Insomniac's Corner

[gotsnowgotslush]

Molecule That Triggers Sensation of Itch Discovered
May 23, 2013

The small molecule, called natriuretic polypeptide b (Nppb), streams ahead and selectively plugs into a specific nerve cell
in the spinal cord, which sends the signal onward through the central nervous system. When Nppb or its nerve cell was
removed, mice stopped scratching at a broad array of itch-inducing substances. The signal wasn't going through.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130523143348.htm

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Even in its current, mutilated state, The Magnificent Ambersons is, in stretches and flashes, the
marvelous picture Wise remembers. For starters, its relatively unmolested opening sequence is
among the most enchanting ever committed to film, beginning with Welles’s dulcet, radio-style
narration, condensed from Tarkington’s opening pages:

The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873. Their splendor lasted throughout all the
years that saw their Midland town spread and darken into a city.… In that town in those days,
all the women who wore silk or velvet knew all the other women who wore silk or velvet—and
everybody knew everybody else’s family horse-and carriage. The only public conveyance was
the streetcar. A lady could whistle to it from an upstairs window, and the car would halt at
once, and wait for her, while she shut the window, put on her hat and coat, went downstairs,
found an umbrella, told the “girl” what to have for dinner, and came forth from the house. Too
slow for us nowadays, because the faster we’re carried, the less time we have to spare …

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/classic/features/magnificent-obsession-200201

{gsgs comment- I am an old wench. I cannot forget Orson Welles’s voice. The man knew how to wear a hat.}

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

My Brother the Jihadist (2013)

This documentary by British filmmaker Robb Leech chronicles a year in his relationship to his middle-class stepbrother
Richard Dart. Robb Leech is desperate to know why his white middle-class step-brother Rich became radical islamist
Salahuddin, who now associates with jihadist fundamentalists and believes Britain should be ruled by Sharia law.

With unique access and filmed over twelve months, My Brother the Jihadist charts the brothers' relationship, and
Robb's attempt to understand Rich's new extremist lifestyle.

Earning a visit to the Old Bailey.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Trying to wrap my head around this.
Days ago, I was trying to protect my tender young plants from frost.
The next three days will be 90F- 95F
The last day of May/ The first day of June.
WTF ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

1,000 A.D.
Welcome to Vernazza

Belforte Tower
Doria Castle
Commissioned by the Genovese during the early Middle Ages ?
1022-1088 A.D

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/826

*tip of the hat to Rick Steves

http://www.ricksteves.com/news/cinque-terre/news-from-vernazza.htm

"108 million Euro worth of damages caused to Vernazza on October 25, 2011, when torrential rains and
over 100 mudslides left the town buried in over 4 meters / 13+ feet of mud and debris."

Five days earlier Rome was paralyzed by a violent storm that flooded the city
halting public transport and forcing many Romans to stay indoors.

Large Violent Wedge Tornado strikes Milan, Italy on May 29th 2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_tornadoes_in_2012

February 1995 large areas of the Low Countries were deluged with water, and floods threatened many major towns.
The Rhine and its tributaries burst their banks in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

1994 Floods in Greece

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The climber, watching the Golden Eagle capture the Crane....

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Petal (The Squitten )

What is a Squitten, precious ?
A Squitten is a kitten that sits [up] like a squirrel.
Why does the Squitten sit up like a squirrel ?
The poor thing has radial hypoplasia.
She has no bones lower than the elbow joint in her front legs
Someone loves Petal. They have nurtured her, until she grew up enough, to sit up.
/end squirrel paws icon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65u8SE6-sjo

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

"because he's Jimmy Page....he could dress like Barney and still rock the fuck out hahahah "

{Reading that, made me burst out with laughter. But, still. Put those oldsters in strange costumes, and have 'em rock out....}

Like a boss ? Fuck! He is the boss.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

1964. Peter Anthony Allen (at Walton Prison Liverpool) and Gwynne Owen Evans - real name John Robson Walby,
(at Strangeways Prison Manchester) become the last to be hanged. The executions taking place simultaneously
at 8.00 a.m. on the 13th of August.

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/timeline.html

Gwynne Owen Evans was hanged by executioner Harry Allen at Manchester's Strangeways Prison
at 8.00 a.m. on 13 August 1964.

At the same time, Peter Allen was hanged at Liverpool's Walton Prison by Robert Leslie Stewart.

http://neohumanism.org/j/jo/john_alan_west.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Considering how much pay Boston and New York give to the ball players-
You would think that someone would protect them from being electrocuted.

The announcer tells the listeners, that the people in the booth received shocks from the lightning strike.

But, saying that the ball players jumped in fright, is much funnier.
{Not to me. People get wicked bad burns, and worse.}

video clip-

Yanks, Red Sox startled by thunder during delay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkpgLtM4brc

"I wasn't there but the satellite TV in my office went out."
- Joe Girardi

*shakes head*

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

June 5, 2013
New Music
Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County Album Review
New York Times

“Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” is the companion album to a theatrical production.

In the 1990s Mr. Mellencamp enlisted the author Stephen King to collaborate on a stage piece about a cabin haunted by murder. Eventually they brought in T Bone Burnett, the master of spooky, rootsy ambience who has produced Mr. Mellencamp’s albums since 2008, as well as Grammy-winning albums like “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and the Robert Plant-Alison Krauss collaboration “Raising Sand.”

They recorded the “Ghost Brothers” album with a studio cast of Americana and Americana-loving rockers: Sheryl Crow, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Neko Case, Dave and Phil Alvin from the Blasters (quarreling brothers in real life) and, as the smirking Devil figure, Elvis Costello. Mr. Mellencamp, sounding even gruffer than Mr. Kristofferson, arrives for the finale. Actors, including Matthew McConaughey and Meg Ryan, deliver snippets of dialogue, though it takes a reading of Mr. King’s full libretto, which is included physically or digitally in the album’s various configurations, to understand the ending.

The songs, as with Mr. Mellencamp’s own albums lately, look to a down-home past: to blues, country, rockabilly, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Mr. Burnett’s production gives them a penumbra of disquiet. He keeps ballads eerily slow, makes the percussion thud or bristle and creates shadowy dark corners of reverb.

Only a few songs directly advance the plot. Instead, Mr. Mellencamp illuminates characters and has them ponder questions of responsibility and truth, heaven and hell: “For those too weak to tell the truth/Into darkness you will be cast,” Mr. Kristofferson sings in “What Kind of Man Am I.”

Mr. Mellencamp came up with superb songs for women, who respond with quietly glowing performances. Ms. Case and Ms. Crow play frisky good-time girls in “That’s Who I Am” and “Jukin’ ” and, even better, Ms. Crow wishes for a heaven in “Away From This World” and Ms. Cash becomes a troubled but devoted wife in “You Don’t Know Me.” Those songs rise above the story line, but probably wouldn’t have existed without characters to sing them — reason enough for a rock songwriter to venture into a musical.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

I stood there, staring at the squitten cookie jar. Where was I, when this started ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The giant inflatable rat can be found in Downtown Crossing. (They have the right to bitch and complain.)

"The use of 'axe' as slang for a musical instrument dates back to 1955, i.e., in the edenic pre-Kiss days. The instrument to
which 'axe' was first applied, however, was not the guitar, but the saxophone. The logic may have been simply the 'sax/axe'
rhyme, but another theory ties 'axe' to the 'swing' of a jazz sax player in full stride. 'Axe' was also later applied to the trumpet
before becoming accepted as slang for the guitar, a use which has probably persisted in part because of the instrument's
resemblance to an actual axe."

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The loons are here. So are the ticks. Wear clothes of a light color. Do not forget to look for tiny moving specks.

June 10, 2013

New Hampshire's loon population has increased from just over 100 paired adults in 1975 to more than 500
in recent years. The next loon survey is scheduled for late July, with similar loon counts held in Maine and Vermont.

Maine's loon population is estimated at about 3,000, the highest count in the Northeast. Vermont has an estimated
280 adult loons, which is double what it had a decade ago.

In New Hampshire, a bill that would ban a type of lead fishing tackle blamed for killing loons is headed to Gov. Maggie Hassan
after the Senate passed the measure on Thursday night. The bill would prohibit the use of lead-weighted hooks known
as jigs that weigh an ounce or less. Current law prohibits lead jigs that are an inch long or less.

The Loon Preservation Committee says 49 percent of adult loons die as a result of ingesting lead fishing tackle,
and that half of those deaths are from tackle that is now legal.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

June 10, 2013
From Glowing Cats to Robo-Bugs, Book Explores How Biotech Creates Weird Wildlife

"Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts"
- Emily Anthes

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june13/frankenstein_06-10.html

Slide show- Biotech's Brave New Beasts
ATryn Goats
GloFish
RoboRoach
Dolphin Prosthetics
Cloning Animals
Mr. Green Genes

Mr. Green Genes is a glow-in-the-dark ginger tom cat. Scientists modified the cat's DNA with a protein that would glow
under ultraviolet light. The cat's glowing eyes, nose, tongue and ears allowed scientists to trace where the gene "went"
on the animal.

Ultimately, scientists hope that this kind of tracking will help them locate the "knockout" gene for diseases like cystic fibrosis.

Beetle Commander

"....operated via remote controlled via "Beetle Commander" software."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/multimedia/biotechanimals/index.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window."
- Steven Wright

 

[gravyrug]

Sleep and I are not getting along well this week. It's been teasing me, making think I'm about to nod off in front of the 'puter, then skittering off once I lay down in bed.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Sleep deprived, I tucked these Turkish Special King Size Cigarettes away.
I found them! They are not Balkan Sobranies. But, they taste like something.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Fantasy, is something that is fun to indulge in. Facts, are something that the experts are qualified to speak about.

Case in point-

A woman finds a small clay figurine of a head. She found it on the sands of a beach, in Mantoloking, N.J.
It is reasonable, that she would come to the conclusion that it came from an ancient Native American tribe.

It took quite a few experts to trace what the true tale of the figurine, was. Was it a stone or a clay figurine ?
The figurine appeared to be quite old. It looked like it was made of sandstone One expert ruled out modern
clay. Their opinion was it was the clay of ancient ceramics. Another expert narrowed it down to Teotihuacán
origin. How did an ancient artifact from Mexico, get to New Jersey ?

The figurine is more than 2,000 years old. It is from a pre-Aztec civilization. 200AD- 300AD The expert brought
a box containing about a dozen heads. The environmental archaeologist had the opinion that the figurine came
from a shipwreck. The Vizcaya sank nearby in 1890. There were some other ships that traveled the same route.
There were 12 survivors from the shipwreck. The NJ woman's particular figurine face, was dated as 250AD.

Only one, of the other figurine heads were found so far away from Mexico. One was found in Central Park, NYC.

http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2011-03-25/101_pebble.pdf

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

1890
Collision Off Barnegat Light

The beam from Barnegat Lighthouse parted the ocean’s still surface 6 miles offshore. The late October night was clear,
yet dark; the moon would rise shortly. Cuban passengers in the iron-hulled, coal-fired liner Vizcaya were lingering in the
saloon after their first dinner at sea. Some of the men lounged in the smoking room. Jose´ Casarego had gone to bed,
tired after the New York boarding, but happy to be on the way to Havana.

Chief Officer Felipo Hazas, tall, slight, and elegant looking, was talking to the second officer in his room. The 287-foot Vizcaya
was heading due south at 11 knots when the officers heard the engine room bell ring full astern. They ran on deck to see what
happened.

http://www.down-the-shore.com/shipwreckex2.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The morning lasted all day, all day
Now, a rainbow stain is on the humble concrete
Orange sun, yellow rays
Dark hued planets to keep him company
While he waits for the moon
All share their colors with an imaginary sea
lapping at a lonely island
(planet waves, travel to our Mother Earth)
The white flowers woke from their bud dreams
They will glow in the gloom
The honeysuckle shines, golden
The scent will follow them
when the night grows cold

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The longest day of 2013 is finally here -- but this year, it comes with a twist.

While the solstice in the northern hemisphere traditionally falls on June 21 -- and this year it will occur on that date at 1:04 a.m. EDT --
it will begin on Thursday, June 20, for parts of the western U.S., according to the website of the Clark Planetarium.

-Huffpost

"Here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer officially begins on Thursday, June 20 at 11:04 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.

http://clarkplanetarium.org/summer-solstice-2013/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

We have this phrase, in New England- "We Don't Talk About That!"

The message got around our Intermediate school, that one teacher was brutal.

I watched him smash a boy up against the lockers, and squash him with his whole body, in the hall way.

I could not hear what he was saying to the student. The teacher's face was all red, and his voice was frightening.

Many children him saw him doing it, because it was time for the next class to begin.

This was in the 1960s. He got fired.

Now, when I think about that college coach that degraded and beat his players this year, I know this started a long time, ago.

Today, a Junior High coach is known for telling his players to rape new players. He will not get fired. The townspeople ran a victim out of town. WTF ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

....Aristotle then proceeds to describe a slave’s position and it is truly terrifying. A slave is no more than ‘a tool of his master’.
Together with the wife and the ox, a male or female slave is a householder’s indispensable beast of burden. He or she should
be kept well — for simple economic reasons. But slaves have no right to leisure or free time. They own nothing and can take
no decisions. They have no part in enjoyment and happiness, and are not members of the community.

For the same reason Aristotle also justifies wars to capture new slaves. For some people ‘are by nature destined to be ruled,
even though they resist it’; like wild animals that need to be tamed. He even says that all foreigners to some extent belong
to this category.

VS

Women are essential and central to creating society; they are and always have been actors and agents in history.
Women have "made history," yet they have been kept from knowing their History and from interpreting history,
either their own or that of men. Women have been systematically excluded from the enterprise of creating symbol systems ...
Women have not only been educationally deprived throughout historical time in every known society, they have been excluded
from theory formation." The Creation of Patriarchy (Oxford University Press, 1986), 5.
- Gerda Lerner

 

[desireinyellow]

Checking in... And not looking at the clock.