Marc Dion: Playing the Envy Game (Creators Syndicate)
And after they get the money away from the teachers and the plumbers and the cops and the cab drivers, they're going to give you a raise and lower your taxes, right? Because that's how it always works.
Terry Savage: Open Enrollment 101 (Creators Syndicate)
My last column mentioned the importance of the "open enrollment" period for corporate health plans. Many employees spend only a few minutes reviewing their options, and this year-end task gets relegated to the bottom of the to-do list. That could be an expensive mistake.
RICK RUBIN: Interviewed By ANTHONY KIEDIS (Interview Magazine)
Rick Rubin has done as much to redirect the ch'i of popular music over the last three decades as many of the artists he has produced, from the Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash. Talking music, evolution, and mind-body-spirit with the always centered-and newly svelte-psycho-meta-art-making visionary.
David Bruce: Resist Psychic Death ($1 Kindle Book)
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the late Cretaceous (after flowering plants came to dominate many environments).
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
360 million.
BttbB wrote:
I don't know, but I'll bet 'Loana' does...
Adam answered:
Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the late Cretaceous (after flowering plants came to dominate many environments).
It what's making up part of those peat bogs.
Sally said:
Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the late Cretaceous (after flowering plants came to dominate many environments).
This is a fern to fear!
PS: I was listening to "A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor" last night on the radio. He did a skit about, "Governor Mubarak" from Wisconsin. It was SO funny. He played it like he was a newscaster, and 'outlined' some of the proposed budget cuts such as, "School has been reduced to one month per year - with all non-union teachers - if he can find any teachers at all," and, "classes being held to teach people how to put out their own fires, should their home go up in flames..." I am hoping that Walker becomes a laughing stock, demigod that he favors himself to be...
PPS: MAM, Wowser is FAR MORE appealing than Heidi, any day!!
PPPS: JoeS, attsa some big Icicle kiddo! I couldn't seem to make out the UFO (but if you say it's there, I believe it of course). I was impressed by the icicle, though... :)
Marian responded:
360 million years ago
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
Ferns first appear in the fossil record 360 million years ago
MAM wrote:
Some sites say 360 million years ago others say 408 million years ago.
Which ever is right, it was a was a long, long, long time ago.
Fern fossil from the Grand Canyon.
Charlie answered:
Wikipedia says it's from 360 million years ago in the Carboniferous period, which would be Mississippian in the most widely accepted US version of the timescale, though I think some would say that that far back is Devonian. But the National Park Service claims fern fossils dating back 400 million years from the
Hermit Shale in the Grand Canyon.. That's Devonian on most calendars, except the creationist's, and I'm not much interested in what they may have to say about this.
And, Joe S said:
I saw several numbers from 360 million years ago to 410 years ago but 360 was the most common so I'm going with that. 360 million years ago.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'How I Met Your Mother', followed by a FRESH'Mad Love', then a RERUN'2½ Men', followed by a FRESH'Mike & Molly', then a RERUN'Hawaii Five-0'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Brian Williams, Trey Parker & Matt Stone, and Zac Brown Band.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Isaac Mizrahi and Patton Oswalt.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Chuck', followed by a FRESH'The Cape', then a FRESH'Harry's Law'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Christina Appelgate, John Fulton, and Michael Franti.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Topher Grace, Jim Gaffigan, and Glasser.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 2/3/11) are Nate Corddry, Troupe Vertigo, and Off!
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'The Bachelor', followed by a FRESH'Castle'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Bill Maher and Esperanza Spalding.
The CW offers a FRESH'90210', followed by a FRESH'Gossip Girl'.
Faux has a FRESH'House', followed by a FRESH'The Chicago Code'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 'The First 48', 'Intervention', another 'Intervention', followed by a FRESH'Heavy'.
AMC offers the movie 'Demolition Man, followed by the movie 'Bad Boys', then the movie 'Bad Boys', again.
BBC -
[6:00 AM] BBC World News
[7:00 AM] BBC World News
[8:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 4 Jennifer Lopez, Alan Davies, Bens Brother
[9:00 AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 4 La Riviera
[10:00 AM] Doctor Who - Ep 5 World War Three
[11:00 AM] The X-Files - Ep 15 Fresh Bones
[12:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 5
[1:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 5 The Curry Lounge
[2:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 8 Sabatiello's
[3:00 PM] Torchwood - Ep 3 Ghost Machine
[4:00 PM] The X-Files - Ep 15 Fresh Bones
[5:00 PM] Doctor Who - Ep 6 Dalek
[6:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America
[8:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 3
[9:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 4
[10:20 PM] Top Gear - Episode 3
[11:40 PM] Top Gear - Episode 4
[1:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 3
[2:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[3:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 1
[4:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 2
[5:00 AM] BBC World News (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Bethenny Getting Married?', another 'Bethenny Getting Married?', still another 'Bethenny Getting Married', followed by a FRESH'Bethenny Ever After'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'My Best Friend's Girl', 'It's Always Sunny In Philly', another 'It's Always Sunny In Philly', still another 'It's Always Sunny In Philly', and yet another 'It's Always Sunny In Philly'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Howard Stern.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Michael Scheuer.
FX has '2½ Men', another '2½ Men', followed by the movie 'The Simpsons Movie', then the movie 'The Simpsons Movie', again.
History has 'American Pickers', 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', 'American Pickers', 'Pawn Stars', and another 'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00 AM] In America
[8:15 AM] The Grid
[8:30 AM] A Good Woman
[10:30 AM] 2011 Spirit Awards
[12:45 PM] Portlandia
[1:15 PM] In America
[3:30 PM] A Good Woman
[5:30 PM] Daddy and Them
[7:45 PM] The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
[10:00 PM] Arrested Development
[10:30 PM] Arrested Development
[11:00 PM] The Larry Sanders Show
[11:30 PM] Made
[1:30 AM] The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
[3:45 AM] Daddy and Them (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[7:10 AM] Treevenge
[7:35 AM] Flight Of The Red Balloon
[9:35 AM] Gretchen
[11:20 AM] The Lucky Ones
[1:05 PM] Flight Of The Red Balloon
[3:00 PM] Gretchen
[4:45 PM] How to Be
[6:10 PM] Cousin Bette
[8:00 PM] Monster
[9:50 PM] Ten for Grandpa
[10:00 PM] Love/Lust & Heels
[11:00 PM] Love/Lust & the Bikini
[12:00 AM] LADETTE TO LADY (Episode 4, Season 3)
[1:00 AM] LADETTE TO LADY (Episode 5, Season 3)
[2:00 AM] Monster
[3:50 AM] Cousin Bette
[5:40 AM] Dopamine (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has 'Being Human', another 'Being Human', followed by a FRESH'Being Human', and 'Warehouse 13'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Marisa Tomei, Harland Williams, and Fitz & the Tantrums.
Scheduled on a FRESHLopez Tonight are Owen Wilson, Aly Michalka, and Terry Fator.
Christian Bale, left, best supporting actor, Natalie Portman, best actress, second from left, Melissa Leo, best supporting actress, and Colin Firth, bestactor, pose backstage with their Oscars at the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Photo by Matt Sayles
Hawaii has moved a step closer to the construction of the world's largest telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously approved the plan Friday. A consortium of California and Canadian universities had applied for a permit to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on conservation land.
The board, however, also granted a request by opponents for a case hearing on the telescope.
Some Native Hawaiians say the construction would defile Mauna Kea's summit, which they consider sacred. Environmentalists also oppose the telescope, claiming that it would harm the rare wekiu bug.
Honorary Oscar recipient actor Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson arrive at the 83rd Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 27, 2011.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
An Alaska state lawmaker vowed Thursday to fight for the rights of travelers who have been subjected to what she considers intrusive airport searches by federal airport screeners.
A jubilant Rep. Sharon Cissna arrived by ferry in Auke Bay, just outside Juneau, after a four-day ordeal that began with her refusal to submit to a full-body pat-down at a Seattle airport ordered by Transportation Security Administration agents.
Cissna said travelers are "accidentally being abused by government," and it's an issue that must be dealt with.
Cissna, D-Anchorage, is a cancer survivor who has had a mastectomy. She underwent the full-body scan at the Seattle airport but was singled out for a further pat-down search, her second within three months.
Having vowed to never endure the pat-down procedure again, she decided to take a rental car and small airplane from Seattle to Prince Rupert, B.C., and from there, a two-day ferry ride to Juneau.
A painting of a large penis on a bridge in Russia's second city St Petersburg has been dropped from the shortlist for an art prize, the organisers said.
The painting, which pointed skywards when the bridge was raised, was painted last June by opposition Russian art group Voina, or War, to protest against tight security in the city prior to an international meeting.
The picture, which was washed off by firefighters, faced the St Petersburg headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service, successor of the Soviet-era KGB.
Organisers of the prize for innovation awarded by Russia's State Centre of Contemporary Arts and supported by the Culture Ministry had included the picture, which Voina had called "A Penis in KGB captivity."
But after failing to get approval to include the picture from Voina, the organisers removed it from the shortlist, they said on their website.
Drinking diet soda is associated with a 50-percent increase in stroke risk, according to a study presented earlier this month at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles.
Not surprisingly, reaction to the news among dieters has been disparaging and defensive, as each person cycles through the Kubler-Ross five stages of grief, from denial and anger to bargaining, depression and acceptance.
If it's any consolation for diet-soda fans, the results presented at the meeting - based on preliminary analysis from a 2,500-person subset of the ongoing Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS) - are far from definitive. There's no way to tell yet, for example, what ingredient would be associated with strokes or whether lifestyle choices among drinkers are the real cause.
That said, is drinking diet soda safe? Of course not, especially when it is the main source of liquid refreshment every day. You're drinking copious amounts of phosphoric acid, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and some laboratory-crafted chemical that tricks your brain into perceiving the sensation of sweet.
Diet soda is an alternative to regular soda, but neither is healthy. You are merely trading calories from sugar for chemicals of questionable nature.
Todd Palin crashed his snowmobile toward the end of the world's longest snowmobile race as a rival team to surged to victory Saturday.
Tyler Huntington and Chris Olds crossed the finish line near Fairbanks to repeat as Iron Dog champions for the second straight year. They passed the team of Palin and Eric Quam in the final 100 miles of the 2,000-mile race across Alaska.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that Palin's crash gave the rival team the break needed as it finished 14 minutes ahead of the second place Palin team.
Former Alaska half-a-term governor Sarah Palin (R-Harpy) was on hand last Sunday to see her husband off. He is a three-time winner in the race.
Presenter Kirk Douglas (L) jokes with an Academy escort during the 83rd Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 27, 2011.
Photo by Gary Hershorn
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband says he chased two intruders with a baseball bat after catching them burglarizing the couple's Bel Air mansion in the middle of the night.
Prince Frederic von Anhalt says he was awakened at 3 a.m. Sunday and discovered two men in his living room. He says they took off on foot and he pursued them down the block.
The 67-year-old Von Anhalt says he fell while chasing them and injured his hip.
He says windows and a door at his home were damaged, and paintings, statues, computers and camera equipment are missing.
Rock singer Mick Jagger and model L'Wren Scott arrive at the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar party in West Hollywood, California February 27, 2011.
Photo by DannyMoloshok
Scientists are trying to figure out what killed 53 bottlenose dolphins - many of them babies - so far this year in the Gulf of Mexico, as five more of their carcasses washed up Thursday in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
It's likely to be months before they get back lab work showing what caused the spontaneous abortions, premature births, deaths shortly after birth and adult deaths said Blair Mase, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's stranding coordinator for the Gulf Coast.
Calves and fetuses made up at least 85 percent of the deaths in Alabama, 60 percent or more of those in Mississippi and Florida and 20 percent in Louisiana, according to NOAA figures.
Although scientists are investigating whether the deaths are related to last year's huge BP oil spill, Mase confirmed that toxins from oil or chemicals used to disperse it may be a less likely cause than cold or disease. That's because only one species of dolphin - and no other kind of animal - is dying, and because the calf deaths appear concentrated in Mississippi and Alabama rather than Gulf-wide.
Legendary snakeman Jackie Bibby, age, 61, right, sits in a plastic bath tub while handlers place 126 Western Diamondback rattlesnakes around him Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011 in Oglesby, Texas. Bibby was trying to set a world record during the annual rattlesnake hunt.
Photo by Rod Aydelotte
Some 11,500 years ago one of America's earliest families laid the remains of a 3-year-old child to rest in their home in what is now Alaska. The discovery of that burial is shedding new light on the life and times of the early settlers who crossed from Asia to the New World, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The bones represent the earliest human remains discovered in the Arctic of North America, a "pretty significant find," said Ben A. Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
While ancient Alaskan residents were known to hunt large game, the newly discovered site shows they also foraged for fish, birds and small mammals, he explained. "Here we know there were young children and females. So, this is a whole piece of the settlement system that we had virtually no record of."
The site of the discovery, Upper Sun River, is in the forest of the Tanana lowlands in central Alaska, Potter and his colleagues report.
Potter said the find, which included evidence of what appeared to be a seasonal house and the cremated remains of the child, "is truly spectacular in all senses of the word."
Matt Keennon, program director at AeroVironment, demonstrates a tiny, drone aircraft known as the 'nano-hummingbird,' during a briefing at the company'sfacility in Simi Valley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. With a 6.5-inch wing span, the remote-controlled hummingbird plane weighs less than an AA battery and can fly at speeds of up to 11 mph, propelled only by the flapping of its two wings. It can climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forward and backward, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and hover.
Photo by Reed Saxon
Walt Disney's "Gnomeo & Juliet," an animated 3-D twist on "Romeo and Juliet," took in $14.2 million in its third week of release, leading the box office on Oscar weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. In a lighthearted, G-rated version of the Shakespeare drama, the film uses garden gnomes in roles usually reserved for heavyweights of the stage.
It was a surprising upset win for "Gnomeo," which bested underperforming debuts from Owen Wilson and Nic Cage.
The Farrelly brothers' R-rated comedy "Hall Pass" earned $13.4 million for Warner Bros. Cage's 3-D action film "Drive Angry" took in just $5.1 million for Summit Entertainment.
The Liam Neeson thriller "Unknown" earned $12.4 million in its second weekend of release, bringing its cumulative total to a solid $42.8 million for Warner Bros.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Gnomeo & Juliet," $14.2 million.
2. "Hall Pass," $13.4 million.
3. "Unknown," $12.4 million.
4. "Just Go With It," $11.1 million.
5. "I Am Number Four," $11 million.
6. "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," $9.2 million.
7. "The King's Speech," $7.6 million.
8. "Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son," $7.6 million.
9. "Drive Angry," $5.1 million.
10. "True Grit," $1.9 million.
One-year-old male fishing cat from the Cincinnati Zoo named Lek is pictured at the National Zoo in Washington in this image released to Reuters on February 24, 2011. Lek arrived in December and is now in his exhibit. Lek is set to breed with 6-year-old Electra, the Zoo's only female fishing cat, who for now is in the enclosure next to him. The Zoo aims to breed these fishing cats as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan, which matches animals across the country to ensure genetic diversity in the population.
Photo by Mehgan Murphy/Smithsonian's National Zoo
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
wrote:
said:
