Rep. Anthony Weiner Twitter Photo

Update: June 7, 2011 - There has been a call for an investigation to see if he improperly used funds while up to these shenanigans. Many in the US House of Representatives want him to resign.

Update: June 6, 2011 - Weiner admitted he has inappropriate internet relationships with several women. He even held a press conference about it!

Original article:

Rep. Anthony Weiner has been accused of sending a lewd photo from his Twitter account to a 21-year old college student. Supposedly the picture was of a man's nether region, wearing boxer shorts. He of course denies the allegation, saying his Twitter account was hacked. I think we'll never know the real story.

Now for the embarrassing part. I BET A LOT OF PEOPLE HAD THE SAME THOUGHT! BE HONEST!

I must be up front - I am addicted to spell checking. Many people are. You had the same thought too.


You are thinking, "His name is Weiner, you mean like a hot dog?" He is being accused of that and his name is what?

But alas, no. Not like a hot dog. I had to look it up on Google. The food item is spelled wiener (blush!). Remember the "i" before "e" rule? I remembered it, but second guessed myself, maybe it was one of those words that breaks the rule? But no, it is wiener.

No hate comments, please. I know a lot of people have the last name Weiner. But a lot of people also have the last name Wiener. Now we are all clear on the spelling?

Wiener is German for Viennese, or a German sausage named after Vienna. Wiener is not used in this context in Vienna.

LRG Co-Founder Jonas Bevacqua Dead

Co-founder of LRG and clothing entrepreneur Jonas Bevacqua died last night, reportedly in his sleep. Autopsy is pending. He was 34 years old!

This guy really had his mojo working! In 2006 it was reported that LRG had $150M in sales and Entrepreneur magazine placing it at No. 5 on that year's list of the 500 fastest growing companies. This guy was a big deal!

I truly feel bad for him and his family. Anyone dying is sad news, but being 34 makes it much worse.

The thing that really gets me about this, other than is sad untimely death, is that I NEVER HEARD OF HIM! I NEVER HEARD OF LRG!

Was Jonas Bevacqua really famous? Am I the only one that never heard of him or his company? Comments appreciated. I'm really trying to figure this out. Makes me feel old. Is there a large part of society I am missing out on? I must be the only clueless person about this because I saw a lot of reports on his death all over the Internet today. Or maybe a slow news day?

He obviously was a really smart, or really lucky, guy we should all admire. $150M in sales in 2006 is a big deal.

Jonas Bevacqua, we'll miss you!

EHEC Bacteria in European Cucumbers

Update: June 7, 2011 - I heard today that now they are NOT thinking it is from the bean sprouts. They have no idea what the source is. The mystery continues.

Update: June 5, 2011 - The German government now thinks the root of the problem was bean sprouts from a farm South of Hamburg. -- Oops, sorry Spain!

Original article from May 31, 2011:

Escherichia coli (aka E. coli) has been detected in cucumbers in Europe.

People were likely infected from eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce. 16 dead and 1000+ sick, 400 potentially fatally sick. Most of the outbreak has occurred in Germany. Russia banned the import of these vegetables. This is a big deal.

The Netherlands said it wasn't them.



Taiwannews.com.tw reports:

It's "extraordinary" to see so many cases of the kidney complication from a foodborne illness, said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne disease expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health," Tauxe said. He added that the strain of E. coli in the European outbreak has not been seen in the United States, where there have been several high-profile foodborne outbreaks in recent years, but none with such a high death toll.

At first it was suspected that the cucumbers to blame were from Spain. But tests revealed Spain was not to blame. Dutch vegetables have been declared free of EHEC bacteria. Where the EHEC originated from is so far a mystery.

EHEC is really bad, causing sickness ranging from bloody diarrhea to hemolytic uremic syndrome, the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill patients are suffering from. The syndrome is not short lived. After 10 to 20 years after the infection 30 to 50 percent of victims have some kidney disfunction.

WHO is on the case.

UPDATE: See my comment - the cause of this outbreak is still a mystery!

Bigfoot video

A new Bigfoot sighting video has surfaced. Caught using an iPhone. Is it real or fake? Have a look and decide for yourself:



The actual video is only 9 seconds, but then they tack on an instant replay zoomed up.

To me Bigfoot looks like it has a stature that is too human like. It looks like me dressed up in a Bigfoot costume!

We must ask ourself why in most of the Bigfoot videos he is running. Doesn't Bigfoot ever rest? His fur seems so thick he would quickly overheat.

It is interesting that the family of the creator of the Bigfoot legend, Ray Wallace, admitted it was all a hoax. Remember this photo?

Ray Wallace died in 2002 and after his death his son, Michael Wallace, admitted that it was all a staged hoax and the Bigfoot was actually his mother in costume. Seriously. I am NOT making this up!

See http://skepdic.com/bigfoot.html for a very good synopsis of Bigfoot.

Awesome Czech Music Video

My brother-in-law found one of the best music videos ever on the internet. Is this Polka? Is this Folk? Or .... Folka? Click on the image to the left to see the youTube video. Please watch through to the end where the guy blows on the sheet of glass. Classic!

Actually it is a parody band called Ivan Mládek & Banjo Band. They were popular in the 1970's. I'll never understand Czechoslovakian so I will never understand it.

They have a great website (although I can not read it) Here. Seeing things like this makes me feel there is a large part of the world I am missing out on.

I found a picture of Ivan today:

As the website states:
Hudebník Ivan Mládek láme rekordy se svou skladbou Jožin z bažin v Polsku a Rusku, teď patrně okouzlí celý svět. Dal totiž souhlas k tomu, aby jeho píseň a videoklip mohla použít světově známá hudební stanice MTV. Skladba Jožin z bažin umocnila popularitu nejen samotného Ivana Mládka, ale i jeho kapely Banjo Band. Píseň se v posledních měsících stala oblíbená v Maďarsku, Rusku a především Polsku.
Whatever!

And here is the bearded guy (I think):

Harold Camping and the Spiritual Rapture

OK, this is weirder then Mike the Headless Chicken. And even a far bit sadder.

Harold Camping, the instigator of the failed Judgment Day, made a very long public statement tonight.

Usually his show consists of answering questions from callers. But tonight he was accepting no calls from the public. Harold talked for an hour trying to explain himself, then opened up for questions from a room full of reporters.

His talk at the beginning started out sounding like he was going to apologize. He sounded rather clear headed and humble about the whole thing. But he slowly digressed into rambling about this and that.

The upshot is that the Rapture actually happened on May 21, 2011. His error was in predicting what kind of Rapture it would be. It turned out to be a "spiritual rapture", or a rapture in spirit and not in the physical world. Thus, no earthquakes or people floating up to heaven.

He states the real end of the world WILL BE OCTOBER 21, 2011. On that day the saved will be swept up to heaven and the world will be destroyed very quickly. The non-saved will not go to hell, but will just cease to exist.

One reporter asked if FamilyRadio.com will give any money back. They collected over $100M in donations (from crazy people) to spread the word. He thinks there is no point to returning the money, no one will need it after October 21, 2011.

So the debacle continues.

Mike the Headless Chicken

OK, this is weirder than the Judgment day fiasco!

In 1945 a farmer in Colorado went to kill a chicken for dinner. He botched the job, not quite killing the chicken, leaving the brain stem intact. Basically, the chicken had no head. Quickly named 'Mike', the chicken continued to live for the next 18 months!

As you can imagine, in 1945 a headless chicken was a rare sight (remember, there was no TV then!). So the farmer went on tour. He was featured in Time and Life magazines. At the height of his side show career, Mike the Headless Chicken made it's owner $4800 in one month.

Mike died one night, he choked to death. I can't say I blame him.

They now have "Mike's Festival" every third weekend in May. That would have been last weekend! I missed it! If you are ever in Fruita, Colorado, make sure to see it and leave a comment here. See Mike's website here. He even has a Facebook page.

Others tried to make their own headless chicken (can you blame them?) but nobody could make one that would last more than 2 days. Yuck.

More details are at Wikipedia. I got the picture from there also.