(CNN) — San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is resigning in the face of a torrent of sexual harassment claims — though he’s not going out quietly.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced around 3:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. ET) that the City Council, during a closed-door session, had accepted the terms of an agreement with Filner that was reached after three days of mediation talks.

Filner submitted a “signed resignation” that “the city has accepted” in a 7-0 vote by council members, Goldsmith said. That resignation will take effect at 5 p.m. Friday, August 30.

After that vote, Filner spoke at the City Council meeting — his first extensive public comments in weeks — and began by offering a “deep apology … to all the citizens.”

“The city should not have been put through this,” the 70-year-old mayor said. “And my own personal failures were responsible.”

A short time later, though, Filner went on the defensive. While admitting that his behavior toward women was inappropriate at times, he insisted that he “never sexually harassed anyone.”

In the process of “trying to establish personal relationships,” the mayor explained, “the combination of awkwardness and hubris, I think, led to behavior that many found offensive.” He added, “Not one allegation … has ever been independently verified or proven in court.”

“But the hysteria that has been created … is the hysteria of a lynch mob,” Filner said, criticizing an environment in which “rumors become allegations, allegations become facts, facts become evidence of sexual harassment which have led to demands for my resignation and recall.”

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Some people are born with super-charged libidos.  Their intellectual side of the brain cannot control the horny animal instincts.

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This is not a fountain, but it is so cool.  These are the wet grass ponds at Library Park.

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Big statues are very impressive.  The thought and effort that goes into constructing these pieces of artwork is extremely impressive.  What I did not realize when I looked into this subject was the magnitude of some of the great statues in the world.  Some of these creations are truly massive. 

The list below is not the tallest statues in order of height.  The tallest statues are listed here, but in order to make the list more international I have chosen statues from many different countries.  By far the biggest statues are in China and Japan.  29 of the top 40 tallest statues in the world are in those two countries.  A truly world representation is the idea in this post.

Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami is a statue in depicting Hanuman (Hindu Deity). It is located in the village of Paritala, approximately 30 km from the city of Vijayawada, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The statue, installed in 2003, stands 135 feet tall (41 metres), is the tallest statue of Hanuman in the world, and the tallest statue in India.

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The Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, part of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex is a 40 metre (131 ft 3 in) tall statue of Genghis Khan on horseback, on the bank of the Tuul River at Tsonjin Boldog (54 km (33.55 mi) east of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator), where according to legend, he found a golden whip.

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The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan, New York City. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad.

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The African Renaissance Monument (French: Le Monument de la Renaissance africaine) is a 49m tall bronze statue located on top of one of the twin hills known as Collines des Mamelles, outside of Dakar, Senegal.

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Guanyin of the South China Sea, Mount Xiqiao is a statue of Guanyin, located on Mount Xiqiao, in the Nanhai District of Foshan, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China. This monument stands 62 m (203 ft) tall, and sits on a 15 m pedestal making a total height of 77 m (253 ft).  Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female.

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The Motherland Calls is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad.

When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest sculpture in the world, measuring 87 metres (279 feet) from the tip of its sword to the top of the plinth. The figure itself measures 52 metres (170 feet), and the sword 33 metres (108 feet). Two hundred steps, symbolizing the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, lead from the bottom of the hill to the monument.

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The Ushiku Daibutsu  located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, is one of the world’s tallest statues. Completed in 1993, it stands a total of 120 meters (394 feet) tall, including the 10m high base and 10m high lotus platform. An elevator takes visitors up to 85m off the ground, where an observation floor is located. It depicts Amitabha Buddha.

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The Spring Temple Buddha is a statue depicting Vairocana Buddha located in the Zhaocun township of Lushan County, Henan, China, built in 2002. It is located within the Fodushan Scenic Area, close to National Freeway no. 311. At 128 m (420 ft), which includes a 20 m (66 ft) lotus throne, it is the tallest statue in the world.

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Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. It is 30 metres (98 ft) tall, not including its 8 metres (26 ft) pedestal, and its arms stretch 28 metres (92 ft) wide.

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Not to leave out my hometown of Winnipeg I thought our famous statue should be included.  The Golden Boy (official name Eternal Youth) is a statue perched facing North on the dome of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and it is arguably Manitoba’s best known symbol. it stands 5.25 metres (17.2 feet) tall from the toe to the top of the torch and 4.27 metres (14 feet) from head to toe. It weighs 1650 kg (3,640 lb), and the top of his torch is 77 metres (250 feet) above ground.

The Legislative Building.

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There has been much debate as to what the Statler Brothers song ‘Flowers on the Wall’ actually means.  I think it has to do with some poor sap locked up in the nuthouse.

I keep hearing you’re concerned about my happiness.
All that thought you’re giving me is conscience, I guess.
If I were walking in your shoes, I wouldn’t worry none.
While you and your friends are worrying ’bout me, I’m having lots of fun.

Counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do.

Last night I dressed in tails, pretended I was on the town.
As long as I can dream, it’s hard to slow this swinger down.
So please don’t give a thought to me, I’m really doing fine.
You can always find me here, having quite a time.

Counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do.

Well, it’s good to see you, I must go, I know I look a fright.
Anyway my eyes are not accustomed to this light.
And my shoes are not accustomed to this hard concrete.
So I must go back to my room and make my day complete.

Counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.

Now, counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do.

Don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do.

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A Liger beside a fully grown Bengal Tiger

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High above the troubled land of Afghanistan

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Fog over City

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Sunset in Utah

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Giza

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Underwater Trees

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Hotel in Botswana

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Pam Anderson before the surgery

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Sikh Motorcycle Gang

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Gargoyle Alien

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Chrome Maserati

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Eiffel Tower from the top

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Africa

 

Stephen Harper to seek prorogation of Parliament

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper has confirmed he will ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until October, when his Conservative government will introduce the next speech from the throne.

“There will be a new throne speech in the fall, obviously the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back — in October is our tentative timing,” Harper told reporters in Whitehorse Monday. Harper is in the Yukon on the second day of his annual summer tour of the North.

This underhanded SOB prorogues Parliament every time his government faces hot button issues. By the way prorogue means delay, postpone etc.  All the negative rumble caused by the Senator spending misbehaviour (Pam Wallin, Mike Puffy Duffy) has the media foaming at the mouth.  To apply the brakes on these issues and misdirect attention Harper won’t convene Parliament until October.  This way the media, which has the attention span of a weasel on a double espresso, will focus on something else and Harper will have put out the fire. 

He will then get back to his crusade of raping Canada of every molecule of resources within its boundaries. Harper is so obsessed with natural resource extraction and exports that he has paintings in his home of open pit mines and sludge craters.  It is rumoured that he has renamed his pet cats Fracking and Drillbit.  Harper is so enamoured with the Tar Sands that he bought his young son a miniature Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage Extractor that the kid plays with in his sandbox that has been filled with crushed black sandstone.

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Here is the legacy the Tar Sands will leave in their wake:

Petroleum coke (often abbreviated Pet coke or petcoke) is a carbonaceous solid derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes.

Petroleum coke may be stored in a pile near an oil refinery pending sale. One example, as of 2013, was the large stockpile owned by Koch Carbon near the Detroit River which was produced by a Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit which began refining bitumen from the oil sands of Alberta in November, 2012. Large stockpiles of petcoke also existed in Canada as of 2013. China and Mexico were markets for petcoke exported from California to be used as fuel. As of 2013 the EPA was declining permits to use petcoke as fuel in the United States but markets existed in India and Latin America where it was used to fuel cement manufacture. As of 2013 Oxbow Corporation, owned by William I. Koch, was a major dealer in petcoke, selling 11 million tons annually.

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The Detroit piles

As if Detroit isn’t ugly enough already!

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Washington Post

A new study published in the journal North Korea Review says that parts of North Korea are experiencing a crystal meth “epidemic,” with an “upsurge” of recreational meth use and accompanying addiction in the country’s northern provinces.

“Almost every adult in that area [of North Korea] has experienced using ice and not just once,” a study co-author told the Wall Street Journal. “I estimate that at least 40% to 50% are seriously addicted to the drug.”

You might want to treat those sky-high numbers with some skepticism; it’s not clear how the authors could know this with such certainty or how so many North Koreans could get their hands on the drug when so many can’t afford or find basic medicine and when undernourishment remains a serious issue. A 2010 Brookings Institution report found that meth addiction rates were significant and growing but far from this scale. Still, the report is drawing attention to North Korea’s meth problem, which, whatever the scale, is well-documented and an apparently significant problem for the country.

So how do people in North Korea, a country where markets are so tightly regulated that even video CDs can be considered dangerous contraband and where social controls are often beyond Orwellian, manage to get hold of meth? It’s an interesting story, regardless of the scale of drug use today, and one that offers some interesting lessons for how North Korea works.

The problem actually goes back to the 1990s, when North Korea experienced a famine so devastating that virtually the entire world believed the country would collapse at any moment. But it didn’t, in part because Pyongyang finally decided to open up the world’s most closed economy just a small crack, by allowing a degree of black market trade across North Korea’s border with China. The idea was that the black market would bring in food, which it did, preventing North Korea’s implosion.

The black market trade into China has remained that little bit open ever since, either because Pyongyang can’t close it now or because they see some trade as beneficial, probably both. Some provinces along the border have seen their economies liberalize a tiny, tiny bit – most notably North Hamgyung, which is named in the North Korea Review report as particularly blighted by meth addiction.

In the years after the border with China opened that little crack, two other things have happened that led to the current meth crisis. First, medicine ran out and the once-not-terrible health system collapsed – more on this later. Second, North Korea started manufacturing meth in big state-run labs. The country badly needs hard currency and has almost no legitimate international trade. But it was able to exploit the black market trade across the Chinese border by sending state-made meth into China and bringing back the Yuan of Chinese addicts.

This is where things started to spin out of control for North Korea. The state-run meth factories and the cross-border black market trade started to mingle. And some of that meth ended up migrating back across the border and into North Korea, through the black market trade that brings in Chinese rice and DVDs and the like. It’s possible that some North Korean civilians started making meth on their own domestically, although it’s not clear where they would get the chemicals or the cooking space, and the scale would surely not match that of the state factories. But, either way, the influx of meth into northern North Korean cities was a product of the same barely tolerated black markets that the state allowed to open to fight the famine now almost 20 years ago.

This is where the collapse of the North Korean health system becomes relevant. As Isaac Stone Fish reported in a great 2011 Newsweek story, many regular North Koreans started using meth to treat health problems. Real medicine is extremely scarce in the country. But meth is much more common, which means that the price of medical drugs are artificially inflated while the price of meth is artificially low. In a culture without much health education and lots of emphasis on traditional remedies, people were ready to believe that meth would do the trick for their medical problems, and many got addicted.

The meth problem is hard for North Korea to deal with for three reasons: (1) because its health system is ill-equipped, (2) because the state doesn’t want to shut down North Hamgyung’s quasi-liberalized economy but also can’t regulate it effectively because it’s black market, and (3) because the country believes it needs to keep making meth and shipping it across the border to bring in hard currency. Meanwhile, North Korean addicts, whatever their numbers, are on their own.

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Dangerous Minds

Al Jourgensen is frontman for the American Industrial Metal band Ministry. 

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On Friday, Ministry debuted the music video for new single “PermaWar,” and while bandleader Al Jourgensen gave the clip a cursory plug on his recently launched Facebook page, he was preoccupied with something far more pressing: a “Caddyshack”-like battle against the “thug gang of asshole raccoons” that overtook his El Paso, Texas, compound.

Thankfully for us, Jourgensen chronicled his campaign against the varmints on his aforementioned Facebook page, offering a blow-by-blow account of his decision to deploy first a cayenne-pepper “bomb” and then unleash dry ice, mothballs and black pepper in an attempt to smoke the raccoons out (he did note, right up front, that, “I don’t want to poison or shoot them I just want them the fuck off my property”).

Perhaps most amusing were his repeated digs at The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith, first writing of raccoons, “They are just over glorified fat rats with eyeliner (hmmmm, kinda sounds like Robert smith of the Cure to me)” in his first update on the growing crisis last Wednesday.

Then, after declaring Saturday that the “cayenne attack” he’d unleashed on Friday had worked, Jourgensen concluded: “If they don’t come back again today I’ll buy some sort of hazmat suit and pick up their droppings. I wonder if Roberts smiths tour mgr. has to do this.”

Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod

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