While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek islands, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, southwestern England, while learning about moral philosophy.

The Jagos, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britains first summer camp for atheists.

The five-day retreat is being subsidized by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of "The God Delusion," and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups.

Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.

"Im very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds," he said earlier this month. "I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think."

Irans appeal to religious authorities for a binding decision on a national election struck me as odd. Or quaint. Or ominous.

As an American, Ive never had to worry about a religious potentate or a group of ministers deciding for all of us who our next president would be.

Somehow, though, the developments in Iran made me think of my recent appearance on Jack Patties radio call-in program on WVLK-590 AM.

The question that morning was whether the United States is a "Christian nation." Quite a few callers had strong opinions, pro and con.

I find that whole issue thorny.

Iran, for instance, obviously is a Muslim nation; its a theocracy.

But in what sense is America "Christian"? Here are a few thoughts:

The people who argue that America was founded as a Christian nation rarely define what they mean. They might be right; they might be wrong. It depends entirely on how you use the words "Christian nation."

When people complain about the growing list of requests for accommodation in public schools from students and parents from minority faiths, I like to remind them that the majority faith wrote the rules.

Founded as Protestant-dominated institutions in the 19th century, public schools never open on Sunday, close for Christmas, and in other ways institutionalize accommodations for the majority faith.

That?s why I applaud New York City Chancellor Joe Klein for arranging a special ceremony for a teenager who can?t attend her graduation because it?s being held on the Jewish Sabbath. With only one Jewish graduate, it is not surprising that Li Morse?s school didn?t try harder to find another day.  Truth be told, America?s expanding religious diversity is making it harder and harder to find any day that will accommodate everyone.

If true, as Britains Sunday Express reports, the high-quality tapes may give us a whole new view of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrins lunar strolls.

Back on July 20, 1969, the raw video feed from the moon was beamed to the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in southeastern Australia, and then compressed and sent to Mission Control in Houston.

Because of technical issues, NASAs images couldnt be fed directly to the TV networks.

Those images survive, and anyone can see them on YouTube. But the original, sharp, black-and-white tapes that were recorded at Parkes vanished.

Around the same time, though, a cache of tapes containing data from moon-surface experiments from the entire Apollo program was discovered in a university basement in Perth, Western Australia, on the other side of the country from Parkes.

Written by Steve on July 1st, 2009 - Topics: Environment, Travel, Urban, Various

Concept Caravan Captures Cubist Chic

Ford Airstream Evokes the Thirties

The Fold-Out Foldoub Trailer

252° Living Area Maximizes Your Mini

Colim Modular Camper

Put It On My T@B

Car Trailers For Motorcycles

Have Tent, Will Travel

GM Goes Mobile Bigtime

Tumblin? Tumbleweed Homes

Capsule Caravan Really Gets A Round

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

Whats more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

These introduced Argentine ants are renowned for forming large colonies, and for becoming a significant pest, attacking native animals and crops.

Red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, white, pink ? we?re not talking about rainbows here but tulip colours that look like they?ve sprung from a painter?s palette. No wonder then that rows and rows of tulips and tulip fields look like impressionist paintings up close or like modern or abstract art from above. Beautiful for sure and a great way to celebrate summer.

Red tulip rows with poplars in the background, most likely in Japan:

Image: Nao

Like a carpet of tulips - tulip gardens at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in northwestern Washington:

Image: Ramanathan Kathiresan

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

From the color of my skin, to the texture of my hair, to the length of my strands, to the breadth of my smile,

To the stride of my gait, to the span of my arms, to the depth of my bosom, to the curve of my hips, to the glow of my skin,
My Black is Beautiful.

It cannot be denied. It will not be contained. And only I will define it.

For when I look in my mirror, my very soul cries out,
My Black is Beautiful.

And so today, I speak it out loud, unabashedly, I declare it anew,
My Black is Beautiful.

Whether celebrated, imitated, exploited or denigrated. Whether natural from inside or skillfully applied,
My Black is Beautiful.

To my daughters, my sisters, my nieces, my cousins, my colleagues and my friends,
I speak for us all when I say again,
My Black is Beautiful.

Download and Print the
My Black is Beautiful Manifesto (PDF)

As the House debate heated up, so did the hyperbole.

• Hydrogen Technology
• Vermont Small Wind Incentive Program
• Vermonts Wind Resource
• Wind Resource Index
• Wind Resource Database of NRELs National Wind Technology Center
• National Renewable Energy Lab
• Wind Energy Maps
• Solstice: Internet Information Service of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology
• International Daylight Measurement Programme (IDMP)
• Iowa Energy Center
• NASA Langley Distributed Active Archive (DAAC) Surface Solar Energy Data Set
• The National Climatic Data Center
• Sandia National Laboratories Photovoltaics page
• Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI)
• The University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Lab
• The World Meteorological Organization
• Renewable Energy Vermont
• Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility
• American Wind Energy Association
• Canadian Wind Energy Association
• European Wind Energy Association
• Southwest Wind Power
• Changing World Tech
• Export World Guide

DickensURL

Inspired by a comment from Reddit, DickensURL is probably the weirdest URL shortener we?ve seen. It turns URLs into (often lengthy) Charles Dickens quotes. Is it useful? No. Will it suddenly give you the urge to read Dickens? Maybe. Will it be treasured by hundreds of geeks to be used in that one situation where the Dickensian quote will fit perfectly as an uber-geeky meta-joke? Definitely.

ICanHaz

This service works pretty much the same as other URL shorteners. However, it uses lolcats language on the site.

Bacn.me

It?s just a regular URL shortener as far as functionality goes, but it?s?baconized. And that, my friends, is reason enough to use it.

Tinyarro.ws

By using Unicode, tinyarro.ws displays shortest possible URLs. They really are short, but they also look so weird that they?ll probably scare most people you send them to.

HugeURL

SLIDESHOW: SEARS SKYDECK LEDGE

1 of 3: Artists rendering of the Sears Towers Skydeck Ledge, to be installed in summer 2009.

2 of 3: Artists rendering of the Sears Towers Skydeck Ledge, to be installed in summer 2009.

Windstream offers two types of human power generators. Both are based on transforming movement of the human body into electricity. The Bike Power Generator and the Human Power Generator are the solution to energy education in the classroom, failsafe backup power, and productive exercise. Check out the Electromate 400 Portable Power Pack or the Power Monitor and make your Bike Power Generator and Human Power Generator even more useful!

Human Power Generator Series

Even with the 20% discount Amazon has for R. Crumbs Sex Obsessions, I cant afford it. Retail price is $700.

They have little to do with the standard procreative urge, Mr. Crumb admits. He has also said he finds nothing more boring than someone elses sexual obsessions, and yet through his long career the worlds most famous underground cartoonist has felt compelled to include his own sex fantasies in his art. He explains it as a compulsive catharsis, while fans call R. Crumbs erotic fantasies the Master at his best. Now Crumb has selected his most intimately revealing comic strips and single page drawings to create a 256 page encyclopedic trip through his sexual psyche. All images were created between 1980 and 2006, and all strips are colored for a lush vibrancy never seen in his comic books. In total the book features 14 complete stories, including My Troubles With Women II, If I Were a King, A Bitchin Bod and How To Have Fun With a Strong Girl, as well as 62 single page drawings.

Here?s the idea: you?re watching a movie in the theater and need to take a restroom break, but you don?t want to miss the best part. The RunPee iPhone app has a timer letting you know when it?s safe to take a break, and gives you a summary of what you missed upon your return.

such lines as:

Captain Oveur (Peter Graves): Roger, Roger. Whats our vector, Victor?

Speaking after Irans top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.

Underlining the climate of fear among direct and even indirect supporters of Mousavis campaign for the election to be annulled, the sources also reported that a prominent cleric gave a speech to opposition protesters in Teheran earlier this week in which he publicly acknowledged that the very act of speaking at the gathering would likely cost him his life.

State draws zones for coast wind farms

The draft plan, scheduled to be released today, would allow a series of small wind farms of up to 10 turbines each in coastal waters that stretch 3 miles from shore. Substantially larger farms - similar to what?s proposed in Nantucket Sound - could be built off Cape Cod near Cuttyhunk Island and adjacent to another tiny island several miles off Martha?s Vineyard.

The plan emerges as the nation?s waters become increasingly crowded from competing uses of ship traffic, fishing, and a flurry of offshore energy projects, from liquefied natural gas ports to wind farms. Two weeks ago, President Obama called such ocean management a priority to help manage federal waters that stretch 3 to 200 miles out to sea.Continued...

The goal and slogan of "healthcare reform" should be quite simple: "Medicare for Everyone."

Why do we have to wait until we are 65 to be guaranteed the right of health coverage?

Who is publicly against Medicare? Just the fringe right wing loonies in the GOP (although a larger number of Republican politicians oppose it as a government entitlement, but wont say so because they would be slaughtered at the polls by outraged seniors who love their Medicare.)

Private healthcare insurance only accomplishes two things: increases the costs of healthcare and denies needed care as much as it can get away with.

So when politicians keep talking about free market alternatives as being more efficient: the private health insurance industry proves just the opposite.  In order to make a profit or pay high non-profit insurance (think Blue Cross) salaries, they have to add costs onto the healthcare system. Its that simple.

?Through The Green Fuse? is series of photos by Robert Buelteman, actually they are photograms. His technique is quite complex and dangerous, it?s based on Kirlian photography. He places flowers and leaves on a color transparency film, on top of that he lays plexiglas with a sheet of metal in between, floating in a liquid silicone. Then he hits everything with an electric pulse which causes the coronas and outlines to appear on the film. The last step he needs to do, is hand-painting it with a white light coming from an optical fiber. It can take up to 150 attempts to get this right. You can read more about it at Wired.
The results are just stunning.

Jesus Puts Population of Heaven at 150, Tops

Obama Nominates The Risen Christ for Supreme Court Justice

We Love Vibrators: Study

(Newser) ? Nearly half of all Americans use a vibrator, according to a new study by the maker of Trojan condoms. More than 50% of women and 45% of men in recent surveys said they?ve used one, and vibrator aficionados also rated themselves higher on sexual health indicators such as erectile function, level of desire, and frequency of genital self-exams, LiveScience reports.

Source: LiveScience

For those carnivores among our readers who only think of crab cakes and crab burgers when hearing the word ?crab,? consider this: Crabs are also artists. Yes, these humble crustaceans with the funny walking style make beautiful pictures out of sand. We?ve all seen them. Time to inspect how and why of this mysterious art works.

Crabs can be found in all the oceans around the world and one particular family, namely the sand bubbler crab (Dotilla fenestrate), are especially familiar because most of us will have admired their intricate artworks made out of little sand balls at a visit to the beach.

Sand bubblers can be found along the shores of the Indian and Pacific Oceans but also at beaches from East Africa to Hawaii, especially along Asian and Australian coastlines.

In the mid-1840s, ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) created a number of woodblock prints showing legendary tanuki (raccoon dogs) using their humorously large scrota in creative ways.

River fishing

Shelter from evening showers

Rokurokubi (long-necked monster) disguise

Net fishing

Making dashi (soup stock)

Weightlifting

Catfish mallet

Coming and going

Making mochi

Visiting Konpira, the guardian deity of seafaring

Boy?s festival

Cause of chronic abdominal pain

Shichifukujin (the Seven Lucky Gods) disguise

Fortune-telling tent

Shop signs

River crossing

Towboat

Seine fishing

See more of Kuniyoshi?s tanuki images at Kuniyoshi Project (1, 2).

• Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

• Skin Deep

• National Library of Medicines Household Products Database

• Visit www.safecosmetics.org/companies to find companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to remove chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems.

People sometimes seek the truth, but most prefer like-minded views

The studies they reviewed generally asked participants about their views on a given topic and then allowed them to choose whether they wanted to view or read information supporting their own or an opposing point of view.

"BOOM!" (More Obfuscation)

Dont believe it for a second.

So who is it?  No idea.  And while the amount borrowed overnight at that rate may be tiny, thats not the point - the point is that the last time we saw anything that dramatic was just before it all went "boom" last year.

Yes, Im sure that end-of-quarter had something to do with it.  In fact, Id be stunned if it did not.

However, as I noted, theres no reason for anyone to pay that if they have good collateral to post at the discount window, given that you can do so for 1/10th or less the price.

Keep your nose to the ground and your eyes open. 

Someone (or more than one someone) is in trouble.

Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97

LOS ANGELES ? Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 97. Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He served as the academys president from 1989-92.

"Karl lived a rich, full life," Academy president Sid Ganis said. "He has the greatest and most loving family; a career that has spanned the spectrum of the arts from theater to film and television, to some very famous commercial work."

Malden and his wife, Mona, a fellow acting student at the Goodman, had one of Hollywoods longest marriages, having celebrated their 70th anniversary in December.

Call it the Titanic of anthem disasters: Roseanne Barr?s 1990 performance at a San Diego Padres game left no note unmolested, no stanza unshrieked, no enemy of America uncomforted. The comedienne even finished it off with a hocked loogie and a groin grab. Who does she think she is, a baseball player?

Population Density Triggered Rapid Growth of Human Brain Over Past 2 Million Years

Priceless: English-Only Supporters Hold Conference, Cant Spell Conference

On Saturday, Pat Buchanan hosted a conference to discuss how Republicans can regain a majority in America. During one discussion, panelists suggested supporting English-only initiatives as a prime way of attracting "working class white Democrats." The discussion ridiculed Judge Sotomayor for the fact that she studied children?s classics to improve her grammar while attending college. The panelists also suggested that, without English as the official language, President Obama would force Americans to speak Spanish.

One salient feature of the event was the banner hanging over the English-only advocates. The word conference was spelled ?Conferenece.? View it here:

The nineteenth-century German theologian Rudolf Otto, in his book The Idea of the Holy, popularized the term "numinous", an adjective describing the sense of mystery and wonder that purportedly stems from the presence of a deity. According to Otto, the sense of the numinous had two main characteristics: the mysterium tremendum, the sense of fear and trembling that comes from the presence of that which is wholly other, and the mysterium fascinas, the sense of fascination and curiosity that such an experience evokes.

Ottos theology concisely sums up the categories of religious experience. But the problem with his conception of the numinous is that it lacks one very important quality - understanding.

Its over ? were officially, royally fucked. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline ? a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the countrys heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

Historic climate bill passes House ? but what will the Senate do?

Now that the historic climate bill has passed through the House of Representatives, the fight turns to the U.S. Senate, where were working to defend the bill and strengthen provisions that help poor people adapt to climate change.

These vulnerable populations didnt create the climate crisis, but theyre hit hardest by the consequences of our pollution: floods, droughts, debilitating storms, crop loss, and disease.

Message

Dear [Decision Maker],

Help Release Laura Ling and Euna Lee

Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers ?Political Extremists?

A stinging attack by John Hartigan, the CEO of Rupert Murdoch?s News Limited, labels bloggers and alternative media outlets as ?political extremists?. Hartigan implies that bloggers should be jailed as they are in oppressive police states like China and Burma.

?Bloggers don?t go to jail for their work. They simply aren?t held accountable like real reporters?.It could be said the blogosphere is all eyeballs and no insights,? barked Hartigan.

?In the blogosphere, of course, the mainstream media is always found wanting. It really is time this myth was blown apart.?

?Blogs, and a large number of comment sites, specialise in political extremism and personal vilification. Radical sweeping statements without evidence are common.?

Remember those words. ?Political extremism?.

Dr. Timothy S. Wood who is an expert on freshwater bryozoa and an officer with the International Bryozoology Association.  I sent along the video and this was his reponse?

Thanks for the video ? I had not see it before. No, these are not bryozoans!  They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other. The contractions you see are the result of a single worm contracting and then stimulating all the others to do the same almost simultaneously, so it looks like a single big muscle contracting. Interesting video.

DTECTA Probiotics 8 products

A competition has been launched in which contestants pay to guess the value of the contract, with the winner keeping the highly prized document.

The fab fours prospective manager, Brian Epstein, offered to sign the band after watching them perform in Liverpools Cavern Club.

John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr signed the contract in 196

The contract bears a mistake where Lennon wrote his name in the wrong part and it was also signed by some band members parents, due to their young ages.

Epstein spotted the band in the Cavern in 1961 and the contract was signed the following year. The group catapulted up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The contract has only changed hands a couple of times over the decades and was acquired for The Imagine Corporation at Christies auction house.

We might think women are not as adept as men at wielding heavy tools, like say, hammers, according to popular stereotypes.

The researchers theorize that maybe men and women inherently use different strategies, putting more emphasis on either force or accuracy, respectively. But these are preliminary results. They intend to do further studies with larger sample sizes in different conditions.

But for now that old stereotype might need to be retooled.

Ballpoint pen artist Shohei Otomo mashes up old and new in bold illustrations spiked with heavy doses of manga-style gore and perversion.

Just in time for the 30th anniversary festivities comes this girlie Gundam, a jewel-encrusted RX-78-2 (apparently created by a Taiwanese fan) looking pretty in pink and lace.

Pina Bausch: a bold and committed pioneer

Even if you think you have never seen a Pina Bausch work, you are likely to have seen something that has been influenced by her.

That sums up Bausch?s vision. It is at once bleak and frighteningly honest in its depiction of human nature and at the same time uplifting against the odds. It is a remarkable body of work from a bold and committed pioneer.

A day after celebrating the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, the Church pauses to remember all of the other Christians of Rome who also suffered under the cruel hand of Nero.

Pina Bausch Die Klage der Kaiserin 2

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica.

But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.

Mexican words of the day

1. *Cheese*
The teacher told Pepito to use the word cheese in a sentence.  Pepito  replies: Maria likes me, but cheese fat.

2. *Mushroom*
When all my family get in the car, theres not mushroom.

3. *Shoulder*
My fren wanted 2 become a citizen but she didnt know how to read so I  ;shoulder.

4. * Texas *
My fren always Texas me when Im not home wondering where Im at!

5. *Herpes*
Me and my fren ordered pizza.   ;I got mine piece and she got herpes.

6. *July*
Ju told me ju were going to tha store and July to me!  Julyer!

7. *Rectum*
I had 2 cars but my wife rectum!

8. *Chicken*
I was going to go to the store with my wife but chicken go herself.

The U.S. House of Representatives leadership recently unveiled a mammoth 852-page blueprint for overhauling Americans health care: the draft "Tri-Committee Health Reform Bill." It is the product of three major House Committees with jurisdiction over health policy--Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means. If enacted, this comprehensive legislation would amount to federal control of the health care sector of the economy, with the implementation of far-reaching policies impacting doctors and patients in the public as well as the private sector.

You smell terrified: We can detect when others are scared by their scent, new study shows

By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 1:22 AM on 02nd July 2009

The smell of fear really does exist - and it may be catching, researchers say.

A study has shown that we can subconsciously detect when others are scared simply from the chemicals released from their skin.

Scientists who made the discovery believe the signals can spread a ripple of fear through a group.

The findings add to the growing evidence that our sense of smell is far more sophisticated that many of us realise - and that humans can detect and react to pheromones released by others.

The researchers believe fear and anxiety trigger the release of a chemical that makes other people empathise.

Last year scientists funded by the U.S. Pentagon found the smell of anxious people triggered a heightened response in brain regions associated with fear.

She said: ?I was at the doctor last week for the first time in 12 years and he was amazed at me.

?He couldn?t believe I was as active as I was and said that I must have a great diet.

?I told him: ?That?s right ? chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!?

?I love it and have never been a fan of vegetables or fruit.?

She added: ?I?ll have a bit during breakfast, another bar at lunch and again during dinner ? as well as what I can get my hands on in between.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications plunged to a seven-month low last week as demand for home refinancing loans tumbled 30 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

The drop does not bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which has been showing some signs of stabilization, with sales rising and home price declines moderating in many regions of the country.

Present cooling was NOT predicted by the alarmists computer models, and has come as an embarrassment to them

Below is a reprint of a July 1, 2009 Open Letter to Congress by a team of prominent atmospheric scientists.

Scientists Write Open Letter to Congress: You Are Being Deceived About Global Warming -- Earth has been cooling for ten years  

Testimony before the
Senate Republican Conference

June 22, 2009

It is clear that cap-and-trade is very expensive and amounts to nothing more than an energy tax in disguise. After all, when you sweep aside all the complexities of how cap and trade operates--and make no mistake, this is the most convoluted attempt at economic central planning this nation has ever attempted--the bottom line is that cap and trade works by raising the cost of energy high enough so that individuals and businesses are forced to use less of it. Inflicting economic pain is what this is all about. That is how the ever-tightening emissions targets will be met.

New Dating Service Proves Online Romance Can Be Outsourced

A Canadian company has introduced a new service that lets singles delegate their online dating to a representative who manages their profile and exchanges messages under their name.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The California governor?s office says federal officials are threatening to seize six state parks if they are closed to help balance the state?s budget.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 220 state parks.

But the National Park Service warned in a letter to Schwarzenegger that six of those parks are on former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if they are not kept open as parks.

State officials say they?re trying to work with federal authorities to forestall a possible seizure. The state could also lose federal park funds.

The parks are Angel Island and Mount Diablo near San Francisco; Point Sur in Big Sur; and beaches at Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey, Point Mugu near Malibu; and Border Fields along the Mexican border.

Sarajevo - A Muslim City

Official: N. Korea Fires 2 Short-Range Missiles

The missiles were fired from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan on Thursday afternoon, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity citing department policy. He did not say what types of missiles were launched, but Yonhap news agency said they were ground-to-ship missiles.

The new launches are expected to exacerbate the tensions running high since Pyongyangs May 25 underground nuclear test and a series of missile firings. The U.N. Security Council adopted a tough sanctions resolution last month to punish the communist regime.

Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing Tuesday.

"We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return," Mathias said.

Mathias did not provide details on the soldier, the location where he was captured or the circumstances.

"We are not providing further details to protect the soldiers well-being," she said.

The news broke as thousands of U.S. Marines launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan. The missing soldier was not part of that operation.

Zabiullah Mujaheed, a spokesman for the Taliban, could not confirm that the soldier was with any of their militant forces. A myriad of insurgent groups operate in eastern Afghanistan, and the Taliban is only one of them.

James Mountain Inhofe, usually known as Jim Inhofe, has been a Republican Senator for Oklahoma since winning a special election in 1994. (map)

Levey is part of the "gayby boom" generation. The 29-year-old management consultant is the son of a lesbian couple who chose to have a child through artificial insemination. Hes their only child.

Critics of same-sex marriage say people such as Levey will grow up shunned and sexually confused. Yet he says hes a "well-adjusted heterosexual" whose upbringing proves that love, not gender, makes a family.

It damages the children, says Dale OLeary, author of "One Man, One Woman: A Catholics Guide to Defending Marriage." She says that all children have a natural desire for a parent of each gender.

OLeary says she doesnt personally know any same-sex parents or their children. Thats the problem, some children of same-sex children say. So many people are talking about them; not enough are talking to them, they say.

In addition, you will learn other secrets and tips on choosing the right breed of chickens for best egg production, taking care of your chickens, maintenance and much more. For immediate access, click below now for information on how you can get hold of your Chicken Coop Plans and additional surprise gifts, where available?.

Download The Chicken Coop Plans Here

Quote of the day from commenter MikeHu, re Earth Treason:

The actual 4.6 billion-year old planet, survivor of multitudes of asteroid hits, Milankovitch cycle changes, magnetic pole reversals, solar and cosmic radiation, myriad volcanic caldera collapses, mantle plume eruptions, etc., etc. doesn?t give a rat?s ass about a few degrees Celsius or what idiots like Krugman think.

Krugman can?t be an idiot. They wouldn?t give him a Nobel Prize if he was, would they? No matter. I?m guessing Gaia not only doesn?t give a rat?s ass what Krugman thinks, she doesn?t even know what the Royal Swedish Academy and the Karolinska Institutet are, she didn?t see Al Gore?s movie and she didn?t vote for Obama. But I?m guessing, if she knew what they were, she?d think carbon offsets are dumb.

MONDAY was a routine day for Grant Di Mille and Samira Mahboubian, the owners of the Street Sweets food truck, a mobile trove of croissants, cupcakes and cookies that got rolling last month.

?If I only did business where these hot dog guys said I could do business,? said Lev Ekster, owner of the new CupcakeStop truck, ?I would be vending in New Jersey.?

"More Better Faster!": How Our Spastic Digital Culture Scrambles Our Brains

One of the more pernicious enclosures of the commons is the enclosure of time and consciousness. Its pernicious because it is so subtle and rarely discerned. When commercial values such as productivity and efficiency become so pervasive and internalized, they crowd out other ways of being. Our very sense of humanity -- full-bodied, spontaneous, spiritual -- leaches away.

Levys research is focused on why the technological devices that are designed to connect us also seem to radically dis-connect us. As Levy puts it, "We now have the most remarkable tools for teaching and learning the world has ever known. How is it that we have less time to think than ever before?" Although our society supposedly prizes creative thought, it in fact gives little respect to the intuitive and the contemplative.

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the Californian large, extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.

Very, very weird sewer creatures caught on camera -or- How Bryozoa Work

Near my home in Raleigh, NC, these bizarre creatures were caught on camera:

It looks freaky, but is described here as a Bryozoan:

Prehistoric Sewer Monster Caught on Video

An aquatic specialist from the DOW confirmed that what the camera had discovered was actually a Bryozoan, a primitive life form that, as a species, is over 350 million years old.

The Bryozoans are collections of smaller organisms that filter food out of the water supply, and they are an extremely primitive ?animal? life form.

Risky business: Stressed men more likely to gamble

In contrast, stressed women moderate their behavior and may be less likely to make risky choices, the study found.

Coffee with Pina - Lee Yanor

The Cap and Trade debacle must die in the Senate; thanks to House Republicans

On Friday, June 26th, the United States House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey bill, commonly known as cap and trade. We know that this bill will force our energy rates to ?skyrocket?, as President Obama promised on the campaign trail. We know that cap and trade does little or nothing to help the environment. We know that cap and trade will send millions of jobs overseas?to countries like China and India that are among the worst polluters in the world. We know everything there is to know about the cap and trade program, including that it will cost the average American household over $3,000 a year in higher energy costs, gas prices, and so on. But perhaps the most important information gleaned from the passage of this bill, is that we now know that there are 211 Democrats and 8 Republicans with fanatical and fascist inclinations.

Can you believe this? I go to Field and Stream for Fishing, Hunting, Survival, AND Guns! GUNS!

Now, the world?s leading Outdoor Website Field & Stream is wondering if these fawns are TOO CUTE for their website. See for yourself.

Rome gives citizenship to seized Israeli soldier

ROME ? Rome has given honorary citizenship to an Israeli soldier kidnapped by militants linked to Gazas militant Islamic Hamas group three years ago.

Sgt. Gilad Schalits father, Noam Schalit received the honor at a city hall ceremony Wednesday.

A giant photo of the soldier hung in the piazza, with the words "Rome wants its citizen Gilad Schalit free" ? words Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno repeated at the evening ceremony.

The city council voted to give Schalit honorary citizenship to coincide with Thursdays third anniversary of his capture by militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza into Israel.

Talks to trade Schalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel have been unsuccessful.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the buildings Skydeck.

There was "practically no difference" between the bones of meat-eaters and ovolactovegetarians, who excluded meat and seafood but ate eggs and dairy products, he said.

"The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, are associated with lower bone mineral density," Nguyen wrote in the study, which was published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The Elgin Marbles will never return to Athens ? the British Museum is their rightful home

The Greeks should erect a statue of Lord Elgin near the Parthenon to express their nations gratitude to him for saving the Marbles.

Having built this new museum for the Elgin Marbles, the Greeks have managed to rustle up one or two British journalists credulous or naïve enough to write articles calling for their return. But if anyone thinks the building is ever going to house anything other than the plaster casts that are on display there now, they are hopelessly out of touch with reality. There is virtually no chance that the director or trustees of the British Museum, now or in the future, will comply with this outlandish demand.

Let the new museum stand as a monument to the futility of cultural nationalism ? in this case trying to claim back something that by now belongs to the whole world.

Though it sounds at first like a marine biologist?s take on political correctness, respecting the cultural diversity of whales may be essential to saving them.

Scientists are accustomed to thinking of whale populations in terms of genetic diversity. But even when they share the same genes, groups of whales can live in very different ways, raising the possibility that species might be saved even while individual cultures vanish. The tragedy of cultural extinction aside, cultural diversity may sustain the long-term health of Earth?s cetaceans.

?We have no idea what?s going on. As we mess up the world, it goes off in all kinds of weird directions,? said biologist Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. ?The more diversity that?s out there, both genetic and cultural, the more whales can deal with it.?

The Stage, Currently

The Stage, Currently

The Stage, Currently

WASHINGTON -- Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. Thats a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as "codels," has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

These funny animals (45 pics)

Famous prostitutes gravestone deemed too slutty

LONDON (AP) ? Two British police dogs died after being left in a car during a heat wave, police said Thursday.

The German shepherds were left in a car Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of police headquarters in Nottingham, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of London. Temperatures topped 84 F (29 C) that day.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was investigating the incident under animal welfare legislation. The maximum penalty for causing unnecessary distress to an animal is six months imprisonment or a 20,000 pound ($33,000) fine, or both.

The dogs police handler was on duty and had gone inside the building. Police did not say how long the dogs were in the car.

"This is a tragic incident and we value the important work our police dogs carry out on a daily basis," Nottinghamshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Peter Davies said in a statement.

The Power of Gratitude

A Call To Arms - July4Patriot

Jack Straw refuses to pardon jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields

Justice secretary declines appeal by man jailed in Bulgaria for attempted murder of barman

The justice secretary, Jack Straw, today turned down an appeal for a pardon by Michael Shields, the Liverpool football fan who was jailed in Bulgaria for the attempted murder of a barman.

A statement issued by the ministry of justice said: "Following a detailed and careful consideration of all the relevant evidence the justice secretary, Jack Straw, has made a provisional decision that the application for a free pardon from Mr Michael Shields should be refused."

The ministry said Straw made his decision in accordance with a high court judgment in 2008 which indicated that, in order to grant a free pardon, he would have to be satisfied that Shields was "morally and technically innocent".

Shields father, Michael snr, reacted angrily to the news.

Each ?exactitude? consists of twelve distinct portraits structured in a grid. Think of it as street fashion meets cultural anthropology meets data visualization ? a visceral exploration of subcultures, group identity and individualism.

The series is also an ethnographic and temporal portrait of our collectively individual identity across time and space ? the big bags of 2008, New York?s yupster girls, the tracksuits of Japanese schoolkids, the soccer jersey fetish of European teenage boys, even ?street style? at its rawest in the face of the homeless.

We see the Rotterdam-based duo?s work as a collage of contradictions ? between individuality and uniformity, between street style and studio setting, between self and group ? that make you question our cultural givens and our self-conception as unique personas.

Tehran, July 1, 2009 - Police in the Alleys

EEEK!

Mousavi Calls Government "Illegitimate"

Four Ballot Boxes were found in the Shiraz Library

Majles (Iran Parliament) Speech, July 1, 2009

Freedom Glory Project

Hierarchy of Power In Iran

Students at Tehran U Remove Ahmadis Picture From Board of Professors

Iranians Print "Mir Hossein Mousavi" on Currency

Al Jazeera returns to streets of Tehran

Raye Man Kojast? Where Is My Vote?

250 Best Free Online PC Games In One Place

Friv is my top recommendation. Upon visiting the site, youll be greeted with a full-screen of tiny screen shots for more than 250 free online PC games! All kinds of popular games and they are of various genres.

Friv operates on a system of one in one out -- whenever a new game is added, it replaces the least popular one in the existing selection, so you will have the most popular ones in hand from time to time, just in one place.

All games are online, you do not need to install any game software onto your PC. All you need is a PC with high speed internet connection, pick a tiny screen shot and play a game. Its simple and intuitive.

3 Incredible Pasta Recipes You?ve NEVER Tried

Do you need a break from M.J.M.M. ? Michael Jackson Media Madness?  Are you tired of listening to news about Silvio Berlusconi?s sexual exploits with sexy eighteen year old girls?  I know I am.

Here are three incredibly easy, addictively delicious, healthy and CHEAP pasta recipes to distract you.   They can be whipped up in twenty minutes after you?ve walked in the door from work.  And, I?d be willing to wager, that you?ve never tried any of these before.  TWENTY MINUTES!

SECRETARY-GENERAL MEETS WITH JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, OTHER LEADS ON NEED FOR CLIMATE DEAL

BHUTTO COMMISSION FORMALLY BEGINS MANDATE

U.N. ENVOY DISCUSSES GEORGIA WITH EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS

SPOKESWOMAN RECALLS CONCERNS ABOUT POST-ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN IRAN

U.N. MISSION DEPLORES NEW PRISON BREAK IN D.R. CONGO

World leaders came together in New York on 25 September 2008 for a high-level event convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly to renew commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and to set out concrete plans and practical steps for action.

In a 41-minute meeting in the White House?s Roosevelt Room, eight members of the Catholic Press met with President Obama this morning.

?The most noteworthy thing during the meeting was his dispelling of what you might call the expectation of the worst regarding conscience clauses,? said Father Kearns. ?He said that the confusion regarding the issue was due to the timing of everything rather than what he was going to do. His administration saw the previous administration?s 11th-hour change as problematic, and so they undid that. He said that in Illinois he was a supporter of a robust conscience clause, something he reiterated in his Notre Dame speech. He added that the government has received hundreds of thousands of public comments and he promised that there would be a robust conscious clause protection in place, and that it would not be weaker than President Bush?s 11th hour change. Still, he added, it won?t please everybody.?

Find them here!

The greatest disappearing act has been that of the nightingale, whose numbers fell by 95% over the study period.

The causes of the varying fates of British woodland birds are many and varied.

The results of the survey have not been reported before.

"The rate of spread is dramatic and unprecedented," said Dr Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

The ladybird has spread to most parts of the UK in just four years, preying on many other insects.

However, research outlined at the Royal Societys Summer Science Exhibition suggests local ladybird parasites are adapting to prey on the interloper.

To help that process along, scientists are suggesting introducing a mite that renders the ladybirds infertile.

Originally from Asia, the harlequin preys on a wide variety of insects, including the larvae of other ladybirds, and will also eat fruit.

It was introduced in continental Europe to control pest insects.

First "spotted" in Essex in 2004, the invader was quickly classified as a major threat to the UKs 45 native ladybird species.

The most complete terrain map of the Earths surface has been published.

The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry.

The images were taken by Japans Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the Terra satellite.

The resulting Global Digital Elevation Map covers 99% of the Earths surface, and will be free to download and use.

The Terra satellite, dedicated to Earth monitoring missions, has shed light on issues ranging from algal blooms to volcano eruptions.

For the Aster measurements, local elevation was mapped with each point just 30m apart.

"This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world," said Woody Turner, Nasa programme scientist on the Aster mission.

Alpha Mack

Analgesics

Bubbly Frog

Christopher Hand

Dali

Fabulous 50s

Fail

FFF Tusj

Daniel

Note this

Pisan

Rabiohead

Glider Girls

Green Piloww

Grutch Shaded

Hand of Sean

HandVetica

Jamaistevie

James Fajardo

Estrya?s Handwriting

Jerry?s handwriting

Joe Hand 2

Journal

Just Me Again Down Here

Later On

Love Ya Like A Sister

Luna Bar

Mia?s Scribblings

Pappo?s Blues Band

Peixe Frito

Positiv-A

Rock Show Whiplash

Salamander

Sophie, Regular

The Quiet Scream

Thurston Erc

Two Turtle Doves

WC RoughTrad Bta

Windsong

The Environmental Protection Agency has released a list of 44 ?high hazard potential? coal ash waste dumps across the country. The ?high hazard? rating applied to sites where a dam failure would most likely result in a loss of human life, the environmental agency advisory said, but did not assess the structural integrity of the dam or its likelihood of failure.

The list, released late on Monday, was compiled as part of the agency?s inventory of coal ash sites after more than a billion gallons of ash broke through a dam at the Tennessee Valley Authority?s Kingston Fossil Plant west of Knoxville last December. An engineering analysis of the failure, released last week, cited design problems like the height of the ash, among other factors.

I almost forgot we were still in the middle of a series on the Archbasilicas! St John Lateran is the oldest of the four patriarchal basilicas in Rome, and the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the pope. It was consecrated in 324 by Pope Sylvester I. As the cathedral of Rome, it stands as the cathedral of the world, the seat of all Christianity. The faithful of Rome are very blessed to have it as their cathedral! It has been the site of five Ecumenical councils and was the home to every pope from Miltiades the African to the time of Clement V?s move to Avignon.

The cathedra (Lat. ?throne, teacher?s chair?) of the cathedral, it is quite literally the seat of Christianity in the world.

A close look reveals that papal imagery is found everywhere in the Lateran Basilica:

A rare find, a bearded angel:

St. Bartholomew holds up his skin, peeled off at his martyrdom:

Some Beautiful Canyons Around The World?

When summer arrives in the Arctic, the place becomes alive with breeding birds and the animals that come to feed on them.

Living in such a remote place, these scruffy white Arctic wolves have possibly never seen humans. When one spots Chadden on the horizon she makes a beeline from over 2km just to check him out.

Photograph Fireworks

Is your city puting on a massive pyrotechnics display this weekend? Or maybe just your neighbor Carl? Either way, you can learn how to capture the moment in all its noisy, exploding glory with a digital camera.

Ideally, it pays to use a camera that offers some level of manual control over the settings. That way, you can dial in the best exposure, aperture and focus settings to achieve the best results.

But you can still take good photos of a fireworks display no matter what kind of camera you have. Yep, even the iPhone!

LONDON ? British researchers have announced the discovery of a rare original copy of Americas Declaration of Independence ? just in time for the Fourth of July.

The document discovered among a file of 18th century papers. It is one of only 26 surviving copies

He said the declaration is one of the most important documents in history because it marks the birth of the United States.

When Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest, rescuers took him to a place known for bringing the dead back to life. A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours.

"They took people who were basically dead, not all that different than Michael Jackson, and saved most of them," said Dr. Lance Becker, an emergency medicine specialist at the University of Pennsylvania and an American Heart Association spokesman.

Could Jackson, too, have been saved?

"We have no idea when he died versus when he was found," Buckberg said in a telephone interview.

Last Night As I Was Sleeping - Antonio Machado

"We planted this bamboo last year," he says, "and now the stems are taller than me. When its ready well cut it, cure it and then turn it into frames."

Mr Banda, is the caretaker for Zambikes, a company set up by two Californians and two Zambians which aimed to build bikes tough enough to handle the local terrain.

Co-founder Vaughn Spethmann, 24, recalls how it all started with a game of football.

"We were here on a university field trip and we organized a match against some locals. Afterwards we asked them what they did, and they said: Nothing. They didnt have jobs.

"So we decided to come up with a business which would be a source of employment and provide a useful product."

That product was the rugged, bright yellow Zambike, assembled at the firms smart red-brick workshop set in sun-browned farmland.