odsx.com

Somethings wrong here, when you drive a vehicle that will go through or over anything, why worry about driving drunk?!

Don’t know about this, I am in the process of research.  I have been a super fan of Firefox.  Still am.  I do admit to a certain distrust of Google as to it’s programs…..I do not do there tool bars, etc.  Of course I use the search, nothing like it…..but they themselves say they will read your mail in order to send you the most pertinent spam.

No one rubbed me!!! 

LOL….I can just imagine when my wife discovered I was taking pills that would help me live past 100 would say, do.  LOLOL…..they say it could be possible?

Mmm, what does it say for me that I agree to this post?  It is true, politics in this country has become only interested in itself, not in governing!, doing it’s job!

Impressive – rock and roll photographer, a bunch!!

I may have posted this before….well, if so, here it is again…..totally eclectic….bizarre….some terrific art and photography….is somewhat ribald?  Yes, a good word, I’ll leave it at that LOL.

Limewire….legally downloaded music for free.  What you want?  Put it in the search window…..many songs pop up….record to your hard drive….put in a dedicated folder and play any time you like.  I see no reason why you cannot record them if you have a burner, I mean they are on your hard drive~!  Check it out, it is wonderful…..it is a share thing, I think,  but I elected not to have my computer put on the share list….Just enter Limewire  and down load their free software, a little fiddling around, not a big learning curve, and I am only simi-literate.

Most accurate clock, 100k more accurate than the present atomic clock.  Looses a second ever billion years!!  They say this clock may predict the slowing of time as is calculated result of E=MCsquared

Ohh this link holds a very interesting page indeed!!

The Maya underground.

Oh, this was my kind of woman!!  The secret life of Pannonica Rothschild.

This is a very religious man who believes what he says.  His view of the world is true as he knows it.  This impressed me very much.  Still, we are talking about death here, how very very sad.

Mmm, a little sacriledge never hurt anyone, right?  LOL  

See how lucky we are!!, to0 much snow makes one completely crazy!!

This is for real!  Small group of business men in Minn. rented the bill board space, put up this sign!!  Well, I for one am not one who misses him!  

Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised. – Juvenal

Postiano, Italy…..much, much warmer there!!!

Sometimes it takes more courage to live than to shoot yourself. – Albert Camus

I insert this picture here, ’cause I was 5 months old when it was taken in July of 1942.  An oil and gas co. in San Fransisco hired women to service it’s gas stations (we called them service stations then!:)

This is pretty cool….young man, photographer, sets up shop on the street – free advice...a short essay in pictures and words of the results.

In the wildlife park of Harbin, China a is performed cruel tiger feeding show for tourists.
There is a special “menu” in the park, for example, for $ 200 they will bring a live cow and release it to be eaten by tigers.
Chicken will cost much more less, just $ 5,5.

Photo essay of how the Berbers and bushmen of Africa live – excellent!

I used to love these guys!!!  Saw them all the time! 

Nice little treatise here…..

Check this out, swimming cities of art in Italy! 

Believe what you will!

After jump are 23 pictures of preparations on floats for Madi Gras…they are works of art!  I am reminded of someone I used to know years ago – he had a satyr kind of personality.  He was all excited having found money and a way to go to Carnival in Brazil…..I told him that was great, what did Marie have to say, was she excited (his, then, wife).  He said he wasn’t taking Marie…. and I said “Why not.”   his exact words to follow were; “Would you take a sandwich to a smorgasbord?!”  Right, they are not together……

A British art group took New Scientist on a magical mystery tour of England’s most secret government sites – from the locations of past military experiments to the birthplace of the forerunner of the computers we use today.   http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dark-places

Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.  http://www.sandboxie.com/

DOES THIS DO NOTHING FOR/TO YOU????  ARE YOU AFFRONTED, SCANDALIZED, MADDENED TO THE POINT OF UTTER FRUSTRATION BECAUSE THERE SEEMS TO BE NOTHING ONE CAN DO???  IT HAS NOT GONE AWAY, THEY ARE STILL HERE!!  WHEN CAN WE AGAIN ONCE ENJOY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM???!!  FREEDOM FROM THE MONGERING TACTICS OF THE INTELLECTUALLY INFERIOR, UNFORTUNATELY WELL PLACED MINORITY!!  READ WHAT IS UNDER THE JUMP, TELL ME IF THERE IS SOMETHING ONE CAN DO??  PLEASE!!!!!!

Well, then read this, tells you to have an opinion, that there are universal, human rights and wrongs!

Bunch of photos from Life Magazine, including several of a 25 tr. old Marilyn Monroe never published…..cool.

Biggest threat to U.S. from the likes of China and Russian – not military!!!

New images of 9/11 attack

Review of book written by death trial lawyer…..fascinating.

Ahh, witness the Myspace decline.  I am not sad to see this…..it’s biggest problem for me – it was rife with predators.

The Texas Cadillac!

your govt could track you, always

I don’t know what to make of this….have just skimmed through…apparently series of opinions, writings about/for/by woman journalism in popular culture.

As a high school student, freshman I believe, I entered the Civil Defense Corps.  We were local citizenry trained in rapid identification of planes and their silhouettes in the air.  We could tell by these sightings, what kind of plane it was and  country of origin….and of course there was ‘the bomb.’  Always the bomb.  There were  so many people I knew that built large underground bunkers enabling them, they thought, to escape the first few hours devastation of a nuclear holocaust.  It seems such paranoia now, not then, it was real.  Of course for those of my age this was reinforced fairly often as we performed atomic bomb drills – as if hiding under our school desks with our arms being clasped tight around our necks would save us from any harm.  My how it has changed.  Look at the new danger, and supposedly, but the feel of it, no less dangerous, no less harmful….

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons.  The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.”

100 best, free, science documentaries on line from the online universities….pretty dang cool……

U. S. Grant, not so bad?

“Almost all media companies have run aground in the Internet Age as they gave away their print and video content on the Web and watched paying customers drift away as a result.”  Seems yet another way a new device will get money from us…..except that this quote is pretty true.  Ergo;  this may be a chance to have a read handy all the time and attract dwindling ventures to keep afloat.  As long as it isn’t too expensive, hey?

Long lasting love….don’t we all hope for that? 

Some letters of Iris Murdoch in the 40′s – cool.

Anyone fantasize of being buried alive? Check this out?  (I wonder why he was not embalmed, did I miss something?)

3.    Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft.  Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.

Ok, a little bizarro never hurt anybody, right?  I think so, to wit;

Uh, bizarro # II LOLOL

I am one of ‘those’ who do not care for animals in the house.  However, we now have a cat in the house.  My wife saved him from the ministrations of some unthinking kids at school (they were throwing it against a building!).  Is a nice cat. So in honor of the new cat, I tender forthwith;

Cool curio.

Cannabis talks on legalization, medication and an upcoming bill. When are we going to learn?  It makes no sense not to legalize!  Is going to happen, why drag our feet?  This is sensible stuff, no grandiose here.

Two hydrogen atoms meet.  One says, “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first replies “Yes, I’m positive.

This is the site that contained the site just submitted….looks very interesting.

…And since this all reminds me of one other site, one of the finest on the net!, let me now tout it once more;  TED

Don’t know if anyone needs this or not, but here it is, How to Pick Locks Like a Pro.

A new You Tube Wiki combo, looks interesting, fun, maybe handy for the ‘musicophile.’

Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal?  His goal: transcend dental medication.

What does make a great teacher?

Sigh, some of these things sound so ‘properly’ written with such authority, seeming knowledge….is this really just total kook, or is there some………whachoo think??!

….and so does this come under the same category as the last entry?  Is there more credence here  because it is education and this subject has been suspect in education nearly for ever!

Seems of late there have been stirrings in S.A. in the Incan area…..here is yet another find perhaps indicative of a large settlement in the area……

A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories.  After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.  “But why?”, they asked, as they moved off.  “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer

Edward Sheriff Curtis published The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930 with the intent to record traditional Indian cultures. The work comprises twenty volumes of narrative text and photogravure images. Each volume is accompanied by a portfolio of large photogravure plates.

The entire work is presented here, supported largely by funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

Makes incredible grandiose photos of natural phenomena in his home!!

A woman delivers a set of identical twins and decides to give them up for adoption.
One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal.” The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him “Juan.”  Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother.  Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal.  Her husband responds, “They’re twins!  If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”

Always something interesting here, not just the  Hubble pics.

Some more Mayan/Incan discoveries.

Are you all aware of Spencer Tunick?  For years now he has been running around the globe arranging huge groups of people posing nude!  I will have to find some of his pics, I know I have saved a couple.  Now, apparently, he is in Australia arranging for yet another shoot.  Check it out.

A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds.  Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair.   He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not.  He went back and begged the friars to close.  They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” the friars to close.  Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

In general safe practices to guard your computer….and, oh!, I said just recently I would contact our guru about a site…..he said forget it.  Have yet to find him really wrong.

Consumer-friendly credit cards?  There is no such thing….they are a trap, a money trap…don’t do it, yet I tender this site comparing leading banks offers.

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.  This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Want to download most music you come up with in your minds’-eye?  Have been using this for awhile.  I download to a folder of my designation, group songs in there to their own folder, then move them en masse to Real Player or some such…..for free!!  Way cool.

Somewhat interesting schtick in the world of what sells……

And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh.  No pun in ten did.

So I’m sailing along, seeing new things, reading a lot and ran across some old photos taken by Lewis Carroll!  I liked them, nosing around, found myself at thi s site, an interesting read!

The pictures I saw, taken by Lewis Carroll.

This is cool.  The 10 best places to see in the world.  In many, I would rather see the countryside, interior.  Still, to walk some of the streets for a week….Rio…Damascus….etc.

….and for the ladies!!

Iconic photos

In my day (LOL), Catcher in the Rye was like a drivers license test……one just had to have read it!!  Now, J. D. Salinger is dead at 91 after 50 years as a total recluse.

After the jump, read J. D. Salinger’s last words in publication.  The New Yorker filled nearly an entire publication with the 25,000 words.

Wit is educated insolence. – Aristotle

It has been my experience that those with no vices have very few virtues. – Abraham Lincoln

If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital. – John Irving

Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose. – Evan Esar

I wish it, I command it. Let my will take the place of a reason. – Juvenal

The most difficult secret for a man to keep is the opinion he has of himself. – Marcel Pagnol

The older you get, the stronger the wind gets – and it’s always in your face. – Pablo Picasso

This is a place I go visit from time to time, always a treat.

Some new reading material.

19 Most difficult, dangerous roads in the world.

Cool!  An online, famous quotation Library!!!

Snowflakes!!  No two alike, see??!!

14 really cool pics, starting with Salvador Dali….

Please check this site out…it is by my wondrous, multi-talented wife.  Her goal is to post one photo/day…..way cool!!

The road to ‘hell’ (feel free to insert any word you wish!), is paved with good intentions.

I remember my father had collected several hundred dollars in gold certificates.  There was a recall, the amount of money the govt.  paid for those bills was enough for him to fly outside of state, still have plenty of money left over!!!  Now what is a dollar worth!??

Philip  Dick.  Ring a bell to you?  One of the sci-fi greats Blade Runner, for instance).  Here, a little blurb about him

These heists are for real!!  Better than Ocean’s 11!!

“Something’s coming,” and goes on: “But isn’t this what we want? Isn’t this the burden of consciousness? We’re all played out. Matter wants to lose its self-consciousness. We’re the mind and heart that matter had become. Time to close it all down. This is what drives us now.”

Pick it up!  Move that booty!!

Listening to the ‘good ol’ boys,’ sitting around in the afternoon sucking down beers at a country bar – you know, most of them have been here since it opened at 9 a.m.  Many of them will be there until supper time if they are married, or maybe til closing.  Mean age, about 65!  And they talk, about everything…including I-ran and I-raak…how those folks are backward (I am translating, being kind!), still haven’t come out of the dark ages, don’t know a damn thing, just animals.   I shut up, they would never beleive me the stories of ancient Persia – one of the grandest people in their time as any, conquered the world, brought us higher mathematics, paved the way for the ‘original’ thinkers yet to come.  Hell, Iran, er Persia, was first formed over 500o years ago, 300 years or so before China!!!  Makes for interesting reading, Google Persia sometime.  And go here to see some of what is left of those glorious times. (You will find yourself in Live Journal…..may be prompted for ID and password…..here is mine;  jeffe 42  odsx42)

Unusual words.

Notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks;  which one is best for you?

Add on for Firefox, checks spelling and grammar….uh, you do use Firefox, don’t you?  Absolutely the very best, I’ve used them all…..:)

These days it really pays to be a crook!!!

20 best extended shot in movie history.

From time to time I come across these ‘best’ lists.  I always enjoy seeing them, how they compare to my meager knowledge and always learn something. Here is the top 100 books of all time.

Ooooh, this is interesting.  The great book of India written from 300 bc-300ad.  Said to be the longest epic……3 times longer than the bible, for eg.  Mainly known as The Mahabharata

I know, I know, to some this is cruel….but really these folks are going to the supermarket to get food and skin for their families bellies and clothes.  Persistence Hunting as it was done by first human who had no weapons.

Mmm, thought a bit before posting this….be ware it is not for the faint at heart.  Deals with organ collections from human fresh human remains.  Russia, India, etc., thought the pics in here, I believe, are all from Russian….

Mmm, going to put this puppy out to pasture.  Have a wonderful Valentine’s y’all!!  And don’t forget..……

I won’t make comment on the following, other than to say this article doesn’t even touch the surface.  If you are not aware of what is going on within the Texas Board of Education, you should really take the  time. So often many of us go blithely along thinking it will be alright, they will do that best thing for our children.  Oh, oh, please at least look into this.

When the world is a playground!!

Oh, oh, I can’t help it!  Every time I make a deal with self, control the politics, someone comes along and so throws me into a dither, I just can’t help it!!  Check this out coming from Pat Robertson!!!  If there were a devil, and who has emissaries on this corporal earth, here is one of them, speaking from the pulpit, as it were!!   Read what he said!:

This is an addendum to the post I just made mere minutes ago.  It is my want after posting, to go through the completed ‘issue,’ which I did.   I noticed there are some highlights that return a ‘site not found’ page.  This is unfortunate….many of these I think are worthy of at least a quick glance.

Probably this is because I take too long to do a posting, some of the sites are gone, moved, whatever.  Too, it could be going from one year to the next, some do no re-up.  There are more than ever before is why I am writing this.

My apologies.  Perhaps henceforth I will take less time to do my posts, thereby, hopefully avoiding the 401′s.

Jeff

If you see nothing else ever again on this little journey here, you must view this.

This is a complicated mathematical progression somewhat figured out that will tell you your favorite movie!  Try it, no cheating now……Pick a number from 1 – 9.

Multiply by 3.

Add 3 to that number.

Multiply by 3 again.

Add the two digits together to find your all time favorite movie.

Good  Luck!

The Movies:

1.  Gone With The Wind

2.  Aliens

3.  Oliver

4.  Star Wars

5.  Forrest Gump

6.  Saving Private Ryan

7.  Jaws

8.  Grease

9.  The Joy of Anal Sex with Male Goats & Leather-Clad Gay Boys

10.  Mary Poppins

So, which one was it?  Don’t lie – this really works….. J       Was it good for you?  LOLOLOL

I was recently contacted by M.I.T. asking me to v0lunteer my brain for  study at my demise.   When I respectively declined, wishing all to burn together, they went into paroxysms of amazement, cajoling, then desperation as I persisted with my refusal.  After studying a great segment of the population, they had decided my brain was so valuable for their research that they must have it!!  (As of this writing, I fear for my life!)  Go to the jump to read a very interesting article about the dissection of the brain of H.M…..very interesting.  Though I have still refused, and will continue to, this article nearly swayed me, til I remember that Byron didn’t give up his brain!!

I have a great deal of respect for this lady, have for a very long time…..this would be a very cool thing to see!!

The Vanguard – what more need be said!

I enjoy odd, haven’t looked at this yet, but shows some promise?

Hell hath no fury!  LOLOLOL

Harrumph, to follow the last with this….herein is a most grievous condition to me…we speak of our enlightened times, most of it is just talk……I was raised in a religious atmosphere in many ways…some of it very fundamental and perhaps effected my view on many things….still, I would hope I have strived to feel we all are equal, forgive me if I should seem otherwise..

Ah, have I said a Great Good Wish to All in this time of the year, for happiness, good fortune to come, health.   Reardless of what one believes, I feel this is the one time of the year that the most people feel the best toward each other over any other time.  Go for it!!

Mmm, even when living out of my car for those years, I found some place to take at least a bath…..Lake Austin was great for that!!  LOL

Another science thing I have been following, like that big centrifuge thingy in Europe finally back online-this subject is one of the things it is hoped to prove……this is cool to me….

Way to cool site, way out art, very different….you have to make with a little innovative ‘clicking’ but you’ll find your way.  Hint;  you can get rid of the add for a cell phone at the top when first opens by the small red ‘x’ in upper rt. corner…..just cause isn’t english, doesn’t means it works differently.

How white house officials fly ‘in style’ to Afghanistan etc.

Always a curiosity of mine….and not the evil devil drink we have been taught to thing – well, like anything, would not be good in great abundance...powerful stuff!!

Not only have I read a reasonable sampling of these, but I mark some among my most favorite authors!!  Goes to show, hey?!  LMAO!  (The compiler calls this a list of books that will do a mind :) )!

So truly an modern American master!!!  Annie Leibovitz!! – salaam…

I don’t know about this one (as many:), but looks at least eclectic, if otherwise there’s always the delete  button!!

“Twas the Night Before Christmas.”  Who wrote it?  Samuel Clemens has been being created, as he later claimed.   Read this?  Interesting.

A pic of me after intense minutes gathering info in my trek of my home – the World.

Most influential photos to date, according to one….

I have listed this site before….it changes from time to time….if you missed the last insertion, it is good I repeat listen it….really good read, good visuals, a nice time every time.  Check it out…..

If you have never heard this song, seen this scene, please, please do.  Monty Python’s Flying Circus is the genius of the century!!  The song featured here is at the end of The Life of Brian….’Always Look on the Bright Side of Life‘…great song!!

“….offee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world, after oil.”

Remind you, introduce for the first time?  Surely interesting on some level. 

Next time you go to the sink, turn on the water, think of the following, think of getting your daily water here!!!

Some friends are coming over here for eats, drinks and a full night of Hearts or Spades.  We 2 couples have done this most years for the last few.   This year there will be a full Blue Moon!!  Have to get out daughter’s telescope to see what we can see. 

‘the rules’
From the female side

Now here are the rules from the male side

These are our rules!

Please note… they are all numbered ’1′ ON PURPOSE!

1.   Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday movies. It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one!  Subtle hints do not work!  Strong hints do not work!  Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 1 Day.

1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have NO idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say ‘nothing,’ We will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, Expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine… Really!

1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as tits and ass.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.

Great place to visit, might even want to stay for awhile….don’t give up on it, there are really nice little niche here and there…..

A ‘literal’ library in your hands (fingers?:).

Sort of like, ‘…if a tree falls…..’, but not.  Really interesting reading concerning validity of AI.

I think my children are really exceptional (no really!:)).  Still this poster is applicable to some and well worth the chuckle!

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. – James A. Baldwin

My failures have been errors in judgment, not of intent. – Ulysses S. Grant

The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together. – Saadi

You save yourself or remain unsaved. ~Alice Sebold

Never close your lips to those to whom you have opened your heart. – Charles Dickens

Is this where it all began??

I think I said this before, I want to say it again if  so;  Please, do yourself a favor, see the film ‘Across the Universe.’   What wonderful music!  Great trip back to the 60′s and 70′s using all Beatles tunes.  I will watch it again, and more.  One can get it on Netflix.  We own it.  The girls introduced me to it, we got us a copy that week.

Oh, this is very interesting….something I long have thought to be true, but here it is stated in terms I couldn’t have spoken, my thoughts were too disjunct, unformed…..guess comes down to as young as you feel, and as old as you let yourself be!!

…and in keeping with the last post, there is this on the aging brain…..(Mmm, have no idea why this stuff proves interest to me!??  LOL_).

Ode to Rush Limbaugh…..LOLOL   Hawaii is just fine, he says!

On a lighter side, an excellent Texas home security system…..how to install complete with written instructions;

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM

1. Go to a secondhand store and buy a pair of men’s used size 14-16 work boots.

2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo Magazine

3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazines.

4. Leave a note on your door that reads:

Bubba,

Bertha, Duke, Slim, & I went for more ammo and beer.  Be back in an hour.
Don’t mess with the pit bulls; they attacked the mailman this morning and
messed him up bad.  I don’t think Killer took part, but it was hard to tell
from all the blood.  Anyway, I locked all four of ‘em in the house.

Better wait outside.  Be right back.

Cooter

Some far out web comics for your pleasure….suspect some is xxx :)

Femme fatale?  Well, not really, but sorta……interesting lady :).

Google, Google, seems it is Google everywhere one looks….they are doing some stuff that to me is very worthwhile….here is something new (?), don’t know anything about it….yet.

Another way of looking at life…..LOL.

My, my, the stuff I run across!!;

?????? ?????

This means ‘Marilyn Monroe.

The new map of the world, especially if you travel outside our borders….(an interesting side thought to this….I read a few days ago that Caucasians in the U.S. will be a minority in less than 50 years!!!!);

MILITARY SERVICE RECORDS OF 3,000 VIPS NOW AVAILABLE

The National Personnel Records Center has released a list of some 3,000
prominent former military service men and women whose service records
may be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The list includes
heroic officers and enlisted men, Medal of Honor winners, astronauts,
and test pilots, among others — plus actors, politicians, artists,
executives, and government officials who went on to become famous after
their military careers. Brief and often inspirational biographical
sketches of the individuals are included in the list.
The “VIP List” was obtained under public records laws and may be
downloaded at

http://www.governmentattic.org/2docs/NPRC_VIP_List_2009.pdf.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

One of the present day Wonders of (by) the World - the Hubble Telescope!! Check out it’s site!!!

Unusual, somewhat bizarre, always something interesting site…..

A very handy site for those who want to send large files without hassle or wait….check it out…

Like to build things?  Like to see what others have built?  Want some ideas of things to build?  Cool site, also shows major home-owners house rework in progress….way cool stuff.

exc. videos re; computer design….some of language is high-falutin, but not technical terms, they make some sense

What a difference 100+ years make!!!!
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906:

• The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
• Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
• Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone
• A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
• There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
• The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
• The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
• More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME.
• Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as “substandard.”
• Sugar cost four cents a pound.
• Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
• Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
• Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
  1. Pneumonia and influenza
  2. Tuberculosis
  3. Diarrhea
  4. Heart disease
  5. Stroke
• The American flag had 45 stars.
• Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet..
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet.There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.” ( Shocking? DUH! )
• Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !

Mmm, I spent 15 years working in an art foundry with bronze predominantly, but have done a share of iron cutting, welding, etc.  But, hey, check out the work of this woman with what appears to be done solely by a cut-0ff torch!!!!

Once again, get outside,  does not mean  go to the mall, take a drive – means get outside, breathe the fresh air!!

If you are an astrophysicist, etc., and you have new and astounding work to submit to the world or to submit to be challenged, this is the place you do it.  Fascinating, and quite challenging to the layman(er, layperson:).  The latest edition of The Astrophysical Journal can be accessed here…

Ah, this is a sort of retraction?  The previous entry is really a curio as one cannot access the pith of the articles unless one has proper accreditation or wishes to buy said article…alas.  To me would be interesting to see what one could get from these scholarly treatise.  :)

Wish to at this point to apprise the reader of a new web site at the point of creation.  Check it out.  I personally know the brilliant, beautiful young woman beginning this project.

Elvis fan or not, these are pretty cool.  I remember once I told Daisy I had grown up with Elvis – meaning I was in high school as he was first being popular and then became very famous….she told everyone she knew, I had gone to h.s. with Elvis and knew him well then!!  LOL

One reads so much here and there, often mis-leading and differing points of view, each says it is the ultimate word.  Well, here is something you may not have encountered anywhere….read this, see what you think.  Hint – it is good at times to stop by Al Jazeera for alternative views (http://english.aljazeera.net/), oh granted the do carry on about ‘us’ from time to time, I also find them a fresh source of unbiased news about ‘us,’ especially when it comes to politics.

IQs of famous people, some surprises here, at least for me….

Pictures of notables of yesterday, from Sartre to Josephine Baker.  Cool.

This entry is not concerning the movie ‘The Road,” rather is concerning the general over all dealings with subject matter.  It seems to me, whenever a discovery or condition exists, is liable to exist in society, that is fearful, wrought with pending destruction, etc., we are inundated with that possibility and projected results ad nauseum.  As a result we become quickly inured so that what might be a good thing – this fear of the event……ozone destruction, greenhouse warming…recedes greatly……. ergo,the article.

Ah, since a part of mine is now gone, this is a subject I find particularly interesting if not enlightening .

Hey, 10 places in the worlds you cannot go!!

This is a list of english (at least written in English:) blogs in China!!  This is kinda hard to come by.  I have had an email friend in China for over a year now.  She is a retired teacher (she had to retire!  there were others waiting for her job!).  Her husband teaches at university.  I try to get comments on daily life there within what I have been led to believe is a strict government atmosphere with most aspects of life.  We have within the last few weeks been experiencing difficulties communicating.  She can no longer send to what I consider my private email (jeffe@odsx.com), can only get through to me at Yahoo, and that not 100% sure!!”

If there is questionable light humor, this is it – and somehow that statement fits the content LOLOL.

Anonymously published….interesting articles.  I found this site within the one previously mentioned.  Check ‘em both out.

Another source from the preceeding with info on the Google/China duet….

Wait for it!!??….”In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000.” !!!!!

I like this, sent it to my friends in China .

Oh lawdy my!!  What tragedy can befall our mortal life - Haiti!!

Something you didn’t expect?

Do you use a debit card? Read: It’s your money, they want it, watch or they will get it!!

When scientists have a baby and breast feed.  This is an funny/enjoyable item, check it out

Into science or no, seems a cool blog.

Some are heralding this discovery as the fabled city El Dorado.  More sinisterly, look what has happened to an area that used to be totally forested!!!

Of course I don’t understand all of these 10, but love the idea…..it’s like Einstein asking why the sky is blue~!?

Into exercise, proper eating, all that?  Here is some help along the way…..some of it is totally pure, some have a smoke and beer along the way…...work out!!

Ever hear of W.T. Stead?  Probably not, and that’s the point….he deserved more wide spread notice – apparently, you judge.

Atomic bomb and the end of WW II.

Looking up into the night sky, seeing the stars, do we realize the light of our seeing is over 600 yrs. old when it reaches us?  Then further to realize that actually all we see has already been, it takes the image in front of us a spec of time for the light to reach us!  The Hubble sees light from near the time of the so-called Big Bang!!!!

Here is something giving me great pause.  I eat well, a bit rich admittedly, but healthily nonetheless.  However I do take about6 or 7 pills a day….I have tried to ween myself off one at least with fairly disastrous results.  Ergo, what to do?  Well, for now, I take them…..this article deals with our population’s propensity for taking the meds, rather than getting out and working for it!

Well, hopefully a little touch of homemeade culture .  At one time I wrote quite a bit.  Some fiction, some poems, etc.  Here is a more recent attempt, couple of years ago….written based on the pen name of someone on the web….very nice person, called themself  “Sylver.”

Still silver lay the frost upon my window sill…
Still white the scene outside, calling to me.
Still golden the precious dreams I then recall..
Still blue the warmth they then gave.
Still true the life on which I now reflect..
Still silver cupids arrows I cannot withdraw.

Sigh, human tragedy…takes toll on us all…..Haiti

I’m no different than many, always had fascination for ancient Egypt.

A BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE ABOUT GROWING OLD:

Crap…..
I forgot what it was…..

It is Jan. 15th.  Can’t remember when I started this new addition.  Mayhaps somewhere in the posting that is done automatically, otherwise twill always be a mystery!  LOL….  Is easily couple of weeks ago.  Lot going on here, a good busy.  Daisy has been home for Christmas break and going back this coming Monday afternoon.  We have enjoyed having her here greatly, will miss her – especially her sister who utterly adores her!  What a great thing to watch!!  I wish you all the greatest year to come ever!  I suppose there is an excitement to what will be in the coming months of 2010….there are those among us I know who purport to see what is coming head of time…..they believe this.  More power to them….I have my own feelings on this.  Not the time to give vent to them, what?  LOLOL.  Have great time my friends…be good and true to yourself and others, would be best.  Goodbye and a great honor to have known you Bubby Gilmore.

Someone emailed me the following, oh tongue in cheek, sure, brings a smile, sure; but!, it isn’t to far off the mark is it??

Mmm, will this work?  I hope so….Does anyone remember the Steve Allen show?  I sure do, one forgets how musical he was.  Here is Steve on the piano with J. Kerouac laying it down in the foreground.  Cool man, real cool.  http://tedbarron.com/BWF-October-2009/06-M%E9xico-City-Blues.mp3 (I don’t know well enough all the machinations of this blog.  Ergo; I have to just display the url that should take you there.  Sorry ,enjoy)

Guts vs. balls!:

GUTS – Is arriving home late after a night out with the guys, being met by your wife with a broom, and having the guts to ask: ‘Are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?’

BALLS – Is coming home late after a night out with the guys, smelling of perfume and beer, lipstick on your collar, slapping your wife on the butt and having the balls to say: ‘You’re next’

I hope this clears up any confusion on the definitions.

Phew!  blows me away!!

Games anyone?  LOL

Interested in things Egyptian?  Do not pass this by!!

Nothing earthshaking or necessarily extreme, but a bunch of interesting goodies.

That’s ice down there!!  what some folks, will/can do!!

A Bald Eagle nesting pair cam…not a series of stills 30′ apart, but nearly streaming!!

Fantastic 100 yr. old house out in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay!

OOOps!

(Now this, this is the biggest news to come out this year!!);

Apple Beta

Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size.

This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

that girl.

Way cool, lotsa stuff!

Yea, yea, yea, I know, but the world is literally rife with it; this is a large business in which there are no bad buys, no good guys, only intelligence, true survival of the fittest.

Time to move, dude!!

I have had a mini-war within myself the last few minutes…can’t say whether ‘I’ won or not lol….so I say;  I feel vindicated, very vindicated….we are going back to the same ol’ same 0l’.…

Google is incredible for the unbelievable mounds of information of all types they assemble, have assembled, us included.  Haven’t delved into this site yet, but shows promise to shed light on this.  I am excited for Google, it is seeking to record every piece of written work on the planet ever done, or something like that.  Now for that I say, go Google go!!

Mmm, is this where one takes their food in hand! (An outrageous pun!  See why!)

More and more I am occasionally enjoying watching a ‘free’ movie on line on my computer……am anxious about this site.

An email I sent to my wife and  oldest daughter this morning, thought yo all would also enjoy:

Had an enjoyable interlude this morning.  Thought you all may enjoy.

Pulled into the Shell, corner of 95 & 21.  At the pump, also just starting was a priest.  Youngish, early maybe mid-30′s.  The Imp of the Perverse took over, I said;  “Wanna hear a good joke?”  He said, not condescendingly but as if a priest doesn’t have time in life for that kind of thing;  “Sure, why not.?”  I laughed, said I know God had a sense of humor (I shut up, didn’t say why I knew that, proud of myself for that!:).  So I told him the joke of the Rabbi called to the states by a small synagogue.  Have I told that joke, have you heard me tell it?  Surely, is one of the funniest I know.  I think the priest was going to listen to the joke, smile, enjoy the time, see if there was ‘a way in.’  He was surprised, the punch line ripped a belly laugh out of him a mile long, I could tell it caught him off guard.  Betcha he will try to tell it again!!  He crossed himself!!  LOL  don’t know if that were for me or himself LOLOL.  Anyway, it was worth it, the Imp and I enjoyed it immensely.

No trick photography, no paint shop, the guy paints himself!!

Percentage of mark up on medicines.  If you regularly use a medicine, I urge you to see this site for where to go to save well over half. no b.s.

My favorite quote of the day;

Beautiful Holland village, no roads, just boats….sigh

Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

What were we to do? We went ahead with the funeral.

• ROSA SAMPAIO,
• niece of Brazilian man Ademir Jorge Goncalves, who shocked his family by showing up to his own funeral; Goncalves had been identified as the victim of a car crash the previous day

I love this kind of thing, so cool!  A waterfall underwater?!!??

Wife and daughters have phones that have ‘e-reader’ aps on them.  I have a palm pilot, we all have them loaded for reading.  I love it!  Oh, I still use the library, but having that palm pilot along for the occasional times I have to wait for something is a true blessing.

Ah, one of the major reasons I walked out on a church service, never went back – except to perform music, admittedly some of the best!

Doesn’t matter if you have one credit card are a dozen, read this article.

How to sound positively brilliant!!

Sorta xxx, but fun, some smiles too….

A really big ice cube!!!!

An important police tool now on the web.

News from the other side inside….

Some cool stuff here, check out the autistic basketball player, awesome!

Like to bake?  Check it out.

Ibid

Ibid

Of course, go to the site for more goodies.  :)

I like this kind of thing. I guess one criticism would be the video is so off beat,has a story line it puts the music in the background.

Got this in email from a friend today….interesting, no?:

Everyone in the cleaning industry has always been told that hand dryers in restrooms are not sanitary, they spread germs and bacteria around.  I always thought that this just came from the paper companies because they are loosing sales to the hand dryers.

A couple of years ago, I was working with a rep, and I noticed that after he washed his hands and noticed that there were no paper towels, only a hand dryer he left the restroom with wet hands.  I asked him about it.  He said that hand dryers blow a lot of germs and bacteria around.  He also told me to take a look under the hand dryer next time I was in a restroom.

There is a filter underneath the hand dryer that is supposed to be cleaned on a weekly basis.  I looked at one and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years.  It had layers and layers of caked on gunk (disgusting).  Since then I will not use hand dryers in restrooms.

Now this is where the story gets really interesting.  The schools and universities that have had the H1N1 (swine flue) outbreak this year are being told by the health department that they have to take out all of their hand dryers and replace them with towel dispensers because the hand dryers are spreading disease.

Somebody went to a lot of trouble and some expense to make a credible little mini-movie.   Is this an extremely clever tongue and cheek?  Whacoo think…..or were they really trying to make something sorta worthy?  It is at least fun. 

Makes me ill.

Now this is an art form.  Something so purely done it’s genre’ is instantly obtainable.   This is art!

The preceding came from the following site, a true marvel in itself.  I do think I have put it up before, but definitely bears repeating in the off chance someone missed this….like music, pure eclecticism?

The fastest man in the world on two legs (a double amputee), was refused entry into the 2008 Olympics for an unfair advantage!!  Whachoo think about that one!!??

Kudos Obama!!

I have been getting a few remarks, great!  I love it.  Now, how about a few more…what are your comments, opinions on this  site….and if I have not heretofore, I swear never to divulge a name or address of anyone with a comment or opinion unless that person for whatever reason, so wishes it.

Here’s a little switch from the sites that are myth busters!?

I have been watching this thing happen maybe since it’s conception!  Let’s hope this time it fires up!

More on last entry.  Don’t let this subject deter you….just look up a few words, apply common sense to definitions, really cool .

A cool way to see Machu Picchu!

Nobody can see us up here!! (I once did something like this in a State park in southern Illinois while in college LOL

What was it Kahil Girbrain (sp?} said:  (I paraphrase)  ….we are all life’s longing for itself.  Nice little poem ecohing that sentiment.

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

— Gerard Manley Hopkins

This was for me

I post this because it is just so so bizarre.  WTF in BW.

What a flip!!

Everywhere you look, them red neck boys playin’ at somethin’!!  I love that sign,” trucks only!”

I have been reading this really cool book, more or less a history of the sciences, their origins of thought in who’s mind, etc.  Fascinating!   Today  I came across this quote in a totally isolated source from that reading,  this quote is in absolute agreement of all the scientists I have read of so far;    “To consider the earth the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field sown with millet only one grain will grow.”  – Metrodoros the Epicurean c. 300 B.C. (Oh yeah!!)

Literally cool stuff!

It is  so hard not to comment, to add my own very definite opinion here….suffice to say this….I am very much chagrined this article seems to say one is atheist to believe in Darwinism (sp?:).  Apparently this takes place at a college level!?

Drunk on water, fatally!

Great anti-virus!

Interested in being brought up to date and kept current with wranglings past and present for the health care ‘process?’

___________________________________________

ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.

THE MAIN REASON THAT SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.

I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, “WHERE’S THE SELF-HELP SECTION?” SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.

WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?

IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?

___________________________________________

I don’t do this often, but here is a touch of class of days gone by; Mz Rita Hayworth

“The Maiden Heist”  Christopher Walken,  Morgan Freeman, Willim Macy, Marcia Gay Harden.

What can I say, the pic says it all!  Oh, that is not stainless steel, it is white gold!!!!

No caption needed here, pic says it all!!

Going for my doctorates!

Mmm, I don’t know about this one….my posting this seems some kind of chauvinism??  I truly don’t mean to be derogatory, just going for the grins.

Incredible ‘tube’ shots (waves and at the beach!!).  Check it out.

….and is this news we’ve missed

More about my adopted pet project!!!  The Hadron Collider.

Haven’t gone through this one yet, but generally trust Life Hacker for having good info…in fact, check 0ut Life Hacker.

Good lawd, a Texas hunter’s dream!!!

MMm, interesting, some hype, and, I think, some exaggeration -fitting for the circumstance.  Sort of an ad .

As you scroll down, several things, curious, interesting.

No way to describe this, you have to see it to understand!

New weapons of the future!!?  Mmm, one wonders if the Blackhawks of the world already have something like this, you know they have thought of it!!

I’ve mentioned this even before – one I have always hankered to go to…happens once a year I think about 40 miles west of Vegas in a huge open expanse of sand!!

Didn’t get the chance to peruse this site….will though….I mean it isn’t all just Alexander and Attila the Hun you know!!

What basis morality?  Religion, read this…….

___________________________________________________

A VERY BRAVE MAN WROTE THIS  (He may already be gone from us

Son asked his mother the following question:

“Mum, why are wedding dresses white?”

The mother looks at her son and replies,

“Son, this shows your friends and relatives that your bride is pure.”

The son thanks his Mum and goes off to double-check this with his father.

“Dad why are wedding dresses white?”

The father looks at his son in surprise and says,

“Son, all household appliances come in white.”

Continuing in somewhat the same vein;  Why men probably should not write advice columns:  

____________________________________________________

Whistleblower say phoney oil figures are being used to avoid panic on markets

By Edward Helmore

LAST UPDATED 6:37 AM, NOVEMBER 10, 2009

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Despite the discovery of massive new, untapped reserves, the world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates show, claims a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency in the Guardian.

The unnamed source claims the US has been deliberately underplaying any potential shortage and, in effect, the IEA’s annual Energy Outlook, expected to hold to previous estimates that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels, is effectively bogus.

“Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further,” the paper was told. “And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources.”

Another IEA source, rejecting the agency’s 2008 World Energy Outlook that oil output was “not expected to peak before 2030″, said: “We have already entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad.”

There are ominous signs in the market. Last week oil surged to $82 a barrel. Hardly the $140 mark it reach in August 2008 yet enough to affect a recovery. With inventories full and demand weak, estimations abound that it could go to $100 this winter.

Some analysts say the oil market is fundamentally over-supplied and cheap money is distorting prices, as it is other asset classes. But some will certainly argue that rising prices in the midst of a glut point to fundamental fears over long-term supply.

The Guardian‘s whistleblower claims a new “peak oil” is gaining support in the energy establishment. Back in 2005, IEA claimed suppliers could pump 120m barrels a day by 2030. “The 120m figure always was nonsense but even today’s number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this.”

So when do we leave the oil age and enter the post-carbon age? Probably no one knows. A report by the UK Energy Research Council (UKERC) last month said worldwide production of conventionally extracted oil could “peak” and go into terminal decline before 2020. Last night John Hemming, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, said: “IEA figures cannot be relied on.” 

LAST UPDATED 6:37 AM, NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Forgive me, totally male chauvenist I know….can’t resist (now what does that say!!???).  They have everything in Japan!!

Mmm, don’t know what my subconscious is going for here, if anything….someone sent me this along with an opinion…

If this works, here is a nice little bit sent me from a good friend who used to be a “dog.”  Who loves to fly like some of us love to fish, love to golf, etc.  Now, let’s see if this works….Dang, have to do it manually….nice read;

Found this in an aviation forum as I’m sitting standby in my hotel in Frankfurt.  On call until Wednesday morning then deadheading back home to be with my family.

Enjoy!

Paul

Trash Haulers

The last word: The bad boys of aviation

Let’s say you’re the captain of a Boeing 747 out of Anchorage for Chicago . Except no self-respecting cargo pilot calls himself—or, rarely, herself—anything so leaden, so utterly earthbound as “captain.” You are instead, proudly and defiantly, a “freight dog,” a nom de guerre freighted, so to speak, with many connotations, not all of them positive.

As you pull your 747, or “whale,” onto Runway 6 Right at Anchorage and advance the four throttles to maximum power, air traffic control advises there’s a welter of severe turbulence on your climb-out. A passenger airliner might give it a wide berth, but you, with a load of time-sensitive cargo, barge right on through. Then the turbulence hits and all hell breaks loose. Your 747 is batted about the sky like a shuttlecock. “S—, hang on guys,” your flight engineer says. Then: “Whoa …we lost something.” The radio crackles, “Ah, four-six-echo-heavy, Elmendorf tower said something large just fell off your airplane.”

Something large? (The National Transportation Safety Board will later determine that your whale performed “an uncommanded left bank of approximately 50 degrees” along with amusement-park pitches, rolls, and yaws that ripped the No. 2 engine clean off the wing.) While all of this is actually happening, perhaps you, the captain, flash to Ernest K. Gann’s classic Fate Is the Hunter, beloved among freight dogs for its vainglorious pilot prose: “We have merely nodded to fear. Now we must shake its filthy hand.”

In any event, you manage to keep the crippled 747 flying long enough to dump fuel and return to Anchorage for a harrowing landing. And as you taxi the jet with its mangled wing, missing engine, and smoking brakes—but the cargo still snuggled safely in the hold—your flight engineer declares: “Buddy, I don’t care how many beers I owed you in the past. This one I’m going to pay off, okay?”

The above incident actually occurred several years ago. It was a 747-121 freighter, but the whole misbegotten adventure, from disintegrating airplane to coolly averted tragedy, would be recognized by freight dogs the world over. Freight dogs famously fly decrepit, “clapped-out,” analog-only hand-me-downs from the passenger airlines, and brushes with the reaper, duly embellished, make for great table rants over pitchers of Watney’s at dog hangouts like the Petroleum Club in Alamaty, Kazakhstan; the Cyclone in Dubai; Sticky Fingers in Hong Kong; and the legendary Four Floors of *****s in Singapore, which, according to the dogs who frequent it, is a model of truth in advertising. It’s an article of faith among freight dogs that George Lucas based Star Wars’ famed cantina scene on the scuzzed-out cargo skippers at Bryson’s Irish Pub, a flyboy Rick’s Cafe adjacent to Miami International Airport through which generations of pilots have passed in a sort of demented finishing school. “We tend to be the rogues of the airline world,” Tony Baca, a 747 cargo captain, told me recently. “The airline pilot is all prim and proper. We’re not. It’s a whole different culture.”

It’s a culture that represents the last gasp of the butt-kicking, globe-trotting, hell-for-leather pilot worldview. Brutal labor relations, increasingly automated aircraft, and the dispiriting post-9/11 environment have torched whatever adventure and romance remain in aviation. But freight dogs never got that memo. Yes, they gripe endlessly about the hours, the food, the lack of sleep, the death-trap airports of Asia Minor and West Africa .

But talk to true dogs for more than five minutes and they betray themselves as hopelessly, permanently, passionately in love with flying and the particular esprit that hauling cargo allows. “All I ever wanted to do is fly,” says Tom Satterfield, an MD-11 freighter pilot. How much? Satterfield worked as a successful chemical engineer for 20 years before chucking it to become a freight dog when he was 41. Who among us can declare without a trace of irony that we absolutely love our work? I wanted to know why freight dogs did. So I flew to Florida and hung around Miami Springs, the honky-tonk ’hood near the Miami airport that has been a freight-dog stronghold for more than 50 years.

My guide was Mike Yannacone, a DC-8 cargo captain. The DC-8 was introduced during the Eisenhower administration; the last one rolled off the Douglas Aircraft line in Long Beach , Calif. , in 1972. Yannacone—who drives a Ram pickup, sports a huge wristwatch, and wears a flight jacket emblazoned with FREIGHT DOG—doesn’t waste time worrying about the DC-8’s age. “I get to fly an airplane,” he marveled when we met up at Bryson’s, which gloriously lived up to its rep, with a barmaid who cackled, “What’re you drinkin’, boys?” and a jukebox blasting Mungo Jerry. Every few minutes the walls rattled as another whale rumbled skyward a few blocks south. Yannacone took a pull on his bottle of Sam Adams and shook his head. “And they’re paying me.”

By volume, air cargo accounts for 35 percent of the value of total shipped goods, nearly $3 trillion a year. Which means that in today’s thin-inventoried, we-can-get-it-for-you-wholesale world—where a wayward shipment of turn-signal stalks from Taiwan can cause a Nissan assembly line to seize in Tennessee —air cargo is often the last, best hope to keep world trade trading merrily away. So freight dogs are under blinding pressure to maintain schedules that must go off with military precision, laid down daily at dispatchers’ desks in Miami or Ypsilanti or Dayton or Memphis : Get the cargo there on time. With the global-economic corollary: And as cheaply as possible. The players include behemoths UPS and FedEx, air-cargo’s alpha specimens. (With 669 aircraft, FedEx is the world’s largest airline.) But there’s still room for hand-sewn, niche-filling outfits shuttling car parts and canceled checks—even a carrier that specializes in rushing fresh donor organs from morgues to operating theaters via Learjet.

The cargo itself comprises incomprehensible quantities of the mundane—160,000 pounds of roses, 25,000 wiring harnesses for Chevy Malibus, 5,000 pounds of Grand Theft Auto videogames—but also a full-size armored truck filled with 4 tons of Euro banknotes; a Sikorsky 76 helicopter for the Sultan of Brunei’s nephew; 120 tons of Beaujolais Nouveau; enough condoms to choke a specially chartered 747 to Rio for Carnival.

Then there is the livestock: whales; thoroughbred racehorses; rhinos; dairy cattle; giraffes; elephants; crocodiles; piglets (which escaped and got behind the captain’s rudder pedals); ducklings (ditto); and a daily shipment out of Brisbane of live crickets destined as feed for the world’s zoos.

Airline passengers make much of plunging service standards and fewer frills—of being treated, they whimper, “like cargo.” Freight dogs upend the comparison. “If you’re Joe Shmo, who cares if your flight leaves or not?” Tony Baca told me. “Grab another flight—it doesn’t really matter. But when I’m hauling 100 tons of Nintendo Wiis, it starts mattering. That’s millions of dollars of revenue. You have people waiting at Target for that. One time I ended up hauling 130 tons of Happy Meal toys. And the reason was, a container ship sank in the middle of the Pacific. If a huge shipment has just sunk, you can’t dispatch another ship. So you start hauling Happy Meal toys on a 747.”

Seth Brady, a 747 cargo pilot, recalls being initially mystified when a former employer dispatched a Learjet out of Toledo to meet a British Airways flight at JFK because General Motors had come up five seat backs short at its Corvette plant. “They flew in the extra Corinthian leather from England,” he told me, “put it on the Lear at JFK, ran it up to Pontiac, made the new seat backs in three hours, put them back on the Lear, and took them to Bowling Green, Ky., in time for the production line not to shut down.” Brady wondered “how anyone could afford to fly all these airplanes around”—until he was told that the cost to shut the assembly line was $42,000. Per minute.

So the dogs fly, usually at night, when the world’s cargo moves, in odysseys taken up on a moment’s notice—say, Frankfurt-Dubai-Nairobi-Entebbe-Lahore-Taipei-Hong Kong. Many are on call 24-7, meaning they can’t touch so much as a beer or risk violating the FAA’s eight-hour “bottle-to-the-throttle” rule. Meanwhile, cargo carriers are notorious for pushing everything—aircraft, pilots, and the regulations—to the absolute limit. An investigation published by The Miami Herald depicted an industry fraught with decaying aircraft, shoddy maintenance, flagrant safety-rule violations, and 69 fatal crashes of U.S. cargo planes since 2000 that have killed 85; in a quarter of fatal crashes there were mechanical problems that had not been corrected before the planes were dispatched. The regulars at Bryson’s still talk about the Fine Air DC-8 freighter that crashed on takeoff at the Miami airport in 1997. The cargo, improperly loaded, shifted to the tail, causing the plane to stall and plunge into a parking lot. The pilot’s last words were, “Oh, no.”

All those voyages that start with a beeper call and end four weeks and 100,000 miles later take a toll, of course. Among the afflictions is what the dogs call AIDS—aviation induced divorce syndrome. “There was a Wife No. 1,” one told me, “but there will not be a Wife No. 2.” There’s also strict observance of “what happens in Hong Kong-Dubai-Singapore-Amsterdam-Taipei stays in Hong Kong-Dubai-Singapore-Amsterdam-Taipei.” But a fraternal code is only partial compensation. Baca, who is married to a flight attendant, admitted to me that the life of a freight dog sometimes falls short of glorious even mid-assignment. “There are days where I get to my hotel room and feel like crying,” he says, “because the family is going to do things and I’m stuck in Gambia .”

By necessity, those feelings stay in the hotel. “I can’t worry about the kids and the water heater when I’m shooting an approach in a snowstorm at 3:30 a.m. in Kazakhstan ,” he says. “It weighs too much on your head. You will make mistakes. And kill yourself.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

________________________________________________________________

She peeked!! 

Wow, ran across a site this a.m. I used to visit with some regularity a long while back….one could only call it a bit of excursion, momentary getaway to go there….curious though.

Bizzaro!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

reader using Snopes lets me know the Russian “plane” depicted yesterday was a hoax:

Hoax, average CG fauxtography like screenshots taken from FlightSim or something

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=49129

There was a K7 designed by the ill-fated Kalinin but it was much smaller

Merry Christmas!

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. – Swedish proverb

I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great. – Ray Charles

I don’t like money, actually, but it quiets my nerves. – Joe Louis

You can’t get rid of poverty by giving people money. – P.J. O’Rourke

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. – Will Rogers

People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground. – Marcel Proust

Pics of the people of walmart!!  LOL

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. – Boris Pasternak

It really works!!

Weird??

The incomparable! Check out the differing facial expressions, especially those with Clark Gable in the pictures!!

Exploding volcano 4000′ feet undersea!!!  (Suppose all know the highest mountain ranges on the earth are under water – talk about the last unknown area on the earth!!) http://gizmodo.com/5429363/first-video-of-a-volcanic-eruption-4000-feet-underwater

The kind of thing I really enjoy – not so much the science, but that it was preceded in Afghan Buddhist art of the 3rd century!!!

Do you wish to exit from Facebook, Twitter, any some such with grace and style??  Check it out.……..

In the history of this earth there have been some volcano bursts so large they have changed the earth’s  climate for years!  They are cataclysmicly  disastrous  explosions!!  For the gene pool,  volcano explosions are like an antibiotic, they take the good and the bad.

It is steadily raining.  Seems such a  change after weeks of early mornings at  100 deg!  Now the air is moist, 80ish deg., it almost feels cool!!  But on to the first offering…..I have read much about this on and off for a long time.  Always wanted to see same but not yet…..“The Human Condition”

Staying with a literary bent, there is this; James Joyce

Chess anyone? (Still and all, the hidden man had to be pretty dang good!!).

Vaguely worth it .

Ah, Lucy died!!

Some news of Iran you haven’t seen.

The best of the worst!

Oh, lawdy, lawdy, there have been a few times I’ve wondered this self same thing!!

This is something we  all will realize if we think about it, but to think about it, do we need a nudge to do so?

Oldie but goodie (?) essay by Michel de Montaigne…..

Something written by a 90 yr. old we really should read, re-read often, at least I should.

Free security – there are some true goodies here.

Don’t know if this will work or not, don’t know if anyone is out there interested.  In honor of eclecticism, here….

From other things I have read, what some others have intimated, this article is very believable to me.

Very interesting!

There’s just got to   be somebody out there!!!  The hubble.

A situation intriguing me for years, one I would dearly like to attend, but doubt it would happen.  To far, to much money….at least great to read about and see the pics that emerge every year….check it out, Burning Man.

And was Rep. Joe Wilson accurate to shout; “Liar!”  Mmm, let’s see…

Now this is really cool….huge fabricated cloth made from spider silk!!

If condoms had sponsors!

Keep practicing your swing!

Keeping a watchful eye!

Creepy cool bizzarro!!

I have personally resolved to reduce what could be called political slants (to the degree I can!      LOL)  However, I am including this little article in the N. Y. Times. Check it out.

Dusty Down Under!!  Incredible!

Very interesting – our govt. at work.

At the bottom of the page  in preceeding insertion, is a high-lit sentence…here is the page that goes to;

What a set-up!!

Guess I get out the ol’ giger counter!!LOL

Check out this indoor/outdoor bldg. in Italy!!  Way cool. Check out the pics.

Remember the Gulf of Tonkin, what it portrayed?

I quit smoking cig. many years ago….Have not returned to them no longer wish to.  Now I see this ad for ‘e cigarettes!’ Any one know of these? And tell me, why does it bother me to see this?  Anyone else have this difficulty?

Banned books?  This blew me away, we are still banning books?  Just a couple of weeks ago I read Lady Chatterly’s Lover.  I thought to myself, I am of the enlightened, I could not see what about the book kept it in such contraversy….then I saw this list.  Well, at least I have a new reading list!!  LOL..

Cool.

Sigh!!

25 ‘sites’ we supposedly cannot do without….some interests here?

Word for the day; paraprosdokian

Are you a skeptic??  Man in article went to my alma mater.

Okay, I admit it I am a closet hippy, you know – peace, love, not war…..Check this out.

Oh, we have all been here to some degree LOL

Ah yes, then there’s free speech!!

Oh, I liked this one!  Check out the very young Georgia O’Keeffe

I gotsta have a little fun! ;

Louisa May Alcott was an attractive woman!  Somehow I always think of the classicists as staid, proper, being attractive no part of their persona.  Not so this girl!

Seems this pic may be in one of the sites above, just in case I am including it here…comes under the title; Oh Shit!    

We are going to give Pakistan $5.25 billion total over the next 5 years!!  Does anyone see anything wrong or curious here!!!!!!

Ah this has been popping up recently.  Fascinating, I dearly want to go there!

Well, this in keeping with the last entry, from First cent. A.D!! I have mentioned prior my participation in a USO tour.  Our tour ended in San Juan Puerto Rico….we were given 2 weeks gratis at that time.  Viva! San Juan!!  While there a friend and I went to dinner in the opulent Condo Beach hotel.   We were dancing, waiting for our food, and discovered the entire, large, round dance floor  was slowly circulating!!  And I say, this was 1965 A D!  LOL

Wow, just found and a million years older than Lucy!!

Oh, really!!!??

Do you know what Monty Python is?  Have you never availed yourself?  If I can do anything for you, please do so!  Monty Python and the Holy Grail is as funny, wonderful, every bit as irreverent as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (one of my all-time favorite movies!!)

Posted something on this a while back, certainly bears reposting…..

I am not a fan of short stories, unless by Herman Mellvile, and this man!!  Great stuff! http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/889/enigma-ancient-computer-solved?page=0,0

Ohh, let’s go visit!!

Ah, then, we no longer assume a divine hand in the writing of it?….

Sanctions against Iran, and opinion.

My kind of tree house!!

National Geo photos of the Redwoods….fantastic!  Don’t forget to see the vid….shows how they captured a photo at once of a 300′ tree!!  http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/09/redwoods.html?ft=1&f=97635953

So, is this no surprise?  We must all surely know all these technical devises certainly allow ‘those that be’ total access.

Community Service Announcement:   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/your-money/06prepay.html?_r=1&hp

Ahh, I can’t help it, have to stick this in here, so sue me!!

The last of the untouchables in Europe, the Cagots (no one knows why!!).  Interesting!

Mmm, says a story a day!  Now, that’s not bad at all.

“The picture of everything!!”

Fascinating – Museum of Australia!

I like surreal - this is cool stuff!

Must see!!  30 ft. tall marionettes in Berlin perform to celebrate tearing down the wall 20 years ago!!

Celebrity photos by Mark Seliger - these are great!

Astrobiology

USA noir.

World wide health care coverage!  Does this blow you away!!!??

Break for a funny moment, after that last!

Sp, what do you think about this??!

Like a vampire rising from it’s grave each night to feed on the privacy rights of Americans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is moving forward with programs that drain the life blood from our constitutional liberties.

From the wholesale use of informants and provocateurs to stifle political dissent, to Wi-Fi hacking and viral computer spyware to follow our every move, the FBI has turned massive data-mining of personal information into a growth industry. In the process they are building the surveillance state long been dreamed of by American securocrats.

A chilling new report by investigative journalist Ryan Singel provides startling details of how the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is quietly morphing into the Total Information Awareness (TIA) system of convicted Iran-Contra felon, Admiral John M. Poindexter. According to documents obtained by Wired:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15569

Had me chuckling all day, some times I’m so easy!!

Ah, this is not as daunting as first seems.  If you just jump in, with a little concentration it starts to make sense, be more readable….is definitely interesting!

So what does one make of this!!!

Is this interesting?

Cool art.  Excellent work!!

For whatever it’s worth….Reallly cool camera, but seems to take the artistic element away??  Wachoo think?

or Over 1billion people in the world are undernourished!!!!!  (Quote; the World Food Program.)!!!!!

Interesting theory of WWII.

Incredible!!  Have no doubt, one day the will be coming for us!!

Have to admit I would not have had a passing grade.  However, this shows up my current bitch.  Why do we give these mongrels attention, they thrive on it!!   Ergo Glen Beck was included!!!

Have I sent you url to Dawn’s site?  Check it out, always brightens my day.

Cool.  A little house ‘in’ the sea!

Oh, oh, check it out!!  Keep clicking next, gets better and better!!

okay, so one possibly cannot understand what goes on in the middle, but this is awesome.….

So, if we don’t pay our debts on time guess what will happen to us!!??

So, no money, slow death??!

Kids; The famous marshmallow test – hilarious!

I have been trying so very hard not to be political with items I place in here, but this struck a nerve.  All of the economical stimuli being thrown around amounts to billions (!!) of dollars.  Do we think there isn’t going to be any theft??  I have absolutely no confidence in any gov. program being run efficiently, graftless, none!!

This is the story of a NYT reporter taken captive, held for 7 months.  It is his words, an truly  miraculous story.

I picked this up from the story in the previous admission.

Take a listen…evrything you hear will be done by native Americans;  i.e., Amerinds.

Stinky, excellent health! lol

The oldest trick in the book, really!

Been new revival of interest in Amilia Earhart.  This site claims to a possible discovery of her final resting place.

Are cell phones harmful, apparently not?  LOL

Interesting!

It’s a start!!

Okay, perhaps it is my particular libido, but have always wandered at this question!! How interesting an answer.

No win7 here, but maybe you have it?

Can you imagine!  Already there are 1600 advance sellouts!  We’re talking entire concerts, whole cities!!!

Science has just seen the light emanated by an exploding mega star….it exploded not long after the original ‘bang,’ as it were.  The light we just presently saw was 13 billion years in reaching us!!!!  Does this not  boggle and awe the mind beyond all!!!  Whoa!

Mmmm, watchoo, think?

Space, the final (?) frontier!  These pictures are so cool, on the one hand, so unbelievably incomprehensible on the other.  I suggest not doing the slide show, cancel it, click on each individual pic, read the captions.  (Question mark following final = the depths of the sea…..we have yet begun!  There are mountains down there taller than any on earth by far!)

Anyone remember Look magazine?  Guess who is still around?  Life!

A woman takes a lover home during the day while her husband is at work.

Her 9 year old son comes home unexpectedly, sees them and hides in the bedroom closet to watch.

The woman’s husband also comes home.

She puts her Lover in the closet, not realizing that the little boy is in there already.

The little boy says, “Dark in here.”

The man says, “Yes, it is.” Boy – “I have a baseball.”

Man – “That’s nice.”

Boy – “Want to buy it?”

Man – “No, thanks.”

Boy – “My dad’s outside.”

Man – “OK, how much?”

Boy – “$250?

In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in the closet together.

Boy – “Dark in here.”

Man – “Yes, it is.”

Boy – “I have a baseball glove.”

The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, “How much?”

Boy – “$750?

Man – “Sold.”

A few days later, the father says to the boy, “Grab your glove, let’s go outside and have a game of catch.

The boy says, “I can’t, I sold my baseball and my glove.”

The father asks, “How much did you sell them for?”

Boy -”$1,000? The father says, “That’s terrible to overcharge your friends like that. That is way more than those two things cost. I’m going to take you to church and make you confess.”

They go to the church and the father makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and he closes the door.

The boy says, “Dark in here.”

The priest says, “Don’t start that shit again, you’re in my closet now.

Mm, it would seem apropos, to begin with a cool treatise of life’s beginnings, this countries history, etc., done as if drawn by a child on black paper….way cool..very entertaining;

This next is Wikipedia…explanation of a certain type of Tibetan  mind training…there have been scientific studies definitely proving the great good coming from meditation.  This one is particularly good, it teaches one compassion, also freeing one from miseries of self flagellation .

Fun photoshopped pictures.

I have something to say, excuse me.  Yesterday, someone, no one anyone local knows, actually it was a family member, took umbrage with my postings….accused me of what amounts to proselytizing.  Mmm, guess I do sound a bit preachy from time to time, I suspect when I get political.  Let me say this; unequivocally, these postings are not meant to project onto anyone what I believe or think.  I enjoy having an outlet like this.  It satisfies me, and that is nearly the entire reason I do this.  Once again,  just don’t go there.  To this end I’ve also realized, I don’t have to send a notice that a fresh Musings has occurred.  I will announce this one when done, but no more after that.  If you enjoy these little ‘missives,’ simply bookmark the URL and stop by when you have chance or inclination to see if there are any new postings, I will continue to post.  I am truly saddened at the reaction of that relative, but do not feel responsible.  In fact, I do not feel responsible for any reaction some of the postings herein elicit.  Reactions should be at the responsibility of the reactioner…right?  LOL

If you don’t know who Mr. Man is, please do yourself a favor and see the following;

Shows a man up North moving a 20,000 ton block upright,by himself!, as he felt they must have done at Stonehenge – way cool.

Am always on the look out for sources, reference areas, etc.  This could prove one of the best…..The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

You know, Google is wanting to digitize nearly every written world anywhere…here is more about their efforts….amazing.

Here is another one of those picture of everything sites…getting ready to have a photo of everyplace, huh?

What can I say, off the wall? LOL

“It was hot!”  “Really? How hot was it?”

This blog is a tell-all look behind the scenes of opera life, from onstage makeouts to world travel. It’s a fascinating and funny read by the very acclaimed  Mezzo-soprano Jeffnifer Rivera.

I’ve been here a few times, it is worth a peek for fun, or occasional enlightenment.

In my life I have put as many miles on a 10+ speed bike as some folks have on a car!!  Check it out.

A curio.

Did you get any fish?

Pictures of lighthouses and the waves that inundate them!!

Making walls, bridges, even whole buildings into planters!!

Somewhere in this aricle lies the semblance of the truth??

Orange goo!?

For me, a blast from the past.  Years ago, when our house first became computerized, I tried various things to find what I like the best….one of the browsers I tried, was Opera.  It was okay, but Windows still had what I liked best.  Opera has grown, still free, still – I think – open source, and from all reports greatly improved.  Curious?

And here to keep in touch with Civic awareness…..Swine Flu, what to do by these folks.

Let’s hope these folks and what they stood for are not a dying breed!?

United States Department of Justice.

Recovering the ‘C’ word……

Yes, yes, it was me!  I guess I thought living in Texas, going up there once a week, no one would suspect anyone to do that and I would be safe as gold!!  LOLOL

Oh, wow, the irony here is the big attraction in hiring a war….there is no responsibility.  Begin a war with hired troops.  No need to use our young.

This is a cool site.  Folks ask questions, other folks read them and respond.  This page is not typical, it is a bunch, usually the page is one featured question and the several, usually excellent, responses…I consider this an excellent, though personal-type, reference.

Educational: PBS videos.…cool.

My kind of house building in Huntsville, Tx.

And the winner is?? ______

This is giant on a scale where it’s not just that we can’t see what’s doing it; it’s that the entire makeup of the universe as we understand it can’t be right if this is happening.

‘Lightning never strikes in the same place twice.’  Don’t you believe it, how about 7 times!!!

Nat’l Geographic – absolutely awesome!!!

But with fingernails like that, what can you do??!!

Normndy, then and now (WWII – present). Interesting for me, my dad was in the thick of it, could very well be in one of these pics!!

The Huffington Posts’ readers send in photos of the fire, awesome!!

It’s official!  After 40 years of existance, The Rolling Stones is/are no more……in that Charlie Watts quit, never to record of appear with the Stones anymore!  So the band, per sey, went on, still wouldn’t be the Stones.…

Lost and Found

Uh, no, apparantly all was unfounded.  Charlie Watts says he is not leaving the Rolling Stones!!

100 years old and goes to work everyday as a scientist!!  Drinks her own brew!  I want some!  LOL

C’mon, ladies, get crackin’!  Fascinating fact about Wikipedia.

Happy b’day to you, happy b’day to you, dear internet!!

Three Italian nuns die and go to heaven.
At the Pearly Gates, they are met by St. Peter. He says, ‘Sisters, you all
led such exemplary lives that the Lord is granting you six months to go
back to earth and be anyone you wish to be
The first nun says, ‘I want to beSophia Loren;’
And *poof* she’s gone.
The second says, ‘I want to beMadonna and *poof* she’s gone.
The third says, ‘I want to be Sara Pipalini..’
St. Peter looks perplexed. ‘Who?’ he ask
‘Sara Pipalini,’ replies the nun.
St. Peter shakes his head and says, ‘I’m sorry, but that name just doesn’t
ring a bell.’
The nun then takes a newspaper out of her habit and hands it to St. Peter ..
St. Peter reads the paper and starts laughing. He hands it back to her and
says.
‘No sister, the paper says it was the ‘ Sahara Pipeline’ that was laid by
1,400 men in 6 months.’

This from the Huffington Post

A curio .

Do you like documentaries?  Here’s a list of them.

Ah yes, the age of partisanship and understanding.

I do not like book reviews like this.  These do not review the book but seem to tend to be cliff notes.  However, in the interest of passing on some new reading material….

I have just finished my second book by Cathy Reichs.  This is the author, the books the t.v. serial ‘Bones’ is based on, is about.  They are entertaining, well written, a  worthy read.

ce’st fini.  As I stated at the onset, I am going to send this ‘issue’ around like those before.  However, as I also said, this is the last time.  You all are on your own now LOL>  Boomark me, or use the RSS feed.  I will continue to post from time to time (I hope), just keep checking back

Work on a wonderful life every day, hey?!

ciao  Jeff

You know, I would hope you find these little excursions I send, irreverant, irascible, ineluctable,indivisible, etc.  :).  Have great times!!

It was my promise this edition of World Citizen would inlude links that were highlighted – no more need to copy/paste to get there.  I have gone one step further, as in the first/next entry.  The word process is highlighted, taking you to the link intended…..cool, huh!  I/we have to thank the lovely Mz. Dawn Gillam for that.  She (partly Daisy) set up this blog for me.  Dawn printed out a little booklet she created for me that takes me step by step through those functions I would use.  Anything else, I just has to ask.  Thank you very much Mz. Dawn (and Mz. Daisy!:).  Kudos to the girls!!  :)

I do believe I have sent this site before, but bears repeating.  This site I’m sending grows more everyday,  the original idea.  The developers hope to include as much of the worlds specie as possible…could take awhile, and we are the beneficiaries, so good to go there while in the process..

North of the state News.

Now this might come in handy for those of you who use their computers a bit more than the average Jill or Joe, check it out.  For that matter look around a bit within this site…might be some handy little items.

Ah, the following is for those of us who enjoy occaional intellectual approach to the world and it’s politics.  This site is one who would seem to follow George Orwell’s  ambition, ‘to make political writing into an art.’

Oh, this is so cool!  Go here to see Melody performing on her own Utube – she made this with her phone!!!  This is one of a series of songs she wrote for friends.  I will have to get her to post more….the song she wrote for her sister is so cool….then there is the one she wrote to her friend that likes punk!!  I think it is unusual for a 13 year old to come up with this kind of sound!  It is not a  ‘See Dick run.  See Jane chase Dick’ kind of thing…is even sort of classical in nature.  Enjoy!

I have said before, apparantly am saying again, one of the wonders of world wide web for me, is international reportage….of all kinds.  And there are places I go to with some regularity.  I have to admit there are quite a few, but this gives me a broad view, sometimes allows me to ‘catch’  the real meaning behind a ‘news item’, or some political claim or revelation….I digress.  Here is a sometime refreshing slant on things.  Check it out. 

So wacha think about this?

Sometimes.

Lots here.

OH, a long time ago I was listening online to AIROS.  It is an Indian (Amerind) station broadcasting from Alaska.  There are moments I would take off the head phones, go away for a week, then come back to something incredible.  One of the most fascinating thrilling things I ever heard was here…..it was 4 medicine men recorded at a festival.  One began a chant, then one by one they entered in….at first it was not much, a seeming guttural language I of course did not know, the vocies were not at all attractive, but then the began to sink and I swear I started tripping or something…it truly was mesmerizing.  I was held captive for a straight 15 minutes.  Anyway, give it a shot….sometimes pretty good, sometimes excellent, sometimes embarassing.  Airos The link will take you to the audio portion of Airos….there are other things, videos, etc.  There is a legitimate Indian project going on…..all you hear, as  Iremember, are Indian musicians, regardless of the music, from jazz to rock to traditional Indian sound.

Our computer guru says this is a pretty good place to find stuff….

Thursday morning…..got Dawn’s ironing done, a thermos of coffee and my coffee, and this is my morning treat – check email, take an international reading of what going on today (I have to steel myself everytime…..must be prepared to be flaunted with reckless disregard for human life!!).  Now, is everyone ready for their test!??  Name this site?:  It attracts 14 million unique users every week, around two thirds of them from the UK, it is the most-read free news website, and 44th most read of every site in the world. It is staffed by high-quality journalists, updated continuously and ranked highly by Google. One in every 60 global internet users goes tothis site every month….   Ready?  Check this out.

(Mmm, well, it is a bit on my mind, getting less so)…..when EMS dropped me at Brackenridge, first thing they did after stabilizing my vitals, was remove my clothes, give me a sponge bath, and then a Phillipino lady talked me into shaving me.  Of course, I didn’t know what the hell was going on, though I do still remember the moment.  I rue that time….. there is no one in Texas ever has seen me without a beard, my family certainly has not.  After seeing me, Daisy made up a poster that went into my room, it said in English, French, and Spanish;  “Please, do not shave Jeff.”  LOL  Well, to that end, check out this site and these beards!

A fun curio.

A true travesty.

What english language do you speak?  LOL

And further, interested in languages at large?  Go here….

I don’t care too much about the looks. I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion is foreplay. I want someone who sometimes makes me go ouch due to their wit and evil sense of humor. I want someone that I can reach out and touch randomly. I want someone I can cuddle with.  Does this fit you?  Then you are;  This…

The latest performance by the French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale De Luxe – with some remarkable pictures of their latest creation.

I guess this goes along with what I have been saying, what I think, about returning to the old ways of economy -i.e., continuing to base what we do on The Wall Street bases of money movement.  Check this out…..

OH, oh, wow….I never saw this coming!!  There is nothing, nothing more insidious in the world social fabric as advertising….nothing is everywhere like it is, more so than religion, politics, you name it….I often think it is THE driving force in society at large….now, dig this!!

Uh, okay?!! 

Aw I don’t know…what do you all think about the American Wall?? — About 650 miles long 12′ high has been completed (approx. 1/3 of the way!).  And what does, was it meant to deter?  Drugs.  What does it deter??..the common masses (no way this will keep drug movement out….there have been incredibly complex tunnels built…some instances have seen whole cars hydraulically lifted over the fence!. etc. etc. etc..)  I have a few friends that are very much against illegal Mexican travel into this country.  I have mixed feelings…oh, I confess it should be legally done, but most of those who come in illegally have no other way.  They have no recourse to proper channels, none.  This is fact.  When your family is starving, there is economy you can take advantage of, you will go there.  I sure as hell would.  Another  fact always comes to my mind, what is to say this is not the proclivity of a species moving to where it has always been….where it’s ancestral home was for centuries?  We aren’t the first one’s here, you know.  We displaced many, we are the squatters, really, it is us who are here illegally.  Well, check it out. Just click anywhere on the picture to go to the next.

Friend sent me this, a short safari story. 

Said it before, say it again….we humans have improved so vastly much since we left the cave, but one thing above all wherein we excell;  killing each other.

What a wonderful dichotomy, a bifurcation even!  LOL  Tonight was meet the teacher night for Melody, in 8th grade.   Her sister came along, of course.  Many of Melody’s teachers fornext year were Daisy’s a few years ago, it was old home week for Daisy and many of Melody’s teachers nearly everywhere we stopped…..we all enjoyed it.  What I mean is we are taking Daisy to Denton to start as a Freshman at UNT this year….and here we are going thr0ugh it again with Melody.  Really, what a treat.  They are really very good kids, we are doubly blessed.

Normally I would keep this page a while longer yet, put some more things in, have some cool stuff I have been laying up just for here, but I am pooped.  Been working my hiney off the last few days and I can feel it.  Tomorrow I have to clean up, check out 2 cars, vacuum them, then load them up with all nature of goodies my daughter thinks she will need to begin her journey into the world of make-it-on-your-own-economyness.  Ergo, I will end here, and post this.  I am sure my next posting will have a good little bit about the Saturday sojurn to Denton, with, hopefully,  all the mini-adventures and memories we will make.

t.t.f.n. (as Tigger would say)  Live well!!

By the will art thou lost, by the will art thou found, by the will art thou free, captive, and bound. – Angelus Silesius

And this one for at least politics! LOL “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.”
- Albert Einstein

What a job!!  Not only are these photos great, each one is somewhere else in the world!!  http://www.640pixels.com/articles/60-incredible-aerial-photos-you-must-see.aspx

Oops, forgot to see if the ‘highlighted’ url’s can be arranged, but can do pics!  :)  Here is a motivational poster, I really enjoy these;

Home from the day now…looking through the news et. al.  Came across some more Sarah Palin crap.  I tell you this, if she does get more interesting to more and more people, if she does get more and more momentum, if for some reason she should hold major office in this country – why I say we deserve it, if she gets there, we deserve her.

Do you like tea?!  And I mean hand-picked first blush, fresh kind of tea from the source.  If so, go here.  Prices are reasonable when you consider a 1/4# of tea will go a long, long way.  Their service has been impeccable and prompt.  In 4 or 5 years, never a hitch….I have always ordered on line.  http://www.specialteas.com/

I found this site, have held on to it to help me identify some of the woods I have come across and stored.  The site is great for that, more though, it is interesting in itself.  Take a peek………..http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/index.html

And this one because I/Dawn are into flowers as well as trees, birds, insects, etc.  I have my favorite flower/plant ID book, but this site is a welcome one as eye candy and sometimes quicker identifier………http://www.wildflowerinformation.org/ColorListing.asp

I wish to keep you/us all safe from the huge variety of dangers in our  world.  While the following is a rarity, reading it should prepare us all against that rare event!!  To wit;  http://ww2.zombieinitiative.org/

During my nearly daily perusual with coffee 1st part of the day, I assemble and send to Daisy some things literary I find…some she might even read! LOL  Here is one, I haven’t looked into it;  http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/

I put this one in the ‘whatever it’s worth’ column.  (Recently heard a song talking about life ~ happiness….song talked about most of life being somewhat sad, learning to be good with that, that happiness is a fleeting feather in a breeze, very cool, hard to hold onto….there is something to this, but I have to think it isn’t quite like that ~ guess that’s called Hope     http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/05/10/perfectly_happy/

Lists similar come along from time to time, I will include them when I see them.  If even 1% have value, that’s good in my view.  There are a couple here that look really good…….http://www.pcworld.com/article/161674/101_undiscovered_freebies_the_list.html?loomia_ow=t34:sb:a41:g26:r56:c0.000377:b20065801

When I first came to Texas, I was visiting my brother and his first wife ~ they lived in Austin Lake Estates off Bee Cave Rd. and Common Fords Rd.  They had befriended a young neighbor whose parents were never home, he treated them and their home like it was really his, not the one where no one was ever there.  His best friend was Willie Nelson Jr. (who later, tragically, killed himself).  The boys were together a lot in the summer, nearly constantly.  It was often that Willie Sr. would come by in this old white Mercedes to pick Billy up there at my brother’s.  Granted this was before Willy had gotten national recognition, I sure as heck didn’t know much about him (this was about 1972 or so…later on I got to see him at a concert at Moon Hill near Austin….they played all night!  Lawdy what a party!!  I also went to the first 4th of July Picnic.  Another party, but that one was hard work. LOL).  I would see Willy play from time to time ~ Toad Hall, The Chilli Parlor, Spellman’s, The Dillo, etc.  I could tell he saw me, recognized me, it was cool.  Oh, when I first knew I would stop visiting and stay in Texas, I started wearing a red bandana, continued to for years, wore it a long time after I first moved to the Bastrop area.  I swear, Willie saw that bandana and started wearing it also ~ at least that is what I have always dramatized.   So, for whatever it is worth……..http://www.last.fm/music/Willie+Nelson

Another something for Daisy   http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433

We probably aren’t the biggest t.v. fans, compared to many.   What we like to do is get a Blockbuster, or Netflix, sit around at home comfortably snacking, pausing for bathroom trips, etc.  We have our favored genres…for instance, we watched all the Johnny Depp movies we could find, then it was Sean Connery, etc.  A favorite is any decent vampire flick.  The last a couple of weeks ago, was Shadow of the Vampire by John Maleckovich – was a tribute to Nosferatu, probably the most famed/favorite vampire movie of all, some say one of the best silents of all times.  Well, of course we had to see Nosferatu.  Just finished it a while ago.  It really was excellent.  Surprise, surprise, the musical score was excellent, superb, incredible!!!  Throughout the score changed, surprising at every turn.  To my ear it was not at all what one would think of as indicative of the time.  Even the voicing, instrument choices and combinations were wholly surprising.  It could easily have been mistaken for a 20th cent. group, eclectic, yes, but very acceptable.  At any rate, you like unusual first class entertainment!  Nosferatu, filmed in about 1922(?).  There are stories about the making of that film, I could find nothing in Google, but have heard about them for years ~ stories of strange incidences surrounding making the film, etc.  Shadow of the Vampire by Malkovich hints at just that…..Shadow is an interesting movie also…Malkovich is a hoot!

Now I find this really cool.  How many know of, have heard of Josephine Baker?  She was African-American expatriate U.S. citizen.  Early on was famous for her dancing, later primarily as a singer.  She began at the bottom of the heap in nearly abject poverty (born 1906.  Dropped out of school at 12, lived in slums of St. Louis in cardboard boxes, danced on the street corners, there was discovered and put in St. Louis Vaudeville show at 15).  Was first African Amer.  female to start in a motion picture, to integrate a concert hall, and become a world-class entertainer.  Got French citizenship in 1937.  She was offered leadership of the Civil Rights Movement by Coretta King after M. Luther was shot, but she turned it down.  She died in 1975.  I have come across her history several times in my years, have gotten the feeling some of her life was lead as a courtesan of sorts, she loved the good life, chose her beaus well, and fairly often.  A gorgeous woman, uh, as you can see.  [got a lot of this from wiki, already was familiar with a lot, no dates though:)].

This just goes to show that life can live dang near anywhere……http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-04/life-thrives-under-antarctic-glacier

Is anyone there familiar with Doom?  If so, here is a dash of nostalgia and much, much more…….http://www.rome.ro/lee_killough/

Now this might be of some interest!??  http://www.zreportage.com/mainpage.shtml

Just stuff, but with a heart .    http://laughingsquid.com/the-anonymous-hugging-wall-for-social-facilitation-mood-elevation/

Ella Fitzgerald called her the most important singer of century……http://www.last.fm/music/Sarah+Vaughan

Here is a url that will lead you to the most infamous spot on the web.  It has been up for a long time.  Many have tried to do something about it, none have so far.  Has been said going there is akin to visiting the back of a 7-11 parking lot late at night.  You for sure don’t want to do anything to draw negative attention to your presence.   The kid that hacked Sarah Palin is in residence here.  These folks know what is going on….still, if you have your sensibilities in tow, is an extremely interesting place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there…….http://www.4chan.org/

Now this is compelling.  Take your time, is worth it for my two cents…….http://www.maggietaylor.com/

Interesting;  http://www.drhawass.com/

Living alone?  Older?  Concerned no one would be there if trouble arose?, or worse?  Here ya go!!  http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/05/your-house-is-watchinglisteningfeeling-you/

Do any of these surprise you?  Be honest, now .   http://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/10-historical-misconceptions.htm/printable

Amazing;    http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/maa/Interview_with_the_Minotaur/rite.htm

Swine flu?!  Ha.  In 2008, Cholera killed 4002 people!!  Check out the other 4 more prevalent than Swine flu…….http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4910

Compared to all the hunger in the world, the travesties of jobs, lost income and even homes in this country;  doesn’t this make you really mad??!!!  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/business/13pay.html?_r=1&hp

Oh, man do I remember!!  Guess we all ‘have to go sometime.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/arts/music/14paul.html?hp

Do you know who this guy is, ever heard him speak?  Check it out, then sign the petition.  I can’t reach Limbaugh, but this would be a step in the right directon  http://colorofchange.org/beck/

Tomorrow morning I head into Austin to have breakfast with Judy Scott, real estate agent and friend from over 40 years ago.  We were part of a troup formed at SIU, submitted a tape of a show we wrote, costumes we made, I was muscial director and performer.  We all did double duty.  Were 20 of us.  We were accepted and sent on a USO tour,  auspices of the Dep. of Defense! Was in the summer of 1965.  As the fates decreed, one other from the troop also landed in Austin.  I haven’t seen him since that time, have seen Judy from time to time the last years.  Anyway, we 3 will have breakfast in the a.m.

Just got an email from Judy, she sent one of our promotional pics of the time, the fall before we left.  Can you believe this!!!

I really, really like Frank L. Wright…..http://www.slate.com/id/2224412/

It was a dream last night that did it, made me remember something I learned long ago, then forgetting I learned it;  Society of course was formed for the protection of  it’s constituents.  Then religion came about so these self-same constituents can be protected from each other, and too, to rise above the very real confines of society, ‘spiritually.’  Probably the most insidious results of banding together is self-righteous evangelism (SRE).  Immediately you think religious, right?  SRE began long before religion, though  it should be obvious that SRE immediately found home, a fertile ground within religion, but certainly not it’s origin.  We humans have a great penchant for telling each other what is wrong with the other, how to correct it, and what we are doing is not right (bad, evil, etc…or  most common,   is not good for society) – that may be as good as a definition of  SRE one could say without being to highfalutin.  Obviously I find SRE highly objectionable, actually it is a kind of poison, slowly insidious.

YOU CAN’T HAVE VIRTUE WITHOUT SIN. ~  FRANK MILLER

THE FIRST AND WORST OF ALL FRAUDS IS TO CHEAT ONE’S SELF.  ALL SIN IS EASY AFTER THAT.  ~  PEARL BAILEY

THE  SECRET TO CREATIVITY IS KNOWING HOW TO HIDE YOUR SOURCES. ~  ALBERT EINSTEIN

WHEN A LEPOARD DIES, HE LEAVES HIS COAT.  WHEN A MAN DIES, HE LEAVES HIS NAME. ~  CHINESE PROBERB

IN HEAVEN ALL THE INTERESTING PEOPLE ARE MISSING. ~ FRIEDRICH NIETZCHE

I REALLY BELIEVE THERE ARE THINGS PEOPLE WOULDN’T SEE IF I DIDN’T PHOTOGRAPH THEM. ~  DIANE ARBUS

I CAN’T GIVE YOU A BRAIN, BUT I CAN GIVE YOU A DIPLOMA. ~ WIZARD OF OZ…BY L. FRANK BAUM

Museums of many sort; http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20240.html    For that matter, stay and check out mentalfloss.com….interesting site most times.

To wit; like me, don’t like to see the phone book deliveries helter-skelter everywhere, unbidden, even in the rain.   Some places they lie on the side of the road for weeks and weeks.  Well, apparantly there is a place to go to get your self removed from the drop off list (MMmmm, I am sceptic.  The folks responsible for getting those out are surely paid for each drop they complete…they don’t care what in hell you called and did!!),,,so give it a try…..mental floss again;

Another of those places where a bit of everything;  http://www.voodoovillage.co.uk/

Sure, I admit one could be skeptic, it makes such good copy, there are a dearth of excellent writers who could easily create this kind of ‘flavor’ – my daughter is one of them!  LOL.  But you know, I don’t care, it does make good reading, creates a nice flavor of what was, rejuvenates what happened in history we could/should have done differently, perhaps thereby making us look more toward what we do today?

As of 2000, just 6 years after the internet became available to the general public,   50% of households in the U.S. are on-line!!  That is just astonding! There has been no other sensation of this nature since Television making this kind of impact in the 50′s.  To me it goes deeper, if one has ever been privy to info regarding  the depth of the web, how exponentially it grows everyday, every hour!, what is and will be available, the scale of participation, boggles the mind.  Leave it to the Human being, having scale, found, all available   heights, a new one is created -  space/the internet, the new frontier!!  And here is a blast from the past for you;  http://www.well.com/…..The Well, first created by Whole Earth in 1989, still going strong.  My only problem with it, one has to pay to belong – basic membership is $10/mo……there are just to many really good sites out there free for me to have to spring $120/yr. for this one.  Just keep surfing!!

I am always looking for somewhere to find at the least, unsullied news reporting, even by inspired, interested persons…..a lofty goal, I know.  So I run across a site, bookmark it in a place so reserved, then return at a time when I can research these newfound, hopeful sites.  At times I include them here so that you may do the same if you s0 wish.  Here is one I have bookmarked….not really gotten into it at all, yet.  Their ‘about’ section seems to portray this site as a watch dog on/for the Americas – as in N. S. and Central.  Looks pretty cool……http://americas.irc-online.org/

I suppose because I am curious about a whole host of things, like to know how things are done, their procedures, that attitude will slip in from time to time.  Here is something you may never need to know how to do, just in case, here we go (for me, just strike a match, easy!:)):  http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_novice/how_to_embalm_a_body.php

Oh, let’s see, bought this property a bit over 30 yrs. ago….lived in a tent here at that time.  Saw a lot of Copperheads.  Had a strict rule, I  thought a contract with them.  It was their home to, after all they were here before I got here!!  LOL.  So,they stayed 0ut of my space, in return I don’t hassle them should we cross paths anywhere else.  If a particular snake kept showing up, I would get my ‘flippin’ stick and flip them way away.  If a particular snake persisted, I would kill it.  I was very reticent to do that.  In fact the very first one I killed, I skinned, cured the skin and ate the snake (I did cook it!!).  Wasn’t all that good, Copperheads are a small snake so there just wasn’t all that much meat.  I had had fried Rattle snake for breakfast with eggs and biscuits….it was delicious, the snake was huge!!!  after awhile I noticed I was seeing a lot of snakes….at least a dozen a week, usually more.   Got in touch with an ag extension agent at A&M, he said normal sitings for the area I am in are about 2 dozen snakes a year!  Told him about my place.  He deduced the West sloping/facing hill I lived on probably had to do with the abnormally high sitings.  Used to have a bunch of ticks and chiggers on the lower portion of the acreage too….lots!  This all stayed pretty much the same and was that way when Dawn came onto the scene.  Not long after that though, the fire ants arrived.  About a year after that I noticed absolutely no more ticks, no more chiggers, I mean none!!  Snake sitings started dropping off, eventually we would see 4 or 5 a year, only occasionally a Copperhead.  What am I leading up to?  In all that time, never, even now was there one Rattle Snake.  Once early on I saw a King snake, thought it was  a Coral but coloration was wrong.  Now!  2 years ago  we sited a Coral snake, no mistake, just off the front porch on the path.  Have to admit I killed it.  Then again this week, another one!  No doubt about it, I killed it.  Such a gorgeous creature.  They aren’t as dangerous as folks think, a rattler is lots worse.  The Coral snake has really little fangs.  They have to actually chew to inject venom….and who is going to hold still long enough for that to happen!  Just seems so odd to me, so little snakes anymore, never a Coral before, then suddenly 2 in as many years.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/52390,news,drugs-why-dont-we-discuss-legalising-cocaine

I can feel nearing the end of this p0st, an arbitrary decision…..something says, end it, begin another.  This time I know why.  I very much want to work on having any url included herein high-lighted for instant use….you see a url, just click on it to go there.  Ergo, I promise the next time you see my blog, that will be the rule of the day.

In the meantime, have  a great life!!  At least pretend :)

ciao…..:)Jeff