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"Earthquake-triggered tsunami waves sweep along Iwanuma in northern Japan on Friday March 11, 2011. The magnitude-8.9 earthquake slammed Japan's eastern coast Friday, unleashing a 13-foot tsunami that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland." -- Read more

Credit: AP Photo/Kyodo News

Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images

The American Red Cross - Japanese Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami

International Medical Corps

GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund

Holy Shit!

I Want MSG

NHL Center Ice is holding a free preview Oct. 7-24. After that it will be 4 payments of $42.95. Hopefully MSG will settle with DISH Network, because there is no way I am switching to Cable and I will be damned if I am going to miss hockey.

Survey: Americans don't know much about religion

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer – Tue Sep 28, 3:42 pm ET

"A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths."

Full Story

Napoleon Dynamite was right!

(Photo: aliwest44 / Flickr)

Ligers

Ligers are the cross of a male lion and a female tiger, and they are the largest of all living cats and felines. Their massive size may be a result of imprinted genes which are not fully expressed in their parents, but are left unchecked when the two different species mate. Some female ligers can grow to 10 feet in length and weigh more than 700 pounds.

Ligers are distinct from tigons, which come from a female lion and male tiger. Various other big cat hybrids have been created too, including leopons (a leopard and a lion mix), jaguleps (a jaguar and leopard mix), and even lijaguleps (a lion and jagulep mix).

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Sleep Position

• Fetus position - A whopping 41% of participants sleep in this curled-up manner. Women are twice as likely to rest like this and it is listed as the most common position. These sleepers are said to have a tough exterior but are still sensitive and may appear to be shy but warm up quickly.

• Log position - If you sleep on your side with both arms down, you are a social, easy-going person who is trusting, sometimes to the point of being gullible. The study showed 15% of people sleep like a log.

• Yearner position - A close third is the side-lying position with both arms out in front of the body, with 13% of partipants sleeping like this. Yearners are noted to be open-minded and still cynical, suspicious, and stubborn about sticking to decisions once they are made.

• Soldier position - These sleepers lie on their backs with arms down and kept close to the body. This 8% study is said to be reserved, quiet, without fuss, and hold themselves and others to a high standard. Soldier sleepers have a higher likelihood for snoring due to the flat-back position, which may not cause them to wake up often but may result in a less restful night's sleep.

• Freefall position - Those people who lie on their bellies with arms under or wrapped around a pillow with head turned to the side, make up 7% of the population studied. Freefallers are brash, outgoing, and are very uncomfortable with criticism. 

• Starfish position - Sleepers who lie on their backs with arms up near their head or the pillow account for 5% of participants. These people are good listeners, helpful, and are uncomfortable being the center of attention. People who sleep in starfish position are more likely to snore and to suffer from a poor night's sleep more often.

If you think you are one of those people who move through all of these positions, that's not likely to really be the case. Idzikowski said the research reveals most people stay in the same position all night and only 5% lay differently night by night. Also interesting is that the study showed only one in ten people cover their bodies entirely with a blanket, with most people exposing an arm, leg, or both feet.


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I am a Yearner and Soldier, who moves around a lot during each night and mostly prefer to be covered entirely.

Noted photographer probed in misuse of Buffalo State cameras

By Phil Fairbanks NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: April 09, 2010, 7:45 am
Published: April 09, 2010, 12:30 am

Leslie Krims is known across the world as a surrealist photographer with a dark, satirical style.

Unfortunately for Krims, a longtime professor at Buffalo State College, there’s a new unwanted wrinkle on his international resume: allegations that he took two school cameras worth $45,000 and used them solely for personal and private business use.

Krims, a professor for 41 years, could face disciplinary action as a result of the state investigation into his use of school equipment.

“Krims used both cameras to create photographs for sale and used a Buffalo State College printer to print these pictures,” according to a new report by State Inspector General Joseph Fisch.

The inspector general goes on to claim that “these cameras, to date, have been used exclusively for Krims’ personal purposes, and neither camera has ever been used in teaching a class at Buffalo State College or for any school-sanctioned purpose.”

Krims declined to comment Thursday when contacted by The Buffalo News.

The New York Times in 2004 described Krims as “the bad boy of photography in the late 1960s and ’70s.”

The paper also suggested that Krims was a major influence on photography during the Modernist era and cited his photo of a “screaming, legless man on a small table in a windowed alcove” and the “image of his naked mother seated at a distance on the sofa in her dimly lighted, busily decorated living room.”

The Times credited the 67-year-old Brooklyn-born artist with opening photography to “possibilities of imaginative, formal and technical invention that countless artists continue to explore today.”

In 1993, then-Buffalo News Art Critic Richard Huntington described Krims as “something of a surrealist with an absurdist bent.”

Buffalo State College officials declined to comment on the possibility of disciplinary action against Krims, although the inspector general’s report indicates the school has initiated an investigation.

In addition, school officials are reviewing the inspector general’s recommendations on how it can improve its monitoring of college-owned equipment and property.

“We are reviewing our processes,” Stanley Kardonsky, vice president for finance and management at Buffalo State, said Thursday.

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Giant Beavers!!!

VANCOUVER, BC - FEBRUARY 28: Entertainers perform during the Closing Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at BC Place on February 28, 2010 in Vancouver, Canada.
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)