The House began its debate this morning, before a vote scheduled for this evening, on its historic health care reform bill to repair the broken health care system in our country. As House members began with the rule for debate led by Chairman of the Rules Committee, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), she allowed individual members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus to briefly state their support of the bill on behalf of America’s women.

Rep Tom Price (R-GA) began to object, demanding that the debate be expanded by an hour. When that tactic didn’t work, Rep Sessions (R-TX) and others then began shouting “I object,” as each women stood to speak.

The presiding chair of the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) chastised the Republicans, frequently banging his gavel to no avail, calling for “a measure of comity and grace and decency.” “There’s no advantage to be achieved by making all this fuss,” he told the Republicans, Dingell said to the loud and raucous Republicans.

The Republicans then began interrupting Rep. Dingall demanding a parlimentiary inquiry or a further inquiry.

Frustrated, after being repeatedly interrupted by Republican objections, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) raised her own objection saying:

“Do I not have the right to be able to continue my sentence without objections that are trying to censor my remarks here on the floor that I have a right to make as a member of this House?”

Think Progress made a clip of the raucous scene. The full CSpan video can be found here.

Watch:

Source: Think Progress

The study analyzed over a thousand recorded cries from 30 French newborns and 30 German newborns, finding a distinct difference in their linguistic patterns. The cries of French infants tended to have a rising melody, just like the French language itself, while the German cries were found to have a falling melody, similar to the German language which falls at the end of a phrase.

Lead researcher Kathleen Wermke of the Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders at the University of Wurzburg in Germany, believes that infants are born with an innate sense to mimic the sounds of their parents.

The cries of German and French infants were that much easier to distinguish, because of the stark differences in the language patterns.

“If we would have compared German and English newborns, we probably would have found not such a strong difference,” says Wermke, because their intonation patterns are more similar to each other.

“I think we should be more aware that crying is a language itself,” she says, “and the baby is really trying to communicate with us by its first sounds already.”

It would be interesting to study the cries of American infants, to determine if strong regional accents are also evident in a newborn’s cry, as they attempt to bond and communicate with their parents.

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Gen. McChrystal, together with eight additional officers, were cited for discipline after a Pentagon investigation of an alleged cover-up of the circumstances of Tillman’s death by friendly fire. But disciplinary measures were never implemented.

Krakauer condemned McChrystal’s actions in recommending a Silver Star for Tillman, a former NFL player, which is not awarded to victims of friendly fire, when McChrystal knew Tillman’s death was not due to enemy fire. No mention of friendly fire was listed on the citation document.

“I think he has a serious blemish on his record,” Krakauer said. And he went further, stating that McChrystal should not be commanding forces in Afghanistan and may have been sentenced to five years in prison, were he not a general.

“If a lesser officer did what McChrystal did, he would be court marshaled according to Article 107 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, submitting a false official statement,” Krakauer said. “It’s a very serious offense for which you, if you’re found guilty, you can be dishonorably discharged and you can be locked up for five years,” said Krakauer.

During his congressional confirmation hearing, McChrystal testified that he misread the report about Tillman’s cause of death. Krakauer does not find McChrystal’s testimony credible, calling it “preposterous.”

“Someone who is guilty of that kind of offense, and I believe McChrystal is, should not be commander of the forces,” Krakauer said. “It sends a terrible message. I mean, Afghanistan is fighting corruption… And here’s a guy, who five years ago lied to the Senate. He lied to Army investigators. And he submitted this fraudulent document,” Krakauer said.

Gen. McChrystal continues to claim that he simply made an error in not carefully reviewing the Silver Star documents, and believes that Tillman’s courageous actions in combat prior to his tragic death by fratricide warrant a citation.

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The sources have not been named, but they claim that the man cannot move. It is not clear whether or not he is fully paralyzed, or only partially.

More details have been emerging about Hasan’s rampage through a military base, which killed 12 soldiers and a civilian, and injured 23 others.

According to survivors, Hasan was calm and methodical about his kills, walking around the base and shooting off rounds, then stopping to reload.

He allegedly stopped to shoot wounded, unarmed soldiers that had already been hit, making sure that they were down.

While his motive isn’t completely known, many believe that it has to do with the fact that he was set to be shipped out to Afghanistan later this year, an action he was vocally against.

His family released a statement, through Hasan’s cousin, Nader:

“We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood today. We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt sympathies. Nidal was an American citizen. He was born in Arlington, Va., and raised here in America. … Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today’s tragedy.”

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Cha Sa-soon runs a vegetable-selling business and needs a driver’s license to transport her fresh produce to the market. Sa-soon made almost daily appearances at the driver’s license office to repeatedly retake the exam, and she became a familiar sight to office staff.

Finally on Wednesday, Sa-soon scored 60 points out of 100, which is the minimum passing score.

Next on Sa-soon’s agenda is the driving test. She is hoping she can pass on at least, her 300th try, well maybe her 450th, but definitely not after nearly 1,000 attempts. Her vegetables will not stay fresh for long.

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In theory, had the LHC been fully operational, this latest incident could have caused a catastrophic breakdown like that which occurred shortly after it was first switched on last year. On Sept. 19, 2008, just days after the Hadron’s launch, a small piece of electrical cable providing power to the magnets broke loose, sending a shower of sparks across the wiring, causing a year-long breakdown

The failure of LHC to get to full particle-smashing so far is a relief to some scientists, who fear the experiment could cause several tiny black holes to form, which would grow and devour the entire Earth. The succession of technical problems the LHC has suffered has led yet other physicists, like Dr. Holger Bech Neilson of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen speculating that the manufacture of Higgs bosons may be so “abhorrent” to nature,” as Dennis Overbye wrote in the New York Times, that their creation would cause ripples backward through time to stop the collider before it could produce one, much like the paradox of a time traveler going back in time to halt his own birth by killing his grandfather.

Source: Telegraph BrandX

It was previously reported that two died, and six were injured. However, it has now been confirmed that there was one death, and five are injured, but in stable condition.

Jason Rodriguez reportedly walked into the engineering firm he had been fired from two years ago, and opened fire with a handgun.

He fled, but was later found at his mother’s home in Orlando. He surrendered peacefully, and is now in police custody.

When asked why he opened fire on his former coworkers, he replied: “”Because they left me to rot.”

The motive is believed to have been anger over his financial status. Since being fired from the firm, he has taken a job at a Subway, where he is making less than $30,000 a year. He is up to $90,000 in debt, and had recently filed for bankruptcy.

He has not been formally charges, as of yet, with the shootings, and the name of the employee who was killed has not been released.

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But Palin’s new book is sure to provide new comedic material, and Fey may soon make another Saturday Night Live appearance with her twangy Palin voice and over-the top folksy and “mavericky” mannerisms.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Fey promised that her Sarah Palin wig will soon have to “come out of the closet.

The 30 Rock actress has an uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin and who can forget her now famous line: “I can see Russia from my house.”

Sarah Palin is currently on a media tour to promote her book, where she plans to limit her interviews to Fox New programs, other conservative outlets and celebrity interviewers, like Oprah Winfrey. “Going Rogue: An American Life,” will hit bookstores on Nov. 17.

On the same day, a spoof of Palin’s book entitled, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare,” compiled by editors of The Nation magazine, will offer an anthology of essays critical of the former governor, which will show “the real Palin.”

The parody book offers serious essays, as well as comedic offerings, such as Palin’s own convoluted words put in haiku form:

For example, the poem “You Can’t Blink,” is an actual interview given by Palin to ABC News’ Charles Gibson on September 11, 2008:

“You can’t blink.
You have to be wired
In a way of being
So committed to the mission,
The mission that we’re on,
Reform of this country,
And victory in the war,
You can’t blink.
So I didn’t blink.”

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This exciting discovery lays waste to a still predominant theory that the earliest human inhabitants of North America, referred to as the Clovis culture, arrived here 12,900 to 12,400 years ago, while crossing the Bering Strait.

Scientists believe that pre-Clovis peoples migrated here south along the North American coastlines. The Paisley Caves are located upriver from the Pacific Ocean, placing them along the possible migration route of pre-Clovis Native Americans.

The recent excavation of the Paisley Caves was conducted by the Northern Great Basin Field School, with the University of Oregon, lead by archaeologist Dennis L. Jenkins. The head archaeologist presented his team’s exciting finding last month in a lecture at the University of Oregon. He explained that the simple bone tool was subjected to studies of sediment and radiocarbon dating, which suggested it belonged to a pre Clovis culture.

Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon said, “They can’t yet rule out the Paisley Cave people weren’t Clovis.” But none of the Clovis people’s distinct fluted spear and arrow points were found in the cave.

The only other American archaeological site older than Clovis, is at Monte Verde in Chile, which is about 13,900 years old.

Jenkins’ new finding lends further support to the theory that a pre-Clovis culture once inhabited the Paisley Caves. Last year, his team found coprolites, which are fossilized human excrement, that were dated to 14,000 to 14,270 years old. A DNA analysis showed that the coprolites were indeed human.

But experts questioned the age of the coprolites, suggesting that they were younger than the sediments they were found in. Other archaeologists questioned the pre-Clovis age of the coprolites, because no artifacts were found to corroborate their age.

Now, with the definitive find of a bone artifact, dating to 14,230 years old, archaeologists are starting to take notice of the importance of the Paisley Caves, as holding the key to the earliest human inhabitants of North America.

“The dating of the bone tool, and the finding that the sediments encasing it range from 11,930 to 14,480 years old might put these questions to rest. You couldn’t ask for better dated stratigraphy,” said Jenkins.

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No suspect has been named, though some sources are claiming it was an employee at the Gateway Center where the shooting occurred.

He or she is still being sought, and the victims have been rushed to the hospital. Police are searching the premises for more victims.
More details as they emerge.

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