Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Time Out!







At the bottom of my posts there was an icon you could push to forward post. I do not know where it went. So, until I can figure things out, maybe do a little remodeling. In the mean time visithttp://rockovergraceland.blogspot.com/for some good tunes and entertainment.

Earth may face freeze worse than Ice Age: study







Wednesday, November 12 06:14 pm

Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Print Story
The planet could face a freeze worse than an Ice Age starting in as little as 10,000 years, giving future societies a headache the opposite of coping with global warming, scientists said on Wednesday. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Recent NASAs Aqua satellite image of Arctic sea ice Enlarge photo The researchers, based in Britain and Canada, said that now-vilified greenhouse gases might help in future to avert a chill that could smother much of Canada and the United States, Europe and Russia in permanent ice.

They said the study, based on records of tiny marine fossils and the earth's shifting orbit, did not mean the world should stop fighting warming, stoked by human emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.

"We're saying: 'don't push the panic button'," said Thomas Crowley, an American scientist at Edinburgh University who shared authorship of the study in the journal Nature with a colleague at Toronto University.

"There's no excuse for saying 'we've got to keep pumping carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere," he told Reuters by telephone, adding that the cooling was projected to start in 10,000 to 100,000 years.

"Geologically it's tomorrow," he said. "But we have a lot of time to argue about the appropriate level of greenhouse gases."

The projected build-up of vast ice sheets across the Northern Hemisphere and over seas around Antarctica would also lower sea levels by perhaps 300 meters (980 ft) -- connecting Russia to Alaska by land.

FALLING, RISING

In the last Ice Age, sea levels fell about 130 meters and much of Russia escaped a big ice sheet. Scientists can build sea level records from fossils because ocean chemistry varies; salt, for instance, is more concentrated when there is less sea water.

"Presumably, future society could prevent this transition indefinitely with very modest adjustments to the atmospheric CO2 level," they wrote. Greenhouse gases are widely blamed as the main cause of current warming that may bring more heatwaves, droughts, food shortages and rising seas.

A shift to a bigger blanket of ice would mark the end of a period of warming that began 50 million years ago, when even Antarctica was almost ice-free.

The scientists said the recent swings between Ice Ages and warmer periods such as the present, over the past 900,000 years, were getting sharper. Models suggested that instability could herald a shift to a new, far colder and stable state.

A similar shift happened more than 34 million years ago when Antarctica was first covered by ice, the scientists said. A trigger could be a slight growth of polar ice sheets, with ice and snow reflecting more of the sun's heat back into space. That could accelerate a cooling.

"Historians of science hate to say 'this is a special time'," Crowley said.

"But when you go through the models, each step seems reasonable and you get to an astonishing conclusion that we are right at the end of a 50-million-year evolution."

Modern human societies might never have developed if such a freeze had happened slightly earlier. "Anatomically modern humans evolved only 150,000 years ago," he said.

Crowley said more tests of the projections were needed.

"It might not come for tens of thousands of years," he said. "I'm sure some headline writers will want to say 'CO2 good for the atmosphere', or 'CO2 is good for us'. That's not the case."

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4AB6YG20081112?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews

mammal pictures


Native American Heritage Month


A tad late with this post. Lots of pictures and academic information here: http://www.loc.gov/topics/nativeamericans/index.html

Japanese man releases hundreds of worms in train


A Japanese man was arrested for releasing hundreds of beetle larvae inside a moving express train to try to scare female passengers, police said Tuesday. Skip related content
"I wanted to see women get scared and shake their legs," police quoted 35-year-old Manabu Mizuta as saying.

He was arrested on the spot by a patrolling police officer after releasing the creatures on the Keihan line in Osaka prefecture.

"He would go close to women on the train, any woman, and pour out the worms from containers," said a police spokesman.

Local police had been on alert after 18 similar cases of released worms had been reported this month by the same train operator.

"When the arrest was made, the man had nearly emptied a container, which is believed to have held 200 worms," he said. "You cannot count them because there are so many."

Mizuta had 10 containers in his backpack estimated to contain a total of 3,600 worms, police said.

"We have the worms sitting inside the police station right now," the spokesman said. "You see them wriggling inside their clear cases. It's really disgusting." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20081125/tod-japanese-man-releases-hundreds-of-wo-c359f57.html

Cover Lay Down


"Folk covers of familiar songs. Reimagined versions of folk songs.Because in the folk tradition, music belongs to the community. "http://coverlaydown.com/

Meet the Next Wave of Awesome Cell Phones


Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pictured: The mystery pink light that appeared over London


The Bald eagle who likes to swim


"Olivia the eagle has developed into a swimmer with real talon.

Carer Patty Perry found teaching the sick bird to flap about in her pool was a good way to get back her strength.

Olivia was discovered starving, half blind and unable to hunt last year. But she has made a dramatic recovery thanks to Patty.

The 55-year-old has helped dozens of birds with aqua training at her Californian centre More.. and is specially proud of the eagle.

She said: "Olivia loves to swim. We spend 20 minutes in the water three days a week."

Olivia, four, will never be freed into the wild as her sight is too damaged, but at least she's found a human who will go to any lengths to help." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3c_1227294425

The power of old people.

Stand by Me - Freddy Weller


Stand by Me - Freddy Weller - The best video clips are here

Friday, November 21, 2008

Somalia-"We've Got Pirates"




"Off the coast of Somalia we've got Pirates" A catchy ditty. Have a safe weekend. http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Somalia/

Fireball streaks across the Prairie skies


Lana Haight, The StarPhoenix.com
Published: Thursday, November 20, 2008
The blinding light of a massive fireball lit up Saskatchewan's night sky Thursday.

"It lit up the yard almost like midday, but just for an instant," said Bruce Trapp, who farms near Harris, about 70 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon. "It was far brighter than any lightning strike I've ever seen."

In some places, the fireball, which streaked across the province and beyond at around 6:30 p.m., appeared white. In other places, it was a flash of rainbow colours.

"It seemed like fireworks or a missile coming down. The sky lit up greenish and yellow," said Shawn Mitchler, who was pumping gas at Family Confectionery on Highway 16 at Radisson, about 60 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

He estimates the light show lasted five to 10 seconds.

"My heart just started racing because I didn't know what it was."

Mitchler wasn't alone. The RCMP emergency dispatch centre in Regina received 911 calls from people wondering what was going on.

"We got lots and lots of calls from all over the province - from one end of the province to the other. Cut Knife to Fort Qu'Appelle," said one dispatcher.

Rick Cowan of Lloydminster didn't see the phenomenon but he heard about it.

"Edmonton, Lloydminster, Rosetown, Swift Current," he said, listing where friends and family live who called him to talk about the sighting.

"We're talking hundreds of miles apart."

Cowan's son, driving near Swift Current, almost hit the ditch when he was startled by the bright light that engulfed the cab of his truck. And a friend reported the windows rattling in his home in Lloydminster. The fireball was also seen over Edmonton and in the sky as far north as Fort McMurray, Alta.

Locally, Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services contacted the city's airport for possible aircraft problems. The airport gave an all-clear.

The fireball occurred after a meteor, anywhere from "the size of a baseball to that of a Volkswagen," entered the Earth's atmosphere. The ice cold space rock itself wasn't on fire, says Richard Huziak of Saskatoon, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

"These are moving at quite a speed. They're moving anywhere from about 30 up to about 70 kilometres per second. That's about 200 and some thousand kilometres per hour. When they hit the atmosphere, they burn by friction. The atmosphere heats up and ionizes all the gas around it. You've got very high temperatures - tens of thousands of degrees for a few seconds. . . . You see the trails of the meteor, not the meteor itself."

Huziak thinks the meteorite likely landed somewhere near the Alberta border. It may be possible to determine a more precise location. Fireball video cameras designed to begin recording when a bright light appears in the sky are located in Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Edmonton and Calgary.

"It's very likely this one has been caught. It will show the track through the sky and might show the orbit back into space," he said.

While Thursday night's light show was spectacular to all who saw it, Huziak says a fireball is detected flashing across the sky in Saskatchewan every couple of weeks.

"But you have to be looking in the right direction at the right time. Or you see a flash behind you, but three seconds later, it's history."

Despite that many meteorites falling to Earth, very few actually cause damage because the rocks often disintegrate as they travel through the atmosphere.

lhaight@sp.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=6d8c40d6-eaca-454e-a537-2586b2ba0ec4
By Jamie Hall
edmontonjournal.com
11-20-08

EDMONTON - Calls are pouring in about the sight of a bright light in the skies over the Edmonton area.

Marcel Gobeil, who lives on a farm just west of Beaumont, was sitting in his living room when he heard what he describes as a "loud boom," followed by the sight of bright colourful lights just before 5:30 p.m.

"At first I thought it was fireworks," said Gobeil. "I've never seen anything like it; it was green and blue and then turned to bright red.

"It was pretty big."

Gobeil said he also saw the object hit the ground about 10 seconds later.

"It seemed like it fell on Beaumont, but it's more likely it landed in Manitoba or Saskatchewan if it was a meteorite," he said.

Edmonton fire dispatchers, meanwhile, said they contacted both the international and municipal airports after reports of the bright lights to see if an airplane had gone down. They still have no idea what the object was.

"Everyone seems to have seen something," one dispatcher said, "but we have no call on it." http://www.theufochronicles.com/2008/11/mysterious-bright-light-seen-over.html And check CTV News:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081120/alta_fireball_081120/20081120?hub=TopStories

Top 10 Ways to Discover New Music


Mission Impossible Theme - Sungha Jung

http://www.truveo.com/Amazing-Kids-Sungha-Jung-Playing-GuitarCanon-in-D/id/1608755811

The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

I posted a couple of Aretha's tunes at the bottom of page.

Ozymandias-Percy Bysshe Shelley



I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear: `My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away. 1.http://www.bookrags.com/Ozymandias?gclid=CI3xjZCjhZcCFRs-awodgghF9w 2.http://www.oceanlight.com/log/ozymandias.html

Thursday, November 20, 2008

George Jones singing TENNESSEE WHISKEY

Whiteshell Wolves


Pets of war provide comfort in Kandahar







Ethan Baron, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Let slip the pets of war.

Canadian soldiers can't always count on the civilian population for support in this battle-ravaged province, but dogs and cats are jumping into the war effort with all four paws.

At major military bases and remote combat-zone outposts, animals help keep soldiers healthy, happy and safe.

Mushe the dog showed up as a puppy at a tiny fortified Canadian training post for Afghan National Police in Panjwaii District, where many of Canada's combat deaths have occurred. She started off as a morale-building pet living within the confines of the outpost, but has become indispensable in the Taliban-ridden fields and villages that surround it

"All of a sudden, she got out one day, and there she was on patrol," said Master-Cpl. Gary O'Brien, of New Glasgow, N.S. "She checks all the intersections for us before we get there, and, if she barks, something's up. She'll go into a compound, she goes all the way around. If she barks, somebody's in the compound. If she doesn't bark, it's clear."

The young white dog helps keep Afghan men of fighting age -- always an unknown quantity here -- a safe distance from Canadian soldiers.

"She doesn't let any locals too close, unless they're little kids," Master-Cpl. O'Brien said.

At the Canadian provincial reconstruction team base in Kandahar City, a clan of cats keeps the mouse population down. It's not that the heavily armed troops are afraid of mice, but rather what come with the rodents: vipers.

Deep in the heart of Taliban country, Ghost the dog spends his days sleeping on a warm patch of sand in a dusty Canadian forward-operating base in Panjwaii District and his nights fighting jackals and barking at anyone who approaches the razor wire-topped fortifications.

"He's our best warning," said Petty Officer Shawn Coates of the Joint District Co-ordination Centre, a unit charged with helping Afghan civilians. "He's better than any radar you could have when it comes to personnel movements."

The jackals that used to come sniffing around the base don't get anywhere near the JDCC, thanks to Ghost, Petty Officer Coates said as mushroom clouds from bombs detonating three kilometres away marked the site of a battle between Canadian troops and Taliban.

Having the animals around also boosts morale, said Master Warrant Officer Marc Cloutier of 2 Service Battalion from CFB Petawawa. "Especially the kittens. It kind of gives a little touch of home."

Cpl. Nikki Bucci of 2 Military Police unit in Petawawa, who has taught Mushe to shake hands and is working on teaching her to lie down, says the dog has been "amazing -- keeps you sane, too."

Now, Cpl. Gordon Martin of 2 Military Police unit in Petawawa is looking into bringing Mushe home to his farm when his tour is over.

"If we could get her back to Canada, and have her running around on the farm all the time, I think she'd be happy," he said. "I'd hate to leave her and have something happen to her. She's just unreal." http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b6d31fc7-e3ec-4f04-9fc7-2f1213e632ca

Talking Dogs


Talking Dogs - The best free videos are right here

Scientists find new penguin, extinct for 500 years


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081119/D94I2VMG0.html

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

John Fogerty - The Old Man Down The Road

World asked to help craft online charter for religious harmony




Nov 14 05:14 PM US/Eastern A website launched Friday with the backing of technology industry and Hollywood elite urges people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions.
The Charter for Compassion project on the Internet at www.charterforcompassion.org springs from a "wish" granted this year to religious scholar Karen Armstrong at a premier Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in California.

"Tedizens" include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with other Internet icons as well as celebrities such as Forest Whittaker and Cameron Diaz.

Wishes granted at TED envision ways to better the world and come with a promise that Tedizens will lend their clout and capabilities to making them come true.

Armstrong's wish is to combine universal principles of respect and compassion into a charter based on a "golden rule" she believes is at the core of every major religion.

The Golden Rule essentially calls on people to do unto others as they would have done unto them.

"The chief task of our time is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony," Armstrong said.

"If we do not achieve this, it seems unlikely that we will have a viable world to hand on to the next generation."

Charter for Compassion invites people from "all faiths, nationalities, languages and backgrounds" to help draft statements of principles and actions that should be taken. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081114211405.6b9pjnso&show_article=1

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon (1970)


Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon (1970) - Funny home videos are a click away

Moody Blues








Hey, can you smell the wood burning? That means I am thinking. Going to drink a cup of coffee, the smell of coffee at four in the morning. Life does not get any better. I posted some Moody Blues at bottom of blog. Three hours and I will on the transit system going to visit a dentist. First, the coffee. Where did this funny, interesting and cool bussiness come from?

Tribute to Wolves

The Dental Phobia Forum.




I have to see the dentist at 9 this morning. I am not a happy camper, but am afraid of a toothache. http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/forum/

The Library of Congress


Is surfing the Internet altering your brain?


Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008
CANBERRA - The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California who specializes in brain function, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.

But while technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity it can have drawbacks as it can create Internet addicts whose only friends are virtual and has sparked a dramatic rise in Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses.

Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.

"We're seeing an evolutionary change. The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills," Small told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"They will know when the best response to an email or Instant Message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email."

In his newly released fourth book "iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.

Small, the director of the Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, said the brain was very sensitive to the changes in the environment such as those brought by technology.

He said a study of 24 adults as they used the Web found that experienced Internet users showed double the activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning as Internet beginners.

"The brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others," said Small.

"We are changing the environment. The average young person now spends nine hours a day exposing their brain to technology. Evolution is an advancement from moment to moment and what we are seeing is technology affecting our evolution."

Small said this multi-tasking could cause problems.

He said the tech-savvy generation, whom he calls "digital natives," are always scanning for the next bit of new information which can create stress and even damage neural networks.

"There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language," he said.

"But you can take steps to address this. It means taking time to cut back on technology, like having a family dinner, to find a balance. It is important to understand how technology is affecting our lives and our brains and take control of it." http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=3d85f064-fab5-463a-866b-91d175c71d75

Running the Numbers-An American Self-Portrait


Monday, November 17, 2008

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem

"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither,
let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy."

Scared and Shocked - Saved Cats


Dogs greeting their owner, returning after 14 months in Iraq

http://www.videosift.com/video/Dogs-greeting-their-owner-returning-after-14-months-in-Iraq

Nudibranchs: Beautiful Animals You Never Knew About


Hi-Def Pics - Strikingly Beautiful Shots of Etosha National Park, Namibia (13 photos)


While Mrs. Moose is Away


Thursday, November 13, 2008

George Strait an early winner at CMAs



"I Saw God Today"

[VERSE 1:]
Just walked down the street to the coffee shop,
Had to take a break,
I've been by her side for eighteen hours straight,
saw a flower growing in the middle of the sidewalk,
pushing up through the concrete,
Like it was planted right there for me to see,

The flashing lights,
The honking horns,
All seem to fade away,
but in the shadow of the hospital,
at 508,
I saw God today,

[CHORUS:]
I've been to church,
I've read the book,
I know He's there,
But I don't look,
near as often as I should,

His fingerprints are everywhere,
I just look down and stop and stare,
open my eyes and then I swear,
I Saw God Today,

[VERSE 2:]
Saw a couple walking by,
they were holding hands,
and she had that glow,
Ya, I couldn't help,
but I noticed that she was starting to show,
stood there for a minute,
taking in the sky,
lost in that sunset,
a splashing down from mounting in shades of red,

[CHORUS:]
I've been to church,
I've read the book,
I know He's there,
but I don't look,
near as often as I should,

His fingerprints are everywhere,
I just look down and stop and stare,
open my eye and then I swear,
I Saw God Today,

[VERSE 3:]
Got my face pushed up against the nursery glass,
she's sleeping like a rock,
my name on her wrist,
wearing tiny pink socks,
she's got my nose,
she's got her Mama's eyes,
my bran new baby girl,
she's a miracle,
I Saw God Today

Picdita collection of extraordinary links, pictures and videos




This is a cool site you may want to bookmark. I have a headache from looking around for something to post.http://picdit.com/

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Perfect Evil-Michael Yon

Road sign in Tarin Kot, Urozgan Province, Afghanistan.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Verbal Kint, in The Usual Suspects paraphrasing Baudelaire. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/the-perfect-evil-part-i-of-iii.htm. "In Afghanistan, heroin has become the Devil’s cocktail. “Smack” is already one of the most addictive and destructive drugs on Earth, and now numerous academic studies show addiction levels on the rise particularly among younger children. In a place where 90% of the world’s heroin supply originates, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others harvest profits from opium poppy cultivation to buy weapons and equipment used to attack soldiers and civilians engaged in a mostly stalled reconstruction mission."Michael Yon. “Look, take on opium production in Afghanistan, not because you are worried about addiction in Baltimore, but because you are going to lose the war if you don’t confront the issue.” General Barry McCaffrey Listen to audio here.