Astroworld

I wonder if the door will open for some people to find work helping Haiti rebuild.So many people with the needed skills here sit idle with nothing big to do. It has been suggested that if the Federal Government were to pay them a salary and benefits, they could go down to Haiti and do a lot of needed things.

Another circulating idea is that this might be the opportunity to help Haiti become the green capital of the world. Indeed, Haiti needs to become green in order to not be dependent upon imported oil and imported food. One company wants to send Solar Cookers to Haiti. Others are talking about wind and solar power rebuilds.

I dream of student loan debt being forgiven. We are just about the only nation that refuses to pay for post-secondary education the same way we pay for secondary education. I have a staggering debt, not because I borrowed that much, but due to a Reagan-era interest rate that cannot be adjusted.

This is an artifact of Reagan-era, Nixon era hatred of college students. LBJ wanted grants to pay for most people's educations, with loans perhaps being at the very upper end colleges and that for maybe law and medicine.

Wow! Sally, that is a lot of ideas woven into a whole tapestry. It is very fluid! Well written!

I firmly believe the omens are pointing the way to making changes, and bringing us all closer together.

I am sending light and healing to Haiti,
and making GOTV calls to MA.So far everyone I have talked to is making it a point to get out & vote for Coakley!

Usury used to be against the law now apparently it is not & hasn't been for quite some time... can't remember when it disappeared, like so many decent laws that became "just-forgotten" by the plutocratic criminal pink boyz. The trait of usury was what Scrooge in Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" was all about and pictured it quite well I always thot.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Yes lovely one thank you for this as we in California give thanks for the end of the drought.
Pouring rain and dark morning and your wonderful thinking and writing. thank you again.

I remember suffering thru regular Okieland droughts, Clymela, and running out when a rain came hooting with delight!

* Pink Guy Stuff... hold your midriff!

... Columbus described the people he found as "lovable, tractable, peaceable, gentle, decorous," and their land as rich and bountiful. Hispaniola was "perhaps the most densely populated place in the world," Las Casas wrote, "a beehive of people," who "of all the infinite universe of humanity, ...are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity." Driven by "insatiable greed and ambition," the Spanish [pink monsters] fell upon them "like ravening wild beasts, ... killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples" with "the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree" that the population is barely 200 persons, he wrote in 1552, "from my own knowledge of the acts I witnessed." "It was a general rule among Spaniards to be cruel," he wrote: "not just cruel, but extraordinarily cruel so that harsh and bitter treatment would prevent Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings." "As they saw themselves each day perishing by the cruel and inhuman treatment of the Spaniards, crushed to the earth by the horses, cut in pieces by swords, eaten and torn by dogs, many buried alive and suffering all kinds of exquisite tortures, ...[they] decided to abandon themselves to their unhappy fate with no further struggles, placing themselves in the hands of their enemies that they might do with them as they liked."

As the propaganda mills ground away, the picture was revised to provide retrospective justification for what had been done. By 1776, the story was that Columbus found "nothing but a country quite covered with wood, uncultivated, and inhabited only by some tribes of naked and miserable savages" (Adam Smith). As noted earlier, it was not until the 1960s that the truth began to break through, eliciting scorn and protest from outraged loyalists.3 ... http://books.zcommunications.org/chomsky/year/year-c08-s01.html

Joannaoregon-I imagine that the senile old pink coot is simply overwhelmed with collective guilt and that is why he thinks that some god would punish babies for something an ancestor maybe did 200 hundred years ago. Even the likes of myself could not hurt a little one for something its father did much less for sins against slave owners hundreds of years ago. Thank you I guess although I already knew about those twisted brothas from Spain.

Sally, your words fill me with hope. Your wisdom inspires me.

I came home from a Tropical Rose Society Meeting tonight to greet the moon outside Fairchild Tropical Gardens (Miami). Rising, she smiled a "Chesire cat smile" above. A perfect smiley face. Enigmatic. Funny. I felt alive. Did I tell you I'm in the process of becoming a Master Gardener? Love it! In this process of letting go of what is untrue, we can embrace what is naturally fulfilling. Take time to smell the flowers. Inhale. Exhale.

ovely Marta!
Love Fairchild Gardens.
ANd we all need to inhale exhale, while we learn the news of the Mass. special election.
Simply odious! How could they?

That should read {Lovely} Marta!

I am going to barf! Lightworkers, we are in for a rough ride! Behold our esteemed new senator!

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/09/15/gop-senator-s-racy-pics-don-t-matter-because-he-s-a-dude.aspx

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/11/823845/-Scott-Brown-Nudie-Pix-Limerick-ContestLightning-Rod-Round

http://bostonherald.com.nyud.net/track/inside_track/view/20090916investigating_scott_browns_body_of_work/srvc=home&position=2

I think it far more likely that the meant appreciator for this Brown dude's body would be gay guys. Just has that feel to it. ;O)

Mebbe "hand-picked" by Rove-yboy

And if anyone thinks we're still not enduring phony elections... well...

* Fissures and Schisms

It's awe producing when the earth throttles mankind in a brief moment of awakening. A sudden cracked opening allows a universe to rush out and even though the group quickly covers it up and tries to return to normal, something remains visible. Many barriers are being considered for demolition these days, with Pluto and Saturn in fragile partnership and nervous Uranus on the way.

One boundary broken in Haiti was that between the rich and the poor. Close to all of the wealth is owned by the upper 1%, but the quake hit every stratum in one moment of equalization. Now the habitual layering is coming back into place, but the classes did a double take and info about global inequity came pouring out of the split. ... http://raginguniverse.blogspot.com/

Eric Frances back when Obama was first installed in the WH. Thot it'd be "fun" to take a peek back.

* ...But it may go further. Ridiculous as it may seem, there are futurists who are predicting that the US itself will break up into separate countries, forced into fragmentation by moral divisions and economic degradation. This seems absurd now. Yet remember that for those of us who grew up constantly hearing about the evil empire of the USSR, it was unthinkable that all of Eastern Europe would be rearranged in just a few short years. That is precisely what happened under the Saturn-Uranus conjunction of 1989 -- and that conjunction has now become an opposition.

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove may be wheeled off to their ranches or the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, but they have left a legacy that will last for generations to come. We are the first generation to inherit this legacy, which may incl their Trotskyite vision of a new republic arising from the ruins of the old one. They have certainly left us with plenty of rubble to work with. Let's see if we can build something creative. http://planetwavesweekly.com/resources/delicate.html#1

The title you chose fits perfectly here, Sally. So often i experience this sensation of being, at once, an observer and a participator. Though it may appear on the surface to constitute a duality, it does not feel as though i'm being pulled in two different directions. You express that in this article. We are witnessing the unfolding -- the quickening shift in consciousness. All of us may be experiencing this rather odd sensation as a part of the experience?

On a mundane matter. . .i just returned from visiting my grandchildren. Such exuberance! against the backdrop of something brewing in NYC. It all "feels" so temporary there, a passing is occuring -- the only way i can describe it.

Good to catch up on my Astro family!

Karen my brother lives in NYC ... must have been cold!

* California pension funds paid millions to former insiders working as middlemen investors
By Kevin Martinez
21 January 2010

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the US, revealed last Thur that $125 million was paid out to intermediary investors known as placement agents, several of whom turned out to be former CalPERS board members. ... http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/calp-j21.shtml

The Supremes have made the first shot the first official shot of the revolution. I guess we have all realized that we have been sliding into fascism but this is official they have unleashed the hounds of hell. Even undoing McCain/Feingold.

This I Ching reading I threw, seems timely.
45: Coming Together
General Meaning: The power of gathering together is represented by a rally, where each individual's strength is magnified by the power of their community. History has shown that mass movements can bring about stable, ordered and durable conditions for the better. This hexagram may be pointing to an auspicious time for large undertakings. But the guiding force of your shared vision is essential to hold the forces of unity together, and keep them advancing toward a common goals and values.

Another image for this situation is that of a lake filling with water. Just as the fullness of the lake can bring good fortune to all in its sphere, it can also overflow, leading to calamity. Thus in a time of gathering together it is essential that precautions against excesses be considered along with efforts to advance along a clearly-charted course. Much of human misfortune comes from unexpected events for which we are ill prepared; when gathered together with others, we are both more powerful and, in some ways, also more vulnerable.
Nameste

The horrors continue...

"With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money to our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans...We are going to talk with bipartisan congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision." - President Barack Obama

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/21/reaction-supreme-courts-campaign-finance-ruling/

Well kids, we're in deep doo-doo. We thought we had reached the depths of depravity, but it seems we can take deeper. This latest supreme court ruling virtually took away YOUR freedom of speech. My logic? Well, if you don't have the money, you can't afford the megaphone to shout over the Exxons or the AIGs or (fill in the Big Corporation blank).

Yes, Clymela they have unleashed the hounds.

This is my hope. . .that this blatant Plutonian power grab will be seen in all its ugliness. That more will begin to make their voices heard.

We now have a lovely family from Palestine,( Gaza) living in Milbridge.
They are here for medical treatment for their son.
They are interested in joining the Work for Peace Group...How exciting!

Karen, all the more reason to support progressive organizations which can match or at least make a dent, DFA (Democracy for America) Howard Dean's org., MoveOn.org, Greenwald's group, they can collectively speak for us and can collect large sums of money to advocate for us. There are more of us then there are of them.

Karen, it is my hope as well! "that this blatant Plutonian power grab will be seen in all its ugliness."

Morgana, Along with progressive organizations, we must select corporations carefully for all goods & services. Where are more companies like:

www.credomobile.com/Mission/History.aspx
and local credit unions

person, the Credo folks are great. I think Justice Roberts released a can of whoopee, especially after Justice Sotomayor mentioned reviewing the early ruling, or was it because they wanted to lock it in before she could throw a monkey wrench in their works?..hmmm.

It will be interesting to watch how Obama changes in the next year. A rule of thumb in my techie industry is it takes 18 months to become grounded in a new job where you finally thoroughly know your product. My bet, Obama becomes the fighter, I think he has too much ego investment to go down as a wimp. He is a chess player type of guy so who knows what moves he has going on in the background. Anyway the responsibility of changing the situation is up to The People......and we're the ones who have to make change happen. I am so disgusted with the US Senate it was like they think themselves the lofty House of Lords, rich, privileged, an elite club...and completely owned by Corporations (who are now equivalent or better than an human). So what if Buck-naked Brown has now joined their club? The Senate was not going to give the people a thing, they are in it for themselves, the wealthy. Oh yes there is a glimmer here and there of an honest man, Russ Feingold comes to mind, Bernie Sanders, but the rest of them are just so much American royalty, the whose who of Corporate family's. Oh wait, I see the Court Jester Lieberman whose value sunk below a plug nickel when the new boy came to town is Buck Naked Brown's mentor (oh barfo). Our government is a joke, very embarrassing. It's going to be an interesting year, time to put on the track shoes and start truckin.

Pretty funny Morgana, My track shoes are gold, thanks to my Daughter & Grandaughter picking them out for me!
On your mark..get set......GO!
I agree with your assessment of Obama!

qop, I can just see you in your gold track shoes!

* Mars Retrograde...

Mars only goes backwards every couple of years, so as one blogger pointed out, we don’t get used to it like we do with Mercury, which goes backwards 3x a year. When a planet goes retrograde, it is time to review it, to put things on hold while we re-assess. The trouble with Mars is that it probably the least introverted, the least reflective planet in the zodiac, so it isn’t easy.

Mars knows what it wants and likes decisive action and winning. So when he’s going backwards we need patience. It is not a time for beginning new projects or even continuing with what we are already developing, but for reviewing what we want and the way we go about achieving that. ... http://astrotabletalk.blogspot.com/2010/01/mars-retrograde-french-muslims-us.html

Today at noon I joined about 10 activists at a downtown street corner in Atlanta to demonstrate for health care reform.

I've demonstrated for other causes--but it is only for health care that I have seen majority positive responses. The people of America want it!

Two retired men who happened by joined us and signed up. One had worked for the same company faithfully for 30+ years, ready to retire on his pension--so he thought--and the company went bankrupt. He has nothing but Social Security to live on (that socialist program--cough).

A young man passed by and told us that nothing should be done because our plans were not perfect. We have to destroy and rebuild the whole system, he said. I have decided to make a new sign "Cynicism is a cop-out." It really is the lazy person's answer to every problem: "Your solution is not perfect, so do nothing."

Yup... that old song n' dance by the excruciatingly self-righteous, that I've heard many many times: "'Sposed to make "investments" during working years to retire adequately. If you come up short, too bad for you!" HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!

It's a few weeks old, but did anyone catch this?

Order on Interpol Work Inside U.S. Irks Conservatives

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/31interpol.html

Something's definitely afoot, and not all is as it would seem.

LOVE THAT SLOGAN!!!!!!!!!! Old Mayfly. Do you mind if i use it?

Neo, there are other equally interesting items that coordinate with the interpol piece. Terry Gross on Fresh Air has been conducting some rather interesting interviews, one on the development of the atom bomb by wealthy interests (shadow government), and yesterday about the fragility of the internet, and power grid.

Something's been afoot for a quite some time, creating the circumstances to allow the shadow government to accelerate their activities. It began with the suspension of habeus corpus, and now continues with the latest horrifying supreme court ruling.

Still, i'm not convinced the nefarious will succeed in whatever goal(s)they are pursuing. The coming shifts will certainly affect them and may affect them more severely than those of us who kiss the Earth.

By the way, i had this hilarious thought while listening to John Boehner this morning on NPR. The reason why republicans are so good at stiking to those "core principles" is because it is easier to remember and repeat a few bulleted items. Of course, there's the lack of imagination aspect as well. Too bad their so darned good at this. And too bad we're so easily seduced by it.

Then, of course, there are those like Murdoch who endorse the vindictive vitriole via Glen Beck that continues to stupify so many.

http://www.alternet.org/media/145430/glenn_beck%27s_gestapo_tactics_--_assailing_obama_and_progressives_with_holocaust_imagery?page=entire#wp-comments

Hi all...

It's come to my attention that some of you cannot login to AW. I should be talking to Sally soon so I will chat with her and see what we can do.

Meanwhile hard as I might try to avoid politics as I am so thoroughly disgusted... I hear these guys, the sheer idiocy. Thinking how stupid do you think the People are? You Jackasses.

So we'll see how Obama does tonight. I'm looking for concrete change of ways buckeroo. I'm done with minority rule.

Appears there's to be a "freeze" on everything but mass genocide. Oh well.

Interesting.............
I watched the SOTU on cspan. They really lunched on the filming! Biden & Pelosi were cut off above the mouth so I could'nt watch their reactions, and that whole drama of the Repigs remaining seated during the tax relief portion of the speech, was not filmed. I could only guess, until I watched the FOX News video on Huf Po this AM.
Wassupwithat? I thought Fox was the in the conservative's pocket.
Have some of the old cspan camera crew retired, or been fired?
I fell asleep when the P Republicans in VA were banging their feet on the floor, waiting for the rebutal speech. Doubt if I missed much!
Meanwhile activism onthe home front continues, petition signed for Pingree, call to Michaud letters to the "ladies", lettert o the paper/
The Jewish Peace group sent members out from Bangor last night to the Latino's ( Mano en Mano)
covered dish supper in Milbridge in support of housing for immigrants.........

A big loss!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4245521
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87

An ode to Howard Zinn.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/

http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/how-to-ruin-organic-farming/

I love Chris Floyd, Marta... always have.

Me too, JoannaO.

* Jupiter-Uranus and the 2010 Scientific Breakthroughs

I’ve been noticing that both the macrocosmic and microcosmic scientific worlds are abuzz with the excitement of impending discoveries. This is an unusual situation, because discoveries don’t usually happen that way. For example, you don’t know in advance that you’re going to find new remains that reveal more about human ancestry, or a cure for cancer. But in both cases new, far more powerful instruments have just been put in place, so it’s like travelling to new worlds where you are bound to see new things, even though you don’t know in advance what they are. ... http://astrotabletalk.blogspot.com/

* Worth mentioning: the Dewey chart

I am sitting here at this meeting and someone suggested that I look at the school’s archive page, and there I found the certificate of occupancy for the new school building, for Mon, Sept 8, 1969. Classes began at 8:05 am when Module 1 (first mod) or A-band started. And what do you get for that? You get an astrology chart — and once again, I am astonished.

Remembering that I haven’t seen the chart till one minute ago: I have described Dewey as a radical experiment in freedom and personal responsibility. It was an educational innovation, full of the spirit of the 1960s. Dewey opened just weeks after the Woodstock festival and two months after the Moon landing: one of many unusual events of 1969, with the signature of a social experiment. Like both of these events, Dewey was and is a group phenomenon, and also an invention.

Straight away, this chart is a knockout: ... http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/01/30/john-dewey-hs-reunion-astrology/#more-21967

* Activism: The Promise of the First Amendment

So what happens when our High Court gives us a ruling so heinous to the democratic process and protection of the individual that the Pres takes opportunity during his SOTU to chide the Supreme’s and directs his Congress to investigate and close the loopholes?

First we employ a little humor, to inform of the actual damage done and reflect its implications, as found over at Scholars and Rogues:

Following the recent SC ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corpo funding of fed campaigns, Murray Hill Inc today announced it is filing to run for US Congress. “Until now,” Murray Hill Inc said in a statement, “corpo interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence-peddling to achieve their goals in Wash. But thanks to an enlightened SC, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.”

Murray Hill Inc is believed to be the first “corpo person” to exercise its constitutional right to run for office. ... http://polwaves.planetwaves.net/

* DoJ Probes Blackwater for Bribery

By Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, The NYTimes | The Justice Dept is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi govt officials in hopes of retaining the firm's security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former govt officials. http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/167-blackwater/892-doj-probes-blackwater-for-bribery

* CIA Moonlights in Corpo World

By Eamon Javers, Politico | In the midst of two wars and the fight against Al Qaeda, the CIA is offering operatives a chance to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side - a policy that gives financial firms and hedge funds access to the nation's top-level intelligence talent. http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/157-civilian-security/891-cia-moonlights-in-corporate-world

This from Tabletalk is a bit fun...

http://astrotabletalk.blogspot.com/

*

...On Fri, Jan 29, with the Full Moon opposite our Aquarian Sun and conjunct retrograde Mars, President Obama broke a 4th wall of politics, stepping away from the WH podium and into a python pit. At the Republican Party’s invitation, he spoke at its congressional retreat in Baltimore MD where the ratio of [Retards] to Dems in the room was 140 to one.

In the course of 90 min the pres spoke and then took questions from the opp party, during which time he demolished [Repulsives] talking points used to discredit the Dems’ health care reform bill and the adm’s stimulus plan. Furthermore, he placed the blame for the economy squarely on the [bushaholic] adm and the [Repunk] congressional majority’s legislation passed during the mid 90s: welfare reform, decreased tax burden for the wealthiest, laws ending careful scrutiny and regs of the banking industry, intractable wars costing billions daily and dragging on without end.

The president put the old mythology of Dems being profligate spenders–a relic of Reagan Republicanism — to bed. His adm inherited both the mess and the debt left the US in the trillions of dollars, caused by the 8 yrs of financial squandering of the Clinton adm’s $250bn surplus by [bushadruggie] and the [regag] majority in Congress. He denounced the disintegration of political discourse from civil disagreement to violent ideology, calling it a waste of time and the public’s trust for politicians to engage in while the country was burning. He said what was stuck in most Dems’ throats these last 10 yrs. In the pres’s litany, you could clearly hear what was basically an indictment of the entire 15 year era of Pluto in Sagittarius. ... http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/2010/02/01/obama-confronts-gop-foes-head-on-an-astrological-perspective/#more-22008

Hmmmm... wonder what the Pres knows that we don't know yet to come out punching like that... almost as if a gong rang saying a new day is here... a REAL new day.

Great links, joanna. I'd read the CIA expertise "outsourcing" idea and did a little mental romp through a Howard-Zinn-ish type history where brutes take power by force, and keep it by force. The US brute has been pulling down its pants and *hitting wherever it choses throughout the world, using your money to wipe with. But, we're running out of tp, and so is the rest of humanity.

I continue to visualize the brutes cleaning up this mess with rakes and shovels, turning the crap into compost.

An excellent chore for craphaids who made the crap, Karen, you think?

* In his new book, Life Inc., media ecologist and author Douglas Rushkoff tells the story of how the corporation has made us over into its own image, how we have altered our reality to serve its needs, and how we can take it back. In this conversation, Douglas illuminates the Dark Ages, reveals why there's a God on our money, and explains what we're really buying into when we buy that mortgage. We have the code to open-source everything, he says. Time to go to work! ... http://www.realitysandwich.com/beyond_life_inc_talking_douglas_rushkoff

Hats off to you, Joanna. You find the most interesting sites! Rushkoff's observations are brilliant. We know that our thought has been framed by various factors, many of those thoughts subjugate logic in order to replace that thought with fantasy. Far too many accept the illogical reasoning of the few. By accepting the fantasy, they doom their own individual lives to substandard conditions, to a continued marginalization of the "other" in order to feel they are a part of the "few."

Yes, we serve the corporation even thought we may not want to.

The Federal Reserve has to be the contemporary version of power supporting fantasy.

Did anyone see the round-table interview with a group of players including Huffington and the Fox News henchman? The henchman looks almost identical to Jabba the Hut! I was laughing so hard i almost fell on the floor.

No... but, Karen... it must be one of the most odious characters ever dreamed up in the neoconsciousness of the pink guys and, psychologically speaking, shows us a lot about those contours. The elves et al came via the deep layer of the Old Religion I should think.

Weren't we discussing whether The Iroquois Nation had input into the writing of the Constitution recently?
This article seems to provide evidence of that.

http://www.zanestein.com/chiron_pluto.htm

Under 1754, near the bottom of the page..........

2. English officials were aware of the fact that the brewing war would put a strain on the colonies, and suggested a "union between ye Royal, Proprietary & Charter Goverments." In June 1754, delegates from most of the northern colonies, and representatives from the Six Iroquois Nations, net in Albany, New York. There, they adopted a "plan of union" drafted by Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. Under this plan, each colonial legislature would elect delegates to an American continental assembly presided over by a royal governor.

This plan was noteworthy for several reasons, most noticably that Franklin anticipated the many problems that would beset the government created after independence. In fact, it contains the seeds of true union, and many of these ideas would later be revived and adopted in Philadelphia more than 30 years later.
The article also touches on this:
We must never forget that the positive side of Chiron includes healing/wholemaking, and the positive side of Pluto includes regeneration/rebirth. On December 1, 1999, as these two bodies moved toward the conjunction, there was a major news release:

"Momentous Gene Breakthrough Heralded As Milestone

"LONDON (Reuters) - A team of international scientists has deciphered the genetic code of a human chromosome in a scientific milestone that could herald new treatments for diseases ranging from heart disease to schizophrenia.

Researchers from Britain, the United States and Japan have mapped the entire sequence of the protein-coding genes of chromosome 22, the second smallest of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes. They said they identified 545 genes, 298 of which were unknown, giving new insights into how genes are arranged on DNA and how they can be used to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases.

It is the first step in the Human Genome Project, which plans to sequence the entire human genome, all of the more than 100,000 genes in human DNA, by 2003.
Which really spotlights the current health care debate as totally frivolous & irrelevant!
disclaimer: I haven't fact checked this, just put it out there as "of interest"

Boy! Where is everybody! Has anybody heard from Sally? Any news? Hope all are doing well with this weather. Stay warm!

Still here, working on my site, which is going along beautifully....

http://www.aquariusmoon.info.

Stayed home yesterday and got some rest and respite from the 40mph weather and its wind chill factor.

What ever happened to February's moderating influence? By now it should be averaging about 40 degrees with mild hints that spring is on its way. But this year, February looks so much like January..will March be like February, and so forth, until the warm weather comes around May?

http://www.plantea.com/Tom-Hanks.htm

Tom Hanks commencement address to the Class of 2005 of Vassar ....

Here is Tom Hanks' speech. Read it. Print it out. Pass it on. Share it with others...

THE POWER OF FOUR
by Tom Hanks

Not long ago I was reading about the problem of gridlock on the freeways of Southern California--the traffic jams which cripple the city, stranding millions and laying waste to time, energy, and the environment. Gridlock is as serious and as impenetrable a problem as any we face, a dilemma without cure, without solution, like everything else in the world, it seems.

Some smart folks concocted a computer simulation of gridlock to determine how many cars should be taken off the road to turn a completely jammed and stilled highway into a free-flowing one. How many cars must be removed from that commute until a twenty-mile drive takes twenty-five minutes instead of two hours? The results were startling.

Four cars needed to be removed from that virtually stuck highway to free up that simulated commute... four cars out of each one hundred. Four cars per one hundred cars, four autos out of every one hundred autos, forty cars from each thousand, four hundred out of ten thousand. Four cars out of one hundred are not that many. Two cars out of every fifty--one driver out of twenty-five drivers.