This one's short & sweet: *Best Shop Sign (*Ever)...

Best Shop Sign*:
(*Ever)

"Unattended Children Will Be Either Eaten Or Sold Into Slavery." 

- Braindrops Piercing & Tattoo (You gotta Love Tha Haight.)


I happened to see this sign after deciding to let my facial piercing (self-pierced by Yours Truly) close and get a new professional piercing done in its place.
Me: Hollow piercing needles?  Go figure!  What will they think of next?
(I'd MacGyver'd my current piercing - several years back - using only a large sewing needle and an eraser.)

 

 

Photo Credit: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Porpoise rescued from rice field after Japan tsunami

Pet shop owner Ryo Taira rescues the young fin-less porpoise from a flooded rice paddy two km (1mi) inland. (AFP/Asahi)

(Yess!) I just found this golden nugget of Good News originating from tsunami-devastated Sendai, Japan (Insert visual of me doing the "Happy Dance", here):

Japanese animal rescue volunteers have saved a porpoise from a rice field after it washed two kilometres inland by the March 11 tsunami.

Ryo Taira and his group were in the devastated area around Sendai rescuing cats and dogs when they received a phone call that took them a while to comprehend, the Asahi daily reported.

"There's a dolphin in the rice fields!" said the caller, Masayuki Sato, 55, confusing the baby porpoise with the similar-looking sea mammal.

The volunteers rushed to the site at nearby Ishinomaki, where they saw the animal - a finless porpoise or Neophocaena phocaenoides - wriggling in a flooded rice field.

Read the rest of this inspiring (and brief) rescue story, here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/23/3172015.htm

Enjoy (I certainly did)!
L.

Victim of Bullying A Web Hero! Have YOU Body-Slammed A Bully Today?!

A Warning To Bullies Everywhere:

No matter how big and bad you think you are - there's going to be someone bigger and badder than you.

And, there's this (I'm speaking now as a former bullied kid):

You think you're getting away with... you do it all the time... anytime... to anyone...

And well, hell, no one's raised a finger to stop you.

And (contrary to what nearly every single adult suggest kids do in these situations), of course, they won't tell on you, won't be tattle-tales, won't rat you out.

(You know that they're afraid they'd get worse if they did.)

No one's told (Yet.).

So, you go on bullying.

Saying all kinds of ugly, nasty, hurtful things... inflicting physical pain, humiliation and embarrassment... causing tears to fall... drawing blood... touching...

And all the while, you think you're on top... you're unstoppable... Top o' the food chain.

You're confident that they're all afraid... terrified even... that they could be they next one targeted by you... and well, sure, that may seem True... at the moment.

But, I'd like to point out that, just in case you weren't aware:

Still waters not only run deep...  They often run... Dark.

In those situations where one's being subjected to emotional and physical torment (often repeated/prolonged) and the victims feel powerless to stop it - they can't physically overtake their abuser...

And well, yeah, everybody hates a Rat... so, telling anyone's out.

In such situations, pig-headed bullies can never really know if or when someone who has been bullied, ridiculed and abused - often mercilessly and often for years...

Someone the bully and others think is already destined to be a victim for the rest of their life...

They just will never know when that "victim" is going to reach a moment when something inside them snaps... goes "click"...

 And, the victim just doesn't care anymore. They just don't want to hurt anymore.
And, they're gonna make it all stop... Now.

(Example: Columbine High School. Those two boys were victims of repeated/prolonged bullying. They reached that point. They'd had enough. It was going to stop. And, everyone who'd participated in/laughed at their misery would be sorry.)


What victim of perpetual bullying hasn't wanted to blow away his abusers?

So, consider yourselves warned, assholes.

Bullying Sucks!

I think I'll get bumper-stickers made:  "Have YOU Body-Slammed a Bully Today?!"

(If you haven't, that's O.K., you've got plenty of time left.)

Why am I Blogging about Bullying?  You might ask...

Because of this Awesome story that's come out of Australia (with video, of course):

The video was captured in an, apparently, unsupervised area of a school and shows one chubby boy getting bullied (punched in the face and torso) and taunted by another, scrawnier, boy as other kids watch and laugh at his situation.

The attack goes on for a few moments - until the former "victim" reaches that moment when he's finally had enough.

He's taken the abuse and the taunts and he's turned the other cheek and he's walked away and there's just no end in sight.  So...  Well, you'll see...

All I have to say is: "Go Casey!"

You'll find the article and video at the link below:
(From: The Daily Telegraph.com.au)

Victim of school bullying a web hero -Bruce McDougall

Peace,

L.

Japan's Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant: Where 3 Isn't Company - It's A Catastrophe.

As if you didn't need anymore reasons to dislike Mondays...

As if the devastating 8.9 quake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, followed shortly thereafter by the news (with video) of an explosion at the building housing a nuclear reactor at one of Japan's 50 nuclear plants wasn't enough...

Here's an update:
There are three reactors at Fukushima's Dai-ichi nuclear power plant which are now facing possible meltdown.

This Is Not A Drill, People.

Gee. No... G.E., actually.
(As in "General Electric") :P

What does GE have to do with any of this? You might ask...
Well, in some I-wish-I-could-say "surprising news", it turns out there have long been known vulnerabilities with GE's Mark 1 containment structures - such as are found in the three Japanese reactors which are now creeping - like tectonic plates - toward Epic (not to mention avoidable) Man-Made Disaster Status.

Here's an enlightening - if not irritating article on the matter from The Guardian (thankfully not - I hope - a subsidiary of corporate blob GE):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/14/nuclearpower-energy

Pray... Think "Good Thoughts"... Whatever feels "right" to you.

Looking On "The Bright Side"...
Here's hope and optimism that, at the very least, the horrible man-made disasters we are now experiencing - ones which followed what were - without exception - inevitable (if not predictable) natural disasters will usher in The End Times for the nuclear power industry.

Peace,
L.

Location Location Location, Right? So, How Did Japan End Up W/50 Nuclear Plants?

Japan is one nation I'd never have expected to go with the perpetually-poisonous (toxic waste w/half-lives) and potentially disastrous-beyond-belief route of energy production that is nuclear power.

Boy, was I wrong.

Despite it's geographical location, which is smack in the midst of " The Ring of Fire" and despite being struck, frequently, by sizable Earthquakes which are often followed by Tsunami - the archipelago that is Japan (formed by one tectonic plate moving under another in a process called subduction) has 50 (that's five-0) nuclear power plants.

Fifty nuclear power plants scattered across beautiful islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Hmmm... How is it that, apparently, no national and/or international chorus of scientists. statisticians, people who understand how priceless and fragile ecosystems are... or even just those fortunate ones who possess Common Sense rose up to Protest, declaring for those blinded by greed(?) "This is a Stupid Idea!"? {rhetorical question}

Sigh.  Well, as was - without exception - bound to happen at some point - Yesterday. Friday, Japan was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

Japan has declared an atomic power emergency. At one of the 50 plants, Daiichi, residents within a 6-mile radius of the plant have been ordered to evacuate.  The neighboring Daini plant is also reporting offline reactors. Members of the world's scientific community are voicing concern that Japanese officials are being less than forthcoming with timely and accurate information.

Initially, Daiichi had reported falling back on back-up power sources to provide the energy required to continue pumping the huge amounts of water through the reactors which is necessary in order to keep the nuclear cores cool. About an hour later - after the tsunami had struck - they had lost that back-up power source.

The worst-case scenario?  A very real possibility: nuclear meltdown.

The last news report I heard said that at least 10 of Japan's reactors were off-line due to the quake and subsequent tsunami.

I sincerely hope that those rocket scientists who promoted the idea that Japan was the perfect location for nuclear power plants also made a point to build some state-of-the-art concrete plants close-by...

Well, not too close-by...

Last night, TRMS offered a clear, concise and to-the-point segment on the ongoing and worrisome situation in Japan with a physicist from The Union Of Concerned Scientists.
Check it out:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Peace,
L.