Conclusions Drawn

What's "Auld Lang Syne"?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:41:00 +0000

Last night, the NBC Nightly News did a 2 minute segment examining the origins and meaning of this traditional New Years song, with its bizarre title and sometimes cryptic lyrics. (The answer: roughly "old times' sake").

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

600 LB Woman Stops Pay-Per-View Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:21:00 +0000

For years a 44 year old mother of two from Ohio named Donna Simpson, who is 5' 4" and weighs 600 lbs., apparently charged men $19 a month to watch her eat via the internet.

The news today HERE on MSNBC is that she has halted this endeavor and is trying to lose weight for health reasons. But the fact that this went on for years, and that men around the world paid a monthly fee to watch her eat, genuinely shocked me. Here are a few selections from this article:

"The underground community is involved in a rare form of masochism known as feederism, said Stephen Levine, the co-director of the Center for Marital and Sexual Health in Beachwood and a professor of clinical psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. People gain satisfaction by watching others eat and become overweight. The Internet helped it take off, he said."
"Simpson said she earned at one point $1,000 a month from the pay-per-view eating."
"I realized that I was their fantasy," she said. "Here I was getting bigger and bigger, and they had their thin wives, with 2 1/2 kids and a picket fence."
"There are plenty of men who will buy you four pizzas and enjoy watching you eat all of them," she wrote on her website. "But what it comes down to is that you become a slave to the food and to your feeder."

Drunken Online Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:53:00 +0000

THIS article today from The New York Times analyzes in some detail the degree to which online shopping is driven by alcohol consumption, and reveals that retailers are well aware of this phenomenon.

"Still, the nighttime spike requires delicacy among retailers: for reasons of propriety, they do not want to be seen as encouraging drunken shopping, and many people who inadvertently buy products in that state would most likely return them at high rates."

FCC To Ban Loud Commercials

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Are you among the 86% of Americans who believe that TV commercials are jarringly louder than the TV shows themselves? I wrote previously HERE about this phenomenon. According to this segment from the NBC Nightly News, the FCC has now announced plans to curb that practice. Finally. Though the ban won't take effect for a year, apparently.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Worst Chain Restaurants For Health

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Men's Health magazine has ranked the best and worst chain restaurants for your health. You can see the rankings HERE.

The 'usual suspects' are ranked right where you would expect them to be, pretty much. But I was shocked to see that Red Lobster was ranked 2nd best (best!) restaurant for health! Higher than Jamba Juice! I had no idea that fried shrimp were so healthful. Or maybe Jamba Juice is now putting lard in their smoothies?

10 Worst Sugar Cereals For Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:38:00 +0000

A public health watchdog group has released a list of the 10 'worst' sugar cereals for kids. You can view a slideshow HERE.

Round up the usual suspects for this rogue's gallery. Various versions of Cap'n Crunch appear no fewer than four times, and Froot Loops account for two more. Another two are cereals that originally had 'Sugar' in their names (Honey Smacks and Golden Crisp). And then there's good old Apple Jacks. The list is rounded out by a newer cereal called, descriptively, Smorz.

In fairness to their respective manufacturers, could any parent reasonably claim to be surprised that cereals with these names are on a list like this?

The Economics of Convenience Stores

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:34:00 +0000

THIS news story details how more people are electing to buy meals at convenience stores, especially those anchored by gas stations, than ever before. The change is apparently being driven by an upgrade in the food offered there, and by the fact that it's apparently cheaper there than at fast food restaurants like McDonald's or Taco Bell.

That trend was sort of interesting to me, especially since I'd long ago written off the food at these places (except in cases of extreme emergency). But the following two sentences, about the economics of the convenience store business, really caught my eye. “'About 70 percent of their overall revenue dollars come from fuel. But only about 26 percent of profit dollars come from fuel,' said Jeff Lenard, vice president of communications for the National Association of Convenience Stores. 'You can make much more money as a restaurant than you can a gas station,' he added."

Does Being President Take Years Off Your Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:20:00 +0000

A new study of all past US Presidents has sought to determine whether being President really took years off their lives. The fact that, in the TV age, we've been able to see Presidents age before our eyes during their terms, presumably due to the stress of the job, probably makes many of us think we already know the answer. The results may be surprising, however, even if the explanation is simple and predictable.

The CBS Evening News discussed the results briefly last night HERE in a 2 minute segment.

The "Pumpkin Papers" Were Neither, It Turns Out

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:02:00 +0000

Richard Nixon, then an ambitious young Congressman from California, revealed to the public on this date back in 1948 the existence of the so-called 'Pumpkin Papers,' secret State Department documents that had been stolen by employees there who were also communist sympathizers spying for Russia. These documents (mostly photos of documents on microfilm, actually) came to be called the 'Pumpkin Papers' because the reformed former communist who led authorities to them, Whitaker Chambers, had once hidden them in a pumpkin on his family farm.Contrary to popular belief at the time, however, the papers were not still hidden in that pumpkin when they were handed over in 1948.

The Pumpkin Papers played a central role in the later conviction of Alger Hiss on perjury charges in 1950, charges related to his alleged spying. An urbane, well educated man, Hiss personified the East Coast Establishment that Nixon was reputed to have so loathed. Hiss denied having been a spy, and in later years became somewhat of a martyr figure to left leaning intellectuals during the Cold War, who thought Hiss had been railroaded by grasping neanderthals on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

In 1985, a very high level KGB defector named Oleg Gordievsky confirmed that Hiss had indeed been a spy. And after the end of the Cold War, when KGB files were opened, further documentary evidence was found confirming that Hiss had been a well-established Soviet spy.

That being said, Wikipedia has a great epilogue to this story. It reads, "The five rolls of 35 mm film known as the 'pumpkin papers' were thought until late 1974 to be locked in HUAC files... On July 31, 1975, as a result of ... follow-on suits filed by Peter Irons and by Alger Hiss and William Reuben, the Justice Department released copies of the 'pumpkin papers' that had been used to implicate Hiss. One roll of film turned out to be totally blank due to overexposure, two others are faintly legible copies of nonclassified Navy Department documents relating to such subjects as life rafts and fire extinguishers, and the remaining two are photographs of the State Department documents introduced by the prosecution at the two Hiss trials, relating to U.S./German relations in the late 1930s."

The Death of Evel Knievel

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Legendary motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel died on this date back in 2007. You can read an excellent obituary published at the time in The Economist HERE.

Given his reputation for debauched and rude behavior, on hindsight it's perhaps most surprising how financially important the line of Evel Knievel toys was to him (and to the Ideal toy company) in the 1970s, and how central they remain to his legacy today.

Jon Stewart On Herman Cain (Again)

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:46:00 +0000

In the wake of new allegations that presidential candidate Herman Cain had a 13 year affair with an Atlanta businesswoman, Jon Stewart did THIS six minute segment on The Daily Show last night. ("Wow: 13 years and no sex. Either one of these two people is lying, or Herman Cain is the worst deal closer in the history of extra-marital affairs... Really? He was just trying to help her financially? I guess that explains the 4:30 AM texts.'Hey, I uh just wanted to let you know that the markets will be opening in 5 hours...'")

Cape Canaveral or Cape Kennedy?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:18:00 +0000

When I was a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s, NASA regularly received a lot of media attention because the Space Shuttle program was just beginning. And in those years I often wondered why I heard the NASA launch facility in Florida referred to as "Cape Canaveral" sometimes, and at other times as "Cape Kennedy."

Well, today I learned why for the first time. On this date in 1963, in the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed 'Cape Kennedy' in his honor. But then in 1973, the name was changed back by a vote of the residents.

First Skywriting Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:12:00 +0000

The first public exhibition of skywriting in America was made on this date in 1922. It had been developed in Britain during WWI by a handful of RAF pilots. On this occasion in November 1922, they had traveled to New York City to write "HELLO USA CALL VANDERBILT 7200" above Times Square.

Why that? What did that mean?

Well, one of the RAF pilots, John Savage, remained on the ground with the president of the American Tobacco Company, George Hill, while another RAF pilot, Cyrill Turner, wrote the message to demonstrate to Hill the power of advertising in this way. And "VANDERBILT 7200" was the phone number of the hotel at which Hill was staying. The hotel fielded 47,000 calls.

More Rage At The "Taco Bell" Drive Thru

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:26:00 +0000

A 26-year old, wheelchair-bound woman named Amber Harvey became enraged yesterday night when her local Taco Bell in Elkhart, Indiana refused to serve her in the drive thru lane on the grounds that she was not in a car, but merely in her wheelchair. Amber got so angry, apparently, that she then wheeled herself around to the front entrance and rammed her wheelchair through the tempered glass door, shattering it.

Would it surprise you to learn that when police arrived they found Amber across the street at a local bar?

You can read more about it HERE. (Though the 'more' is basically an extensive interview with the glass repair guy.)

Yacht Salesman, Gambler, Spy

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:52:00 +0000

On this date back in 1986, a former employee of the National Security Agency (or "NSA") named Ron Pelton was arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. Ron Pelton was perhaps the most damaging spy of the Cold War whose name you've never heard.

Prior to joining the NSA, Pelton served in the Air Force, where he was a noted card player and gambler. This was to portend ongoing financial problems in his adult life. In 1979, he was forced to declare personal bankruptcy. Thinking he could make more money as a yacht salesman, in 1980 the then 38-year old Pelton resigned from his $24,500/year job at the NSA after 14 years there. But Pelton quickly realized that he would actually make less as a yacht salesman (not more). So, with his financial problems mounting yet again, he offered to sell the Soviets secrets he'd learned while at the NSA.

The crown jewel he revealed was Operation Ivy Bells, an ultra-secret operation to tap an undersea Soviet military cable that ran along the floor of the Sea of Okhutsk between the Russian mainland and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Soviets complacently assumed that the cable could not be compromised. So this was an intelligence gold mine. The state-of-the-art taps were nuclear powered and could store up to a year's worth of data. Information from these taps was collected monthly for years by extremely dangerous submarine missions conducted right under the Soviets' noses. This highly successful covert operation cost the United States over $1 billion.

Ron Pelton gave it all up for $37,000.

In 1985, a notorious KGB defector named Vitaly Yurchenko gave the CIA information that led to Ron Pelton's arrest on this date 25 years ago. Because much of what Pelton revealed to the Soviets was so highly classified, much of it has never been revealed to the public. As a result, his case was not as sensationalized by the press as were those of other celebrated spies, like Aldrich Ames. But Pelton was sentenced to three life terms in prison. Ames was sentenced to only one life term in 1994, as was Robert Hanssen in 2001.

You can watch an excellent 5 minute segment about this under-publicized case on You Tube HERE.

Ron Pelton is still languishing in federal prison and will be 70 years old next year.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:50:00 +0000

Yesterday night the History Channel aired a one hour special titled The Real Story of Thanksgiving, which I thought was great. It lovingly debunked a series of myths, assumptions, and urban legends that have grown up around the holiday, while managing never to be mocking or dismissive. You can also watch it on You Tube HERE.

In case you don't want to spend an hour on that, here are a few highlights.

The day before Thanksgiving is not, it turns out, the busiest travel day of the year. ("It's not even close. Actually, it's the 25th busiest travel day.") In reality, the busiest travel day of the year every year turns out to be some friday in June or July.
The supposed 'first Thanksgiving' among Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1621 was actually forgotten for over 200 years and was not re-discovered until the 19th Century, after Thanksgiving had already become an unofficial regional holiday in New England.
Abraham Lincoln was the first US President to officially recognize Thanksgiving, which he did during the Civil War. For obvious reasons, the day was largely ignored in the South.
In 1939, FDR changed the date on which Thanksgiving was celebrated, by moving it back a week (to make more time for Christmas shopping). But 'The People' revolted, calling it 'Franksgiving Day,' apparently. This problem wasn't rectified until 1941, when the US Congress finally made Thanksgiving an official US federal holiday, to be held on the last Thursday of every November. (Then less than two weeks after that first official Thanksgiving holiday, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.)

"Saturday Night Live" Last Night

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:17:00 +0000

I haven't thought that Saturday Night Live has been very funny so far this season. Last night, however, I did think that THIS fake commercial for a motionless mattress was really funny.

The Fading Tradition of Snake Handling

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:27:00 +0000

This weekend The Washington Post magazine has a fascinating photo expose detailing what it calls, 'the fading tradition of snake handling,' focusing on a church in Jolo, West Virginia. You can view the 13 photo slide show HERE. One caption reads in part:

"The Pentecostal church was founded in 1956 by Bob and Barbara Elkins. One woman remembers the church being so full people would stand outside. But then one of Barbara Elkins’s children died of a snakebite in 1961 at age 23. These days, Pastor Harvey Payne says, the congregation has 10 members."

Grand Canyon Litter Ban Stopped By Coke?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:20:00 +0000

According to THIS piece in the Los Angeles Times today, the Coca-Cola Co. may have intervened with the National Parks Foundation (to which it is a major donor) to stop a proposed ban on single-use plastic water bottles (like those of its own Dasani water) at the Grand Canyon.

We've probably all seen empty plastic bottles littering trails in various national parks and state parks. I know I have. It's ridiculous that some people can't be bothered to pack out an empty bottle weighing just a few grams, and instead elect to toss it into the very wilderness they came to see. I know that, as the saying goes, "guns don't kill people, people kill people." But if we can't legislate away the sheer laziness and selfishness of these litterers, I suppose the next best thing is to legislate away the instrumentality.

"Veterans Day" Is Its Second Name, Actually

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:50:00 +0000

Today is Veterans Day in the United States. Did you know that, from its inception in 1926 until the mid-1950s, it was known as 'Armistice Day' and celebrated only veterans who died in World War I (as well as the cause of "world peace"), explicitly excluding all other veterans.

In 1954, the holiday was re-named 'Veterans Day' by President Eisenhower, and its stated purpose was revised to celebrate all veterans of the US military.

Jon Stewart On Cain's Press Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:39:00 +0000

Jon Stewart began The Daily Show last night with a funny 6 minute analysis of Herman Cain's press conference on Tuesday, at which Cain attempted to refute allegations of sexual harassment. You can watch it HERE.

I watched Herman Cain's Tuesday press conference live, and in this segment John Stewart expresses several of the same incredulous thoughts that occurred to me at the time.

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:51:00 +0000

That famous greeting was uttered by journalist and explorer Henry Stanley on this date in 1871. Maybe.

That ubiquitous quote was likely fabricated, as it turns out. Stanley tore the pages out of his diary relating to this famous encounter with Livingstone in Africa. And Livingstone's account of their meeting never mentions these words either.

Stanley was only 30 years old when he found Livingstone in Africa. He was a more 'colorful' character than I'd realized, too, even by the standards of Victorian-age African explorers. Did you know that, as a 21 year old man in 1862, he'd fought in the American Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh. For the Confederacy. After the Civil War, Stanley mounted and expedition to the Ottoman Empire and was imprisoned there for a time. Only after that did he mount an expedition to Africa to find Livinstone.

In 1876, five years after making his name by finding Livingstone, Stanley was retained by King Leopold II to explore the Congo and to claim it for Belgium. The violence and brutality that characterized these expeditions is widely regarded to be the basis for Joseph Conrad's classic 1903 novel Heart of Darkness (later the inspiration for the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now). He died in London in 1904 at the age of 63, after being knighted and becoming a Member of Parliament.

Carlos the Jackal Befriends Manuel Noriega

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:21:00 +0000

I wrote here yesterday about how notorious 1970s terrorist Carlos 'The Jackal,' already imprisoned for life in France, is being put on trial again in Paris in connection with other bombings from the 1980s. I was surprised that Carlos was still alive. After 17 years in prison, he had dropped off my radar.

With that in mind, when I read the revelation in the Telegraph this morning HERE that while in prison Carlos had apparently befriended former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, a fellow inmate in his Paris jail, my initial thought was, "he's still alive, too!?!"

The last I remembered of Manuel Noriega he had been imprisoned in Florida 20 years ago on drug charges. But with that sentence coming to an end, he was apparently extradited to France in 2010, where he was jailed on murder and money laundering charges. But Noriega served just over a year in prison in France before being extradited again last month to Panama to begin yet another 20 year prison sentence back in his home country.

Punctuation The Kiss of Death For Cain

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:55:00 +0000

After one accuser gave a compellingly detailed press conference yesterday, republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has apparently promised to address the sexual harassment allegations against him once again today. But the way Cain's promised response is being reported by the media this morning is a good indicator, I think, of which way the winds are blowing for him.

You know you're in trouble when your vow to set the record straight is put in skeptical quotation marks by the media; as on CBS.com, where the headline reads, Cain vows to "set the record straight". Underscoring this disbelieving coverage, the exact same headline has been published by the tabloid The New York Post.

The Most Famous Bridge Collapse Ever?

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:04:00 +0000

You've probably seen that old black & white footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsing after wobbling spectacularly in the wind, even if you don't recognize the bridge by name (or by its nickname, 'Galloping Gertie'). It was replayed incessantly again in the last couple of years amid renewed public concern about our decaying infrastructure. That event occurred on this date in 1940, it turns out. You can view 1 minute of amazing color footage on You Tube HERE.