Random Musings

That’s Consuelo Roca-Jones, our Homo, er, Home Office ManagerCat. Caught loafing on the job again.

PS That's Tuxedo, on the floor, sleeping through his appointment, apparently.

This is a problem?

Due to their innovative waste-to-energy, AKA recycling, program Sweden is facing a new crisis: they are running out of garbage. Sweden’s waste management and recycling programs are second to none as only 4% of the nation’s waste ends up in landfills. In the US, nearly 50% of our crap goes back into the ground.

Since the Swedish manage waste so effectively and then use what remains to partly power their country, they are now living an environmentalist’s dream: a shortage of garbage.

Speaking of garbage … Anthony Weiner. How’s that for a segue, huh?

Well, actually, I want to discuss one Sydney Leathers—also garbage—who is just one of the women with whom Anthony Weiner engaged in explicit exchanges online. Looking for her fifteen minutes of fame as an online sexting addict, Leathers is now saying she feels “manipulated” by the Weiner.

And that’s her exact problem; that and the fact that she is no better than Carlos Danger because she engages in the same behavior as he does and then plays the Poor Me card.

STFU Syd, you’re an idiot.

Louis Rispoli, a gay rights activist and well-known fixture in the Woodside neighborhood where he lived for 32 years, was murdered nine months ago and his killers are still on the loose. But this week in his honor, the street where Lou lived, 51st St. and 43rd Avenue, was named in his memory: it’s called Louis Rispoli Way.

“This is a bittersweet day, with his killers till out there.” Danyal Lawson, Louis’ widow.

Last October, Rispoli went out to for milk just after two in the morning and he was beaten to death by three men in their 20s who got away in a white sports car. Police released a sketch of the suspects but they would never found.

The renaming of a street doesn’t help Danyal Lawson, but it is a reminder that Hate Crimes against LGBT citizens are on the rise.

RIP Louis.

I’m a huge fan of BBC America’s Copper. Sure, it’s your typical New York City police procedural, but this one takes place in Five Points in 1865 so it tells some of the same stories in a different way.

Of course, being shallow, and loving some Man Candy, it doesn’t hurt that one of the good-guys-turned-bad-guy-turned-maybe-good guy, Francis Maguire, is played by hottie Kevin Ryan.

OVERHEARD AT WORK

Straight Female Co-worker: I don't really have a gag reflex.

Bob: Did you add that to your Match.com profile?

Straight Female Co-worker: Shut up! You can't get married.

Bob: Actually, I am getting married.

Straight Female Co-worker: Well, you can't get married in South Carolina...

Bob: Apparently, neither can you...

I love this one ….

Cumulus Media, the nation's second-largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations, has not renewed the contracts of rightwingnut zealots Rush ‘Drug Addict’ Limbaugh and Sean ‘Tea Party Lapdog’ Hannity.

The decision comes after a breakdown of negotiations between Cumulus and Clear Channel "over the cost of the distribution rights," and supposedly has nothing to do with any comment made by either of the hosts.

Still, they’re gone from that company’s stations and I think the airwaves smell a little sweeter, and far more intelligent, now.

Last Monday, Pope Francis responded to a question about gay Catholic clergy by promising not to “judge” homosexual priests:

“Who am I to judge if they’re seeking the Lord in good faith? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem … they’re our brothers.”

And the world went nuts because the Pope loves The Gays except ….

He doesn’t. He just doesn’t judge, he still doesn’t want gay priests or same-sex marriage, he’s just passing the judgment buck to the man in the sky.

So, put away your I Love Pope Frankie t-shirts, nothing’s changed.

Oh, and speaking of marriage equality, congratulations Minnesota and Rhode Island, celebrating their first same-sex marriages.

The march goes on….

Nick Jonas is the latest celebri-moron to post a selfie on the interwebz, following in the tradition of, yes, Carlos Danger, Grampa Geraldo Rivera, and even my own beloved Huge Ackman.

Note to those self-obsessed selfie photographers: you look desperate.

Back to The Biggest Weiner ….

The bad news out of the Weiner campaign never ends. 

It seems that earlier this week the campaign staff awoke to see their former intern, Olivia Nuzzi, on the front cover of the Daily News telling a rather unflattering tale of her experience working on Anthony Weiner’s mayoral bid.

So now, Team Weiner is firing back; or at least his communications director Barbara Morgan is firing back with a barrel full of curses:. During her rant about Nuzzi, Morgan called the woman a fame hungry “bitch” who “sucked” at her job. She also Nuzzi a “slutbag,” “twat,” and “cunt” while threatening to sue her:

“I’m dealing with like stupid fucking interns who make it on to the cover of the Daily News even though they signed NDAs and/or they proceeded to trash me. And by the way, I tried to fire her, but she begged to come back and I gave her a second chance. Fucking slutbag. Nice fucking glamour shot on the cover of the Daily News. Man, see if you ever get a job in this town again.”

Naturally, as the Weiner camp is apt to do, time and again, Morgan apologized:

"In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off the record conversation. It was wrong and I am very sorry, which is what I said tonight when I called and emailed Olivia to apologize."

Off the record conversation with a news site? Hardly.

And don't get me started on those two 'reality' show whores and their latest court dates....

I loves me some Kristin Chenoweth. I loves me some Wicked. And I loves me some parody.

Yes, That's A BIC Lighter

Last week everyone I talked to was all a'twitter about the woman who was attacked by the chimpanzee and how she appeared on Oprah and lifted her veil. and they were all shocked: I've never seen anything like it and Poor woman and Oh, my God and on and on.

I didn't see it because, well, it was Oprah. But I did see this picture and it disgusted me more than anything I've seen in a very long time.

Yes, that is a BIC lighter. Inside the belly of that albatross chick.

I read this story on Towleroad and saw the images taken by photographer Chris Jordan who says, "These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September 2009 on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent."

This is a slide show of his photos.

If you watch these images of birds with stomachs filled by bits of plastic and not feel anything, you're a better man than I. I was so disgusted by these deaths and how these birds were "fed" plastic and where they got it from that I sent the link to my Dad, in Smallerville, Oregon. A former Chemistry teacher, he now volunteers at an aquarium on the Oregon and writes articles for the aquarium newsletter.

This is what he had to say about the gyre:

Lets start this off with a question: What is located at approximately LAT 320 18' North and LONG 152039' West and is larger than the size of Texas?
When I was teaching Chemistry, my philosophy was for the students to see, hear, write, and learn, using as many of their senses as possible. This was the reason I used note taking and multimedia presentations in the classroom. So a picture being a worth a thousand words:

There are always reasons for my articles. A recent visitor and I had an excellent exchange of ideas on the ocean and the trash that liters our beaches. The recent Autumn 2007 issue of Ocean Conservancy contained a feature article, What Comes Around. We recently had SOVL....Be a SOLVer.....Help stop Oregon litter and vandalism. That was enough to ignite the spark.
The LATILONG coordinates in the question is the approximate location of the Northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre--also called the less scientific names: The Plastic Sea, Garbage Patch, and The Trash Vortex. Northeast of the Hawaiian Island chain, this gyre is the clockwise circular motion of water formed by wind driven ocean currents: the North Pacific Current (North), the California Current (East), the North Equatorial Current (South), and the Kuroshio Current (West). A simple example is pulling the stopper in a bathtub and watching the swirling water going down the drain, but the Pacific Ocean has no drain.
There are five central gyres, two in the Pacific Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and one in the Indian Ocean. Gyres are affected by wind direction, storms, tides, temperature, salinity, Coriolis effect, and liquid density. These factors then affect the depth, width, and the circulation speed in the gyre. The Northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre is a slow moving spiral of water. Debris entering the currents that bound the gyre, are forced into its low energy central area. A Greenpeace research animation shows that debris entering the water from the Western Pacific coast of the United States and the Eastern Pacific coast of Japan will be entrapped in the Northern Pacific Gyre in six years. Approximately 100 million tonnes (metric ton) of plastic are produced each year and approximately 10% ends up in the sea. Sea borne debris, about 20% of this, comes from ships and platforms and the remaining 80% from land. This gyre has been estimated as being larger than the state of Texas. All the plastic type polymers every produced since Leo Baekeland produced the first resins of Bakelite in 1907 and the "Plastic Age" began, are still here.
Plastics are not biodegradable but most breakdown into smaller fragments over time.
From the Greenpeace article again: "A single 2 liter drink: bottle will breakdown over time to put one fragment on every mile of beach in the entire world". The larger fragments, bottle caps, lighters, balloons, and fishing nets often entangle or are consumed by sea birds and other animals, such as the sea turtle, strangled by a plastic band.
Plastic fragments also provide a vehicle for numerous organisms to "ride-the-waves" and live on. These organisms can then invade a new habitat and become an invasive species. These fragments may also provide a "sponge" to attract and concentrate pollutants found in the ocean, especially POPs (persistent Organic Pollutants). Animals eating this chemical soup are also ingesting these highly toxic pollutants an then transporting them throughout the food chain ..
We have all heard the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind". Some plastic debris does sink to the sea bottom, about 70%. Dutch scientists have estimated that there are approximately 110 pieces of litter for every square kilometer of the seabed in the North Sea. The animals that inhabit the sea floor are now confronted with the intrusion of plastic debris on their domain.
We have all seen the disclaimers on TV about the side effects of the meds being presented. My disclaimer is: Do not read the information on the web sites listed below before or just after eating or before going to bed as it will probably cause mental anxiety about what we have done and are doing to this planet.

More info HERE.

So, what did we learn from this? Maybe to recycle everything, how about that? Maybe to think before you toss that lighter or pen into the trash. Maybe just to think about what happens to all the trash you throw out each year; where it goes, what it does, what it kills. It really takes no time to recycle, it hurts no one, and yet it might save the life of a bird on a tiny atoll somewhere you've never been nor heard about. And, if you don't want to recycle, then understand that it is YOU killing the birds, and the fish and the animals on this planet. Take responsibilty.

We all went up in arms about the woman who was mauled by the chimpanzee, but she could scream for help. These tiny birds cannot ask for help.

They can only die.

Do.Somethging.About.It.