March is Women's History Month
Registered Dietitian Day!
Discover What Your Name Means Day
Amerigo Vespucci Day [remember him?]
via vegetarian.procon ~ Famous Vegetarian Women
Athlete, Hannah Teter (Born Jan 27, 1987)
US snowboarder; two-time Olympic medalist (Gold, 2006; Silver, 2010); US Snowboard Overall Grand Prix halfpipe champion and X Games superpipe champion (2004); Founder, Hannah's Gold charity
"Q: How did you decide to go vegetarian?
A: "I went vegetarian after watching Earthlings [2005 documentary]. I had no idea how intense and how horrible factory farms are. I have such a love for animals that I can't justify having their heads cut off for me. And the slavery of the dairy industry motivates me to go more vegan. I can't justify animal slavery for my enjoyment. I love the Gandhi quote [possibly misattributed]: ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’ Animals can't speak for themselves, but scientifically we know that they don't want to die."
Q: Isn't it difficult to be a vegetarian athlete?
A: "I feel stronger than I've ever been, mentally, physically, and emotionally. My plant-based diet has opened up more doors to being an athlete. It's a whole other level that I'm elevating to. I stopped eating animals about a year ago, and it's a new life. I feel like a new person, a new athlete."
1) CORRECTION! I got it wrong! Or actually, I trusted "The View" when they reported this story, and THEY got it wrong! My bad. I should have cross-checked!
The last munchkin, Jerry Maren, ISN'T DEAD! He's still alive! It was a false report!
Wikipedia says:
“Gerald Maren (born January 24, 1920) known as Jerry Maren, is an American actor and is the last surviving Munchkin of the classic 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz, in which he portrayed a member of the Lollipop Guild.”
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2) Gustave Flaubert was tried for "insulting public morality" after writing the novel, "Madame Bovary".
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3) In May 2014. astronomers revealed that the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is shrinking by about 580 miles per year.
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4) A gun safe—the GunVault GVB1000 approved by the California Department of Justice uses a biometric fingerprint sensor to unlock itself—and can easily be opened with just a paperclip. It’s a method that simply involves tricking the bypass lock to open the latch. That is way too easy.
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5) Rumor has it that Edward Snowden is on the short list for a Nobel Peace Prize. His Twitter profile says:
"I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public. Director at @FreedomofPress." Check out his Twitter Feed. Very informative.
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6) Beyonce's band is all female. Maybe this is old news. I've seen the clips of her on the Super Bowl with a bunch of women dancing with her, but I did not know that her actual backup band was also all female. I just found this out today.
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7) via EW
The Brothers Grimsby features a minor, but memorable, subplot in which presidential candidate Donald Trump is infected with the HIV virus and then develops full-blown AIDS. While many will doubtless find such material offensive, the film’s star and co-writer Sacha Baron Cohen insists this part of the film has been received warmly by audiences.
“We’ve just shown the movie in Germany, Holland, England, around America, Norway, Spain — and when Donald Trump contracts HIV, people are standing up and applauding,” the British comedian said in an interview with Sirius XM’s Entertainment Weekly channel. “And, to me, that’s pretty worrying because, if he does become president, the hatred [towards] this guy is so extreme that people will wish ill on him.” [and on the U.S., too!]
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8) In Bernie News:
Yesterday, something historic happened. Bernie Sanders was not predicted to win the Michigan Primary last night. He was polling 20-25 points behind Hillary Clinton, a mere week ago. By all polling data, Bernie was predicted to lose, probably, in double digits. Instead, he won by a narrow margin. It is being called the "biggest polling miscalculation of modern history".
In a speech on Monday, Bernie Sanders was talking about the unfairness of Marijuana Laws and Convictions, and openly admitted that he tried it "two times" but it just made him cough.
[Really? I thought this guy was a hippie!]
"A campaign is not about what you said yesterday. It is about what you have stood for your entire career." ~ Bernie Sanders
"Six out of ten post offices are in ZIP codes with either one or zero bank branches." ~ Bernie Sanders
"There are 492 billionaires in the United States, and 16 million children living in poverty." ~ Bernie Sanders
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Weed4Votes is planning on handing out $10,000 worth of free weed vouchers to cannabis supporters.
via extract.suntimes
"Weed4Votes, led by pot activist David Hodges, started distributing vouchers last week in San Jose for 2,000 grams of marijuana to voters who agreed to listen to marijuana legalization pitches and hand over their personal information, as reported by Cannabis Now Magazine.
There’s one catch: The pot vouchers are only redeemable if California legalizes marijuana in 2016. That should incentivize voucher recipients to actually show up and vote for legalization this November.
Weed4Votes will hand out up to 10,000 pounds of free marijuana vouchers over the next few months using three programs: Weed4Donations, Weed4Signatures and Weed4Voters, according to a news release.
In each program, certificates for complimentary marijuana will be given to those that contribute to the cause.
The certificates will be valid after the 2016 election, if legalization passes, and can be redeemed for an amount of free marijuana equal to the amount of the donation made.
Many marijuana advocates think California’s chances of legalizing marijuana in 2016 are very good. Already 20 ballot initiatives have been filed, and the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) appears to be picking up major steam, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
AUMA has already gained prominent supporters and financial backers in recent months, including Napster co-founder and former Facebook President Sean Parker, who has already donated $1 million to the campaign.”
[My take: Hold your support for AUMA! The ONLY Initiative that is not geared towards profiting the sponsors, but is meant to benefit the voters is the CCHI 2016 Full Ballot Initiative, often referred to as the Jack Herrer Initiative. I am still researching this. There are many initiatives that have been introduced which have provisions written into the law that grant the financial backers of the bill legal monopolies to be the only sanctioned growers in the state. I will get back to you with more details.]
[Jack Herrer was a prominent cannabis authority, who wrote the definitive book on Cannabis, called "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". I recommend it highly. His ideas about reform are compassionate and rational. I suggest you Google it to learn more about CCHI 2016, whether you live in California or not. I’ve heard it said, “as California goes, so goes the nation.” If it becomes legal here, the law will be a blueprint for other states, and it will only be a matter of time before it’s legal all over.]
[One other thing…is this even legal? Isn’t this paying a voter for their vote? Is that allowed?]
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10) Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy
“Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and are without side effects and chemical dependency potential.
Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and are without side effects and chemical dependency potential.
Did you know that there’s a natural antidepressant in soil? It’s true. Mycobacterium vaccae is the substance under study and has indeed been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. The bacterium is found in soil and may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier. Studies were conducted on cancer patients and they reported a better quality of life and less stress.
Lack of serotonin has been linked to depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar problems. The bacterium appears to be a natural antidepressant in soil and has no adverse health effects. These antidepressant microbes in soil may be as easy to use as just playing in the dirt.
Most avid gardeners will tell you that their landscape is their “happy place” and the actual physical act of gardening is a stress reducer and mood lifter. The fact that there is some science behind it adds additional credibility to these garden addicts’ claims. The presence of a soil bacteria antidepressant is not a surprise to many of us who have experienced the phenomenon ourselves. Backing it up with science is fascinating, but not shocking, to the happy gardener.
Antidepressant microbes in soil cause cytokine levels to rise, which results in the production of higher levels of serotonin. The bacterium was tested both by injection and ingestion on rats and the results were increased cognitive ability, lower stress and better concentration to tasks than a control group.
Gardeners inhale the bacteria, have topical contact with it and get it into their bloodstreams when there is a cut or other pathway for infection. The natural effects of the soil bacteria antidepressant can be felt for up to 3 weeks if the experiments with rats are any indication. So get out and play in the dirt and improve your mood and your life.
[My take: IT'S TRUE! Nothing makes me as happy and content as spending time in the garden!]
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11) Jane Mayer, author of "Dark Money" has recently been making the talk show rounds to discuss her new book.
*Each Koch brother is worth about $45 billion.
* They are the two richest brothers in the world, and David Koch is the richest man in Manhattan.
*They call their company, Koch Industries, "The biggest company you've never heard of."
*In the last 40 years or so, they've put hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money into trying to change the country for everybody.
*After David Koch ran for office and failed, he realized he couldn't influence it that way, so he decided to just buy it, and change the country from behind the scenes
*They believe there should be fewer taxes on the super rich, like themselves. And they believe that there should be fewer regulations on companies like their own.
* They especially don't like environmental regulations, because they've had problems with that.
* They think the government should be tiny.
*They're against things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
*They also want to abolish the FBI and the CIA.
*They have formed a club with approximately 19 other billionaires, who meet twice a year to plan how they want to affect American politics, and the group, combined, has thrown over a half $1 billion into controlling our political system.
*Right now, 400 American billionaires are trying to pick our leaders for us.
*They have not yet put their money behind any of the Republican primary candidates. They have a pooled jackpot of $889 million (twice what the Republican National Committee has available at their disposal), which they are waiting to spend on the general election.
*They are not wild about Trump, he's not their cup of tea, but he's not poison to them either.
*Very many Tea Party and anti-Obama groups are funded by the Koch Brothers
*The brothers even investigated the author of "Dark Money" herself! Luckily they came up with nothing salacious or career-destroying!
12) DeRay Mckesson, Black Lives Matter activist, just launched a last-minute bid to become mayor of Baltimore
“DeRay Mckesson, a prominent activist linked to the Black Lives Matter protest movement, filed paperwork Wednesday evening to enter the Democratic primary in the 2016 Baltimore mayoral race.
The activist waited until the final hour before the 9 p.m., Feb. 3, filing deadline to launch the surprise, long-shot bid, which begins just 83 days before voters head to the polls. Because Democrats far outnumber Republicans in the city, Baltimore’s April 26 primary is expected to determine who replaces Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the once-rising star in national Democratic politics who announced last year that she would not seek reelection.
‘Baltimore is at a moment,’ Mckesson, who becomes the first of the prominent post-Ferguson activists to seek public office, said in a phone interview on Wednesday night. ‘I’m running to usher Baltimore into a new era where our government is accountable to its people and aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves problems.’
Officials with the city’s Board of Elections confirmed that Mckesson filed his paperwork around 8:50 p.m.
Mckesson, 30, joins a crowded field that includes former mayor Sheila Dixon, who is leading in the polls, state Sen. Catherine Pugh, and city councilmen Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby as well as 10 other Democratic candidates.
The election comes at a time when Baltimore serves as one of the primary anecdotes in the national conversation about the overlay of race, inequality, and inner-city public policy. A poll conducted late last year by The Baltimore Sun found that 58 percent of city primary voters believe the city is “on the wrong track.”
‘I’ve lived through too many lofty promises and vague plans,” Mckesson said. “We’ve come to rely on a traditional model of politics only to be rewarded with disappointing results.’
Wielding an online following of hundreds of thousands of people, Mckesson is among the most recognizable of the activists who took to the streets in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore in response to killings of unarmed black men by police officers during the last 18 months. A former school administrator in the public schools systems in both Baltimore and Minneapolis, Mckesson joined the protests in Ferguson in late 2014, and later quit his job to become a full-time organizer. Born and raised in Baltimore, he says he moved back to the city full time last March.”
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*NOTE* - Please understand that I do not claim to be a “journalist”. I am only passing on bits of information, which others have researched, that drift through my awareness, on any given day. I watch, read and listen to any number of different news and entertainment sources, and it’s more than anyone could possibly intake and retain in a day, so I created this little daily “cheat sheet” for myself, so that I could remember all these oddball facts. Then I decided to share these tidbits, and thus was born the Daily TILT. I do this for fun. I hope you enjoy it.
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[Snarky comments by me are usually in brackets like this].
All photos by me unless credited otherwise.
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**NOTE: I purposely do not include links or photos in the TILT. The idea is to not have one story be highlighted above all the others. And sometimes links can be stressful. I, myself, sometimes get conflicted when presented with too many choices, so I thought I'd save you the trouble of having to make any of those types of decisions for a few minutes, while you read the Photo and Link-Free TILT!
I encourage you to further research any story that interests you, though. They are easy to Google.
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***My Daily Sources are usually one of the following: Democracy Now, The Daily Kos, Thom Hartmann, care2, Mother Jones, David Pakman, Ring of Fire, Jim Hightower, Alternet, Bill Press, Wired UK, John Fugelsang, Lee Camp, Bill Maher, The Huffington Post, The Daily Show, TYT Network, todayifoundout, Truthout, DIGG, Think Progress, Politico, Salon, Star Kelley, Friends of the Earth, Talk Media News, NRDC, Pirate Television, The Upworthiest, The Chase, The View, Soul Pancake, The Petition Site, Bioneers, TechKnow, The Daily Beast, PPP, YouTube and occasionally, MSNBC.
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As Thom Hartmann always says, "Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. TAG, you're it!"
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