responds to a call from a foreign lobbying body in almost identical language and what can only be regarded as an obsequious tone. Since the members who voted for boycott have shown no interest in issuing statements relating to any of the other 192 countries in the world, what can be their motive in passing this resolution against Israel?
    It is not unfair to wonder if the ASA has become infected by the virus of antisemitism.
The academic servility continues. It has now been announced by Chadwick Allen,  professor at  Ohio State University and president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), a group with 747 members, that the association has decided to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
    He states that the association will support the boycott that  “was initiated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.”
    Again, an academic group is taking a stand while in total ignorance of the reality of life in Israel and areas occupied by the Palestinians. They appear unaware of Israeli basic principles such as protection of free speech and assembly, rights that extend to the Arab population in Israel as they do to everyone else.
   Instead, the NAISA speaks of the “legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinian and other indigenous peoples.”
    Apparently, and incomprehensibly for an Association supposedly concerned with indigenous studies, it is unaware that the only “indigenous peoples” in the area are Jews.
    There appear to be further attacks on Israel coming in the near future. The convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA) is to be held in Chicago in January 2014. A panel there will be on “Academic Boycotts: a Conversation about Israel and Palestine.” The “conversation” will apparently be a one-sided one, a dialogue of the committed anti-Israelis.
    On the panel will be Omar Barghouti, a leading advocate of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, David Lloyd , professor of Irish Studies and a founding member of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel,  Barbara Harlow of Texas University who has already endorsed the boycott, and Richard Ohmann of Wesleyan University who states that “our taxes have for years supported Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing.”
Ironically, Barghouti, the boycott leader, has been listed for some time as a doctoral student at Tel Aviv University. Did he and the others on the panel know that Israeli Arab students at Tel Aviv University had recently hosted a Nakba (catastrophe) ceremony on the campus?
    It is unlikely the panel will discuss the way in which freedom of speech and assembly in Israeli universities extend to dissenting individuals and groups.
    The subservience to a foreign lobbying group by academics is a betrayal of their supposed commitment to independent intellectual inquiry and is depressing in itself. It is also a reminder of the pressure in recent years exerted on those unwilling to be deferential to the Palestinians or to accept the fallacious Palestinian Narrative of Victimhood.
    Fortunately, there are courageous cultural personalities who have resisted the pressure of Palestinians and anti-Israelis.  Given the proposed action of NAISA the demonstration of courage a year ago by Joy Harjo, the 61 year old poet and feminist writer of Cherokee descent and member of the Muscogee or Mvskoke (Creek) Nation in refusing to tow the critical line is particularly compelling and noteworthy.
She had been invited and accepted the invitation in December 2012 to read her poetry at Tel Aviv University, where she had appeared twenty years earlier, an occasion she remembered with great fondness. She also expressed her opposition to the cultural boycott of Israel.
    Harjo was immediately bombarded with messages to change her mind and decline the invitation which she refused to do. The wheel has come full circle. One of the messages to her came from a member of the board of the American Studies Association, one from the Electronic Intifada, and, most significantly, one from Robert Warrior, of the University of Illinois and founding president of the NAISA, who has openly called for boycott of Israel a number of times.
    In defying the pressure of the uninformed critics of Israel and going to perform at Tel Aviv University, Joy Harjo was a profile in courage. Appropriately, she performed “I Give it Back: A Poem to get Rid of Fear.”
    Will the members of the MLA and the 62,000 members of the American Library Association who will be attending its forthcoming convention also get rid of fear and show the same courage as Joy Harjo in refusing to yield to pressure coming from a foreign body?
    The vital question is whether academics in the United States, and in European countries, are surrendering their intellectual standards under the hypnotic spell of the fallacious Palestinian narrative of victimhood.http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4489/deschooling_america_and_the_world_over_israel

There’s One Surprising Thing Captured In This Picture That Would Terrify Any Parent

by Oliver Darcy

A woman snapped a photo which appears to show a shark swimming just feet away from her child and his friend. (Image source: @KTLA)

A California woman made a starling discovery when reviewing family photos she had snapped during a recent trip to Manhattan Beach on Friday.

One of the images shows her 12-year-old son and his friend paddling ahead of a breaking wave on their surfboards, with one extra element in the background — an animal appearing to be a shark swimming just feet away from the children. “Many local surfers and lifeguards have seen this and believe it to be a shark,” she added to KTLA-TV. “Of course, I told my kids it was dolphin, as we live at the beach and are in the waters here almost daily.”http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/29/theres-one-surprising-thing-captured-in-this-picture-that-would-terrify-any-parent/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=ShareButtons

"They Call The Wind Maria" from Dr. Marian Mustoe

"Paint Your Wagon" Movie Site

They Call The Wind Maria from Dr. Marian Mustoe on Vimeo.
Maria.....or Mariah....The song from the film "Paint Your Wagon" filmed in Baker County Oregon, is the aural backdrop for these images compiled from the Elkhorns and Blues to the blue water sea wall of the Pacific coast along the Oregon and Lewis and Clark Trail.

On 26 March 1806 Meriwether Lewis states in his log "The wind blew so hard this morning that we delayed until 8 A.M." Numerous times they, like the pioneers who followed, would encounter and chronicle this persistent force that native groups had describe with a variety of terms that alluded to its speed, its direction and even its temperament.

The Oregon Trail is mostly gone these days, paved over by roads and "all that we call the progress of civilization". Ezra Meeker's attempt to preserve and idolize this veritable human scratch of endeavor left on the lithosphere is well understood. However, with or without congressional appropriations, there is one thing of the trail that remains as fresh today as it was in the days of the birth of the legend of the Thunderbird.

Bring Martha S. Reed into the present, who wrote in her diary, as her family worked their way up the Blue Mountains along the trail....in 1852....
"Saw 3 graves today,....weather cool and 'tremendous' windy".....and she would not doubt, except in some cases recognize much of the landscape along that route of human toil. But one thing she would recognize... that hasn't changed one aeolian iota.....she would recognize it's wind.

Maria is one of my favorite songs. I hope you enjoy my rendition of it on my 12 string guitar(s) and through the magic of my Tascam porta-studio.....at the same digital time... my trusty old saw. Thank you for listening.
Paint Your Wagon Lee Marvin Oregon Oregon Trail Gold Rush Mariah Maria Northeast Oregon Baker City La Grande Eastern Oregon University Geography time lapse
Photography: Panasonic TM300 and Sanyo Xacti HD

The Richest People In The World: 1,426 In The Billionaires' Circle

Forbes: The names, numbers and stories behind the men and women who control the global economy. forbes.com

In Pictures: The World's Richest People forbes.com

Reading a novel triggers lasting changes in the brain

After performing fMRI scans, researchers found that reading a novel causes lasting effects in regions of the brain responsible for language receptivity and for making sensory representations of the body.

Written by Marie Ellis:
Lovers of literature can rejoice: a new study combines the humanities and neuroscience to take a look at what effects reading a novel can have on the brain. Researchers say exploring a book can not only change your perspective, but also it can change your mind - at least for a few days.
The researchers, from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, published their findings in the journal Brain Connectivity.
Neuroscientist Gregory Berns, lead author and director of Emory's Center for Neuropolicy, says:
"Stories shape our lives and in some cases help define a person. We want to understand how stories get into your brain, and what they do to it."
To investigate the inner workings of the novel-reading mind, the researchers recruited 21 undergraduates from Emory, who were instructed to read a thriller written by Robert Harris in 2003, titled Pompeii...Read complete article here...

Media Reacts: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten

Say "What" Again!!!http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-highlight-media-reacts-admit-it

36 Crazy Things That Only Happen In China

Mamta Badkar: A half-naked participant wears a gas mask as he takes part in the second "Guangzhu (naked) Run" on a winter morning at the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing, February 24, 2013.

REUTERS/China Daily

        Over the past decade China saw rapid economic expansion. But its growth model and controversial politics have not come without their fair share of problems.
        Rising property prices, rising food prices, restrictions on investment, an emphasis on speed over safety, and lax environmental standards have led to some truly unique and sometimes crazy situations in China.
        Rich people build mountain villas on top of apartment buildings, local governments incentivize burials at sea, and people are pour their money into everything from walnuts to cockroach farms...36 crazy things that only happen in China.

"Nowhere Man" the Beatles

"Nowhere Man" rescued at sea The Beatles on Twitter

Army laser takes out mortar rounds, drones (video)

[image]

By Leada Gore | lgore@al.com: A U.S. Army high-energy laser was used to destroy more than 90 mortar rounds and several drones in first-of-its kind testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command, based at Redstone Arsenal, used a vehicle mounted high energy laser to destroy the mortar rounds and several unmanned aerial vehicles in flight...Read more...

Dog that survived gassing headed to Rose Parade

JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILEDaniel, right, better known as the Miracle Dog, gives his paw to Jill Pavlik in October 2011 at her home in Rochelle Park, N.J., where he was being fostered upon his arrival in the state. The stray beagle mix will be among eight shelter dogs riding on a float in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year's Day. JULIO CORTEZ — AP

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/12/26/5219037/dog-that-survived-gassing-headed.html#storylink=cpy

By SAMANTHA HENRY

Associated Press:

. . NEWARK, N.J. -- Things are coming up roses for a scrappy New Jersey beagle who survived a dog pound gas chamber.
Daniel will be among eight shelter dogs riding on a float in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Calif.
The 2-year-old beagle mix was 6 months old on Oct. 3, 2011, when he was scheduled to be put down at the animal control facility in Florence, Ala. He was placed with 17 other dogs in a stainless-steel box roughly the size of a pickup truck bed that was filled with carbon monoxide.
Workers at the facility were surprised when he emerged, scared but unscathed, from the chamber. They named him Daniel after the biblical figure who survived the lion's den.
He was adopted by Joe Dwyer of Nutley, N.J., and has been living happily with Dwyer's family and other rescue dogs at their home about 10 miles west of New York City.
Dwyer, a motivational speaker, said Daniel's story of surviving and thriving has prompted laws in 31 states that protect shelter animals against inhumane forms of euthanasia.
Daniel will perform his "high five to keep pets alive" trick and perform with other animal shelter survivors on a parade float sponsored by the Lucy Pet Foundation, which runs mobile spay, neuter and adoption clinics across the country. Daniel has been chosen as the "spokesdog" for the California-based organization, Dwyer added.
"He's definitely one of the most joyous, happy dogs I've ever met in my life," Dwyer said. "I think hurvived." http://www.sunherald.com/2013/12/26/5219037/dog-that-survived-gassing-headed.html

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/12/26/5219037/dog-that-survived-gassing-headed.html#storylink=cpy

Related: Rose Parade on Twitter

Duck Dynasty Star's Latest Supporter: Alabama Senator - Update

This undated image released by A&E shows Phil Robertson from the popular series "Duck Dynasty."
(AP Photo/A&E,)

Duck Dynasty Star's Latest Supporter: Alabama Senator

GLAAD and IStandWithPhil.com issue statements after the network says the reality patriarch -- whose anti-gay remarks prompted an "indefinite hiatus" for the star -- will remain on the series. Read here.

Las Vegas singer finds her voice 50 years after writing Christmas song - Las Vegas Review-Journal

By KIMBER LAUX klaux@reviewjournal.com
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

This Christmas, an 82-year-old Las Vegas woman is giving family and friends the gift of song.
Helen Goldsbury recently recorded a Christmas song she wrote more than 50 years ago. She performed her song, “Christmas is Just Around the Corner,” for the first time at Lighthouse for the Blind in 1960. The Christmas benefit boasted sets from star musicians such as Duke Ellington.
Goldsbury had severe stage fright and never performed again.
“I had never sung in public before,” Goldsbury said. “My knees were shaking so bad.”
According to Goldsbury, the director of the event approached her after the show and asked if she would like to perform on his television program.
Goldsbury’s husband-to-be at the time didn’t like the idea of her becoming an entertainer. His lack of enthusiasm and her fear of performing for an audience prompted Goldsbury to decline the offer.
Goldsbury’s son, who is also musically inclined, had been listening to his mom sing the tune with her sister Kitty nearly his entire life.
Tommy Goldsbury, 50, recalls his mother approaching him about recording her song saying, “I might not be here next year.”
“Sometimes you let life get away from you,” Tommy Goldsbury said. “She just put her foot down and said that’s it.”
Helen Goldsbury’s song recalls holiday traditions like lighting the Christmas tree for the whole neighborhood to see and anxiously awaiting Santa’s arrival.
After she submitted a recording of the song to Dot Records, Goldsbury said, a spokesperson for the label told her “the song is nice and your voice is good, but Bing Crosby has the Christmas market sewn up.”
“The song is infectious,” Tommy Goldsbury said. “It’s not marginal; it’s exceptional.”
Although Goldsbury’s family and acquaintances sang the praises of her work the kind words weren’t enough to help her overcome anxiety about performing in public.
“I always felt it wasn’t meant to be,” Helen Goldsbury said. “I was such a scaredy cat; it’s like your brain just freezes.”
Even when her son turned on the video camera just days ago, Helen Goldsbury said, the nerves returned. “As soon as he started filming me I would freeze up and forget the words.”
Her nerves do not translate in the finished product, however. Goldsbury’s warm voice, accompanied by her son’s guitar, captures the joy of Christmastime.
“I don’t have half the wind I used to have,” Goldsbury said. “I’m amazed it came out as good as it did.”
Helen Goldsbury said her daughter and grandson in Florida, her granddaughter in New York, and her son, Tommy, are all very excited that she’s finally chasing her dream.
“She’s on top of the world right now,” Tommy Goldsbury says. “She’s excited for people to hear the song.”
Tommy Goldsbury says he would like to make recordings of a few more of his mother’s songs, which he is sure will turn out just as great as her first.
Helen Goldsbury would like to be an example to others who have put off pursuing their passions. “You’re never too old, and it’s never too late to fulfill a dream.” http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas-singer-finds-her-voice-50-years-after-writing-christmas-song

Gayla Peevey ''I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas "

[image]last.fm/music. Gayla Peevey

How to Catch a Really, Really Big Fish

(Reuters/Bruno Kelly)

AUTHOR: Emily Levy

It's called the arapaima, or pirarucu. It lives in the Amazon River. It's enormous

In the heart of Brazil lies a lusciously green nature reserve where men in canoes club supersize fish with wooden bats, then lug them back to their homes to eat and trade.
It’s all part of arapaima fishing season, the few months when Amazonian communities in the Mamiraua nature reserve devote their lives to hunting arapaima, the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish. The fish, known locally as pirarucu, has the face of a piranha and the body of a torpedo...Read here, more photos...

‘If I lost her, I’d probably just die’: B.C. woman allowed to keep her domesticated pet deer, Bimbo

Canadian Press

Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press Bimbo looks out the window of the family home near Ucluelet, B.C. on Friday.
In a deer drama worthy of the emotions stirred by Bambi, a Vancouver Island woman will be permitted to keep the domesticated doe she calls Bimbo.
Janet Schwartz, 69, was relieved Friday when told by a reporter that the Ministry of Environment has backed off a suggestion the deer be removed from her house.
“It makes me feel good,” she said of the decision. “She is my life, OK, and I’ve had her since the day she was born.”
She said the animal, named after a Gene Autry song, was orphaned in the spring about 10 years ago and has been with her ever since...Continue reading, more photos...

Native American academics join boycott of Israeli universities.

Photo by Dreamstime [image]

Posted on December 18, 2013 by JNS.org.

(JNS.org) The council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) called for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, mirroring the recent move by the American Studies Association.
“As the elected council of an international community of Indigenous and allied non-Indigenous scholars, students, and public intellectuals who have studied and resisted the colonization and domination of Indigenous lands via settler state structures throughout the world, we strongly protest the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the legal structures of the Israeli state that systematically discriminate against Palestinians and other Indigenous peoples,” read a Dec. 15 declaration by the NAISA.

The NAISA declaration ignores the fact that Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel.

“By attempting to portray the Palestinians as the ‘indigenous people’ of the territory on which the State of Israel and the administered territories exist and the Jews as the colonial settlers, they are perpetrating the big lie of Palestinian history,” wrote Jonathan Tobin, senior online editor of Commentary magazine. “Jews are not foreigners in Israel as Europeans were in Africa. They happen to be the indigenous people of their ancient homeland and efforts to deny this isn’t scholarship. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and those who would deny them the same rights accorded other peoples are practicing bias, not scholarship.”  http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2013/12/18/native-american-academics-call-for-boycott-of-israel-ignore-jewish-connection-to-land

Indigenous? Native American Studies and Big Lies About Israel by Jonathan S. Tobin

...There can be honest disagreement and debate about Israel’s policies in the territories, settlements, and borders. But by extending their argument to all of pre-1967 Israel as well as by smearing the Jews as colonists in their own country, the Native American studies group forfeits its credibility. Rather than being seen as the cutting edge of enlightened opinion, their support for BDS should mark them as a pack of incorrigible haters who should be treated with the same disdain and isolation that they would like to dish out to Israelis. Read complete commentary here.

Muslim Restaurant Workers awarded $100,000

By Allison Geller, Wed, December 18, 2013

Three Muslim people working at an Ontario restaurant were awarded $100,000 Canadian for discriminatory treatment on the part of their employers. The employees reported being mocked, threatened, and intimidated into eating pork.
The Toronto Star reported that the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario investigated the employees’ claims and came out with an 80-page report asserting that they had been the victims of discrimination, stating the restaurant owners “made the workplace intolerable for each of the applicants.”
The three men were fired after taking up their complaints with the restaurant’s owners.
The newspaper called Le Papillon on Park in Leslieville a “popular restaurant.” It reported that the three employees had worked there for several years. Abdul Malik, the head chef, began as a dishwasher in 1995.
The trouble began when the restaurant’s management changed hands. After a partnership split in 2009, Paul and Danielle Bigue moved the restaurant, formerly just called Le Papillon, to a new location.
The defendants stated that Danielle Bigue mocked them for speaking Bengali and forced them to eat pork, which is against the Muslim religion.
Malik said Bigue raised her voice at him when he refused to try pork schnitzel that was offered on the menu, explaining that it was against his religion. Afraid to lose his job, he tried to pork. He said that he vomited right after and that the incident deeply traumatized him.
Mohammed Islam, a cook, also said that Bigue asked him to try a dish made with pork. Bigue said “you’re crazy people” and left the kitchen when he said he could not.
Bigue also made a comment about “cleaning Bengali sh-t from the kitchen even if I have to close for weeks to hire new staff” when she heard the workers, one of whom is not fluent in English, speaking Bengali.
Bigue denied using offensive language or asking her Muslim employees to eat pork.
"This was the hardest thing I have had to face since becoming Canadian," Malik said of the decision. "I hope I can put this nightmare behind me and focus on my family."
$100,000 Canadian is about $94,000 American. The owners were also ordered to take human rights training and post Human Rights Code cards in the restaurant kitchen. Read here.

'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson suspended from show after equating homosexuality with bestiality. [update]

Jeff Reidel/GQ

‘Duck Dynasty’ star Phil Robertson took aim at homosexuality in an interview with GQ. Equating same sex relationships to bestiality, he called homosexuality ‘not logical’ — and was subsequently suspended from the reality show by A&E Networks.

By Ethan Sacks AND Don Kaplan  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, 67, has been suspended from the reality program following shocking remarks he made in the latest edition of GQ magazine.
In an interview in the January issue of GQ, the 67-year-old reality television star and darling of the political right equated same-sex relationships with bestiality.

"It seems like, to me, a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man's anus, that's just me," the reality star said.
"I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical."...Continue reading...                                See also:1. religiousfreedomcoalition.org                                                                                                                                                                   2.truthrevolt.org/petition/stop-aes-anti-religious-bigotry

George Jones "New Baby For Christmas"

[image]georgejones.com/home/

Cat and mouse: Feline appetite for little critters helped tame its wild ancestors, study says

FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 file photo, a man holds up his pet cat during a cat show in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. In a report released Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, scientists say they've caught cats in the act of going through a key stage in domestication, with the evidence in 5,300-year-old bones from China. The Chinese animals are not the ancestors of today's housecats, whose family tree reaches back to domestication in the Near East instead. But the work gives support for the leading theory of just how wild animals took the first steps toward becoming our familiar pets. (AP Photo, File)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   By MALCOLM RITTER  AP Science Writer: NEW YORK —                                                                        A cat-and-mouse game played out in a Chinese village some 5,300 years ago is helping scientists understand how wild felines transformed into the tame pets we know today.
In fact, it was the cat's appetite that started it down the path to domestication, scientists believe. The grain stored by ancient farmers was a magnet for rodents. And that drew wild cats into villages to hunt the little critters. Over time, wild cats adapted to village life and became tamer around their human hosts.
            That's the leading theory, anyway, for how wild cats long ago were transformed and became ancestors of today's house cats. That happened in the Middle East, rather than China. But bones from the Chinese village back up the idea that felines took on the pest-control job in ancient times, says researcher Fiona Marshall of Washington University in St. Louis.
            Marshall is an author of a report on the fossil research, published online Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The study, focused on an agricultural village in northern China, comes from a poorly understood time in the history of cats. The first evidence of domesticated cats comes much later, in Egyptian artwork from about 4,000 years ago.
            So what went on in that village?
             Researchers found signs that rodents were threatening the village grain supply. Storage vessels were designed to keep them out, and rodents had burrowed into a grain-storage pit.

In the ancient feline bones, chemical signatures indicated that the cats had eaten animals that in turn had fed on millet, a grain crop known to be harvested by the villagers. So apparently, the cats were indeed going after the rodents.

            It's not yet clear whether the cats were from a local wild population, or were already domesticated and had been brought in from elsewhere, Marshall said. Either way, it shows that ancient cats filled the niche at the heart of the hypothesis about how domestication began, she said.
             Greger Larson of Durham University in England called the new work "an important step forward." Few studies have focused on how cats became domesticated, in contrast to dogs, pigs and sheep, he said.Read here.

As many as 100 Canadians could be fighting in Syria against Assad regime, think tank says

Image by NationalPost.

Up to 100 Canadians are now fighting in Syria, a British think tank estimated in a study Tuesday that reported a “steep rise” in the number of foreigners who had taken up arms to overthrow the Assad regime.
Foreign fighters from 74 countries including Canada have joined the armed opposition, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation said. Their ranks have doubled since April to as many as 11,000.
Anywhere between 9 and 100 are Canadians, it said. Because of the difficulties in tracking foreign fighters, the report provided ranges rather than exact numbers. Its estimates were based on 1,500 sources...Continue reading...

Blind man, guide dog run over by subway and live

By Kevin Fasick, Daniel Prendergast and Rebecca Harshbarger.  December 17, 2013

Cecil Williams pets Orlando in his hospital bed on Tuesday after his fall. Photo: AP A brave seeing-eye dog loyally leaped to the subway tracks when his owner tumbled off a Harlem platform Wednesday — and they both survived getting run over by a train, according to witnesses.
Cecil Williams, 60, was heading to the dentist when he felt faint about 9:30 a.m. on the uptown A train platform.
His guide dog, a black labrador named Orlando, was trained to keep him from going over the edge — and tried to hold him up. The dog was barking and trying to pull him , but Williams fell, according to witnesses.
Matthew Martin, 54, said that the dog never hesitated...Continue reading, photos...

Lotto Max winner Tom Crist giving away entire $40-million jackpot to charity

Western Canadian Lottery CorporationLotto Max winner Tom Crist will give away $40-million in prize winnings.

Canadian Press and National Post Staff:
CALGARY — A Calgary man who won $40 million says he will donate it all to charity.
Tom Crist was the winner of the Lotto Max jackpot on May 3.
“Cancer is a big one because my wife passed away from cancer, two years ago in February,” Crist said Monday.
“I just retired at the end of September so I was fortunate enough in my career to set myself up and my kids anyway, and there was no doubt in my mind where that money was going to go, it was going to go to charity.”...Continue reading...

SLyme Disease by Amy Tan. "How a speck changed my life forever.''

topdocumentaryfilms

by Amy Tan: I used to brag that I never got sick. I rarely came down with colds or the flu. I had health insurance for catastrophic illness and only used it once, for surgical repair of a broken leg, the result of heli-skiing, the sport of a vigorous and fearless person.
But in 1999, all that changed. I learned what it is like to have a disease with no diagnosis, to be baffled by what insurance covers and what it does not, and to have a mind that can’t think fast enough to know whether a red traffic light means to press on the gas or hit the brakes. I have late-stage neuroborreliosis, otherwise known as Lyme Disease. The neurological part reflects the fact that the bacteria, a spirochete called borrelia burgdorferi, has gone into my brain.
My case is in many ways typical. Like many, I had little awareness of Lyme disease. I did not think about Lyme because I live in California, at least that’s where I file my taxes. For a good long while, it did not seem significant to me or to others that I also have a home in New York and that I spent weekends in upstate New York. Then again, one does not need to live on the east coast to get Lyme. You can go hiking in the woodlands of Mendocino, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and the Sierra foothills, just to name a few hiking spots Lyme ticks and I are fond of.
But my particular interloper found me at an outdoor wedding on June 1, 1999. We were in Dutchess County, New York, a place that was lushly bucolic–complete with babbling brook and trees, logs to sit on and cool grass for walking barefoot. Dutchess County, I would learn later, also had the most number of cases of Lyme Disease in the country that year. And the particular swath I was in had had ten times the number of cases as the rest of the county...Continue reading...

Etna volcano updates and eruption news

Etna volcano news and eruption updates

Elvis Presley "Promised Land"

[gif]

 [link]www.elvis.com

Even cats get fooled by these optical illusions that appear to move.

by Casey Chan on Sploid

It's okay to be fooled by these 'animated' optical illusions. They totally look like they're moving. Hell, the cat watching them was fooled too. But the truth is, they're all just a masterful visual trick. The image isn't actually moving, the special sheet in front of it just makes it seem that way.

It's pretty cool. Brusspup, who has done similar tricks before, uses a transparent sheet with printed parallel lines on them and moves it across specific images to make it appear animated. The printed lines in the transparent sheet visually cuts the images perfectly to create movement.sploid.gizmodo.com.

Baclofen approved for use in the treatment of alcoholism

tumblr.com

Baclofen for Alcoholism 

A tribute to Dr. Olivier Ameisen Posted on November 25, 2013
...Olivier Ameisen, the apostle of Baclofen, is dead

Le Monde.fr | 19/07/2013 at 20:58 • Updated 19/07/2013 at 21:30 | By Sandrine Blanchard, Sandrine Cabut and Catherine Vincent
Professor of Cardiology Olivier Ameisen.
Professor Olivier Ameisen, cardiologist, brother of Professor Jean-Claude Ameisen, the current president of the French National Ethics Committee, died on July 18 in Paris of a myocardial infarction. He had just turned 60.
For thousands of alcoholics, he will be the one that allowed them to end their “craving”; the irrepressible need for alcohol. His crusade was for Baclofen: himself a doctor who became addicted to alcohol, he found in an old drug a new path to freedom from addiction, and fought for years to have his discovery accepted...Continue reading...

Today Show’s Pet Of The Year Winner

By Anthony ArmentanoThe TODAY Show was especially adorable this week when a blind Golden Retriever, Ray Charles, took home the first ever Pet of the Year “Orangey” at the show’s inaugural Orange Room Awards. Celebrating the year’s best viral videos, the TODAY Show invited Charles on set to accept his award. Popular on both Facebook and YouTube, the one-year-old puppy took off when the dog’s companion, Andrew Fales, created a Facebook page dedicated to Charles—eventually accumulating over 100,000 ‘likes.’ Charles’ competition was stiff, going up against the likes of an adorable pig in a wheelchair named Chris P. Bacon among others. You can watch Ray Charles accept his award on live television at the link below, courtesy of NBC’s TODAY Show.  — Global Animal Ray Charles accepts his “Orangey” on the TODAY Show.

Pet of the Year nominees:

2.  3. 4.http://www.globalanimal.org/2013/12/13/today-show-honors-best-in-viral-animal-videos/

"Saturday" Rebecca Black & Dave Days - Official Music Video

[photo]

[photo] ca.eonline.com

NASA's Juno spacecraft flies by Earth, captures this incredible video

By Deborah Netburn:
The video above, taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it zipped past Earth on Oct. 9, may be imperfect, but it will give you chills.

Captured with sensors designed to track faint stars rather than rocky planets, the video begins just as the Earth-and-moon system has come into Juno's view, 600,000 miles in the distance.
As Juno flies in closer, you can see the small white dot of the moon gliding silently around a fuzzy blue Earth. Closer still, and the moon moves off into the margins as our spinning planet takes up more of the field of view...Continue reading...

Fred Eaglesmith "He's a Good Dog" & "Feed Jake" by Pirates of the Misissippi

[photo]

11 of the bravest dogs in history

Smoky

This 4-pound Yorkshire terrier lived large. Smoky was found in the jungle of New Guinea and soon was purchased by an American soldier, Bill Wynne. Wynne trained her, according to the Yorkie Doodle Dandy website, and the tiny, 7-inch dog accompanied him for two years during World War II. While abroad, she entertained troops and earned honors for her bravery, saving Wynne's life on at least one occasion by warning him of incoming fire on a transport ship. 

 

After the war, Smoky and Wynne went home to Cleveland, Ohio, and continued to entertain veterans and the public. She is memorialized with a statue in Lakewood, Ohio.11 of the bravest dogs in history.

Therapy dogs offer stress relief during University of Louisiana finals week

UL student Gisele Theriault pets Olive, a Golden Retriever therapy dog, at Edith Garland Dupre Library Lafayette, La., Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. The therapy dogs were brought to campus during final exam week to help students relieve stress. By Paul Kieu, The Advertiser Dec. 11, 2013.                                                                                                  

Written by Megan Wyatt

Excited conversations punctuated by the soft swoosh of wagging tails replaced the typical sounds of printing and page-turning in the Edith Garland Dupré Library at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Wednesday afternoon.Therapy dogs Olive, Henri and Cece loaned their fluff and calm dispositions to stressed students preparing for final examinations... Read here...
2. More photos here.

Saskatoon - Muslim Cabbies Refuse Blind With Dogs

[photo]

By Dalit Halevi, Ari Yashar:  Muslim taxi cab drivers claim they can't drive blind people with dogs because in Islam dogs are considered 'unclean.'                                                                                       

                                            In Saskatoon, Canada, Muslim taxi drivers are refusing to give rides to blind people with seeing-eye dogs. The drivers have been citing religious grounds, saying dogs are considered "unclean" animals in Islam.
Mike Simmonds, who has been blind for close to 10 years, requires a guide dog with him at all times. He reported to the Sun newspaper that he is bitterly disappointed after taxi drivers at the station by his home have repeatedly refused to give him a ride.
Simmonds turned to the taxi company's management, and was told that the company has no guidelines forbidding discrimination against dog owners. After he was refused by taxis 3 times, Simmonds submitted a complaint to the Saskatchewan Committee of Human Rights.
Muslim antagonism towards dogs is not a new thing in Canada. In 2012, Toronto police arrested a Jew after he shoved back a Muslim who had punched him for not moving his “unclean” dog further away from Muslim women during an anti-Israel rally.
Canine cruelty in the Muslim world was highlighted during the Muslim Brotherhood protests in Egypt, as in late October protesters were found to be using "puppy bombs" by dipping dogs in gasoline and setting them on fire. Read here.

'Not a Crosswalk' by Michael Yon - captivating read

by Michael Yon
09 December 2013

The Syrian war is growing.  Growing in size and complexity.

Yet the more one learns about this conflict, the less accurate it becomes to call it “The Syrian War.”  Thousands of foreigners have flooded in.  Some are moving through southern Turkey today.  Just this weekend Jihadist hardliners seized yet another town on the Turkish border, ten minutes drive from a Turkish town.  Barbarians are at the gate, and the gate is wide open.

As these words are written, foreigners are fighting inside and creating international contacts that will transcend this place and time.
Jihad is being crowd sourced.  Tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, are being raised from private sources.  See, “Inside Kuwait’s Kickstarter campaigns to fund Syrian Jihadists'.
Some of the young fighters I have spoken with express fondness for al Qaeda in the sense that people flocked to Che Guevara.  They are mindlessly drawn to a picture and a caption without context.

Others are fond of the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra, or the more moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA), or one of countless obscure groups whose names mean little to anyone other than people involved, or analysts.

The Christian who made the photo above said that since March 2013, the Assad regime has controlled the left side, while the FSA and ISIS (al Qaeda linked) control the right.  And so FSA and ISIS fight each other on the right, and both fight the regime on the left.  The war is a perfect mess.

Iraq veterans from about 2005 to 2007 may recall the many teenaged boys recruited by al Qaeda.  AQ would arm the boys, pay them a little, provide a reason to be, and a mission from the skies.  Many boys become terrorists because they have nothing better to do.  Terror groups become their families and identities.

Gangs of teenaged al Qaeda fighters answered only to men who were willing to kill them.  In Syria, young men are growing up today in an environment where they know only war...Continue reading...

Bob Seger "Still The Same"

thesilentapple.deviantart.com/art/myspace.com/Bob seger

How soothing music can help to relieve a nagging pain: Pop songs reduce agony for chronic sufferers

By Daily Mail Reporter
Music has long been said to soothe a troubled soul but now it appears it can also alleviate physical pain.
Four out of ten people who suffered persistent pain said listening to music helped relieve their symptoms.
Among 16 to 24-year-olds in the survey of 1,500 people, the figure was 66 per cent.
Fittingly, the song that helped the most was Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, followed by Angels by Robbie Williams, Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross, Elton John’s Candle In The Wind and Easy by The Commodores...Read here...dailymail.co.uk