| Monday, June 16, 2003 |  |
| Quotes to Inspire | 6 comments |
| 16 Jun 2003 @ 09:59 These quotes were at the bottom of an email I received from my friend Robert Frey. Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. "We are the ones we've been waiting for..." Hopi elders 'When the power of love becomes more important than the love of power' ....then there will be peace." Jimmy Hendrix: "To handle yourself, use your head To handle others, use your heart" Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the active, compassionate expression of the presence of Spirit. "Violence is the language of the inarticulate." Rev. Michael Beckwith 2/2/03 "Your only business is to find happiness and to help others find happiness." ~ Buddha Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. -- Bobby, age 5 When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. -- Karen, age 7 If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate. -- Nikka, age 6 More > |
| The Tlytiettlym Tree | 0 comments |
 16 Jun 2003 @ 00:21Autistic Children and Paul McCartney Inspires 9-Year-Old To Write Book About Love and World Healing Sandpoint, ID —A nine-year-old girl, asked by parents to help entertain a group of learning disabled children, was inspired by her assignment to write a children’s book about love, friendship, and healing. The publisher of The Tlytiettlym Tree will direct profits from the sale of the book to fly the author, and a theatrical cast of classmates, to cities across America to entertain, uplift, and educate families with autistic children. The title of the book, The Tlytiettlym Tree (Tetrahedron Press, 2003; 1-888-508-4787), is an acronym gleaned by Sandpoint, Idaho, Waldorf School fourth grader, Alena Horowitz, while contemplating the lyrics of Paul McCartney’s song “The End.” She heard the former Beatle perform the song the night following her “babysitting” assignment. It ends with the famous line, “The love you take is equal to the love you make.” Thus, the acronym “Tlytiettlym” (pronounced Tly-tital-um) was born. The 64-page hardcover, illustrated in full color by Alena and her art teacher, Mary De La Fuente, encourages children to develop friendships beyond their usual social “clicks.” Two competing groups of children here are forced by nature to collaborate in search of a “treasure.” A secreted map leads the grade-schoolers to a magical tree that bears the fruits of all the earth. Harvesting the fruit requires love and even more collaboration. The children bring the fruit to their village where miraculous healings begin to occur in everyone who eats the tasty bounty. The Tlytiettlym Tree ($14.95; ISBN: 0-923550-42-9) is currently available from the publisher, Tetrahedron Publishing Group (1-800-336-9266) and expected in bookstores across North America by mid-August. Wholesalers include Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Bulk and premium purchases may be ordered at additional discount by contacting Healthy World Distributing at 1-888-508-4787 or Healthy World Distributing . |
| Building A Cruise Missile In His Own Backyard | 0 comments |
 16 Jun 2003 @ 00:21This has already had quite a bit of coverage, however, I thought some of you might not have read or seen it yet. I saw an interview with him on TechTV a couple of days ago. Building A Cruise Missile In His Own Backyard Reuters June 5, 2003 WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand handyman with a passion for jet engines says he is building a cruise missile in his backyard using parts and technology freely available over the Internet. Bruce Simpson, a 49-year-old Internet site developer, has a site entitled "A DIY Cruise Missile" on which he says he was prompted to build the missile because so many people had told him it could not easily be done. "I decided to put my money where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my garage, on a budget of just US$5,000," he said on his Web site. "I like to think of this project as a military version of 'Junkyard Wars'," he says referring to a television program about teams building big machines from scrapyard materials. He said he would publish step-by-step instructions on his Web site about how to make the jet-powered missile, which would be able to fly 100 km (60 miles) from his home, north of the main city of Auckland, in less than 15 minutes. The missile could carry a small warhead weighing 10 kg (22 lb), would be hard to detect on radar, and would be impossible for the New Zealand Air Force to stop, Simpson said. "Obviously the goal is not to provide terrorists or other nefarious types with plans for a working cruise missile but to prove the point that nations need to be prepared for this type of sophisticated attack from within their own borders." The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported Simpson had imported a radio control transmitter, global positioning equipment, and a flight control system, among other things, without encountering problems from New Zealand customs. "We are aware of the initiative," a Defense Force spokesman told Reuters, but declined any further comment. |
| Experts To Repair 'Faeces Fossil' | 0 comments |
 16 Jun 2003 @ 00:21Experts To Repair 'Faeces Fossil' The Viking fossil is a key attraction at the museum Archaeologists are carrying out one of their most delicate projects to date - the careful restoration of 1200-year-old human faeces. Measuring 20cm by 5cm, the exhibit is thought to be the largest fossilised human excrement ever found. But despite surviving for well over 1,000 years, the Viking relic was broken into three pieces during a recent school visit to its home, the Archaeological Resource Centre (Arc) in York. Now team member Gill Snape, a student from the University of Bradford, has the unenviable task of restoring the artefact to its former glory. But despite admitting she has "never done anything quite like this before", the 21-year-old told BBC News Online it was not quite the revolting job people assumed. "It's rock hard, it doesn't smell and it's certainly not squishy," said Ms Snape. Centrepiece attraction Museum chiefs are desperate to see their star exhibit glued back together because it is popular with the schoolchildren that make up a large percentage of their visitors. "The kids loved it," Ms Snape added. "We've even had thank you letters saying 'thank you for showing us the poo'." After it is delicately glued back together, Ms Snape said the fossil would be mounted on perspex for visitors to "fully appreciate its glory as the centrepiece of the Arc". And she had a message for anyone who doubted the impressive stature of the item, which was discovered in 1972 on land now occupied by Lloyds TSB Bank in York. "It's huge - and bear in mind it's shrunk since it was deposited," she added. |
| Oceans Near U.S. In Crisis | 0 comments |
 16 Jun 2003 @ 00:21Posted on Thu, Jun. 05, 2003 Study: Oceans Near U.S. In Crisis BY SETH BORENSTEIN WASHINGTON - The oceans bordering the United States are overfished, polluted, infested with invasive species, dotted with ''dead zones'' and in a state of crisis, but they still can be saved, an independent commission reported Wednesday. Bringing the oceans' ecosystems back from the edge of collapse -- one recent study found that 90 percent of the world's big fish have disappeared -- requires dramatic, controversial and expensive efforts to limit fishing, coastal development and runoff from cities and farms, according to the Pew Oceans Commission. Its report is the product of a three-year, $5.5 million study. ''People look at the ocean and it looks blue and peaceful and as good as it always did, but you don't know what's going on beneath the waves,'' said commission member Charles Kennel, the director of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. ``What is going on is a systematic decline of our marine ecosystem. It's a global crisis.'' The Pew report is the latest in a series of reports warning of worsening problems in the world's oceans. A separate commission, appointed by President Bush, will make its own recommendations next fall, but it already has concluded that ''there are substantial problems in the oceans,'' said presidential commission member Paul Sandifer, senior scientist at the federal Hollings Marine Lab in Charleston, S.C. For heavily developed coastal states like Florida, the problems are particularly acute -- farm pollution, urban sewage, increasing commercial and recreational fishing pressure. For decades, researchers have documented a sharp decline in coral off the Florida Keys, the largest living reef in North America. Toxic algae blooms continue to erupt off Southwest Florida and in Florida Bay, killing seagrass and sponges and juvenile fish. A housing explosion has chewed up mangroves and marshes. A growing number of fish, including coastal species, pose health threats from high mercury. While state restrictions and a gillnet ban has helped some popular species rebound, notably pompano and redfish, biologists and regulators consider dozens of other species overfished. ''The oceans were always seen to be vast and limitless. Now, we're seeing that's not the case,'' said David White, director of The Ocean Conservancy's regional office in St. Petersburg. The Pew Commission -- a bipartisan group of scientists, politicians and philanthropists sponsored by an environmental charity -- stressed that it's not too late. ''It is possible to rescue much of the bounty that has been lost, but only if we focus society on protecting and restoring the ecosystem,'' commission member Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist, told a news conference. The Pew Commission called for: • Setting aside far more no-fishing zones in U.S. waters. • Imposing severe limits on the fishing technique of trawling, which scrapes the sea bottom. • Strengthening land-pollution laws to regulate storm-water runoff from urban areas, fertilizer-tainted runoff from mass animal farms and cruise ship sewage dumping. • Acquiring environmentally sensitive land on the coasts. • Reforming the National Flood Insurance Program and other policies that promote coastal development. Many commercial fishermen don't want new limits on where and how they catch seafood. New Bedford, Mass., fisherman Robert Lane, president of the Trawlers Survival Fund, argued that fisheries are reviving. ''Things have bounced back,'' he said. A top Bush fishery official agreed. ''From a fisheries standpoint, I don't think we're at a crisis point,'' Bill Hogarth, the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said in an interview. ``We have made progress, but that doesn't mean we don't have things to do.'' |