A subatomic particle discovered last year that may be the long-sought Higgs boson might doom our universe to an unfortunate end, researchers say.
The mass of the particle, which was uncovered at the world’s largest particle accelerator — the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva — is a key ingredient in a calculation that portends the future of space and time.
So I must ask the question of my British friends and followers, did you stop eating meat yet?
And to everyone else who didn’t find horse meat (yet) in food: Did you?
Would you eat it?
Have you eaten it?
Did it taste like chicken?
The coal region of Pennsylvania was a quaint little place since I can remember.. I was born and raised (for a bit) in Centralia PA, with a mine fire burning hot under my feet.. My family moved to a nearby town.. my heart and soul has been in this place for a long time.
But perhaps the same ties that bind you also trap you in.
I read an article today in my morning paper.. It’s a little inside baseball perhaps, but it’s on my mind.. The article paints a story of a dying area.. Restaurants and bars are shutting down in the coal region.. the Pottsville REPUBLICAN and HERALD speaks about Cactus Jacks, the Restaurant at the Station in Tamaqua.. Yockos in Minersville. (All big deals).. another bar detailed in the article is only open one day a week..
A bar being shut down in the coal region is a big deal. You’d expect in this area a dirty little tap room would be shuttered if they were serving underage minors. But in the economic troubles lately, the prime reason for closure is money troubles..
I think back to my life as a child. The area, then, wasn’t the best. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s a nice little quaint place, for sure.. but things to do? This ain’t no city, bo. There were restaurants and run down bars, and a mall or two or three, or ‘tree’. When I was a child I didn’t think there was much to do. No kids did. It’s why most of them had ‘bush parties’ where beer was served in the middle of no where. But today, now, I look at the local disgrace the area is becoming and wonder if anything is left for my son to enjoy.
I thought deeply about this as a result of that newspaper article. What does bind me to this area? It’s family. That is the answer.. It’s family.. I don’t work close to here, I actually commute a distance. My wife does too. When we want to do something with my son, we travel away from here.. But when we want to be comfortable and feel at home, here we are..
I think it was always that way, a bit. I believe that this region ‘felt like home’ .. It’s why, for decades, the Ashland Boys Association Parade was filled with thousands. Until it got canceled a few years back and struggled to begin again. Good luck to Ashland bringing it back in ‘13.
It’s also why a town named Girardville hosts a spectacular St. Patrick’s Day parade. Even Bill Clinton showed up in 2008 to campaign for his wife. The town wholeheartedly supported him.. he even had a screamer from Tony’s.. no word on whether he became immediately dyspeptic.
There are other pearls that can be unearthed from time to time. Jim Thorpe is a beautiful and fun place.. Schuylkill Haven hosts a great summer weekend with fireworks.. and the Bloomsburg Fair is going strong.
But what else is occurring?
Crime… drugs… lots of drugs. Lots of drug abuse. Lots of dilapidated homes literally falling down into streets (Girardville, PA)… and now closing businesses..
The Schuylkill Mall is being hard hit, as are other malls. A new refurbished movie theater opened. I wish them luck and hope the mall stays open. I recall some early memories as a kid thinking it was a mecca of shopping.. of course smoking was legal indoors the smell of cigars also fills my fading memory..
I just hope and pray that, as long as we choose to live in this place, it will stay safe and quaint.. and more and more quiet, perhaps..
Family is why we stay.
Besides the ties of that, there are few others …
However … even one day if the Coal Speaker leaves the coal region, you will never be able to extract the ‘area’ from him.. or anyone else that chooses to go.
After high school several friends had a mass exodus from here to go other places. Many returned and now, again, live locally after ‘living their lives’ in a city or larger place.
But the coal region can come back, though it will never return to the paradise that it was during the coal mining days—that paradise was not shared by all and truly only for barons and bosses of coal mines that could care less about safety of workers. A part of this region’s history is that it was filled with hard workers and good people. Conservative Democrats… fair-minded but also sometimes a little suspicious of ‘outsiders’. Perhaps that also became its 21st century demise..? Any for of progress is despised by too many, forcing those younger with dreams and ambitions to look elsewhere to find that progress.
I don’t know.
I cannot count myself as smart enough to understand why an area disintegrates .. I wish I was smart enough to know how to bring it back.
But I’m not.
So with that all said, I end with this: Perhaps within the next few years my wife and I will be forced to make a decision. Keep the ties that bind us knotted and tight, or loosen them up and fly away. No matter the choice, we have a third party role: Our son. And in the end, it’s his future that matters the most now of all.
Since NBC is making us all feel older (but not wiser) with a replay of the 1990s SNL… why not go with it. Here’s GARBAGE with WHEN I GROW UP. Where were you when the song was being played too much on radio? I was going into my senior year.. the world was ahead of me.. as it may have been with you.
And where are we now..?
So tonight NBC decided to play a blast from the past. The Saturday Night LIVE pop culture show all about the 1990s. And originally aired in 2007.
So it’s not bad enough NBC is reminding people how old they’ve gotten, but they have to doubly do it by reminding us with a repeat of a reminder!
It gets bad. Television is bad.. I ended up watching 25 minutes of a creepy minister with a bad toupee ‘healing’ people. I had enough when he ‘healed’ a woman who was deaf since 3..
Have these bottom dwellers no shame …?
I’m not tired yet but by GOD I’m not watching this anymore.. It’s trashier than SKINEMAX..
Those who worry the wait will be long for Peter the Roman (or whoever) to be revealed may take comfort in this news bit from the Vatican tonight: The conclave may meet prior to March 15.. Now how quick the white puff of smoke will rise is anyone’s guess. Undoubtedly behind the cassocks and frocks, a mean and nasty campaign for Pope is underway..
A new years resolution I had last year and again this year was to write a book. If figured a page a day.
I didn’t get much at that so far in 2013. But is it too late to start? I’d only be down 47 pages.
So I figured if I actually did start my book today, I’d have 47 blank pages in the beginning.
So it’s been dormant for years. It’s once again being utilized. Ayden likes Mario for WII so I wanted to see just how big of a fan he is. Turns out, he actually likes SUPER MARIO 3 and …..Donkey Kong (that one surprised me.) Of course getting the games to work is a little difficult. You often should pack a lunch just waiting for the game to actually start.
And then…midstream when you’re doing good just like you did as a kid, the game does that scrambled TV moment, freezes, and turns off on its own. And you feel as angry as you did in 1992 when it first started to happen.
I am just amazed that a game made in 1987 still works.. I am equally amazed that my son, born into sin during the 21st century, welcomes it with open arms.
Maybe he’ll one day bring friends over to the house to show them this really old, really feeble, and really antique gaming system.
And then … maybe I’ll introduce the movie THE WIZARD to him. And blow his mind!
The revenge of the 20th century!! Let’s see if the WII still works in 2030!
The trail of a falling object is seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, where a meteorite flared spectacularly in the sky.
From Meteorite explosion over Russia – in pictures
Photograph: Reuters
Sing that in an Alicia Keys’ style voice.
Seriously though, why does the LAPD insist that they didn’t set any fires on the cabin with Chris Dorner in it? We have audio and scanners saying ‘burn the mother f&*^er down’ … Maybe it was just symbolic of their thoughts, of course. We will never have evidence. And like Waco, this will become another conspiracy theory and cult-favorite topic.
But… seriously, audio explaining they were burning it down. And an official denial afterwards? Why bother..?
“Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
“Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.”
The last Pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415. I don’t think he Tweeted. Or wore beautiful red Prada shoes.
It’s flu recovery weekend. For Ayden it’s his letters, pop tarts and peanut butter cereal. For me, CAFFEINE for the first time in months. For mom, soup. And for all three of us lots of sleeps. A nice cold winter day for it, too. Later on we may embrace the world again and go for some Japanese. I really think so.
My local paper is applauding a DJ returning home from the ‘big cities,’ coming back to backwards Schuylkill county, and with him funk music in an all vinyl style.
I wish him luck and ANYTHING that makes this county more lively is a plus.
But my fear? There are already too many mullets existent in this area… And I’d hate to see them coupled with browns fuzzy carpets of the 70s.
Bring the vibe of funk, sure. But maybe also ditch flannels and mom jeans.
This seriously would be the scariest storm ever…
Braving the NYC blizzard to get to Saturday Night Live is none other than Justin Bieber. This is a snap from his Twitter with Lorne Michaels. I don’t have a joke. Lots of others will.. But I did initially think this was a grandmother celebrating her granddaughter’s first day of school.
I think all the cold and snow in New York will lead to lots of Sunday morning Bieber fever.
The median of the Long Island Expressway near exit 60. #NBCNewsStorm
(Video: Anthony Quintano / NBC News)
The sounds of silence on a major interstate after a blizzard. Somewhat chilling, no pun intended.
John Silver shovels snow between buried cars in front of his home on Third Street in South Boston, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
How depressing.. Not being able to see your car in winter is similar to not able to see your feet after a big dinner. The digging out occurring now….in very windy conditions.
More: Young women dazed, restrained in hospital beds, acting possessed and then becoming catatonic. They’d been so normal, when suddenly their lives went haywire.
“One minute I’d be sobbing, crying hysterically, and the next minute I’d be laughing, said Susannah Cahalan, of New Jersey.
The other scary thing is that very often it may be completely misdiagnosed as a mental disorder .., or even in the religious world, as a satanic possession..
So…why the cluster?
White House home movies.
Our Nixon documents the president’s rise and fall through home movies shot by three of Nixon’s closest aides. Forgotten for nearly 40 years, these Super 8 films offer a unique look at life inside the White House.
This could be an interesting idea..
Major U.S. airlines have canceled 2,933 flights ahead of what could be a historic blizzard in the Northeast on Friday
The blizzard will be big but for FEMA and Bank of America to cause fear by telling people to make runs or cash now seems a little shortsighted.. no?
Cash on hand is good. Food is good. Blankets are good. But issuing messages to cause panic? Not good..
John Brennan CIA hearing interrupted by protests
AP: John Brennan’s confirmation hearing to head the CIA was interrupted repeatedly on Thursday. The protests centered on CIA drone strikes.
At one point, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ordered the proceedings halted and the room cleared so those re-entering could be screened to block obvious protesters.
Video: The Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA Director opens with protesters. (Politico)
A reader pointed that out. They will be getting the blizzard too. And check out http://snlbound.tumblr.com/ and support her quest, pretty cool site that I have been following for a while.
If killing Americans with no due process is OK when their alleged crime is consorting with al-Qaida, it’s not a huge intellectual leap to give government officials the same judge-and-jury authority over other heinous acts such as mass murder, drug trafficking, and child pornography.
Great point. It’s good to see so many are coming out questioning the creepy Obama drone memos..
I am jealous of neighbors to the north. They will be getting the ‘big storm’ that I was hoping would happen in my parts for years. On course with feet of snow so comes misery..
My only warning to those in Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut: don’t let Andre Linoge in even if he promises to go away if he gets what he wants.
The New York Times reports something a little disconcerting:The fate of New York City’s legions of rats remained something of a mystery in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Rodent specialists predicted that many rats would drown in submerged subway tunnels, but also that survivors would feast on the buffet of garbage strewed in the streets. Now, several exterminators say they know exactly what happened to the rats: Driven from shorelines, the rodents came inland, in droves.
The Times goes on to describe just how bad it got in NYC..
The TIMES interviewed a pest control expert, Timothy Wong:Mr. Wong said he had been getting calls from schools and businesses, and from luxury buildings where rats have made warrens out of the planters. Shortly after the storm, his company received calls from several customers aghast to discover teeth marks and droppings in their cars. Mr. Wong’s advice: open the door. Though one woman, a BMW owner, refused, and instead hired his company to open the door for her, and shoo the rat out.
A new world of possibilities in the city that doesn’t sleep—for rats.
My son and I shared the common bond of a stomach virus. He’s only 2 and has lots more to go.. I remembered how much I hate being sick. This one was particularly loathsome for the two of us.. Now it’s the soreness of the body and the headache, we both may venture to the kitchen to eat today… Lightly.
Well my worst fears realized, my son has a stomach virus at the same time I do I feel very bad for mommy tonight.
Why do eye doctors get all up in your grill? Do they feel as uncomfortable as the patient does as they press their flesh against your face while they examine your eyeball?
My doctor tonight had that faint smell of late Winter body odor coupled with onions for lunch on his breath.
Is just my doctor or does everyone else go through this too?
For those who did not see the Superbowl halftime show, here it is
This really made me laugh..
I went to a viewing tonight.. they are never pretty.
But viewings of someone who is 32 aren’t meant to occur.. viewings of a mom who had three kids is not fair at all..
Even worse, those friends who I gathered with were all with me in high school.. and here we are, aging beyond our early years, talking about parenting, graying hairs, and enlargening bellies..
So when the sadness was over, I walked to my car in the cold January air.. there was the most gorgeous moon shining above. I turned on Pandora and what else is on but but my favorite band AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT with THE KIDS ARE READY TO DIE. It may not be a song about a young woman dying of cancer, but somehow it fit the feeling of the night..
Give it a listen if you never heard it before. And if you did, listen again…
I don’t know if there is a meaning of life but I sure hope there is. Don’t we all?
After seeing grieving children it gets tough to find that meaning, doesn’t it?
Peace all. Be safe.
The media went nuts! A performance for the ages. Just it wasn’t live … I’d imagine most folks won’t care a bit about this issue but it’s sure fun to gossip about people billions richer than me…
It’s being called the GIF for the ages. First Lady Michelle Obama rolls her eyes at the House Speaker.. if only we could have been a fly in the food for this conversation..
Memories are packed with .. so much.
Things that matter. Some that don’t.
Useless facts.
Useless fiction.
But this I know: I was a freshman in Cardinal Brennan High in 1996 and my friend, Jared, introduced me to the greatness of this REM song. And in 2013, it’s still just as great as it was when I didn’t know anything way back when. Hell, I STILL don’t know anything.
There is so much time that goes by it’s difficult to even begin to measure it..
We had another Inauguration today. It is historic. But we have been through lots of history, haven’t we?
It all sort of just….blends together into a …something. A piece of history. Fact? Fiction? Oh I don’t know which, but we will debate that until we are blue in the face, won’t we?
The world is a bitter, bitter place. So often this planet seems hostile to life—not hospitable to the humans who inhabit it..
We are just racing time. Hoping to somehow beat the clock. In the end, no one wins, unless you’re the timekeeper…
Good day, all.
Obama. Part 2.
Good luck Mr. President.
Obama said as he looked over the Capitol,
“I want to look out one more time because I’m not going to see this again”
It must be an amazing sight..
The flu is spreading.. Some are filling up on pills or racing for the vaccine. We here in Schuylkill county PA take a different approach. Friends neighbors and coworkers share boilo this time of year. And thanks to wonderful coworkers at my wife’s job, warm apple pie boilo is bringing soothing relief to sore throats in the Coal Speaker abode tonight… Got boilo? We do..
Before you get ‘all thumbs’ paging through the newest edition of ESQUIRE magazine, consider the following information about Megan Fox: She does not want to be Marilyn Monroe anymore. She is reportedly even getting a tattoo of Monroe removed from her own body.
Also enter into the picture this: She can’t stand pills, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke. What does she do? Feels safest in God’s hands.
And she also compares Marilyn Monroe’s life to that of Lindsay Lohan. I don’t know which one would be more offended…
My son absolutely loves this song from the YouTube channel KIDSTV123. It’s a rather depressing ditty about our solar system.. each planet, and the sun, sings about its surface.. set to a sad melody. When Ayden sees it he is just in awe.. I am, somewhat, too.. It sticks in your head, in a strange and somber sort of way…
And take note: Pluto has not been included.
I want to shield my eyes from television.. I want to clothes my ears. I want to vanish from this fight.. There are no winners in the gun battle, no losers. President Obama has staked his presidency now on fighting violence—violence perpetrated in the violent hearts of men and women in weapons. The gun lobby, and those who fear the 2nd Amendment will be trampled, will not back down either. There is a battle looming..
I don’t want to write about it. Read about it. Know about it.
I want life to go back to how it was before Sandy Hook.. before the rampage that took so many innocent lives.
After 9/11 everything changed. After Sandy Hook, everything also changed. A new war on… terrorism? hate? mental illness? what will we call this one?
I was told of a conversation that took place amongst people opposed to each other on this issue. On one side, the protagonist said she wants all guns, no matter the gun or purpose of it, banned. On the other side, the antagonist argued that guns were ok but not military assault weapons. With a caveat. If someone came into a building the antagonist was in, and attempted to open fire, she hoped that someone else in that building would have a gun equal or stronger to blow the shooter away..
I heard the argument that the 2nd amendment never contemplated assault weapons. But did the 1st amendment ever consider the internet? Things change.. evolution happens. What would the founding fathers say, should they come back from the dead? Would they abandon their muskets in favor of bushmasters, or reconsider the 2nd Amendment…?
We are in for a big fight. A year’s worth of negative ads on one side and another.. a political world will come crashing down, arguing late into the night. This will divide states, towns, and families. It will be a civil war, of sorts.. Will the pen be mightier than the sword? Will the ink dry faster than the blood?
Brace yourself! Get your Facebook dashboards ready! The battle royal begins…
I may resign from this fight and abandon allegiance to either side. Middle ground! Common sense! Nah.. America never backed down from a fight. Especially with each other…
A YouTube user Amy Bessler made a pretty cool documentary on Centralia, PA, my hometown and site of the famed mine fire that forced thousands of people out of the area..I know the fine folks who were interviewed in this presentation, and they are good, actually GREAT, people. It’s also a good oratory history of what happened in the town and how the government eventually ended up telling residents they needed to move.
I have written on here before that I recall many memories of my early childhood, sitting on my grandmother’s porch sipping hot chocolate—while homes across the streets were knocked down by heavy machinery. As a child you really don’t comprehend what is occurring right in front of your eyes..
No one was killed by the mine fire, but many died from broken hearts as they watched their once beloved town become an ash heap of rubble..
This documentary is worth the watch, should you have a spare 13 minutes. Worth the time..
I think the answer is complicated. In one regard, quite frankly George Noory shows little to no intellectual curiosity and rarely appears as though he truly wants to learn anything new.. If Noory had competition in the night hours, say if Art Bell actually came back again, I predict lots of affiliates with dump Noory in place of Bell. So in that regard Premiere is happy because, without anyone to fight him, Coast is the top show at night. Noory seems to also use those same cue cards all of the time… and deliver very frustrating programs to those with common sense…
Until some bigger stations dump Coast to Coast or until competition rears its head, Premiere has nothing to lose with allowing Noory to keep being dumb in the middle of the night.
Seeing my nephew turn 21 and sip Sam Adams and eat wings today was a wake up call: I’m getting old! Way old.. So much so that I was drinking Sierra Mist so I could avoid the caffeine content and sleep at a reasonable time
I understand times change but by God I’d like to go back to 21 again.. A sick pack of beer and an entire pizza in a night was nothing. Now I’d feel like it was instant heart disease…
Life takes funny turns. Now not funny ha ha.. Funny bla bla…
Reuters reports this tonight:
"Temperatures in China have plunged to their lowest in almost three decades, cold enough to freeze coastal waters and trap 1,000 ships in ice, official media said at the weekend."
Anonymous gets involved in Steubenville, OH, rape case; releases video of high school football stars bragging about brutal rape of girl…
The kids aren’t alright..
A disturbing story out of Ohio..
In Steubenville, OH, the football team is tops..
And most people are counting down days until the next season.
So when teenagers were accused of brutally raping a girl and urinating on her, it shocked the town.
Now even more shocking:The group Anonymous is invovled, even to the point where they are releasing videos of students joking about how brutal the rape was..
The hacked video was released by the group.. it shows teens laughing about the crime, and even commenting that the girl must have been dead because she wasn’t moving during the raping..
Many are now asking 'why' as the rape shocks the small city in Ohio..
The part of the story that may shock the city the most: The heralded football team is bragging in the video about the rape.. a part of the quote from the video:
“She is so raped,” he says. “Her puss is about as dry as the sun right now.” She’s “deader than a door nail,” and “deader than OJ’s wife”
Hillary out.
Already out of the hospital, reports indicate that Secretary Clinton is already quite active..
Onto the White House in ‘16!?
For the record, Bubba is joining Hil in the photo..
The first First Man of the nation!?
Nothing can keep her down.
Cnn: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he does not support a Senate deal to avert the fiscal cliff but that House GOP leaders have made no decisions on the bill’s fate.
Carson Daly sure got old. David Letterman was a rerun. And ABC with without Dick Clark. All the more reason to watch CNN’s odd mixture of real news with Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper. At one point it appears she went down on him.
As usual, lots of uncomfortable moments and strange ones, too. Such as when Kathy Griffin kept interrupting Cooper reporting that there was a late night fiscal cliff deal.
Strange stuff indeed. Cable TV. Weird.
The entire earth has flipped the calender to 2013.
And with it, we know, you can’t turn back the hands of time.
No matter how much you try.
Let’s make it a great year
