Hell...I Mean Lake Superior...Freezes Over

From the National Weather Service...

Due to the recent cold spell and below normal temperatures for much of the winter of 2008-2009, ice covers nearly all of Lake Superior. Only small areas of open water remain. This image was taken on Tuesday, March 3rd. If arctic air does not return in the next couple of weeks, it is likely that this will be the day of maximum ice cover on Lake Superior for this winter as warmer weather and periods of stronger winds through the end of this week will cause open water areas to expand.

Golf Club Fail

Exposé: Wakefield Item Has Terrible Website

So you switch to a pretty neat little tabloid style newspaper that has been lauded by Wakefield's finest. But you can't manage to create a decent website? Print journalism is becoming obsolete and rightly so: I throw away my newspaper when I am done reading it. It has no long-term or immediate value. I can reference it, but only for a short period of time. That's why I think the Wakefield Item needs to get its website up and running. People will visit it. It won't generate any extra revenue (unless the WI sells ads), but it's a direction that most local media companies are turning in.

Vatican: Give Up Texting...Your Car...Etc

ROME - Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern appliances from cars to iPods and abstaining from surfing the Web or text messaging until Easter.

The suggestion goes far beyond no-meat Fridays, giving a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the five-week period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter.

And it shows the Church's increasing focus on technology's uses — with many of the Lenten appeals posted on various dioceses' Web sites. - Yahoo!

Sorry, Vatican, but I don't think this is a good idea. I agree with Angelo Dente, who said, "I have to decide how to experience the Lent period. I should give up something if I really feel it, not because the Church says so."

Economic Conditions Deteriorated

Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that national economic conditions deteriorated further during the reporting period of January through late February. Ten of the twelve reports indicated weaker conditions or declines in economic activity; the exceptions were Philadelphia and Chicago, which reported that their regional economies "remained weak." The deterioration was broad based, with only a few sectors such as basic food production and pharmaceuticals appearing to be exceptions. Looking ahead, contacts from various Districts rate the prospects for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010.

Consumer spending remained sluggish on net, although many Districts noted some improvement in January and February compared with a dismal holiday spending season. Travel and tourist activity fell noticeably in key destinations, as did activity for a wide range of nonfinancial services, with substantial job cuts noted in many instances. - Federal Reserve Board

End the Fed! Except not yet. I have a competition I have to go to taking place inside of the Boston building next week. So after that...End the Fed!

Aussie Wildfires

The Kilmore East-Murrindindi South Complex has been beaten down after threatening the towns of Warburton, Healesville and many other communities in the Yarra Valley since the February 7 inferno which claimed at least 210 lives.

The efforts of firefighters to put in containment lines combined with rain overnight and throughout today enabled the CFA to finally list the fire, which had burnt out 86,000 hectares, as contained.

"It's a really significant step and a great morale booster for firefighters and the community," CFA spokesman Mike Goode said. - News.com.au

Puckin' eh, miss.

America's Unhappiest Cities

Business Week reports...

1. Portland, Oregon

2. St. Louis, Missouri

3. New Orleans, Louisiana

4. Detroit, Michigan

5. Cleveland, Ohio

6. Wakefield, Massachusetts

Just kidding about the last one.

Song of the Day (3/3/08)

The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended...

Because he knows
Our Romeo,
He can't climb back.
He swings in loopholes.
When he goes through the air
Their vengeance will stretch out.

I made the best of it.
I made the best of it.
I made the best of it.

This velvet rope
Has fell before
In vain.
Clothing crashing the floor.
Insane.
Worse than once thought.

Health Care Conscious Clause

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday.

The rule protects the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures.

The Provider Refusal Rule was proposed by the Bush White House in August and enacted on January 20, the day President Barack Obama took office.

It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for "health-care professionals who don't want to perform abortions."

While the U.S Department of Health and Human Services says it doesn't want to take away the freedom to deny a physician from, for example, participating in an abortion, it does want to restrict their ability to deny "family planning."

Voltedh Studios!

Eddie Vo, web designer of É2.0, is the main man behind Voltedh Studios, a freelance company offering website and logo design services. Vo offers some of the most affordable prices on the market and produces a quality product every single time. You might be asking yourself why should I choose Voltedh? Here is what the company has to say:

If you haven't noticed already, the internet is everywhere and it is still growing. One of the best ways to promote something is through the World Wide Web. Everything is done on the internet and the real question is: Can you make an eye-catching website? If you can't or don't have confidence on making a website…don't panic. Voltedh Studios is here for all of your web solutions. Whether it is promoting a product, a store, business, or even yourself, we are here to aid you in the process step by step along the way. We, at Voltedh Studios are inclined to help people achieved their needs through our own interpretation of design and solutions at a rather inexpensive price. We will turn all of our client's sites into works or art with inspiring designs. The imagination of a mind is limitless so is the potential of the sites that are yet to be made.

I can tell you first hand that out of all of the designers I've worked with, Eddie Vo has been the most reliable and the most productive.

Check out Voltedh Studios by clicking anywhere here.

LA County's Not Cussing...Yeah Right

LOS ANGELES – Pay no attention to that eerie silence in the nation's most populous county this week; it will simply be the sound of 10 million people not cussing.

At least that's the result McKay Hatch is hoping for once his campaign to clear the air is recognized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

On Tuesday, the board is scheduled to issue a proclamation by Supervisor Michael Antonovich making the first week in March No Cussing Week.

That would mean no blue language from the Mojave desert, where it gets hot as $&# in the summer, to the Pacific Ocean, where on a winter's day it can get colder and nastier than %$#! - Yahoo!

Hatch started a club at his High School to promote this twisted agenda.

Survey Results: Jews Blamed For Fin. Crisis

Los Angeles - The stereotype of the money-grubbing Jew goes back a long way. Zacchaeus was a greedy little tax collector. Fagin was a hideous creature who forced orphans into his organized network of pickpockets. And Shylock, perhaps the most infamous Jewish moneylender of all? Well his avarice ran so deep that he demanded a "pound of flesh" from an indebted Venetian merchant.

Canonized in the Christian Bible and two classics of English literature, these characters reinforce prejudices that Jews have struggled against for centuries. This scapegoating has been particularly venomous during difficult economic times. And these are those times.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported Feb. 10 that a survey of 500 people in each of seven European countries – Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain, and Britain – found that 40 percent felt Jews have too much power in business and nearly a third blamed Jews for the global financial crisis. - Christian Science Monitor

Just when you thought the world was better than that...

AIG To Receive More Aid

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Struggling insurer American International Group Inc. will receive up to $30 billion in additional federal assistance in the fourth government rescue of the company, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The new infusion is intended to prop up AIG — once the world's largest insurer — as it is expected to announce $60 billion in quarterly losses early Monday, the source said on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are still ongoing.

The company, which is considered too large to fail, previously received about $150 billion in loans from the government, which now has an 80 percent stake in the company." - MSNBC

Hate to say it, but...no company is too large to fail.

NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO SCHOOL - MONDAY MARCH 2, 2009 - SNOW DAY

Song of the Day (3/1/08)

The Fly - Black Lips `Drugs` FlyTV In The Courtyard on MUZU.