An anonymous reader writes: Mount Fuji, in addition to being a picturesque landmark and an important part of Japanese culture, is also an active volcano. Its last eruption was just over 400 years ago, but its location — where the Eurasian, Pacific, and Philippine tectonic plates meet — mean it will always have potential for eruption. A new study (PDF) has examined the pressures around Mount Fuji in the wake of several recent earthquakes, including the magnitude 9 tremor that unleashed the destructive tsunami in 2011. The researchers now say the volcano is in a "critical state." According to the study's lead author, "The volcanic regions are the ones where the fluids trapped in the rock – boiling water, gas, liquid magma, which cause an eruption when they rise to the surface – exert the greatest pressure. The seismic waves add to this pressure, causing even more disturbance." They have no way of predicting when an eruption might happen, but the potential seems greater than ever.
Officials in a small township in Hunan province are dealing with a mass lead poisoning problem by offering parents milk in exchange for the test results showing their children’s hazardously high levels of lead—an attempt to cover up the crisis that is a worrying echo of recent health scandals.
As we’ve reported, hundreds of children in Dapu, a township of some 62,000 people and home to chemical plants and metal smelters, suffer from lead levels several times what the government deems safe. According to Reuters, local officials have been offering the parents of these children milk, with the promise it will flush out the lead, if families turn over the original copies of their kid’s medical records. (Some doctors say calcium-rich foods like milk help prevent lead poisoning, but milk is not proven to lower levels of lead once it’s in the blood.)
Dapu’s cover-up is reminiscent of how officials withheld details of a SARS outbreak in 2003, allowed contaminated milk power to kill six children and sicken hundreds of thousands in 2008, and took years to admit that a rural blood donation program in the 1990s had left thousands of villagers with HIV. It doesn’t help that the mayor of the township initially blamed the lead poisoning on students chewing pencils, which are made of graphite.
According to the report, eight locals said they were offered milk in exchange for the documents and one member of a local residents committee said that milk was being given to children with high levels of lead. The effects of high levels of lead in children range from death to stunted mental and physical development.
Moreover, Dapu is only one of several recent cases of large-scale lead poisoning in China. At least 850 children in Shaanxi province living near lead and zinc smelters suffered lead poisoning in 2009, the same year that over 1,000 children in 10 villages in Henan tested positive for lead poisoning.
UPDATE: The House today approved Blackburn's proposal by a vote of 223-200, according to The Hill. It would still need Senate approval to become law.
US Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wants to make sure the Federal Communications Commission never interferes with "states' rights" to protect private Internet service providers from having to compete against municipal broadband networks.
"This might be the higLhlight of my life… It’s up there. It’s right up there." - 6-time Tony winnerAudra McDonald interrupts an interview with Daniel Radcliffe and puts him under her spell +
LOL…..He gone….
Damn he really is !
I mean…it’s Audra though. He didn’t stand a chance. Hehe. (The video is hilar!)
This is ADORABLE, he goes from “I am doing a professional interview” to “is this a dream do I even have legs who cares let it never end” fanboy in 0.2 seconds.
To celebrate the upcoming television broadcast of the “Monty Python Live (mostly)” farewell show, UKTV channel Gold installed a giant dead parrot sculpture (of the famed “Dead Parrot Sketch”) in Potter’s Field Park in London. The 49-foot sculpture was crafted from fiberglass over the course of two months by a team of three sculptors captained by artist Iain Prendergast. The parrot will be delivered to the 02 Arena for the final Monty Python live show later this week, which takes place July 20th, 2014.
Warren Ellis and Michael Allred have collaborated on a graphic novel, but it’s not likely one you expected. The two were hired to tell the story of Bacardi, dating back to the company’s founding in 1862 in Cuba, in a graphic novel called The Spirit of Bacardi. It will be available for digital download on […]
As if it weren't already a complete joy, air travel is now poised to become even more comfortable — with a new kind of seat that'll encourage you to get, um, real friendly with your neighbors.
'Leonard Fournette said to be "pursuing the classroom" dang LSU, you makin him take classes in the mobile units or what'
LSU football has a commitment to neutral-site games. But with one of the best home field advantages in all of sports, are paycheck kickoff games really worth it?
LSU recently announced an expanded stadium capacity of 102,321 entering the 2014 season. Combined with Death Valley's historic appeal and universal acclaim for some of the most unhinged atmospheres in all of sport, there's no question Les Miles loves that home-field advantage.
"We like playing at home. There isn't any question. We enjoy walking down the hill to that stadium. We enjoy the style of people that come in there who are intimately attached to our football team. The opponent has a very difficult time getting the ball snapped," Miles said Wednesday.
So why are the Tigers opening 2014 in Houston's NRG Stadium against Wisconsin in a game that still hasn't sold out (capacity: 71,000)? Money, of course! But while neutral-site games can be exciting for TV and help promote the program, they also have their drawbacks. Attendance is declining nationwide, and as hard as it is to get fans to on-campus games, it's even tougher to get them to travel to Texas. Tickets to this year's opener against Wisconsin are still available, despite the stadium being much smaller than Tiger Stadium and the Badgers being a premier non-conference opponent.
"We also understand that when you're playing a very quality opponent in a neutral-site game, when you're going to be challenged, there's a real necessity to answer that challenge that allows a level of play that you need to start the season with. There's some advantages to that. Houston's right down the street for us. It's a very quality place to play at and to recruit to," he said.
Between 2010 and 2016, LSU will have played neutral-site games in five of those seasons, most of them in Texas. The Tigers also have a neutral-site game (to be determined) against Penn State scheduled for 2020. Of the games in the current stretch, LSU has done well for itself.
Year
Location
Opponent
Score
2010
Atlanta, GA (Georgia Dome)
North Carolina
W, 30-24
2011
Arlington, TX (Cowboys Stadium)
Oregon
W, 40-27
2013
Arlington, TX (AT&T Stadium)
TCU
W, 37-27
2014
Houston, TX (NRG Stadium)
Wisconsin
TBD
2016
Green Bay, WI (Lambeau Field)
Wisconsin
TBD
The Lambeau Field game will be new territory for the Tigers. It will be the first neutral-site game in which they have a definitive fan disadvantage, and it's much farther north than most SEC teams are willing to play.
Bonus: Best Miles quotes from 2014 SEC Media Days
Les Miles is 3 minutes late for his presser. Clock management issues strike again.
Pooches from around the nation join paws to recognize excellence on the waves. Here are your winners.
There's a reason we call hot afternoons the "Dog Days of Summer," so what better way for pooches to cool off than some good old fashioned dog surfing? The 2014 Unleashed by Petco Surf Dog Competition tested pup's mettle on the open waves of Imperial Beach, Cal. over the weekend and saw four trophies handed out.
Any discussion of the surf dog competition is incomplete without talking about Hanzo. He's the Boxer taking the dog surfing world by storm after nabbing two trophies in 2014, including the Large Dog and Tandem Surf event with his partner Kalani. The pair has become a formidable force in tandem dog surfing, winning for the second straight year.
Golden retriever Ricochet had a marvelous afternoon, holding off stiff competition to take victory with this thrilling run.
Don't count out the little ones either. Ziggy the Toy Eskimo took control of the small dog competition, wrestling victory away from Abbie Girl, a four-time winner and juggernaut of the dog surfing community.
Here are some other vitally important surf dog related links to keep whetting your appetite for dog-based competition.
Get your Mary Kay bag out and trip those topiaries, because the world of Edward Scissorhands is making its comics debut this October. IDW Publishing is putting out the series, with writing from Kate Leth and art from Drew Rausch.
Leth told Comic Book Resources: “Bringing back Edward and creating new characters and situations for him to play with is an incredible amount of fun, and a huge opportunity for all of us. We’re weird kids who grew up loving fractured fairy tales, and this feels pretty right for all of us.”
'“Was that clock drawn really big on purpose? Or maybe it’s really big and the other characters haven’t commented on it because it’s just one of the hallmarks of the surreality of Sailor Moon. Maybe it’s hugeness has plot relevance? That seems unlikely,” but MAYBE WE SHOULD THROW A ROSE AT IT ANYWAY BOOM. Fuck that clock'
'HOW DID YOU LASH THREE BUSES TOGETHER AND PUT TWO OF THEM IN NEUTRAL WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING. TUXEDO MASK I’M SO TIRED OF YOUR BULLSHIT.'
Walk into the club like “What up, I got a big clock.”
This week: clocks, buses, and the most ridiculous Tuxedo Mask rescue yet. Get out of here, Tuxedo Mask.
Usagi’s Disaster: Beware of the Clock of Confusion
This week, the Dark Kingdom has set its sights on humanity’s desire to be aware of what time it is, in order to steal the energy of human anxiety. So, naturally:
DRUNKEN WINDOW SHOPPING SPREE!
Okay, they’re not drunk, fine. But they do find the brand new store of the week, which is having a big sale on clocks. But not a big sale on big clocks. The big clock is not for sale. It’s for STEALING ENERGY display. Ami is nonplussed: she’s already got a nice watch, a gift from her mother, but Usagi really wants a clock that looks a lot like Luna. Maybe a new alarm clock will be the push she needs to regularly get to school on time. Unfortunately, she’s still too broke to afford it, and Ami takes one look at her tearstained face and promises that she’ll come by the Tsukino home on her way to school from now on to make sure Usagi’s on schedule. Ami, you are already the best friend Usagi has.
But just when you thought that our hero’s perpetual broke-ness would prevent her from being brainwashed by Dark Kingdom schemes again, Ms. Tsukino has a surprise waiting for Usagi when she gets home. It’s the cheeky looking cat clock. Luna doesn’t think it looks like her at all, I mean do you think all 100% black cats with no other markings look alike, Usagi? Yes. The answer is yes. Usagi sets her new alarm and goes to bed, leaving all the family’s new clocks to shine with baleful midnight light over the sleeping Tsukinos.
The next morning, Ami arrives to walk to school with Usagi, to find everybody to be in what psychological experts would call “a tizzy.” Usagi’s already left for class, and immediately after seeing her children and husband out in to the world, Ms. Tsukino goes right back into the house, mumbling about how she’ll have to start dinner soon. At school, things are only magnified: half the class has shown up early and is livid that the other half is “late.” Ms. Haruna cancels class, since there’s no way she can teach with so many absent, so the restless students leave five minutes after arriving. On the city streets, things are even worse, with tempers and anxiety over rush hour traffic.
Luckily, Luna and Ami are on the job, apparently the only people anywhere who were not affected by the Dark Kingdom’s clocks. (Well, and Tuxedo Mask, but I’m starting to think that his existence is like reverse object permanence: he only exists when being noticed by Sailor Moon.) Luna gives Ami a special item: a super computer the size of a graphing calculator, so that she can run tests on Usagi’s cat clock. Luna thought it was “too much for Usagi,” which is sort of a slam but also I guess in the last episode Usagi specifically mentioned that she doesn’t know a thing about computers. Also, it’s 1992. It was perfectly reasonable for a fourteen-year-old to not know anything about computers in 1992.
In fact, each kid getting a computer to study at last week’s evil cram school on was probably a much bigger tell that the place was expensive and advanced than I initially realized.
ANYWAY, Ami and Luna open the clock, and there’s nothing inside but a gelatinous gray lump that seems to be growing hair… and teeth.
T H E C L O C K S A R E N O T R E A L
Now they know that the Dark Kingdom are behind this, but unfortunately they have no idea where the newly proactive and impatient Usagi is. At least they don’t until five seconds later when the bus she’s on crashes into a telephone pole nearby.
This is also how I respond to unexpected life-threatening incidents.
Brainwashed Usagi leads them off to the clock store immediately, because she has a lot of things to do today like play video games and eat snacks and the Dark Kingdom is totally messing with her schedule! Despite all Ami and Luna’s attempts to convince her that a full frontal assault might not be the best way to approach this problem, she convinces Ami to transform and bust in with her. And I mean, like, yeah, they laser blast the door down, leaving Luna stuck outside as it rematerializes behind them.
Inside, youma-of-the-week Ramua is waiting to trick them into entering her TIME MAAAAAZE.
No joke here, I just want to applaud whoever came up with this shot composition. A+
The time labyrinth is hecka confusing, they can’t find Ramua anywhere, and wandering around aimlessly could either turn them into adorable toddler versions of themselves, or into wizened old ladies. Luckily, Ami puts on some rad shades, the precise function of which I am unclear on. Maybe she just heard about Carol. With them, and her new computer, she tracks Ramua’s location.
[Editor Note (Victoria): Susana did not notice the Robocop Prime Directive reference on Sailor Mercury's computer. Obviously this is a terribly travesty and I am not allowing you, our readers, to go without seeing the Robocop Prime Directive reference on Sailor Mercury's computer, so here it is. Did I mention IT'S A ROBOCOP PRIME DIRECTIVE REFERENCE?? AMI MIZUNO WHAT THE EFF]
We interrupt this program for some Breaking Tuxedo Mask News:
Yeah, he’s wandering around the dark, empty clock store like a goober.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program, more updates on this story as they become available.
Turns out Ramua is one of the most formidable youmas yet, as she paralyzes both our heroines and begins to complete the process of draining Sailor Moon’s energy.
We interrupt this program for even more breaking news: Tuxedo Mask did a thing.
I don’t know what was going through his head, so I’ll project what was going through mine over the episode on to him. “Was that clock drawn really big on purpose? Or maybe it’s really big and the other characters haven’t commented on it because it’s just one of the hallmarks of the surreality of Sailor Moon. Maybe it’s hugeness has plot relevance? That seems unlikely,” but MAYBE WE SHOULD THROW A ROSE AT IT ANYWAY BOOM. Fuck that clock, being all huge and present while I walk around this empty warehouse looking for my not-girlfriend-yet who I never actually talk to.
With the destruction of Ramua’s clock, Sailor Moon’s energy comes back, and a couple of special moves later, the entire clock shop disappears, leaving Ami and Usagi standing in an empty lot. Status quo restored, plus ending gag about Usagi having returned to her lovable gluttonous self.
The Cursed Bus: Enter Mars, the Guardian of Fire
HOW DID YOU EVEN GET HERE.
Yay, Sailor Mars! My uninformed favorite of the senshi. Also, this episode mentions both the Legendary Silver Crystal and the missing princess. I mean, it doesn’t have anything to do with them, but at least they’re being kept fresh in our minds. We open with Usagi running into Ami at the bus stop. Ami’s going to a new cram school, presumably since her old one turned out to be run by a monster who was brainwashing students. Just another day in Juban. It’s worth it: she’s doing her best to be the smartest she can be, in order to help Luna find the Moon Princess, Usagi.
Rumors abound about the scary disappearances that have been plaguing Ami’s bus line: yesterday’s 6pm bus disappeared without a trace, and all its passengers with it. Usagi, Naru, and one of the show’s innumerable unnamed other school girls decide to visit a shrine near where the bus was last seen, which is famed for its charms that ward off evil and the supernatural. It’s also got a shrine girl who’s famed for her ability to predict the future. Ami stays behind, because studying is important.
Guess who’s at the shrine! TOO LATE it’s Jadite. The shrine also specializes in good luck charms for love, so he’s there preying on the energy of lovesick young girls, which is apparently the best kind of energy. But FORGET ABOUT HIM this is how Sailor Moon introduces its third senshi:
FUCKING. RAVEN. FAMILIARS.
I love you, witchy woman Rei. Rei runs into our heroine and friends while berating her grandfather for hitting on minors. Or any visitors, really. I like to think that he also hit on Jadite (who wouldn’t, really). Just then, Jadite steals some energy from girls who just departed the shrine with love charms, and Rei senses it immediately because she’s a boss. She can’t tell where it’s coming from, though, so she winds up knocking Usagi unconcious with what I think is called an o-fuda.
Rei and Usagi’s friends carry her inside the shrine, where Luna almost recognizes Jadite, but then Usagi wakes up and distracts her. Rei confesses that he was hired recently by her friendly-to-a-fault grandfather, and she doesn’t like him very much. Also, ever since he showed up, her prophecies have been failing. Luna senses Rei’s potential as a Sailor Senshi, but more investigation into this missing bus needs to happen, so they leave after awkwardly watching Rei chew out an old lady for implying that the Hikawa Shrine might have something to do with the missing bus.
rei ilu
Luna and Usagi meet up with Ami at the Sendai-Zakuae (or Sendai-Zaka, my subtitles might be in disagreement) bus stop, a crossroads of five streets and supposedly the final stop of the missing bus. It’s just outside the Hikawa Shrine, which hosts an evening prayer at 5:30, and there’s a whole busload of brainwashed-looking girls with love charms waiting. Mmm, tasty teen girl love energy. Ami confesses that she’s never had any particular crushes on anybody. Usagi is scandalized by this. “Usagi,” Ami confesses, “we’re too young to understand what love is.”
I love Ami. I love Sailor Moon.
The infamous bus pulls up and the trio attempt to board, but flummoxed by Usagi’s complete terror of the spooky cursed bus and its creepy lady bus driver. It pulls away before they can convince her to get on, and it’s a good thing, too. The bus proceeds to leave the pavement Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang style, and drive up into the air into a black void from which there is no return, straight into the clutches of the Dark Kingdom.
The next evening, Usagi tries to gently ask Rei if she knows anything about the missing busses, only to receive quite the cold shoulder from a fiercely protective Rei. MAI HART. Usagi scurries off to try and catch the cursed bus again, but not before Luna drops Rei her own transformation pen, which Rei curiously recovers. Unfortunately, Ami is late, which does not exactly inspire within Usagi the bravery she lacked yesterday, but you know what does? Taking on the role of a respectably employed and independent adult woman!
“Gorgeous flight attendant” Usagi boards the bus by storm and declares that it is her duty to see that passengers have a safe and pleasant trip in the name of the Moon! The youma bus driver maintains her disguise by reacting in exactly the same way a normal bus driver would react to such an event: completely ignoring Usagi. Ami runs up just in time to see Usagi and Luna’s bus drive into a black portal.
Meanwhile, back at the shrine, Rei’s supernatural instincts have led her to finally confront Jadite about being all evil and stuff, so he chucks her through a portal as well. Inside the portal, things are pretty trippy.
It’s the elemental plane of mass transit.
Usagi’s bus and Rei arrive at approximately the same time, and youma Kigaan takes Rei hostage immediately. Usagi tricks Kigaan into a trap with her tiara, giving Rei a chance to transform into Sailor Mars! One Fire Soul later and Kigaan is seriously disintegrated, breaking Jadite’s conduit to the energy of all the bus riders. Unfortunately, they’re still trapped in some kind of other dimension, with the portal home getting smaller by the second. Even with Ami’s magic giving them a path out of there, they’ll never get everybody out in time.
Cue the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in Sailor Moon yet.
Do you even have the right kind of license to drive that thing?
THIS IS ANOTHER DIMENSION. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM. HOW DID YOU LASH THREE BUSES TOGETHER AND PUT TWO OF THEM IN NEUTRAL WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING. TUXEDO MASK I’M SO TIRED OF YOUR BULLSHIT.
Everybody climbs aboard the Tuxedo Mask express and he drives all three buses up into the air, through the portal, and back into Juban. Then he leaves. Immediately. But at least now we know that Tuxedo Mask can totally drive the U-Haul when you move.
Moon Prism Power Wrap Up!
It’s surprising to me how quickly the show has started to feel less formulaic and “samey” episode to episode with the introduction of only a second Sailor Senshi, so I’m looking forward to seeing what a third personality will do to the Senshi dynamic. Personally, I like Rei as a feisty female character, but from a more metatextual standpoint, I also really like her ties to the supernatural. It’s rare for a genre series to establish as functional a known system of magic (in this case, a folkloric system) that isn’t one that the core supernatural events of the series are based around. What I mean is, even though Rei’s status as a miko (shrine maiden) and a clairvoyant is a part of the series, the Dark Kingdom’s denizens aren’t cribbed directly from shinto tradition, any more than the rest of the Sailor Senshi’s powers are. There are allusions to Japanese folklore, certainly, but the show isn’t about folkloric tales in it in the way of Mononoke, for example.
A connection to the supernatural has often been a way for female characters to hold power and respect not usually accorded to other women, and Rei is no different. She’s more disrespectful of adults than the other young girls of the series, which is to say, she is disrespectful to adults at all, she’s judgmental and proud and angry, and I love her contrast with the other characters.
To avoid spoilers, comments on this post are locked. If you have something to say, say it on our Facebook.
Russian geologists are on their way to a remote region of Siberia's Yamal Peninsula to investigate the mysterious appearance of what looks like a gigantic Sarlac Pit. Opinions are divided as to what caused the apparent crater.
LINCOLN, NE—Loudly demanding an immediate statement on the issue, Nebraska voters clamored this week for more information from female politician Elaine Romero, an Omaha businesswoman running in the state’s upcoming gubernatorial primary electi...
Visual arts and design student Daniël de Bruin has created a mechanical 3D printer that uses no computers or motors. The printer functions by using a 15-kilogram weight that must be reset again and again to push out clay, and a guiding wire is bent to provide the basic shape of whatever is being made.
more and more products are being fashioned by means of automated processes. not only are these processes more efficient and therefore cheaper, they also ensure that every item meets the same criteria and does not deviate from the norm. however deviations are usually the most interesting. as with humankind and the rest of nature, true beauty lies in its diversity.
In a scene that could have come from the student film version of "Mission Impossible," two staffers for the Michigan Republican Party secretly recorded a June 22 fundraiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer using spy glasses, but left the memory card.
The development of a Bible museum has long been a dream of the Oklahoma-based Green family, which has built Hobby Lobby into a $3 billion company in which its Christian beliefs infuse every aspect of the business, from the music played in its stores to being closed on Sundays.
A sordid soap opera that's flared here and there in the Portland Police Bureau since February 2013—full of resignations, harassment complaints, legal filings, retaliation claims, and texted Nazi jokes—seems to finally be over. Almost.
The Portland City Council this morning approved a $50,000 legal settlement for former Sergeant Kristy Galvan, whose complaints about her former supervisor, Captain Mark Kruger, touched off a long back and forth that wound up sacking Police Chief Mike Reese's one-time confidante and prompted the city's Independent Police Review office to conduct its first-ever independent misconduct probe of a police employee.
Galvan had been a probationary lieutenant when she first complained about harassment and sexist treatment while working under Kruger in late 2012 and early 2013. She has since left the bureau, a spokesman says, taking a "medical separation" this January. As part of the settlement, a city official said this morning, both Galvan and Kruger have agreed to drop concurrent legal claims against the city. (Although I'm still trying to confirm that.) Galvan, however, still has a complaint (pdf) pending with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries.
The scandal first went public after MIke Kuykendall, the bureau's civilian director of services, was caught sharing Nazi jokes with Galvan and resigned. (Kruger was disciplined years ago for an illegal shrine honoring Nazi-era German soldiers.) And it might have died several months later—until Kruger brought it back to life.
Kruger was cleared of Galvan's accusations—but he couldn't resist crowing about his good news. He posted his exoneration letter on his then-office door in East Precinct, with Galvan's name scrawled across the top in red marker. (The Oregonian first reported that.) Galvan got word of the letter's posting and filed a retaliation complaint with bureau brass. Who pretty much decided not to do anything about it.
According to a report exclusively detailed by the Mercury, Kruger told investigators that Reese's office met with city attorneys before anyone was questioned and decided Kruger's actions didn't amount to retaliation. Kruger was never questioned by the bureau, even though he was coached on how to answer informal questions by Central Precinct Commander Bob Day, a senior member of the police union for high-level command staff.
It took the IPR flexing its muscle, starting its own investigation last year, before anyone sufficiently aired Galvan's claim.
And city documents describing the settlement make clear why it's a good thing IPR has the power to do what it does.
Because of IPR's probe, Kruger was found guilty of retaliation by the city's bureau of human resources. It's unclear what discipline he might be facing. But if this case had been left to the bureau all by itself, Galvan might not have gotten her settlement. And Kruger almost certainly wouldn't have been found in violation of city rules.
ectoman writes: Opensource.com is running an interview with Jennifer Davidson of ChickTech, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create communities of support for women and girls pursuing (or interested in pursuing) careers in tech. "In the United States, many girls are brought up to believe that 'girls can't do math' and that science and other 'geeky' topics are for boys," Davidson said. "We break down that idea." Portland, OR-based ChickTech is quickly expanding throughout the United States—to cities like Corvallis and San Francisco—thanks to the "ChickTech: High School" initiative, which gathers hundreds of young women for two-day workshops featuring open source technologies. "We fill a university engineering department with 100 high school girls—more girls than many engineering departments have ever seen," Davidson said. "The participants can look around the building and see that girls from all backgrounds are just as excited about tech as they are."
You might not expect Hodor — or most characters from Game of Thrones, for that matter — to be down to party, but it turns out that he wants to bring you over to Westeros for an intense night. The actor who plays Hodor, Kristian Nairn, has worked regularly as a DJ for over a decade, and he's about to go out across Australia on a Game of Thrones-themed tour that's being called Rave of Thrones. Westeros-style dress is required at all locations, which themselves will be decked in matching visuals inspired by the show. Apparently, each night will also have some special guests.
"Some of the deepest house from all seven kingdoms"
The six night tour will roll through Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Darwin, and Adelaide. If you're into EDM, you may just want to go: Rave of Thrones promises that Nairn will be playing "some of the deepest house from all seven kingdoms." And by all means, it pretty much has to turn out better than the last Game of Thrones-inspired musical effort.
Verizon is making an alarmist argument in its response to the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality proposal. Classification of broadband as a common carrier service—a step called for by public interest groups who want to prevent ISPs from charging Web services for faster access to consumers—would instead require ISPs to charge Netflix, YouTube, and other Web services for network access, Verizon claims.
This goes a bit further than claims previously made by ISPs, who have been imploring the FCC to avoid reclassifying broadband as a "telecommunications service," a move that would subject them to common carrier rules under Title II of the Communications Act.
In addition to saying that utility-style regulation would stifle network investment, the ISPs have generally argued that reclassification would force the FCC to apply every possible Title II rule to broadband. That isn't true, as telecommunications experts such as Harold Feld of Public Knowledge have explained. The legal concept of "forbearance" means that the FCC can classify broadband as a Title II service and then choose which regulations to apply.
MJ is on a roll and also apparently is being paid under the table by the kefir industry (see closing paragraphs)
Take almonds and just…wait, why add water? Lecic/Shutterstock
Almonds are a precious foodstuff: a crunchy jolt of complete protein, healthful fats, vitamins and minerals, and deliciousness. Given their rather intense ecological footprint—see here—we should probably consider them a delicacy, a special treat. That's why I think it's deeply weird to pulverize away their crunch, drown them in water, and send them out to the world in a gazillion little cartons. What's the point of almond milk, exactly?
Evidently, I'm out of step with the times on this one. "Plant-based milk" behemoth White Wave reports that its first-quarter sales of almond milk were up 50 percent from the same period in 2013. In an earnings call with investors in May, reported by FoodNavigator, CEO Greg Engles revealed that almond milk now makes up about two-thirds of the plant-based milk market in the United States, easily trumping soy milk (30 percent) and rice and coconut milks (most of the rest).
A jug of almond milk containing roughly 39 cents worth of almonds, plus filtered water and additives, retails for $3.99.
Dairy is still king, of course, comprising 90 percent of the "milk" market. But as our consumption of it dwindles—down from 0.9 cups per person per day in 1970 to about 0.6 in 2010, according to the US Department of Agriculture—plant-based alternatives are gaining ground. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that sales of alternative milks hit $1.4 billion in 2013 and are expected to hit $1.7 billion by 2016, with almond milk leading that growth.
Now, I get why people are switching away from dairy milk. Industrial-scale dairy production is a pretty nasty business, and large swaths of adults can't digest lactose, a sugar found in fresh dairy milk. Meanwhile, milk has become knit into our dietary culture, particularly at breakfast, where we cling to a generations-old tradition of drenching cereal in milk. Almond milk and other substitutes offer a way to maintain this practice while rejecting dairy. (Almond milk has been crushing once-ubiquitous soy milk, perhaps partly because of hotly contestedfears that it creates hormonal imbalances.)
All that aside, almond milk strikes me as an abuse of a great foodstuff. Plain almonds are a nutritional powerhouse. Let's compare a standard serving (one ounce, about a handful) to the 48-ounce bottle of Califia Farms almond milk that a house guest recently left behind in my fridge.
A single ounce (28 grams) of almonds—nutrition info here—contains six grams of protein (about an egg's worth), along with three grams of fiber (a medium banana) and 12 grams of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (half an avocado). According to its label, an eight-ounce serving of Califia almond milk offers just one gram each of protein and fiber, and five grams of fat. A bottle of Califia delivers six eight-ounce servings, meaning that a handful of almonds contains as much protein as the mighty jug of this hot-selling beverage.
What this tells you is that the almond-milk industry is selling you a jug of filtered water clouded by a handful of ground almonds. Which leads us to the question of price and profit. The almonds in the photo above are organic, and sold in bulk at my local HEB supermarket for $11.99 per pound; this one-ounce serving set me back about 66 cents. I could have bought nonorganic California almonds for $6.49 per pound, about 39 cents per ounce. That container of Califia, which contains roughly the same number of nonorganic almonds, retails for $3.99.
The water-intensive nature of almond milk, of course, is no secret. By law, food manufacturers have to name ingredients in order of their prevalence in the product. For Califia and other almond milk brands, it starts like this: "filtered water, almonds." Given that it takes 1.1 gallons of water to grow a single almond in California, where 80 percent of the world's almonds are produced, drenching the finished product in yet more water seems insane.
Califia does make a couple of splashy nutritional claims: "50% more calcium than milk," the bottle declares, and "50% RDI of Vitamin E." Almonds are a great source of these vital nutrients, but not that great. Our ounce of whole almonds contains 74 mg of calcium vs. 290 mg for a cup of whole milk, and 7 mg of vitamin E, about 37 percent of the recommended daily intake.
How does Califia's beverage manage to outdo straight almonds on calcium and vitamin E when it lags so far behind on protein and fat? Again, the answer lies in the ingredients list, which reveals the addition of a "vitamin/mineral blend." All fine and well, but if you're interested in added nutrients, why not just pop a vitamin pill?
Califia almond milk contains an added "vitamin/mineral blend." So why not just pop a vitamin pill?
Moreover, almond milk isn't just a few nuts packaged with lots of water. It often contains additives. For example, in addition to vitamins, the Califia product, like many of its rivals, contains small amounts of carrageenan, a seaweed derivative commonly used as a stabilizer in beverages. Academic scientists in Chicago have raised concerns that it might cause gastrointestinal inflammation.
I'm not saying your almond milk habit is destroying the planet or ruining your health, or that you should immediately go cold turkey. I just want people to know what they're paying for when they shell our for it. As for me, when I want something delicious to moisten my granola or add substance to a smoothie, I go for organic kefir, a fermented milk product that's packed with protein, calcium, and beneficial microbes. Added bonus: According to the label, it's lactose-free—apparently, the kefir microbes transform the lactose during the fermentation process.
The industry, meanwhile, aims to take its lucrative almond milk model on the road. FoodNavigatorreports that White Wave is setting up a joint venture to market its plant-based milks in almond-crazy China.
Super Opinionated.
Take almonds and just…wait, why add water? Lecic/Shutterstock 
OnlyMrGodKnowsWhy
