I ran across another cool video in the web and wanted to share it, because I think it will give a new perspective to concentrate on the state of the planet from a politicosocial standpoint instead of focusing on a natural reason of devastation. Enjoy.
Category Archives: Stories
Gun Laws On The Table?
The violence we see spreading from shopping malls in Oregon, to movie theaters in Colorado, to college campuses in Virginia, to elementary schools in Connecticut, is being spawned by the toxic view of a violent popular culture, a growing mental health crisis and the proliferation of combat-style weapons.
There are alot of us that are for stricter gun controls but also know we have a second amendment right to bear arms that we cannot afford to give away, so where do we go from here. Some believe we should ban assault weapons. Some think a limit on the number of rounds people can purchase.
This morning I put myself in the shoes of a Congressman and thought to myself, if I had the power to change things, what policies would instill into a bill. What I came up with was that if even just the principle had a concealed weapon, then things would have ended better.
After Columbine, we installed better security measures. We taught teachers how to identify situations and keep students safe. Teachers had to learn to counsel student victims of bullying to prevent volatile situations and how to handle naturally occuring disasters. Now, in the wake of a tragedy we have never seen before, we should train teachers in another important aspect of a quickly failing society.
To shoot to kill. Along with a college degree and a clean criminal record, teachers should have a CHL(Concealed Handgun License) and a handgun locked in a safe in their desks I think violence in schools would cease.
Sure, violence will always arise in places because of the dramatization of violence and guns in music, movies, and art, but Lanza and the Trench Coat Mafia, would have thought better of walking into a school to massacre children when 100 school staff is packing protection.
When it comes to mental health issues in people, this is complicated, we’ve got to find a way to create a society in which those closest to people in trouble, mentally, acknowledge that and help them secure assistance.
As for violence in the entertainment and video game industry, I think we really do have to reopen the conversation and go back and ask ourselves, is there more we can do?
Dark Side
Drip,
Watch it drip,
Dripping down,
Scarlet rivers,
Crimson ribbons,
Cardinal carpets,
Sin,
To lay upon reveal,
To curl up into,
While the rivulets congeal,
Cover me in candy-apple love,
Drench me in it,
Fold me up with it,
Cut me up and make me one with it,
Let me taste it,
Sticky copper-flavored sweetness,
One last taste of heaven,
As I descend into deepness,
Delivered,
Post dated return,
Never to seek again,
Damnit,
Fuck it, I cut too deep again.
2012 Apocalypse??
December 21, 2012 is near. So is the end of the world. Or is it?
If you believe in the alleged Mayan prophecies, the world is set to end in just nine days. Yes, NINE DAYS. Better wipe out that savings account and do all the living you can before it comes.
You think that sounds crazy? Just do a google search for 2012 Mayan Prophecy. Pages and pages of results. Of people ‘living their last days. Of stories of the end of the world.
Alot of people have misinterpreted what the end of the Mayan calendar means.
Misinformation on the internet and television says that because the Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012 that the world will end also. The truth is that the truth is not quite as interesting.
Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then—just as your calendar begins again on January 1—another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar as well.
Think of it is a clock. You use your clock to count the number of hours in a day, from midnight to midnight. Well, just because your 24 hour cycle is over you don’t buy a new clock to start a new 24 hour period. You use the same clock for the next cycle.
Either way, whether you are spending all of your money and building yourself an ark or stockpiling food and ammo, I’ll see you all for Christmas. Happy holidays.
Elephant Dung Coffee
In the lush northern hills of Thailand, there is a new, yet extravagantly expensive, coffee being brewed using elephants and the dung they excrete.
In this jungle retreat, there is a herd of 20 elephants that is fed the pure cherries from the Arabica variety are mixed with fruit, rice, nuts, and seeds. The cherries are harvested a day later by women of the village, from the dung. After a thorough washing, the beans are extracted and sent to a roaster in
The Black Ivory coffee is hailed as having a sweet, earthy, mellow flavor and being smooth on the palate.
When an elephant eats the beans a chemical reaction in the elephants stomach breaks down the protein in the coffee. The proteins in coffee give it its bitterness, so breaking it down leads to a gourmet coffee that is smooth.
The elephants giant stomach plays another important role in the creation of the coffee’s flavor. Think of the elephant as the animal kingdom’s equivalent of a slow cooker. “It takes between 15-30 hours to digest the beans, which stew together with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients in the elephant’s vegetarian diet to infuse unique earthy and fruity flavours”, said Blake Dinkin, the 42-year-old Canadian, who has a background in civet coffee.
Dinkin says: “My theory is that a natural fermentation process takes place in the elephant’s gut. That fermentation imparts flavours you wouldn’t get from other
coffees.”
Black Ivory’s maiden batch of 150 pounds has sold out. Dinkin hopes to crank out six times that amount in 2013. For now, only the wealthy or well-travelled have access to Black Ivory Coffee. It was
launched last month at a few luxury hotels in remote corners of the world – first in northern Thailand, then the Maldives and now Abu Dhabi – with the price tag of more than 30 dollars a cup.
Gun Control Laws
This morning evil visited Conneticut and brought tragedy with it. More than a dozen children woke up, grabbed their backpacks, hopped on the bus to their elementary school, and were dead before lunch.
The shooting spree lasted less than 10 minutes, but that was long enough to leave multiple families childless. We are heartbroken, yes, all of us, but in the wake of tragedy comes an opportunity.
We have the opportunity now to discuss stricter gun laws. I have heard people say now is not the time to discuss the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School being a precedent for gun laws. I disagree, because ever since Columbine, it should be all we talked about until it changed something.
If the teachers had been allowed to carry a concealed weapon on the premises this could have ended better. I know some of you are weary of the teachers carrying a handgun would be more volatile, but think about it, it’s never the teachers that shoot up the school, it is always a student or disgruntled former student.
Jose Luis Nunez had a handgun in order to protect his son. The 4 year-old accidentally shot himself in the face with it in Houston on Tuesday. Joseph V. Loughrey had one for the same reason, and his 7-year-old son, Craig, died on
Saturday outside of Pittsburgh when that handgun accidentally went off while the boy was getting into his safety seat in front of a gun store.
And that was just this week. The same week that the NRA proudly tweeted it had reached 1.7 million “likes” on Facebook.
We cherish individuality in America. We see raising children as no one else’s business, and we have never managed to band together as a “parenting” bloc. It is
time. Guns are a parenting issue and we need to control them in the name of the children who died this morning. Even more, we need to do it in the name of their mothers and fathers.
So cry today. Comfort your kids. Curse, and pray. Then pick up the phone, a pen, a keyboard, or your checkbook and make your demands heard for stricter gun laws. All day and every day. But most especially, today.
Wendy’s Future
In today’s society, nothing can grab the attention of a consumer than value. Nowhere is that more true than in the fast food business, and Wendy’s is no exception.
Customer traffic at Wendy’s has been “flat to slightly down”
this year, Chief Financial Officer Steve Hare told investors
at a conference Wednesday. “I think one of the reasons…is because we’ve been more effective on the premium side than on the value side,” he added.
Wendy’s is in the midst of revitalizing, both, it’s image and menu, in hopes of becoming viewed as “a cut above”
traditional fast food. The chain’s premium burgers, salads and sandwiches also generate higher profit margins and have thus been of greater interest to franchisees.
“We’re so large; we also have to be competitive on the value side of the business,” Mr. Hare said. “And that’s one of the areas where we’ve been inconsistent.”
For 2013, Wendy’s is working with franchisees to come
up with a core menu of 99-cent items that every location will offer, and then another grouping of slightly
higher-priced signature items and more-filling foods that still represent value.
I, for one, think it is a good idea because it serves as a base model for other fast food chains to follow suit. In Texas, the McDonalds brand has a dollar menu that includes its large drinks but in Las Vegas, Nevada the McDonalds does not. Defining a set value menu to be offered at all corporate and franchised locations will increase the traffic of consumers whom the failing economy has hit, of which there are more of today than just 6 years ago.
Not everything on an establishment’s menu should designated premium and certainly shouldn’t be priced as such. Though the rising costs of food remain a challenge for all companies, value today will drive your core bottom line up and raise customer satisfaction.
Sad Day in Conneticut
In an emotional response to the horrific school shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut, President Obama said
today, “As a country, we have been
through this too many times.”
“Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora…these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children,” he continued, appearing to choke up at times. “We’re going to have
to come together to take meaningful
action… regardless of the politics.”
Around 9:30 a.m. this morning, a man armed with at least two guns opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The shooting left 27 people dead, including at least 18 children ages five to 10 years old. The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Ryan Lanza, is now dead. The motive for the shootings is still unclear, but Lanza’s mother was a teacher at the school.
Most of the shootings were in her
classroom, and Lanza’s mother was
among the dead. Mr. Obama was first notified of the shooting at 10:30 a.m. by Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan.
The president called Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, the governor’s office said today, to express his condolences and pledge whatever resources the federal government can bring to bear to assist the families and the investigation.
According to the White House, the
president also spoke with FBI Director Robert Mueller about the incident, and the FBI providing support to state and local police.
Geminid Dinner Party
In honor of the Geminid meteor shower, I held a dinner/ meteor watching party. In attendance were a few friends, which is a change of pace from cooking dinner in my clients` homes.
I bought some sea scallops, center cut bacon, red and green bell peppers, and fresh ginger from the store.
Combining the ginger, some olive oil, garlic, fresh rosemary and lemon juice, I let the scallops and 1″ x 1″ cut peppers marinate for 1 hour.
Meanwhile I diced the bacon and let all it fat render out and combined the bacon fat within the marinade and let it set 1 hour more at room temperature.
After grilling them on skewers for around 10 minutes, or until the scallops were done, we all sat outside eating the delicious shishkebabs and watching out for the geminid meteor shower.
I had a bottle of Australian Shiraz we shared as streaking lights of white, red, and green loomed overhead. It was nearly perfect.
SnStarr Productions 