These strange pictures are pictures of Bryzoans found in a Connecticut pond. They appear to be some kind of alien pods.

These Bryozoans are firm and slimy to the touch. The insides of the pods are 99% water. This is all the information I currently have on them. If you have any further information, please post here in our comments section.

So the country that wants nuclear weapons so badly is still stoning women for adultery. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two was supposed to receive the usual sentence for adultery…death by stoning. Even though she completely denies the accusation and has been jailed for years, she was scheduled to be killed until human rights groups and western nations complained. Here are some pictures of recent stoning in Muslim counties:

Have you seen the new video of the Honda Unicycle yet? Check it out! Also visit HondaUnicycle.com

Today Exxon Mobile reported how it plans to keep the world supplied with oil. Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon reported a bunch of new findings and outlined his plan for the future.

From the Tillerson report, I heard that for the fifteenth year in a row, it had more new discoveries than current production. Tillerson also reported that the oil industry has the production levels to produce 4 or 5 million more barrels a day than the world consumes. When oil was going for the high price of $147 per barrel, there was only a mere 1 or 2 million excess capacity per day available.

The report from Tillerson in and of itself was quite interesting. What is even more interesting is that less than 1 year ago today, I could not find many articles on oil production that did not state we were running out of the product.

I had scoured cnn money, fortune, forbes, money magazine, CNBC, Fast Money on CNBC and the king of all oil pumpers, Jim Cramer. They were all endlessly reporting how oil was a commodity that was simply running out. 

I do admit that I have a bone to pick with these prognosticators. I actually started listening to Jim Cramer when he would spout about how all oil plays were a must have in all portfolios. Not to mention the self-aggrandizing Dylan Radigan and his cohorts Guy Adami, Jeff Macke, Pete Najarian, and Karen Finerman from Fast Money.

If you will check back to their stock picks for oils stocks as little as 6 months ago, you will see them all down in the neighborhood of 50+%. Nice record. How can they now be the same people that are still all over the news spouting about how prices were out of hand.

It just burns me up every time I now see Mr Pompous Radigan and blowhard Jim Cramer being used as ‘experts’ on how to get through the recession. These bumbling boneheads were one of the main reasons why we are in this fix to begin with.

Thanks guys, can’t wait to see your next Matt Lauer interview. 

Did any of you hear the news the other day when Barack Obama stated that he had been to 57 states so far in his campaign. I have it posted below:

He thinks he has 1 state left to go, he has visited 57 so far and is not going to be able to go to Alaska and Hawaii.

Is there something wrong with this picture? This is the front runner?

We thought George Bush was bad. I think Obama is his duplicate on the Democratic side.

Good luck America. We are screwed again.

Call the Internet democratic and a horde of disenfranchised offline citizens might protest. With one billion people online, the World Wide Web is off limits to more than five billion people. Broadband and dial-up hurdles aside, blame it on English, the language that dominates the online universe.

Starting on Monday, Web-domains incorporating 11 languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet will be tested. The domain-name suffix – or the part that follows the dot (like “com” or “org”) – could be written in non-Roman languages, such as Greek, Arabic or Chinese. Does it seem like a minor detail? Think twice.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Web-domain naming issue has been loaded with geopolitical tension and bureaucracy. More than 170 countries claimed the right to Web-domain names in their languages at a United Nations summit in 2005. Internet users whose language does not use the Roman alphabet squabble that their lack of English knowledge is a barrier to their Internet usage.

Actually the Internet is supervised by the United Statesalone through its Marina del Rey, Calif.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), a private nonprofit organization established in 1998, which reports to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Defenders of the status quo in Internet domain names, claim that adopting other alphabets will lead to Internet fragmentation.

So, why don’t we all, English speakers, learn Chinese to remain cohesive?

Not only athletes, but pigs are on a rigorous regimen in China, in preparation for the Beijing Olympics next year. Chinese pigs eat organic, get daily exercise and take Chinese herbal medicine. They do all that in farms carefully chosen to meet water and soil quality criteria. The hogs’ VIP treatment, though, is infuriating Chinese bloggers, The Wall Street Journal* reported today.

These pigs, treated better than “a human in a coal mine,” wrote a Chinese blogger, will feed Olympic athletes both from China and elsewhere. Coming on the heels of recent outbreaks of pork blue-ear disease and the recalled toys fiasco, the case for raising special pigs has been a hard one to swallow for many Chinese.

“Olympic Pigs Doing Exercise Two Hours Every Day” was the headline in the Chinese-language newspaper Beijing News. Bogog, the Olympics organizing committee confirmed that Qianxihe Food Group, or Lucky Crane is the exclusive provider of pork. A member of the panel of experts on food safety for the Olympics said these pigs may be sold to the public after the games. What about the price? It will be probably twice as much as that of potato-couch pigs.

*When it comes to the Olympic Games in Beijing next summer, the Chinese government is taking no chances. From cloud seeding to disperse pollution in the capital, to crackdowns on visa violations to winnow crowds, to a massive construction project aspiring to the grandest of Games infrastructure, Beijing is working strenuously to cover itself with glory come August.

The slashing of prices that is. In Zimbabwe roughly 1,300 shop owners and managers have been fined thousands of dollars following governmental raids across the country. Some shop owners have even been arrested for non-compliance of a direct order to cut product prices in half. These measures in an attempt to help curb the out of control inflation rate currently at 4,000%. Some independent institutions estimate that actual inflation rates may be upwards of 9,000%.

If businesses do not comply the government will turn to nationalized distribution where products can only be purchase by government officials designated to each community.

If the crisis continues the private distribution of oil and gas will be halted as early as Wednesday of this week. One solution includes the monetary backing of the South African rand, which may create some economic stability in the area.

The Chinese export Market has been making frequent appearances in the media over the last year, and yet still continues. Whether it’s tainted dog food or muffler dried tea leaves the country has been under much scrutiny over their production standards. According to one article, 19.1% of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard. Thankfully the U.S. continues to tighten their import regulations and standards yet some tainted products still seem to seep through.

Some of the botched products include:

- Contaminated pet food
- The recall of more than a million Thomas & Friends toy trains coated with toxic lead paint
- Fireworks (due to the unpredictable sense of direction).
- Millions of tubes of toothpaste that allegedly contained high levels of toxins that make up anti-freeze.
- Faulty tires.
- Within the last year, at least two dozen shipments of catfish, eel and tilapia from Meihua were denied entry into the US.
- Frozen white fish from China that had made it into the country is said to contain some contaminants.

Other countries may be even more susceptible due to their countries more lax food and product standards. According to a new Business Week article, hundreds of children and adults were killed in Panama from a counterfeit cold medicine containing glycerin- a chemical found in soap making. A lawsuit is currently being filed in the US over the incident.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has been wounded.

“O nation of Islam … Pray for the healing of our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from an injury he suffered in the path of God,” said a statement from the Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq. Its authenticity could not be verified.

“The injury of our leader is an honor and an incentive to tighten the noose on the enemies of God and a reason to step up our attacks on them,” the statement said.

The United States has set a $25 million prize on Zarqawi, a Jordanian considered its number one enemy in Iraq.

In Baghdad, U.S. army Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, spokesperson for U.S. forces in Iraq, said: “We have no information on whether he’s wounded or what the state of his health is.

The report by Zarqawi’s group was posted by a user on an Islamist web site which often publicizes the group’s actions.

“You are the beloved of the mujahideen (holy fighters), and may God heal you and make you steadfast …,” it said. “Our sheikh has taught us that nothing is worthy compared to … Islam,” it added.

Zarqawi’s group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in a wave of insurgent suicide bombings and ambushes that have killed more than 500 people since a new Iraqi government was named last month.

Boylan said that such reports about Zarqawi had been heard frequently before and were almost impossible to verify. “This could be another one of their ploys, you never know.”

The Pentagon in Washington said it had no basis to confirm or deny the story.

“We’ve seen the report here, don’t have anything to contribute at this point,” a senior U.S. official said. “We may be able to provide you some comment later.”

“He’s still our number one target to be captured or killed and until that happens, the hunt is still on.”

“He’s committed some heinous crimes against those seeking to assist the Iraqi people in Iraq and the Iraqi people. And he’s a terrorist who has denounced democracy and representative government and is responsible for beheadings of innocent civilians,” the official said.