Bloody Massacre

Luckiest Woman Alive Wins 4th Multi-Million Dollar Jackpot

2010-07-18T20:34:00.001+08:00

Once, twice, three times a millionaire -- now it's four.

Joan R. Ginther, a native of Bishop who moved to Las Vegas, made her fourth appearance Monday at lottery headquarters in Austin to collect seven figures, lottery officials said.

Ginther, 63, won $10 million, the top prize in Texas Lottery's $140,000,000 Extreme Payout scratch-off ticket, pushing her total wins to $20.4 million.

It was her third time to win on a ticket from a Bishop store, and second one at Times Market at 525 Highway 77 Bypass, in Bishop.

"This is a very lucky store," said Bob Solis, store manager. The owner Sun Bae is the one with the lucky hand, Solis said. "Sun sold both the winning tickets to the woman."

The store, which sells about 1,000 lottery tickets daily, now is eligible to receive a bonus of $10,000 for the second time, lottery officials said.

"It's incredible for the store owner," said Bobby Heith, spokesman for the commission. "Most of our 16,000 retail stores have never sold a winning ticket."

In 1993 Ginther first won a $5.4 million share of an $11 million Lotto Texas jackpot for a ticket bought in Bishop. She opted for annual payments of $270,000 (excluding tax charges) for 19 years.

On year 13, while visiting Bishop to care for her father in 2006, Ginther won the top prize of $2 million in the Holiday Millionaire game. It was on a $30 scratch-off ticket she bought at Diamond Shamrock at 525 S. 14th St. in Kingsville. Ginther requested a lump-sum payment of about $1.5 million, after the 25 percent taken by the commission for taxes.

Two years later she collected a $3 million prize in Millions and Millions, another scratch-off, at the same Times Market where she won this week.

Ginther requested minimal publicity, according to the lottery commission, and could not be reached Friday.

The commission doesn't calculate the odds of winning millions more than once, Heith said.

"We have had multiple winners before," he said. "But she's obviously been born under a lucky star."

The Strange Science of Organ Transplant Memory Transfer

2010-05-01T20:16:00.001+08:00

The Strange Science of Organ Transplant Memory Transfer

Becoming an organ donor is a great way to help out a person in the event of one's death. A study has shown, however, that sometimes donor recipients take on certain characteristics or personality traits from the donor, a phenomenon that researchers are having a difficult time explaining.

Paul Pearsall, a neuropsychologist, wrote about this interesting topic in his book, The Heart's Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy. In it, he provides insight into his belief that the physical heart contains within it memories belonging to its person. Part of Pearsall's research for the book included tracking several real life cases of heart transplant recipients who mysteriously inherited some of their donors' traits.

In one case, a Spanish-speaking man began using words that he had not used prior to his transplant. He received his heart from a man named David who had died in a car accident. David's wife, Glenda, when meeting the recipient of her husband's heart for the first time, used the word "copacetic" to describe the situation. The recipient's mother quickly replied that her son had begun using that word for the first time and that it did not even have a Spanish equivalent, indicating that he had adopted the word from David.

The recipient's son, who had before been a vegetarian, began craving meat and greasy food after his transplant. His music preferences also changed from favoring heavy metal to preferring fifties rock 'n' roll. All of these preferences turned out to be David's preferences as well.

In another case, an 8-year-old girl who had received a heart transplant from a 10-year-old girl that had been murdered, began to have nightmares about the donor's murderer. After several consultations with a psychiatrist, it was decided that the police should be notified. The 8-year-old recipient was able to identify key clues about the murder, including who the murderer was, when and how it happened, and even the words spoken by the murderer to the victim. Amazingly, the entire testimony turned out to be true and the murderer was convicted for his crime.

Pearsall's 73 different case studies point to the fact that both the brain and the heart hold important information about a person. According to his analysis, cell communication that occurs throughout the body on a continual basis can continue to occur after an organ has been removed from one person and transplanted into another. Information from the donor seems to install into the recipient's memory.

Critics argue that such a phenomenon is not possible, but the proof is in the cases themselves. In one case, a 3-year-old Arab girl received a heart transplant from an 8-year-old Jewish boy who died in a car accident. After her surgery, the girl asked for a type of Jewish candy that, prior to the surgery, she did not even know existed.

How to Be Anywhere in the Universe

2010-04-28T21:31:00.000+08:00

By Michael Jura / Source: One Universal Mind

What happens to space/time?

According to the non-locality (bridging of space/time: Space and time does not really exist at the level of particles) principle of quantum physics that was proven experimentally in 1982 by the research team of Alain Aspect working at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Optics of the university of Paris, France, the inequality of John Bell had been finally violated and the Einstein/Poldowsky/Rosen (E.P.R.) paradox finally solved.

Hence Einstein had been wrong in refuting quantum mechanics principle of non-locality because he had conceptual problems with its extraordinary implications upon our so-called material world and the nature of reality.

To the layman this means that Einstein erred in assuming that speeds faster than light were impossible and/or that space and time did not operate at the quantum level (particle level).

By extension we can say that it seems that our phenomenal world is in reality supported by an indivisible reality, non-local (at that level space does not exist), and non subject to the restrictions of time (time does not seem to have any meaning at that level).

This is equivalent to saying that no element (alive or inanimate) in this universe is separate from another , although at the level of individual perceptions of reality it certainly seems to be so!

This correlates strongly with the Holographic model of the universe that the physicist David Bohm postulated as an explanation for the paradoxes that quantum physics raises.

David Bohm, who was one of the preferred students of Einstein at Princeton University and was part of the ìManhattan project? ( the development of the American A bomb during WW II), was considered before his death in 1992 as one of the greatest theoretical quantum physicist.

Bohm was puzzled by physical phenomenon such as the Quantum-Tunneling effect which is at the base of the semi-conductor theory and gave us the creation of the transistor, microchips, Josephson junctions in Super-Computers etc... where a particle such as an electron seems to know beforehand if a barrier that it will encounter is strong enough to repulse it back, and if this is not the case, the particle literally vanishes (dematerializes) itself before encountering the obstacle and rematerializes itself on the other side of the barrier.

For Bohm who took his clues from the model of the hologram, if as quantum physics suggests our universe is non-local and infinitely interconnected at some deeper level of reality, instead of viewing a particle as a material object traveling through space, it might be better to view it as something that unfolds out of a deeper level of reality that he coined The Implicate Order: a gigantic multidimensional holographic reality (outside of the realm of space/time) made out of vibratory light carrying information that would encompass the totality of Creation.

This Implicate Order would spread its tentacles to every sentient unit of Creation as it goes through a constant dance of unfolding itself into its mirror image as the Explicate World (i.e the reality perceived by our senses) and projects to each observing individualized piece of consciousness the illusion of a material world out there at the level of conscious awareness.

The implicate order ( let's call it the web of life) is where all possibilities are there and time/space has no meaning.

And the Implicate Order keeps on projecting out onto the consciousnesses witnessing the explicate world what we perceive as reality in a step-by-step fashion.

After each unfolding, there is an enfolding back onto the Implicate Order (while the sentient unit of mind become unconscious again) and the fetching of additional pieces of information that will unfold back holographically to the same unit of consciousness (as that unit becomes aware -- conscious -- again of the next step of the show of Creation).

So that in effect what a unit of consciousness considers a flow of situations is but a succession of discontinuous sensory imagery being projected on-and-off to an entity.

Therefore all an entity is, is a processor of information filtered through his senses that it translates as its reality. And that allows him/her to act upon (co-create) it by choosing the next step.

This would explain the reason, if we accept that reality at the macroscopic level is discontinuous under the illusion of continuity, why in Quantum Physics according to the uncertainty principle only the location of a particle at the microscopic level can at any point be precisely described but that its real trajectory cannot be known and remains ìfuzzy?.

It is the contact with the Higher Self (interfacing with the Implicate Order) that allows one to bridge instantly space/time.

This is why Remote Viewing is only possible and effective when one operates from the perspective of the higher levels of the subconscious mind.

If this level of merger with the higher level of the subconscious mind is not reached, too much static (noise) interferes in the viewing and one might fail while attempting to view a remote site in the present, past or future.

New Earth like Planet Discovered Gliese 581c

2009-02-27T12:06:00.001+08:00

For the first time in history, an Earth-like planet has been discovered orbiting a distant star. The planet resides in the star’s “Goldilocks Zone” where liquid water –and life could occur. The team of Swiss, French and Portuguese astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6 m telescope to make this incredible discovery.

At only one and a half times the radius of Earth, Gliese 581 C is the third and smallest planet to be discovered orbiting a Red Dwarf star located 20.5 light years away in the constellation Libra and the first one to approach the Earth’s size

Quantum Consciousness

2009-02-27T12:05:00.001+08:00

Learn How to Use the Alpha Level to Think, Create, Innovate and Pull Ideas Out of Thin Air!

2009-02-21T20:23:00.000+08:00

Learn How to Use the Alpha Level to Think, Create, Innovate and Pull Ideas Out of Thin Air!

We hope that you’ve had an amazing experience listening to The Silva Centering Exercise, where you learned to enter deep levels of relaxation and meditation.

This lesson will show you that by opening your mind to a flood of creative ideas and inspiration, you will be able to .

By simply meditating daily you gain immense life-long health benefits. This is commonly called passive meditation.

But there is another type of meditation that we teach at the Silva Seminar. We call this active meditation.

Rather than going to your alpha level and simply remaining there in a state of relaxed meditation, we teach you to use this level of mind to accomplish anything you desire.
Now the real fun begins.

You can use this level of mind to:

* gain inspirational ideas and thoughts,
* program your brain to kick bad habits,
* accelerate your natural healing process,
* develop your intuition.

You can even use this level of mind to create coincidences to move you toward your goals.

Today, we’re going to focus on teaching you how to use this level of mind to gain creative ideas or inspiration.

Perhaps you’re looking to write a term paper, create a marketing plan for you business or compose a song – you’ll learn how to tap into your inner source of creativity to guide you.
Gaining Inspiration From Within

Jose Silva used to demonstrate an experiment on creativity with kids in his hometown of Laredo, Texas. He would ask kids to think of solutions to a particular problem while they were at the beta, or waking, level of mind.

He would then guide them to the alpha, or meditative level of mind and ask them to think of further solutions. The children were always able to come up with more ideas while at alpha.

Does your mind function more creatively when you’re at the alpha level of mind?

There is surprising evidence for this, both from first-hand experiences and laboratory evidence. Napoleon Hill, the best-selling author of Think and Grow Rich and The Laws of Success believed that the human mind was capable of tapping into universal fields of intelligence to access ideas and inspiration.
Napoleon Hill writes:

The great artists, writers, musicians and poets became great because they acquire the habit of relying upon the still, small voice that speaks from within, through the faculty of creative imagination. It is a fact well known to people who have keen imaginations that their best ideas come through so-called “hunches”.

Hill talks about how one inventor from Maryland, the late Dr. Elmer R. Gates, used this technique to come up with over 200 patents. Gates would sit in his soundproof laboratory equipped with a pad of writing paper.

He would shut off the lights and ponder on the known factors of the invention on which he was working. He would remain in this position until ideas began to “flash” into his mind in connection with the unknown factors of the invention.

On one occasion, ideas came so fast to Gates that he was forced to write for almost three hours. When the thoughts stopped flowing and he examined his work he found that they contained a minute description of principles that had no parallel among the known data of the scientific world. Moreover the answer to his problem was intelligently presented in those notes.

The greatest inventor of our time, Thomas Alva Edison, used a similar technique. Edison was known for taking frequent naps in the middle of the day. It’s likely that during these naps he was entering the alpha level. He would often come out of these naps with the solution to problems that had been bugging him. Edison was awarded 1368 distinct patents and invented, among other things, the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, the film projector, and the first motion picture.

Edison was known to have said, “Ideas come from space. This may seem impossible and hard to believe but it’s true. Ideas come from out of space.”
Where Do Ideas Come From?

Where do creative ideas come from? The brain? The mind?

For best-selling author Richard Bach, a Silva graduate, the idea came from a bird. Bach said this in an interview quoted in the November 1972 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

“I was walking along one night, worrying about the rent, when I heard this voice say, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. But no one was there. I had absolutely no idea what it meant. When I got home, I suddenly had a vision of a seagull flying along, and I began to write. The story certainly didn’t spring from any conscious invention on
my part. I just put down what I saw.”

Silva Instructor Wingate Paine told us the rest of the story during an instructor training session in Laredo not long after the book became a bestseller.

Wingate said that Bach had written the first two-thirds of the book from a “dream-like” experience where a big seagull appeared to him and said,

“Take dictation, I have a story for you.“ But the bird faded away before the completion of the story. Wingate said that Bach told him he did not know how to get the bird to come back so that he could finish the book, until he took the Silva course.

Then he knew how to get to that “dream-like“ level and how to invite Jonathan Livingston Seagull to this creative level to tell him the rest of the story.

Bach said in a Harper’s Bazaar article that even before taking the Silva training, he’d come to assume that “there are certain ‘hidden’ capacities and powers which can be taught. I think there is a terrifically pleasant principle behind existence – do what you love to do and you’ll be guided. It’s a lot like flying a plane: You have to trust what you can’t see.”

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was an immediate hit. The book was a bestseller, and the movie based on the book was a huge hit. In fact, Jonathan Livingston Seagull and the books that Bach wrote afterwards helped to bring about a spiritual awakening on the planet, by helping people to understand and accept their own spirituality.
Intuition in the Business World

Does this concept have applications in the world of business?

Professor John Mihalasky, Professor Emeritus of Industrial Engineeringat the New Jersey Institute of Technology, seems to think so. In experiments he performed with company CEOs he observed that the CEOs who performed best in tests of intuition also tended to be the ones with the best success rates at running their business (measured in terms of 5 year profitability growth).

Prof. Mihalasky’s experiment results are summarized in the table below.
% Profitability Increase of the CEO’s company over the last 5 years CEO Intuition Test Score
Above Chance Chance Below Chance
Greated than 100% 81.5% 25% 27.3%
50% – 99% 18.5% 50% 18.2%
Below 50% 0% 25% 54.5%

Note that the CEOs with the greatest profitability increases (100% or more) also had the greatest number of correct “guesses” in intuition tests. 81.5% of them performed above chance results. On the opposite end, of the CEOs with the poorest results, none scored above chance in the intuition test. Of CEOs with mediocre numbers the results were consistent with statistical chance results.
What does this mean?

Perhaps Napoleon Hill was correct when he suggested in his book “The Laws of Success” that the most successful people of his time, had learned to tap into their sixth sense.

“A genius”, Hill said “is a man who has discovered how to increase the intensity of thought to a point where he can freely communicate with sources of knowledge not available through the ordinary rate of thought”.

This concept of tapping into a universal source of ideas also has applications in the world of science and technology.

A research director at NDM (New Foundations in Medicine) took a Silva course while working on a project to develop artificial arteries. He had come up with 4 different formulas while at beta, but none of them worked. Silva instructor Ken Obermeyer explained what happened next.

The NDM researcher used a technique he learned in class and programmed himself to have a dream that would contain information that he could use to solve the problem he had in mind—the best formula for artificial arteries.

“He awakened sometime during the night,” Obermeyer said, “and wrote out a formula,” then he went back to sleep.

“When he awakened in the morning, he saw the formula, went into the laboratory, put a sample together, and found that the human body would accept his plastic.”

“One interesting note about this creative solution,” Obermeyer continued.

“The chemist said that if he had considered this formula on his beta information, he wouldn’t have believed it to be a formula the body would accept. He would not have come up with this solution through reason and logic.”

Here’s how you can use this technique.
The Basic Technique

Go to your alpha level using the meditation techniques you learned in part 2 of this lesson.

When you have reached your alpha level, think of the problem you wish to solve.

When you quiet your personality during meditation you open the channel for higher wisdom and guidance to come to you through your intuitive mind.

Analyze the problem from all aspects and bring to mind all points of information or data you have on the problem. Frame the specific questions in your mind.

Now let your mind wander. Jot down any interesting ideas or thoughts that come to you. The answer may come to you through words, mental pictures or feelings.

The Illusionist Of Brad Christian-Ninja 2 : Weapons

2008-04-11T20:15:00.001+08:00

D.R.C- I Only Bleed For You

2008-04-09T20:04:00.001+08:00

what does it mean to be a man?

2008-02-06T16:08:00.000+08:00

viewed one way, one could say that a boy becomes a man by undergoing
coming of age rituals that society deems necessary. traditionally, we
recognize this in many ways: religiously (bar mitzvahs or confirmations
for jews and christians), legally (age of majority), educationally
(graduation from school), sexually (losing one's virginity*) and a whole host
of other ways.

these are, of course, completely useless when speaking of individuals,
and that's what i want to talk about here.

i have a great fondness for coming of age stories: one of my all-time
favorite movies is stand by me, and not just b/c it happens to have a
kick-ass soundtrack. it speaks of friendship and the transition from
innocence to experience--or if you prefer, from boyhood to manhood. and
while maybe the four aren't men at the end of the story, they're no longer
really boys anymore, are they?

as i look around, i see a lot of folks who may legally be men, who may
chronologically or physiologically be men, but they're nothing but
little boys transplanted into bigger bodies, and really, it all comes down
to one word: responsibility.

responsibility is the trait of being accountable for what you do and
say, at its most basic level. but we all understand responsibility in
that way--i won't insult your intelligence by droning on and on about it.
no, what i want to talk about is the ramifications of responsibility,
because there are a few:

what you say
the things you say make up half of what people know about you. and i
regularly see people who physiologically or chronologically might be
called men but ultimately fail to be men. this bothers me, and it should
bother you, too.

i'm talking about being man enough to say "i was wrong: i screwed up
and i will fix this" when you've been or done wrong. infallibility,
despite what the vatican says, is simply not possible for humans. we're all
of us flawed and therefore, we all make mistakes: of inattention, of
ignorance, of just plain being wrong, whatever. so if you find yourself
in such a position, own up to it.

i'm talking about being man enough to say "i feel this way" about
things that matter. don't let society or culture tell you that it isn't
"manly" to talk about the things that matter. be man enough to lay it on
the line. be man enough to see a person hurts and give that person some
compassion. it costs you nothing, and you might need that yourself some
day. be man enough to say that you don't care how it makes you look: if
you can't be true to yourself, you can't be true to anything.

i'm talking about being man enough to say "my mistakes are mine, not
yours". don't try to hang your screw-ups on someone else, least of all
the people you claim to care about. it doesn't matter if someone provoked
you, or if something pissed you off: you and only you have
responsibility for what comes out of your pie-hole. don't make excuses--"o, i was
drunk", "o, i was tired"--that doesn't wash. you know it doesn't. don't
try to make it sound like you believe it for a nanosecond because we
don't believe and deep down, neither do you.

that's what i mean about taking responsibility for what you say.
anything less is the province of little boys. don't be a little boy.

what you do
the things you do make up the other half of what people know about you.
again, i regularly see people who i would expect to act like men
behaving like little boys. and that doesn't just bother me: it pisses me
off. and it should piss you off, too, because it's easy to say things:
it's usually harder to do them.

i'm talking about being man enough to confront your fears. don't be
afraid to see the doctor because you're afraid the doc is gonna tell you
[x]. you don't know what the doc is gonna tell you. of course you don't:
you aren't a doctor. and even if you are, you know that self-diagnosis
is impossible. so go see the doctor. get off your butt and go. people
in your life need you not to be hospitalized because you ignored
something when you knew something was wrong. because if you do, you've just
let fear steal your manhood, and will continue to let it rob from you
every time you make excuses. conquer fear. that is being responsible for
what you do.

i'm talking about being man enough not to put things off that matter.
are you happy with your job? no? then go and find a new one, or make the
current one better. there's hundreds of jobs out there. you might not
have found it yet, sure--hell, i know i haven't. but it's there and
it's waiting for you. have you been putting off taking care of things
around the house? close the browser and do it now. all this will still be
here. have you put off doing something nice for that special person in
your life, or your kids? then why the hell are you wasting your time
reading this? go and make the arrangements now. that is being responsible
for what you do.

i'm talking about being man enough to not to need to control
everything. is there someone you're sharing your life with? wife, girlfriend,
fiancée? hell, significant other, boyfriend? do you spend your evenings
doing things that you want to do, or doing things that you both want to
do? think real hard about that: maybe that person in your life doesn't
want to tell you what she wants to do because you always say no. is that
you? if so, i say to you: be man enough to say, "look, let's do what
you want to do: whatever you want. maybe i haven't wanted to before but
it's time we do what you want to do". and for the love of pete: don't
make it a one-time thing. that is being responsible for what you do.

and that's what i mean by taking responsibility for what you do.
anything less is the province of little boys. don't be a little boy.

in closing
take responsibility for the things you say and do. these are how people
know who you are. everything you say or do is an indelible part of who
you are.

ladies: if you're going to print this out or send the link to someone
you think needs to see it--and i invite you to do so--tell 'em to
register. i will knock some damned sense into him and i know i can rely on
quite a few of the others to do the same.

men: what say you, men? can the ladies--or men, for that matter--count
on you to knock some sense into the little boys out there masquerading
as men? cuz i've got a cluebat here just waiting. how about you?

so: think i'm completely full of it? am i making sense? tell me: i'm
man enough to take it.

ed

*losing one's virginity is of course is the coming of age ritual that
means the very least. how did such a meaningless thing come to take on
such importance? the mind boggles.

10 Things I Hate About Being Sick

2008-02-06T16:06:00.000+08:00

I have no energy.
I wake up with a throat coated with gross filmy mucous.
My throat is also "coated" with pain.
I can't concentrate on the work I do need to get done.
I'm grumpy because I have no energy and can't concentrate.
I have no appetite.
Taking a nap during the day throws off my sleep schedule, which makes me even more grumpy.

Predator as Protector

2008-01-29T15:50:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, I posted about my experience with an intruder in my motel room during my move to Mexico. At the end of the story, I told how I remained somewhat traumatized for a while after that happened, and because of my fear, I let my new boyfriend move in with me, because I felt safer with him in the house. That got me to thinking about other times in my life when I've relied on a man's company to protect me or give me a sense of security in the face of danger (real, perceived or potential) from another man or men.

For example, I wanted very much to go to Morocco the first time that I traveled to Europe, but I'd heard that it was very unsafe for women traveling alone, as I was, so I didn't go. Years later, I finally got to go with an old boyfriend, and we had a great time. But I think I would have had to deal with a lot of harassment, or worse, if I didn't have him with me.

I'm probably not the best person to be writing about this, because I don't often turn to men for protection. But my point is that many women do. We live in a world that is much more dangerous than most men can even imagine. Sure, men get mugged, and murdered, etc., too, but women are much easier prey when you consider the relative sizes and strength of the average male and the average female, so we get attacked much more often, whether on the streets by a stranger, or in our homes by a "loved one." And when a man is attacked by another man, his strength is usually more evenly matched with his assailant's and so, he's at least got a fighting chance, unless there's a weapon involved. When a woman is attacked, it's usually by a man, and any woman who's taken a decent self defense class can tell you that even the smallest of men is harder to fight off than the largest woman.

So, what do we do with this fear that we live with, on some level or another of our consciousness, on a daily basis? A lot of times, we turn to men for protection. Like me having my boyfriend move in with me, or finding a male travel partner. And when I lost my virginity in a date rape, who did I turn to for comfort and consolation? .... the guy who had just raped me. I'm sure the rest of you can think of plenty of other examples from your own lives.

Why am I writing about this? Because it makes me so angry! When you think about it, here we (women) are living in a world made dangerous for us, largely by men. And who do we turn to for protection? Men. In other words, our oppressors are also our protectors? How sick is that? Did you ever think that the world is set up in this way just for that very purpose... that men create this dangerous world for us to live in, specifically so that we will turn to them for protection... so that we will need them?

Yes, yes, I know that there are no board rooms full of men, sitting around deciding these things. But that's not how social institutions are created over the long run anyway. Do you think that there is something deep in the male psyche that tells them to create a world in which they might be considered indispensible to the female of the species? (and this was the only idea they could come up with?) Could it be a survival mechanism, because science will soon make them obsolete (for reproductive purposes), and, somehow, that knowledge was programmed into primitive man? Okay, that was a little tongue in cheek, but seriously,

If you are a woman, do you rely on men for protection from other men, and if so, does it make you angry?

If you are a man, what thoughts do you have on this. Can you see how our world is different from yours because of our (typically) physical disadvantages? How would you deal with it if the shoe were on the other foot?

Cheap Psychological Trick #1

2008-01-29T15:48:00.001+08:00

I once found myself in the International Airport in Mexico City with a hankering for something to eat. There were plenty of restaurants in the terminal, and I was particularly attracted to one that had big pictures of their entrees on the outer wall facing some of the seats in the waiting area by my gate... sizzling seafood, fajitas, hamburgers... it all looked so good. My mouth was just watering.

I checked out the prices on the menu posted outside the door, and I guess I wasn't surprised that they were about three times what I would pay on the street, but cheapskate that I am, I just refused to pay those prices. The bastards think they've got you where they want you, just because you're in an airport terminal, and you can't go anywhere else to grab a quick bite. But I wasn't having any of it.

I went into one of the little shops in the terminal and bought myself a couple of bags of Cheetos. Then, I sat myself in one of those seats facing all the pictures of the restaurant's mouth watering entrees, and I ate my Cheetos, savoring every one, letting it melt in my mouth, while I looked at the pictures. By the time I was done, I felt just as satisfied as if I had sat down to one of those meals, but I'd paid a fraction of the price. (okay, yes, I did pay three times as much for those Cheetos as I would have on the street, but it was a lot less than buying one of those meals).

So, next time you find yourself in a similar situation, try out this cheap psychological trick and let me know how it works for you.

When a Woman Cries

2008-01-29T15:45:00.000+08:00

Just a week after I moved into my new place, I was hard at work, writing lesson plans for the marathon English lessons I was going to be giving at the airport form my new job. It was exhausting work, mostly because it just involved so much thinking… and pondering, and hesitating, and re-thinking. Oy! Because I hadn’t worked in five years, and because I was going to be observed the first day on the job, I wanted to make sure that everything went absolutely perfectly, and that meant timing everything just right, integrating all the specific needs of the air traffic controllers into the lesson plan, including some relevant grammar points, preteaching new vocabulary, and tying everything up with a production exercise at the end. (I’ll bet you never thought that teaching language was so complicated, did you?)

By 11 p.m., I still had a long way left to go, and only one day left to do it in, but I was so exhausted that I thought I could do a better job if I went to sleep and got up early Sunday morning to finish it off. So, that’s what I did. Not 15 minutes after I turned the light off, I heard my flatmate, The Transformer (TT) come home from work. She banged around in the kitchen for a few minutes, and I was too tired to even get annoyed about it. Then, I heard her knocking softly on my door. There was no way I was getting up to chat when I was so tired, so I just kept quiet and ignored the knock, hoping she would get the idea that I was asleep. That’s when I heard my door open.

I couldn’t believe it. I’ve lived with a lot of people before, and nobody has ever breached the sanctity of the closed bedroom door before… and if you know anything about me, it’s that you just don’t fuck with my sleep. That’s sacred. So, I was already annoyed when I gave out a little grunt, hoping she would take the hint, realize I was sleeping and go away. But no. She ventured a step or two into the room and asked if I was sleeping. I got up and staggered toward the door to see what she wanted.

“I’m lonely,” she said. I felt a sudden urge to pee and motioned her into my room while I went to the bathroom. When I came out, she had gone back to her room, but I was awake now, and my curiosity was piqued. I also felt like I wanted to be a good friend, and honor my commitment to the Most Important Person in the World. So, I went and got her, and brought her back to my room to talk. I sat on my bed, and she surprised me by sitting on the floor, even though there are about three or four chairs in my room.

“I’m lonely,” she said, and began to cry. “I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be in there… alone. I don’t want to sleep alone. Can I sleep with you?”

I knew what this was about. She’d told me that her reason for coming to Prague two weeks ago was that her girlfriend of 10 years had broken up with her. She still worshipped this girl. And, in spite of that, I felt from the beginning that she was developing a crush on me, and her request to sleep with me more or less confirmed it.

I have to admit that I had been toying with the idea, but wasn’t inclined to rush into anything for what I considered a very important reason. Anyone who has had a ten year relationship, and especially someone who is on the rebound from said relationship is not suitable dating material for me. I’m a menace to people like that. I am a confirmed commitment-phobe, not only with relationships, but with everything. I get bored with jobs, with homes, with cities, with countries.. I can’t even commit to a selection off the menu in a restaurant! So, when I recognize that someone is looking for the long haul, I back off, unless I’ve gotten to know that person very well, and think that I might be able to finally make a go of it, but I’ve never had a relationship last for more than a couple of years, and most of them have been seriously shorter than that. So, to just experiment with my sexuality (I’ve never been with a woman before) at the risk of her getting emotionally attached when it might not have staying power for me, would be emotional irresponsibility in the extreme on my part. I just wasn’t willing to do that.

And now, with her sitting on the floor of my room crying, all of the sexual tension that had been building up during the week I’d known her, dissipated instantly. That confidence that had initially attracted me was gone. That can happen to anyone, but this was way too early in our “friendship” for me to take it all in as a part of the whole. Suddenly, to me, she was her neediness. Suddenly, I felt pressure, obligation, all the things that make me suffocate. I didn’t want her happiness to depend on me.

I tried to talk to her about how she was feeling and why she was feeling so lonely. She remarked that I am all in my head while she is all in her heart. I nodded with recognition. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. It always feels like a criticism, whether people mean it that way or not, because I’d rather be a more feeling person. But I’m better with words.

She felt awkward and got up to go. I got up to, and she threw her arms around me in one of those A-frame hugs that women are wont to do. I knew she was holding herself back, and because I hate the A-frame, and I feel like, if you’re going to hug, you might as well hug, I pulled her closer to me and hugged her back, rubbing her back and trying my best to comfort her, but I felt clumsy and inadequate as she stroked the back of my head. I couldn’t find it within myself to turn this into a romantic encounter… not only because I didn’t feel it, but also because I didn’t want to take advantage of her vulnerability. And then, there was the feeling of hugging a woman… even this woman who claims to be a man trapped in a woman’s body. S/he just felt like a wisp of smoke… no substance… weak… like a child. And I felt like a man. Here it was again.. maybe lfbno7 was right?

I invited her to sit next to me on the bed so we could talk, even though talking wasn’t what she wanted to do. I told her that I felt like I was the man and she was the woman.

“I was born with this body,” she defended herself.

“It’s not that,” I told her. “It’s your energy. You have the energy of a child.”

She was surprised to hear it. I told her that I didn’t always feel that way with her, but in this moment, I felt like a mother comforting a child, or like a man comforting a woman. Mind you, this entire conversation took place in a combination of Polish and Czech, neither of which I have any handle on, so communication was sketchy at best.

She eventually offered to let me get some sleep, and I took her up on her offer, explaining how much work I had to do, and how I was going to be observed on my first day. She had apparently given up on the idea of sleeping with me. After she left, I turned my light off and lay down to sleep. She was banging around in the kitchen some more, and I couldn’t really interpret the sounds I was hearing, but at first, it sounded like she was rattling around in the utensils, and then it almost sounded as if she were moving furniture.

My mind was filled with memories of my early days in Mexico… my young boyfriend and his propensity toward suicide. For nearly two months straight, I had gotten nearly no sleep, between waking up in the middle of the night to literally wrestle the knife out of his hands (and he fought back so much that it often took hours), or to chase him down to the river and stop him from throwing himself off the bridge. I told myself that I was projecting. I told myself that I wasn’t responsible for her actions. Then, I told myself that I had to get up and check it out. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t.

Her door was closed, and I knocked hesitantly. She bade me to enter, and I did. She was sitting in front of her table with some food. I told her I had heard some sounds and was afraid that she might be doing something bad. She laughed and said that she’d been opening a can of peas. (Yet another house without a can opener… and the knives here are dull!)

We chatted for a while, and she noticed that I was standing and invited me to sit down next to her on her bed, which I did. She said that it was better when our eyes were on an equal level. I agreed, and asked her, why then, had she sat on the floor in my room. She said she didn’t want to sit on my bed. I asked why. She said,

“Because you’re lovely.”

She added that she would have wanted to kiss me. Then she asked if she could kiss me, and I told her,

“Not now.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I don’t know. Maybe sometime when it’s more natural.”

But to tell the truth, I didn’t know if it was ever going to be natural enough. The tension had been broken. She’d gotten to easy. She wasn’t a challenge anymore. Once lost, could that ever be regained? I doubted it. And what do these thoughts say about me? What would I say or think if a guy expressed the same thoughts?

I went to sleep and didn’t see much of her for the next few days because of our conflicting work schedules. There was a night when she wanted me to go out to watch country dancing with her, but I had taught all day and then done some apartment hunting, so I was beat, and I declined. Instead of going herself, with the friend who had invited her, she stayed home with me, for the little bit of time I could give her before I had to turn in.

Last night, after my second day on the job, I was exhausted again (I have to get up at 5:45 am to get there on time). She invited me to go to a club, but in addition to being really tired, I’m just really not into clubs. She told me it was not a typical club and that I would like it, but I just couldn’t get myself awake enough to think about going out. So, she suggested that we stay in and make our own club… with our own music, etc. I told her okay, as long as it was quiet music. I didn’t really feel like doing anything. Just wanted to be alone. I didn’t like this feeling of obligation to spend time with her all of a sudden. Doesn’t this seem ironic after I spent the whole summer feeling so lonely and chasing after all those pirates to no avail? That’s pretty much how it is with me. I need to be completely in charge of my own life. Can’t stand to have to live up to other people’s expectations.

She told me to relax, and that she had a surprise for me. Later, she came in with a bottle of wine and poured us two big tumblers full (we don’t have wine glasses). I told her she was crazy to give me so much, and that I wasn’t going to drink it all. I went to get a smaller glass to pour it into. She also brought in a bowl of crackers. I recognized that this was all a financial sacrifice on her part, and winced at the thought of how important she was making me.

While we sat there and talked, she remarked that I was mysterious, and that I had many secrets. I laughed and told her I didn’t have any secrets. She could ask whatever she wanted. Instead of asking questions, she brought in a small painting canvas stretched over cardboard and suggested that we do some art therapy. She told me to draw something. What on earth was I going to draw? Anything, she said.

While she busied herself looking at my Czech language book, I started sketching, and what came out was a drawing of my cat with a halo around her head, and a ray of light slanting off to the right from the halo. She had angel’s wings and I drew a heart on her chest. Then, I drew 17 different kinds of flowers, to represent the 17 different varieties of wildflowers that I buried with her. I’ll have to explain the symbolism of all this in another post, but I explained it to TT, and told her how my cat had sacrificed her life so that I could have my freedom. It brought tears to TT’s eyes. For myself, I knew that if I let myself feel the story, I would be in tears, too, but I didn’t want to get vulnerable with her, so I kept my thoughts divorced from my words.

TT told me that she was experiencing so many feelings after hearing this story. As usual, she didn’t want to express her feelings with words. Words, it seems, are not her thing. Then, she went on at length about how much she was attracted to me, and that I was like a magnet for her. She couldn’t tell me why. She added that she felt like a teenager around me, and that she usually isn’t like this… that she’s usually just the opposite. She said she was falling in love with me, and I told her that she doesn’t know me. She said she recognizes my energy. I didn’t encourage her, and I could feel her pain. I don’t want to be responsible for her pain. I’m not responsible for it, but I feel like I am, and I don’t like the feeling of obligation that comes along with that.

She asked if I wanted to go to sleep, and I told her I did. The wine had hit me like a ton of bricks. She asked if we could sleep together, and I told her no. I felt her pain again, but she was a man about it. She went off to brush her teeth, and I got ready for bed. I opened my door to wish her goodnight. I wished we could go back to the way things were the first night we met and we had so much fun and just enjoyed each other without any expectations. I guess you can never go back.

I’m going to have to find a way… soon… to tell her directly, but gently… that it’s just not going to happen for us. And I’m going to have to take a look at why I’m only attracted to a back walking away. I spend so much energy whining that there’s not any love for me… but when it comes my way, I question it, and I reject it. Is it my destiny to be alone in this world? It sure seems that way. But still, being alone is much more palatable to me than feeling suffocated. Isn’t there a happy medium? God, do I miss Pegleg!

Can You Feel Compassion for a Cockroach?

2008-01-29T15:44:00.002+08:00

The first time I ever saw a cockroach, I was 16 and staying in the dorms at the University of Houston. I got up off the toilet and turned around and there it was! That sucker was a good three or four inches long and it could fly! Eeeek! I don’t think I slept a wink the whole five days I was there. I just sat in the middle of the room, on top of my suitcase (as if that could stop them from reaching me), with the light on, playing cards all night with my roommate.

I didn’t see another one again until I moved to Florida about 15 years later. Because of the hot, humid climate, they were everywhere. Only, they gave them the cutsie name of Palmetto bug. It didn’t help. I still screamed the first time one brushed against my bare foot while I was feeding my cats. Fortunately, they only came in when it rained hard, because the apartment management came in and sprayed every month.

I soon learned that it didn’t pay to try and smash them, because they were so hard that they usually didn’t die anyway. So, I just got in the habit of scooping them up on the dustpan and throwing them outside. I eventually got to the point where they didn’t particularly bother me anymore. Then, I moved to Colorado and didn’t have to worry about them for a long time, but when I moved to Mexico, there they were again.

By then, however, after living with three cats for about 15 years, I had developed a different attitude toward the animal world. The longer I lived with them, the less I wanted to eat them or kill them. (I should qualify that… I do still eat meat, but I am moving steadily toward vegetarianism). I had long since stopped killing ants, spiders and mosquitos, and I no longer had the inclination to squash or poison someone just because they were bothering me or invading my space. Yes, I realize I said “someone” and not “something.” There’s a reason for that.

When I looked into the eyes of my cats, I saw a person, that is to say, a soul. And I felt compassion for those souls. Now, I know that isn’t unusual. A lot of people feel compassion for cats, dogs and other cute, furry creatures, especially their own pets. But what about the critters that ain’t so cute? Let me tell you about my pet cockroach.

This happened at a time when I only had one cat left. I was living in Mexico, and in spite of the humid climate, I didn’t get many roaches, because I lived on the second floor. But one summer, we were getting huge amounts of rain, and it wasn’t unusual for me to have to scoop one or two of them up every day and toss them out the door. After a while, the rains stopped, and I didn’t see many any more.

Then, one night, I came into the kitchen and turned on the light, and there was a rather large cockroach sitting on the drainboard. I went for the dustpan and went for it, but he was too fast for me. He got away that time, but I swore I would get him the next time. We played this game every night for about a week or so. I tried outrunning him. That didn’t work. I tried a slow approach. That didn’t work either. I tried explaining to him that I wasn’t going to hurt him, just relocate him. But that didn’t work either.

As I looked at him from across the room, I could actually see the fear in his eyes. And it was then that I decided to stop tormenting him. From then on, when I would come into the kitchen at night and see him there on the drainboard (he was always in the same spot), I would just say “hi” and get on with my business. I would even joke with my friends that now I had two pets, a cat and a cockroach.

Unfortunately, “he” soon started reproducing, and my house was overrun. I had to do something, because I couldn’t go on sharing my house with an ever increasing number of cockroaches. I guess if I were as compassionate as I aspire to be, I could, but these are my failings. I was hopeful, though, because I had heard about a type of Chinese chalk that you could use to draw a line on the floor in front of doors and windows, and this would prevent the cockroaches from coming in. I thought, if I did that, then no new ones could come in, and I could eventually scoop up all the live ones and throw them outside without having to kill any of them.

I went to the neighborhood Chinese store and asked the store owner about the chalk. She said that the way it works is that when the cockroaches walk over it, it gets into their joints and causes them to slowly die. That sounded just as bad or worse than poisoning to me, and it was with a troubled heart that I set some traps and eventually got rid of my problem, but I was haunted by those fearful eyes and the glimpse they had afforded me into the soul that inhabited that crunchy, little body.

How about you? Could you feel compassion for a cockroach?

What is Home?

2008-01-29T15:44:00.001+08:00

I guess most people would answer this question by talking about a place. But it's never been that simple for me, and I guess that's why I ask, What is home rather than Where is home? I've been on the move my whole life. Before I bought my house, I had lived in 18 different places in 18 years. Different houses or apartments, different cities and different states. And since I sold my house, I lived in four different places, three of them outside of my birth country, before I took up a permanently nomadic existence. So far, this year, I've slept in 36 different beds, and there will be more before year's end. I usually feel quite at home wherever I am, but is that the same thing as having a home?

So, home as a place has been a constantly changing notion for me, and I can't think of my parent's home as my home, because I have been more or less estranged from them for most of my adult life, and they've moved around a lot in recent years, too, so I've never lived in or even seen the house that my parents live in now.

I used to have the romantic notion that I could find a feeling of "home" in another person... a soulmate. When I got married, I wanted to have Billy Joel's song You're My Home sung during the ceremony, because that idea of finding a home in someone while still clinging to my gypsy soul really appealed to me. That song expressed what I was looking for in a marriage. But my husband objected, because he thought that some of the lyrics..."use my body as your bed"... "You're my castle, you're my cabin, and my instant pleasure dome"... were too risque' for the relatives. Hmmmm, choosing decorum over romance... could that be one of the reasons the marriage didn't work out?

Anyway, I never have found home in the form of a person, because I've changed relationships even more often than I've changed homes. And not just romantic relationships. Friends tend to drift in and out of my life. Some are more tenacious than others. There is one ex-boyfriend that I visit on occasion. I refer to him as my emergency contact, because he is listed that way on my passport. He's probably the one person in the world that I would probably come back to if I ever decided to settle down. He's the closest thing I've found to a personified home. We're very comfortable together. We are equally weird. He makes me laugh. He likes me and I like him. We count on each other. But we've known each other for less than seven years. Where will our friendship be in another seven?

I've never considered my job to be a home, either first or second, the way some people do. And I've changed, not only jobs, but careers, almost as much as I have houses and relationships. And now, I've given up working (for a living) altogether. So, that doesn't do it for me either.

As I wander around in the world at large, I do feel that I am looking for something, and I've never known what that something was. But now I think I've got it narrowed down, and that is that I am looking for home. Whether home will turn out to be a person, place, thing, sight, sound, smell, taste or memory, I have no idea.

But this feeling of home does come to me in little glimpses once in a while. It doesn't wait to be invited. It just comes into my consciousness. Sometimes it's the smell of a freshly mown lawn... sometimes a light spring breeze coming in through my bedroom window in the morning... the sun dodging behind a cloud... a light spring rain... my favorite Christmas movies... a letter from an old friend... the taste of chocolate. Perhaps these bits and pieces are all I will ever have to call home. And maybe I've made a mistake in going to look for it. Maybe I just need to be patient and let it come to me.

What does home mean to you?

The Empire and You

2008-01-29T15:43:00.001+08:00

Empires do not suffer

emptiness of purpose

at the time of their creation.

It is only after they have become

established

that aims are lost

and replaced by vague ritual.

Diary of the Princess Irulan

Frank Herbert – Dune

What is Your Definition of Heaven?

2008-01-29T15:42:00.001+08:00

Aw, come on... you knew this was coming, didn't you? So, tell me... what is your definition of heaven? Whether earthbound or celestial, what is the one experience you're just dying to have? I'll be back later to post mine, once I've seen a few of yours.

What Is Your Definition of HELL?

2008-01-29T15:41:00.001+08:00

This post was inspired by some of the responses to my recent post, What Is Your Greatest Fear? Changing tacks a little bit, what is your own, personal definition of hell? Hell on earth... hell in the hereafter... what's the one thing that, knowing you'd have to face it for eternity in payment for your "sins" would scare you into being a good little boy or girl? I'll share my definition after I've seen some of yours. I'll give you a hint though... part of it bears a resemblance to the theme of the movie Groundhog Day, and the other part has something to do with a certain someone with a suitcase fetish.
Okay... see you in hell!

Would You Sell Your Life?

2008-01-29T15:38:00.000+08:00

I just read this article in Yahoo! News about a guy who sold his life on eBay. The sale, which went for a hefty sum, included his "name, phone number and all his possessions, including clothes, CDs, a surfboard, a laptop, a wonky pushbike, childhood photos and a "nice lamp" given to him by an ex-girlfriend." as well as dinner with his parents, introductions to women he might date, and a couple months of follow-up support. What a crazy idea. When I read this, I of course thought,

"Who would want to sell their life?" I guess a lot of people would, especially the parts they're not happy with. But more perplexing is the question,

"Who on earth would spend almost $6000 to buy somebody else's life?" I guess that would depend on whose life it was.

So, let me ask... would you sell your life? Would you sell part of it? Would you buy somebody else's life? Whose life would you buy if you could?

Life's Too Short

2008-01-29T15:35:00.000+08:00

Well, I finally committed to leaving this place. Life is just too short to stay where I’m not happy. It took a while to come to this decision, mostly because I’ve left so many unhappy situations in the past year, that I was beginning to blame myself for being intolerant or unable to get along with other people. But I finally came to the conclusion that that just wasn’t the case. Or even if it was, the end result was still that I’ve been unhappy here, and there doesn’t seem to be any other hope for resolving the situation other than to pack my bags and leave.

So, now that I’ve made the decision, even though I haven’t told Boss Lady yet, I feel so free. I may still be working for Boss Lady through the end of June… that remains to be seen. But I’m not terribly invested in the outcome. If she agrees to my terms, I’ll go ahead and finish out the school year with her. If not, I go my own way, and a lot of options open up.

I’m moving to the other side of town and will have my own room in a student apartment shared with four other girls. I’m sure this new living situation will bring its own share of challenges, but it has to be better than where I’m at now. And it’s just a three month layover while I’m deciding what to do with the rest of my life. I’ll be living with my friend, Magda, who helped me make the videos for the Little Box. I’ve met her roommates, and they all seem pretty nice. And their English is minimal, so I think it’ll be a good environment for improving my Polish conversation skills. And it will be fun just to have people in the house that I can feel comfortable talking to.

This move comes at a great time. Spring is on its way. The beer gardens are going to open up. It’s a great time to go for bike rides in the park and road trips with my friends. And in the mornings, while my roommates are all at school, I’ll have the apartment completely to myself, and I may even get some writing done during that time. Either that, or some meditation or yoga. Or some cooking. Yeah…. cooking! I can finally make my own meals! I’ll be healthy! God, this is going to be great. One more week and I’m outta’ here. Life is just too short. Why did I waste the last six months?

Vampires at the Garden

2008-01-29T15:30:00.001+08:00

I recently found a treasure chest of online videos… a stockpile of episodes of the old seventies soap opera… Dark Shadows. You know the one, featuring our favorite fanged fiend, Barnabas Collins… a sexy New England vampire. Watching a few of those episodes threw me right back to my early adolescence. Not that I ever spent much time watching Dark Shadows… that was a special treat that only seemed to happen while visiting my older cousin, Lulu, who was a die-hard fan (pun intended).

But what it brought to mind were all the Saturday afternoons spent down at the Garden Theater, watching double feature vampire movies. All the kids from school seemed to have the same idea. Our parents probably thought it was a good idea, too… getting rid of the kids for four hours at a crack for really cheap… I think it cost 30 or 50 cents to get in back then. My, how times have changed.

My memories of those Saturday afternoons are somewhat fuzzy, but I can recall with crystal clarity the taste of the many root beer barrels and lemon drops that I consumed in that old-fashioned theater… not to mention boxes of hot buttered popcorn.. with real butter, no fake coconut oil that the concessions staff have to tell you each time you ask for butter that the coconut oil tastes just like butter. If it really did, they wouldn’t have to keep telling you that. I guess, these days, they figure, if they just say it often enough, we’ll eventually believe that it’s true. After all, it works for George Bush.

But I digress. They were always vampire movies. Two vampire movies, back to back, week after week, and we never got tired of them. My favorite one was called, “The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth are in My Neck.” When I saw that movie, I think that was the first time that I ever saw garlic that didn’t come out of a jar. The villagers were wearing big strings of garlic bulbs around their necks to ward off attacks from vampires. Since then, I’ve always enjoyed buying garlic by the bulb and chopping my own for stir fries.

I couldn’t really tell you what the appeal of all those vampire movies was, but I must admit, they got into my blood, and I ended up reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Quite the gothic horror, that. Imagine how surprised my young mind was to discover that it was a love story of sorts. Imagine trying to make sense out of that at the tender age of thirteen or fourteen… right about the time when blood takes on a huge significance in the lives of young girls who are getting their first period. Finding a man who likes to drink our blood would eventually take on a whole nuther significance, but at that time, we just saw it as a vague hope of getting out of gym class.

Fast forward a few decades, to where I had left my interest in vampires far behind, or so I thought. Then, I started dating a man, an artist who seduced me by showing me my own reflection (I guess he was trying to avoid having me look for his). Yes, he seduced me by showing me my own reflection, by liking me and admiring me for all the things that I had always wanted someone to recognize in me… the things that I had always wanted someone to love about me… by seeing who I really was, and celebrating that.

And no sooner had he succeeded in seducing me, and in winning my heart...than he took that heart and ripped it out of my chest and left me for dead. He shattered the mirror that he had created. Now, everything that had reflected back at me so beautifully was just so many shards of glass floating in a bucket of muck. The things that he had so recently admired in me became the objects of his ridicule and scorn. He reveled in his own cruelty.

But this man had many mirrors at his disposal, and he hurried to replace the old one so that I would not be left with nothing to remind me of him. The new mirror that he held up to me was cloudy and spattered with mud and the shredded bits of my own heart, still palpitating in sorrow for the loss of my beloved illusions. His supply of crystal clear mirrors seemed to be infinite, but I knew that I would never gaze upon my own reflection in one of those mirrors again. Those were reserved for the new women in his life.

And each time he unveiled one of those crystal clear mirrors to a new lover, he secretly wrote her name on its clouded and vile counterpart. I saw him do this many times from my new vantage point of “friend,” until one day, when I relayed my tale to a friend, she gasped and said,

“He’s a vampire.”

I smiled my confusion.

“Oh, yes,” she continued. “He’s a vampire, alright. But he’s not after your blood. He’s after your energy. He can’t live without it. And when he’s drained you of all your energy, he goes and looks for it somewhere else. This man will never be satisfied with anyone.”

Well, I have to admit, it struck a chord. Hadn’t I stopped eating for two weeks after he shattered my beloved mirror? Hadn’t I almost died as a result? And after I revived myself, no thanks to him, didn’t he keep chipping away at me until I no longer knew who I was or believed that anyone could ever see the things in me that he had seen… the things I used to be able to see in myself before he ever came into my life?

I became curious about vampires all over again. I wanted to understand the correlation between the mythic, bloodsucking creatures that inhabited the fog and gloom of misty mountain villages in Transylvania and the real-life, energy sucking creatures that inhabit the fog of my self-image in the misty nether regions of my consciousness. I still had that same copy of Dracula that I had read so many years ago. I read it again, and I began to understand.

I had been surrounding myself for years with people who drained my energy. It was no wonder I was always depressed… always running on empty. I had nowhere to go and get recharged, and if I did, I worried that I might be doing the same to others… Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, right?

I can’t even begin to say that I’ve eliminated the energy vampires from my life (although I did give the boot to that artist about 8 years ago), but at least now I’m able to recognize them sooner rather than later. But perhaps not soon enough. After all, since coming to Prague, I’ve met and lived with so many different people… the people who have peopled the pages of this blog. Some of them have been pirates, and some of them have been vampires. You know who the pirates are… they have pirate names… Pegleg, Sinbad, Jolly, Ms. L, Cabin Boy (not quite up to pirate rank, but in the same general category), and Molly Bly. You can probably guess who the vampires are… the Transformer, and the Fugitive. But they didn’t get vampire names, because I didn’t recognize them as such until just now. I really should carry a mirror around with me at all times.

There’s yet another character, who has played a double role in my life… half pirate, half vampire. But that’s the subject of the next post…

Buletin Utama/17 Jan 08 - Part 1

2008-01-18T18:44:00.000+08:00

The one & only program which highlights and conduct extensive coverage on the country’s recent weekly crime cases.

2008-01-18T18:35:00.000+08:00

America's Revolution and the Bible

2008-01-18T17:04:00.000+08:00

Prior to the American Revolution, the American colonists were the most enthusiastic royalists in the English-speaking world. Why that changed is a fascinating story and a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

In September 1761, the colonial Englishman Benjamin Franklin, on tour in the Low Countries, eagerly anticipated a return to his home in London to attend the coronation of George III. With his invitation secured, he reached London in time for the festivities, but a storm delayed his arrival at Westminster Abbey and he had to content himself with watching the pageant from a distance."

So begins an article in the August 2007 edition of History Today magazine. "The American Monarchy" was written by Frank Prochaska, who teaches history at Yale. For students of British and American history, it is fascinating. It should also be of great interest to those who understand the biblical truth of the modern identity of the tribe of Joseph.

"Franklin's admiration for his monarch had few limits. After a dinner at Versailles hosted by Louis XV in 1767, he reported that 'no Frenchman shall go beyond me in thinking my own king and queen the very best in the World and most amiable.' As a frequent guest at court, he attended George III's birthday festivities in 1771, and the following year wrote to his son of the King's 'great regard' for him."

Pointedly, the American author writes: "As Franklin's devotion to royalty illustrates, it was no easy matter to break with so universal a system of government as monarchy, especially for colonial subjects who thought of themselves as patriotic Englishmen and their King as a guardian of the Protestant faith and the 'father of his people.'

"George III was no less revered in America for being so remote. Distance made him a more difficult target and enhanced the monarch as symbol. With an ocean between them, few colonists ever set eyes upon a member of the royal family, but they demonstrated their allegiance through ritual celebrations of royal birthdays, coronations and marriages."

Uniqueness of the American Revolution

If it was "no easy matter" for the colonists to break with the British monarchy, why then did it happen?

A PBS series on the subject of the American Revolution some years ago came to the conclusion that it should never have happened. An episode of the History International Channel's Global View came to a similar conclusion, with all panelists agreeing that the rupture between Great Britain and its American colonies set back the power and influence of the English-speaking world.

A&E's presentation on Benedict Arnold noted that, on the eve of the final Battle of Yorktown, most colonists were loyal to the crown. John Adams, who would become the second president of the United States, wrote that the colonies were divided into three thirds—those loyal to the crown, those who wanted a break with the crown and those who were indifferent.

Perhaps most telling is the simple fact of the uniqueness of the American Revolution. It is the only revolution in history led by people who were, on average, wealthier than the people they rebelled against! Generally, in revolutions, the poor majority rebel against the rich minority, but this was most decidedly not the case in America over two centuries ago.

As another American historian, Gordon Wood, put it: "The social conditions that generally are supposed to lie behind all revolutions—poverty and economic deprivation—were not present in colonial America. There should no longer be any doubt about it: the white American colonists were not an oppressed people; they had no crushing imperial chains to throw off" (The Radicalism of the American Revolution , 1991, p. 4).

Understanding monarchy

Over 200 years after the American Revolution, most Americans have a very vague understanding of the institution of monarchy. Eighteenth-century Americans were quite different. Colonists "looked to the King for political legitimacy." They "believed the monarchy to be the guarantor of their rights" (Prochaska).

These rights went back to the Magna Carta in 1215 when England's barons forced King John to give them rights that form the basis of the Anglo-American legal system. Within the same century, the first parliament met. Gradually, through the centuries, the power of parliament increased at the expense of the monarchy.

"Since the early seventeenth century the English had radically transformed their monarchy: they had executed one king and deposed another, written charters and bills of rights, regularized the meetings of their parliaments, and even created a new line of hereditary succession" (Wood, p. 13).

In the 17th century England had even abolished the monarchy and the country became a republic for a brief period. The republic, like the Roman republic centuries earlier, led to dictatorship. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 was perceived as the necessary balance of power to guarantee freedom from the potential abuse of parliamentary power.

While he was prince of Wales, the future King George III said: "The pride, the glory of Britain, and the direct end of its constitution is political liberty" (Wood, p. 14.) This is also quoted in the History Today article, where the following words are added: "Thus have we created the noblest constitution the human mind is capable of framing, where the executive power is in the prince, the legislative in the nobility and the representatives of the people, and the judicial in the people and in some cases the nobility, to whom there lies a final appeal from all other courts of judicature, where every man's life, liberty and possessions are secure."

So why the break with England? The answer is quite simple. It had to happen to fulfill prophecy.

Fulfillment of Bible prophecy

The biblical patriarch Jacob, renamed Israel, had 12 sons. One of these sons was Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery. God was with Joseph who, after years of personal suffering, rose to become the prime minister of Egypt. Eventually, Joseph was reunited with his family. His father, Israel, laid his hands on the two sons of Joseph and blessed them, in one of the most prophetically significant chapters of the Bible.

"The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth" (Genesis 48:16).

"Let my name be named on them" means that Joseph's descendants now carry the name of Israel. In turn, this means that biblical prophecies about Israel in the last days generally apply to them and not the Jews in the Middle East, although the Jews may be included if the prophecy is about all 12 tribes of Israel.

Israel continued, seemingly getting the boys confused by placing his right hand on the head of the younger son, Ephraim, instead of the elder son, Manasseh. This went against established custom and precedent, but clearly Israel knew what he was doing.

"But his father refused [to switch his hands] and said, 'I know, my son, I know. He [Manasseh, the eldest] also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations" (Genesis 48:19).

The two brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh, were to become a great multitude of nations and a great single nation. Nowhere else in history can we see this more than in the British Empire and the United States.

Here we can begin to understand why ties between the American colonists and the monarchy had to be severed. Every British colony had its own parliament. All these parliaments shared a common loyalty and that loyalty was to the crown. American historian Brendan McConville described the king as "the empire's living embodiment" (The King's Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America 1688-1776, 2006).

This continues down to the present day when George III's descendant, Queen Elizabeth II, carries the title head of the Commonwealth, an organization composed of 54 former British colonies. The Empire and Commonwealth, made up of dozens of different countries, truly have been "a multitude of nations."

A remarkable story

The American colonies were destined to somehow break with the crown in order to form the great single nation that Joseph's father, Jacob (Israel), said Manasseh would become. So the severing of ties between the American colonists and the English monarchy turned out to be the fulfillment of this important prophecy in Genesis 48. The other colonies remained under the crown. It's a remarkable story, the fulfillment of a prophecy that was written down thousands of years ago and that has not been fulfilled by any other nations.

What is also remarkable is how much the British monarchy influenced the American presidency, the story of which is told in Dr. Prochaska's article. After the Revolutionary War, the new nation was in a quandary. The leaders of the revolution had demonized the king, but they still felt the British had the best political system in the world.

"The hostility to Britain and its King during the Revolution has tended to obscure the constitutional affinities between the two nations. Americans, as Franklin's grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache put it in 1797, created a constitution before they 'had sufficiently un-monarchized their views and habits'" (Prochaska).

"The forms of government on offer to the Founding Fathers were essentially variations of monarchy, 'the rule of one.' Moreover, most colonists had looked favorably on Britain's hereditary monarchy before the Revolution. So too had leading eighteenth century European political philosophers" (ibid.).

Even after the Revolution, "the theory of mixed government of Kings, Lords and Commons had a compelling logic to many Americans who desired security, a just measure of liberty, and the avoidance of arbitrary rule." Continuing, Dr. Prochaska writes: "It is one of the great ironies of the US constitution that the Founding Fathers invested more power in the presidency than George III exercised as King" (ibid.).

He adds: "For all their revolutionary rhetoric Americans treated 'His Excellency' George Washington as a republican version of 'His Majesty' King George. Some Americans, sensitive to the symbolism of power, believed the President required a title and pored over the titles of the European princes to find one that had not been appropriated. Thomas McKean, chief justice of Pennsylvania, thought 'Most Serene Highness' desirable.

"Washington himself was said to have preferred the style of 'High Mightiness' used by the Stadtholder of the Netherlands. The reigning Stadtholder, William V, was among the Europeans who saw George Washington as an uncrowned monarch. As he said to Adams: 'Sir, you have given yourselves a king under the title of president.' In the Senate a titles committee suggested 'His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of the Rights of the Same.'"

Fortunately for Americans, both the Senate and the House of Representatives eventually settled for the simple title of the president of the United States.

The blessing of stability

In hindsight, what is truly remarkable is that these two institutions, the British monarchy and the American presidency, have been the solid political foundation blocks upon which their nations have been built. The United States has enjoyed political stability for over 140 years, since the end of the Civil War. Great Britain's period of stability is even longer, going back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89.

Those nations in the Commonwealth that have maintained their direct allegiance to the crown have shared in that long period of stability. The nations within the Commonwealth that look to the British monarch as the head of the Commonwealth but have become republics have mostly had a tumultuous ride since severing the direct tie. None has been able to establish a successful republic on the American model.

The blessings promised to the descendants of Joseph could not have been fulfilled without political stability. Economic progress is impossible when there is no solid political foundation.

It is amazing to see how God worked with both Britain and America to give them the solid historical foundation that has made them for some time the most stable governments on earth. WNP

Can Science Give Us Eternal Life?

2008-01-18T17:03:00.001+08:00

The mere possibility of a scientific breakthrough of such magnitude is already raising questions and creating a stir of interest and controversy. One newspaper article on the subject posed the question, "Will we need religion any more?"

Enemies of Faith

2008-01-18T17:01:00.000+08:00

Have you ever wondered why we don't see more evidence of faith? The Bible identifies several tendencies that undermine faith. They include:

Worry. Jesus cautioned: ". . . Do not worry . . . But seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:25-33).

Fear. While on a boat in the middle of a storm, the disciples awoke Jesus and pleaded that He save them from drowning. He answered, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He rebuked the sea and it immediately grew calm (Matthew 8:23-26).

Doubt. Peter saw Jesus walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee and asked if he could do the same. Jesus invited him to join Him, and Peter, too, began walking on the water. "But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid" and began to sink (Matthew 14:30). Christ "stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' " (verse 31).

Human reasoning without spiritual understanding. Jesus warned His disciples, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6). He was cautioning them against the teachings of religious leaders who appeared outwardly correct (verse 12) but lacked spiritual understanding. Because the disciples did not understand this spiritual principle, their reasoning was to no avail (verses 7-12).

Facebook Used To Railroad Student

2008-01-15T21:28:00.000+08:00

'Shoot' has more than one meaning

Valdosta State University sophomore T. Hayden Barnes protested a multi-million dollar garage construction project by the school. College president Ronald Zaccari responded by expelling him.
At the crux of what is now a federal lawsuit against Valdosta State, the document informing Barnes of his expulsion included a printout of an image posted to his Facebook profile. Inside Higher Ed described the photo's contents:

The collage featured a picture of a parking garage, a photo of Zaccari, a bulldozer, the words “No Blood for Oil” and the title “S.A.V.E.-Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage,” a reference to a campus environmental group and Barnes’s contention that the president sought to make the structures part of his legacy at the university.
As additional evidence of the threat posed by Barnes, the document referred to a link he posted to his Facebook profile whose accompanying graphic read: “Shoot it. Upload it. Get famous. Project Spotlight is searching for the next big thing. Are you it?” It doesn’t mention that Project Spotlight was an online digital video contest and that “shoot” in that context meant “record.”

Barnes's protest consisted of posting letters, sending emails, and writing letters in criticism of the garage building plan. The construction would tap student fees for $30 million.

It appears Barnes had the misfortune of engaging in his student activism at a time when the country reeled from the aftermath of the horrific Virginia Tech shootings. The lawsuit brought by Barnes, described as a "licensed and decorated emergency medical technician," accused the school of going overboard in looking for reasons to throw him off campus:

“Knowing that Barnes had availed himself of counseling services made available to all students by VSU, Zaccari secretly and repeatedly met with Barnes’s counselor seeking to justify his decision to expel him,” the lawsuit states. “What he learned from both the campus counseling center and from Barnes’s private psychiatrist who was consulted in the matter, however, was that Barnes had never exhibited any violent tendencies and that he did not represent any danger either to himself or to others.
While students should not have an expectation of privacy on Facebook or any social networking site where they make information publicly available, they should not have to fear their activities being used against them on a basis of being unpopular.

News Tags: Social Media, T Hayden Barnes, Lawsuit, Valdosta State University, facebook
About the author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com.

Google Hiding Queries, AdWords Impressions

2008-01-15T21:27:00.001+08:00

Transparency into Google called into question, again

Jeremy Chatfield has a question for Google about AdWords, and why the search advertising giant appears to be concealing impressions.

Chatfield isn't a run of the mill search marketer. He's rated as an AdWords Qualified Individual by Google. Apogee's Richard Ball called him the "best PPC advertising blogger in Europe."

But Chatfield has a question for Google, one that he can't find an answer for despite his prowess at delving into data: where did 99 impressions come from for one of his ad groups in AdWords?

He first began looking into that oddity in September 2007. A Search Query report showed 29 impressions, and 24 clicks. None of those impressions gave him any useful data.

"For all 29 impressions reported, there is not a single search query. Everything has been aggregated as 'other unique queries'. That’s really not helpful," he said. Google does not pass along details on what generated the impression.

It gets more complicated when looking at another part of AdWords reporting for the same ad group. 24 clicks again, but against 128 impressions instead of 29. Chatfield said it wasn't a problem with content match, which could cause the 99 impression discrepancy.

But a downloaded Placement Report showed no impressions. Google Analytics with Tracking tags enabled showed two clicks for the ad group. "If I knew less about AdWords I might become concerned at this point about whether i was getting the clicks that I’d paid for," said Chatfield.

He then cited Ball's mention of Broad Match impressions not affecting click-through rate history. The non-search impressions seem to be the cause of the difference in what Chatfield saw:

Google guys, this is not right. You can’t expect to be treated as a respectable advertising channel when you conceal what you do, set expectations that you don’t deliver, and fail to explain why you consider what you are doing as fair and reasonable.

If you deliver impressions to sites that you are embarrassed to reveal - that sends its own message.
Fast forward to 2008, where Chatfield reveals his continued look at Google's content matching. He is concerned that advertisements may be served alongside search results where an advertiser would not want to be displayed.

Google doesn't tell in its reports where the ads appear. "This makes it look as though advertisers are not given the right to determine that they don’t wish to appear on hate sites or on sites by other ethically challenging content publishers," Chatfield wrote.

Concealing these "unique queries" generating ad impressions could be a public relations nightmare for a company in a given circumstance. A company has no way of knowing if this is happening, thanks to Google opaqueness on the issue.

"Eric Schmidt is on record as saying that Google won’t be an obstacle to people finding out what Google knows about themselves. Why aren’t the businesses that fund Google’s growth, treated with the same respect?" Chatfield asked.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg Too Programmed On 60 Minutes

2008-01-15T21:24:00.000+08:00

Mark Zuckerberg shows face on national television

60 Minutes did a good job with a segment on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg considering that Mark had very little to say. He seemed overly briefed by lawyers and PR types and as a result was stiff and uncharismatic for someone who has accomplished so much. Mark is definitely more of a Bill Gates than a Steve Jobs, both of whom also started their companies in their early twenty's. As Bill Gates has, I am sure over time Mark will improve his television appearance skills.

>>> Watch 60 Minutes segment...

Mark answered a question by Lesley Stahl on the subject of Facebook having low revenue by saying that he doesn't have to reveal financials because they are not public. That was but one of many awkward non answers. Unfortunately, Mark seemed unable to engage with Stahl and surprisingly uninteresting.

Also, by the way, I sense a fast one by 60 Minutes producers when Lesley Stahl supposedly got a friend request from a long lost friend within minutes of joining Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg's typing assistance. Way too convenient!

As to what was said, most of it had already been reported last week due to the CBS publicity machine, but here are the highlights:

- In response to Stahl's suggestion that Facebook is huge, Mark stated, "It's not that big."

- Mark has not let the money change him. He works out of a desk in a room at Facebook headquarters with other computer programmers. He wears worn out shoes with no socks. He lives in a one bedroom apartment alone with a mattress on the floor for a bed. This is a guy worth a reported $3 billion!

- Lesley pointed out to Mark that he labels himself incorrectly as a Harvard alum on his Facebook page. Mark responded with, "That's true. We don't have a setting for dropout." Funny, but it also represents one of the major problems with Facebook, people pad their bios extensively.

- Mark says he is 'not concerned' about the lawsuit from some of his old Harvard classmates who say he stole their idea when he founded Facebook.

- Mark stated that Facebook is "pretty effective for them (politicians) in campaigning".

- In response to question about ads on Facebook and the controversial Beacon project Mark said, "I actually think that this makes it less commercial. I mean, what would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?"

It looks to me like Facebook is still struggling to find revenue magic like Google did with Adwords and believes that matching user recommendations up with ads may still be the answer.

Sensual story

2008-01-13T16:58:00.001+08:00

She was extremely attractive. I was a lucky man. She was slim, had a cheeky smile, long dark brown hair and was slim with small perfect breasts.

She would simply lie in her favourite blue bikini made of thin silky shinning material that showed her curves so well and couldn't hide her pert hard nipples that could be easily seen pushing the material into little peaks.

I released the catch of her bikini top and raising herself to her elbows she let it fall forward and I took the straps over her shoulders. Then I pulled down her bikini bottoms and she lifted her tummy so I could slip them off.

She looked so good with the light glistening on her breasts and her neat pubic patch catching the sunlight. It was so erotic.

Then spreading a little cream on her tummy she began to massage her breasts, one in each hand in a gentle circular motion as she rubbed in the cream. She would pause now and then at her nipples, which she would spin between her fingers making them stand up like dark hard acorns on her small tits. I could tell by the ever so slight movement in her legs that she was becoming very aroused.

She rubbed herself like this for three or four minutes and then lay very still, although I could see her chest pounding as the beating of her heart betrayed her excitement. Slowly she sat up, raised herself off the sun bed and walked into the house and into my arms.

Love, Tess

Passion

2008-01-13T16:57:00.001+08:00

Her arms crossed in front and she took hold of her shirt by the hem with both hands. A cheeky grin revealed her pleasure. She raised the hem slowly, her narrow waist twisting side to side in deliberate seduction. One breast, covered in powder-blue lace, revealed itself, disappeared momentarily then reappeared, this time with its twin. The shirt climbed higher and higher, eventually sliding over her head and then falling on the carpet. There was no need for an exchange of words; actions and expressions spoke far more eloquently.

She leaned forward, just a little, pushing her rear out, then resumed, wiggling more provocatively as she slowly pulled her slacks and panties down together. They cleared her creamy buttocks and came to a stop at her upper thighs. She then proceeded to slowly slide the slacks and panties down her long legs until they lay on the floor at her feet.

She straightened and stepped away from the heap of clothes. Her hand went down to her pubic area, fluffing the soft thatch of hair before her fingers uncurled on their own accord and slid between her dampened petals. The pleasure took her unexpectedly; her eyelids drooped, her head rolled back, and she moaned in her pleasure.

She shook her head and squinted her nose, giggling at her folly, then grew serious once more. Combing her fingers through her thick curls, she reached back and arching, unsnapped the hook of her bra. The satin straps slid off her round shoulders and she discarded the lacy restrictor with a hearty sigh of liberation.

She stood naked, her hands falling to her sides. She is aroused. Her breasts tightened and grew heavier, her pink nipples hardening like two bullets. Heat unfurled low in her belly and her breath quickened with desire.

She is ready to be taken!

UFO Hunters coming February 2008

2008-01-12T15:27:00.000+08:00

I caught this UFO HUNTERS ad on the History Channel Dec 12 2007 and I am bit confused.
This TV series will apparently be on the History Channel in February 2008.

But earlier this year I've read that UFO Hunters will be on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Here's a bit about it from Sci-Fi Web site under 2007 Fall Preview:
"UFO Hunters, SCI FI, in development
In this series from the creators of Ghost Hunters, ufologists use cutting-edge technology to investigate claims of UFO sightings and otherworldly experiences. Co-founders Oliver Kemenczky and Ted Davis of the New York Strange Phenomena Investigators (NY-SPI), along with researcher/investigator Dennis Anderson, will investigate, review and reveal their findings after each investigation. UFO Hunters is executive-produced by Emmy Award winner Craig Piligian and Tom Thayer."
Source: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw17016.html

I can't find any info about this upcoming new TV series on http://www.history.com/

If anyone knows more about this please let me know. In any case, this show should be interesting.

Take Off My Panties

2008-01-10T17:13:00.000+08:00

(Take Off My panties) - Watch more free videos

Top Military Blogger Dies In Iraq; Read His Final Post

2008-01-05T18:38:00.001+08:00

Obsidian Wings | January 4, 2008 03:59 PM

Read More: Andrew Olmstead, Andrew Olmstead Dies, Iraq, Milblogger, Milblogger Dies, Warwire, Breaking Politics News

Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July.

Andy was a wonderful person: decent, honorable, generous, principled, courageous, sweet, and very funny. The world has a horrible hole in it that nothing can fill. I'm glad Andy -- generous as always -- wrote something for me to publish now, since I have no words at all. Beyond: Andy, I will miss you.

My thoughts are with his wife, his parents, and his brother and sister.

What follows is Andy's post: a bit here; the rest below the fold. [UPDATE: I'm adding links to Andy's last post at his Rocky Mountain News blogs, from about a week ago, where friends and family are expressing support in comments; to an article from yesterday that I believe is about his death; and to a post he wrote on his reasons for going to Iraq last June.]

N Korea quiet on nuclear deadline

2008-01-01T18:58:00.001+08:00

North Korea started disabling Yongbyon in October

Pyongyang has agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for aid

North Korea stressed economic issues but failed to mention a missed deadline for disclosing details of its nuclear programme in a New Year editorial.

The communist nation pledged to improve citizens' lives and restated a demand for the US to end its "hostile policy".

But it did not acknowledge Monday's deadline for providing a full declaration of its nuclear activities.

The deadline was part of a disarmament deal under which Pyongyang is to receive large amounts of aid.

The North agreed to the deal during six-party talks in February 2007. The nations involved in the process are China, the US, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas.

South Korea, Japan and the US have all expressed disappointment at the North's failure to meet the deadline.

'Earnest efforts'

In the editorial, a yearly vehicle in which Pyongyang lists achievements over the past year and sets out priorities for the next, economic development was a prominent theme.

The DPRK (North Korea) will... further develop relations of friendship and cooperation with all the countries that are friendly towards it

New Year editorial

Q&A: N Korea nuclear deal
Timeline: Nuclear stand-off

"The entire party, the whole country and all the people should launch a general offensive to build an economic power," it said, emphasising the need to solve food shortages.

There was no reference to new South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak - who pledges a tougher stance towards Pyongyang and whose election has not yet been reported in North Korean media.

Instead, the editorial warned against "pro-US sycophancy" that could hinder the "trend of the times towards reunification" between the Koreas.

But it also pledged "earnest efforts for stability" on the Korean Peninsula and promised "cooperation with all the countries that are friendly towards it".

Since the landmark disarmament deal was agreed in February, North Korea has closed its main reactor at Yongbyon. Steps are currently underway to permanently disable it.

But the second stage of the process - a written declaration providing a complete account of all Pyongyang's nuclear activities - has proved more problematic.

The US particularly wants to know how much plutonium has been produced by North Korea, and also to see evidence that there is no secret programme for uranium enrichment for weapons purposes.

North Korea denies the existence of any such programme and has attributed the delay to the slow delivery of promised aid.

Nations involved in the talks have voiced disappointment over the missed deadline, but promised more talks.

"It's unfortunate but we are going to keep on working on this," said US State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

"We're still committed to getting a declaration and we want that declaration to be full and complete."

Cloudy visions of the future

2008-01-01T18:16:00.000+08:00

Predicting the future can be difficult

Regular commentator Bill Thompson looks forward to cheap net access and cloud computing.

If you're ever asked to forecast the way computing will develop, offer to look three to five years ahead.

It's a good, safe time frame because if you're right then people may just remember your prediction when you remind them how clever you are, and if you're wrong it's very unlikely anyone will think to point it out.

Trying to anticipate significant developments for the coming year is a lot harder, perhaps because the tendency is to overestimate the impact of the few obvious trends and miss the slow-burn developments that are on the verge of going mainstream and changing the way we see the world.

For example, last year I wrote "we are building our lives around the network and the things it makes possible, and 2006 marks the year in which this became a sensible and indeed rather normal thing to do rather than something that marked you out as a geek".

While it's true that Facebook and other social network sites went mainstream, they are still not as widespread as the sometimes breathless coverage would make you think.

Australia plans tough web rules

2008-01-01T18:14:00.000+08:00

Internet providers will be expected to filter all their content

Australia is planning tough new rules to protect children from online pornography and violence.

Last Updated: Monday, 31 December 2007, 13:52 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Australia plans tough web rules
By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney

Internet providers will be expected to filter all their content
Australia is planning tough new rules to protect children from online pornography and violence.
The new Labor government wants internet service providers to filter content to ensure households and schools do not receive "inappropriate" material.

Civil libertarians have condemned the plan as unnecessary, and say it will erode the freedom of the internet.

But telecommunications minister Stephen Conroy said more needed to be done to protect children.

Family-friendly

The Australian government's aim is to ensure that children only have access to family-friendly websites.

Service providers will be expected to stop the flow of pornography and other X-rated or violent content.

The government is set to compile a list of unsuitable sites, although at this stage it is unclear what will be deemed unsuitable.

Australians wanting unfettered access to the web will have to contact their supplier to opt out of the new regime.

Critics of the proposals have insisted they have no place in a liberal democracy, and have accused Canberra of being oppressive.

But Mr Conroy has been unmoved by their arguments.

The minister stressed that if people equated freedom of speech with watching child pornography then he would always disagree with them.

Concerns have also been raised that the government's filters could slow down access to the net, in a country where connection speeds are often below international standards.

The Mystery

2007-12-28T23:24:00.002+08:00

NASA 123606main Texas Concurrent Resolution 5-2005

2007-12-28T23:24:00.001+08:00

Antigravity or Coandă Effect man made saucers or air

2007-12-28T23:23:00.001+08:00

The Life Of The Prophet Muhammad By Leila Azzam

2007-12-28T23:19:00.000+08:00

The Adam-God Maze

2007-12-28T23:18:00.000+08:00

How Jesus and Christianity changed the World

2007-12-28T23:17:00.001+08:00

The Satanic Bible

2007-12-28T23:16:00.002+08:00

The Devil's Dictionary

2007-12-28T23:16:00.001+08:00

Caricature and other comic art : in all times and many la

2007-12-28T23:15:00.001+08:00

True Aliens

2007-12-28T23:13:00.000+08:00

e-books egyptian book of the dead

2007-12-28T23:12:00.001+08:00

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

2007-12-28T23:05:00.001+08:00

Utterubbish: A Collection of UseLess Ideas

2007-12-14T13:37:00.000+08:00

Utterubbish: A Collection of UseLess Ideas, an independently-curated design event will make its debut as the feature event of the Singapore Design Festival 2007 this November. Presented by DesignSingapore Council and produced by Utterubbish Pte Ltd and curated by Jackson Tan, Black Design,Utterubbish is a unique design event that presents ideas, works and exhibits by 30 leading international and local designers and creators unified in their exploration on how design can create value for individuals, society and the world, whether Social, Cultural, Emotional, Functional, Economic, Commercial or Intellectual.

It fully integrates an exhibition, a conference, talks and workshops, a publication and a retail concept store to engage audiences as diverse as professional designers and design students to school students, community groups and families in presentations that dramatically highlight the role and direction design plays in creating a sustainable future. This landmark event runs from 28 November to 16 December 2007 at the historic City Hall of Singapore.
UselessExhibition

Utterubbish is proud to present, UseLess Exhibition. A design exhibition with an incredible multi-disciplinary collection of more than 30 international and local designers / presentations.

Spanning 2,000 sq metres on the 4th floor of the City Hall, the exhibition covers a wide range of creative disciplines, including product, furniture, fashion, graphic, environmental design and architecture. Overarching themes includes sustainable design and eco-design, design activism, promotion of craft and how design can create value for self, society and the world for a sustainable future. Intended to inform and inspire, the collection of exhibits will inspire new ideas, discussions and collaborations. The UseLess exhibition will be held at the City Hall.

For event updates & ticketing, please refer to www.utterubbish.com.

What's 'Left Behind' in the Rapture Theory?

2007-12-02T18:35:00.000+08:00

Millions of people have read novels structured around the idea of the rapture of Christians. Why do people believe in a rapture? Is there any biblical validity to this teaching?
by Cecil Maranville
Many people traveled to Jerusalem to be on the scene Jan. 1, 2000, in anticipation of certain events. Some expected Jesus Christ to return on that date; others thought they would be "raptured" away to meet Him. Yet the day came and went with nothing of the sort happening.

Where did the idea of a rapture—a supernatural, sudden removal of believers—originate? Why do so many people believe that the Bible prophesies a rapture?

The Left Behind series of books and videos have variably stirred, frightened or entertained millions. Authors Jim Jenkins and Tim LaHaye popularized in the 1990s the same understanding and expectations about "a secret rapture" that author Hal Lindsey had in the 1970s with The Late Great Planet Earth and Vanished.

The Left Behind novels revolve around the story line that non-Christians are "left behind" when Christ secretly and suddenly removes true believers from earth. Christians who are driving cars, piloting planes and going about their everyday activities abruptly disappear—and those "left behind" are baffled by their mysterious disappearance. Political and sexual intrigue is spliced into the religious theme of the books in the name of spreading the message to as wide an audience as possible.

Mr. Lindsey was the first modern writer to popularize the rapture theory. He still writes and speaks on the theme. The popular American TV program 60 Minutes II recently caught up with him on a tour he was leading in Israel. He was still preaching that end-time prophecy will begin with the rapture, which is the instant calling to heaven of Christians. "People will actually disappear, Lindsey says" ("Apocalypse Now," CBS, 1999).

Mr. Jenkins is the writer of the Left Behind material. Mr. LaHaye provides him with input from a religious perspective. Their popular works do not offer readers the theology of the rapture idea in a systematic fashion. That is, the books do not explain the scriptural basis for the dogma or how one might prove it from the Bible.

The rapture as doctrine
Although the idea of the rapture is accepted as fact by millions, its proponents cite only a few ambiguous biblical passages to teach and define the doctrine.

A dictionary defines rapture simply as "ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy." Another says rapture means "a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things." How do these meanings relate to the return of Christ?

Explanations are ambiguous. Some point to a single word in the Latin translation of a single word in the Greek text of the Bible (Mike Cady, The Rapture-Prophecy Bible Study, 1998, p. 3). The Latin word is rapere, meaning "to seize" or "to abduct." The concept is that Christians are suddenly snatched or seized from the earth by Christ.

So widely held is the belief that the theological definition of the rapture finds its way into another dictionary as "the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to the earth."

Even this definition does not accurately reflect the prevalent explanations of the rapture theory; that is, rapture defenders teach that Christ will do the snatching of believers before and separate from His return, not "upon His return."

Christ, they say, will approach the earth, not return to it, to seize believers several years before His actual return-the second coming.
According to the most common version of the rapture:
Christ revealed the rapture to the Church in the apostle Paul's epistle of 1 Thessalonians.
This is a secret coming, evidenced only by the absence of Christians afterward.
At the rapture Christians will be changed to spirit and transported to the safe haven of heaven to wait out a seven-year "tribulation" that occurs on earth.
The rapture's purpose is not only to protect Christians, but to motivate them to be spiritually ready at all times for their unannounced abduction by Christ.
Supposed scriptural proof
What is the scriptural basis for this enigmatic doctrine? Credit for development of the rapture theory generally goes to 19th-century theologian John Nelson Darby and his interpretations of the apostle Paul's statements regarding Christ's return.

Although some advocates of the rapture occasionally refer to a few other scriptures, all agree that the main argument is based on this passage from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

It is the Greek for "shall be caught up" that is translated into the Latin rapere, the linguistic basis some claim for the word rapture. But where is the theological basis for the doctrine? Where does it say here—or anywhere else in the Bible, for that matter—that Christ will come close to the earth to remove Christians years before His prophesied second coming?

What Darby interpreted to mean that Christ would come close but not actually return to the earth are three words: "in the air." He took license from the fact that the verse doesn't say that Christ actually returns "to the earth." (Darby may well have been motivated by noble objectives, as we will note later.)

A theory based on inaccuracy
Before examining other aspects of the theory, it is necessary to analyze these verses. The entire theory hinges on whether Darby's understanding was accurate or not. The Bible tells us that "no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20). That is, true understanding must come from God alone.

One of the important keys to an accurate understanding of any part of the Bible is to read what it says in context. The near context of these verses in 1 Thessalonians 4 begins in verse 13 and concludes in verse 18.

Paul wrote this section of the letter in answer to concerns of the local Christians. Was he responding to the Thessalonians' worries about their safety in an end-of-the-age tribulation? No. Was he addressing their worries about whether Christ would return to rescue them? No. Was he writing about their supposed neglect of their spiritual readiness for Christ's return? No.

Why, then, did Paul write 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18?

As you read verse 13, you discover that Christians in Thessalonica were grieving over the unexpected deaths of members of their congregation. Like other Christians of that day, they apparently thought Jesus would return in their lifetimes. Thus they were caught unprepared for the death of people in the faith.

Paul wrote that they should not be overwhelmed by grief as though there were no hope for life beyond the grave: "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep [died], lest you sorrow as others who have no hope."

Paul explains his main point in verse 14: God will bring the dead back to life. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."

Paul doesn't leave the subject there. He adds a time reference: "with Him." Did Paul refer to an approach by Christ, or was He referring to the second coming? Nothing in this passage justifies an understanding other than the second coming. Neither is there a nuance of a "secret" coming.

Verse 15 amplifies the point about the future of Christians who have died by declaring that those who remain alive at the coming of Christ have no spiritual advantage over those who died. "... We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep." Said another way, those who have died are not at any disadvantage.

Paul continues: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (verses 16-17).

All Christians, living and dead, will be included in the events described in verses 16-17:
The return of Christ heralded by a powerful angelic announcement (hardly secret).
The resurrection—return to life—of deceased Christians (the main subject addressed by Paul, according to the context).
The simultaneous joining of the returning Jesus with deceased Christians and Christians still living at the time.
Verse 18, the final verse of the section, concludes and reiterates the main thought: "Therefore comfort one another with these words"; that is, with the understanding of the destiny of Christians who died before Christ returns.

Rapture ideology out of sync
Not only is the reasoning of the rapture theory entirely out of context with the verses used to support it, the theory is also out of synchronization with events revealed in the rest of the Scriptures.

Another letter written by Paul also addresses the Christian hope of the "change" of a Christian from mortal to immortal at Christ's return. In 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 he wrote of the promise of a transformation from physical life to everlasting life. This is a crucial point: What is the timing of this prophesied change from mortal to immortal?

Verses 22 and 23 are clear on the matter: "... In Christ all shall be made alive [resurrected], ... those who are Christ's [Christians] at His coming." Paul said nothing to the Corinthians of anything like a snatching away before Christ actually comes, and he used no language that might imply a near approach by Christ in lieu of the second coming.

Paul provides more specifics about the timing. The prophesied change to spirit will occur at "the last trumpet" (verse 52), language similar to that used in 1 Thessalonians 4:16. What is the significance of the sounding of a trumpet at Jesus' return and the resurrection of the dead in Christ?

A trumpetlike instrument was used "in early times chiefly, perhaps exclusively, for warlike purposes. It gave the signal 'to arms' ... [and] warned of the approach of the enemy ... [It] was heard throughout a battle ... and sounded the recall ... Afterward it played an important part in connection with religion. It was blown at the proclamation of the Law ... and at the opening of the Year of Jubilee ... heralded the approach of the Ark ... [It] hailed a new king ... and is prophetically associated with the Divine judgment and restoration of the chosen people from captivity" (International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, electronic database, 1996, "Music").

The trumpet mentioned in Paul's epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians is the same as the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15-18—the last trumpet, which announces the second coming. The dead in Christ are resurrected, living Christians are changed to spirit, and Jesus Christ returns to earth—all at the same time.

Attempting to read into a few words in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 the concept of a near coming before the second coming and a different time line for the resurrection prophesied to occur at the second coming is not "rightly dividing the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).

The rapture theory is in conflict with the Scriptures.

"One will be taken . . ."
In their eagerness to uphold belief in the rapture, supporters use various prophecies that speak of Christ's return to bolster their belief in the rapture. They reason that their interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 requires Christians to be in a constant state of readiness for their unannounced removal by Christ.

Prophecies of the second coming are not in doubt. What is in doubt is the application of these messages to their forced interpretation of a precoming.

One such prophecy is Matthew 24:36-44. It starts with "But of that day and hour [of the second coming] no one knows" and ends with "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." The point of this passage is the need for Christians to be prepared for the second coming.

However, some will lift verses 40 and 41 out of context and use them to support belief in a rapture. You will probably recognize the verses immediately: "Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left." If one ignores that the context of these verses talks about the second coming, they may seem to lend credence to the rapture.

But it is unsound theology to interpret any verses out of context. In addition, the understanding of any reference must agree with the teaching of the rest of the Bible.

In the context of this passage, Christ makes plain the fact that no one will know the exact timing of His coming (notice that Christ repeatedly refers to His coming, not a supposed near approach). His warning, in light of that fact, is that Christians should be constantly alert and spiritually prepared (verses 42, 44-51).

Now the understanding of verses 40 and 41 becomes clear. People who are not prepared will be caught off guard by the abruptness of His coming. Some who live or work close to others will be caught off guard while their companions will not be. Some will be "left"—not "left behind" after a secret rapture, but left unprepared.

Protection promised
Another reason offered by rapture theorists in defense of their interpretation of end-time prophecy is God's promise of protection. To be sure, God says to His Church through John: "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth" (Revelation 3:10).

In Matthew 24:21-22 Jesus spoke of abbreviating the terrible crisis at the close of the age of man to spare His chosen people: "For there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, not ever shall be. And unless these days were shortened, no flesh would be saved alive; but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened."

But nothing in these references or in others concerning the protection of the saints indicates that they will be protected during this time in heaven. To the contrary, if there is any indication of a location, it is described in Revelation 12:14, where it is called simply "the wilderness." Even then, the same prophecy foretells that Satan will assault at least some of the people of God.

"And the dragon [Satan] was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (verse 17).

The focus of godly men and women needs to be on spiritual preparation and maturity. The faithful are promised that nothing, including tribulation, warfare and Satan's hostilities, can separate them from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39).

Being swept off to heaven to be sheltered from tribulation is nowhere detailed—or even hinted at—in the Scriptures.

Partial understanding
What reason did the theologian John Darby and others have for even considering such a doctrine as the rapture? An article on the Millennium in Unger's Bible Dictionary offers a plausible explanation. In the century before Darby, Daniel Whitby promulgated the philosophy of "postmillennialism" in England. "This interpretation maintains that present gospel agencies will root out evils until Christ will have a spiritual reign over the earth, which will continue for 1,000 years. Then the second advent of Christ will initiate judgment and bring to an end the present order" (1988).

It is reasonable to suspect that Darby's intent was to counter the false teaching that the actions of men could bring about the Kingdom of God—as well as the equally incorrect teaching that prophecies of a kingdom are only symbolic (a view called "amillennialism"). Darby believed, rightly, that Jesus Christ would return to earth to establish and rule over the Kingdom of God (called "premillennialism").

Regardless of his motivation, Darby departed from the Scriptures himself with his rapture theory. At least he accurately understood that Christ would return to reign on earth, which leads us to an important concluding point.

Meeting Christ in the air
Seeking to refute the accurate understanding of 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, one author asks, "If [Christ] is already headed our way, why would we need to be caught up to meet Him?" (Todd Strandberg, The Pretribulation Rapture, 1999, p. 2). That's an interesting question whose answer reinforces what we have already learned from the Bible about this much—misunderstood topic.

The answer lies in the meaning of the word translated "meet." Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says the word "is used in the papyri of a newly arriving magistrate. 'It seems that the special idea of the word was the official welcome of a newly arrived dignitary' (Moulton, Greek Test. Gram., Vol. I, p. 14)" (1985, "Meet"). The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary adds in its notes for these verses that "when a king enters his city the loyal go forth to meet him ..."

How appropriate it is that His followers should rise to meet the King of Kings!

F.F. Bruce's International Bible Commentary adds: "To meet is used in the papyri of the official reception given to a visiting governor, whom his citizens escort into the city from which they have come to meet him" (1986, notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Another key question to address is "Where will Christ be?" After all, Paul tells us we will "always be with the Lord" after meeting Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17). An Old Testament prophet answers: "Behold, the day of the LORD is coming ... And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives" (Zechariah 14:1, 4).

Christ will not be in heaven after the second coming, but will be on earth—and so will the resurrected saints who meet Him.

Christians are resurrected from the dead or, if living at the time, changed to spirit at the last trumpet when Christ returns. They will meet Him in the air as an escort of honor as He returns to the Mount of Olives to rule the earth from Jerusalem. They are then destined to reign with Jesus Christ in His glorious kingdom (Revelation 20:6). GN

Introducing Android

2007-12-02T18:01:00.000+08:00

On Nov 5th, the Open Handset Alliance announced Android, a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications. Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. Developers can create applications for the platform using the Android SDK, which is now available.

YouTube,Picasa Web Albums and Documents List in PHP

2007-12-02T17:59:00.000+08:00

Support for YouTube, Picasa Web Albums and Google Documents List is now available in the Google Data PHP client library. The client library, distributed as part of Zend Framework 1.03+ and as an independent package, allows PHP developers to more easily interact with Google Data APIs through an object-oriented data model and a set of convenience classes.

There are also several new sample apps distributed with the library, and you can see them demonstrated in the video below:

Brood

2007-12-01T19:17:00.000+08:00

However if you can past some of the shocks, and see the deeper meaning David Cronenberg was trying to say about, buried anger, hate, and guilt you'll come to love this movie as much as I do. Its one of my top ten horror favorites.
If you havent seen it here is a quick spoiler free description.
A psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) pioneers a new form of psychodynamic therapy called Psycho Plasmics. He encourages his patients to vent their angers and fears, and it causes his patients to manifest physical ailments (welts, cancers etc). One of his patients is really fucking pissed and when she starts getting mad people start dropping like flies. This is as much as I will tell you you'll just have to see this shocker from Horrors Golden Age.

Any fans of this classic or haters here?

cross, crown, freemason 1

2007-11-30T19:27:00.001+08:00

The cross and crown insignia is from a Protestant fraternal organization known as the Royal Black Institution.

This person was probably also a freemason; the compass points and square are visible under the crown and around the cross.

Secret Lives of the Freemason

2007-11-30T19:25:00.000+08:00

Secret Lives of the Freemason

Freemason

2007-11-30T19:24:00.001+08:00

In the stairwell of Northampton's Freemason's Hall - and no secret handshakes to get in either! Was there for an exam (which I buggered up)

Freemason Hall

2007-11-30T19:22:00.000+08:00

Delhi, India
Many Lodges in this building/complex and also the Grand Lodge of Northern Region of India.

Designer's Comments

2007-11-28T21:08:00.000+08:00

Look carefully for specific instructions

Violence and abuse affect all kinds of people every day. It doesn't matter what race or culture you come from, how much money you have, how old you are, or if you have a disability. Violence does not discriminate.

Abuse can be physical, mental, and emotional. Violence against women in any form is a crime, whether the abuser is a family member; someone you date; a current or past spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend; an acquaintance; or a stranger. You are not at fault. You did not cause the abuse to occur. If you or someone you know has been sexually, physically, or emotionally abused, seek help from other family members and friends or community organizations. Talk with a health care provider, especially if you have been physically hurt. Learn how to reduce your risk of becoming a victim of sexual assault or sexual abuse before you find yourself in an uncomfortable or threatening situation. One important part of getting help is knowing if you are in an abusive relationship. Sometimes it can be hard to admit that you are in an abusive relationship. But, there are clear signs to help you know if you are being abused.

Cut Throat Freak show performing at Sadisco in Phoenix, AZ

2007-11-25T21:03:00.001+08:00

Cut Throat Freak show performing at Sadisco in Phoenix, AZ. He is holding up that bottle with hooks in his bottom eyelids.

Cut Throat Freak Show

2007-11-25T20:56:00.000+08:00

Cut Throat Freak Show performing at Sadisco. That is a lightbulb getting smashed against that guys forehead.

The Temple of Heaven

2007-11-25T14:43:00.000+08:00

The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves 'The Son of Heaven’, they dared not to build their own dwelling,’ Forbidden City' bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.
The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of 'The heaven is round and the earth is square'.

Cadwaladr Fendigaid

2007-11-24T18:02:00.000+08:00

aka Cadwallador of Wales, Caedwalla

689+

Welsh, chieftain, died in Rome [Italy]

Memorial 12 November

Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon (c. 633–682, reigned from about 655) (Latin: Catuvelladurus; English: Cadwallader), also known as Cadwaladr Fendigaid ('the Blessed') was a king of Gwynedd
682+

step wise !

2007-11-24T17:59:00.001+08:00

The colosseum has been at the receiving end of all people who sacked rome, even subjected to allied fire after the second world war.

Maison Carrée, Nîmes

2007-11-24T17:56:00.000+08:00

Jefferson modeled the Virginia state capitol on this; He is hardly the only architect to have drawn inspiration from it. Maison Carrée means square house; It was built c. 19–16 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who was also the original patron of the Pantheon in Rome, and was dedicated to his two sons, Gaius Julius Caesar Vipsanianus and Lucius Caesar, adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young.
The temple owes its preservation to the fact that it was rededicated as a Christian church in the fourth century, saving it from the widespread destruction of temples that followed the adoption of Christianity as Rome's official state religion. It subsequently became a meeting hall for the city's consuls, a canon's house, a stable during the French Revolution and a storehouse for the city archives. It became a museum after 1823. Its French name derives from the archaic term carré long, literally meaning a "long square", or rectangle - a reference to the building's shape.

TheTrueStoryOfCainAndAble Or How the farmers civilized the hunters to make it safe to over populate the earth so there weeman can be possessed by Daem

2007-11-21T20:00:00.001+08:00

The human body, in its systematic nature, has 3
primary objectives:

1. Procreate
2. Food intake
3. The elimination of waste

This is the human equation:
One half is feces, the other mammal
The human as shit.

This is what you've become
The end result of human stupidity
Another mesh of flesh with no dignity
A solid waste with dull neuronal activity

2000 years from now
they'll discover our copralite
learn of disease and parasite
enough to know what made us tick
enough to make them sick

anatomy...
scatanthropology...
the study of man.

Micturate - here's to your health
Defecate - upon the self
Felch - the goddamn sphinct and
Gargle - it's fucking contents

Playing king of the hill
On a mountain of manure
On a planet called earth
Mirroring what we're worth

We are nothing but a failure
Evolution took a shit
In my heart, through these eyes
Humankind in its own shit resides.

2000 years from now
they'll examine our copralite
gain perspective and insight
enough to know what made us tick and
that we were made of shit

Humanure / CattleDecapitation

And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my place of slumber. And took me on high, and higher still until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself. And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest. And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil. One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear. And terror possesed me then. And I begged, "Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots! You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust." And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared, "Hear me now, I have seen the light! They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers!" Can I get an amen? Can I get a hallelujah? Thank you Jesus. Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on........ This is necessary.

Beijing - The Great Wall of China

2007-11-21T16:16:00.000+08:00

The Great Wall of China: Built to protect China from enemy invasions; it was first created in the third century BC; much of the Great Wall known today was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); the Great Wall is about 4,000-9,000 miles long (depending on the method of measurement) and wide enough for six horses to run abreast.

It’s absolutely magnificent!

American History

2007-11-20T19:04:00.001+08:00

Olmec relief sculpture, oldest surviving depiction of mesoamerica's icon: the feathered serpent (quetzalcoatl). Discovered zero (0) nearly 900 years before the Hindus.

Tzintzuntzan

2007-11-20T18:46:00.001+08:00

One of the so-called yácatas at the Tarascan (Purépecha) Tzintzuntzan ruins in MIchoacán. There are 5 such pyramids there, each of which originally had a small temple on top.
The Tarascans (Purépecha) were never conquered by the Aztecs. The Purépecha language is not related to any other language spoken in Mesoamerica.

accidentally obscene flower shot wbsz

2007-11-20T18:00:00.000+08:00

I found this flower in Hawaii, and having nothing to prop it on, I held it between my knees and took this photo, completely oblivious to what it might resemble . But never mind that, does anyone know what this flower is?

Mount Everest from Space (NASA)

2007-11-20T17:47:00.000+08:00

In addition to looking heavenward, NASA helps the world see the Earth in ways no one else can. Astronauts on board the International Space Station recently took advantage of their unique vantage point to photograph the Himalayas, looking south from over the Tibetan Plateau. The perspective is illustrated by the summits of Makalu [left (8,462 meters; 27,765 feet)] and Everest [right (8,850 meters; 29,035 feet)] -- at the heights typically flown by commercial aircraft.

NASA Pilot Bruce Peterson and Star Trek's James Doohan (NASA)

2007-11-20T17:33:00.001+08:00

Description: NASA pilot Bruce Peterson (right) and actor James Doohan (of Star Trek fame) discuss the M2-F2 Lifting Body.

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

Project
Description: Bruce A. Peterson joined NASA in August 1960 as an engineer at the Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden). He transferred to the Flight Operations branch in March 1962 and was initially assigned as one of the project pilots on the Rogallo paraglider research vehicle (Paresev) program. The Paresev was used to evaluate the use of an inflatable and non-inflatable, flexible wing for the recovery of manned space vehicles. A handful of NASA pilots made more than 100 Paresev research flights between 1962 and 1964. It resembled a tricycle beneath a hang glider, and was towed aloft behind a car or small airplane and released for a glide landing.

In preparation for his continuing flight research duties, he attended the Air Force Test Pilot School, graduating as a member of Class 62C. In fact, he was the first NASA pilot to graduate from the TPS. He remained active with the Marine Corps Air Reserve, flying the F9F, OV-10, A-4 and various helicopters.

As a NASA research pilot he flew a wide variety of airplanes including F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111A, B-52, NT-33A Variable Stability Trainer, T-33, T-37B, T-38A, C-47, CV-990, Learjet, JetStar, wingless lifting bodies, numerous general aviation aircraft, several types of helicopter and sailplanes.

As project pilot on the F-111A, he performed tests related to stability and control, performance and structural loads. The F-111 was a variable-geometry (or swing-wing) jet aircraft. Research with the aircraft included engine inlet and exhaust studies, internal flow investigations and aerodynamics research.

On Dec. 3, 1963, he flew the first of 42 flights in the M2-F1 lightweight lifting body. His first flight in the heavyweight M2-F2 on Sept. 16, 1966, was an unpowered glide flight from an altitude of 45,000 feet. After release from a B-52 mothership, he executed a 360-degree turning approach and landed on the dry lakebed. He made another glide flight in the same vehicle six days later.

Peterson piloted the maiden flight of the HL-10 lifting body on Dec. 22, 1966. During the three-minute descent to landing, he discovered he had minimal lateral control over the vehicle. Airflow separation across the control surfaces rendered the HL-10 virtually unflyable but he managed to land the vehicle safely, a tribute to his considerable piloting skills. As a result of the data collected during the near disastrous flight, the HL-10 was modified to fix the problem and went on to become one of the most successful lifting body concepts. It was a strong contender for the final space shuttle design.

Peterson was injured in the crash of the M2-F2 on May 10, 1967. He recovered from his injuries but lost his sight in one eye due to a secondary infection while in the hospital.

Peterson continued to fly NASA support missions, occasional research flights and his Marine Reserve flying duties. He continued to fly for NASA until 1971, doing research in the T-33, F-104B, F-111A, CV-990 and Aero Commander. He also flew NASA's SH-3A helicopter. The Marine Corps gave him a waiver that allowed him to fly with a co-pilot and he continued to fly the OV-10 airplane and the AH-1G and CH-46 helicopters. During his flying career Peterson logged more than 6,000 flight hours in nearly 70 types of aircraft.

Peterson gained a small measure of fame when his accident and subsequent recovery inspired a 1970s television series called The Six-Million Dollar Man. The storyline featured a test pilot who, having been injured in the crash of a lifting body vehicle, is rebuilt with advanced "bionic" technology. Film footage of the M2-F2 accident was used in the show's opening credits.

Peterson continued at NASA Dryden as the research project engineer on the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire program of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later assumed responsibility for Safety and Quality Assurance for Dryden until his retirement in 1981.

He left NASA for a position with Northrop where he assumed responsibility for safety and quality assurance for testing of the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber. From 1982 until 1994 Peterson worked in Northrop's B-2 division at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale and Edwards, becoming manager of system safety and human factors.

A native of Washburn, N.D., Peterson was born on May 23, 1933. He grew up in Banning, Calif., and attended the University of California at Los Angeles from 1950 to 1953. While at UCLA he held a job as an aircraft assembler for Douglas Aircraft Company.

He enlisted as a Naval Aviation Cadet at Santa Ana, Calif., in 1953, and was commissioned a Marine Corps second lieutenant in Nov. 1954. He was released from active duty three years later. In 1958 he enrolled in California State Polytechnic College at San Luis Obispo where he received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering.

Peterson is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and 2002 recipient of the Tony LeVier Flight Safety Award. He was honored by NASA with an exceptional leadership award for his work on space shuttle STS-1. In 2003 he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.

Peterson passed away on May 1, 2006.

Lunar Eclipse, 2003 (NASA)

2007-11-20T17:24:00.000+08:00

Public Domain. Credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC)
For more information, go to www.nasa.gov/multimedia/highlights/index.html Additional source description and credit info from NASA:

Date: 01.20.2000
Title: The lunar eclipse over Merritt Island, Fla.
Description: In this lunar eclipse viewed from Merritt Island, Fla., at midnight, the full moon takes on a dark red color because it is being lighted slightly by sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere. This light has the blue component preferentially scattered out (this is also why the sky appears blue from the surface of the Earth), leaving faint reddish light to illuminate the Moon during the eclipse. Eclipses occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up. They are rare because the Moon usually passes above or below the imaginary line connecting Earth and the Sun. The Earth casts a shadow that the Moon can pass through when it does, it is called a lunar eclipse.
ID: KSC-00PP-0096
Credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC)

Corinth, Greece (NASA)

2007-11-20T17:16:00.000+08:00

Public Domain. Credit information: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Additional information from source below:

Original Caption Released with Image:
The Isthmus of Corinth has played a very important role in the history of Greece. It is the only land bridge between the country's north (Attica) and south (Peloponnese). It is a 6 km wide tongue of land separating the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Sea. Populations, armies and commodities have got to move through it. In the 6th century BCE, the Greeks built the Diolkos, a 10 meter-wide stone roadway to pull ships across the Isthmus on wooden cylinders and wheeled vehicles. In 1882, a canal was started and completed 11 years later. It is 6343 meters long, 25 meters wide, and 8 meters deep.

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet.

ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.

The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Size: 25.3 by 37.7 kilometers (15.7 by 23.4 miles)
Location: 37.9 degrees North latitude, 23 degrees East longitude
Orientation: North at top
Image Data: ASTER bands 3, 2, and 1
Original Data Resolution: 15 meters (49.2 feet)
Dates Acquired: May 9, 2005

White Tiger

2007-11-18T21:35:00.001+08:00

White tigers have always been extremely rare in the wild.
White tigers are Bengal tigers with pink noses and white-to-cream colored fur with black, gray or chocolate-colored stripes; their eyes are usually blue, but may be green or amber. There are around 600 white tigers in the world.

Due to the small size of the gene pool, many white tigers suffer from health problems due to inbreeding. For this reason, responsible zoos refuse to breed two white tigers together. However, two white parents are the only way to ensure white cubs; if a white tiger mates with a partner that is heterozygous for the gene, only half of the offspring will be white.

Terracotta Army in Xi'an, China

2007-11-18T21:20:00.000+08:00

As told by our tour guide: The tomb was discovered by farmers who were trying to dig a well to water their trees. They found a head. Being superstitious, they reburied it and agreed not to tell anyone. A few of them did end up telling some officials, and when they dug it up again, they found this historical treasure trove.

VATICAN-POPE-AUDIENCE

2007-11-18T20:50:00.000+08:00

Pope Benedict XVI smiles as he tries on a Spanish Civil Guard hat as he arrives in St. Peter's square at Vatican for his weekly general audience 07 December 2005. The pontiff marks 07 December 2005 the 40th year since the closing of the second Vatican Ecumenical Council, a revolutionary event in the Catholic Church that many say failed to live up to its promise.

Vatican Museums - Pinacoteca

2007-11-18T20:46:00.000+08:00

Painting of Christ in Glory.

The Vatican Pinacoteca (Art Gallery) was inaugurated on 27 October 1932 in the building especially constructed by the architect Luca Beltrami for Pius XI.

The Vatican's art collection has grown over the years through donations and purchases until it reached the current nucleus of 460 paintings, distributed among eighteen different rooms on the basis of chronology and school, from the so-called Primitives (12th-13th century) to the 19th century.

The collection contains some masterpieces of the greatest artists of the history of Italian painting, from Giotto to Beato Angelico, from Melozzo da Forlì to Perugino and to Raphael, from Leonardo to Tiziano, to Veronese, to Caravaggio and to Crespi.

Inside Vatican museums (2006-05-205)

2007-11-18T20:39:00.000+08:00

The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Julius II founded the museums in the 16th century. The Sistine Chapel and the Stanze della Segnatura decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums.

The Vatican Library and the collections of the Vatican Museums are of the highest historical, scientific and cultural importance.

Vatican Museum

2007-11-18T20:35:00.000+08:00

The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, also called the Laocoön Group, is a monumental marble sculpture, now in the Vatican Museums, Rome. The statue is attributed by the Roman author Pliny the Elder to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus. It shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents.

Halloween

2007-11-18T20:22:00.000+08:00

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns. The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day. Some modern practices developed out of older pagan traditions, especially surrounding the Irish holiday Samhain, a day associated both with the harvest and otherworldly spirits. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the Western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia and New Zealand.

Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Scottish and Irish tales of the Sídhe).

In Asian, Singapore Zouk (Club)

2007-11-18T19:06:00.000+08:00

Location

The three old warehouses that make up the original Zouk were built in 1919 on the Singapore River. Thoroughly renovated, the houses now feature three interconnected clubs:

Zouk (1991), with a large dancefloor and state-of-the-art sound and lighting, catering to a variety of artists
Velvet Underground (1994), a quieter, more relaxed lounge that plays house and soul
Phuture (1996), a more avant-garde bar specializing in broken beats.
The clubs have proven popular with Singapore's party-going crowd and regularly attract performers from all over the world. Its famous Mambo Jambo theme nights are considered a must-go for a beginning clubber.

In 2004, Zouk opened a sister club at Ampang Road (Jalan Ampang) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Zouk KL features four rooms: Zouk and Velvet Underground styled on the original, plus the Loft and Terrace bars.

more about their Event&Broadcast please Visit http://worlddj.com or http://www.zoukclub.com

A beach dance party called ZoukOut is organised at Sentosa in December each year. On December 10, 2005, 18,000 people attended the party. ZoukOut 2006 outdone itself once again drawing a record 20,000 party-goers to Sentosa on December 11, 2006.
Music Type
Mambo Jambo is a spin of the term mumbo jumbo which fittingly described the type of music peculiar to the theme night. It began with a somewhat unorthodox mix of 70s and 80s pop hits and house and over the years, it evolved and incorporated rock, dance and hip hop. A huge hit with the local clubbers, many imitators tried to follow the ‘retro’ theme formula with relatively lesser success. Zouk remained the standard bearer for this unique clubbing experience in Singapore.

Early Currency

2007-11-18T16:31:00.000+08:00

The origin of currency is the creation of a circulating medium of exchange based on a unit of account which quickly becomes a store of value. Currency evolved from two basic innovations: the use of counters to assure that shipments arrived with the same goods that were shipped, and later with the use of silver ingots to represent stored value in the form of grain. Both of these developments had occurred by 2000 BC. Originally money was a form of receipting grain stored in temple granaries in Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia.

This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place that was safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military. By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of international treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the North West to Elam and Bahrein in the South East. Although it is not known what functioned as a currency to facilitate these exchanges, it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus may have functioned as a currency.

It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Late Bronze Age general systems collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea brought this trading system to an end. It was only with the recovery of Phoenician trade in the ninth and tenth centuries, that saw a return to prosperity, and the appearance of real coinage, possibly first in Anatolia with Croesus of Lydia and subsequently with the Greeks and Persians.

In Africa many forms of value store have been used including beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, livestock, humans, the manilla currency, ochre and other earth oxides, and so on. The manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to buy and sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, and in many places various forms of barter still apply.

The Dubai Economy

2007-11-18T15:06:00.000+08:00

Dubai's gross domestic product as of 2006 was US$46 billion. Although Dubai's economy was built on the back of the oil industry, revenues from oil and natural gas currently account for less than 3% of the emirate's revenues. It is estimated that Dubai produces 240,000 barrels of oil a day and substantial quantities of gas from offshore fields. The emirate's share in UAE's gas revenues is about 2%. Dubai's oil reserves have diminished significantly and are expected to be exhausted in 20 years.

Historically, Dubai and its twin across the Dubai creek, Deira (independent of Dubai City at that time), became important ports of call for Western manufacturers. Most of the new city's banking and financial centres were headquartered in the port area. Dubai maintained its importance as a trade route through the 1970s and 1980s. The city of Dubai has a free trade in gold and until the 1990s was the hub of a "brisk smuggling trade" of gold ingots to India, where gold import was restricted.

Dubai is an important tourist destination and its port, Jebel Ali, constructed in the 1970s, has the largest man-made harbor in the world. Dubai is also increasingly developing as a hub for service industries such as IT and finance, with the establishment of a new Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The government has set up industry-specific free zones throughout the city. Dubai Internet City, combined with Dubai Media City as part of TECOM (Dubai Technology, Electronic Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority) is one such enclave whose members include IT firms such as EMC Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft, and IBM, and media organisations such as MBC, CNN, Reuters and AP.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) was established in March 2000 as a secondary market for trading securities and bonds, both local and foreign. As of Q4 2006, its trading volume stood at about 400 billion shares worth US$ 95 billion. The DFM had a market capitalization of about US$ 87 billion.

The government's decision to diversify from a trade-based, but oil-reliant, economy to one that is service and tourism-oriented has made real estate more valuable, resulting in the property appreciation from 2004–2006. Large scale real estate development projects have led to the construction of some of the tallest skyscrapers and largest projects in the world such as the Emirates Towers, the Palm Islands and the world's tallest, and most expensive, hotel the Burj Al Arab. As of July 2007, the Burj Dubai became the world's tallest structure and is expected to be taller by several hundred feet, once construction is complete. Construction should finish in late 2008 and the building occupied by September of 2009. There will be an estimated 164 floors, the top floor at 624.1 meters, or 2,058 feet. Including the antennae and spire the total hieght of the Burj Dubai will be an estimated 818 meters, or 2,684 feet.

Paris Las Vegas

2007-11-18T14:54:00.001+08:00

Paris Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip. It includes a 1/2 scale, 540 foot (164.6 m) tall replica of the Eiffel Tower, and a neon sign in the shape of the Montgolfier balloon, a two-thirds size Arc de Triomphe, and a replica of La Fontaine des Mers.

The Leaning Of Tower Pisa

2007-11-18T14:40:00.000+08:00

The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply The Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure by time in Pisa's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square).

Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes. The tower has 294 steps. The tower leans at an angle of 5.5 degrees[1]. This means that the top of the tower is 4.5 meters from where it would stand if the tower was perfectly vertical.

The Colosseum

2007-11-18T14:37:00.000+08:00

The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering.

Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign (81–96). The name "Amphitheatrum Flavium" derives from both Vespasian's and Titus' family name ("Flavius, from the gens Flavia).

Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It remained in use for nearly 500 years with the last recorded games being held there as late as the 6th century. As well as the traditional gladiatorial games, many other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building eventually ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such varied purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry and a Christian shrine.

Although it is now in a ruined condition due to damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum has long been seen as an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. Today it is one of modern Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close connections with the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the Cross" procession to the amphitheatre.

Statue Of Liberty

2007-11-16T17:50:00.000+08:00

Sign explaining the definitions of the Statue of Liberty's symbols. Liberty Island, New York City. I took this photo on my first trip to Liberty Island and New York City in October 2004.

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Liberty Enlightening the World (French: La liberté éclairant le monde), known more commonly as the Statue of Liberty (Statue de la Liberté), is a large statue that was presented to the United States by France in 1886. It stands at Liberty Island, New York in New York Harbor as a welcome to all visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the United States and is a gesture of friendship from France to America. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue, and Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the repoussé technique.

The statue is of a female figure standing upright, dressed in a robe and a seven point spiked rays representing a nimbus (halo), holding a stone tablet close to her body in her left hand and a flaming torch high in her right hand. The tablet bears the words "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), commemorating the date of the United States Declaration of Independence.

The statue is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf. It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star. The statue is 151' 1" (46.5 m) tall, with the pedestal and foundation adding another 154 feet (46.9 m).

Worldwide, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States, and, more generally, represents liberty and escape from oppression. The Statue of Liberty was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from Europe. The Statue of Liberty's obviously classical appearance (Roman stola, sandals, facial expression) derives from Libertas, ancient Rome's goddess of freedom from slavery, oppression, and tyranny. Broken shackles lie at her feet. The seven spikes in the crown represent the Seven Seas and seven continents. Her torch signifies enlightenment. The tablet in her hand shows the date of the nation's birth, July 4, 1776.

Since 1903, the statue, also known as "Lady Liberty," has been associated with Emma Lazarus's poem “The New Colossus” and has been a symbol of welcome to arriving immigrants. The interior of the pedestal contains a bronze plaque inscribed with the poem, which reads:

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

There are 354 steps inside the statue and its pedestal. There are 25 windows in the crown which comprise the jewels beneath the seven rays of the diadem. The tablet which the Statue holds in her left hand reads, in Roman numerals, "July 4, 1776" the day of America's independence from Britain. The Statue of Liberty was engineered to withstand heavy winds. Winds of 50 miles per hour cause the Statue to sway 3 inches (7.62 cm) and the torch to sway 5 inches (12.7 cm). This allows the Statue to move rather than break in high [wind load] conditions.

Vatican Double Helix Staircase

2007-11-16T17:28:00.000+08:00

Overhead view of a double helix staircase at the Vatican. I initially took this photo in passing because I liked the staircase design and thought it was ironic that an institution that once burned scientists as heretics had a staircase shaped like DNA.

Anyways, after I got home I was quite happy with myself for taking such a terrific and original photo. Unfortunately a few years later I was a computer vision conference and a number of research groups that had be doing research into photo tourism (using Flickr as input data) had examples of location summaries of New York and Rome. The Rome summary had 10 photos, 6 of which were almost identical to photos I had taken in Rome including this one. A quick search of interesting photos tag Vatican reveals that 30 of the top 100 photos are of this very staircase.

What is the lesson here? Take the best photos you can, but understand that someone else has probably already taken a better photo of the same stuff.
Would you like to comment?

Skater Breaks Wrist On Massive Fall

2007-10-04T18:23:00.000+08:00

This skater looks like he falls forever after wiping out on a wall. He lands directly on his wrist which snaps in half. Got to give the guy some credit though for bouncing up so quick.

Veteran Cuts Down Mexican Flag

2007-10-04T18:07:00.000+08:00

A Veteran from Reno took matters into his own hands and cut down a Mexican flag that was illegally flying over the American flag. Good for him!

Why You Shouldnt Feed Hippos Burritos

2007-10-04T18:06:00.001+08:00

This is a good example on why you should not feed a large hippo a mexican spicy burrito.

Explosion Nearly Decapitates Welder

2007-10-04T18:04:00.000+08:00

Security camera footage shows a welder working on some pipework when a gas build up causes a huge explosion which nearly removes the workers head.

Chick Gets Stuck On Fun House

2007-10-04T18:03:00.000+08:00

This lady tries to walk across a moving platform on a fun house but it moves to quick for her dropping her to the ground. She continues to attempt to stand but takes nearly a minute to gain her balance back.

South Korea LCD Crowd

2007-10-04T18:01:00.000+08:00

This is absolutely amazing! This is a clip of the spectators during a soccer game in South Korea. They do such an incredible job it actually looks like an LCD screen from a distance.

Plummet To Earth

2007-10-04T17:49:00.000+08:00

Reaching a sphincter-tightening 128 mph the Kingda Ka is basically 50 seconds of absolute terror, centring around a 139m drop.It's based in Jackson Township,New Jersey,USA and was named after a Bengal Tiger who lives in the same theme park, Six Flags Great Adventure.
visit:http://www.sixflags.com/
Try It If:Injections of liquid adrenalin no longer give you a satisfactory rush.

Bali Erupts

2007-10-04T17:40:00.000+08:00

Enjoy a comtemplative sunrise from a top Bali's Mount Agung.Head off in the dark with a guide and enjoy the first rays of the sunrise.Leave it too late and you'll be enveloped incloud.
visit:http://www.bmwtours.com/
Try It If: if you enjoy probing around dark places.

Ski The Roof Of The World

2007-10-04T17:24:00.000+08:00

While you'll score babes skiing in st. Moritz and kitzbuhel, you'll definitely impress powder horns by skiing India. Hard to imagine but the home of curry and stifling monsoons also has come some great powder snow check out Gulmarg in Kashmir.
visit:http://www.jktourism.org/
Try It If:This is one of the best places to get piste in India.

Soar About Sin City

2007-10-04T17:15:00.000+08:00

The Stratosphere in Las Vegas is a 100-strong hotel /casino/entertainment tower with a fairground at the top-making it the highest rollercoaster in the world.There are three rides,all of which involve dangling punters oc\ver the edgeof the building,looking down at the 270-m drop beneath them.
visit:http://www.stratospherehotel.com/

Go To The Distance

2007-10-04T16:57:00.000+08:00

The Steel Dragon 2000 in Nagashima Japan,is two miles long and hits a terrifying 95 mph. It had to close for a couple of years after it's wheel feel off,breaking the spines of passenger and a nearby swimmer who was hit by debris but it's up and running again now.Passes to the fun park are RM350 at the gate or from http://nagashima-onsen.co.jp/
Try It If" You're bot too fat (the seats are made for tiny Japanese)