Day Three with Linda and Cherie, another beautiful day on the Bay. This blank spot is where the first of many pictures were to appear, followed with captions and stories of the days events. Pictures of Linda, of Cherie, the Aquarium exhibits. The best one was one that was not on the list of exhibits, a mother otter was in the Great Tide Pool with a very young pup, just a puff ball of fur!! But, my camera somehow ended up in the back of Cherie's car, and took its' own trip with the Two Amigas. I hope it decides to come home, not sure if I would, were places exchanged. Wonderful people, wonderful times, I am quite sure we all grew up together in different places. I am also sure we broke what ever limit there is on laughter and pure enjoyment.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
DAY THREE WITH LINDA and CHERIE
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
VISITING WITH LINDA and CHERIE
This is very sad to report. I do not have one picture, I have been laughing to hard and enjoying myself too much to remember to take pictures!!!! You will have to go to Linda or Cherie's page to view evidence . . .
Monday, February 18, 2008
DORIAN HAD A PICTURE --- WRITERS' BLOCK 31
For some creative writing exercise please look over Writers' Block. Every other Sunday a picture will be posted, and you have the opportunity to write poetry or prose and share it. Please look here for more information:
http://writersblock360.multiply.com/
DORIAN HAD A PICTURE
Dorian had a picture
as old as old could be.
All I have is a mirror
with someone staring back at me.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
WADING IN THE SHALLOW END OF THE GENE POOL
Some peoples' kids. If this fellow does not make it into the top ten of the Darwin Awards this year, I am going to be disappointed. Read on in disbelief. I guess the important question would be, can he still reproduce? --John--
Always read warning signs! Just for people like the one in the following article, a lot of warning signs do not even have to be read!!
Shock horror for would-be power cable thief
Reuters On Line (Reporting by Daniel Fineren, editing by Paul Casciato)
LONDON (Reuters) - Police in central England are hunting for a badly scorched would-be copper power cable thief after finding a hacksaw embedded in an 11,000 volt power cable Saturday night.
The thief, who also left a lit blow torch at the scene, is expected to be badly charred, spiky haired and not exactly the brightest bulb in the socket.
I think our neighbors on this planet consider the belief we evolved from them an insult!!
"The sheer stupidity of cutting through power cables should be glaringly obvious to everyone," said Phil Wilson, customer operations manager with local power company Central Networks.
"At the very least putting the hacksaw through the cable would have created an almighty bang and the line would have burned for quite a few seconds, showering them with molten copper... We can only assume they left in a great hurry or they were injured and were dragged away by an accomplice." But searches of local hospitals have so far not found the culprit, a spokeswoman for Derbyshire Police said Tuesday.
"Maybe they had a lucky escape," she said. "We don't have any leads yet."
Nearly 800 customers in the village of Creswell were cut off when the wannabe copper thief sawed into their power supply on Saturday night, but Central Networks got the lights back on within a few hours.
Copper prices have more than doubled in the last four years as China has gobbled up huge quantities of it, sparking a wave of copper thefts across the globe from South Africa and the United States to Italy and Britain. Thieves targeting power lines and electricity substations have already led to two fatalities in Britain and many serious injuries, while leaving thousands without power.
Just a very cute picture to illustrate the effects of harmless static electricity. Now imagine what the fellow who had 11,000 volts go through him looks like!!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
DRUID MAGIC
From a youth the Druids, and the Picts have always been interesting to me, read to many of Robert Howards books I guess. So I was really excited to find this article on the possible finding of a Druid grave. If it proves to be, it will be the first found and excavated. Just remember the bumper sticker: MERLIN WAS A DRUID!! --John--
DRUID GRAVE UNEARTHED IN U.K.?
A series of graves found in a gravel quarry at Stanway near Colchester, Essex, have been dated to 40-60 A.D. At least one of the burials, it appears, may have been that of a Druid, according to a report published in British Archaeology.
Archaeologists work at a burial site dated to 40-60 A.D. At least one of the burials, it appears, may have been that of a Celtic Druid.
Mike Pitts is the journal's editor and an archaeologist. He studied classical Greek and Roman texts that mention the Druids in early France and Britain. The most detailed description, Pitts found, dates to 55 B.C. and comes from Roman military and political leader Julius Caesar.
"Druids, he says, were prestigious ritual specialists who performed human sacrifices, acted as judges in disputes, were excused action in battle and taught the transmigration of souls -- when you die, your soul is passed on to another living being," Pitts told Discovery News.
Other historians link the Druids to soothsaying and healing practices.
Within the wooden, chambered burial site, researchers have excavated a wine warmer, cremated human remains, a cloak pinned with brooches, a jet bead, divining rods (for fortune-telling), a series of surgical instruments, a strainer bowl last used to brew Artemisia-containing tea, a board game carefully laid out with pieces in play, as well as other objects.
"This person was clearly a specialist and also clearly wealthy and powerful, as indicated by the special grave and its apparent location within the compound of a 'chief.' That would all fit Caesar's Druid," he said, adding that Caesar likely also visited Stanway during his lifetime.
The surgical kit found in the grave includes iron and copper alloy scalpels, a surgical saw, hooks, needles, forceps and probes. Pitts said the collection mirrors basic medical tools from other parts of the Roman World.
The surgical tools found in the ancient grave include iron and copper alloy scalpels, a surgical saw, hooks, needles, forceps and probes.
The board game and its arranged pieces, however, are anything but common. None other like it has ever been found at Roman-era sites in Great Britain.
Surviving metal corners and hinges from the board allowed Pitts to reconstruct it as an 8-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Raised sides suggest dice might have been used. The white and blue glass counters were positioned with care. Some were straight across the sides, another in a diagonal line and one white marker close to the board's center.
Pitts believes the game may have been another "divination tool," along with the rods, jet bead and scent bottles also excavated at Stanway.
Philip Crummy, director of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, told Discovery News that the person in the burial could very well have been a Druid "given the healing and divination attributes -- assuming that Druids could be trained in these skills."
Crummy agrees with Pitts that such individuals would have been "near the top of the social scale in Iron Age Britain."
He is, however, not yet convinced the person was Celtic, since the medical kit was "fairly Romanized" and the individual may have acted "like a Roman surgeon/doctor would have done."
"Divination was widely practiced in the Roman world too," he added.
Because of site's age and location, Pitts is more inclined to believe the person was indeed a Celtic Druid and could have been closely related to Cunobelin, a chief or king of the Catuvellauni tribe.
William Shakespeare immortalized Cunobelin as "Cymbeline" in a play of that same name. Cunobelin's sons led a heroic, yet failed, resistance against Roman Emperor Claudius' invasion of England in 43 A.D.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
NO MORE GORE'S WARMING WARNING??
A very interesting alternative view on the Global Climate, I have never thought that we were completely reponsible, as some are saying. That being stated that does not let us off the hook for improving what we as a species have done and are doing to our blue water home. Hope you enjoy the article. Then you can decide whether to buy stock in sun screen and summer wear, or thermal underwear and winter gear. -- John
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
--Benjamin Disraeli--
The Sun Also Sets
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical "consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better observe something bigger than your SUV — the sun.
Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.
To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.
And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.
Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.
Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.
"It used to be so easy to go to the corner store!"
Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he calls a "stethoscope for the sun." But he and his colleagues need better equipment.
In Canada, where radio-telescopic monitoring of the sun has been conducted since the end of World War II, a new instrument, the next-generation solar flux monitor, could measure the sun's emissions more rapidly and accurately.
Most radio-telescope are built in the middle of nowhere. Rumor has it that a very lonely radio-telescope technician coined the term "headlights".
As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's climate over time has been the sun.
For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60 years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature over the last 100 years.
R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University, says that "CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales."
Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."
Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."
"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had."
In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made some waves — and not a few enemies in the global warming "community" — by predicting that the sun would reach a peak of activity about three years from now, to be accompanied by "dramatic changes" in temperatures.
A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and came to a similar conclusion.
"The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100," according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.
The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures."
The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures."
But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem. It is the sun, not the Earth, that's hanging in the balance.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
WATER A PICTURE PERECT EVENT
BURNEY FALLS, Northern California, 2006
the picture can be clicked on for a larger view.
Camera was a Sony Mavica
from: The Tao te Ching
The highest motive is to be like water:
water is essential to all life,
yet it does not demand a fee
or proclaim its importance.
Rather, it flows humbly to the lowest level,
and in so doing it is much like Tao. (8)
Nothing in the world is weaker
or more yielding than water;
yet nothing is its equal in wearing away
the hard and the strong.
There is nothing quite like it.
Thus, the weak can overpower the strong;
the flexible can overcome the rigid.
The whole world can perceive this,
but does not put it into practice. (78)
Welcome to PICTURE PERFECT
a weekly photo-blog
rules (not that anyone pays them the slightest bit of attention) for the newbies
Each week a theme will be posted up on Wednesday, and you are invited to put up your best picture
ONE and ORIGINAL,
not off the internet,
then post a comment on PICTURE PERFECTS PAGE
-----> http://fotofriday.multiply.com/ <-----
so that everyone can link to your page and see your pic.
By all means mention your camera and lens used!
Open that page for viewing for all...and visit as many as you can!
The entries will close at midnight on Friday.
Most importantly....have fun out there!
(Rules borrowed from Picture Perfects page! Thank you Heather)
Monday, February 4, 2008
DISASTER EMERGENCY LISTS and HELPS
With all the headlines and news about floods, tornadoes, ice storms, power outages, volcanoes, earthquakes and fires, and that was just this past weekend, I thought it was time to repost some sites that have information on emergency kits and how to put them together, family plans, and survival. And always remember to keep limber enough to kiss yourself good bye if that is called for.
Some sites and places that you may find of interest:
http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html
The above is from our own US of A Government, and does have lots of information and links about disasters, emergencies and survival.
http://www.survivalist.info/preplists/
The above has a whole lists of links from FEMA, AMERICAN RED CROSS, to more specific emergencies, Winter, Earthquake, Hurricane, etc.
http://ser.ors.od.nih.gov/emergency_prep.htm
The above is from the National Institute of Health, and has a list of subjects similar to the above, but also has a section on what to do during a pandemic.
http://theepicenter.com/chklist.html
And last this neat site has checklists for Work, Car, Home, and has clickable links from every item on the basic list for more detailed information.
To keep Harm happy. . .
Hope these sites have been somewhat helpful in one way or another.
Friday, February 1, 2008
BLUE EYED MUTANT HUMANS
Personally I am very happy to hear that a mutation has a happy ending. The world would be less of a place with out all the shades of blue eyes. Now, what I want to know is, who in the far line of ancestry, left my family line with short stocky bodies!!! 
One Common Ancestor Behind Blue Eyes
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 31 January 2008 08:34 am ET
People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.
A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before then, there were no blue eyes.
Courtney Cox--Actress
"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.
The mutation affected the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin.
Cate Blanchett--Actress
"A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes," Eiberg said.
The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.
Eva Green -- Actress
If the OCA2 gene had been completely shut down, our hair, eyes and skin would be melanin-less, a condition known as albinism.
"It's exactly what I sort of expected to see from what we know about selection around this area," said John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to the study results regarding the OCA2 gene. Hawks was not involved in the current study.
Kirsten Dunst -- Actress
Baby blues
Eiberg and his team examined DNA from mitochondria, the cells' energy-making structures, of blue-eyed individuals in countries including Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. This genetic material comes from females, so it can trace maternal lineages.
Martina McBride -- Singer
They specifically looked at sequences of DNA on the OCA2 gene and the genetic mutation associated with turning down melanin production.
Over the course of several generations, segments of ancestral DNA get shuffled so that individuals have varying sequences. Some of these segments, however, that haven't been reshuffled are called haplotypes. If a group of individuals shares long haplotypes, that means the sequence arose relatively recently in our human ancestors. The DNA sequence didn't have enough time to get mixed up.
"What they were able to show is that the people who have blue eyes in Denmark, as far as Jordan, these people all have this same haplotype, they all have exactly the same gene changes that are all linked to this one mutation that makes eyes blue," Hawks said in a telephone interview.
Jodie Foster -- Actress
Melanin switch
The mutation is what regulates the OCA2 switch for melanin production. And depending on the amount of melanin in the iris, a person can end up with eye color ranging from brown to green. Brown-eyed individuals have considerable individual variation in the area of their DNA that controls melanin production. But they found that blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes.
"Out of 800 persons we have only found one person which didn't fit — but his eye color was blue with a single brown spot," Eiberg told LiveScience, referring to the finding that blue-eyed individuals all had the same sequence of DNA linked with melanin production.
One for the Ladies; Jason Lewis --Actor
"From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," Eiberg said. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA." Eiberg and his colleagues detailed their study in the Jan. 3 online edition of the journal Human Genetics.
That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.
"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids."