- Yesterday Congressman Joseph Cao of Louisiana, who is of Vietnamese descent, said the following to BP America CEO Lamar McKay:
In the Asian culture we do things differently. During the Samurai days, we would just give you a knife and ask you to commit Hari-Kari. My constituents are still debating on what they want me to ask you to do, but that being said, the cleaning up process has been a disgrace and the claims process has been dismal…
I get that he wants to be tough, but Samurai is a Japanese reference, and personally, I’m not totally comfortable with the statement, but not to the point that I’m insulted or offended. To me, he’s implying he’s Japanese or grouping all Asians together, even with his qualifier of “In the Asian culture.” Asian folks have a hard time with the rest of the world confusing the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, and the rest of the Asian culture as is. I guess it’s not really a big deal, but it just stuck out, and you folks tend to enjoy getting inside my thoughts. - I posted a video a while back of a camera that somehow got attached to a sea turtle. Here’s an update and the back story.
- Twitter has done a cool thing with the World Cup – FIFA World Cup 2010 Hashtags On Twitter are Converted into Country Flags
- Turns out that Obama wasn’t in the “Whoomp! (There it is)” video.
- The Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, has a common pose.
- I can’t stand the use the font Comic Sans, but I’m sure they can’t stand me either. Link – Language Warning
- Dr. Oz’s 25 Greatest Health Tips
Dads’ hormones change, too, during pregnancy
Although men may not be aware of it, they actually undergo hormonal changes as they prepare for fatherhood, says neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, author of The Male Brain (Broadway Books, $24.99), released in March.
At first, those hormones tell them to panic, or at least pay attention.
Levels of a stress hormone called cortisol — the same ancient chemical that instructs men to fight or take flight — tend to spike about four to six weeks after men learn they’re going to be fathers, subsiding as the mother’s pregnancy progresses, Brizendine says.
“It is a cortisol surge that wakes our brains up every morning,” Brizendine says. “So this surge may put the father-to-be’s brain on alert and in a sense wake him up to the impending reality of a new baby’s coming, and alert him that he’d better get things ready.”
About three weeks before the baby arrives, levels of testosterone — sometimes called the “male hormone,” associated with competitiveness, aggression and sex drive — fall by roughly a third, Brizendine says.
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Soldier, Back From Iraq, Finds Homeowners Association Sold His Frisco, TX House
It should have been a happy summer for Michael Clauer. The Texas Army National Guard captain was winding down his time in Iraq, preparing for a new unit to arrive and replace him and the 130 service members under his command.
But a phone call in June 2009 left him so shaken that a colleague suggested he seek psychiatric help: his wife, her voice choked with tears, told him that their homeowners association had foreclosed on and sold their Frisco, Texas house — which the Clauers say is valued at more than $300,000 — for $3,200, according to county land records.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Clauer, 37, said. “I didn’t understand how anybody could do that.”
The Heritage Lake Homeowners Association, as Clauer would come to learn, had exercised its rights under Texas law to sell the home after the Clauers fell behind on their association dues by about $800. Now, Clauer and his wife May are suing the homeowners association, the investors who bought the home at foreclosure and sold it, and the home’s current owner.
The Clauers, who reached an agreement with the current owner to continue to live in the home with their two young daughters until their lawsuit is resolved, either want to get their house back or be paid damages by the people they’re suing. They’d prefer, of course, the former.
Posted in DFW
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Jesus Statue Burns to Ground
MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.
The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way his arms were raised, as though reaching out to catch a football. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
Posted in Spiritual
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