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Mariano Rivera Talks Dirt (video)
Yankees Relief Pitcher Mariano Rivera at Yankee Stadium
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Man bills town for cleaning public bathroom
A businessman said he was so frustrated and disgusted with the condition of a public bathroom in the Michigan tourist town of Saugatuck that he decided to cleaned it himself. Apparently, he must have been happy with the results as he proceeded to bill the city $156 for his work.
Steve Oswald stated that customers of his shop complained about the condition of the public bathroom. He proceeded to check it out and said he "wouldn't have sat down there." He called a city official and soon got to work, spending 45 minutes cleaning.
City Manager Kirk Harrier said the bathroom typically is cleaned twice daily, and he thinks it got dirty quickly because it was a busy tourist weekend.
Harrier said the city appreciates Oswald's effort, but city council hasn't decided whether to pay him. A businessman said he was so frustrated and disgusted with the condition of a public bathroom in the Michigan tourist town of Saugatuc... more -
Is this Britain's dirtiest flat?
When landlord Chris Dowling visited an apartment recently vacated by a tenant, he was in for an unpleasant surprise.
The entire living area of the flat was crammed full of discarded polystyrene burger cartons worth £5,000. When he did manage to clear a path through the rubbish, he found a large pile of cigarette stubs to be carefully stacked on the side of the sink in the bathroom.
Stunned by the state of his £100,000 studio flat, Mr Dowling called in professional cleaners and decorators to sort it out. They shifted the burger carton mountain and takeaway detritus into a large van, packing it to the rafters, before visiting a nearby tip for disposal.
The tenant, a single man, had accumulated the mess during over about two years. There were more than 1,000 takeaway cartons and containers in the 15ft by 11ft living area of the flat.
Mr Dowling, who runs 46 homes, said: "The tenant had been smoking without opening windows and there were nicotine stains dripping from the walls. It smelt like a giant ashtray. There were McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken containers everywhere. I couldn't get through to get to the kitchen and they were stacked all around the bed. You couldn't see any part of the floor in the living area. In all my 15 years of running properties I have never come across anything like this before and we see all sorts." When landlord Chris Dowling visited an apartment recently vacated by a tenant, he was in for an unpleasant surprise. ... more -
The DaVinci of Dirt
Sometimes beauty can emerge from the dirt (on a car).
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The dirt on Biden
Forget the idea that opposition researchers got cracking the very moment that Sen. Barack Obama announced Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate—they’ve long been poring over his records and background, and those of all the most likely vice-presidential picks.
For all that, though, the likeliest attacks in Biden are all matters of public record, and often problems of his own making.
Biden, who dropped out of the 1988 Democratic primary after he was accused of lifting sections of his stump speech about his humble origins from British Labour party leader Neil Kinnock, more recently took heat in 2006, when he said, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
This year, he managed to blow up his official announcement he was entering the race when he deemed Obama “the first mainstream African American [candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Reporters and opposition researchers are already salivating at the verbal grenades yet to be launched.
More substantively, Biden supported the 2002 resolution that authorized the war in Iraq—a resolution that Obama opposed and, in the primaries at least, painted as “the most important foreign-policy decision in a generation.”
Biden was on the wrong side of that thinking, by Obama’s lights. In 2002, he said that America had “no choice but to eliminate” Saddam Hussein.
While preparing for his own run at the party’s nomination last year, he took several shots at Obama’s inexperience, warning that “If the Democrats think we’re going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we’re making a tragic mistake.”
When Obama gave a speech saying he’d send troops into Pakistan if he had actionable intelligence and the Pakistani government was unwilling to act, Biden told NPR that “It’s a well-intentioned notion he has, but it’s a very naïve way of thinking how you’re going to conduct foreign policy,” adding of his then-rival, in a remark Republicans are sure to revive, “Having talking points on foreign policy doesn’t get you there.”
Biden also said last year of his now running mate, that “I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.” He may also see clips from his 1988 presidential run, when he ran an ad in which the narrator warns:
”The White House isn't a place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the balance of power... the economic future of the next generation,'' the narrator of Biden's 1988 ad for the Democratic nomination said. "The president has got to know the territory.”
Biden, 65, came to Congress at the age of 30, meaning he’s spent more than half his life in the institution, which Republicans will surely charge makes him an unsuitable running mate for a candidate of change.
Another moment likely to be re-used against him is his August 2, 2005 Daily Show appearance where Jon Stewart asked him of a potential 2008 run, “You may end up going against a Senate colleague, perhaps McCain, perhaps Frist?”
Biden’s reply, “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off — be well off no matter who...”
Biden, who was elected to the Senate at 29, has now spent more than half his life there, which cuts against Obama’s change message, even as it insulates the first-term Illinois Senator from charges that he’s too green for the White House. Forget the idea that opposition researchers got cracking the very moment that Sen. Barack Obama announced Delaware Senator Joe Biden a... more -
McCain's POW Stories: Fact or Fiction?
A few questions have arisen regarding recent POW stories McCain has frequently been sharing during his bid for the presidency. Did the "Cross in the Dirt" story occur to McCain or Solzhenitsyn? Did he give his captors the Packers or Steelers linemen as his squadron names? He even attributes his love for ABBA to his POW status, but the timeline doesn't fit. Poor memory, mispeaking, lying, pandering? Read and decide. A few questions have arisen regarding recent POW stories McCain has frequently been sharing during his bid for the presidency. Did the... more
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How Dirty Are Your Shoes?
The Dirty Truth About Shoes Inside Your Home
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Dirt is the new Prozac
This is a really interesting article! We all need to get out into our gardens and get our hands in the dirt--Oh yeah...
‘Friendly’ bacteria activated a group of neurons that produce the brain chemical serotonin.
Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience.
These findings, identified by researchers at the University of Bristol and colleagues at University College London, aid the understanding of why an imbalance in the immune system leaves some individuals vulnerable to mood disorders like depression.
Dr Chris Lowry, lead author on the paper from Bristol University, said: “These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.” This is a really interesting article! We all need to get out into our gardens and get our hands in the dirt--Oh yeah... ... more -
NASA’s Clean Room: Last Stop for New Hubble Hardware
A very clean room.
Astronauts will travel to the Hubble Space Telescope this summer, installing new instruments and other components during Servicing Mission 4. But before these components are cleared for launch, they go through one final checkup in the world’s largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
...all these features afford the Goddard clean room a Class-10,000 rating. That means any cubic foot of air in the clean room has no more than 10,000 particles floating around in it larger than 0.5 microns.
How small it that? A micron is one-millionth of a meter, and typical “outside” air has millions of such particles. (A human hair is between 20 and 200 microns wide.) If an inch ballooned to the size of the Empire State Building, a 0.5-micron bit of dust would still be smaller than a penny on the sidewalk. A very clean room. ... more -
DIRT on wiki
Read about Lucy Spiller and her role making the lives of celebrities miserable
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Why do chimps eat dirt?
Cuz they are hongray? No cuz it's healthy :) Oh Chimps!
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Farming in Nebraska
A video I made 15+ years ago of me and my family farming in Nebraska. Like many small family farms it shows the life cycle of a dryland wheat crop from the time its planted to the time its sold on the Chicago Board of trade and then it starts all over again. A video I made 15+ years ago of me and my family farming in Nebraska. Like many small family farms it shows the life cycle of a drylan... more
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The Dirt on Space Racing...
NASA reveals debauchery on the gound and in space. Heavy drinking, sabotaged computers, secret love-children conceived while the seatbelt light was on.... ok, maybe the last one is an exaggeration - or a scoop! NASA reveals debauchery on the gound and in space. Heavy drinking, sabotaged computers, secret love-children conceived while the seatb... more
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