A stroll down amnesia lane

My wife and I looked back through old photos tonight.. Way back to those retro days of *gasp* 2005. Yes, it doesn’t seem like a long time ago.. but wrinkles add to the days and stress and weight add to our ways.

It is just strange when you stop for a brief moment and look back at yourself.

Sometimes the events captured in pictures isn’t even fresh in the mind anymore..

Time sure can be fleeting.

I think a new goal, as of now, is to live a little more like every day is the last. Strolling through photos illustrates just how rapidly it all goes.. but where does it go?

I picture Langoliers happily eating the past.

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Ayden Morris is very contemporary in his music preferences..

Armed officials shut down an ice cream stand over a permit violation.

Armed officials.

Happy summer.

And you thought texting while driving was bad.. try this one on for size

Perhaps NATURAL NEWS titles it best: 

Mindless pedestrians walk right into traffic while texting, talking on cell phones

What is happening in this nation, and world? …and street corner. People increasingly unaware of what goes on around them.

We are tuned in to Twitter and Facebook. We are streaming live.. we are Netflixing up life and Skyping until the sun sets.. we are setting up our iPads and iPods and iEverythings at the side of our bed.. ready to search and lurk at a moment’s notice. And yes, even some are putting iPods into their skin so they will vibrate with every alert.

This is our society.. Tuned in but tuned out at the same time. 

A similar note, perhaps: The IQ level of the world is a fascinating thing. The listing can be found here .. Highest: Hong Kong. Where is the United States? 19th.

Find that on your Twitterfeed. Just don’t walk into traffic if you decide to click the link…

Texting.
Sexting.
Wexting (Walking while texting.)

What will be next?

Google announces big change to how search results are delivered, says new search tool will think more like a human.

Kind of a creepy CNN news alert

FAA To Ease Rules For Police Agencies To Fly Unmanned Drones

FAA To Ease Rules For Police Agencies To Fly Unmanned Drones

There are times I really hate the summer.. one reminder of the on again off again relationship occurred today

Seriously. Summer can be great. Weather often beautiful.. long days.. warmth. Sunshine. All that romantic stuff of summer nights. Fourth of July.. Barbeques.

Oh..

And blood sucking ticks.

Yes, ticks.

For all of its beauty and wonder, there are times I despise the summer season. A few reminders occurred in the past few days: My niece unplugged a tick from her neck. My wife got one off her stomach, one we subsequently found crawling in our laundry. My dad had one on his hand. And today while driving my son home from his doctor’s appointment, one little disgusting vile creature was crawling on my arm.

I know the tick season will be worse this year because of the warm winter. Which is another reason I actually LOVE COLD AND SNOWY winters. Get the logic now?

How is tick season where you are?

Interesting story from George Knapp in Vegas: Death in the desert.. bodies buried perplex investigators

Knapp has been ferociously working missing persons stories lately.. his Coast to Coast AM show about strange disappearances in National Parks around America still resonates with many who heard it.

Great story from Knapp.. 

A whole new way of looking at a desert: A vast graveyard topped with sand.

Interesting story from George Knapp in Vegas: Death in the desert.. bodies buried perplex investigators

Something few in the world are paying attention to right now.. but if it happens, the world will notice: A possible Euro split coming?

Merkel warns.
Greece scorns.

Euro splits…
Call it quits? 

Stocks dash.
Hope no crash.

Be aware.
The Euro’s square. 

Something few in the world are paying attention to right now.. but if it happens, the world will notice: A possible Euro split coming?

Mittens wins one for the Gipper: Ron Paul leaves the race

Mitt’s plan is now complete.

Mittens wins one for the Gipper: Ron Paul leaves the race

The future is now: AP reports: One in 3 young adults with autism have no paid job experience, college or technical schooling nearly seven years after high school graduation, a study finds. That's a poorer showing than those with other disabilities including those who are mentally disabled, the researchers said.

As though we needed another reason to understand that the autism generation is growing up.. and when they do, will they have the chance that others did? Or will they be tossed aside by a society that doesn’t value the gifts they have?

This is a big story.. 1 in 3 is a lot. Just as 1 in 88 is, too.

The future is now: AP reports: One in 3 young adults with autism have no paid job experience, college or technical schooling nearly seven years after high school graduation, a study finds. That's a poorer showing than those with other disabilities including those who are mentally disabled, the researchers said.

PLANETS GONE ROGUE? WHAT IS BEHIND NEPTUNE?

        According to one astrophysicist, something lurks behind Neptune: A rogue planet. A new entry to our solar system maybe? The newest theory of a dark icy planet yet undiscovered comes from Rodney Gomes of the University of Brazil. As expected, it sparked quite a controversy after world media picked up the story and circulated it across the planet.

         And also as expected, theories abound.. is it Nibiru, the famed planet X that so many officials say isn’t existent at all?

         We know this: If this planet exists, it is about four times the size of earth, according to Gomes.  He also theorizes that if it’s there hiding behind the known Neptune, it was kicked out of its star system and picked up into orbit by our own sun.

        Dramatic theories from an observation yet unproven, of course.

But consider this: Kepler is finding, constantly, planets. Some massive. Some possibly able to harbor life. Some maybe water. Some with two suns. This universe is still unfolding. We are tiny spokes on the wheel of something grand. Are we even aware we are on a wheel as we spin into infinity?

       Gomes’ theory of another planet remains a debated theory. If it would pan out into science fact it would be spectacular, but also perhaps not overly exciting. Who knows what else lurks out .. there.

         Science is often slow to embrace new truths, anyway. The educated community of people with esteemed degrees is giving the third degree to Gomes’ ideas today all over the net. 

Bunk.

Unreal.

We have 9 planets.

All that they say.

If we had a tenth, it could certainly throw off a great deal of fact we’ve been taught.. plus would lead to the inevitable ripping up of science textbooks.

And if it’s Nibiru? Well then, as imagined, all bets are off.

Something else to be scared of, something with a scary name: The "Devil's Breath"

It can block free will.

Wipe memory.

Create ‘zombies’ out of victims.

It can kill.

It is being dealt on the streets of Columbia and … well, as most drugs do, will most likely make its way around the world. 

But no fear, governments are no strangers to the ramifications of the drug:

In modern times, the CIA used the drug as part of Cold War interrogations, with the hope of using it like a truth serum.

However, because of the drug’s chemical makeup, it also induces powerful hallucinations. 

The tree common around Colombia, and is called the ‘borrachero’ tree – loosely translated as the ‘get-you-drunk’ tree.

Something else to be scared of, something with a scary name: The "Devil's Breath"

Some news stories are cautionary tales to remember youthfulness doesn’t equal invincibility. But it would be very unfair to label George student’s Aimee Copeland ordeal that. After all, she wasn’t really doing anything dangerous.. but still ended up through the freak laws of nature contracting a rare form of a flesh eating disease..

The story has received a lot of worldwide attention. It’s scary to think.. zip lining with friends one minute, in a hospital after the water had germs that got into a cut and gave her a flesh eating virus. She lost a leg already.. She may lose her fingers. And her family has yet to tell her about her condition…

Something seems so wrong about this in the grand scheme of things. She is on a hospital bed going through an intense ordeal of human suffering, she has not a clue as to the ramifications of what happened to her, and yet the rest of the world reads about her situation.. The rest of the world is only connected to her by words and brief seconds on nightly news shows.

Yes, indeed, something just seems unfair about life sometimes. 

The section from the ABC story that hit me the most:

"Aimee appears to have normal brain function at this time, which is something I’m celebrating because within Aimee we have a very compassionate heart and an incredible mind of intellect," said Copeland’s father, Andy Copeland.

Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River May 1 when the line snapped, causing a fall that cut open her left calf.

Doctors at a nearby hospital cleaned and closed the gash with 22 staples, but bacteria that burrowed deep into the wound caused necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but deadly infection that claimed her leg one week ago.

Copeland’s family said she’s coherent and able to nod and shake her head, a gesture she used to pick the Grateful Dead over the Rolling Stones Thursday, according to her sister Paige.

"I just told her if she keeps improving like this, she’ll be out of here in no time," said Paige Copeland.

I just cannot fathom going through this. But even more cannot fathom watching someone else..

Thoughts are with this person. I hope to hell that the universe gives her as good of a spell of luck as it did give her bad luck. How unfortunate..

If you pray do it. If not, do it anything. She needs something.

This map scares me. And makes me even hate summer and ticks more.

The CDC interactive map shows the burst of Lyme Disease since the year 2000.

Interesting stuff. . check it out here

Unfortunately this is Ayden’s new shoe after a specialist appointment today .. He may not remember this in the future but his mom, dad, and family sure will…. Joys of parenting..

How the FBI takes servers. And then reinstalls them

"I thought they were Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I joked with people on the call that it was the FBI," he said.  Moments later, it was no joke.

How the FBI takes servers. And then reinstalls them

newsweek:

Here’s our cover this week, featuring a rainbow-haloed Barack Obama—America’s first gay president!

I’m surprised NEWSWEEK couldn’t find someone who would offer to breast feed the President to combat TIME’s Playboyish cover shot..

And in seriousness, it really should be Joe Biden on the cover as he forced the issue. Just saying.

North Korean women being sold into slavery in China

News of the world never makes a faint heart feel better. This piece of news involving women unknowingly being sold into slavery in China is included with that category of horrific news.

According to the report in the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, women are paying for an escape route to China, only to incur a bigger debt: A life if slavery after being sold.

Reports rumor that hundreds of North Korean women are forced to work in ‘chat rooms’ selling telephone and internet sex.  And who are they talking to? That particular blot appears to go to South Korea.

The MONITOR reports: 

Human rights organizations blame South Korean gangs for some of the suffering. Working in cahoots with Chinese Koreans, investing in karaoke bars in China, they are said to hold women against their will while paying them just enough to survive.

"South Korean businessmen are their best customers,” says Tim Peters, director of Helping Hands Korea, dedicated to aiding North Korean children in China. “It’s a blot on South Korean society,” he says blaming the Chinese for "doing nothing about a criminal system in violation of the rights of women.”

South Korea’s apathy towards the women’s plight as they get sold to the bidders of China may make more sense when considering that many rich South Korean men are the customers.. 

The bottom line: Defectors who escape from North Korea are often hit with hardcore slavery in China. If they are sent back to North Korea, they face beatings, captivity, being placed in a room with 60 other women, stripped naked, and most likely tortured for their crime of defecting. 

This is our modern world, everyone. Not the past. It’s the present. And until the human population gets serious about human rights, it’s the sad future too for many women. 

And finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking that slavery and abuse of women is confined to one torture camp, one prison, one nation, or one continent. The untold story of so many … the internet is filled with evidence of abuse. 

This Mother’s Day, honor your mother. Honor important women. Plus think about the tortured souls not being honored but instead being put through untold consequences for just being born the gender that they have been.

Happy Mother’s Day all. Avoid restaurants. And the woods.