For whom the bell tolls

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/for-whom-the-bell-tolls.html

"Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
    ...
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

Johann Pachelbel's Canon

http://www.pachelbelcanon.com

A Short History of Carson City
by Richard Moreno
ISBN: 978-0-87417-836-4
Binding: [Paperback]
Pages: 192
Publication date: March 2011
$21.95
Description
Nevada’s capital city is today a charming, modern community, with an unusually eventful past. A Short History of Carson City traces its history from its origin as a mid-nineteenth-century trading post to its rise as the political center of Nevada. Here are the hard-working citizens and colorful characters, the political and business decisions, and the evolving economy that helped shape it. This is the first comprehensive historical account of a thoroughly modern state capital with its roots deep in Nevada’s turbulent past.
Reviews
“Rich Moreno, ever the talented, entertaining writer, has given us an excellent summary of Carson City as a place with a remarkable past. The historic state capital gives Moreno rich material, and he uses it to capture a community whose significance exceeds its diminutive size. This is a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in western history and specifically for readers who want to speak with authority about Carson City. ” - Ronald M. James, Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer

“Richard Moreno’s book represents the first substantial history of Nevada’s state capital. There are no books that come close to providing a useful narrative overview of Carson City’s history.” - Guy Louis Rocha, retired Nevada State Archivist

Story from:
http://www.unpress.nevada.edu/Browse/Titles/A%20Short%20History%20of%20Carson%20City;2233?PHPSESSID=29fa20bb6263cdb0e06763de7bcf5555

Taiko!!

Taiko - Japanese drumming!!
http://www.drumdojo.com/taiko.htm
This is amazing to watch!!
See it here from YouTube

NASCAR Young Guns!!

I cannot load a picture.....go here: gillette-young-guns/kyle-busch
Gillette's Class of 2011 Young Guns
The 2011 class includes: Football's Matt Ryan and Ray Rice, Baseball's Evan Longoria and Carlos González, and Auto Racing's Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

July 9, 2009
Gillette announced Thursday that is has added Joey Logano, driver of the No. 20 Toyota, to its elite group of Gillette Young Guns drivers, which already includes Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman.
Logano earned his rookie stripes from his fellow Gillette Young Guns during the filming of a new commercial to support the Gillette Optimal Shave indicator strip, which alerts consumers that it is time to change their blades when the strip color changes from blue to white. The commercial features all seven Gillette Young Guns and highlights Logano as the latest addition to the roster of Cup Series stars.

Logano

"Joey is one of the hottest drivers in the sport and we are pleased to welcome him as the newest member of the Gillette Young Guns," said Michelle Potorski, associate marketing director, Gillette North America. "Our new commercial is about change -- whether it's reminding consumers to change their blades or adding a teenage rookie sensation to our Gillette Young Guns roster. We're proud to have Joey join the team and look forward to watching his career take off in the Cup Series."

February 12, 2010
Beginning in Daytona, Fla., site of the Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET Sunday, FOX), a Gillette-branded motorcoach will travel coast-to-coast, making special pit stops at all the drivers' hometowns. The "shave teams" feature Clint Bowyer with Carl Edwards; Kyle Busch with Joey Logano; and Denny Hamlin with Kasey Kahne. Throughout the competition, the teams will be on a mission to record a goal of more than 500,000 shaves -- the equivalent of 500 miles of skin -- with the Gillette Fusion MVP razor before April 30.

From 2009 to 2010 -- We lost Ryan Newman

2004 to 2005 the Young Guns were:
Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman - they dominated their inaugural 2004 season, winning over 50 percent of the 36 Cup races.

In memory of...........

Jack and Pandora both passed away in 2010, two months apart!
If I go back far enough I have a long list of kitties who have passed away!

• My brown tabby on Rosemount
• Fink, Mike's cat
• Johnny and Jackson!!  OMG they were awesome cats!
• Spot, Oreo and Duke (Spot's son)
• And their 8 other kittens
• Smokey and Dusty
• Bandit and Spike
• AND worst of all Bobby!! 

This just hurts soooooo bad, I lay awake at night missing them.
I can still feel them laying where they are supposed to be.
I am heartbroken.
I am desolate!

Henry David Thoreau

 

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

 

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_learned_this-at_least-by_my_experiment-that_if/346038.html

The U.S. National Debt

What the U.S. National Debt Is:

(Updated June 3, 2010) The U.S. debt is over $13 trillion, and is the sum of all outstanding debt owed by the Federal Government. Nearly two-thirds is the public debt, which is owed to the people, businesses and foreign governments who bought Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds.
The rest is owed by the government to itself, and is held as Government Account securities. Most of this is owed to Social Security and other trust funds, which were running surpluses. These securities are a promise to repay these funds when Baby Boomers retire over the next 20 years. (Source: U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny; Debt FAQ)

The Size of the U.S. Debt:

The U.S. debt is the largest in the world. How did it get so large? Purchasers of Treasury Bonds still reasonably expect the U.S. economy to recover enough to pay them back. For foreign investors like China and Japan, the U.S. is such a large customer it is allowed to run a huge tab so it will keep buying exports. (Source: CIA World Factbook)Even before the economic crisis, the U.S. debt ballooned 50% between 2000 - 2007, growing from $6 - $9 trillion. The $700 billion bailout helped the debt grow to $10.5 trillion by December 2008.

The U.S. Debt Level:

The debt level is the debt as a percent of the total country's production, or GDP. Total economic output, or GDP, is $14.6 trillion (Q1 2010). The debt is now 89% of GDP, up from 51% in 1988. (Source: U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny; Bureau of Economic Analysis) Interest on the debt was $383 billion in Fiscal Year 2009, down from its peak of $451 billion in Fiscal Year 2008, thanks to lower interest rates. (Source: U.S. Treasury, Interest)

The most recent budget forecast from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) showed the budget deficit at $1.3 trillion in FY 2011, more than the $1.17 trillion deficit for FY 2010, but down from the $1.7 trillion deficit for FY 2009. This is a result of the economic stimulus package, the 2008 government bailout measures and $800 billion a year Security spending. The deficit is also caused by reduced income, thanks to the EGTRRA and JGTRRA tax cuts and the Alternative Minimum Tax patch. (Source: OMB, Federal Budget Deficit)

How Did the Debt Get So Large?:

Government debt is an accumulation of budget deficits. Year after year, the government cut taxes and increased spending. In the short run, the economy and voters benefited from deficit spending. Usually, however, holders of the debt want larger interest payments to compensate for what they perceive as an increasing risk that they won't be repaid. This added interest payment expense usually forces a government to keep debt within reasonable limits.

The U.S., however, was the beneficiary of two unusual factors. First, the Social Security Trust Fund took in more revenue through payroll taxes leveraged on Baby Boomers than it needed. Ideally, this money should have be invested to be available when the Boomers retire. In reality, the Fund was "loaned" to the government to finance increased deficit spending. This interest-free loan helped keep Treasury Bond interest rates low, allowing more debt financing.However, it is not a real "loan" since it can only be repaid by increased taxes when the Boomers do retire.

Secondly, foreign countries increased their holdings of Treasury Bonds as a safe haven, also keeping interest rates low. These holdings went from 13% in 1988 to 28% in 2009. (Source: U.S. Treasury report ”Petrodollars and Global Imbalances”, February 2006)
Even during the recession, countries like China and Japan increased their holdings of Treasuries to keep their currencies low relative to the dollar. For more, see How China Affects the U.S. Economy.

Of the total foreign holdings ($3.9 trillion), China owns $895 billion and Japan owns $785 billion. The U.K., Brazil and the oil exporting countries own about $100 - $280 billion each. The Bureau of International Settlements suspects that much of the holdings by Belgium, Caribbean Banking Centers and Luxembourg are fronts for various oil-exporting countries or hedge funds that do not wish to be identified. (Source: Foreign Holding of U.S. Treasury Securities)

How The U.S. Debt Affects the Economy:

Over the next 20 years, the Social Security funds must be paid back as the Baby Boomers retire. Since this money has been spent, resources need to be identified to repay this loan. That would mean higher taxes, since the high U.S. debt means further loans from other countries have been maxed out. Unfortunately, it is most likely that these benefits will be curtailed, either to retirees younger than 70, or to those who are high income and therefore theoretically don't need Social Security.

Secondly, many of the foreign holders of U.S. debt are investing more in their own economies. Over time, diminished demand for U.S. Treasuries will increase interest rates, thus slowing the economy. Furthermore, this lessening of demand is putting downward pressure on the dollar. That's because dollars, and dollar denominated Treasury Securities, are becoming less desirable, so their value declines. As the dollar declines, foreign holders get paid back in currency that is worth less, which further decreases demand.
The bottom line is that the large Federal debt will ultimately slow the U.S. economy.

 From: http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/US_Debt.htm

Macquariums

From: http://www.applefritter.com/node/22729

Hot!!!!!

http://www.hotpepperlist.com/

I agree

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

The deeper sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain.

Kahlil Gibran
Lebanese artist & poet in US
(1883 - 1931)

Speed...............

http://amasci.com/miscon/speed.html
http://education.jlab.org/qa/air_01.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/26111/lightismade.html

El Niño and La Niña

El Niño and La Niña are extreme phases of a naturally occurring climate cycle referred to as El Niño/Southern Oscillation. The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the coupled ocean-atmosphere process that includes both El Niño and La Niña.

Both terms refer to large-scale changes in sea-surface temperature across the eastern tropical Pacific. Usually, sea-surface readings off South America's west coast range from the 60s to 70s Fahrenheit, while they exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the "warm pool" located in the central and western Pacific.

This warm pool expands to cover the tropics during El Niño, but during La Niña, the easterly trade winds strengthen and cold upwelling along the equator and the West coast of South America intensifies. Sea-surface temperatures along the equator can fall as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit below normal.

The Answer

The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is.....

.

 

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.” – Ben Okri

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/ben_okri/  

Also the rebirth of reason:

http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Schieder/Our_Capacity_To_Think.shtml

 

Here Pidgie Pidge :-)

 

21 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About Pigeons

http://forums.manhattanbirdclub.com/post?id=2335098

Pidgeon Talk

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f35/

I can bring my chicken inside!

This is Spirit, and she is available for adoption in San Francisco.
http://www.rescuereport.org/2010/01/spirit.html
I was so excited to find out there is such a thing as "chicken panties"
http://www.birdwearonline.com/gallery.html
I want an inside chicken, and now I can have one!
Here is how to use "bird wear"
http://www.birdwearonline.com/using.html
Here is how to measure your chicken
http://www.birdwearonline.com/considerations.html

Move Over America

http://www.moveoveramerica.com/
It's the law!!!!
I did not know this!!!!

Bibliography
Internet Sources

Born to a prosperous Danish family and educated at Copenhagen, Kierkegaard deliberately fostered his public reputation as a frivolous, witty conversationalist while suffering privately from severe melancholy and depression. In a series of (mostly pseudonymous) books, Kierkegaard rebelled against the prevailing Hegelianism of his time and developed many themes that would later be associated with the philosophy of existentialism. Much of his work, including Frygt og Bæven: Dialectisk Lyrik (Fear and Trembling) (1843), Begrebet Angest (The Concept of Dread) (1844), (Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing) (1847), and Sygdomen Til Døden (The Sickness unto Death) (1849), expressed a profound interest in religious issues. Kierkegaard also produced several more directly philosophical writings. Om Begrebet Ironi (The Concept of Irony) (1841) was his dissertation at the University of Copenhagen. Enten-Eller (Either-Or) (1843) provides an extended contrast between aesthetic and ethical ways of life, with emphasis on the ways in which radical human freedom inevitably leads to despair. The massive Afsluttende Uvidenskabelig Efterskrift (Concluding Unscientific Postscript) (1846) describes a third way of life, the possibility of living by faith in the modern world by emphasizing the importance of the individual and developing a conception of subjective truth. Kierkegaard's influence on twentieth-century thought has been rich and varied. Most obviously, existentialist thinkers like Jaspers and Heidegger drew extensively on his analysis of despair and freedom. Although he directly addressed few of the social concerns that most interested his contemporary, Karl Marx, Kierkegaard has received ample attention from more recent Marxists, including Marcuse and Lukacs. Philosophers from Adorno to Wittgenstein have expressed great respect for the Danish master's thought.

---

Recommended Reading: Primary sources: Søren Kerkegaards samlede vaerker, ed. by A. B. Drachmann, J. L. Heiberg, and H. O. Lange (Gyldendal, 1962-1964) Kierkegaard's Writings, ed. by Edna H. Hong and Howard V. Hong (Princeton, 1978- ) Vol. 2: The Concept of Irony (1992) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 3: Either / Or 1 (1988) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 4: Either / Or 2 (1988) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 5: Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses (1992) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 6: Fear and Trembling / Repetition (1983) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 8: The Concept of Anxiety {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 12.1: Concluding Unscientific Postscript 1 (1992) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 12.2: Concluding Unscientific Postscript 2 (1992) {Order from Amazon.com} Vol. 19: The Sickness Unto Death (1983) {Order from Amazon.com} Edna H. Hong, Howard V. Hong, and Nathaniel J. Hong, Cumulative Index to Kierkegaard's Writings (Princeton, 2000) {Order from Amazon.com} The Essential Kierkegaard, ed. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, 2000) {Order from Amazon.com} Søren Kierkegaard, Either / Or: A Fragment of Life, tr. by Alastair Hannay (Penguin, 1992) {Order from Amazon.com} Secondary sources: Patrick L. Gardiner, Kierkegaard (Oxford, 1988) {Order from Amazon.com} The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard, ed. by Alastair Hannay and Gordon Daniel Marino (Cambridge, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com} Feminist Interpretations of Søren Kierkegaard, ed. by Celine Leon and Sylvia Walsh (Penn. State, 1997) {Order from Amazon.com} Merold Westphal, Becoming a Self: A Reading of Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Purdue, 1996) {Order from Amazon.com} George Pattison , Kierkegaard's Upbuilding Discourses: Philosophy, Theology, Literature (Routledge, 2002) {Order from Amazon.com} Additional on-line information about Kierkegaard includes: William McDonald's article in * The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library. The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com. Interesting pages from virtuSens. D. Anthony Storm's Kierkegaard Site. Kierkegaard on the Internet from Ilse Morgensen. The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia at Bartleby.com. Luc Desautels's essay on Kierkegaard (in French) at Encéphi. Antoinette Stafford on Kierkegaard's notion of subjective faith. Katharena Eiermann's tribute to Kierkegaard at The Realm of Existentialism. Björn Christensson's brief guide to on-line resources. Robert Sarkissian's summary of Kierkegaard's philosophy. The entry at Biography.com.

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CoExist

The coexist sign is one of my favorite peace symbols.
It's message is that all people can live peacefully together
if we are just tolerant of the beliefs of others.
Here's what each symbol means:
C = the symbol for Islam
O = the Pentacle for Pagans/Wicca
E = Male/Female symbols
X = the Star of David for Judaism
I = the Peace symbol (in the dot)
S = the Yin-Yang symbol for Taoism
T = the Cross for Christians