Gonna be a long Monday
Sittin’ all alone on a mountain
By a river that has no end
Gonna be a long Monday
Stuck like the tick of a clock
That’s come unwound – again
– John Prine
Sittin’ all alone on a mountain
By a river that has no end
Gonna be a long Monday
Stuck like the tick of a clock
That’s come unwound – again
– John Prine
Iraq reconstruction money going unspent: NYT
The purported reason for this? The Iraqis are so afraid of the anticorruption measures put in place by the Americans that they are afraid to sign off on any contracts. Yeah, right.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s unsafe to work on any type of reconstruction project.
for the War on Christmas.
Did you see the holiday stamps from the post office this year with the snowflakes? So nice to have a different choice than a 19th-century Santa or yet another madonna-and-child from the Renaissance collection at the National Gallery. Works for all your friends, from the pagans to the atheists.
😉
I BOUGHT the snowflakes!
Whenever I see a Madonna/child it always registers with me as a celebration of motherhood, birth, infancy…..I suppose it speaks of my Christian deprogamming and studying where various religious symbols came from and what Jungian role they play in my life.
I guess my deprogramming has a ways to go, LOL!
Thanks for making an excellent point: ex-Christians are as entitled to enjoy the heritage of Western Civilization as anyone else.
please explain the point of this nonsense to me? Salt Lake Tribune
Does the juvenile court system in Utah have nothing better to do than make criminals out of kids who have sex? And just what is the plan to rehabilitate those who are sexually active early?
Rehabilitate? I thought they might both just get stoned (with rocks, not cannabis).
New findings indicate that the aurora and other near-Earth space weather are driven by the rate at which the Earth’s and Sun’s magnetic fields connect, or merge, and not by the solar wind’s electric field as was previously assumed. The merging occurs at a spot between the Earth and Sun, roughly 40,000 miles above the planet’s surface, and appears fundamental to the circulation of particles and magnetic fields throughout near-Earth space.
New research predicts that ethylene, a well-known inexpensive molecule and building block of many plastics, can be joined to two titanium atoms to form a complex that can bind to and store 10 hydrogen molecules. The absorbed hydrogen molecules account for about 14 percent of the weight of the titanium-ethylene complex. That’s about double the Department of Energy’s minimum target of 6.5 percent for economically practical storage of hydrogen in a solid-state material. The hydrogen is released by modest heating.
The sudden appearance of large animal fossils more than 500 million years ago may be due to a huge increase of oxygen in the world’s oceans. The problem perplexed Charles Darwin and many researchers since, and is commonly known as “Darwin’s Dilemma.” Researchers hypothesize that melting glaciers at the end of the “snowball earth” era increased the amount of nutrients in the ocean and led to a proliferation of single-celled organisms that liberated oxygen through photosynthesis. This began an evolutionary radiation that led to complex communities of filter-feeding animals, then mobile bilateral animals, and ultimately to the Cambrian “explosion” of skeletal animals 542 million years ago.
…And now that we’ve had our good science news for the day, it’s back to the Climate Change follies:
A federal climate scientist with NOAA in Boulder says his boss told him never to utter the word Kyoto and tried to bar him from using the phrase climate change at a conference.
Not the kind of bipartisanship BushCo had in mind: Well-known Republicans are joining Barbara Boxer and other Democrats next month to start the ball rolling on climate change legislation. Watch for Ahnold to go to DC and appear with the CA senator. Even Al Gore and Tony Blair may testify…
Speaking of Gore, the former US Vice President Al Gore said on Friday he would start a grass-roots political movement next month to seek a “freeze” on carbon emissions that scientists say are to blame for global warming.
Not to be left behind, Prince Charles shows his green sincerity by pledging to exchange private planes and helicopters for public transport and biodiesel cars.
And Citigroup has issued a report for investors, highlighting firms likely to be helped or hurt by climate change (the former include alternative energy providers; the latter, coal mining and oil firms). [Investors needed a report to figure that one out?!?]
Taliban says want no part of tribal peace talks
A school in Scotland has apparently hit upon the secret to improving student performance, even without “No Child Left Behind:” a revival of the fountain pen!
“The pens improve the quality of work because they force the children to take care, and better work improves self-esteem,” principal Bryan Lewis said. “Proper handwriting is as relevant today as it ever has been.”
[snip]
Ten-year-old Cailean Gall has been using fountain pens in class for two years. It took the keen soccer player one month to master the pen and, like all pupils at the school, still has regular handwriting lessons.
“At the start it was hard because I kept smudging, but you get used to it,” he said. “I still have to use a pencil for maths, and now I find it strange using the pencils. I like it because it makes me concentrate much more on my work.”
No word as to whether fencing, needlepoint, and minuet will be added to the curriculum next year…
Bush gives Al-Maliki a Rumsfeld: Talks under way to replace Iraq PM an AP report that’s flatly denied by the White House.
“The new alliance would be led by senior Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who met with U.S. President George W. Bush last week. Mr. al-Hakim, however, was not expected to be the next prime minister because he prefers to stay above the day-to-day running of the country.”
Top Air Force Lawyer Had Been Disbarred-worldbriefs
“A top Air Force lawyer who served at the White House and in a senior position in Iraq turns out to have been practicing law for 23 years without a license.”
Another civil war On the edge: Revolution in the air as Lebanon’s rift widens as the government remains in hiding.
“Fouad Siniora’s cabinet hiding in the Grand Serail behind acres of razor wire and thousands of troops – a veritable “green zone” in the heart of Beirut – the largely Shia Muslim opposition, assisted by their Christian allies, brought up to two million supporters into the centre of the city yesterday to declare the forthcoming creation of a second Lebanese administration.”
Our policy on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology -`they have oil and do not need to go nuclear for power’ has been undercut. Saudi, Gulf States to Study Using Nuclear Technology (Update4).
A “Rumsfeld,” eh? Those of us of a certain age used to call it a “Tom Eagleton,” LOL. (I’m showing my gray hair, there…)
recall Bush said days before the election Rummy would be on board until ’09 – days after the election results Rummy is chucked? Bush did the same thing with al-Maliki – after the WH memo leak during the Jordanian summit …’al-Maliki is our man’ only 4 days later Bush has Al-Hakim over for a visit..and the news is out on a plan to oust al – Maliki.
Name me a world leader who’d ever feel secure in trusting this man Bush?
CBC:
Any word on what posters would be paid if their contributions were televised?
how many billions did Google pay for You Tube? That’ll be some depreciation.