Have you seen Rusty? - A male Red Panda has turned up missing at the Smithsonian National Zoo -

Have you seen Rusty? - A male Red Panda has turned up missing at the Smithsonian National Zoo - 



A male red panda has turned up missing at the Smithsonian National Zoo, a spokeswoman said Monday, and zoo officials have been combing the grounds searching for him.

Rusty, who is less than a year old and is about the size of a raccoon, was not seen in his enclosure at 7:30 a.m. Monday, and the zoo sounded a “Code Green” alert for an escaped animal at 8 a.m.

The zoo gates were closed temporarily as the search began, but were reopened at 9:45 a.m., after the animal wasn’t found, said spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson.

“We have been searching all morning,” she said. “It is most likely that he has not really left the vicinity. He would have to have some very strong motivation to leave the area.”

Red panda’s have thick reddish fur, long tails ringed with white circles, and very long whiskers. They like to climb trees. Like their huge cousins, the Giant Pandas, they are native to China.

The zoo’s giant pandas are safe and “inside slumbering,” Baker-Masson said.

Rusty is relatively new to the zoo. He arrived from a zoo in Lincoln, Neb., in late April and has been on exhibit about three weeks. The zoo also has a female Red Panda, Shama, and planned to breed the two.

“This animal is not dangerous to any human,” Baker-Masson said. “He is vaccinated.” He was last seen Sunday night at 6.

She said Rusty, who is said to be friendly and mild-mannered, might have managed to get out of his enclosure and is just hiding somewhere on the zoo grounds.

She said he might have escaped and is sick or has died somewhere on the grounds. There is also the possibility that he was stolen. “We have to think of everything,” she said.

Zoo curators continue to search the facility for him, using binoculars.

Baker-Masson said the enclosure’s “hot wires,” which deliver a small shock to prevent escapes, were on. She said curators noted that Rusty has not seemed interested in food the last few days.

The zoo asked that if visitors spot Rusty they should not approach him, but tell an official or call the zoo at 202-633-4888.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/red-panda-missing-at-national-zoo/2013/06/24/350e8b4c-dcdd-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html

$347 Million Pension debt threatens future of Girl Scouts... - That is a lot of Cookies... -

$347 Million Pension debt threatens future of Girl Scouts... - That is a lot of Cookies... - 



Given the friction and financial woes facing the Girl Scouts these days, perhaps it's time for a giant friendship circle. Under that long-standing tradition, a ring of Scouts clasp hands and give a little squeeze, accompanied by a silent wish of good will.

Just a year after its centennial celebrations, the Girl Scouts of the USA finds itself in a different sort of squeeze. Its interconnected problems include declining membership and revenues, a dearth of volunteers, rifts between leadership and grassroots members, a pension plan with a $347 million deficit, and an uproar over efforts by many local councils to sell venerable summer camps.

The tangle of difficulties has prompted one congressman to request an inquiry by the House Ways and Means Committee into the pension liabilities and the sale of camps.

"I am worried that America's Girl Scouts are now selling cookies to fund pension plans instead of camping," wrote Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, in a letter last month to the committee chairman.

Compounding the problems are tensions at GSUSA headquarters in New York, where several senior executives have quit or been ousted since Anna Maria Chavez took over as CEO in 2011. Last week, some of the roughly 325 employees there were invited to take early retirement, and Chavez said an unspecified number of layoffs were expected in August to offset the revenue losses.

Chavez insists the GSUSA is on the right track, although she acknowledged that sweeping changes in structure and programs over the past 10 years have been difficult for many in the Scouts' extended family.

"Change can be unsettling and it is not surprising that some would prefer for us to remain static," she said. "But doing so would be a disservice to girls who need us now more than ever."

Indeed, there's a common denominator between the GSUSA leaders and their critics — earnest expressions of devotion to the Girl Scouts and fervent hopes that it manages to thrive.

"I care so much about this organization, and that's why I hate to see it pulled down," said Suellen Nelles, CEO of a local council based in Fairbanks, Alaska. "We have leadership at the top who are toxic to this organization and need to go."

Connie Lindsey, the president of GSUSA's governing board, said the board had confidence in Chavez, despite the various problems.

"Our board supports our CEO," said Lindsey, a corporate executive from Chicago. "We know it's a difficult charge we've given her."

Since 2003, the Girl Scouts have undergone what they describe as a "complete transformation" aimed at making their programs and image more relevant to a diverse population of girls and parents. Changes have affected uniforms, handbooks, merit badges, program materials, even the logo and the fine print on the boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

"Our brand, as iconic as it is, was misunderstood — it was dated," Chavez said in an interview in her Manhattan office Friday.

Yet today the Girl Scouts have about 2.2 million youth members, down from more than 2.8 million in 2003. Donations to the national office and local councils plunged to $104 million in 2011 from nearly $148 million in 2007.

The biggest change — implemented from 2006 to 2009 by Chavez' predecessor, Kathy Cloninger — was a realignment that slashed the number of local councils from 312 to 112. It was intended to increase efficiency, but resulted in the departure of many longtime employees and volunteers.



Read more: -

http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/22669829/dissension-and-fiscal-woes-beset-the-girl-scouts

Airlines rank lower in customer satisfaction than the post office -

Airlines rank lower in customer satisfaction than the post office - 



Fliers are slightly more satisfied with the service offered by U.S.-based airlines since last year.

But with the airline industry ranked below the U.S. Postal Service for customer satisfaction, it still has a way to go.

The findings come from an annual survey of about 70,000 Americans and show that the airline industry ranks higher than only subscription TV and Internet service companies.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index, an independent benchmarking business developed at the University of Michigan, concluded that the industry improved 3% in 2013 to a rating of 69 on a 100-point scale. Not surprisingly, airline travelers were most turned off by crowded seating, extra passenger fees and poor customer service, according to the report.

Low-cost carriers JetBlue and Southwest airlines led the industry with scores of 83 and 81, respectively, while network airlines Delta, American, US Airways and United scored no better than 68, the survey found.

Industry officials defended the nation’s carriers, saying airfares have increased at only half the rate of inflation since 2000, even when accounting for those extra passenger fees.

Airlines also compare favorably with other modes of transportation such as taxis, said Jean Medina, spokeswoman for Airlines for America, the trade group for the nation’s airlines.

For example, she noted that the U.S. Department of Transportation received 1.18 complaints against airlines for every 100,000 passengers that flew in 2011. By comparison, New York City taxicabs got 3,125 complaints for every 100,000 passengers that year, she said.

“We have great numbers compared to other modes of transportation,” Medina said.

Read more - 

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-customer-satisfaction-airlines-20130620,0,3445834.story

Ancient Egyptian Statue Moves On Its Own, Curators At Manchester Museum Say - had never moved in 80 years -

Ancient Egyptian Statue Moves On Its Own, Curators At Manchester Museum Say - had never moved in 80 years - 



Don't go running to mummy just yet: the spooky movements of this Egyptian statue probably have a logical explanation, even if museum curators are in de-Nile about it.

Staff at the Manchester Museum in Manchester, England say the 4,000-year-old statue, recovered from a mummy's tomb, has been spinning without anybody moving it, NDTV reports.

The 10-inch tall statue of a man named Neb-Senu was originally an offering to the god Osiris and has been in the museum for 80 years.

Up until a few weeks ago, the statue had appeared to be stationary.

"I noticed one day that it had turned around," curator Campbell Price, 29, told NDTV. "I thought it was strange because it is in a case and I am the only one who has a key."

Price told the Sun this week that "most Egyptologists are not superstitious people," and said when he first noticed the object had moved, his first instinct was to wonder who moved it.

“But the next time I looked, it was facing in another direction — and a day later had yet another orientation," he told the Sun this week.

Price returned the statue to its original position and set up a time-lapse video, which he says shows the statue moving without the help of humans.

According to Price, "ancient Egyptians believed that statuettes such as these could act as an alternative home for the spirits of the people they represented, should the body be damaged or destroyed."

Nevertheless, even the Egyptians didn't expect these statues to move on their own.

TV physicist Brian Cox thinks he might have a scientific explanation for the spooky movement, according to the Daily Mail: differential friction.

"Cox suggested that two surfaces, the serpentine stone of the statuette and glass shelf it is on, cause a subtle vibration which is making the statuette turn," Price told the Daily Mail.

Cox's theory is supported by the fact that in the video, the statue appears to only be moving when visitors are in the museum.

Price, however, is skeptical of this theory, since the statuette has been on the same surface for 80 years and has never moved before.

Maybe the mummy's curse will actually be a blessing for the museum, as Price urges the public to visit and try to figure out the mystery for themselves.

Read more - 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/statue-moves-in-its-own_n_3486794.html

Beijing Pollution So Bad That International Schools Build Filtered Air Domes for Children -

Beijing Pollution So Bad That International Schools Build Filtered Air Domes for Children - 



After nearly two decades in Beijing, David Wolf knew it was time for a change when his 11-year-old son, Aaron, somberly asked him, “Dad, when you were growing up, did you ever have PE outdoors?”
Wolf had grown up in smog-choked Los Angeles in the 1970s, but even that wasn’t nearly as bad as Beijing today. His son, like many young students in the city, has been kept inside for months, with the luckier children getting the chance to exercise under huge air-filtered domes that their international schools have built.
Later this month, when school lets out, Aaron and his mother will move to Southern California for good, and Wolf begins a new way of doing his consulting work, splitting his time between Beijing and their new home at Channel Islands Harbor.
“I want them to leave before they hate this place,” Wolf, 49, said on a recent morning as he checked Beijing’s air quality on a smartphone app, something that many people here, expats and locals alike, routinely do several times a day.

Read more - 

http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=35778

Mississauga Home 'Bombed' By Sky Poo -

Mississauga Home 'Bombed' By Sky Poo - 



What's brown and smelly and falls from the sky?

That's what Emma Gilfillan-Giannakos of Mississauga, Ont., wants to know — and what Transport Canada investigators are trying to determine.

Gilfillan-Giannakos was sitting in her backyard earlier this week, her kids playing nearby.

"I was sitting underneath the gazebo .. with my son, and my two other kids were on a fort over here, and all of a sudden we heard this big bomb! Like it hit the pool."

When she investigated she found her patio, her pool and her garden were covered with brown splashes.

What was it?

As far as Gilfillan-Giannakos is concerned there's no doubt.

"I stuck my finger in it and I smelt it and ... it smells like poo!"

Her home sits along the flight path to Canada's busiest airport, Pearson International. Planes can be seen criss-crossing the sky above her home all day long.

Transport Canada officials are investigating but haven't come to a final conclusion.

They do say there's something they call 'blue ice' that occasionally falls from airliners.

'Blue ice' forms when there's a leak from the tanks which store lavatory waste. The waste sometimes freezes and sticks to the aircraft.

When the plane descends and begins to warm up, the ice falls off.

Investigators say if that is what happened they'll try to identify the aircraft and take corrective measures.

But Gilfillan-Giannakos says she doesn't need to wait for the result of a long investigation.

"All I know is something came from the sky. And to me it's either a bird or a plane. And there's way too much of this to be birds."

Gilfillan-Giannakos, says she's been left with a bill for about $5,000 for emptying and cleaning her pool, replacing the liner and cleaning the patio.

Read more-

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/21/mississauga-home-sky-poo_n_3480963.html

Three Foot Snake Found By Woman In Wal-Mart Potato Bag -

Three Foot Snake Found By Woman In Wal-Mart Potato Bag - 



Walmart promises a lot of bang for the buck, but one Pennsylvania woman got way more than she bargained for when she bought a bag of potatoes at Walmart: In addition to the produce, her bag contained a three-and-a-half foot long snake. Yech!

Bonnie Raygor had bought a bag of potatoes at Walmart in North Huntington, Pennsylvania. About six days later, she broke open the sealed bag to begin making dinner – and discovered a snake inside. “First I saw it’s underbelly, which is white. I thought I had a bad potato,” Raygor said. “Instead I had a snake. The bag was sealed. The only thing that’s in it are the little holes, so I’m assuming it was in there when I bought it. I screamed.”

Raygor instinctively grabbed the snake and put it in a vacant reptile enclosure her family had created for a pet snake they once owned. Only after the fact did she do some internet research, which led her to conclude that the snake is a non-poisonous corn snake. Or, as Raygor said, “I’m hoping it’s a corn snake, because I just stuck my hand in [the bag] and grabbed it.”

Because the bag was sealed right up until the moment Raygor broke it open, save for a few tiny vent holes so that the potatoes could breath, Raygor assumes that the snake got into the bag when it was originally packed.

Raygor immediately called Walmart. The first thing she was told was to bring the snake to the Lawn and Gardner department, but Raygor wanted something more than having to make an extra trip to Walmart. When she finally spoke to a manager, “He said if I had a receipt, I could get a refund.”

Walmart told WTAE News that it was going to contact the distributor of Harvest Gold potatoes, the brand that Raygor bought. Raygor knows what she wants from Walmart, and it’s more than just a refund. “I think they need to find out where it came from. They owe me an apology.”

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The Bank Of International Settlements Warns The Monetary Kool-Aid Party Is Over -

The Bank Of International Settlements Warns The Monetary Kool-Aid Party Is Over - 



When a month ago the Central Banks' Central Bank, aka the Bank of International Settlements (or BIS) in Basel where the MIT central-planning braintrust meets every few months to decide the fate of the world, warned that the Fed-induced collateral shortage is distorting the markets, few paid attention. That the implication behind said warning was that QE can not continue at the current pace, was just as lost. A few short weeks later following the biggest plunge in markets since 2011 in the aftermath of Bernanke's taper tantrum, some are finally willing to listen.

However, they will certainly not like what the BIS just released as a follow up, both in the form of the BIS' 83rd Annual Report, and the speech by Jaime Caruana to commemorate said annual meeting. For the simple reason that it reads like a run of the mill Sunday morning Zero Hedge sermon, which says, almost verbatim, that the days of kicking the can via flawed monetary policy are now over, and that the time for central banks to end the monetary morphine drip has finally come.

The BIS message, as summarized by the FT, is that "central banks must head for the exit and stop trying to spur a global economic recovery... cheap and plentiful central bank money had merely bought time, warning that more bond buying would retard the global economy’s return to health by delaying adjustments to governments’ and households’ balance sheets."

Here is a better summary of the BIS' unprecedented U-Turn on its 5 year long monetary strategy, in its own selected words:

Can central banks now really do “whatever it takes”? As each day goes by, it seems less and less likely... Six years have passed since the eruption of the global financial crisis, yet robust, self-sustaining, well balanced growth still eludes the global economy. If there were an easy path to that goal, we would have found it by now.

Monetary stimulus alone cannot provide the answer because the roots of the problem are not monetary. Hence, central banks must manage a return to their stabilisation role, allowing others to do the hard but essential work of adjustment.  

Many large corporations are using cheap bond funding to lengthen the duration of their liabilities instead of investing in new production capacity.  

Continued low interest rates and unconventional policies have made it easy for the private sector to postpone deleveraging, easy for the government to finance deficits, and easy for the authorities to delay needed reforms in the real economy and in the financial system.

Overindebtedness is one of the major barriers on the path to growth after a financial crisis. Borrowing more year after year is not the cure...in some places it may be difficult to avoid an overall reduction in accommodation because some policies have clearly hit their limits.
Of course, it would have been more useful for the BIS to reach this commonsensical conclusion some four years ago (or roughly when we started preaching to the choir, which now includes the BIS itself), instead of allowing the global private bank controlled syndicate known as "central banks" to inject $15 trillion into global capital markets in the past 4 years, and nearly $25 trillion since 2000.

Read more -

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-23/bank-international-settlements-warns-monetary-kool-aid-party-over

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has inserted a handout to Las Vegas casinos into the repackaged immigration reform bill -

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has inserted a handout to Las Vegas casinos into the repackaged immigration reform bill - 



Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) have inserted a provision that amounts to little more than a handout to Las Vegas casinos into the repackaged immigration reform bill, Breitbart News has learned. This provision, a brazen example of crony capitalism, was inserted into the immigration law enforcement section of the bill despite the fact that it has nothing whatsoever to do with "immigration" or "law enforcement."
On page 66 of the repackaged bill, the following provision appears:
“CORPORATION FOR TRAVEL PROMOTION.—Sec- 9(d)(2)(B) of the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 (22 U.S.C. 2131(d)(2)(B)) is amended by striking ‘‘For each of fiscal years 2012 through 2015,’’ and inserting ‘‘For each fiscal year after 2012.”
The Travel Promotion Act (TPA) of 2009 allows the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to spend up to $100 million on promoting travel to specific areas of the country. If the provision Reid and Heller inserted into the proposed immigration reform legislation becomes law, the benefits of the TPA would be extended indefinitely.
As the Heritage Foundation’s Jena McNeill wrote in June 2009, the Travel Promotion Act creates “a government-run public relations campaign funded by a tax on international visitors.” After the law was passed, the PR campaign touting Las Vegas casinos and other tourist destinations in the U.S. using that tax was rolled into a government-run corporation called “Brand USA.” In October 2012, Jim DeMint and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report that “reveals a history of waste, abuse, patronage, and lax oversight” with the Brand USA program and the Department of Commerce that oversees it.
When the Travel Promotion Act was passed in 2009, the Las Vegas Casino industry and the Las Vegas Strip officially thanked Reid for passing it. Among others, Bally’s Casino ran an advertisement on their electronic billboard on the Strip thanking Reid for its passage, a billboard Reid promoted on his website.
“The recently signed into law Travel Promotion Act is going to greatly benefit Nevada because we have so many wonderful tourist attractions,” a 2009 post from Reid’s website reads. “Senator Reid fought so hard to pass this bill because he knew that it would mean thousands of jobs for Nevada as foreign tourists flock to Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe. Yesterday a number of hotels on the Las Vegas Strip showed Senator Reid their appreciation for his efforts on behalf of Nevada by thanking him in their marquees.”

Read more -

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/22/Harry-Reid-Dean-Heller-insert-Casino-Cronyist-favor-handout-into-amnesty-bill

World's Ugliest Dog 2013: Beagle-Boxer-Basset Named Walle Wins Annual Contest -

World's Ugliest Dog 2013: Beagle-Boxer-Basset Named Walle Wins Annual Contest - 



A huge-headed, duck-footed mix of beagle, boxer and basset hound was the upset winner at the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

Walle (WAHL-ee), a 4-year-old mutt from Chico, Calif., who was entered at the last minute, was judged Friday as the most unsightly of 30 dogs at the Northern California competition.

"This dog looked like he's been photo-shopped with pieces from various dogs and maybe a few other animals," judge Brian Sobel said.

Walle overcame the dominance in recent years by nearly hairless Chihuahuas, Chinese cresteds, or combinations of the two.

Owner Tammie Barbee got the dog when he was three months old.

"People come up to me and say that dog is not right," Barbee said, "but I love him."

Judges said they were especially impressed by Walle's bizarre waddle of a walk.

Walle wins $1,500 and will make several network TV appearances next week, including NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

The contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds gets worldwide attention, with media from around the world traveling to Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

Organizers say the dogs are judged for their "natural ugliness in both pedigree and mutt classes."

Read more -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/worlds-ugliest-dog-2013_n_3484626.html