Intersting...

How to get back at snail-mail spammers...

Orleans' Poor Forgotten -- "Purging the Poor" by Naomi Klein

An article in the Nation...

Outside the 2,000-bed temporary shelter in Baton Rouge's River Center, a Church of Scientology band is performing a version of Bill Withers's classic "Use Me"--a refreshingly honest choice. "If it feels this good getting used," the Scientology singer belts out, "just keep on using me until you use me up."

Ten-year-old Nyler, lying face down on a massage table, has pretty much the same attitude. She is not quite sure why the nice lady in the yellow SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTER T-shirt wants to rub her back, but "it feels so good," she tells me, so who really cares? I ask Nyler if this is her first massage. "Assist!" hisses the volunteer minister, correcting my Scientology lingo. Nyler shakes her head no; since fleeing New Orleans after a tree fell on her house, she has visited this tent many times, becoming something of an assist-aholic. "I have nerves," she explains in a blissed-out massage voice. "I have what you call nervousness."

Wearing a donated pink T-shirt with an age-inappropriate slogan ("It's the hidden little Tiki spot where the island boys are hot, hot, hot"), Nyler tells me what she is nervous about. "I think New Orleans might not ever get fixed back." "Why not?" I ask, a little surprised to be discussing reconstruction politics with a preteen in pigtails. "Because the people who know how to fix broken houses are all gone."

THIS BLOG IS REAL!

aaaaaAAAAA!!!!!!!

Love,
me

Anonymous Surfing

Check it out! You can surf the web anonymously...and it's pretty easy...
Follow the instructions on http://tor.eff.org/index.html
Firefox has a PRIVOXY plugin that you'll be encouraged to install. If you follow the instructions, it shoudl work, cause it worked for me. Remember to fire up tor.exe, then fire up the browser, and turn on privoxy. I have an anon IP address right now! You can too...

The inspiration came from here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/22/reporters_without_bo.html

The link will take you to a website where you can download the PDF file instrucaion booklet (over 60 pages!) I read a little of it...and found advice to use an onion program like TOR.

Now, when I enter google, it sometimes comes up in German or some other language!

Effects of Global Warming

So, what are the implications again?

"Present CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere are 130% of pre-industrial levels. The surface temperature this century is warmer than any other century since at least 1400 A.D. The temperature has increased by about 0.5 - 1.1° F over the last century and is projected to rise another 2 - 6.5°F by the year 2100. The last two decades have been the warmest in this century. Sea level has risen about 4 to l0 inches and is projected to rise another 6 - 38 inches by the year 2100. Mountain glaciers have retreated worldwide this century." LINK

and...

Background

Socially important water issues generally involve water cycle variability. This variability is evidenced, for example, in droughts, which can severely strain water and energy supplies, and floods, which are usually accompanied by infrastructure damage and sometimes by loss of life. The demands on finite water resources and potential damage from droughts and floods are increasing steadily with world population. Quantifying and understanding variations in the water cycle -- and the extent to which humans can modify them or work around them -- is thus becoming increasingly critical.

Any useful analysis of hydrological variability must consider a broad range of spatial scales. At the global scale, water transport is controlled by atmospheric circulation patterns, which are determined in part by ocean temperatures and evaporative fluxes. Land-ocean contrasts in these variables lead to the development of monsoons, which have a tremendous impact on the climates of many regions. At continental scales, precipitation at the land surface is balanced by evapotranspiration, surface and subsurface moisture storage, and streamflow. The quantification of streamflow flux and its dependence on complex continental geomorphology and land cover is critical in managing water resources over large areas. At regional and local scales, convective precipitation is influenced by the structure of the atmosphere near the land surface, the boundary layer, and thus by the nature of the land surface, which is subject to human modification. At these scales, soil, vegetation, geological, and topographic structures lead to unique streamflow and groundwater behavior.

Characterizing hydrological variability also requires considering multiple time scales. Variability at decadal and longer time scales is evidenced, for example, in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation¹ at decadal time scales, and in the paleoclimatic record at even longer (decadal to century) time scales. The El Niño phenomenon, which has significant hydrological impacts throughout the world, has a typical repeat interval of several years. Droughts occur over seasonal to interannual time scales, while individual precipitation events and the physical mechanisms that control them occur over time scales of minutes to hours. Superimposed on these modes of variability are slow "permanent" trends that may be caused in part by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and land cover change. LINK

and...

LINK to an EPA Webpage :

"Climate Change Expected to Lead to Stronger Hurricanes

A comprehensive new computer modeling study suggests that hurricanes will become more intense as the climate warms, with stronger winds and heavier rainfall. The study projects an average 6 percent increase in maximum hurricane winds by the year 2080, along with an 18 percent increase in the rate of precipitation within 60 miles (100 kilometers) of the storm’s core. The increase in intensity amounts to roughly a half step in the 5-category hurricane scale. These specific projections are based on the assumption that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will increase by 1 percent per year (compounded) over the next 80 years, which is higher than the current rate of about 0.6 to 0.7 percent per year.

The study’s authors do not expect the changes in hurricane intensity to be detectable “for decades to come,” but warn that there may be a gradually increasing risk of highly destructive category 5 storms over the course of this century.

The study’s basic findings are consistent across nine different climate models and a range of characterizations of physical processes in a hurricane model, bolstering the conclusions. Previous studies based on input from one climate model had also shown a tendency toward stronger hurricanes in warmer climates, but it was unclear how much of this effect was due to assumptions in the model.

The authors, Thomas R. Knutson of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (Princeton, New Jersey) and Robert Tuleya of Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia) did not explore whether climate change would affect the frequency of hurricanes. Past research on this question has been inconclusive, with conflicting results. Knutson and Tuleya’s findings are reported in the 15 September 2004 issue of the Journal of Climate (vol. 17, pp. 3477-3495)." SAME LINK

This and 6 other pictures are of a Lily field in Craddockville, VA

Trying to figure out how to use Hello to upload pictures.

Kirlian Photo of a Cross

I wish I could figure out how to use hello. For some reason I'm confounded by it. I want to uploiad my pictures to the web and be able to reference them by url. Is there a way to view the folder of the picutres I've loaded and the whole blog for that matter? Questions to ponder. I just sent 17 photos...lemme see what happens.

This is me 

Who is John Roberts?

Here are just a few examples of the more than 100 questions Roberts refused to answer in the last 3 days:

* "Do you then believe that this implied right of privacy applies to the beginning of life and the end of life?"—Senator Feinstein

* "[The Supreme Court] said, "a woman's interest in having an abortion is a form of liberty protected by the Due Process Clause. Do you agree with that?"—Senator Specter

* "[D]o you believe ... that the federal courts should become involved in end-of-life decisions?"—Senator Biden

* "[Does Congress] have the power to terminate war?"—Senator Leahy

* " Do you disagree with Justice Thomas' interpretation of the right to privacy in any decided case?"—Senator Biden

* "Do you have any concern about the constitutionality of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodation, employment and other areas?—Senator Kenedy

* "[President Kennedy] said, 'I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.' My question is, do you?"—Senator Feinstein

Here's a video

I have to ask: Who is this guy and what does he stand for? He won't say, and his record as a judge is short. His record as a lawyer is one where he took the stand of the administration he worked for... Just because he's a GOOD GUY...should he be the supreme justice?

is this scrabble-worthy?

To be "Soutered"

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/supreme.court/interactive/scenarios/content.11.html

What is ZDF News?

I have a question: Is this report reliable? If so, does that mean we live under a fascist government?
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002485.html

Why Condi Sux

http://www.gawker.com/news/condoleezza-rice/breaking-condi-rice-spends-salary-on-shoes-123467.php

WEBSURFING

My Web Dilstillation of the day...

Barbara Bush insults Katrina survivors.
Web Zen a.k.a. 'The Unicorn Song" by Shel Silverstein.
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/
President's Weekly Radio Address
Some Doonesbury