The World's Most Stolen Painter

What is it about Pablo Picasso? One of the twentieth century's most famous and successful painters was not only a big hit with the patrons of the art world but he may be in fact an even bigger hit with art thieves. As it turns out his art works are by far the most sought after with people that like to steal art. Over the years more than 650 Picasso pieces have been targeted and stolen. That figure puts him far and away at the top of that list. A distant second is Mattise who's art pieces have been targeted about 130 times. It is no wonder really that Picasso is the most sought after considering that two of his works are on the top ten list of the most expensive paintings in the world. His "Dora Maar au Chat' is valued at over 95 million dollars. Another of his titled "Garcon a la Pipe" is over 100 million dollars. In case you are wondering the world's most valuable painting at this moment is a Jackson Pollack. His "No. 5" which he painted in 1948 was sold at auction just a few years ago for over 140 million dollars. Despite this fact Pollack's painting has never been stolen. This might be due to the fact that it's about 8 feet high and over 4 feet wide though.

U.S.- Mexico Crime Rate Comparison

You would think right off the bat that surely crime in the United States is far lower on average than it would be in Mexico. At least that's what most Americans would be inclined to initially believe. As it turns out it depends on what category of crime you are looking at. The numbers fluctuate from year to year but on average they remain within a certain ballpark. If you were to look at total crimes committed in the United States per 100,000 inhabitants the number would be about 4000 per year. That is to say that about 4000 Americans out of every 100,000 are victims of some kind of crime each year in the U.S. In Mexico It is about 1500 per 100,000 which is much lower. If you were to look at murder rates you would find that in Mexico about 13 individuals out of every 100,000 are murdered each year. In the U.S. it is a little over 5 per 100,000 a year which is a much lower murder rate. If you looked at rape statistics you would find that 14 out of 100,000 Mexicans are victims of rape each year. In the U.S. it is about 33 per 100,000. There is also far more theft in the U.S. than in Mexico on average. About 120 Mexicans per 100,000 are victims of some kind of theft each year. In the U.S. it is over 2400 per 100,000. Auto theft is also more prevalent in The U.S. 430 per 100,000 vehicles are stolen here each year. In Mexico it is about 140 per 100,000. Armed robberies are about the same for each country. About 150 per 100,000 inhabitants each year. It is important to remember that maintaining statistics on crimes committed is a little bit of a shaky business. Some crimes such as rape and robbery are sometimes not reported to authorities and due to this fact the figures are imperfect. Despite that the stats do give a reliable idea about where things stand in a general way even if they are not exact.

The Constitution And The Right To Bear Arms

If you were inclined to listen to organizations like The National Rifle Association you would think that every American were born with the right to own a gun from birth. They always sight the Second Amendment to the Constitution to push forth their claim and quote directly from the document itself and state: "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." This is usually the mantra that they recite. The problem with that little quote that they use is that they are only selectively showing you half of it. The entire Second Amendment (It's only one sentence folks) goes like this: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." In order to understand what the second amendment is getting at you have to understand what militia means. Militia means military. A militia, as defined by Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary is "A body of citizens enrolled and drilled in military organizations other than the regular military forces, and called out only in emergencies." Examples of organized militia include The National Guard, The Naval Reserve, and The Marine Corps Reserve. What the second Amendment basically states is that Citizen soldiers have the right to bear arms. That is citizens who are serving in the military in some capacity and not everyone and anyone like the N.R.A. is always misleading people to believe. Not store clerks, not waiters, not florists, not pizza shop owners, not teachers, not plumbers, not bus drivers, not executives or anyone else. I understand that this is a tough pill for gun lovers to take, especially the ones who will only allow their guns to be pried from their cold dead fingers. The Founding Fathers were never intending for Every American in civilian life to be walking around packing heat. To somehow claim that they were is an attempt to twist the meaning of their words and to insult their collective intelligence.

The Plot To Steal A Dead President

The assassination of President Lincoln is a famous event in American history but an event that is far less known is the plot that occurred 11 years after his death to steal his body and hold it for ransom. The plan took place on election day, November 6th, 1876 and it involved a bunch of counterfeiters. A man named Ben Boyd had just been arrested, tried, and sentenced to ten years in prison for counterfeiting U.S. currency. His partner in crime Jim Kinelly found himself suddenly without a job so he hatched a plot to steal the former president's body and hold it for ransom. He planned on demanding $200,000 from the U.S. government for the return of Lincoln's remains plus he wanted his partner Ben Boyd pardoned. He and a couple of hired helpers got to the cemetery on election night and managed to file open the lock at the entrance of the tomb chamber and made their way in. Once they got inside they ran into a snag. The sealed coffin in which the President rested was made mostly of lead and weighed about 500 lbs in total and proved impossible for the would be body snatchers to just carry away. Another glitch was that the secret service had been alerted of the plot by an informant and they were already at the scene waiting to pounce. When they made their move somehow the grave robbers managed to escape anyway but not for long. The secret service already knew their names through their informant and caught up to them a few days later and arrested Kinelly and his cohorts and the plot was foiled.

Nuclear Testing In Nevada In The 1950's

While many Americans are aware of the fact that there was nuclear testing going on in Nevada in the 1950's few knew or understood what the impacts might be for many decades down the road at the time nor how strange some of the testing proved to be. There were a total of 14 tests of nuclear weapons the first of which was conducted on January 27th, 1951. The test sight was about 60 miles or so from the famed city of Las Vegas. The explosions were even used at the time as an attraction to lure more people into the city to gamble and such. Some of the testing was done at night and when the bombs would go off they would light up the sky in the most amazing way. One of the nukes that was tested was buried in the desert. They were trying to see if you could use a nuclear weapon for purposes of excavating a large area of land quickly. Some of the craters left behind were over 1000 feet across and almost 300 feet deep. The one drawback to this plan was the lingering radiation that would be left behind for years which made the whole idea unworkable. Some of the testing had a bit of a circus atmosphere around it. There were even benches placed in the desert for military V.I.P.'s to sit on so they could watch the explosions and resulting mushroom clouds from about 8 miles away. It was almost like they were watching a movie or some other kind of entertainment and were totally unaware of the risks. It has been long suspected that the famous actor John Wayne may himself have died due to his exposure to these tests while filming some of his westerns. Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979. Most people point to his filming a movie called "The Conqueror" in 1956 in Utah which was just downwind from the nuclear test sight in Nevada. There is some evidence to suggest that there might be something to it. Out of the 220 cast and crew members who worked on that film at the time 91 of them came down with cancer in the years following the shoot.

Should Your Child Still Have A Polio Shot?

There was a time in the United States in the middle of the 20th century when the disease known as Poliomyelitis was a real fear. Polio is an infectious disease. It is a virus that usually enters the body through the throat and or the intestinal tract and spreads through person to person contact with oral and nasal secretions. In its mildest forms it would usually show flu like symptoms and probably lay you out for about the better part of 10 days after which one would recover. This is what occurred in most cases. In its most severe form it would lead to paralysis and death. This result would occur in about 1% of those afflicted. Perhaps its most famous victim was Franklin Roosevelt who acquired the disease about 10 years before he became president and lost his ability to walk. By 1949 the disease had reached it zenith in the U.S. with over 42,000 cases reported that year. With the introduction of the Polio vaccine by Doctor Jonas Salk in 1955 the occurrences of the illness declined quickly over time and was nearly wiped out in only one generation. By 1979 the number of annual cases in the U.S. has dwindled to only 8. From 1980 - 2006 there had been only 2 confirmed cases of the disease. It has for all practical purposes been wiped out in the United States. Yet despite this fact nearly every child born in America is still vaccinated against a disease that no longer poses a serious threat. Over 95% of new Born's are given the Polio vaccine today. Some have questioned why this is the case considering that Polio is all but gone from the American landscape. Some have suggested that the answer to the question is money. Depending on where you live a Polio vaccine shot can cost anywhere from $25 - $85 each and that 4 shots are "suggested" before the age of 6 for a new baby. Some have stated the belief that continuing to "recommend" to new parents that their babies be protected with these shots rakes in billions for the pharmaceutical industry annually. Usually when a war is won what happens next naturally is that you stop fighting. Polio has been beaten in the United States yet big pharma is still acting like we are in the middle of the Polio war and that there is no end in sight because it serves its economic interests to do so and say so. Of course whether a new parent decides to vaccinate their new child against this disease is a totally personal choice that should be left up to the parents and there is nothing wrong with preferring to be safe rather than sorry. To many it seems like a case of overkill to vaccinate over 95% of the children born in the U.S. against a disease that has shown only 2 confirmed cases since 1980.

The Trouble With Bottled Water

There is no doubt about how convenient bottled water can be. The millions in sales each year is testament to the fact that the general public likes it and keeps buying it despite the fact that they can acquire the product virtually for free from their home faucets. There is however a price to pay for that convenience and the price in the view of some for society is too high. First of all there is the cost. A small bottle of water such as Aquafina or Dasani can cost in excess of $3 in New York City and contain the same amount of water in a typical glass which you could get out of your tap for literally pennies. The source of the water is often the same. The people that market and make bottled water are the same companies that make soda such as Coke And Pepsi and they go the great strides to portray the image of bottled water as pure as if it comes from a mountain stream. About 35% of the bottled water found in the U.S.A. comes from a municipal water supply which is the same place your tap water comes from. They just run it through a water purifier to enhance it a little more and make it fresher tasting. One of the strategies that the bottled water companies initially undertook to promote interest in their product was to scare the public into believing that their tap water was somehow polluted and unsafe to drink and that their pure product would be better for you and safer which is actually not the case considering that the water very often comes from the same place. Then there is the problem of the garbage that it is generating. All of those plastic bottles that people dispose of after they consume their bottled water ends up eventually in city landfills because while much of it is recycled these days not all of it is and the stuff ends up taking centuries to break down and when it does can sometimes, depending on the type of plastic the bottles are made of, emit dangerous chemicals over time such as Bisphenol (BPA) which has been linked in studies to an increased risk for the development of Breast cancer and Prostate cancer for those who are excessively exposed to the chemical.