Attacks on Believers and Homosexual Rights

So says the latest cover of TIME Magazine:

It will be interesting to see what's on the inside of TIME this week!

It's SUPER Pi Day!

How are YOU celebrating Pi Day?

At 9:26 (both AM and PM) there's a SUPER Pi moment!  These moments will not happen again for another 100 years!

Search No More.. RIP Mr. Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy
1931-2015

He lived long,

and prospered.

We will miss, Mr. Spock.

I have been, and always will be, a fan.

The REAL Dress

OK, enough is enough already!  There are so many sites out there fighting over the color of "The Dress" that it isn't even funny anymore.  The problem is the lighting and/or the photoshopping going on.   When we are presented pictures like these:

It is easy to see how this "debate" can get started.  The FACT is, NEITHER of those dresses are the ORIGINAL!  (The one on the right is pretty close though).  In fact, the ORIGINAL is available in FOUR different colors, each with black lace - none with gold.  Here's a shot from the Roman Originals website, the "original" manufacturer of #TheDress - and it's not a light blue color at all, but a dark ROYAL BLUE, with black lace trim:

And here's how #TheDress looks in all four color variations available from the manufacturer:

And here's a store displaying three of the four colors in their storefront, and hey, it looks like there's one more variation:

So, there you have it - no photoshopping here - just the ORIGINAL colors - and the ORIGINAL one everyone is talking about is the royal blue one - and some websites/blogs, etc. have edited the picture to make it APPEAR to be white and gold or light blue and black.  It's DARK BLUE and BLACK.

Someone, or lots of "someones" out there are laughing like crazy over how people are insisting upon varying colors of EDITED pictures!

Well, Ford Motor Company jumped into the debate and Tweeted this:

Auschwitz - Never Again!

A video produced by BBC News - no words can express what really happened there...

Mental Health Issues

What the U.S.A. really needs is improvement and support of inpatient mental health facilities.  Every time there is a shooting many people start crying for gun control.  The problem with that mentality is that you only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to obtain firearms, you'll never, I repeat, NEVER get the guns out of the hands of the criminal elements of society.  One of the REAL problems is the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill.  For example, in the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson, AZ, the shooter's family actually attempted to get help for their son - but until he actually DID something to prove he was a danger to society, the institutions would not take him.  Rather than getting him help and having him prove himself safe, he got no help and ended up proving himself quite unsafe.

Under President Kennedy, may he rest in peace, there were attempts to bring attention and support to the needs of the mentally ill.  Eunice Shriver went on to found the Special Olympics, which to this day does a lot of good for that community.(1)  However, the funds and attention contributed more toward deinstitutionalization.  Funds raised went to institutions which cared for the mentally ill - but primarily to those which did outpatient treatment. 

Reducing costs (2)
As hospitalisation costs increased, both the federal and state governments were motivated to find less expensive alternatives to hospitalisation. The 1965 amendments to Social Security shifted about 50% of the mental health care costs from states to the federal government, motivating the government to promote deinstitutionalisation.

The increase in homelessness was seen as related to deinstitutionalisation. Studies from the late 1980s indicated that one-third to one-half of homeless people had severe psychiatric disorders, often co-occurring with substance abuse. (3)(4)(5)

A process of indirect cost-shifting may have led to a form of "re-institutionalisation" through the increased use of jail detention for those with mental disorders deemed unmanageable and noncompliant. When laws were enacted requiring communities to take more responsibility for mental health care, necessary funding was often absent, and jail became the default option, being cheaper than psychiatric care.

In summer 2009, author and columnist Heather Mac Donald stated in City Journal, "jails have become society's primary mental institutions, though few have the funding or expertise to carry out that role properly... at Rikers, 28 percent of the inmates require mental health services, a number that rises each year."(6)

So, what we really need is better funding for the mentally ill - which would help with the homeless situation as well as potentially heading off some of the violent incidents previously discussed. 


(1) http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-and-People-with-Intellectual-Disabilities.aspx and http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9546

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation

(3) Rubin, Lillian B. (Fall 2007). "Sand Castles and Snake Pits: Homelessness, Public Policy, and the Law of Unintended Consequences". Dissent. 

(4) Friedman, Michael B. (8 August 2003). "Keeping The Promise of Community Mental Health". The Journal News.

(5) McQuistion, Hunter L.; Finnerty, Molly; Hirschowitz, Jack; Susser, Ezra S. (May 2003). "Challenges for psychiatry in serving homeless people with psychiatric disorders". Psychiatric Services 54 (5): 669–76. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.54.5.669. PMID 12719496.

(6) Mac Donald, Heather. "The Jail Inferno". City Journal. Retrieved 27 July 2009.

2015 Pi Day is coming!