When Junior Bugs Dad Once Too Often

Make it snappy: Amazing moment male lion loses patience with attention-seeking cub and bites him on the head.  Daily Mail.  Excessive mane tugging and chewing can become annoying. 

Word to the wise.  “Quit bugging Dad.”

Image courtesy of http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1238917/Amazing-moment-male-lion-loses-patience-attention-seeking-cub-bites-head.html.

See:

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1238917/Amazing-moment-male-lion-loses-patience-attention-seeking-cub-bites-head.html#ixzz0b3prwoSt

Indulgence Knows No Cost In French Ski Town

Truffle Breakfast, $67,000 Bordeaux Entice at Arnault Hotel.  Bloomberg. 

“Luxury’s a natural experience for us,” says the hotel’s director general, Philippe Gourgaud. “You don’t feel recession in our rooms.”

Must be nice to indulge in this experience.

See:

• http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a0F7FPVz213A

When The Paper Towel Dispenser Is Empty

Ever wonder what to do when the paper towel dispenser is empty in the public restroom?

Well now there is a sign that gives directions for that troubling conundrum. 

“If the towel dispenser is empty.. Please use your clothes.  Thank you.  The Management.”
Image courtesy of http://www.signpictures.net/pictures/If_Empty.htm.

Gallup On Public Disapproval Of Health Care Bill

Cognitive Dissonance: Public Opinion and Pending Healthcare Legislation.  Gallup.  Wednesday December 23, 2009.

We know that less than half of all Americans favor Congress passing a new healthcare reform bill at this point in history. This conclusion is based on every recent poll that I am aware of. That includes a couple (see here and here) just released this week.

We have senators working into the night and on Christmas Eve in order to pass what the majority of that body no doubt perceive as highly positive, historic legislation. We have President Obama postponing the start of his vacation in order to stick around for the final Senate vote on what he perceives to be — potentially — one of the signature victories of his first year in office. We have the public not at all convinced that the new legislation is a good thing for the country.

When pollsters start pondering why legislators insist upon acting of their own accord instead of that of their constituents, the situation is obviously in dire straits.

See:

• http://pollingmatters.gallup.com/2009/12/cognitive-dissonance-public-opinion-and.html

Senate Performance Synopsis On Health Care Bill

The Senate Postmortem.  WSJ.

In the post-dawn hours on Thursday the Senate passed ObamaCare 60 to 39, in the first vote on Christmas Eve since 1895 and after the longest consecutive session in Congress since World War I. We are thus heading toward the first U.S. entitlement program dragged across the finish line on a straight partisan majority, a bill that even its most fervent supporters admit is “flawed” but better than nothing.

It is far worse than nothing. The bill itself is an unprecedented arrogation of federal power over one-seventh of the economy, and even its closest antecedents, Medicare and Medicaid, passed in 1965 with the support of both parties. Reflecting the political consensus that has always inspired durable social reform in America, those entitlements cleared the Senate with more than half of the GOP caucus voting in favor.

The Democrats own it.  And thus history will duly record their self-aggrandizing actions.  And therein, the demise of health care in America.

“The Senate Health Bill: Cost – Benefit.”
Image courtesy of Steve Breen Wednesday December 23, 2009 via http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/SteveBreen/2009/12/1.

See:

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254604574614662877143186.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

Clip From The Known Universe

Cool. 

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

The Known Universe by AMNH

December 15, 2009

Find The Subtle Changes

Attention to detail.  The discerning eye will be able to pick up on the subtle changes that have been made to each image with Photoshop techniques.  Clever thinking on the part of each artist. 

Worth 1000 Subtle Changes has many more images here.  Better than “Where’s Waldo?”

“On the Lam (or Zebra).”
Image courtesy of todmac
for the Subtle Changes 5 contest via http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=1723&display=photoshop.

“ScubaDiver.”
Image courtesy of DaemonDCLXVI
for the Subtle Changes 11 contest via http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=23672&display=photoshop.

“Lettuce.”
Image courtesy of  monkeywithnobrain
for the Subtle Changes 7 contest via http://www.worth1000.com/cache/gallery/contestcache.asp?contest_id=4744&display=photoshop. 

Need help? 

1. Look at the prisoners top center.
2. Look at the diver’s back.
3. Look what is peeking out top left.

See:

• http://www.worth1000.com/galleries.asp?rel=Subtle+Changes&display=photoshop&id=23672

Cartoon Not All Is As It Seems When It Is Snowing

Not all is as it seems during those snowy times.

Image courtesy of http://www.wtv-zone.com/rosebuds/graphics/holiday/.

Christmas Wishes 2009

May the blessings of the Christmas season be yours now and throughout the New Year.

Image courtesy of http://catholicexchange.com/2007/12/26/97662/.

Christmas Day 2009

Mass Christmas day.

Gospel.  John.

Short version.

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,

full of grace and truth. 

See: 

• http://www.usccb.org/nab/122509c.shtml
• http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john1.htm