The Discoverer of Leukemia

My doctor in England who is one of the world's top specialists in leukemia posted this on his blog. I love the image of two Germans dueling to the death with sausages:

Rudolf Virchow was one of the two men who first described leukemia in 1845 (the other was John Hughes Bennett, an Englishman who was Professor of Medicine in Scotland). Virchow, as well as being the greatest pathologist ever, was also a Public Health Specialist and social reformer, and something of a politician.
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In this respect he quarreled with Bismark, the German Chancellor. Bismark challenged him to a duel, and being the one who was challenged, Virchow had the choice of weapons. He chose sausages.
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I came across this fascinating fact and the mind's picture of two hirsute Germans bashing each other with German sausages was funny but undignified.

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This is how Virchow wanted to fight to the death with a sausage. He proposed that one of the sausages should be injected with a deadly bacterium. Then each would choose a sausage and eat it. One of them would die a horrible death in writhing agony. After all, skill with a pistol or sword should not be the determining factor in an argument. If they could not agree by discussion, why not let chance sort out their disagreement.
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Bismark withdrew his challenge.

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LINK: http://mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com/2007/09/discoverer-of-leukemia.html
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Morning Walk

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While we were out walking in the desert this morning a tow plane pulling aloft a glider flew past. With the moon in the background I couldn't resist taking a picture.

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After we were done walking we went and filled the Toyota Crayola up with gas. Goodness, this is the second tank in a row that we have gotten in excess of 40 miles per gallon. This tank did include a trip up to Las Cruces, New Mexico USA but I was moving right along at 70 - 75 mph, so imagine what it would do if I set the cruise control on 55 or 60.

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Vespanomics

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Yesterday I was surfing a bit and came across the definitition for Vespanomics.

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When I lived in Europe I drove many kilometers on my trusty little Vespa. It had a Garmin satellite navigation GPS on it, and it took me lots of interesting places. At one time in Europe I had a big V8 Mercedes SUV, and many years ago I drove a Corvette Stingray. I'm glad that I finally woke up out of my stupor and bought a Toyota Prius. Now that I am living back in America I own four different good-fuel-economy vehicles.

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The Toyota Corolla frequently gets better than 40 miles per gallon, and in pure city traffic it normally gets around 37 mpg. In fact for the last two tanks of gas in a row it has gotten in excess of 40 mpg. Or for my friends in Europe who can't even standardize the 220 volt mains plugs in their houses, around 17.2 kilometers per liter or 5.8 liters per 100 kilometers.

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The Honda Reflex 250 cc scooter will cruise happily at 75 miles per hour and gets around 60 or 65 mpg. I also own a really nice little retro 150 cc scooter, and I've got a really fun little 33 cc motorized aluminum folding bicycle which gets a fuel economy far in excess of 125 miles per gallon of gasoline.

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I look around at all these really stupid people driving around in their large V8 pickup trucks and SUVs. Many of these vehicles were purchased with 60 month finanacing. These people are happpy as pigs in slop when they get 20 mpg, since they normally get about 10 or 12 mpg driving around town.

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Good Grief America. Wake Up! Gasoline pricing is trending upwards medium to long term. Are you retarded or something?

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Celebrate The Death of Saddam Hussein

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Today is the first anniversary of the death of a horribly brutal and evil man. The worst environmental criminal of the the last century.

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The only regret I have is that this terrible man was not humiliated more at his execution.

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

Notable Deaths of 2007

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The Boston Globe has an excellent series on the internet about the many famous people who died during 2007.
This series is clearly worth checking out: http://www.boston.com/news/world/gallery/2007deaths/
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The following are the ones that meant the most to me.

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Scary Stuff

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If you are female, or have young children, you should check out the sex offender list for your state.
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These are public records.
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I had never gone to this web site before, but it turns out that right here in my neighborhood there is a guy living who had some sort of a legal problem in the past involving a six year old girl that got him put on the list: https://records.txdps.state.tx.us/DPS_WEB/Sor/index.aspx?PageIndex=Display&SID=03348503
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This individual is regarded by the competent state professionals as low risk. And the event occured 12 or 13 years ago. But it still gives me goose bumps. Are sex offenders ever fully rehabilitated?
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scary Stuff For Sure!
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Tiger Attack

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As more details of the fatal San Francisco zoo tiger attack come out some things are becoming clear. Two of the brothers involved were from India, and had previously been involved with the zoo and the police for trying to provoke the tiger. Their response to police questioning this time was very hostile indeed. So probably they were taunting and provoking the big cat.
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Irrelevant. The zoo is clearly at fault. 100%
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Their trying to blame the attack even partially on the zoo visitors is a gross abdication of their responsibility. The zoo visitors should have not been able to easily get in the enclosure in order to dangle their legs in and taunt the tiger. The area was improperly designed.
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The moat had no water in it. Wrong! These moats should be deep enough that the animal cannot reach the bottom and use the bottom to jump up from. Ever tried jumping out of a swimming pool when you are in the deep end and your feet don't reach the bottom?
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The wall that the cat jumped/climed over was far too short. Not just a little bit. A lot! And it should have had a smooth surface to prevent the animal from getting any grip on it using its claws.
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The San Francisco Zoo did not adequately protect either the zoo visitors or the tiger, which had to be shot by policemen. So the zoo did not not fulfill its responsiblity either to the animal or the visitors.
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The zoo is horribly at fault.
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LINK: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119950257310069637.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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Let The Voters Decide

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George Bush II, Hillary Clinton, and virtually all of the other presidential candidates talk about how vital democracy is. And how important it is that the voters get to make the decision on who represents them. They get up on their arrogant high horses and lecture the people of Pakistan and Iraq.
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What a bunch of hypocrites. Hearing all of them talk about the importance of free and fair elections reminds me of south Florida and the butterfly ballot.
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Al Gore got the votes, not Bush II. And even when the voters do elect the person they voted for the lobbyists and the rich campaign contributors have a vastly larger say regarding how this country is run than the voters do.
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In the American form of democracy the voters do actually have a little power. But that is all. Just a little. And to pretend otherwise is pure hypocrisy.
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Berlin Wall

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I have been the the Berlin wall several times. First in the early 1970's when I was stationed in Germany as a soldier. Then two times in the mid 2000's.

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I took this picture of a painting on one section of the wall. The whole rest of the world knows just how brutal our form of democracy is.

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The presidential candidates need to remember how important this is to the future of the country.

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Stained Glass Kokopelli

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My niece who lives in San Antonio made me what may be the nicest Christmas present I've gotten in at least the last half century or so.

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She made me a beautiful Kokopelli from stained glass. I am humbled at her skill and generosity.

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Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

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I would like to wish all of my friends and colleagues who have CLL a very satisfying and fulfilling New Year 2008.
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Thank heavens for the CLL support group on the internet. One lady in her 70’s who has CLL today posted a message entitled “Cancer Sucks.” I find that to be a wonderfully articulate description of the situation.
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I think that the trick is: Make The Best Of It. However much time you have left, give as much love as you can and be as generous as you can. Not just generous in the materialistic sense, but also generous with your love and praise.
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It is sometimes difficult to realize that we have cancer, but then the lymph nodes and the spleen begin swelling, the night sweats completely soak your bed, the cycles of constipation and then frequent and unpredictable diarrhea begin again.
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Some of one’s swollen lymph nodes are visible. The ones on my neck are readily apparent despite my attempt to camouflage them with a beard. Normally one wears a shirt, so the big swollen lymph nodes under the armpits generally don’t show. At night I have to position my head at just the right angle on the pillow or the neck lymph nodes are rather painful and impede sleep. But the interesting ones are those inside the body. Sometimes they get large enough that they begin to push on useful organs, like the esophagus. So choking while eating can become a problem. And other lymph nodes inside the body can press up against organs like the lungs, bladder, and heart.
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I take my dog out on one mile (1.6 km) long hikes in the desert each morning and evening. So I am not totally out of shape. But the uncontrollable sweating is amazing! At any temperature above about 65 degrees F (18 C) I sweat like a pig. Living in the southwestern desert of America this means most of the time. So one gets used to changing one’s socks and underpants 2 - 3 times per day. And real care needs to be taken about this part of hygiene, because allowing the skin to remain in contact with soaked clothing too much of the time can result in fungal or mould infections. Which the body’s weakened immune system has a real tough time fighting. Dental hygiene also takes on a new sense of urgency. There is lots of speculation about why CLL patients tend to get leg cramps at night.
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One of the biggest concerns is respiratory infections which can easily lead to pneumonia. This is what most CLL patients eventually die of. Uncontrollable pneumonia.
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As your blood begins to get overloaded with the cancerous dysfunctional white cells which refuse to die and go away, there are fewer and fewer red blood cells. So your lungs and heart have to work harder and harder to carry enough oxygen around to the various tissues in the body. Eventually one's platelets (which help clot the blood) begin to decrease dangerously. This is normally a sign that the disease is rather advanced.
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With the body’s immune system functioning far below par you tend to get sick easily. And you take a lot longer to heal up when injured or sick. You get to where you dread being around a group of sniffling and coughing children. After a while you begin to think of yourself in a Howard Hughes sort of way, washing your hands frequently, carrying around hand disinfectant, and wishing you could wear a face mask into Wal-Mart.
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And it affects one’s self image. I cannot imagine any woman being interested in me, except perhaps out of pity. So mostly it is just me and my dog facing the world together. Maybe in some sort of twisted way this sense of aloneness is responsible for me getting a concealed handgun license and always carrying. Always. Every time I leave the house. If I leave the house without my conealed handgun I feel almost naked. And in college I believed in Ghandi. I really thought I was a pacifist.
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There it is. We really do have cancer. You can get all sorts of tests done which attempt to predict your remaining life span. Some patients choose to do chemo, which I personally think of as injecting rat poison. One step away from the medical profession’s blood letting of the 16th century. Remember the barber-surgeon back in the 1500s? They even did it to King Henry VIII. Chemotherapy treats some of the symptoms, but in most cases it actually makes the immune system work even more poorly than it was. Sometimes much worse.
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It is a simple fact that lots of people die from CLL every day. So don’t grumble and complain. Just make the best of the time you have left.

Christmas Materialism

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I was raised as an Episcopalian/Anglican even though I am not gay. I was confirmed in the church, and I even wore the long black dress and helped the priest out in the service on Sunday mornings.
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Nowdays after living more than half a century I absolutely do not believe in the tooth fairy. Or that Santa can fit his fat ass down a chimney. I would worry about any political candidate who said he really believed in the Easter bunny, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, that tin men can rust, or that throwing water on witches would cause them to melt down.
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I feel the same way about the fairy tales regarding this unwed chick having a little baby while she was still a virgin. Yea right, I've heard that stuff before. Even the little sister of Britney Spears is smart enough not to try that story.
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And it would be nice to be able to walk on/levitate over water, or transmute water to wine, but these are clearly just fairy tales.
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But I have to say that the Christians do have a lot of beliefs that I agree with. I think that the Christmas gift giving concept has turned into mass hysteria, and that it has become a form of extortion. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who is now the Pope of the Catholic church in the Vatican had this to say about modern Christmas celebrations:
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Sunday urged Catholics to rediscover the religious significance of Christmas, saying the holiday should not be dominated by materialism.
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The Pope's words at his Sunday blessing to crowds in a rainy St Peter's Square marked the second consecutive day that the Pontiff warned of consumerism just as the Christmas shopping season kicked off in Italy.
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"Too often, unfortunately, today's manner of living and perceiving Christmas suffers from a materialistic mentality," he said.
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On Saturday, when Roman Catholics marked the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the leader of the 1.1 billion member Church said adults were only deceiving children by introducing them at ever younger ages into a life of unbridled materialism.
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Too many children were growing up in a world saturated with "false models of happiness" and being lured by unscrupulous adults into what he called the "dead-end street of consumerism," he said on Saturday.
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-------------------------------------------- Right on Bro!
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Turquoise

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This is copied from the December newsletter of the Deming Gem & Mineral Society:

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December’s Birthstone. . .Turquoise

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There's something special about this sky-blue gem. The American Indians mined thin turquoise veins and believed the stone brought together the spirits of sea and sky to bless warriors and hunters. A turquoise arrowhead assured accurate aim. The Navajo considered turquoise sacred, giving it as a special gift for some happy occasion, and always wearing at least one bit of turquoise, even if it was only a bead tied in the hair.

Turquoise was used for beads by the Egyptians also, as well as for inlay in gold, as early as 5500 B.C. The oldest dated piece of jewelry is said to be an Egyptian bracelet set with turquoise from the oldest source of turquoise, the Maghara Wadi mines in the Sinai Peninsula.

The highest grade of turquoise has for centuries come from the Persian mines near Nishapur, in the Iranian province of Khorosan. The Persians have regarded turquoise as their national gem. The stone occurs in irregular patches and narrow seams in a brecciated trachyte porphry associated with limonite.

“White Buffalo” Turquoise: When discovered in the Dry Creek Mine on the Shosone Indian
Reservation near Battle Mountain, Nevada, in 1993, they were not sure what it was. Because of its hardness, it was decided to send it to have it assayed and their suspicions proved correct; it was in fact white turquoise. It was not until 1996, however, that it was finally made into jewelry.

Turquoise gets its color from the heavy metals in the ground where it forms. Blue turquoise forms where there is copper present, which is the case with most Arizona turquoises. Green turquoise forms where iron is present; the case with most Nevada turquoises. White turquoise forms where there are no heavy metals present, which turns out to be a very rare occurrence. To date, no other vein of white turquoise has been discovered anywhere else and when this current vein runs out, that will be the last of it.

Because white turquoise is as rare as a white buffalo, the Indians call it "White Buffalo" turquoise.

Odontolite - Tooth Stone or Bone Turquoise is actually the bones and teeth of animals, fossilized and colored blue orgreen by iron phosphate.

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Morning Walk

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On our walk out in the desert this morning we saw what appears to be the severed leg of a deer or a pronghorn antelope.

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One can't help but wonder, what is this doing out in the desert near El Paso?

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Pagan Winter Solstice Celebrations

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The longest night of winter has been celebrated by many peoples around the world. A couple of years ago I celebrated it in England at Stonehenge with the Druids.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
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This evening we had an excellent pagan celebration with family and friends in El Paso, Texas USA.
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We wore our Celtic attire, ate Shepard's Pie and shortbread cookies, listened to bagpipe music, howled at the moon, and enjoyed an excellent little bonfire.


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Cold Front Coming

(click on the play button TWICE to view the video)

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UNICEF Photography Contest

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This is a picture of an 11 year old bride.

Good grief!

The Likeability Issue

After President Bush II surely we should have learned that political dynasties like Bush I & II or Clinton I & II are not necessarily useful. And after watching George Junior many Americans have re-learned the importance of integrity in our leaders. If too many citizens do not trust the president, the results can be very harmful to the country.

On the issue of integrity and trust I would need to go for McCain or Richardson. If one only looks at the issue of experience, then Richardson is the clear winner over all of the other candidates of both political parties.

Several of the candidates do well on the likeability meter including Obama. Clinton is far down near the bottom.

Being a good leader involves many attributes, but trust and charm are up near the top. It is important that the next president have the ability to make us once again begin believing in the American Dream.

I read a good article in the Washington Post this morning that sums up how I feel about Senator Clinton:

They just don't like her, some say.

They don't know what she stands for. They believe her word is no good, that she doesn't believe that she can be held accountable. They see her as intellectual snob who lets you know she's smarter.

They say she sounds like everybody's ex-wife. They can't tell if she's the loyal, traditional wife who stayed with her husband for love after his humiliating extramarital affair -- or a canny politician who stayed because it was politically expedient.

Even: Is she a Yankees or a Cubs fan?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902520.html?nav=rss_email/components
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Blackwater

In Iraq the American government uses the private militia called Blackwater to do things which would probably be illegal for members of the American military to perform.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq employs 1,000 armed Blackwater staff to do various duties which they either do not have sufficient confidence that the American military will perform adequately, or those functions which would be so deep into the legal grey area that it would be inappropriate for the embassy to ask the U.S. military to do them.

The latest incident may end up being one of the more serious ones involved in the ongoing downfall of Blackwater.

In Bagdad the so called security guards of Blackwater (which are increasingly referred to as the American Gestapo) have shot and killed the dog of the New York Times. The New York Times has been a frequent critic of the heavy-handed and sometimes illegal tactics employed by Blackwater.

When Blackwater staff kill innocent rag heads, even completely innocent women and children bystanders, there is a certain amount of short-lived outrage among voters in America. But killing the New York Times dog?
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What brutality! They’ve gone way too far this time.
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LINK: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1819755220071218
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Folding Bicycle

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My new aluminum frame folding bicycle arrived today by FedX ground.

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It has a 33 cc, 2 cycle engine installed on it. The bike with engine and a full tank of gas weighs in at less than 55 lbs. My guess is that it will get between 150 and 200 miles per gallon.

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It starts right up. Going up the street it will certainly go faster than any reasonable or sensible human being would want to go on a little folding bicycle.

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And it sounds like a weed eater or model airplane gone wildly out of control.

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Senators McCain and Lieberman

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These are really interesting times. Lieberman crossing party lines and formally endorsing Senator John McCain is really unique.

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El Paso Mineral & Gem Society

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There is a certain about of discussion on the Yahoo fluorescent minerals group right now about the various fluorescent minerals that have come out of the Kipawa complex in Quebec, Canada.

I didn't think I had any rocks in my collection from this location, but in looking around I found some agrellite from there.

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High Resolution Link: http://tinyurl.com/2lhcaf

It is interesting because the agrellite which fluoresces the standard nice pink color, also has some green fluorescing material on the end.

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While I was enjoying the beauty of the various rocks in the collection, I happened to notice that the El Paso Mineral and Gem Society cloth jacket or hat patch fluoresces rather nicely.

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Then I put the window decal in front of some vaseline glass, and it came out nicely green. This may be an illusion, it might just be the green shining through, but it is pretty anyway.

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Sunday Morning Walk Out In The Desert

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On our walk this morning for a while we were bushwhacking across the desert rather than following a trail or a dirt road. In total we went 1.2 miles (1,93 km). We began down where the water used to run, gained about 50 feet in elevation (15 meters), wandered around, and came back to our original location and elevation.
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We came across another site where we found pottery shards from the ancient native peoples. This morning we found three little shards, all within about 2 meters of each other. This virgin desert is about one mile from my house.

They were located at N31.74776 W106.25512 in the mesa area which overlooks what must have either been a lake or running water hundreds of years ago. The map image is the tracks and waypoints from the Garmin Forerunner imported into Google Earth, and then cleaned up slightly with Photoshop.
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I took the picture of the shards after we got home with my Nikon digtial SLR.

This place we found them is 4,035 ft (1.230 meters) above mean sea level.

Fluorescent Felines

This was on the Yahoo fluorescent minerals group today:
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There was a report to-day from Associated Press about two cloned Turkish Angora cats that were modified with a gene that produces a fluorescent protein, that gives off a red fluorescent glow, as opposed to a normally cloned cat that glows green! Wave length used was not specified. This was done by some scientists in South Korea. They hope that this achievement offers hope in treating genetic ills in humans, by inserting other genes. This was done by scientists from Gyeongsang National University and Sunchon National University. I am being serious and it is not April Fool's day! Check you cats? A perfect gift for the fluorescent collector that has everything. This could lead to all sorts of jokes, most probably not suitable for this group.
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The ultimate gift for any of us fanatics who are into UV glow rocks!
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Tonsils

As a child I had strep throat so many times it eventually gave me a bit of a heart problem.
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In college I finally had my tonsils removed surgically. Now I am in my late 50's and have CLL, a form of leukemia where the functioning of the body's immune system is reduced substantially. In looking up tonsils on Wiki I fnd the following:
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Tonsils tend to reach their largest size near puberty, and they gradually undergo atrophy thereafter. However, they are largest relative to the diameter of the throat in young children, and tonsillectomy (surgical removal of tonsils) may be indicated if they are obstructing the airway or interfering with swallowing. Also, when tonsils become overly enlarged or inflamed they may need to be surgically removed. In older patients, asymmetric tonsils (also known as asymmetric tonsil hypertrophy) may be an indicator of virally infected tonsils, or tumors such as lymphangioma or malignant tonsillar tumours.
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Some doctors who are not ENT specialists recommend to be conservative in the recommendation to have tonsils removed because they can not be put back and their removal would decrease the power of the immune system. ENT specialists generally recommend removal so they can be studied if there is inflammation, asymmetry or other health indicators.


I wonder if there is any correlation between having your tonsils removed and later in life developing CLL?
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Wilipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonsils


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The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne series by Robert Ludlum is the best.

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Each of the three movies is very well done too.

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If you are a civilized, educated person living in the 21st century you need to see the final movie, which is entitled The Bourne Ultimatum.

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I wish I had the skills of a Ludlum or Joan Rowling so that I could articulate how special this movie is. But alas I don't, I'm just an asshole from El Paso.

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But take my word for it, there is a something vital about our government that you will learn from this movie. Actually you don't have to take my word for it...just go rent this movie! From the trailer you may think this is just a movie filled with gratuitous violence. I do not see it that way at all. Think about the CIA intentionally destroying those tapes, even when lots of important people told them not to. And now the Attorney General is asking Congress to stop their investigation. We are living in a time of the government gone out of control. This movie is a fictional portrayal of this concept.

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Link to the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/thebourneultimatum/

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Oxygen Concentrator

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Due to pulmonary dysfunction several years ago my elderly mother used one of these rather than a cylinder of oxygen. Now my sister is having to use one. So I decided to look into the technology and figure out how it is possible to achieve a significant concentration of the amout of oxygen available.

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The process involves using a zeolite to adsorb nitrogen. Normal air has about 21% oxygen in it, with the majority of the rest of the gasses being nitrogen. These machines bump the oxygen content up to around 90%. Here is what Wiki has to say about these machines:

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An oxygen concentrator, also called an oxygen generator, is a device used to provide oxygen therapy to a patient at substantially higher concentrations than those of ambient air, used as an alternative to tanks of compressed oxygen. Oxygen concentrators are also used to provide an economical source of oxygen in industrial processes.

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The simplest oxygen concentrator is capable of continuous delivery of oxygen and has internal functions based around two cylinders, filled with a zeolite material, which selectively adsorbs the nitrogen in the air. In each cycle, air is flowed through one cylinder at a pressure of around 20 lbf/in² (138 kPa, or 1.36 atmospheres) where the nitrogen molecules are captured by the zeolite, while the other cylinder is vented off to ambient atmospheric pressure allowing the captured nitrogen to dissipate. Typical units have cycles of around 20 seconds, and allow for a continuous supply of oxygen at a flow rate of up to approximately five liters per minute (LPM) at concentrations anywhere from 50 to 95 %. This process is called Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA).

This is a link to the complete article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_concentrator

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You can rent one of these machines, or you can buy one, from among others Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Perfecto2-IRC5P-5-Liter-Oxygen-Concentrator/dp/B000Q9Q8ME/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1197664234&sr=8-1

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This is the one that my sister is using: http://www.specialtymedicalsupply.com/medical-supply-products/New-EndurO2-Oxygen-Concentrator-w02-alarm.html

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3 Kinds of People

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I am a member of the Yahoo group for Honda Reflex scooters/motorcycles.
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Saw a great quote on this site today:
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"There are three kinds of people in the world – those who can count - and those who can't."
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Confluence.org

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There are a group of locos who have GPSs, and their goal is to go to as many places as possible on the face of the earth where latitude and longitude integer lines cross.
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Latitude lines are constant, but after Wellington kicked Napoleon's tight little ass at Waterloo, Belgium just south of Brussels in 1815, as a form of revenge the prime meridian was taken away from Paris and was moved to London (the suburb of Greenwich).
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Well maybe I've used a little bit of license in telling that story, but the prime meriadian did indeed run through Paris in the past. In 1884 there was an international conference on the prime meridian and Greenwich England was chosen...the French abstained, and some French cartographers still cling today to the line which ran through Paris. Check out the Arago line in Paris. I have been there several times. There also was an Antwerp, Belgium meridian.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Meridian
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So with old lat-long positions the latitude will be correct, but not the longitude. It may be off a little more than two degrees.
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A case in the point that I have been to is the position markings on the memorial at the top of the highest hill in Aachen, Germany. This massive memorial predates the date of change.
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I have been to a couple of these confluences (http://www.confluence.org/visitor.php?id=14625 ) the latest in the Jornada del Muerto in Southern New Mexico, USA. If you go to the following link you will see my narrative and pictures from this location including my little doggie and the Garmin Quest.
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Link to Confluence.Org http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=14471
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Mormons

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Over the years I have known many members of the church of latter day saints, LDS, or mormons.
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It is my observation that to an even greater degree than people who are members of the jewish faith, mormons have great family values. Not just the words, but families sticking together and supporting each other. And the church holds the community together, supporting those in need. Vastly superior to most other sub-cultures in America.
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This sounds a little pervey, but like southern baptists, it has been my experience that mormon women experience a great deal of guilt. This guilt makes sex seem much nastier to them and heightens their sexual excitement and pleasure. So its not all bad. On TV once I saw a black commedian. A friend of his was putting down someone who thought sex was nasty or naughty. And the black commedian said, "It sure is if you're doing it right."
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Romney

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One of the founding principles of our nation is the separation of church and state. And you want to eliminate this. Damn right you are going to be attacked.
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Not all religions are created equal. Some discrimiate heavily against women, and all reasonable citizens have a duty to attack this discrimination. Your religion, Mr. Romney, apparently discriminates against people of colour. If this is true, then this tenant of your religion needs to be openly opposed.
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Evan Almighty

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This movie is wonderfully funny, irreverent, and moving.
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Don't miss it.
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Really!!
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Led Zeppelin

I’ve got Led Zeppelin playing on the stereo in the living room, and the 15 inch woofers are shaking the whole house.

Their debut album came out in 1969 and their dominance continued until 1980 when their drummer died.

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After waiting 19 years, and after many weeks of practice they played together again last night in London. With the son of the original drummer on the drums.

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They were the best.
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From early reports they still have the magic and they still are the best!
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LINK: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601364/led_zeppelin_the_full_report_from_david_fricke
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You Tube Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hEShoSOl7Mg
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