News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Rolls Royce, the British engineering group that is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the commercial shipbuilding industry, says the time has come for crewless ships. 
These modern day Mary Celestes wouldn’t be mere drifting hulks providing fodder for mystery writers but 50,000 ton robots transporting goods and produce between the continents.
Oskar Levander, head of marine innovation engineering at Rolls Royce says the tech is here and only regulations stand in the way.
The Food and Drug Administration, Dec. 17, proposed a new rule requiring that makers of antibacterial soap submit data backing up claims that “demonstrate a clinical benefit” from the use of their products compared to non-antibacterial soap.
The companies have until June 14 to comment on the proposed rule.
The FDA has given the green light to these products since 1994.
Antibacterial soaps generally use triclosan and triclocarban — chlorinated hydrocarbons that can kill many bacteria and some fungi, notes Popular Mechanics. Three-quarters of national-brand liquid soaps and about one-third of bar soaps contain them, according to a 2001 study. These chemicals inhibit bacteria from generating the lipids to build cell walls.
Regular soap, on the other hand, breaks adherence bacteria has to the skin and is merely washed down the drain rather than killed.
It is suspected that the latter is every bit as effective as the former and the antibacterial stuff may have some hidden dangers as it has been found to cause alterations in thyroid, reproductive, growth, and developmental systems of neonatal and adolescent animals.
The FDA is careful to say that these things have yet to be seen in people. FDA officials did not mention whether they had seen the tweet from the Obama administration promoting discussion of its health insurance plan.
December 26 2013 Omnibit Trivia by William W. Lawrence Sr.
The Oxford English Dictionary has a site that will reveal the word that came into use the year you were born.
For instance the word that is as old as those born in 1924 is “radio star”. If one was born in 1999 the word would be “bling”. If you were born in 2002 it would be “parkour”
Check it out here.
December 23 2013 Omnibit Trivia by William W. Lawrence Sr.
The Independence Hall Tea Party Association will host its 5th Annual Christmas Tea Party, 6-8:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 27 at The Omni Hotel, 401 Chestnut St., Philadelphia says Teri Adams of the Association.
WPHT host Dom Giordano will reprise his role as Dr. Benjamin Rush in a re-enactment of the original Philadelphia Tea Party that occurred Dec. 27, 1773.
Also in attendence will be Dr. Alieta Eck and Anna Little.
Dr. Eck is a former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and the founder of the Zarephath Health Center. She was a Republican primary candidate in 2013 special election to fill the New Jersey U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Frank Lautenberg.
The primary was won by Steve Lonegan who would go on to lose to Democrat Cory Booker in the Oct. 16 general election.
Anna Little is an attorney fluent in three languages and is the former mayor of Highland, N.J.
If attendees are lucky they will get a chance to hear Ms. Little sing.
The Independence Hall Foundation will present its 2013 Patriot of the Year, Legislator of the Year, and Franklin Award for Courageous Journalism at the event, which features a cash bar, plenty of appetizers, and great company!
Guests may park at the Independence Visitors Center Garage, 21 South 5th St. for $5 (after 5 p.m.).
Registration is required and can be done here.
The Pennsylvania House, Dec. 17 passed bills calling for state constitutional amendments that would significantly cut the size of the state legislature, reports state Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)
House Bill 1234 begins the process of cutting the House from 203 to 153 members and passed 148 to 50 with all but five of the nays being Democrats.
House Bill 1716 begins the process of cutting the size of the Senate from 50 to 38 members. The vote was 148 to 48. All but five of the nays were Democrats.
The only Delaware County rep that was a nay on both bills was Democrat Greg Vitali (R-166) albeit Democrat Thaddeus Kirkland of the 159th District was a nay on the bill to cut the size of the House.
Way to be a profile in courage Thaddeus.
The claim is that cutting the number of legislatures will save money. Of course, cutting their salaries, expensive accounts, pensions and health benefits would also save money and their doesn’t seem to be a push in that direction.
What the bills actually do is cut representation and make getting re-elected easier.
These proposed constitutional amendments now go to the state senate.
Article XI, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states such amendments must pass two consecutive sessions of the General Assembly, and then be placed on the ballot as referendum questions to be approved or disapproved by the voters. If the amendments are approved in total, they would take effect with the first session of the General Assembly that begins after the 2020 census and subsequent reapportionment.
Bills Give Pa Less Representation
Obamacare ends volunteer services, basically, if the IRS rules that they are businesses with more than 50 employees as many expect them to do.
It’s something that those who fought so hard to save the Springfield (Pa) Ambulance Corps should realize.
The fights not over though. A bill has been introduce in Congress — The Protect Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act (H.R. 3685) — that would exempt volunteer services from the requirement. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) is leading the charge in the Senate. The Pennsylvania House unanimously passed a resolution (HR 584) sponsored by Gordon Denlinger (R-99) endorsing the federal action.
Still, why should we have to walk on pins and needles to fight to keep our standard of living from giving way to hopeless change? Didn’t anybody read Obamacare before they passed it? Oh yeah, sorry.
State Rep Jim Cox (R-129) note that 71 percent of fire departments in the nation are staffed by volunteers.
“In Pennsylvania, that number jumps to 97 percent,” he says.
December 21 Omnibit Trivia by William W. Lawrence Sr.
Website owners and bloggers have been getting a huge uptick in traffic from a crawler at Jetsli.de, a rather mysterious German site.
Jetsli.de is a blank page loaded with hidden script that link to www.parkingcrew.net/t.
Parkingcrew.net is an almost blank page loaded with hidden script that link to n.otavirus.net/ a page that merely contains the words An asset is a resource controlled by the entity as a result of
past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow
to the entity.
Parkingcrew.net was registered on Jan. 24, 2011 and is based in Germany. It is a nameserver for 292,894 domains which appear to be dedicated to spam of various sort.