Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Music download of the day

I was surfing about the SciFi classic a canticle for Leibowitz (such as this article ) and ran across the above link which is music based on the novel.

Again, mainly bookmarked for later download/listening (I use my ASUS computer in my room but for reading in depth or downloads I have to use the office computer early in the morning)

What's for lunch


a Pikachu Bento lunch

via LINK

Seven reason not to mess with kids

7 reasons
not to mess with children.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.


The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human;

it was physically impossible.

The little girl said,

“When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah”.

The teacher asked,

“What if Jonah went to hell?”

The little girl replied, “Then you ask him “.


A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.



The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused and said,
“But no one knows what God looks like.”

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied,

“They will in a minute.”


A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to “honor” thy Father and thy Mother, she asked,

“Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?”

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered,

“Thou shall not kill.”


One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.



She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked,
“Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?”

Her mother replied,
“Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.”

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said,
“Momma, how come ALL of grandma’s hairs are white?”

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

“Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say,

‘There’s Jennifer, she’s a lawyer,’ or
‘That’s Michael, He’s a doctor.’

A small voice at the back of the room rang out,

“And there’s the teacher, she’s dead.”

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood.

Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, “Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.”

“Yes,” the class said.

“Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn’t run into my feet?”

A little fellow shouted,
“Cause your feet ain’t empty.”

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch.

At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.
The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:

“Take only ONE. God is watching.”

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note,

“Take all you want.

God is watching the apples.

It doesn’t matter how many people you send this to, just remember if it made you laugh, your friends will laugh

from Seedmore.org

Stories below the fold


St. Paul's bones ( or someone else from the first century) is buried in his tomb.
picture from the catecombs dating back to 300 AD

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

Good news. Amir is back in Tehran and safe

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

The Lionesses are doing a great job...they fight like a man but are better than men at getting information from people...


--------------------------
Forget using the door from a potbellied stove...
Just get yourself a bullet proof vest made from cement.

----------------------
Speed Reader alert: The 1000 plus page climate change bill was posted on the internet the night before it was voted on.

Will the same "just trust us, you don't need to read the fine print" arrogance mean the same so they can rush through a health care bill?
more HERE

-------------------
Obama as Plato's philosopher king.
(bookmarked so I can read it later).


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and for MJ fans: RandomboodstuffBlog has a megaJackson post, with videos

Monday, June 29, 2009

Pauline Baynes


While checking out the Freepers, I ran across an old link about Pauline Baynes, who drew the illustrations for the Narnia books and the smaller books by JRRTolkien.

Brian Sibley has a note with more pictures at his blog.
(heh I did't know he had a blog)...

and a personal note about her life is found HERE

Craft item of the day


Tired of your dull, unimaginative flip flops?

Well, just decorate them for a new fashion statement.

Pattern at LionBrand (free registration required).

They also have a pattern to crochet an Irish rose

Headlines below the fold

The British Nanny state continues to go bonkers:
now the old folks can't meet in the public library because their hot coffee might spill and hurt the kids in the next room.
and another official has decided to ban door mats as a safety hazard.

The advantage of living in the Philippines is that they can make all these trivial laws that they want to, but no one pays attention to them....

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

There now may be a cheap way to store hydrogen for your "green" car: Use Chicken Feathers.
apparantly carbonized chicken feathers store oxygen as well as carbon nanotubes, and they cost less.


-----------------------------
Guess who's now on Twitter? North Korea.
North Korea does a lot of hacking damage to South Korean computers, but forbids internet access for ordinary folks.


-----------

and say hello to Miss Millie, the world's ugliest dog.


via the UK
Telegraph, photo AP

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Smiley face spider


from the website
What's That Bug?

their tick page is HERE.

I'm so old...


that I remember when we had to type out our smiley faces by hand.

Bugs take two

Humorous Pictures
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

What's wrong with this picture?


look carefully....
from Spweing4thArt

.

.
.
.
.

Don't forget your tick remover


If you are going out to enjoy the summer, ShinyShiny reminds you not to forget your tick remover

We used an old fashioned lasso of 4-0 nylon or silk to do the job in the Emergency room...

But at home, I always used old fashioned tweezers, as is shown in this video...brave guy...my cat would have shredded me to pieces if I tried that trick...

CDC list of tick bourne diseases HERE

Actually, when I worked in Oklahoma, ever high fever that had no obvious cause was treated with Tetracycline type medicines, because Rocky Mountain Spotted fever was so common...and it is easy to miss before the rash appears...

Saturday, June 27, 2009

HIGH TEA RECIPES


Last week was the opening of Ascot racing season

and Epi Log has recipes for your afternoon tea

now, admit it: You always wanted to eat Goat cheese and watercress sandwiches...


more hints HERE

and yes they do wear those silly hats

and of course, this is a classic movie scene...

A photo of one of those dangerous protesters in Iran


in a email from an Iranian friend

Science news you can use

Hmmm...Life thrives all over, even in places it shouldn't exist.

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

looking for dark matter in an old gold mine.

---------------
and then there are those Cosmic Blobs

------------------------
A history of Cats...not only did they domesticate themselves, but they have been around humans for over 10 000 years....and they note:

The Truth about Cats and Dogs
Unlike dogs, which exhibit a huge range of sizes, shapes and temperaments, house cats are relatively homogeneous, differing mostly in the characteristics of their coats. The reason for the relative lack of variability in cats is simple: humans have long bred dogs to assist with particular tasks, such as hunting or sled pulling, but cats, which lack any inclination for performing most tasks that would be useful to humans, experienced no such selective breeding pressures.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
-------------------------

Uncle Miltie

Do you miss the good old days of clean TV when Uncle Miltie cross dressed and told jokes with double meaning?

Well wish no more...
And they also have Ozzy and Harriet...and Flash Gordon...

(Headsup via FriedBeefTech...who also has more freebie links)

Religion post of the week


There were five houses of religion in a small town:
The Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, theMethodist Church , the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue.

Each church and Synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian Church called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn't interfere with God's divine will.

In The BAPTIST CHURCH the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week

The Methodist Church got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creation. So, they humanely trapped the Squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back.

But -- The Catholic Church came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas , Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter.


(Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue,
but they took one squirrel and had a short service with him called circumcision and they haven't seen a squirrel on the property since. )


;-)
from an email from tiamaria

Friday, June 26, 2009

Middle East links

They are arresting opposition leaders and professors, aside from keeping reporters indoors away so they can't see demonstrations/violence.

CNN International, which we get here, is obediently showing propaganda films from Iranian TV to keep the reports "fair and balanced"...luckily we get the BBC which is a lot more accurate.

And if you can't tell the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni, BBC4 podcast HERE

-----------------
Iranian TV is running hit movies to keep people distracted, one local reports...so they are running a Lord of the Rings Marathon....but not with the expected results they wished.

(Headsup TheOneRingNet)

Mark your calenders



AT 5 MINUTES AND 6 SECONDS AFTER 4 A.M.,

ON THE 8TH OF JULY, THIS YEAR, THE TIME? AND DATE WILL BE:

04:05:06 07-08-09

(THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN UNTIL THE YEAR 3009 !!!)

your email of the day from Col Updraft

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Stuff below the fold

Wear your raincoat if you visit Manila on San Juan Baptisto day (June 24).

Thousands of Filipinos in a Manila suburb honored their patron saint John the Baptist by drenching passers-by and motorists in a raucous annual water festival Wednesday....


The bad news: Another day, another typhoon...this one in Cebu so we only had rain, no wind.
----------------------

Webecoist has a post with lots of photos on amazing crop circles.

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Can Botox cure baldness?
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Want someone to do something: talk into their right ear
----------------------

creeping fascism alert : now they are coming for Peeps:

A jury will be asked to decide this week whether a Gunbarrel woman’s pyramid of Peeps and other Easter decor on her apartment door became stale enough to warrant her eviction.

(Via DaveBarry)

------------------
And finally, check out the Peeps Haiku webpage.

Though Easter is over
Delicious, stale, torn open Peeps
Will last through the year

Happy story of the day

When he realized he'd been separated from his family on a weekend hike in a northern Utah forest, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne's thoughts turned to television. Grayson watches "Man vs. Wild" on the Discovery Channel every week with his brothers and his dad. On the show, host and adventurer Bear Grylls strands himself in the wilderness and then shows viewers how to survive the sticky situations.

photo WSJ (Courtesy of Wynne Family/Associated Press)

Cat cartoon of the day

Insomnia download of the day

From Librivox:

History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1

Vol. one is mainly about Egypt...and don't miss the Egypt sections of Herodotus' Histories, where Egypt is discussed in book two.
  1. Herodotus of Halicarnassus. "Herodotus' Histories Vol 1" · (readers)
  2. Herodotus of Halicarnassus. "Herodotus' Histories Vol 2" · (readers)

Headlines below the fold


Mrs. Moussavi in the news:
Foxnews via Gateway Pundit:

In her statement, which appeared on Mousavi's Web site, Zahra Rahnavard said it was her "duty" to continue "legal" protests and condemned the presence of armed guards in the streets, Reuters reported.

"I regret the arrest of many politicians and people and want their immediate release," Rahnavard said in the Web site statement, according to Reuters.

And RevolutionaryRoadBlog has updates. They are arresting protest leaders and journalists.

------------------------------------
TeaAtTrianon reminds us: This is the anniversary of the Battle of BannockBurn
The speech given to troops before the battle by Robert the Bruce inspired Burn's poem:

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie!


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


Don't make him angry, you won't like him when he's angry...

Obama, when angry, won't just send a "nasty letter", he'll say you can't come to his barbecue.
So there!

--------------------
Hollywood meets Washington?

The President's man, "Galloway," is a bespectacled blowhard who becomes an obstacle to our brave fighting men and their alliance with the noble Autobots.... He says the President wants to try "diplomacy" against the evil Decepticons and hints the President would consider handing over Shia LaBouf's character to be killed by them. He eventually is ditched by the fighting men (tricked into parachuting out the back of a transport).


repeat after me: It's only a movie, it's only a movie...
------------------------------------------

"Sam" (or for older Jocks, "RudyRudyRudy") is now teaching science to kids.

Check out videos LINK

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


First Cutie, and now Stanford has been found to have a secret girlfriend. That's why Time Magazine argues that the ancient celibacy vow is out of date.

Oh, governors don't take a celibacy vow? Who wudda thot?


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

With his usual bad taste and bad sense of timing, Senator Kerry jokes that too bad it wasn't Palin that went missing instead of Stanford.

Why bad timing? Well, actually she is "missing":

Gov. Sarah Palin is on her way to an undisclosed "overseas" location to visit deployed Alaska National Guard troops.
(headsup Lucianne)

Photo of the day



"Bird's eye view: Safe from harm, NASA scientists look down on the Sarychev Peak volcano as the dramatic eruption takes place. The force of the blast sends clouds scattering.."
NASA photo from the Daily Mail (UK)

God's Alphabet


Although things are not perfect
Because of trial or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
Do not begin to blame
Even when the times are hard
Fierce winds are bound to blow
God is forever able
Hold on to what you know
Imagine life without His love
J oy would cease to be
Keep thanking Him for all the things
Love imparts to thee
Move out of "Camp Complaining"
No weapon that is known
On earth can yield the power
Praise can do alone
Quit looking at the future
Redeem the time at hand
Start every day with worship
To "thank" is a command
Until we see Him coming
Victorious in the sky
We'll run the race with gratitude
X alting God most high
Y es, there'll be good times and yes some will be bad, but...
Z ion waits in glory...where none are ever sad!


your email of the day from TiaMaria

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Recipe of the day


FoodsAndFlavorsOfSanAntonio Blog has a recipe on how to make Chicken Chimichangas...

just looking at them makes my mouth water. It was one of my favorite dishes at the local Mexican restaurant when we worked in Oklahoma.

Of course, if we made them here, we'd have to use wonton wrappers...
;-)

Family photos


Ruby, taken in the Hotel Lobby (when they were at a meeting).


Father's day, taken at the mall.
-----

Did I mention that Danny arrived, and visited? Daisy also arrived a day but we haven't seen her.

Gift item of the day


The owl and the pussycat, at Etsy.

The poem is HERE

first stanza:


The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

Everybody is getting into the act

JRRTolkien (or someone posting his words) is now on Twitter.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

trying not to bore you

since we now have the internet (until the next typhoon/low pressure area comes through) I've been writing on Bloggernews.

One on the various ways Hollywood sees the Tutors, and another on the Geronimo family trying to get Geronimo's bones back from Yale University.

I used to work in Mescalero, so I figured a short essay was the least I could do for my ex patients.

Musical interlude for today

mu

stuff below the fold

watermelon carving tips....
a lot are comon sense, but they also note to use round toothpicks and to cut it at room temperature.

via TipNut

here in the Philippines, watermelons are small, about the size of a soccer ball...and the seeds are often toasted as a snack.

for decoration, expertvillage has a series of how to films on Youtube:

Voting Chicago style and other news of the green revolution

There were reports earlier this week from Iran that although more paper ballots were printed than registered voters, at the last minute, the government ordered more ballots to be printed.

The suspicion was that a lot of the ballots were being marked to stuff the ballot boxes.

Well, now the "Guardian council" admits that 3 million more votes were counted than were registered to vote (out of 40 million voters).

----------------------
The revolution now has it's martyr

Her name is Neda. (the Voice)
----------------------


Threats Watch reports on an important development from the Middle East that are being pushed by moderate cleric Rafsanjani at Qom, the religious center of Shiite Islam.
(via) GatewayPundit

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Gift Idea of the day


CD is packed with 99 tracks of the most irritating sounds to play at home or office.

Just pick a track, hit repeat and leave for awhile. Come back to a room full of raving lunatics! "Enjoy" sounds like: dog barking, chain saw, emergency broadcast, off-the-hook phone and more.

Modest Swim wear


Over a year ago, Manolo the shoe blogger had a post on modest swim wear...and got a lot of answers from Christian and Jewish women (some who included links) who said: Yes, and we want to use them too...

The Manolo he should not laugh. Many of the womens of the religious faiths, including the Sarah, who is Orthodox Jewish, struggle to balance the modesty with the modernity.... Better for the modest Muslim womens to be swimming in the Smurf suits, getting exercise and enjoying herselves, than to sit at home with the bon-bons, gazing at the photos of the hankerchiefs that pass for bathing suits in these days in the fashion magazines, or compromising on her beliefs in the religion and the spirituality...

So USAToday notes the success of companies selling modest and ultramodest swimwear...

some Muslim HERE.. And Christian HERE

Me, I use a classic dark blue bathing suit, but have to cover my top with a teeshirt to protect my skin from sunburn, and as soon as I'm out of the water, I use a towel as a skirt (Sarong).

or as RedHatHaHas notes:
Despite what you may have seen on the streets, the following combinations DO NOT go together and should be avoided:
  1. A nose ring and bifocals
  2. Spiked hair and bald spots
  3. A pierced tongue and dentures
  4. Miniskirts and support hose
  5. Ankle bracelets and corn pads
  6. Speedo's and cellulite
  7. A belly button ring and a gall bladder surgery scar
  8. Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor
  9. Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge!
  10. Bikinis and liver spots
  11. Short shorts and varicose veins (seen on my cruise)
  12. Inline skates and a walker And last, but not least ... my personal favorite ...
  13. Thongs and Depends

Influenza note

No one here sick with the flu...yet.

When we go to the mall, the security guards not only check your bags (for bombs/weapons) but are now doing a temperature scan of your forehead, to keep out those suffering from fever/flu.

Headline of the week:

Sex is main cause of population growth


(from ImprobableResearchBlog...their latest magazine is HERE .and yes, they now have a YouTube page)

Headlines below the fold


Cartoon of the day.
And I'm not the only one noticing that CNN is sucking up to the mullahs in their coverage.link

and the ManoloBlog links back to this older essay on the sartorial problems of their aging president:

Briefly and remarkably, the President of the Iran wears the same khaki windbreaker, wrinkled trousers, cheap oxford shirts, scruffy beard and wild eyes favored by the aging high school chemistry teachers everywhere.
Yes, in his youth he was the firebrand who would shake the very foundations of the society, but today he is content to expound upon his paranoid conspiracy theories while exercising his petty autocratic powers over the dull kids who sit in the back of the class...

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

The invention you were waiting for: The stabless knife...

Cornock, 42, from Swindon. England, said that the knife will cut vegetables, but will make it almost impossible to stab someone to death..

two problems:
One, how can you get the potato eyes out without a tip?

Two: killers can still slash people with the knife.

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

Note to criminals: It's okay to break the speed limit when you are being chased by the cops.

-------------------
67 Pinoys arrested in Saudi.

Note to Rudy Guilliani: Don't cross dress as a joke if you visit Saudi...

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

and although neither snow nor rain will keep your postman from delivering the mail, the Attack Kitty will keep him from your door.





(photo from webdesignlibrary)

Family News

Happy Father's day.

We went to church as usual and celebrated by going to the mall for supper...we ate at the restaurant/cafeteria that serves Filipino food...and this time no one got food poisoning.

Lolo is well...we are back to jogging now...it rained on and off for a week, and so we had to skip a few days.

The yellow kittens are climbing all over and almost fully grown, so we probably will send them to the farm to get rid of the mice there.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Music interlude for the day



one of Lolo's favorite songs

Flying Penguins



(and yes, it's a joke).

Animal fathers


at NatGeo: The best animal fathers ...

number one: Seahorse, which gets "pregnant" and carries the kid.

The "we're all gonna die" link of the week

Get religion blog asks:

So does it matter that the cornerstone of Ahmadinejad’s regime is his claim that his policies will “hasten the emergence” of the Mahdi?

Does it matter that the crowds now rallying against him are praying for the blessings of the “prophet and his descendants”?

Does it matter if their are martyrs on both sides of this political debate for the soul of Iran?

Can the demonstrators defeat the (suicide army of kids) Basiji? Or do they have to win them over with their shed blood?

Yes, I think it’s time for a sidebar, or two.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Cats!

Epicurious has a couple cats-eating-stuff videos at their link...

Stuff below the fold

'End of Bling is Nigh' warns new study

yup. the recession and green movement are the new Savonarola...
--------------------------
Long essay on women and femininity...
linked for later reading...

Summary: it's the baby stupid...you can't be a karate superwoman when you are nine months along...


-----------------
Big Brother is watching you... in Bozeman?

a sign of things to come?

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

Attention Maxwell Smart: they are working on a "cloak of silence"...

by bending sound waves around an object, you can't hear it...

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

People power in Iran?


in an email from an Iranian friend

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Nautical Flag note cards


DesignSponge has a tutorial on how to make nautical flag note cards and toothpick decorations for your parties....

MARK YOUR CALENDERS!



the 13th & 14th as well as the 20th & 21st of June..

thanks for the "headsup" from NezumiWorldBlog ...who also has a flower pattern for you to knit HERE

and I always crochet in our garden in the late afternoon, but not in public..

Catphoto of the day

funny pictures
moar funny pictures

Stuff below the fold

"...On June 11, the American destroyer USS John McCain, while training off Subic Bay in the Philippines, had its towed sonar array collide with a Chinese submarine..."
more at StrategyPage
The Philippines was upset, but since both ships were in international waters, they can't do much about it.
-------------------------

Calling Axel Foley:
Someone is smuggling bonds:
"...Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take US$134 billion (HK$1.04 trillion) worth of US bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.

Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing North Korea's cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are the bonds real or counterfeit?.."

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

The source code to get around the blockage of twitter is now on line...more information HERE at boingboing

Just in case you are a CNN correspondent in Tehran who can't get through.

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

Remembering GeorgeGamow...who got years of ridicule for promoting the big bang theory.

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

Why Tolkien Rocks.

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

120,000 year old microbes revived...

Great, now we have to worry about epidemics from ancient germs

Internet news below the fold

Well, the Pope might be on Facebook, but Father Z says that the Vatican is blocking Facebook on their work computers,...
His comments in red:
[You know the old story. John XXIII was asked how many people work in the Vatican. He said, "About half." But I don’t imagine that Facebook et al. are really going the reduce productivity that much. The coffee breaks, maybe.]
... Other information sharing sites like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr were still accessible as of June 16. [I suspect their days are numbered.]

-----------------------
On the other hand, StrategyPage relates:

Bowing to growing pressure from the troops, the U.S. Army has unblocked access to Facebook, Flickr, Delicious, Vimeo and Twitter at 81 bases in the United States....
Most troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have access to the Internet, but often via the equivalent of a dial-up connection. So MySpace and Facebook are convenient enough for troops to quickly post messages, pictures and short videos.

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

ZDNET reports on the attempt of the Iranian government to block the news, including the internet:

With Iranian authorities essentially locking foreign journalists in their hotels, shutting down websites and blocking text messaging, Iranian protesters have taken to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook with a passion — both to get the word out about what’s happening in the country and to communicate logistics, says a CBS/AP report.

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


TehranPhotoBlog just posted on the demonstrations of June 17th...

and his photos are mentioned in this (German) article...

which also reports:
Selbst die größte Filesharing-Plattform The Pirate Bay zeigt Solidarität mit der grünen Welle in Iran, benennt sich um in "The Persian Bay" und färbt ihr Dreimaster-Logo entsprechend.

The Piratebay has links for getting around censorship HERE.

Family News

We are well...the internet has been off due to thunderstorms etc. but it's back on this morning, although it's still raining.

Joy is busy at trade fairs.

Lolo is well.

Danny is here, and stopped in two days ago to give Lolo some presents.... Daisy arrived yesterday...

There is a swine flu outbreak in nearby Jaen...none here yet, but lots of worrying.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Iran update

NYTimes reports that there is still unrest...has spread to other cities...

Michael Totten also has a good report, which includes links from twitter from inside the country...these of course would only be rumors...but he has a video from the city of Esfehan too...

PajamasMedia has updates from the US based Iran Press agency...big demonstration due Tuesday.

youtube has lots of home made videos that are being downloaded.

TehranLive (Tehran Photo blog...one of my side links) says he has had to download his photos via modem but they are such good quality that I've seen his photos on GatewayPundit and Michael Totten's blog.

Headlines below the fold

Nueva Ecija is in the news...for Swine flu in a nearby town.

well, at least it's not for Ebola Reston in our pigs.
-----------------

First Amendment? We don't need no stinking First Amendment...
Now, if a church in the US speaks out on moral issues, they need to register as a lobbying group...
in the Philippines, it's easier: You can be sued for libel if you hint a politician is on the take.

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

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Craft item of the day


From Instructables:


Knit a moustache for the one you love...

Landslide or Fraud?

NewYork Times at link has continuous coverage of Tehran..

There are reports that Facebook, cellphone texting and youtube connections have been blocked, but they refer to a Soccer discussion forum for local blogger input.

Michael Totten has you tube videos and lots of other local links, including a link to Moussavi's Flikr page photos.

Tehran Photo Blog has photos too.

If Tehran is like the Philippines, all the students will have small cellphones that take photos to post...and some know how to get through the government censorship software...

so on Youtube, you can watch CNN's video of the usual rock throwing students, or a more impressive locally produced video of thousands of peaceful protesters and compare...or watch this video:



=====================
heh. Twitter accuses CNN of ignoring the story
Well, why not? They admit that they ignored Iraq's pre war atrocities so that they could stay in that dicatorship.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Cat photo of the day

funny pictures
moar funny pictures

the original photo was from a BBC story.

More classic audiobooks on line

Librivox is slowly increasing the number of classics on their site...so if you are interested in ancient books but your eyes can't take the strain of reading (or if you are like me you get bored reading, but can listen to them on your mp3 player while jogging or crocheting) then check them out.

Today's offering: Xenophon's Anabasis.
his
Imagine this. You are a young writer who joined a mercenary army just out of curiosity, but after the mercs helped win the battle, their employer was killed, leaving all of you hundreds of miles from any friendly faces.

When your officers go to negotiate a surrender, they are killed and you are told: surrender or die, which in those days wasn't a really good choice since surrender usually meant a life of slavery working yourself to death in silver mines or quarries.

So what did the Greeks do?

They said "Up yours", voted new officers, and sent the bad guys the message: if you want our swords you can pry them from our cold dead hands...and then they started marching home.

One of these days, someone will make a great movie of it, or update the screenplay.

Calling Bruce Willis....calling Bruce Willis.

Local news


Yesterday was "Independence day" which meant the government offices were closed, but no a lot of celebrations..

Puno warns of increased frustration by the populace under the present government...this in itself would not be new but it was on the front page of the Manila Bulletin, which usualy has a flattering photo of the president on the front page.

On the other hand, Puno is one of the most popular names for the elections next year.

Craft item of the day



This pattern is called the Deadliest Crab.

pattern at knitty.com
photo by Amber Allison

Invention of the week

a robot sushi chef

(viaTokyoMango)

Attention Todd Palin


Give'm Hell Harry also had snotty guys insulting his daughter:

It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.

Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!

Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Craft Item of the day




Finger puppets made from large (pasta) macaroni.

Via Scribbitblog




Sponsored by Tiny Prints for the holiday party invitations for children.