Cave News

Buzzwords and phrases from 2011

Listed below is an assortment of buzzwords and phrases from 2011 with a couple of carryovers, from a previous year or two, that continued to be overused in 2011.

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planking - cool way of playing dead while posing for a photo lying facedown

angry birds - cute but grumpy feathered friends

sick - as being fashionable or attractive

occupy - to move into and take over a place with the intent to stay for an extended period to show a disagreement with something

green - to make something more environmentally friendly most often at considerable additional cost

birther - someone who recognizes that the birth certificate supplied by Barack Obama could be easily PhotoShopped and likely is

app - an application program designed for a specific purpose on a computer or mobile phone

upcycle - to reuse an object to create a product of higher value or quality than the original

sub-prime - used to describe lending at a higher rate of interest because borrowers have a high credit risk

Arab Spring - A revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations in the Arab world such as Egypt, Tunisia Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan Oman and others

leading from behind - to describe Obama's non-committal leadership such as his approach to the war in Libya

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Stupidest buzzword:

99%

Monkey Banana Sam stolen from SF Zoo

A monkey-hunt is underway in the San Francisco area after someone stole a tiny squirrel monkey from the city’s zoo.

The black and orange monkey, named Banana Sam, was reported missing from his enclosure by zoo employees Friday morning.

Zoo officials quickly found signs of a break-in: two holes cut in the wire mesh cage and the chain on the perimeter fence cut.

The search is on for Banana Sam, who is one foot tall and weighs only two pounds.

At 17 years old, Sam is considered elderly by monkey standards and he requires special food to survive.

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A 17-year-old squirrel monkey named Banana Sam was found scared but healthy two days after he was taken.

Banana Sam was "hungry, trembling and thirsty," after police returned him to the zoo, but a full physical examination showed he was healthy.

The monkey was found by a bystander who saw him come out of the bushes.

"He managed to coax the monkey into his backpack," Manfredi said.

The man called police, and within an hour they met with zoo officials, who verified the monkey's identity.

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Santa as Father Frost in southern Russia

A man dressed as Father Frost, an equivalent of Santa Claus, in Stavropol, Russia.

Running a country? There will soon be an app for that

Great Britain may soon provide Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured) with an app for running the country.

Britain’s government says experts are considering developing a bespoke iPad app that would deliver key data straight to Prime Minister David Cameron’s tablet computer.

Officials said Wednesday that the idea is being discussed, though Cameron’s Downing Street office declined to comment on the details.
The Times of London newspaper reported the app could include statistics and information from government departments, real time news and Twitter updates.
Cameron has previously discussed his affection for his iPad, but acknowledged he needed “a little bit of help from someone in IT” to set up the gadget.

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Change we can believe in - an election year without Keith Olbermann

That was fast.

Keith Olbermann, who began his much-publicized tenure at Al Gore's Current TV this summer is apparently already on the outs with management there.

So much so, he is reportedly being left out of upcoming election coverage specials.

Olbermann (pictured above)) will be notably absent from Current's upcoming two hours specials on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Instead of Olbermann, the specials on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary will be hosted by liberal political talk show host Cenk Uygur and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm.

Uygur and Granholm are shown above.

Olbermann, who was hired by Al Gore to revamp his Current TV network, has a history of contentious relations with his employers.

He unceremoniously departed MSNBC last January after falling out with the network.

A month later it was announced he was moving to Al Gore's Current TV where he was named Chief News Officer, received equity in the company along with a rumored high seven figure paycheck, and launched a show this June.

Olbermann's large MSNBC audience, however, in large part failed to follow him to his new show.

For most people who don't pay a premium to a cable company for the privilege of watching Current TV, Olbermann will be as obscure as if he were in the witness protection program.

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The Obama popularity surge this week was remarkably short-lived

President Obama enjoyed a surge in popularity this week — but the bounce didn't last.

A Gallup tracking poll released Thursday showed that Obama is once again underwater, plummeting to 41 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval, a sharp drop from earlier in the week.

He is back under the water he walked on earlier in the week.

Could it be his multi-million-dollar vacation while unemployment is high and people are financially hurting here at home? Or his 90 rounds of golf since he invaded the White House? Or photos of Michelle wearing her $2,000.00 sun dress?

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Scientists solve mystery that inspired Hitchcock's movie The Birds

Dying and disoriented seabirds rammed themselves into homes across California's Monterey Bay in the summer of 1961, sparking a long-standing mystery about the cause among marine biologists.

The avian incidents sparked local visitor Hitchcock's interest, along with a story about spooky bird behavior by British writer Daphne du Maurier.

Alfred Hitchcock is shown above with the rogue birds in the background.

"I am pretty convinced that the birds were poisoned," says ocean environmentalist Sibel Bargu of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She led a team finding that naturally occurring toxins appear to have been the culprit.

Call it the Case of the Poisoned Plankton. Looking at the stomach contents of turtles and seabirds gathered in 1961 Monterey Bay ship surveys, Bargu and colleagues have now found toxin-making algae were present in 79% of the plankton that the creatures ate.

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Mask dance in Nepal

A Nepalese Buddhist monk perform a traditional mask dance at Sangay Chhoeling Monastery in Katmandu, Nepal.

They will wake up tomorrow in Samoa to find they missed today

Residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Samoa and its tiny neighbour Tokelau will be waking up tomorrow to find that they've missed today.

At midnight tonight Samoa will officially jump over the International Date Line from the 29th of December to the 31st.

The aim is to improve the country's economic and cultural ties with countries including Australia.

As a result the 180,000 citizens of Samoa and the 1,400 citizens of Tokelau will wake up tomorrow to find they've missed today.

So far, only Samoa's small Seventh-Day-Adventist Church has indicated a major problem for its congregation, which traditionally begins celebrations for the Sabbath on Friday night and continues through Saturday.

The Seventh-Day-Adventist parish in Samoa's Samatau village has decided it will continue to observe the Sabbath day on Saturdays despite changes forced on the church by the westward switch of the date line.

The original shift to the east side of the line was made in 1892, when Samoa celebrated July 4 twice, giving a nod to Independence

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Vintage Lincolns, tearless mourners and snow at Kim Jong-il funeral

Vintage Lincoln vehicles on snowy streets.

How can they wail for hours without running out of tears?

Unimpressed South Koreans watched the funeral procession at a train station in Seoul.