TODAY IS IMPORTANT

My wife is 36. My son is 5.
Birthdays galore.. and moments in time that we need to stop and reflect.

Tara may not want picture herself at the age she is–though I remind her she can now run for president. Heck if Trump can anyone can.

As for Ayden, 5 is a big deal.

I still remember his first birthday.. And third.. and now fifth–we didn’t skip the 2nd and 4th but we just opted not to have parties for them.

So later today as a dozen kids roll around a giant play time location with a ball pip and giant sliding board, it will feel strange and real.

Later this year: Kindergarten.

Until then let’s hold on to 16 as long as we can. The changes coming around real soon will make us women and men.

I love you Tara.
I love you Ayden.

Brazilian health officials and the World Health Organization are denying links between a well-known pesticide and microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to develop abnormally small heads and leads to death in some cases. The pesticide is called Pyriproxyfen, and it’s used in water tanks to eliminate mosquito larvae.

Brazilian health officials and the World Health Organization are denying links between a well-known pesticide and microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to develop abnormally small heads and leads to death in some cases. The pesticide is called Pyriproxyfen, and it’s used in water tanks to eliminate mosquito larvae.:

MORE:

“We decided to suspend the use of the product [Pyriproxyfen] in human consumption water until we get a position in the Ministry of Health and because of that we strengthen the appeal to the population to eliminate any possible breeding ground of the mosquito,” said Gabbardo said…

There are a large number of people who believe that Zika is being blamed too quickly..

SALON writes: Could a horror movie set in the 17th century explain America’s current insanity?

SALON writes: Could a horror movie set in the 17th century explain America’s current insanity?:

Is “The Witch,” under the surface, a story about sexual abuse, and about the vicious combination of guilt and jealousy that can poison relationships between mother and daughter, or between sisters? That’s certainly one way to read it. Is it, on a grander scale, an allegorical tale about religious hysteria and paranoid delusion, and even about the current of self-hatred and self-destructiveness that lies at the heart of the American experience? I would strongly argue for yes. But those aren’t mutually exclusive options — and it’s also a story about a well-meaning American family confronted by evil.

There is a witch in the woods, after all. We see her sneaking away with infant Sam, the unbaptized babe so crucial to certain diabolical rituals. Later in the film, we see her lure Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), Thomasin’s slightly younger brother, into her lair with a display of legs and cleavage entirely without precedent in 17th-century America. Is it relevant that we have already seen Caleb, a devout and loyal son, eyeing his sister’s body with the first stirrings of prurient interest? It might be. I’m sure someone will write a piece this week suggesting that Eggers is playing into misogynistic stereotype by implying that there may really have been child-killing witches in the New England woods, who could fly and who engaged in unorthodox sexual practices and who had signed their names in blood in the Black Book.

UMBERTO ECO DEAD AT 84

UMBERTO ECO DEAD AT 84

A pair of NASA astronauts released a capsule loaded with 1.5 tons of trash Friday. The spacecraft should re-enter the atmosphere and burn up harmlessly over the Pacific on Saturday.

A pair of NASA astronauts released a capsule loaded with 1.5 tons of trash Friday. The spacecraft should re-enter the atmosphere and burn up harmlessly over the Pacific on Saturday.

Trump says he'll release hidden 28 pages of 9/11 report

Trump says he'll release hidden 28 pages of 9/11 report :

Those pages detail the nation that that aided the hijackers… Some have seen, a few. But you haven’t. Or me. Trump says he’ll show us. And he thinks it implicates the Saudis…

This is wild.

WINTER IS NOT OVER..Evidence supplied from the latest computer...

WINTER IS NOT OVER..

Evidence supplied from the latest computer model runs of a storm coming next week showcases that.. 
BUT…
The confidence level of a cold storm is low.. there is so much uncertainty about this. It could be rain. Ice. Mix. Snow. All of the above.. And all for a long duration–if this is all snow get ready for more than 1 foot. If it’s a mix, get ready for one of the sloppiest segways into March winter can provide..

Accuweather is forecasting that enough cold weather should pour in to make snowmen possible.

All this possible. And developing. A days away.

McDonald's survey of franchisees finds pessimistic view of chain

McDonald's survey of franchisees finds pessimistic view of chain:

McDonald’s Corp. franchisees remained pessimistic about the company’s turnaround efforts during the much-hyped rollout of all-day breakfast, according to an internal survey. ..

Breakfast all day isn’t helping.

And speaking of breakfast all day, they don’t do egg-white sandwiches, so I hear. Maybe that has hurt too.

OR .. the turn to more healthy food in America would have gone wild on their profits and futures..?

Pope suggests contraceptives OK to slow Zika

Pope suggests contraceptives OK to slow Zika:

In other Pope news, he said that Donald Trump was not really a Christian. Trump fired back that when ISIS attacks the Vatican, the Pope will wish he would have prayed that the Donald would have been President.

2016 sure has been wild so far..

scarystoriestouploadinthedark: CUTE SELFIE MOMENT GONE WRONG:...

scarystoriestouploadinthedark:

CUTE SELFIE MOMENT GONE WRONG: KILLS BABY DOLPHIN

Real news from Buenos Aires.. James Joiner from the DAILY BEAST reporting:

Two Franciscana dolphins were ripped from the waves near an Argentinan resort last week, then manhandled to shore, where they were passed around a clutching mob seeking cute selfie moments. In the process, at least one of the intelligent, playful cetaceans died from the experience. Franciscana, or La Plata, dolphins are unable to spend as long out of the water as their larger brethren.

“At least one of these dolphins suffered a horrific, traumatic and utterly unnecessary death, for the sake of a few photographs,” a spokesperson from the World Animal Protection group told ABC in Australia, condemning the despicable incident. “This terribly unfortunate event is an example of the casual cruelty people can inflict when they use animals for entertainment purposes.”

And then get this:

After being pet and pawed at by dozens of people, one of the small creatures was found discarded on the beach, its usefulness as a social-media prop at an end. It was left coated in sand and soon died slowly of dehydration..

There were a few people still snapping some last minute photos as the creature lay gasping for its last bits if air before death.

There are a number of societal issues within this article.. commentary on our culture can be made as well. 

Feel free to make those.. 
And the next time you see a life form of any kind gasping for air and grasping for life, perhaps you should intervene before the selfie shot is taken.. 

Maybe?

Ranch owner clarifies how he found Scalia's body

Ranch owner clarifies how he found Scalia's body:

The weirdness doesn’t end..

The ranch owner, John Poindexter, tried to clarify his comments, telling “CBS This Morning” that Scalia “had a pillow over his head, not over his face as some have been saying. The pillow was against the headboard.”
Judge Cinderela Guevara said investigators found no signs of foul play or struggle. She added Scalia’s personal physician believed “the death was due to natural causes.”
William Ritchie, the former homicide commander of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, said an autopsy would put all these questions to rest.
“If you’re called to the scene to investigate a death, you will assume that death is a homicide until your investigation proves otherwise,” Ritchie said. “If the death scene was handled in an appropriate manner, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

Pope John Paul letters reveal 'intense' friendship with woman - BBC News

Pope John Paul letters reveal 'intense' friendship with woman - BBC News:

Photographs which have never been seen before by the public reveal Karol Wojtyla at his most relaxed. He invited Ms Tymieniecka to join him on country walks and skiing holidays - she even joined him on a group camping trip. The pictures also show her visiting him at the Vatican.
“Here is one of the handful of transcendentally great figures in public life in the 20th Century, the head of the Catholic Church, in an intense relationship with an attractive woman,” says Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge University.

There are no present allegations or evidence revealed showcasing the relationship became romantic.. But it sure has some wondering if the Polish pontiff desired.
A game changing set of correspondence? Or swept under a Vatican rug?
The world knows now a bit more than it ever did about Pope John Paul II.

Apple ordered to break into San Bernardino shooter's iPhone

Apple ordered to break into San Bernardino shooter's iPhone:

A fascinating battle developing in the tech world and that of justice ..

Apple CEO Tim Cook said late Tuesday that the company would oppose the ruling.
In a message to customers published on Apple’s website, he said: “We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data.”

NY MAG: The world might never know exactly what killed U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia

NY MAG: The world might never know exactly what killed U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia:

His family didn’t want an autopsy performed.

Tin foil hats were properly adjusted.
And conspiracy theories went wild.

GRAMMY STYLE 2016.. Strange times we live in.

GRAMMY STYLE 2016.. Strange times we live in.

Washington POST reports: Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia

Washington POST reports: Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia:

Two days after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died suddenly in remote West Texas, a former D.C. homicide commander is raising questions about how the death was handled by local and federal authorities.

“As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia,” William O. Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for D.C. police, wrote in a post on Facebook on Sunday.

This reporting from the Washington POST–which incidentally is the newspaper of record that sort of started the ball of conspiracy theories rolling.

Intrigue over Scalia death–now hits the Drudge Report..

Intrigue over Scalia death–now hits the Drudge Report..

Scalia strangeness part 2?

Yesterday I posted a few snippets of the Washington POST article of how a conclusion was made that Justice Scalia had a heart attack without an autopsy.. Today another article is upping the ante on strange activity.. Again, I am not placing conspiracy into your head.. I am simply mind-boggled as to why a high justice dies after reports of a relatively healthy day previous and yet no one is concerned that ‘heart attack’ is placed on the death certificate without ANY medical evaluations to say so.. 

Nonetheless, tie Cilbola Creek ranch owner and Houston businessman John Poindexter. In his own words:

We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled. 

He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap

US NEWS: Obama Keeps Public in Dark About 'Black Budget' Requests

US NEWS: Obama Keeps Public in Dark About 'Black Budget' Requests

More than 200,000 army, navy and air force troops fanned out...

More than 200,000 army, navy and air force troops fanned out Saturday across Brazil to teach people how to eliminate the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the Zika virus, which many health officials believe is linked to severe birth defects.

I think this entire situation is being overplayed in some ways by worldwide media.. and the WHO. But “who” am I? 

It is also of extreme importance for one other reason: The Olympics. As a matter of fact, just yesterday, Brazil’s president said that the summer games will go on as planned. Perhaps this issue explains the sudden emergence of 200,000 troops nationwide.

A few days ago news headlines were made in the soccer world: Major US players openly were concerned over ZIKA.

An obvious developing scenario..