| Sunday, September 28, 2003 |  |
| Article On Value Of Fear And Anger | 1 comment |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 01:08 New article on the value of fear and anger. Please go to Emotional Intelligence Network to read it -- it's an important article for people concerned with the intelligence of emotions: Here is the start: "Listening to the news for an hour is enough to stir fear in anyone. Like a clammy fog, the fear seems to constrict your heart and drain your energy. It feels bad -- so it must be bad, right? While fear and other unpleasant emotions certainly can be debilitating, these emotions are not bad for you, they are not destructive, and they are not negative. Rather, they are a source of vital information and protection." The author hopes you will read it and either email him comments, or use the "comments" function on the site (scroll to the bottom of the page and click "post comment"). More > |
| Best Photos Of The Year | 2 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 01:00 Best Photos Of The Year My friend David Joyce sent me this link and comments. Take a minute to look at these photos....if you haven't seen them , you owe it to yourself to check them out. Just go to this site.... What a wonderful world.....strike that.....UNIVERSE!! More > |
| Illusions Veil Is Lifting | 0 comments |
| Ensgilh 101 | 2 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:46 Ensgilh 101 9-15-3 Ensgilh 101 Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat Ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy. More > |
| Care and Handling Guide for CD / DVD Preservation | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:44 Care and Handling Guide for CD / DVD Preservation This National Institute of Standards and Technology report examines the life-span of the medium, best practices for storage, environmental conditions affecting them (not including your patrons' children and dogs), and cleaning techniques. |
| Inside The Engine We Call Google | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:41 Get news, statistics, tools, patents, and white papers relating to Google The world according to Google You could call this a Yahoo!-style guide to Google with its directory listing the main categories and sub-categories. I'm still amazed at how a plain-looking search engine is equipped with such powerful features and lots of other goodies, especially after reading Tara Calishain's Google Hacks. You could try to find this stuff on Google, of course, but since its focus is helping you find things, its site is not optimized to talk about itself. Get news, statistics, tools, patents, and white papers (*snore*) relating to Google. Google Dance? At first glance, this sounds like a fun and games thingy, but quite the contrary: it's serious. Dance your way to Indicateur and find out what it is and why it can send people in a panic. The fun part comes in at The World of Google. I'm just gaga for Google. |
| Buddhist Monk Completes Seven-Year Run | 1 comment |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:35 Buddhist Monk Completes Seven-Year Run By KENJI HALL, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 19, 1:49 PM ET TOKYO - A Buddhist priest dubbed the "marathon monk" has completed an ancient running ritual in the remote Japanese mountains that took seven years and covered a distance equivalent to a trip round the globe, wearing only a flowing white robe and flimsy straw sandals. The 44-year-old monk, Genshin Fujinami, returned Thursday from his 24,800-mile spiritual journey in the Hiei mountains, a range of five peaks that rise above the ancient capital of Kyoto. Dressed in his handmade sandals and robe, with a straw raincoat draped over his head, Fujinami was greeted at the end of his journey by a crowd of worshippers, who knelt to receive his blessings, said an official at Enryakuji Hoshuin, the temple that is guardian of the grueling tradition. "I entrusted everything to God. I am satisfied," Fujinami was quoted as saying. Since 1885, only 46 other so-called "marathon monks" of the Tendai sect have survived the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994. A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, any monk, or gyoja, who can't continue to the end must take his own live, either by hanging or disembowelment. A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey's first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along an 18-mile trail around Mount Hiei — stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food. In the next two years, he has to extend his runs to 200 days. In the winter, the pilgrim runner takes a break and spends the days doing temple chores. His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called "doiri," or "entering the temple." In the sixth year, he walks 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 52.5 miles for 100 days and then 18 miles for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 234 miles southwest of Tokyo. More > |
| Of cats and rats -- a tale that's a brain-teaser | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:33 Of cats and rats -- a tale that's a brain-teaser COMMENTARY: RAMSEY CAMPBELL September 8, 2003 Cats are more interesting than dogs because felines have that dangerous edge to their behavior that canines can never match. Dogs can run after balls, fetch a newspaper, play stupid games and follow a few spoken commands. Like television's Lassie, they have a reputation for selflessness and heroism. Cats, however, have a much darker side. Sometimes, though, it comes out as kind of cute. Like the feline fur ball I had as a kid that delighted in shimmying backward down our chimney and out through the fireplace on snowy Indiana winter nights. Black soot covered our family room after her little adventures. What got her into sliding down our chimney, like a kid on a Disney ride, is anyone's guess. But I can't imagine a dog doing anything as remotely interesting -- or as singularly bizarre. Felines are forever stereotyped as evil by the two sinister Siamese cats in Lady and The Tramp. And there is more truth in that ominous image than most cat lovers will admit. My 20-pound black and white cat -- dubbed Kalibushka, a Russian name that can be loosely translated as Tub of Lard -- is normally good-natured. She rarely moves except to chow down, making her home in the newspaper recycling bin I keep in the garage. But at night she'll sneak out for a few minutes and come back with a prize. She has the habit of presenting these nightly trophies to me by the back porch. Somehow, in spite of her obesity, she manages to out-waddle a surprising number of fast-running rodents in short order. I don't mind her nightly hunting routine; I can't say I'm displeased she is keeping down the rat and mouse population in the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, however, I started to notice the rats she had caught have been missing something -- their brains. With the exception of a few teeth marks, the bodies of the rats are generally unmarked. But the skulls are split open and the brains appeared to have been neatly sucked out. Yucky. Why would a perfectly normal -- although admittedly overfed -- cat suddenly develop a taste for rat brains? I did a little research, and it turns out there may be a reason for her sudden hunting prowess and passion for rat brains. I ran across a BBC science article about a week ago that shed some light on the situation. Scientists have discovered a one-celled protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that frequently lives in the brains of wild brown rats. It is a normally harmless parasite commonly found in most mammals, including man. But T. gondii can only reproduce in the guts of cats. Researchers at the University of Oxford in the past couple of years have been studying the parasite and now have found it appears to be influencing the behavior of rats. Scientists say it makes infected rats unafraid of cats, their natural enemy. But the Oxford researchers found that when infected, normally super-cautious rats not only are significantly less fearful of cats, but they also are actually drawn to them. No one knows how it happens, but they do know why. The parasites need to be eaten by cats in order to get into their digestive system and reproduce. Somehow, they are changing the behavior of rats to make that more likely to happen. It appears to be a rare case of microscopic parasites manipulating the behavior of a mammal host. The question remains whether T. gondii can, in addition to rats, influence cat behavior or even our own. Researchers now are looking into that issue as well. I've seen Alien -- no one needs to draw me a picture of what may be going on. I can't really blame my overweight cat if rats in the neighborhood suddenly want to commit suicide in front of her. And if she wants to wolf down rat brains like candy corn, that also is fine with me. But I am disturbed by a change in Kalibushka's behavior in the past couple of days. She is now eating just the rat bodies, leaving the heads and brains intact by the back porch. And I'm very afraid she's leaving them for me. |
| Kucinich, Maloney and Sanders Go After Cheney | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:31 Kucinich, Maloney and Sanders Go After Cheney [Sept 25 , 2003 1530 PDT (FTW) -- The heat is building to dump Cheney for the 2004 Presidential race. Under fire for continuing compensation fro Halliburton and for a fistful of lies about Iraq , the evidence is building solidly and the heat being placed on the Vice President is building up. We hope this effort continues and grows stronger in the coming months. Special thanks to TRUTHOUT ( www.truthout.org ) for bringing this letter to light. And special praise to Dennis Kucinich who is running much stronger in the hearts and minds of the people than FOX, ABC, or any other media organ will acknowledge. Representatives Kucinich, Maloney and Sanders are members of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations. Kucinich is the ranking member. - MCR] READ THE LETTER TO CHENEY HERE More > |
| Next generation rocket takes slow lane to the moon | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:27 Next generation rocket takes slow lane to the moon European spacecraft will test new method of propulsion - accelerating almost undetectably, but with the potential for incredible speeds Tim Radford, science editor Saturday September 27, 2003 The Guardian A small explorer called Smart-1 will soar into space 20 minutes after midnight tonight aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket on a leisurely voyage to the moon. The Smart - or small missions for advanced research technology - spacecraft will be powered by a Star Trek-style propulsion system which will puff it gently towards Earth's nearest neighbour over a period of about 15 months. It will be a test for solar-electric ion propulsion - firing electrically charged xenon atoms to provide the thrust, using a tenth of the weight of fuel of a more conventional chemical rocket. But its light touch - roughly the pressure of a postcard on an outstretched hand - will accelerate the spacecraft at just 0.2mm per second, to its destination a quarter of a million miles away. Once in orbit around the moon, Smart-1 will spend at least six months analysing the soil chemistry of the lunar surface, and look for water in the permanently shaded crater at the moon's south pole. "Because we've set foot on the moon and brought back rock samples, we all think we know what the moon is made of," said Sarah Dunkin of the Rutherford Appleton laboratory in Oxfordshire. "But this isn't true. It's a bit like someone from outer space landing on the Sahara desert, taking rock and sand samples, and saying they understand the geology of the Earth. "This instrument will be carrying out the first ever global survey of the moon and it will help us find out how the moon was created." The conjecture is that early in the solar system's history, something the size of the planet Mars smashed into the primordial Earth, tearing off huge chunks of rock which gradually became the moon. The spacecraft measures about one cubic metre, but has solar panels that unfold to a span of 14 metres (46ft). The cost to the European Space Agency of the entire package, together with the launch, and the dozen experiments on board, was €110m (£76m). The craft will be launched from Kourou in French Guiana with two commercial satellites, one of them made by the Indian space research organisation. Chemical rockets deliver immense thrust, but burn their fuel swiftly. Ion drive engines could work for years, slowly building up to much greater speeds than any chemical rocket. Because the ion tortoise should eventually overtake the chemical hare - and keep on accelerating - ion drives open the way for deep-space exploration. Smart-1 is also a testbed for a mission in 2009, to try to unravel some of the mysteries of Mercury, the planet nearest the sun. "The weird thing about Mercury is that it is very, very dense," said Manuel Grande of the Rutherford Appleton labo ratory. "If you think of it as a planet, the middle two-thirds of that planet is just an enormous iron cannonball, and people do not understand why. That is much denser than everyday theories of solar system formation should make it". There were three possible explanations, Prof Grande said. Mercury might have suffered some ferocious impact early in its history; or the early sun was much hotter and burned away most of its outer crust; or rocks and gas in the early solar system separated in a different way from that suggested by theoreticians. An exact measurement of the planet's chemical composition should help astronomers decide the answer. Mercury's magnetic field is another mystery - it suggests that the planet's core, like that of Earth, must be molten. "But you have a planet which is really very small, and therefore it should be cool inside," said Prof Grande. "The iron should be solid." |
| New World Order Quotes | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:21 New World Order Quotes Here's a small sample from the website: "The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." --Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli of England, in 1844. "The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England ... (and) ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established." -- Professor of History Carroll Quigley, Georgetown University, in his book "Tragedy and Hope". "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson "David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital. Rockefeller was born to it, and he has made the most of it. But what some critics see as a vast international conspiracy, he considers a circumstance of life and justanother day's work... In the world of David Rockefeller it's hard to tell where business ends and politics begins" . Bill Moyers "We know in the not too distant future, a half dozen corporations are going to control the media. We took this step (merger) to ensure we were one of them" --Time Warner spokesperson. More > |