Spectacular diving footage of Greg Louganis at the '84 Summer Olympic Games. Greg Louganis wasn't just a Gold Medal diver, he was an artist without equal and is an incredible human being.
"Greg Louganis is openly gay. After he tested positive for HIV in 1988, he recounted his story in a best-selling autobiography Breaking the Surface co-written with Eric Marcus. The book spent five weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. His story was also documented in the 1996 Showtime movie Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story"... [Wikipedia]
"Ken Perenyi lived an extravagant lifestyle off his faked works of the finest masters.
For nearly three decades Ken Perenyi made a small fortune forging works by popular 18th- and 19th-century artists like Martin Johnson Heade, Gilbert Stuart andCharles Bird King.
Then in 1998, Mr. Perenyi says, two F.B.I. agents showed up on his doorstep, curious about a couple of paintings sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, ostensibly by the maritime artist James E. Buttersworth but actually his own meticulous creations. . . . "
",,,When people tell you that you shouldn't politicize a tragedy like the shooting in Aurora, Colorado they are unwittingly helping to spread NRA propaganda. ....the NRA doesn't represent gun owners, they represent gun manufacturers! That's who pays the bills at the NRA and their motivation is to sell as many guns as possible, no matter how ridiculous or how murderous. .....
We [the U.S.] should be really proud -- we're #1 in ...
1. The number of guns per capita. 90 guns for every 100 people. Yemen is a distant second at 61.
2. In gun violence. Nearly 100,000 people get shot every year. That's 270 people a day and 87 dead because of gun violence every day. That's seven Colorado shootings per day!
3. The number of child deaths because of guns. Nearly 3,000 kids are killed by guns every year. ,,,"
God, Guns — and the NRA. What a winning combination.
"The Daily Show" returned from a two week hiatus Monday night, and could not have come back at a time more ripe for comedy. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is currently under scrutiny for both his undisclosed tax returns and for his involvement with Bain Capital, the financial services company where he was CEO.
While the allegations -- namely, that Romney has been less-than honest about his finances and how long he was actually with Bain -- are heating up campaign tensions, Jon Stewart couldn't help but notice that the company's name bears a striking sonic resemblance to the name of a Batman villain.
"Bain. Not since Ayds diet candy suffered through their somewhat ill-timed 1980s 'Lose weight with Ayds!' sales campaign has a brand faced this type of challenge," he joked.
But in more serious analysis, Stewart took issue with Romney's evasive defense strategies. In reply to the Obama campaign's attack ad on Bain outsourcing, Romney claimed to be on a leave of absence during the time in question. The problem? He was still on the payroll for at least $100,000 a year. . . . . "
I have always been fascinated by some of the very questionable things that people believe, and more often than not it will include some of their religious beliefs. Scientologists are a grab bag of really weird shit. Oftentimes they will denounce any questions about a belief in 'Xenu' as "preposterous" or "nonsense".
"Xenu also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.
Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church's secret "Advanced Technology", considered a sacred and esoteric teaching, which is normally only revealed to members who have contributed large amounts of money. The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story's confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of copyright and trade secrecy. Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story. Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard's notes, and the Internet. In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction, UFO religions, gnosticism and creation myth. ....."
The History Of Xenu - As Explained By L. Ron Hubbard
"Big banks have been caught in a massive scam to rig global interest rates, ripping off millions of people on their mortgages, student loans and more! We'd go to jail for this, but Barclays bank has only been fined, and just a fraction of their profits! Outrage is mounting -- this is our chance to finally turn the tide of the banks' reign over our democracies.
The EU finance regulator, Michel Barnier is standing up to the powerful bank lobby and championing reform that would put bankers behind bars for fraud like this. If the EU goes first, accountability could quickly spread across the globe. But the banks are lobbying hard against it, and we need a massive surge of people power to drive these reforms through.
If we can get 1 million people to stand with Barnier in the next 3 days, it will give him momentum to face down the banking lobby and push governments to bring reform. Sign the petition, and our growing numbers will be represented by adding mock bankers to a jail right in front of the EU Parliament. "
The performance of "Daiku", "The Ninth", Beethoven's 9th symphony, is a Japanese highlight every year in the end of December. This year it was performed with 10,000 (amateur) chorus singers. Here is the last movement, recorded at the December, 2011 concert in Osaka. This year the performance was dedicated to the memory of the victims of the disastrous tsunami in March.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 Finale. [with Chorus on Friedrich Schiller's "Ode an die Freude" / "Ode to Joy" / "歓喜に寄せて"]
Keiko Yokoyama, soprano Masako Teshima, mezzo-soprano Satoshi Nishimura, tenor Eijiro Kai, baritone Choir of the 10,000 from Osaka and Sendai Yutaka Sado, conductor .
"While many Americans were firing up barbecues and breaking out the sparklers to celebrate Independence Day, biotech industry executives were more likely chilling champagne to celebrate another kind of independence: immunity from federal law.
A so-called "Monsanto rider," quietly slipped into the multi-billion dollar FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill, would require – not just allow, but require - the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed. All the farmer or the biotech producer has to do is ask, and the questionable crops could be released into the environment where they could potentially contaminate conventional or organic crops and, ultimately, the nation's food supply. . . . .
.....· It's a back-door amendment of a statute. This rider, quietly tacked onto an appropriations bill, is in effect a substantial amendment to USDA's governing statute for GE crops, the Plant Protection Act. If Congress feels the law needs to be changed, it should be done in a transparent manner by holding hearings, soliciting expert testimony and including full opportunity for public debate.
If we allow this "Monsanto Rider" to be slipped into the FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill, consumers and farmers will lose what little control we have now over what we plant and what we eat.
If you would like to join the hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens who have already written to Congress in support of the DeFazio amendment, please sign our petition here. "
We are all familiar with Batman, Superman, and Spiderman, but there is nothing to equal 'BULLSHIT MAN', and Karl is perfect for the job. No costume, mask, or flowing cape needed, just the conviction, based on knowledge, that what someone is spouting is nonsense.
