and the winner of the coldest filthy rich bastard award goes to....

whomever owns these lepoard skin chairs.
how can you sit on them with a clean concience?
they are threatened species you know.
can't you afford to own a couple live ones instead?
or would they wreck your drapes.


you can get leopard skins
here



or here

who knew it was so easy....how sad.

for sale in midtown east

the moral of this story, is at the end.....






502 PARK AVENUE
Price $45,000,000

THIS TRUMP IS A GRAND SLAM
This dramatic duplex penthouse with panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline represents the finest in luxury residential living in New York. The apartment consists of three bedrooms, six and one-half baths, two enormous roof terraces with panoramic views of the City and Central Park, plus a third smaller terrace off of the top floor, a library, a den, top-of-the-line appliances and fixtures, and an abundance of rich architectural detail throughout with over 50 windows and four exposures.

Enclosed in windows, the majestic master bedroom suite has panoramic views of the City including Central Park and a powerful view of Park Avenue. It has two large separate dressing rooms and bathrooms including the finest fixtures available. The top floor of the duplex is approached from a grand staircase that rises into a magnificent living/dining room that measures 45 feet long. It has beautiful oak floors and three gorgeous crystal chandeliers; it's the perfect room for entertaining as you are on top of the world with Manhattan's skyline in the background.

This is simply the best prewar condominium penthouse ever offered in one of the best condominium buildings on Park Avenue. Residents are entitled to full-hotel services, valet parking, and health club. Nothing else can compare to this one-of-a-kind residence.

Available for lease as well, for $200,000 per month.

PICTURED: Donald Trump, Jr., Kathy Sloane, Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump.

.....and the moral is,

you can be rich,
but you're still gonna look like a pinhead.

nuclear physists-what was their objective going to be?

this morning in the new york times:

None Survive Turkish Plane Crash


By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: December 1, 2007
ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 — A Turkish passenger jet crashed in the mountains of western Turkey early today, killing all 56 people on board, Turkish authorities said.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by the airline AtlasJet, took off from Istanbul and slipped off the radar shortly before it was due to land in Isparta. It crashed about seven miles from the airport, near the town of Keciborlu, the authorities said.

The cause of the crash remained a mystery. The weather was good, airline officials said. In another baffling detail, the plane crashed in an area that was not on its scheduled route.

“The body of the plane is there as a whole, and the wings don’t exist — I have never seen anything like this,” said Semsettin Uzun, the governor of the province.

An executive from AtlasJet said, “The weather was very good — this seems very suspicious.”

Forty-nine passengers and seven crew members were on board the plane. Among the passengers were six nuclear physicists on their way to a physics conference.

“The point where the plane crashed is not on the plane’s route,” Mr. Uzun said. “We don’t understand how it landed there. It has landed on the other side of the ridge.”

Authorities said that at 1:36 a.m., the pilot told the airport tower he saw the airport runway, and the tower told him to proceed, but that was the plane’s last communication with the ground.

Videotape of the crash site broadcast on Turkish television showed soldiers with guns standing around it. By noon, relatives had begun to arrive, and a woman was shown crying among the wreckage. The black box, which contains details about the crash, was located.

The Associated Press reported that the bodies of some of the passengers were still strapped to their seats.

A villager said, “We thought it was an earthquake.”

The plane appears to have come apart in the air, and different pieces had landed in different places, the authorities said. The Associated Press reported that the plane’s wings and engine were at the top of a hill while the fuselage was 500 feet lower.

Ismail Macika, mayor of Keciburnu, said in a telephone interview that the plane went down at the highest point in the area, a peak of 1,830 meters with a watch tower on top of it.

“Many bodies were taken out of the plane,” he said. “It was easy to get the bodies because the plane did not break into pieces. I saw a few bodies lying on the ground.”



.........some questions remained unaswered.

poursuite du blocage pour la semaine - Manif étudiants/lycéens

Lundi 26 novembre : 11h : l'Assemblée Générale de la fac de Rouen a revoté le blocage pour toute la semaine. 20h : soirée d'anniversaire d'un mois d'occupation et de blocage (25 oct - 25 nov)

Mardi 27 novembre : 8h : débrayage des lycées. 4 lycées bloqués (Sembat, Bruyères, Saint-Saens, Jeanne d'Arc) 10h : manif lycéens/étudiants. 2000 manifestants, parcours libre. 12h : les flics bloquent la manif sur un pont. Filtrage des manifestants au compte-goutte. Pas d'arrestations apparemment mais contrôles d'identité, photos, etc.

ACTIONS A VENIR : Mercredi 28 novembre : SOUPE POPULAIRE à 17h à l'Espace du Palais. Jeudi 29 novembre : manifestation lycéens/étudiants à 17h - rdv Palais de Justice

live from paris

Centre Sorbonne aujourd'hui


Le centre Sorbonne paris 4 a été bloqué toute la journée par une quarantaine d'étudiants. La grande majorité des cours ont été annulés. Grande mobilisation de CRS aussi. Impossibilités de rentrer dans la fac. Qu'en pensez-vous ? le mardi 27 novembre 2007 à 21h37

happy 'thanksgiving'

i love how greedy and forgetful america is.
also how blind we are.

i awoke today, the day before thanksgiving, and chemtrails covered the sky. i saw at least 10 jet trails covering more of what was a perfectly clear day. driving over the bridge, all i could see was concrete and a cloud streaked sky. this is the color of the city. the color of civilization. grimy filth covered gray concrete and dingy gray skies. no wonder my throat is sore.

and yes tomorrow is thanksgiving...

2008 nato convention in bucharest

Anti – Nato Week Bucharest 2008


The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance, established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. With headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the organization established a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. The Parties of NATO agreed that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence will assist the Party or Parties being attacked,individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. The initial treaty was signed by Belgium, Netherlands,Luxembourg, France, United Kingdom, the United States of America, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland which were followed after 3 years by Greece and Turkey. In 1954 Russia wanted to join NATO but was rejected by the NATO countries. In 1955 West Germany was incorporated into NATO, shortly after the Warsaw Pact was signed. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 removed the de facto main adversary of NATO. At the moment NATO includes the next countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, USA, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. With the re-evaluation of NATOs purpose in post-Cold War we could see a still ongoing expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe, as well as the extension of its activities to areas that had not formerly been NATO concerns. On 28 February 1994, NATO took its first military action, shooting down four Bosnian Serb aircraft violating a U.N.-mandated nofly zone over central Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the end of 1995 the war in Bosnia resulted in the Dayton Agreement, with the help of air strikes by NATO. On 24 March 1999, NATO saw its first broad-scale military engagement in the Kosovo War, where it waged an 11-week bombing campaign against what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A formal declaration of war never took place. The conflict ended on 11 June 1999, when Slobodan Milosevic agreed to NATOs demands. NATO then helped establish the KFOR, a NATO-led force under a United Nations mandate that operated the military mission in Kosovo.
After September 11th NATO confirmed on the 4th of October 2001 that the attacks where an attack against the entire group of members. On 16th of April 2003 NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which was the first time in NATOs history to take charge of a mission outside of the north Atlantic area. But most people do not realize that there are approximately 49,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, about one-third the number in Iraq. Of those troops, 28,000 are from the United States: 15,000 operate under NATO and 13,000 are part of the Pentagon's Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The U.S.-NATO dichotomy is misleading, however, because the largest contingent of NATO troops is from the United States (the second-largest contingent from the UK is much smaller, only 7,700 soldiers). In addition, the military head of NATO operations, U.S. General Dan K. McNeill, is also the chief of OEF. In other words, America dominates all foreign troop operations in Afghanistan.
In fact, U.S. and NATO troops are doing the same things in Afghanistan and Iraq: bombing civilian areas, invading villages, rounding up people without evidence, torturing detainees, causing deaths in custody, and shooting into crowds.
At the 9th of May 2007 the NATO secretary general met with the North Atlantic Council in Brussels and had discussions on the subject of civilian deaths. But the conversation was less about how to reduce casualties, than about how to explain them to European governments. To most officials, the criminality and injustice of the civilian deaths alone are not enough to condemn them. But when they undermine the support base at home or in the host country, and threaten the crucial winning hearts and minds portion of NATOs counterinsurgency campaign, they become a strategic problem.
The facts are also clear, that there were secret prisons, certainly in Poland and Romania; and that people who suspected by the CIA of involvement in terrorism were interrogated and sometimes tortured in these prisons. NATO was also involved in the system of secret prisons and transports. After the US had, in 2001, issued a call for mutual support under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, NATO became a platform where the United States received the go-ahead and protective measures necessary in order to be able to begin the secret operations in the "war against terrorism". But of course NATO refuses to reveal details of the agreements concerning its involvement in the CIA Operation. But well who can be surprised if remembering that NATO also had a long held covert policy of training paramilitary militia as Gladios known as "stay-behind" armies, for a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe, whose role would have been to wage guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. After September 11th Romania has expressed their willingness to join the USA in the war on terror and offered to help by sending military forces into Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002 Romania was invited to the summit in Prague and began the accession process. In March 2004 Romania became a NATO member, as a gratitude for its loyalty. Romania now has military troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. There are 4 US
military bases in Romania, hosting more than 2.000 American soldiers.

20th NATO SUMMIT BUCHAREST

"We are here to thank the Government of Romania and the Romanian people for the support they have offered to us on several occasions. We are allies in the fight on terror, generally, in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are allies in promoting democracy and we appreciate the support of Romanian President" Stephen Hadley, Bush's National Security Advisor, October 23, 2005

On 21st of September the Romanian Vice Foreign Minister Victor Micula and North-Atlantic Council Secretary Berndt G�tze signed the memorandum for hosting the NATO summit in Bucharest in April next year. This 20th NATO summit will be the largest one in the history of NATO, as all the 23 member states of the NATO partnership for Peace will attend, besides 26 member states of the alliance. Approximately 3.000 high-ranking officials are expected to participate in the summit, whose security will be guarded by some 9.000 Romanian troops, officers of the Special Guard and Protections Service, police officers and gendarmes. The expenses of the event are estimated at 30-35 million euro. Where to find a better place to hide than in the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, the summits venue?
The building known as Casa Poporului (the house of the people) was build during Ceausescu's regime. It is 84 meters tall with 12 floors, being one of the top 5 tallest buildings in Romania. It's area surface (64.800 square meters) makes it second largest after the Pentagon Building; it's underground floors, measuring down to 92 meters below the ground (more that over the ground); it's volume (2,55 billion cubic meters), third largest in the world (after Cape Canaveral and the Quetzalcoatlpyramid in Mexico). But even if you are not able to catch a guarded or even better - unguarded tour through Casa Poporului, or you are not even able to get any closer to the area, cause of suddenly appearing stable or moving fences during your visit in April 2008, don’t worry there is much more to explore (still watch out for the local teams, who might be willing to take you on a tour).
Since you are in the capital, with an estimated 1.862.930 (2006) residents, many other institution, worth a visit, are located here. So for example Casa NATO, which promotes Romania as a reliable member of NATO as well as free market institutions and enterprises. Casa NATO is located in Bucharest Primaverii Palace, headquarters to Romanian Euro-Atlantic Center and activities since 1992. Since Religion is very dominant in everyday life in Romania, especially orthodox (86,8 %), you can find a church on every corner, which deserves a disturbing visit. Might it be for their priests and monks spying for the Securitate, their power and money seeking domination, their gender roles you will surely find a reason. If you want to continue your travel a bit further east, you might want to stop by the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase near Constanta. Not only known for the US troops heading towards Afghanistan and Iraq, but also as a CIA detention center for Iraqis and Afghans. Surely you will find a worthwhile target, to make the ANTI-NATO-WEEK in Bucharest as disruptive, creative and longlasting as possible.

FORCES OF REPRESSION

As activists in Romania have never experienced protest against an event of this scale in the country, it is hard to draw from former experiences in regard of state repression.
So here will follows an introduction to the different forces you might be confronted with during your visit. The main forces of repression in Romania are the National Police (Politia Rom�na), the Romanian Gendarmerie (Jandarmeria Rom�na) and the Border Police. The Romanian police is devided into two forces, the Politia Rom�n (the civil branch) and the Jandarmeria Rom�na (the military branch).
Romania also has a paramilitary structure, beside a police force and a military force. The Jandarmeria is the structure that should really keep the order, as the Police is meant only to investigate crime, while the military is meant only to defend the country from outside threats.
Politia Rom�n
The Romanian Police is divided into 41 territorial inspectorates, corresponding to each county (judet), and the General Directorate of the Police in Bucharest. Each county inspectorate has a rapid reaction unit (Deta_amentul de Politie pentru Interventie Rapid [Police Rapid Intervention Squad]). The similar unit attached to the Bucharest Police is called Serviciul de Politie pentru Interventie Rapid (Police Rapid Intervention Service). Before 2002, the National Police had military status and a military ranking system. In June 2002 it became a civil police force and its personnel was structured into two corps:
. Corpul ofiterilor de politie (Police Officers Corps) -corresponding to the commissioned ranks of a military force.
. Corpul agentilor de politie (Police Agents Corps) -corresponding to the non-commissioned ranks of a military force.
Politia Comunitar is the name for the local police in Romania - on city or commune level. They are subordinated to the
mayors and their main duties are to enforce the local ordinances and to assist the National Police and the Gendarmerie.

Also worth mentioning:

[Police rapid intervention (local)] The Special Intervention and Action Detachments are the special units of municipal police in Romania. DIAS are called whenever a Police operation may encounter severe problems.
SPIR Serviciul Special al Politiei pentru Interventie Rapida [Police rapid intervention (Bucharest)] The Special Rapid Intervention Service is the name of the much-expanded structure in Bucharest.
SIIAS Serviciul Independent de Interventii si Actiuni Speciale [Police Special Forces]
The Independent Special Interventions and Actions Service is an elite unit under the command of the Romanian Police.

Politia de Frontier
Between 2001 and 2005, the Romanian Border Police has undergone four stages of reform of its internal structure, in order to bring it into compliance with similar structures of the European Union.
SASI Serviciul Actiuni Speciale si Interventie
[ rapid intervention force ] SASI was created on October 1st, 2005 and represents the rapid intervention unit of the Border Police.
Jandarmeria Rom�na (The Romanian Gendarmerie) is the state specialized institution, with military status. The Romanian Gendarmerie is divided in 41 territorial inspectorates, corresponding to each county (judet), and the General Directorate of the Gendarmerie in Bucharest. Additionally, eight Gendarmerie Mobile Groups operate on a territorial basis, with headquarters in Bacau, Brashov, Cluj Napoca, Constanta, Craiova, Ploieshti, T�rgu Muresh and Timisoara. The Romanian Gendarmerie was re-established on July 5, 1990. Starting in 2006, the corps abandoned conscription and in 2007 it became an all-professional military force.

The Romanian Gendarmerie is for example tasked to:
ensure public order during meetings, marches, demonstrations, processions, strikes, and also other similar activities carried out in public areas and involving large crowds;
re-establish public order when it has been disturbed by any kind of illegal actions;
maintain public order during official visits or during other activities in which Romanian or foreign high officials take part, on Romanian territory, in the competence area and in the places where the activities are carried out The Romanian Gendarmerie has two brigades, the 11th Mobile Brigade Baneasa and the Special Brigade Vlad Tepes as well as the Batalionul 1 Interventii Speciale(anti-terrorist force) and the Batalionul 2 Misiuni Speciale (special missions).

The Brigade is divided in two units:
Brigada Special de Interventie a Jandarmeriei (Gendarmerie Special Intervention Brigade, BSIJ) is a special operations force belonging to the Romanian Gendarmerie. The unit carries the name "Vlad Tepes".
1st Battalion "Actiuni Specifice si Antitero" (Specific Actions and Counter-terrorism)
2nd Battalion "Misiuni Speciale" (Special Missions)

POLICE ARMS

Well the usual stuff: you can find crowd control paddy wagons, water canons, as well as the use of horses and dogs. Water canons, tear gas and rubber bullets have been used by the Romanian police before, for example at the Gay Parade in Bucharest.

GETTING TO THE ACTIONS

People from following countries are able to enter Romania without a visa for up to 90 days: Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Darussalam, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Chile, Cyprus, South Korea,
Costa Rica, Croatia (30 days), Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, United Kingdom, Monaco, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Holland, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Holly See, El Salvador, Singapore (30 days), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States of America, Sweden, Hungary, Uruguay, Venezuela. Since January the 1st 2007 people from the Republic of Moldova can travel with a free issued visa. If you come from a country which is not listed above, you need an entry visa (if you are not intending to pass the green border, swim through the Danube river or overrun the border control with a huge crowd of other people protesting against the fortress Europe). The law bans: the possession of narcotic substances, even if for personal use bearing arms, hunting or sports weaponry must be mentioned in your passport. Bear in mind that the time difference to Central Europe is + 1 hour.

In 2005 the new leu (RON) was introduced, phasing out the old leu (ROL) in 2006. The new Leu (plural: Lei) is 100 Bani (notes in 500, 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1 Lei, coins in 50, 10, 5 and 1 Bani). The exchange rate is something around 3.4 lei for 1 euro; Romanian is the official language, with parts in the border regions where also Hungarian, German, Bulgarian and so on, is widely spoken. Anyway, in good old tradition some useful words and phrases:
please, thanks, sorry = te rog, multumesc, imi pare rau
where is = Unde este.
fuck off = Du-te naibii
come with me = vino cu mine
move on = continua
the cops are coming = vine politia
cops are attacking = politia ataca
to piss off = dispari
to attack = atac
attacking the cops = ataca politia
I need help = ajutor
good, bad = bine, rau
I am not guilty = nusunt vinovat
I want to call my lawyer = vreau sa sun avocatul

BE AWARE

also the nationalists, nazis and neo-legionaires are for sure mobilizing actions against the NATO summit in Bucharest. The main nationalist action is Noua Dreapta (New Right). You can check them out at nouadreapta.org also easy to identify by their T-Shirts with the face of Corneliu Codreanu.

The naziscum are dressed like neonazi-skinhead, mainly with boots, shaved heads and even using openly signs like swastikas, celtic crosses or hate-bands. Also the football clubs are full with nazis, the most known are Steaua and Dinamo, both from Bucharest. Be aware of that and get informed at the actions in Bucharest, where the nazis might make a march or usually gather.

ACCOMODATION and ACTIVITIES

There will be a range of events in Bucharest and others place. Those coming from the north, can for example stop by at the ANTI-NATO info-point in Iasi (at the Ukrainian nd Moldavian border) before continuing their way to Bucharest. The city also held for a week in July the first squat Rebil in Romania (an English report can be found at
ttp://de.indymedia.org/2007/07/188166.shtml). If you are coming from the south you might be interested in joining the preparation for the ANTI-NATO bike tour and the critical mass, to be contacted over katarzis@riseup.net (collective in Razgrad, Bulgaria near the BG/Romanian border). In Bucharest are plenty of opportunities to join into the ANTI-NATO week: a legal march, direct actions, probably the NoBorder from Timisoara seeking exile in Bucharest and many more.
Still you should keep in mind, especially if coming from the West, that the scene is not as big and equipped as you might be used to. So try to be as self-organized as possible: bring a sleeping bag, try to organize food (dumpster diving is not so common, but you can still find some stuff) or even join the local FNB group (or bring in your local group for joint actions). Organizing legal sleeping spaces on mass still requires money, so every soli-action is welcome. But also you might want to check out one of the plenty abandoned houses in Bucharest, waiting for a better use.

Contra Doxa
http://contra-doxa.com

i'm sorry. did i say 83,700 iraqi civilians killed?

i meant 655,000.

story here


so....if you divide the cost of the war by the iraq casualties,
that's $933 dollars per person. almost a thousand dollars a life. what a successful killing machine our government has become.

the high cost of dying.

611 billion dollar war

from boston.com
If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group.

What would $611 billion buy?

With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over.
TheBudgetGraph.com estimates that converting the 136,568,083 registered cars in the United States to ethanol (conversion kits at $500) would cost $68.2 billion.

According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth.
At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years.



....so. instead of eliminating hunger and pollution globally, we killed an estimated 83,783 iraqi civilians. i am not counting the death toll for american soldiers because if you're dumb enough to sign, you're dumb enough to die.

stop supporting the war. if you are in the military, go awol. wake up. change starts with our diseased heads.

or did you not read the part about tho shall not kill?

getting ready for the 2008 rnc

september 1-4, 2008 visit the twin cities...

and join the march against the rnc

click here for details

from the call to action:

"On September 1-4 of 2008, the Republican Party is coming to Minnesota to celebrate their latest conquests in global domination and exploitation. We of the RNC Welcoming Committee want to make sure that this time the fear-mongers will be met with their own biggest fear: people mobilized, organized, and taking the future back into their own hands.

For those of you who abhor the rapid growth of racist militarized borders across stolen lands, the raids and deportations, destruction and commodification of our shared and living earth, police brutality and prison industry, fear propaganda and subjugation, exploitation and robbery of peoples worldwide, and all forms of injustice and oppression - we ask you to be prepared for 2008. This will require new alliances, strong networks, the awakening of those who’ve given up, as well as the mobilization of those who’ve never before taken action. Let’s use this opportunity to make the changes we thirst for manifest and take root before us, making the Republicans/Democrats (whatever you want to call them) obsolete.

Labor Day weekend of 2007, anarchists and anti-authoritarians from across the country gathered in the Twin Cities to develop goals and plans for the RNC 2008."

for supersecret anarchist documents,
click here

"link" to another "blog"

"i" liked this "very" much.

strike one against ohsu's primate research center

from peta:

click here to help! it only takes a second.




Ask the USDA to Investigate Treatment of Monkeys at ONPRCDuring a four-month undercover investigation at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), a PETA investigator documented violations of animal protection laws and monkeys who were living in constant fear, confined to small cages and traumatized by rough handling.

Our investigator observed sick monkeys who received inadequate veterinary care and pain relief; employees who chased terrified monkeys around their enclosures, capturing them and pinning their arms behind their backs to force them into transport boxes; and staff who sprayed water from high-pressure hoses into cages with monkeys still in them, leaving the animals wet and frightened. Monkeys were also seen picking food out of the waste trays beneath their cages and frantically pacing back and forth inside small, barren steel cages, driven mad by life inside these prisons.

ONPRC houses more than 4,000 monkeys, and its experimenters received more than $33 million in taxpayer money in 2007, much of which was spent on cruel animal studies of illnesses that have already been well researched using clinical data from humans.

In one example of the wasteful experiments at ONPRC, experimenter Eliot Spindel has injected pregnant monkeys with nicotine, delivered the babies by cesarean section, measured the babies' lung function, and then killed the babies and cut them up for exam—even though the dangers of nicotine to human infants have been well documented in studies of people.

In another example, experimenter Judy Cameron takes infant monkeys from their mothers and observes their psychological suffering—even though these traumatizing experiments have been conducted for half a century and the tragic effects of maternal deprivation have long been identified in humans.

PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging the agency to investigate all violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Please join us! Politely ask the USDA to launch a full investigation into violations of the AWA at ONPRC.



disclaimer:
i have mixed feelings about peta, as i feel like they are more about money and use animal rights as a platform, they euthanize almost all the animals they 'rescue', however, they are great at exposing animal abuse and generating public outcry.

also, please visit here for more information on the primate research center in beaverton (also they have several other testing centers, incuding one inside ohsu's hospital on the hill) or to volunteer with us to spread news about the test center and how much money is wasted for no cures.


from the oregonian:



PETA infiltrates primate center
Animal research - The activist group will formalize its accusations against the Hillsboro facility today


Tuesday, November 13, 2007BRYAN DENSON The Oregonian Staff
For the second time in a decade, an animal-rights activist has slipped past employment screeners at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, taken a job as a monkey handler and accused the facility of routinely abusing animals.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a national animal-rights group, planted one of its undercover investigators at the Hillsboro center from April 9 to July 25, officials at the nonprofit told The Oregonian.

The investigator, whom neither PETA nor the primate center would identify, took a job as an animal husbandry technician and secretly took notes and shot video to document her complaints. PETA will formalize her accusations today in a complaint to federal regulators.


"We are an open facility," declared Michael Conn, the associate director and acting head of the primate center's Department of Animal Resources, in a response Monday. Regulators have inspected the primate center three times since February, finding the facility in full compliance with federal law, he said. "There are no secrets here."

PETA's complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture accuses the primate center, a wing of Oregon Health & Science University, of violating eight provisions of the Animal Welfare Act, a federal law intended to guarantee humane treatment of research animals. Among PETA's allegations:

Primate center officials failed to provide timely or effective veterinary treatment for monkeys suffering chronic vomiting, diarrhea and kidney stones.

The center failed to ensure that employees were qualified to perform medical procedures, allowing a worker with palsied hands to give hypodermic injections that caused blood to spurt from a monkey's arm.

Workers failed to prevent monkeys from suffering trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm and unnecessary discomfort, sometimes putting sedated animals into group enclosures that exposed them to falls or attacks from other monkeys.

"The actions of (primate center) staff show a flagrant disregard for the law and for the animals for whom they are responsible," the complaint alleges.

Similar complaints from another animal rights infiltrator in 2000 were investigated by the USDA, and the center was found not to violate the law. Conn said he would be "absolutely shocked" if the new allegations were substantiated.

Oregon's primate center, with annual research grants of $33.3 million, performs experiments on many of the 4,200 monkeys in its care, putting the facility in the cross hairs of groups such as PETA.

The key purpose of the Norfolk, Va., nonprofit is to protect animals from being used for food, clothing, entertainment or medical research.

In 1998, Matt Rossell, a former PETA investigator, went to work as an animal welfare technician at the center. He spent more than two years taking notes and photographs, secretly videotaping screeching monkeys, including one that had chewed a large gash in its own arm.


The Animal Legal Defense Fund, in Maryland, formalized Rossell's observations in a Sept. 6, 2000, complaint to the USDA. It accused the facility of caging animals in filth and abusively small enclosures; conducting needless surgeries; and letting unskilled workers give monkeys injections.

Rossell also complained that the center's method of extracting sperm from monkeys -- a process called electroejaculation -- caused them pain.

The USDA sent six officials to investigate Rossell's complaints. Four months later, they cleared the primate center of violating the Animal Welfare Act, although inspectors did recommend the center improve conditions for 1,201 monkeys then kept indoors.

The center has spent much of the past seven years developing one of the nation's best "psychological well-being" programs for monkeys, said Kristine Coleman, who heads the center's behavioral sciences unit. Today, Coleman said, monkeys get more fruits and vegetables, which stimulate their natural foraging instincts.

The primate center also improved its method of extracting sperm, a process, taped by Rossell, which had burned the penises of two monkeys. Pain and injury have been halted by giving the animals a light sedative and an analgesic, said Dr. Gwen Maginnis, the center's chief attending veterinarian.

Primate center officials were caught off guard seven years ago, after learning they had hired Rossell, who champions a belief that animals are sentient beings entitled to legal rights against exploitation.

The center, which hires about 50 employees a year, improved job screening by adding a full criminal background check and asking applicants and their references whether they think animals should be used in medical research.

"If they come here with a clean criminal history and they lie about their interest and the reason they're here," Conn said, "there's not a lot you can do."

PETA's director of research, Kathy Guillermo, defended the group's use of undercover investigators at biomedical facilities.

"If the laboratories would open their doors and let us in, we would certainly rather do it that way," she said. "Unfortunately what we find over and over and over again is that the doors are shut tight."

$25,000 dessert

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A day after New York City came up with a $1,000 (475 pound) bagel, a local restaurateur unveiled a $25,000 chocolate sundae on Wednesday, setting a Guinness world record for the most expensive dessert.

Stephen Bruce, owner of Serendipity 3, partnered with luxury jeweller Euphoria New York to create the “Frrozen Haute Chocolate”, a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe.

The dessert, spelled with two Rs, is infused with 0.2 ounces of edible 23-karat gold and served in a goblet lined with edible gold. At the base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds.

The sundae is topped with whipped cream covered with more gold and a side of La Madeline au Truffle from Knipschildt Chocolatier, which sells for $2,600 a pound.

duet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocf11DfJ0GI

paddy feild art

The tradition in the town of Inakadate, dates back to 1993. This artwork was created by planting different varieties of rice, including the purple and yellow-leafed Kodaimai rice and the green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety.

a word about our nobel peace prize winner

Dialing for Drug Dollars - Al Gore pledges money for AIDS drugs in South Africa..
by Timothy Maier


Dogged by AIDS protesters on the campaign trail, Al Gore promised $100 million in funds to combat AIDS, but then his ties to the drug industry led some to cry hypocrisy.
With his presidential campaign floundering, Vice President Al Gore turned to desperate measures this week by promising $100 million in additional funding to combat AIDS, especially in South Africa, and hailing a recent National Institutes of Health, or NIH, study that could prevent infants from contracting AIDS through their infected mothers and save millions of dollars.
Gore's motive? Simple enough, say critics: He has been dogged by AIDS protesters angered about his refusal to support the South African government's pursuit of generic drugs to treat the infectious disease and Gore wants those hecklers off his campaign trail.


Though some critics praise the latest news, which raises total funding to $150 million to South Africa, it may not undo the damage. Protesters from groups such as ACT UP continue to harass Gore at political rallies with a chorus of boos because administration trade policies he supports have made it difficult for patients to get cut-rate AIDS drugs in Africa.
Julie Davids, a member of ACT UP in Philadelphia, blames Gore for playing a pivotal role in the threat of trade sanctions against South Africa in retaliation for its 1997 law permitting the generic manufacture of AIDS drugs -- despite the fact that the law is allowed by trade agreements that the United States has signed. At the same time she attacks the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, for its alleged greed.
-http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_30_15/ai_55481516
Silent Al, Oxy's Pal
by Kendall CLARK
Monday, 09 October 2000

The U'wa people of Colombia want, more than anything else, to be left alone to live their lives in much the same way as their ancestors have for generations. Standing between the U'wa and the existence they insist upon are the oil-mad ambitions of Occidental Petroleum, its proxies in Colombia, including the government and the military, and large, influential American shareholders of Occidental stock, including Al Gore.
Gore, despite his worthless protestations of environmental commitment, has so far refused either to divest himself of Occidental holdings or to speak publicly against what Occidental is doing to the U'wa. Activists around the country have shadowed Gore for months, demanding that he publicly distance himself from Occidental. On Friday, local Dallas activists, including anarchists, Greens, and others, protested Gore's tacit acceptance of Occidental's treatment of the U'wa, while trying to draw local attention to the plight of the U'wa.
Protesters were treated with contempt and hostility by local Democratic Party worker-bees, including one who, having been informed of the U'wa's desperate position -- viz., their threat to commit mass suicide if dispossessed of their land and way of life, and the Colombian military's increased aggression toward them -- responded by saying that "we all die sooner or later; sounds like the U'wa will be dying sooner rather than later."
At least this low-level flunky has the guts to say something about the U'wa (even if it's evil); Gore hasn't even gotten that far yet. Gore's handlers have insisted that since he isn't the only trustee of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 of Oxy stock, (his mother is a trustee too), he bears no responsibility of divestiture, public pressure and humiliation, or, at least, a cessation of lobbying activities on behalf of Oxy with the Colombian government.
This evasion is hardly coherent. If he cannot divest, and it's hard to believe Gore has no influence with his own mother about such an important issue, he could criticize Oxy publicly until they relent. He could also refrain from taking contributions from Oxy. He could simply do nothing at all, and that would be more praiseworthy than his current support of Oxy.
But Al Gore has a long, cozy relationship with Occidental -- it's a family thing: his father was owned by Armand Hammer, founder of Occidental; and Al and Tipper's financial security, according to Alexander Cockburn's Al Gore: A User's Manual, is the result of a sweetheart mineral rights deal with Occidental.
To suggest that, since Gore doesn't alone (or directly) manage the Oxy trust, there's some amelioration of his moral responsibility is morally illiterate. Are there any morally relevant facts which Gore lacks? Is there any doubt that Gore's tacit support for Oxy is blameworthy given the the relevant facts?
He knows the trust contains Occidental stock, and he knows the effect Occidental's Colombian misadventures will likely have on the U'wa. He also knows that if Oxy's U'wa desolation is profitable, he stands to benefit financially. He knows that Oxy contributes heavily to the Democratic and to his campaign coffers. One thing he doesn't know is the exact capital gains tax he'll one day owe from the rape, pillage, and plunder of the U'wa. It can only be greed that prevents Gore from making a big show of divesting his Oxy stock; after all, it would mean huge political capital against Bush.
His unwillingness to do the moral minimum, to refrain from actively supporting Oxy, can only mean that Gore's greed, moral ineptitude, or both exceed his grasping ambition -- an unhappy and foreboding fact about the man who would be President.
-http://monkeyfist.com/articles/681
GORE'S PATENTED MONEY MOVES Why is Vice President Al Gore leading the Clinton Administration's efforts to prevent Third World countries like South Africa from producing or buying affordable generic versions of critically needed AIDS drugs? The answer: there's a presidential campaign on, and literally millions of dollars in hard and soft money contributions to be had by serving the interests of the U.S. and European pharmaceutical industry. Right now, the epicenter of the AIDS crisis is in the Third World, where most people cannot afford the sophisticated drugs that have proven helpful in slowing the progress of the disease. South African officials estimate, for example, that 20 percent of pregnant women there are HIV-positive, and a total of 3.2 million out of 40 million people are infected. In response, the country passed a law in 1997 allowing the licensing of domestic production of generic versions of AIDS drugs as well as the purchasing of cheaper versions on the world market. Many other countries are considering similar steps. But the pharmaceutical industry is worried that if Third World countries go ahead with these plans, their ability to charge vastly inflated prices back home in the U.S. may be undercut. While AZT, for example, can be purchased on the world market for 42 cents for 300 mg, it retails in the U.S. for nearly $6 a pill. In response, the Clinton Administration, taking its lead from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo-Wellcome, and Pfizer, which make the most widely used AIDS drugs, has charged South Africa with violating the World Trade Organization's rules regarding patents and intellectual property. Despite the fact that the WTO explicitly allows members to take such steps in the face of a national emergency or for public non-commercial use, the U.S. has placed South Africa on a "watch" list as a free-trade violator and denied it special tariff breaks on its exports. As co-chair with South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki of the main U.S.-South Africa trade commission, Vice President Gore has been at the forefront of this push, making the issue of "pharmaceutical patents in particular a central focus of his discussions with Deputy President Mbeki," according to a recent State Department report. At first glance, Gore's assiduous efforts seem counter-intuitive, since campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical lobby have tilted mostly to Republicans, especially since President Clinton's ill-fated effort at health care reform. But Gore, who has boasted of his goal to raise a record-breaking $55 million in 1999 for his presidential campaign, is clearly building on a long-standing foundation and series of relationships. And he has good reason to expect that the flow of pharmaceutical dollars will increase in his direction in the coming months. Before he ascended to the Vice Presidency, from 1983 to 1990 Congressman and Senator Al Gore raised at least $18,650 in PAC contributions from pharmaceuticals, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Clinton-Gore campaigns of 1992 and 1996 brought in $582,945 from Squibb, Glaxo-Wellcome, Pfizer and the PhRMA, including individual hard and soft money contributions to the Democratic party committees. Big drug companies also gave or lent another $250,000 to pay for Clinton-Gore's 1993 Inauguration. In 1997-98, Gore's "Leadership 98" PAC, the staging ground for his 2000 campaign, raised another $51,000 from pharmaceutical interests, and the four groups cited above gave another $276,850 in soft and hard money to Democratic party committees. The Gore campaign is also well-positioned to reap a bumper crop of pharmaceutical cash. Anthony Podesta, a close friend and top advisor to Gore, is one of the PhRMA's chief lobbyists. His firm was paid $160,000 by PhRMA to lobby on patent issues, among other matters, between January 1997 and June 1998. He was also retained by Genentech, a major biotech firm with an intense interest in protecting its patents, at the tune of $260,000 for the same period. (Genentech supplied $229,225 in soft and hard money contributions to Clinton-Gore and Democratic party committees between 1991 and 1998.) Former congressman Tom Downey, Gore's "First Friend" since their days together on the Hill, is a lobbyist for Merck. Peter Knight, Gore's head fundraiser, made $120,000 lobbying for Schering-Plough, another deep-pocketed drug company, in the first half of 1998. And Gore's chief domestic policy adviser, David Beier, was previously the top in-house lobbyist for Genentech. These people know who to dial for dollars. One last sign that the pharmaceutical lobby is warming to Gore: $11,000 in contributions to Gore 2000 from PhRMA, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech and Glaxo-Wellcome lobbyists in the first three months of 1999, including a thousand-dollar check from Glaxo-Wellcome's Director of Government Relations on March 31. Most of this money rolled in after consumer and AIDS activists started putting pressure on Gore's office to change his South Africa policy. Instead, at the end of April, he ordered a special full review of South Africa's trade policies, further ratcheting up the pressure on Pretoria to abandon its efforts to bring affordable AIDS drugs to its people. OUCH! is a regular e-mail bulletin on how private money in politics hurts average citizens, published by Public Campaign, a non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to comprehensive campaign finance reform. Every day, we pay more as consumers and taxpayers for special interest subsidies and boondoggles because of our system of privately financed elections. It's time for a change. Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and join the growing movement for real campaign finance reform. If you would like to add yourself to the OUCH! listserv, send a one-line e-mail message to majordomo@linuxcare.com reading "subscribe ouch". To remove yourself from the list, send a message to the same address reading "unsubscribe ouch". Want more info about Public Campaign? Visit www.publicampaign.org or write to info@publicampaign.org. This bulletin may be reposted to newsgroups as long as it is printed in its entirety.

borats personal presidential endorsement

Q: Who do you favor for President in the United States?


Borat: “I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A - in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun - very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier.”

girl with 8 limbs

this girl had a sucessful surgery today removing her extra 2 legs and 2 arms. she was named Lakshmi Tatma after the four-armed hindu goddess of wealth which is ironic being born to an incridibly poor family. some consider her to be a goddess.



She was born attached to a parasitic twin which ceased developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

She certainly is cute.

booty

Report: Somali pirates want U.S. Navy to back off


Story Highlights
NEW: Pirates want U.S. warship to move away, wife of crewman says
At one point U.S. Navy opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to Japanese ship
23 crew members from the Philippines, South Korea and Myanmar aboard
Navy also helped a North Korean ship overtaken by pirates earlier in the week



NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Pirates who hijacked a Japanese tanker off Somalia earlier this week are demanding a U.S. warship shadowing the vessel back off, the wife of the tanker's foreman said Friday.

A pirate skiff burns after being hit by gunfire from the destroyer USS Porter off Somalia this week.

"Apparently the navy ship was getting closer to them," Tess Villanueva, wife of the crew's foreman, Laureano, told The Associated Press in the Philippines. "The good news would be if they (pirates) leave the ship."
Villanueva said the information was relayed to her late Thursday by Redentor Anaya, vice president for operations of SeaCrest Maritime Management Inc., which recruited the Filipino crew for the Golden Nori.
Negotiations have started for the release of the Golden Nori, anchored in Somali waters with 23 crew members from the Philippines, South Korea and Myanmar, said Josefina Villanueva, Laureano's sister.
Josefina Villanueva said there had been no ransom demand from the pirates. "The talks are just starting. I think the pirates will later on demand something," she said.
"We're very worried," she added. "We're holding daily prayers in our house."
The U.S. Navy's guided missile destroyer USS Porter came to the aid of the Japanese chemical tanker this week, at one point opening fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to it.
It was not known Friday which U.S. Navy ship was near the tanker now.
On Thursday, the U.S. Navy said that it intended to remove the pirates from the Golden Nori, which was carrying benzene.
Don't Miss
Pirate attacks increase worldwide
Benzene, an industrial solvent, is both highly flammable and can be fatal if too much is inhaled.
On Friday, Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the captain of the ship contacted the Japanese company that owns the vessel the day before and reported that the crew was fine.
There has been no direct contact between the Philippine government and the pirates, he added.
"The problem is there is no central government in control (in Somalia)," he said.
Earlier this week, a North Korean tanker overrun by pirates was taken back after crew members overpowered the hijackers in a bloody fight. The hijackers were being held aboard the ship until they can be handed over for prosecution at a port.
After the clash, Navy personnel boarded the North Korean boat to treat the wounded. The U.S. efforts came despite its hostile relations with the communist country over its nuclear program.
"You'll always find our Navy prepared to help any ship in distress and certainly any ship that is confronting pirates," said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top American envoy to six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
Piracy "is a very serious security problem on the African coast. These are not pirates who will remind you of Johnny Depp. These are quite different kinds of pirates," Hill told reporters in Seoul, South Korea.
"So, I think we were pleased to be able to help in this regard and I hope the [North] understands that we did this out of the sense of good will that we have on this," he said.
Somali pirates are trained fighters, in some cases linked to powerful Somali clans, outfitted with sophisticated arms and equipment, including GPS satellite instruments. They have seized merchant ships, ships carrying aid, and once even a cruise ship.



-------------------------------------------------------------------

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Pirate attacks worldwide jumped 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007, with the biggest increases off the poorly policed waters of Somalia and Nigeria, an international watchdog reported Tuesday.

Suspected pirates ride a boat off the coast of Somalia in March 2006.

Reported attacks in Somalia rose rapidly to 26 up from eight a year earlier, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said through its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And some of those hijackings have turned deadly.
"The seafaring industry is very concerned about this," said Cyrus Mody, a senior analyst with IMB. "There is absolutely no regard for law in that area. Not only is it not good for business in Africa, but it blocks humanitarian aid and is bad for the general stability of the continent."
The political instability in Somalia gave pirates "totally free rein without any sort of deterrence from the law," Mody said. "They've got a free hand right now."
Somalia has had 16 years of violence and anarchy, and is now led by a government battling to establish authority even in the capital. Its coasts are virtually unpoliced.
Piracy off Somalia increased this year after Ethiopian forces backing Somali government troops ousted an Islamic militia in December, said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program which independently monitors piracy in the region.
During the six months that the Council of Islamic Courts ruled most of southern Somalia, where Somali pirates are based, piracy abated, Mwangura said.
At one point, the Islamic group said it was sending scores of fighters to crack down on pirates there. Islamic fighters even stormed a hijacked UAE-registered ship and recaptured it after a gunbattle in which pirates -- but no crew members -- were reportedly wounded.
In May, pirates complaining their demands had not been met killed a crew member a month after seizing a Taiwan-flagged fishing vessel off Somalia's northeastern coast.
Pirates even targeted vessels on humanitarian missions, such as the MV Rozen, which was hijacked in February soon after it had delivered food aid to northeastern Somalia. The ship and its crew were released in April, but the World Food Program has since relied on more expensive air deliveries for Somalia.
Mwangura told The Associated Press that "some elements" in the Somali transitional federal government and some businessmen in Puntland, a northeastern Somalia region, are involved because "piracy is a lucrative business."
Somali government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
IMB director Pottengal Mukundan urged ships to stay as far away as possible from the coasts of Somalia and Nigeria.
"The level of violence in high-risk areas remain unacceptable. Pirates in Somalia are operating with impunity, seizing vessels hundreds of miles off the coast and holding the vessel and crew to ransom, making no attempt to hide their activity," he said.
Indonesia remained the world's worst piracy hotspot, with 37 attacks in the first nine months of 2007. But that was an improvement from 40 in the same period a year earlier, IMB said.
Stephen Morrison, Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said much piracy is linked to weak law of the sea and weak legal institutions.
"The pirates go out and hit ships with food relief cargo, they hit tourist liners," Morrison said. "There's a lawless environment with weak states and a weak institution. When there's opportunity, motivation and means, that's where there are clusters of piracy."
Oil-rich Nigeria suffered 26 pirate attacks so far this year, up from nine in the same period last year.
A Nigerian navy spokesman, Capt. Henry Babalola, said criminals are now targeting the most vulnerable vessels -- shipping trawlers -- because authorities have cracked down on crude oil theft. The pirates also seize valuable communications gear.
Mwangura said hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom have been paid to secure the release of vessels hijacked this year and part of the money is, "paid through bank accounts of individuals in (Kenyan cities) Nairobi and Mombasa."
The IMB said Southeast Asia's Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways, has been relatively quiet with 198 attacks on ships reported between January and September, up from 174 in the same period in 2006.
It said 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew members kidnapped and three killed.
Joint efforts by Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have kept piracy under control in the Malacca Strait, Mody said. Those states had poured a considerate amount of additional resources into fighting piracy since last year, including increased patrolling and law enforcement on the water.

while i'm daydreaming...

rail freight lines

http://www.railserve.com/Freight/North_America/index.html


http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/train1b.html


http://www.mapempire.com/railroad.htm


http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/maps.php


http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/rail/railusa.htm


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929324022/ref=nosim/gearedsteamlocom

http://www.amazon.com/freighthoppers-manual-North-America-Hoboing/dp/088496129X


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freight_Train_Riders_of_America


http://milepost1147.2.railfan.net/pages/stories/Article009.html


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930846231/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/

bubble gum and band aids

it seems like i always get the last of the coffee and get stuck making a new pot.





i almost fell asleep then had an epiphany which i promptly forgot.







i wish i could throw all my thoughts in a bucket and start over.








everyday i resist the urge to grab my dogs and jump in a boxcar.







sometimes when i recall old memories i can't distinguish them from dreams.






sometimes i feel like my dreams are more exciting than my life.







why do sunny meadows have to be covered in spiders.






rain is so trendy.






everyday i wish i was hiking.





music is the great american rip off.





sunshine and vitamins go hand in hand.









i really have nothing to say.