If you’re looking for a safe way to spend this Friday the 13th, you might want to consider heading over to the Oomegang Brewery in Cooperstown for the Anti-Fracking Benefit. Not only can you stop at the Baseball Hall of Fame and see the new Steroid exhibit (featuring Barry Bonds’ injection paraphernalia and a life-sized replica of his ass that the kids can practice jabbing with a needle), but you can support a good cause at the brewery and be treated to concerts by Arlo Guthrie and the Levon Helm Band. And maybe you can buy a few bottles of cave-aged Three Philosophers Ale. Assuming you like a nice Belgian. Unfortunately, it all starts at 4PM, I have to work, it would take me a couple hours to get there, I don’t really have the money for the donation, and I rarely partake of the devil’s brew these days (still got one bottle of Casazilla left over from New Year’s Eve – longest-lasting five beers of my 35 or so years of beer-drinking history). But if you go, tell me how it was.
A friend gave me 4 free tickets to the Museum of Natural History to see their new dinosaur exhibit. So, this morning Mike and I are going to meet Nina and her dad and look at the new dinosaurs and maybe some butterflies.
The museums website says a ticket costs $16 for an adult. That’s a lot of money for many NYers and it means a lot of kids will never get to the museum unless they go with their school. But, lots of schools are cutting down on such excursions so that the kids spend more time in class practicing to take the test. That’s what happens when the principals’ and/or the teachers’ jobs depend on the kid’s test score.
For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.
The peer-reviewed study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks.
http://morningseditionists.com/msblog/
I thought admission to the AMNH was free, though there is a “suggested” donation. Of course, I haven’t been there in a decade or two.
OK. Well, I don’t want to play an instrument with a band (I’m really not any good) though it would be pretty cool to go on tour and see a new city every day.
I haven’t seen that “suggested donation” sign at any of the museums in several years. The amnh not only charges admission but charges for each special exhibit. Parking cost $40. Lunch, 2 salads, coffee and a slice of pizza, cost $28. But, if I’m going to be charged ridiculous amounts at least it helps the museum.
We saw the new dino exhibit. The dino model lets you see how it ate, breathed and circulated it’s blood. Very nice. We got to the planetarium and heard Whoopi narrate a program about the origin of stars and had a good time in the butterfly section with all the beautiful butterflies and moths flying around and occasionally landing on us. The butterflies are hatched from cocoons that the museums buys from a butterfly farm. They do not want the butterflies to lay eggs because they don’t want a lot of caterpillars eating the foliage. They prevent the butterflies from laying eggs by not having any of the specific foliage on which each of them lays eggs. According to the docents the butterflies reabsorb the unlaid eggs and use the extra protein to extend their very short lives.
House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called “MediScare” attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in “cuts” to Medicare—primarily slashing overpayments to private insurers—and Republican challengers never let them forget it.
Now, they say, it’s time to let bygones be bygones….
On Tuesday, Kinzinger and 41 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to rein in Democratic attacks on GOP members who voted for the House budget, which includes a plan to privatize Medicare and cap spending on the program.
“We ask that you stand above partisanship, condemn the disingenuous attacks and work with this Congress to reform spending on entitlement programs,” the letter reads.
Pelosi’s response:
To: GOP Freshman
Fr: Democratic Leader’s Press Office
Da: May 10, 2011
Re: The Truth Hurts — You Did Vote to End Medicare as We Know It
Just half a day after Speaker Boehner said he wants to engage in “honest conversations about how best to preserve Medicare†(ie: the GOP’s plan to end Medicare as we know it), you are trying to silence criticism of your vote supporting the plan….
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/11/975154/-Pelosi-to-GOP-freshmen:-The-truth-about-your-plan-to-end-Medicare-hurts-?detail=hide&via=blog_1
Tornado warnings in Yuma, flood threat for Boulder and winter storm warnings for the San Juan mountains!
:omg: :cold:
It was 85F day before yesterday :hot: