News Stories of Interest

Three news stories of interest. From BBC of course. Bless BBC.
I found them interesting. Most people are not aware of these issues as the Wag the Dog technique is in full play now. The movie is 'Wag the Dog' with Dustin Hoffman and Robert DiNiro, directed by Bary Levinson. http://www.wag-the-dog.com/
It was on the other night. I couldn't watch the whole movie - too disturbing. So, if you aren't familiar with this termonology, rent the film.

Meditating on the Zayin gave me an insight into the duality of a persona. Who am I talking to when I talk to Myself? Or think? Who am I thinking to? Ah. Me dost believe that is a significant part of the explanation. Is it the quintessential observer as in quantum physics? When there is an observer, something is being observed. Are we observing ourselves?
Or it is a constant communication with the other half of our self? I'm not talking about ego.
I think that is why Gemini, the twins is the third month. Remember. Numbers. In the desert.
hmmm able.

First story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5027860.stm

Guantanamo hunger strike spreads

Hunger strikes have flared periodically since 2002

The number of detainees on hunger strike at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has grown and now involves 75 inmates, the US says.

Navy Cmdr Robert Durand said the new hunger strike was aimed at attracting media attention and may also be connected to a disturbance on 18 May.

Detainees started an on-off hunger strike last August to protest at their continued detention and conditions.

Rights groups have voiced concerns that the US has force-fed the strikers.

About 460 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, many of them captured in Afghanistan. Some have been held for nearly four years without charge.

The US military defines a hunger strike as missing nine consecutive meals and most of the 75 passed that mark on Sunday.

Most are refusing food but are drinking liquids.

Cmdr Durand said the hunger strike was not a new tactic at the detention centre and that most returned to full normal diets after media attention had passed.

He said the current protest may be designed to coincide with a series of hearings scheduled in June.

"This new hunger strike is likely a co-ordinated, but short-term, effort designed to coincide with the military commission hearings scheduled for the next several weeks as defence attorneys and media normally travel to Guantanamo to observe this process," Cmdr Durand said in a statement.

He said the gesture may also be related to an incident earlier this month when two detainees tried to commit suicide and several others clashed with guards.

Closure call

Seventy-six detainees began a hunger strike in August. Since then the number has at times grown and then dwindled to a handful.

Three men who have been protesting since August and one of the recent group are being enterally fed, that is via a tube through the nose and into the stomach, the military says.

Defence lawyers have said many detainees stopped their protest because the US military adopted more aggressive measures to force feed them.

In March, more than 250 medical experts signed a letter condemning the US for force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike.

Earlier this month, the UN Committee against Torture called on the US to close Guantanamo and any other secret "war on terror" detention facilities abroad.

The Bush administration has denied allegations of abuse at Guantanamo, and the military says it provides safe, humane care and custody of the detainees.

.....
Second Story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5030362.stm

Paulson is new US treasury chief

Henry Paulson's nomination has won praise from leading Democrats
Henry "Hank" Paulson, the chairman of investment bank Goldman Sachs, has been nominated as the US treasury secretary.

He will take over the role from John Snow, who is resigning after three years in the job.

Mr Paulson has been chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs since May 1999, when the bank went public.
I
t is not his first time working in the White House. He was a member of the domestic council as staff assistant to President Nixon in 1972.

Wall Street giant

He joined Goldman Sachs in Chicago in 1974, and became chief executive in 1994.

Outside of the financial world he is reputed to be an avid nature-lover, and is chairman of the board of The Nature Conservancy in the US.

Announcing his appointment, President George W Bush said Mr Paulson was highly experienced and capable.
"The American economy is powerful, productive and prosperous and I look forward to working with Hank Paulson to keep it that way," he said.

The US economy has enjoyed strong growth over the past year but concerns about growing inflationary pressures have worried investors, leading to extreme stock market volatility in recent weeks.

Deficit headaches

The Bush administration also faces the twin problems of a rising budget deficit and a trade imbalance which continues to set new records.

Iraq-related expenditure, allied to significant tax cuts, have pushed the budget even further into the red, rising above $400bn.

The trade deficit - the difference between what the US exports and imports - rose to $742bn last year, equivalent to 7% of total economic output.

The US trade gap has been fuelled by a sharp rise in imports from China and other Asian countries, which continue to outpace exports.

Fears about the widening deficit have contributed to a significant fall in the value of the US dollar over the past month.

Critics of the Bush administration have accused it of fiscal indiscipline and have said it has not put sufficient pressure on China to revalue its currency, seen as the main cause of the trade imbalance.

Mr Paulson still has to be approved by the Senate, but has already won praise from the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee, Senator Chuck Schumer.

"His experience, intelligence and deep understanding of national and global economic issues make him the best pick America could have hoped for," Mr Schumer said of the nominee.

Third time lucky?

If nominated, Mr Paulson will become President Bush's third treasury secretary during his time in office.

Paul O'Neill, the former boss of aluminium maker Alcoa, spent only eighteen months in the job before resigning at the end of 2002 amid reports of disagreements with key officials.

His successor, John Snow, a former law professor and railway executive, was seen as a safe pair of hands who could build bridges with Wall Street.

However, his departure has been widely anticipated for some time.

.....
And 3rd but not least :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5011210.stm

Alarm at human bird flu cluster

Indonesia's bird flu death toll is second only to that of Vietnam

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is extremely worried about a cluster of recent human deaths from the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.
S
even people from the same family in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, died from the disease earlier this month.

WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said there was no sign of diseased poultry in the immediate area.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the virus spread from human to human, Mr Cordingley said.

But he emphasised that there was no indication the virus had mutated.

Experts are worried that if it does mutate, the H5N1 strain could become more easily transmitted between humans, leading to a worldwide pandemic of the killer disease.

The H5N1 virus has already killed more than 120 people worldwide since 2003. It has also devastated poultry stocks.

The majority of deaths have occurred in Asia, but cases in people and birds have also been recorded in Europe and Africa.

Almost all human infections so far are thought to have been caused by direct contact with sick poultry.

Family tragedy

Mr Cordingley said that the Sumatran cases presented a major puzzle, as they were the largest cluster of human cases to date.
"[This] is probably the most worrying incident so far since bird flu started nearly three years ago and we can't find any obvious source of infection. We can find no sign of infected chickens; no sign of the virus in the environment around where they live," he said.

All seven people who died were members of the same family. An eighth family member is also thought to have the disease.
QUICK GUIDE
Bird flu
So far investigators know that the initial victim was a woman, who became ill at the end of April. She died in early May and was buried before laboratory tests could be carried out.
The subsequent six victims - all of whom were positively identified as having the virus - had close and prolonged exposure to either her or other family members with the disease, the WHO said.

Clusters of bird flu cases are viewed with far more concern than isolated infections, because of the possibility of transmission between humans.

There have already been several cluster cases - such as one seen in Thailand in 2004 - although they have always involved fewer individuals than the Indonesian case.

But the possibility scientists are most worried about, genetic mutation of the virus, has been effectively ruled out in this case.

"Sequencing of all eight gene segments found no evidence of genetic reassortment with human or pig influenza viruses, and no evidence of significant mutations," the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.

The WHO is continuing its investigations into the Sumatran case.

But the organisation says there is so much grief in the village that it is difficult for officials to get enough co-operation from local people to do their job.

ANALYSIS AND BACKGROUND Bird flu journey Watch how the lethal virus has spread

.....
Is one plague is replacing another? Just can't help myself - here's another headline:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5021074.stm
HIV infections 'may have peaked'

Two thirds of people in Asia with HIV are in India
The rate at which people are infected with HIV may have peaked in the late 1990s, according to a UNAIDS report.

.....

Keep musing is what I say.
Peace
\ /

The letter Zayin - Sivan

The letter Reish - Mercury.

Sivan - Gemini

Today is 1 Sivan 5766. Chodesh Tov.
45 days of the Omer Bless the Lord. I can definitely feel the desire to have it completed.
Sivan, Gemini, is the 3rd month in the Hebrew calendar, the month of the giving and receiving of Torah.
The letter for the month of Sivan is Zayin, the letter of Shabbat, the 7th letter of the aleph bet, gematria 7.
As we have been taught by the sages, the number seven is always dear - sacred.
Torah always begins Sivan with the first portion in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar. Bamidbar means in the desert. They call it Numbers, because the portion Bamidbar is the re counting of the census but this time in the desert .
The Holy Day in the month of Sivan is Shavuot, the 50th day of the Omer. Shavuot is the holiday of the giving of the Torah.
The sense is walking, or forward progress and the organ is left foot.
The mazal, or sign, is Gemini, the twins. Two contained within one. The third month.
During Sivan, we're Back in the Desert - Bamidbar - BeHar Sinai, Bamidbar Sinai.

Zayin, as the letter which according to Sefer Yetzirah created the month of Sivan and the sign of Gemini, is the sacred energy of the Shabbbat. Whilst Vav, the letter for the month of Iyar is the direct light, descending from above to below, zayin is a vav with a crown on top and is returning light. This is a difficult yet basic concept of kabbalah - the differences in the manifestations of the light.
Or yashar = direct light, or straight light
Or chozer = returning light.
Or pimini is original light.
So, we are moving from or yashar, direct light, to or chozer, returning light, which is really what the Omer is all about. Here's Rabbi G :
'"Or chozer ascends with such great force that it reaches a higher state of consciousness that that of the revealed origin-point of the or yashar. When reaching the initially superconscious realm of Keter ( the crown), it broadens its awareness to both the right and left. In truth there is no left in the Ancient One(the level of Keter, for all is right. "

Zayin is associated with the feminine, as Shabbat is the mating, and the mazal of Gemini, the twins, is the symbolism of the uniting of two into one.
From "Songs of Creation-meditations on the sacred hebrew alphabet" by jennifer judelsohn.

"Zayin represents movement and separation. Shaped like a sword, zayin functions as a tool for spiritual discernment and distinction, cutting away what is unholy within us and enabling us to rise to higher levels of spiritual awareness and wisdom.
Zayin, the seventh letter of the aleph-bet also represents the Sabbath - the separation of the sacred from the ordinary. Meditation: Take time daily to separate from the ordinary and connect with the sacred. Take steps to nurture your soul."

Sivan is the month to radiate our inner understanding outwards. Torah is the inner knowledge.

It is a month during which the intimacy of coupling is manifest. The feminine principle is once again prominent. In order for the higher realms to become manifest in the physical, it is necessary for the feminine to achieve her receptivity. It is all about Binah. The 50 day count of the Omer coincides with the 50 gates of Binah. It is also the sacred gematria of adding the kolel +1 to the gematria : (7 x 7 )+ 1 = 50. The kolel takes into consideration the oneness of the Divine principal. We receive the light and give it back. It can never go just one way. It is through the letter zayin that the connection is made. Sivan can be a month of emotional upheaval - the desire to go in two directions at once. It is also the opposites which are in us all, masculine and feminine, intertwing in the mazal of the twins. The main element in the energy is that of complete fulfillment, as on the Shabbat. It is a different dimension. In walking, the left foot follows the right foot. Walking cannot be achieved without the motion of both.

"GEMINI: Hebrew month of Sivan

The planet Mercury rules their chart. Mercury makes them quick in their actions and gives them an inquisitive and curious mind. With their conversational abilities and quick wit, they are natural communicators. The Gemini rising makes them mentally gifted; they have good memory and learn quickly and easily. However, they sometimes become restless, irritable and indecisive. This is because of the dual nature of their rising sign. They like constant stimulation and diversity. They may find themselves doing two things at the same time. When things go slower than they expect or if things are not as interesting, they become bored and impatient. They will achieve spiritual growth when they start taking responsibility of their actions and stay in one path until the end of it. Most of the time they leave a task or a process right in the middle of it, before reaping the benefits of their hard work in bringing it to that point. Focusing on it till the end will bring them to higher spiritual levels. " From http://www.nehora.com/hebdate.cfm

hmmm.

This is an excellent link:
http://www.ritualwell.org/holidays/roshchodeshnewmoon/sivan/

Mercury, the messenger, is the ruling planet of Sivan. The letter for Mercury is the Reish, the 20th letter of the aleph bet, gematria 200.

Right now Mercury isn't visible in the sky, as far as I know. I'm still seeing Jupiter.
I'll have to surf it.

I had quite a bit of trouble doing this post - my brain is distracted. See? I kept confusing Sivan which is Gemini with Cancer, Tammuz. Oy. That Mercury plays games with communication. I'll be doing a little more research on the letter Zayin. Everything is always so obfuscated. I know that the zayin is the key. I believe in the energy of these letters. Yet, in my own personal life, I continue to live in emotional extremism, feeling everyhing, and having the sword cut rather than heal. I think it is cool that the pictograph of the zayin represents the sword. I wonder if it is the same sword froggie took when he went a courtin', or if it is excalibar. Ha. Whilst I feel that my connection with the universal energy consciousness is strong, I still feel myself falling and empty. No matter what I do, complete connection in the physical plane has not manifested for me during this current lifetime. I might also mention that my death and rebirth was in the sign of Gemini. On June 16, 1997 I had my heart attack, and was dead for 10 minutes. They did CPR on me, and then the paddles. Ever since that experience I've had trouble defining my purpose on Earth. I'm telling truths here that I usually hesitate to tell, but why not. Nobody reads anymore anyway. Blogging ain't what it started out to be. Most things go that route.

"one thing after another, everything disppears" . euripides.

We used to have an intellectual joke. euripides umenides. Ha.

Rejoice in the longer days. Connect with the zayin to nuture your soul. Remember that it is the feminine within us that manifest spirituality into the consciousness of the physical world. There is really no duality or separation. That is a false illusion. There are just different sides to the same cause. As Rabbi Shimon says, this has already been explained.

Chodesh Tov Sivan

The Ring of Fire

Located at borders of several tectonic plates
90% of the world's earthquakes occur along it
Also zone of frequent volcanic activity

The Pacific Ring of Fire is making a grand statement.
Remember Johnny Cash singing
I went down down down
to the burning ring of fire
?
The teutonic plates are shifting, and those of us alive at this time are witnessing it.
Here's the story. Light, love and compassion to those who are so devastatingly affected by it. Sighs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5023874.stm#graphic

Search for Java quake survivors

Footage from Java

A frantic search for survivors is continuing after a strong earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, killing more than 4,200 people.

Many people are still believed trapped under rubble and collapsed buildings, but rescue teams say the chances of finding anyone alive are slim.

Relief efforts are picking up speed, with teams from across the country and abroad arriving in the disaster zone.
The area struck by the quake is densely-populated.

In pictures: quake aftermath
Yogyakarta: Rich in culture
The Indonesian Red Cross estimates some 200,000 people fled their homes after it hit early on Saturday morning.

At least 4,285 are thought to have been killed and more than 10,000 injured when the quake, measuring 6.3, flattened buildings south of the city of Yogyakarta.

The BBC's Rachel Harvey at the scene says the situation is still desperate in the worst affected region around the city of Yogyakarta - badly injured people are arriving at hospitals already short of space and hundreds of victims are having to be treated outdoors.

Field clinics are being set up to relieve the pressure on hospitals.
The worst devastation was in the town of Bantul, south of Yogyakarta city, where an official said more than 2,000 people had been killed.

Tens of thousands have been left homeless

There were also reports that one of the country's most important ancient temple complexes was badly damaged by the quake.

Initial surveys showed collapsed stone walls and statues lying scattered around the site at the Hindu Prambanan complex in Yogyakarta.

The temples are more than 1,000 years old and listed by the UN as a world heritage site.
Aid appeal
The Red Cross launched an appeal for $10m (7.7m euros), as world leaders pledged aid.
Unicef said it was sending emergency supplies including 2,000 tents, 9,000 tarpaulins and hygiene kits.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on rescuers to work around the clock, as he visited the stricken area with a team of Cabinet ministers on Saturday.

Yogyakarta is near the Mount Merapi volcano, which threatened to erupt earlier this month, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated.

Experts were divided over whether the quake would affect Merapi, but there are reports of heightened activity at the volcano.

Officials said that although the area affected was coastal there was no tsunami resulting from the quake.

The quake hit at 0554 local time (2253 GMT Friday), around 25km (15 miles) south of the city of Yogyakarta, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia's ancient royal capital and one of its biggest cities, is about 440km (275 miles) south-east of the capital, Jakarta.

Aid effort hampered

Yogyakarta's airport was closed after sustaining damage. Indonesia's Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said it would remain shut until at least Sunday while inspections were carried out, AP reported.
AID PLEDGES SO FAR
UK - $5.5m
EU - $3.8m
US - $2.5m
Australia - $2.3m
China - $2m
Canada - $1.8m

The aid effort was also reportedly hampered as the quake cut electricity and communications in some areas.

Indonesia is in a zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire", which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

In December 2004, a huge earthquake off Indonesia's coast killed hundreds of thousands of people across the Indian Ocean by triggering a tsunami.

Two more earthquakes rocked the Pacific islands of Tonga and Papua New Guinea on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries caused by the tremors, which measured 6.7 and 6.2 respectively.

.....

News about Ariel Sharon. I guess he is still in some state of aliveness. There hasn't been any word on him for quite a while now. I almost lost the story - It zapped from the headline page to the Middle East page right before my eyes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5024688.stm

Sharon moved for long-term care

Curtains shield the ambulance said to be carrying Mr Sharon Former Israeli Prime Minister

Ariel Sharon has been moved from hospital to a specialist care centre in Tel Aviv.

Mr Sharon, 78, suffered a major stroke in January and has remained in a coma despite eight operations.

He was moved from Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital to the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where doctors say he can receive appropriate long-term care.

Mr Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, assumed his powers in January and was recently elected prime minister.

The director of the Sheba centre, Dr Zeev Rotstein, told reporters that Mr Sharon's treatment would be "difficult, because in his condition, complications are expected".

Legacy
Correspondents say the move away from the Hadassah hospital signals an acceptance that Mr Sharon is unlikely to emerge from his coma any time soon.

"We will treat him as best we can. It is not a short-term treatment, we are talking about long-term treatment," Dr Rotstein added.

Mr Sharon, a former army commander who fought in a series of Middle East wars, held a number of cabinet positions before he became prime minister in 2001.

He is among the best known politicians in Israel's history, but is widely hated by many in the Arab world.

His tenure in office was dominated by security concerns, and he pushed through Israel's withdrawal from settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005.

.....

Short story. Everything is changed now.

Today is 1 Sivan, 45th day of the Omer. Energy shifts again.

Froggie went a courtin' he did ride uh huh froggie went a courtin he did ride froggie went a courtin' he did ride a sword and pistol by his side uh huh uh huh uh huh.

Peace

\ /

Rubicon Moment

I just had a Rubicon Moment.
Victory over Defeat.
*phews*
I'm telling ya
It never is
what you expect.
It just never is.
B'H
.....
7 more days of the Omer.
Sivan - Cancer starts on Sunday.
New letters to play with.
And this Saturday begins the 4th Book of Torah, the Book of Numbers - Bamidbar - the Desert - with Parashat Bamidbar.
I love Bamidbar. Numbers. Lots and lots and lots and lots of numbers.
Ha.
As Leviticus- Vayikra - corresponds to Binah, Bamidbar - Numbers, corresponds to Zeir Anpin - the six Sephirot of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod and Yesod.

Here we go again.
.....

Northeast Rail Power Outage

This story brought back my commuting memories. What a horror show.
An outage or some other unforseen circumstance always happens on the hottest day, or the Friday before a long weekend.
I'm surprised it happened during the week.
Stuck in the tunnels on trains.
Yuch.
I got stuck once, but not in the tunnel, on the rails. And I had to do what it says in the article - walk from North Elizabeth to the Elizabeth station where my car was parked.
A bottle of witch hazel, which I always carried with me in the summertime, saved my life.
You're not dressed for a hike, you're dressed for work.

Northeast rail resumes after power outage
Five commuter trains shut down inside Hudson River, Baltimore tunnels
NEWARK, N.J. - A major power outage stranded thousands of rush-hour commuters Thursday between New York and Washington, stopping trains inside sweltering tunnels and forcing many passengers to get out and walk.

Power was restored throughout the heavily traveled corridor at about 10:30 a.m. ET, more than two hours after outage, Amtrak said.

The outage stranded five trains in tunnels — one in Baltimore and four under the Hudson River heading into New York. They all been removed, Amtrak said.

Joe Piasecki of Washington Crossing, Pa. was among 100 passengers who climbed down out of a stalled train near Elizabeth, N.J. to walk nearly a mile to the nearest station.

“It’s a kind of eerie, end-of-the-world feel,” said Piasecki, who boarded the train in Trenton. “You have these two trains sitting here dead, not moving. You can’t see any cars or anything else moving.”

Mike Kenny of West Windsor has been commuting to Manhattan for 30 years and said the outage was “shaping up as one of the worst ever.”
“It’s getting pretty hot in here, and the bathroom is getting backed up,” he said.

Train crews offered passengers the option of getting off and walking about a quarter-mile to the nearest station in North Elizabeth.

“I’ve got a bum foot, and I’m wearing a boot on it, but I’ll do it,” Kenny said. “I’m ready to call it quits and go home.”

Larry Willis, 63, of Upper Marlboro, Md., said he and other passengers were stuck in the dark for about 45 minutes in a Baltimore tunnel.

Passengers remained quiet during the outage but there was “a lot of frustration,” said Willis, who had been traveling to Newark, N.J., to catch a flight to Tel Aviv, Israel.

Birthday blessing?
Krista Barry spent the morning of her 23rd birthday sitting on the floor of a sweltering NJ Transit car, reading a book for more than 90 minutes.

“Everyone is calling me on my cell and saying, ’Uh, happy birthday; too bad you’re stuck,”’ said Barry, who boarded the train in Trenton bound for her job as an office temp in Manhattan. “At least I get to relax and not go to work.”

In New York, John McAlonan planned to catch an 8 a.m. Amtrak train from Penn Station to Philadelphia. He sat on the train for an hour but then gave up when it failed to leave the station.

“The lights went out three times and then they just stayed off,” McAlonan said.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

.......
I may be complaining about my current situation, but B'H I ain't a commuter no more.
.....
Peace
\ /

Fighting Fire with Fire

Yesterday's Torah portion was BeHar-Bechukotai.
The word BeHar means mountain. In the Torah portion it is BeHar Sinai, Mount Sinai.
The word BeHar has a connection with my family name, spelling wise.
An unsettling revelation about the family name came about yesterday, on Shabbat.
A telephone call from a newly found relative, a first cousin as it were, on my father's side {nothing was ever spoken of my father's family}.
At first I was not going to answer the phone because I had just started doing Torah. But that little voice said answer. What the news was happened to be a found newspaper article from 1945.
When they told me and read me the headline my head started to swim and I got the stomache drop. I thought a lifetime of thoughts in a millionth of a nano second.
What had been concealed is now in a state of revelation.
It is quite unsettling for me, and there isn't anybody I can talk to about it cause they're all dead.
Revelation on BeHar.
What was even more interesting was that the family who found it thought it was ultra fabulous wonderful and exciting. For me, it is a head shake and a stomache drop.
I shake my head in awe and wonder and know, whether in physical phase, world phase or divinity phase, that something beyond my comprehension has just gotta be goink on.
And the pendulum swung.
Oy.
Whether or not there will be repercussions from what was revealed is still an unknown.
But I maintain that the most exciting and unique experiences are always the total surprises.
I was of course aware to be aware of the portion. But who woulda thunk. I wouldn't a. Definitely not.
Fascinating.
{The 9th Doctor Who says fascinating a lot. I love his face. I love your face. }

Of course, a flood of memories was released.
My father. His 7th yhertzite just passed. And, of course, 7 is a main number in play in the Torah portions.
Sighs.
There is something within me, that part of wisdom, that says in this particular case you have to fight fire with fire. Something's up. All of a sudden a long lonst first cousin finds me and he's researching the family name. After all these years. After my whole life.

When I was a little girl, I would sit on my daddy's lap and he would read me my favourite poem.
I still have the original volume, "Complete Poems of Keats and Shelley", Modern Library Edition. The page still has the little piece of paper bookmark.
In honour of the good that was in my father, here it is.
{Don't anybody go making any movies about my father. He wasn't violent or in jail or anything like that. This is something totally different. He was Fighting for Civil Rights and Freedom during an era long gone, yet not so long gone. Bruce is singing the songs which carry forth the energy of that period in his new album, as it were. 1945 was a loooong time ago. My father is dead.
Too much quantum synchronicity can give one brain fry.}

A SONG ABOUT MYSELF
FROM A LETER TO FANNY KEATS
JOHN KEATS

There was a naughty Boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be-
He took
In his Knapsack
A Book
Full of vowels
And a shirt
With some towels-
A slight cap
For night cap
A hair brush
Comb ditto,
New Stockings
For old ones
Would split O!
This Knapsack
Tight at's back
He rivetted close
And followed his Nose
To the North,
To the North,
And followed his Nose
To the North.

{freak out - know wonder I'm nutzoid. i thought i got the towel obsession from Douglas Adam's Hitchikers, but actually, it was from this poem. ha. the ride never stops. }

There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
For nothing would he do
But scribble poetry-
He took
An ink stand
In his hand
And a pen
Big as ten
In the other.
And away
In a Pother
He ran
To the mountains
And fountains
And ghostes
And Postes
And witches
And ditches
And wrote
In his coat
When the weather
Was cool,
Fear of gout,
And without
When the weather
Was warm-
When we choose
To follow one's nose
To the north,
To the north,
To follow one's nose
To the north!

There was a naughty boy
And a naughty boy was he,
He kept little fishes
In washing tubs three
In spite
Of the might
Of the Maid
Nor afraid
Of his Granny-good--
He often would
Hurly burly
Get up early
And go
By book or crook
To the brook
And bring home
Miller's thumb,
Tittlebat
Not over fat,
Minnows small
As the stall
Of a glove,
Not above
The size
Of a nice
Little Baby's
Little fingers-
O he made
'Twas his trade
Of Fish a pretty Kettle
A Kettle-
A Kettle
Of Fish a pretty Kettle
A Kettle!

There was a naughty Boy,
And a naughty Boy was he
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see-
Then he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red-
That lead
Was as weighty,
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That door
Was as wooden
As in England-
So he stood in his shoes
And he wonder'd,
He wonder'd,
He stood in his shoes
And he wonder'd.
.....

No wonder huh.
How much of it do I remember my heart? Quite a lot. I was a tiny little tot, 3, 4, 5.

Thanks for the good you gave me daddy.

If anybody reads this post and has ever heard of this poem by Keats, let me know, will ya? Thanks.

Peace

A seeker's quest

What is this seeker's quest?
Danged if I know.
All I know is I keep seeking.
yeah.
Where I am right now just isn't good enough.
Vav
Pei Vav.

I'm studying.
I believe that the Hebrew Letters are sentient. They contain energy, manifest energy and are part of creation. I decided I had to know why I feel that way. Ha.
Just so happens there is a great scholar, Marc-Alain Ouaknin, a Frenchman who has written on all these subjects, because he happens to believe the same thing.
I have all his books. His treatise on Kabbalah is one of my main texts, because Ouaknin has everything sorted out and arranged. He is fabulous.

I picked up 'The Mystery of Numbers", and was told in the first chapter that I needed to read "Mysteries of the Alphabet" first. So I took that down from the shelf.
He starts off with a quote from Sefer Yetzirah. Whoopee.
"Twenty-two letters did he engrave and carve, he weighed them and moved them around into different combinations. Through them, he created the soul of every living being and the soul of every word....Twenty-two basic letters, fixed upon a wheel consisting of 231 gateways. And the wheel rolls forwards and backwards...How will he weigh them and make them move?
The aleph was associated with all the other letters and all the other letters were associated with the aleph. The beth was associated with all the other letters and all the other letters were associated with the beth. And the wheel turns, again and again...The whole of creation and all of the words emerged from this single name " The Aleph Beth ". "

This guy is goooooooood.
Brilliant.
So I'm studying to keep my mind off my self. Work the brain instead of frying it.
Oh well.

An interesting event occurred a few days ago. Ash and I were sitting out by the pool. She was doing a crossword. One of the clues was 'the last line of The Raven'. Ha. I knew that one.
The Raven. Edgar Allen Poe. Opium Addict. Quoth the Raven, nevermore. Nevermore is the last word. Sent me on a series of literary memories. One of my current problems is that I have nobody with whom to intellectually discuss anything. That's why I blog. But even blogging is getting blahing for me . There's no circular synchronicity. The friend who sent me into a cranky phase the other day called me ' impoverished intellegensia'. Yeah well. Kinda I am.
Anyway. Edgar Allen Poe. Muders in the Rue Morgue. The Pendulum. He was tripping. Edgar Allen was.
So, I remember my favourite was always Annabel Lee. Here it is.

ANNABEL LEE
by Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
It was many and many a year ago.
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud by night
Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me:--
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling
And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:--

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the side of the sea.
.....
It still gives me the chills.
.....
This week's Torah portion is Behar-Bechukotai, another double portion. Long.
Candelighting 7:53, forward 4.
.....
And the wheel goes round and round. Surprised Bruce didn't put that one on his new album.
.....
Shabbat Shalom
Blue Peace Please
.....

Painting Blueness

Painting blueness helped me totally today.
I use water mixable oil paint. I always used oil, never acrylic. Nothing gives the sheen that oil does. I discovered the water mixables when I wanted to paint but was worried about the cats and turpentine.
Very good paint. The tubes are about 7 years old, and the paint is still perfect.
I'm not a great artist or anything, but I am good with colour and texture.
I'm doing blue.
Oil takes a while to dry.
I layed a layer down today, and tomorrow I might have to start a new canvas if this isn't dry.
Catharsis through art and blueness.
What can I say.

Friends and confidantes

This post will be a little different than my usual posts, a little more personal.
Why? Because I'm cranky, pissed off.
A telephone call from a 'friend' back in Jersey yesterday morning set me off.
Another telephone call from another 'friend' last evening really put the cherry on top.
Sighs.
I should know better.
People only see from their own perspective, allowing nothing else in.
The energy of this self ish ness vs. self less ness seems to be getting stronger.
Everything is becoming more fragmented.
I tend to get cranky.
Why do I have 'friends' in quotes? Because these women are really not my friends, by definition. They are whatevers. Here is the dictionary definition of
friend
n
a person attached to another by affection or regard
syn
acquaintance, close acquaintance, confidante, repository, intimate, familiar.

I see that the definition of friend allows for gradations of friendship.
Because of my intensity, which applies to all things, I consider friendship to be more of a sacred bonding, and less of acquaintance.
Friends should help each other, support each other, care about each other, and, most importantly, be there for each other no matter what the circumstances.
Ha.
I'm hallucinating again.
That what friendship is to me. I am blessed with also possessing a friend or two who fit my definition. But mostly they are non fullfilling relationships with no discernable purpose.
I'm cranky.
I don't have a donfidant/e. This is very difficult for me. I do tend to be subjective.
I'm not dismissing my faults here. But alas and alak, enuff is enuff.

And the trip to Jersey manifested certain insights, yet my ultimate purpose, which was where do I go from here? remains yet a question.

Then we come to the resistance principal again. If there is no resistance, only complacency, no forward motion can occurr. And I'm a nutcase on resistance. Resiliant resistance at that.
You have to be resiliant in order to keep doing it over and over again. If I don't have an object of resistance I create one. Yuppers. I do that.

Oh yeah. And the Kabbalah Center is hocking my chinek again. (Hocking mein chinek - yiddish - literal translation - steal my teapot. What it means is annoyingly nagging. Hock mein chinek.)
I will not answer them, and they will most certainly not receive another half sheckel of mine.
Blah.
That is an organization which is a perfect example of only my way and no other, plus, they take as much of your money as they can get their hands on.
Not good.

Catharsis
I'm in a period of needing constant catharsis right now.
I think I'll get out my paints. Art is cathartic.
I'll paint blueness.
That'll work.
No comments on this post.

Floating Fire
Meron, Israel Lag B'Omer
http://www.kabbalaonline.org/kabbalaart/lagbomer/default.asp

Fire descends from on high in the shape of a lion
Burn the sacrifice of pride and ride on to Mount Zion
Fires burning
flames are dancing
don't burn the house down no
heavenly fire
only resides
on a altar made from the ground.
Matisyahu

God gave Noah the Rainbow Sign
No more water but Fire next time
Bruce singing Seeger Songs

Florida is burning as we speak. New England is floating. Volcanoes are errupting. Chaos is happening.
Heh.
Maybe I'll do a Rabbi Shimon Bonfire tonight. Yeah. I have the grille. Gimme a good burning anytime. Catharsis. It is all catharsis. Gotta have the release. Catharsis is a good word.
Look at how I had to go around in this GREAT BIG SYNCHRONISTIC CIRCLE in order to figure out that the answer in this particular case is the most simplistic. BURN. MAKE A FIRE. :P
Ya gotta laugh.
.....

Lag B'Omer

Tonight one counts the 33rd day of the omer, which is Lag B'Omer.
The literalists teach that the omer itself is a period of mourning for the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva who died because they became ego maniacial studying Torah. However, if one delves deeper into the energy elements which comprise the omer this explanation only presents the paradox. The paradox is, how could these 24,000 students who spent all of their time studying Torah become so full of themselves? Ah. Because they thought that they were better than everybody else, you see. What is the energy phenomonon which caused this? That's the nitty gritty. Because the energy always comes first. An energy of non humility. An energy of ego.
On the 33rd day of the omer the dying stopped.
Was the omer in play before this incident? Yes it was, because omer is in Torah, and these events occurred around 70 AD, right before the destruction of the Second Temple.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, author of the Zohar, also passed from the world on Lag B'Omer.
The religious spiritualists teach that Rabbi Shimon chose to leave the physical world on this particular day because the energy needed to be rectified.
Rabbi Shimon passed from this world in a pillar of fire. His grave is in Meron, Israel. On Lag B'Omer Israel is ablaze with bonfires commemorating Rabbi Shimon's Yhertzite (Death Anniversary). And the song "Bar Yohai " {I know this one - } Bar Yohai nimshachta asherecha shemen saison mehaverecha - is sung. One stays up and studies Rabbi Shimon's teachings, which is Zohar.

One year I found a portion in Zohar, I believe it was Mishpatim, in which Rabbi Shimon says, on my day ask me this question. It has something to do with each seed sown has 52 manifestations. I don't remember the direct quote. So, I asked Rabbi Shimon. The explanation was that of limitless parallel universes.

I've gone round and round with the available teachings.
During the Omer, you get a ride around the Sephirot.
It is like a revolving pendulum. With each swing of the pendulum, the central axis is passed. Whether left or right, you always need center. effect -----> cause ------> effect and effect<----- cause <----- effect <------. Endless. The pendulum is revolving, like the Earth on her axis. But it is so multi dimensional our brains can't even conceive of it. It is all about the mating of the higher realms and the lower realms, and the manifestions reverberating within the all. We can't be complacent in the physical world.
So,
where does this leave us?
Somewhere
Everywhere?
Nowhere?
Matisyahu says :
we are something we are nothing

and I'm listening to Bruce singing

Moses stood on the Red Sea Shore
Smote the warden with a two by four
Pharoah's army got drownd ed
O Mary Don't You Weep.

The teachings never leave, they are all over. Being sung and written. We just need to remember, push aside the dogma, {leave the ritual} know what it is that one is connecting to, and move forward.

What happened with Rabbi Akiva's students was that their ego over took their sense of the divine continuity and manifestation. A Lot of Ego Abounds in today's society. Human beings don't seem to understand that the effect affects. I'm so sick and tired of having people say to me, well, I'll worry about it when it affects me. It is. It is affecting us, in every breath we take.
In order to achieve, you need to take your self out of your self, and reveal your light. Put yourself in somebody elses's shoes. Know that their reality is different from your reality. Yet it all fits together.

This peptide producing carbon based life form doesn't claim to understand. But she likes to muse, she likes secrets, and she believes in energy, and the limitless manifestations of energy.

Why do I feel the pain?
I keeping on vaving (The Hebrew Letter Vav) myself. That's the letter that connects the higher to the lower, and that is what is happening. The letter is available to us during the month of Iyar. That's our home base.
The energy needs to be filtered, otherwise we , being so physical, would blow up. Kabbalah teachings are very explicit about the hierarchy of the energy.
Everything that goes on in the Divine Triad, Keter, Chochmah, and Binah manifests in the lowest of the worlds which is Malchut. Binah illuminates both Chochmah and Malchut. Binah is the feminine principle.
In all the teachings about Rabbi Shimon sitting in his cave for 13 years, along with Rabbi Aba and Rabbi Eleazar, there is never any mention of women. There had to have been women. Because the higher teachings say so. Rabbi Shimon himself says so in Zohar. How can this be so blatently left out? Ahh. Still to be revealed. Maybe that's what happened to the students. They were all males. No pairing of opposites to achieve the midpoint. Judaism has a lot of male bonding rituals. They still haven't learned. Every tradition says that only theirs is correct, no other. Hawg wash. When you watch it is still all men. They're going against their own spiritual teachings, so something is bound to be awry.
Another tradition of Lab B'Omer is to get married, (the mating), and to cut the hair of a 3 year old male child for the first time.

There is no such thing as disconnection. There is only a constant state of creation.

God gave Noah the rainbow sign
No more water but fire next time
Pharoah's army got drownd ed
O Mary don't you weep.
.....
Hard not to weep sometimes.
.....
Chag Sameach.
Bar Yohai nimshacta ashercha shemen saison mehavercha.
.....

COMET 73P/SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 3 IN THE MAY SKY

To get the best view of the sky always move away from the city
The fragments are now moving across the Cygnus constellation
Look East and high with binoculars; fragment B has been brightest

I LOVE BBC. BLESS THEM.

The comet is breaking into fragments. (Image: European Southern Observatory)

Comet Show in the Sky

I'm ignoring the negative interpretative implications of the energy of the Omer.
That's it. None of it can be for a negative purpose. Difficult, yes.
Keep your head on straight. Don't brain fry. Don't think about it, but acknowledge it.
Duh.

Comet in the news.
They're just making themselves totally revealed now, aren't they.
BBC

Comet break-up puts on sky show

The comet is breaking into fragments. (Image: European Southern Observatory) {above}

A comet is delighting astronomers with a marvellous night-time display as it makes a near pass of the Earth.

The ball of ice, rock and dust has broken up into more than 60 pieces; two of the larger fragments are visible through binoculars or small telescopes.

At its closest approach this weekend, the comet will be some 10 million km (six million miles) from the Earth.

Continued disintegration means this may be the last swing around the Sun for Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

Good chance

Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, said the optimum time to see the comet in the UK was between 0000 and 0100 BST, away from the lights of the city.

He said observers should look East with binoculars and use a sky chart to get the best chance of a sighting.

Click here to see the comet's path across the sky

"It's a rare opportunity for members of the public to see what is a pretty dramatic phenomenon," he said.

"Watching a comet break up is not something the public gets to do that often."

Rapid demise

Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 was discovered in 1930 by German astronomers. It orbits the Sun every 5.4 years.

It has an elongated path that swings out towards Jupiter then back towards the Earth and the Sun.

All periodic comets like this one are doomed to disintegrate and die. Astronomers first noticed in 1995 that Comet 73P had split into several chunks.

When it moved back towards the Sun in March this year, seven fragments were observed, of which two - B and C - were particularly bright. The break-up has continued apace.

Fragments B and C are expected to be visible between 11 and 14 May with binoculars and perhaps even the unaided eye.

If they fall apart still further - ejecting light-reflective material from the heart of the comet - they will be a magnificent sight in the night sky.

....

?

I cannot be what I am not. However, I can strive to be better than what I am.
Whilst possibilities are limitless
How do we take the sense of self out of self.

Last night as I sat out by the pool, breathing in the humid Florida nightime air, gazing at Jupiter {we've become good friends in the last 27 days, B'H} and the Moon, waxing now, I felt miniscule. Absolutely miniscule.
Yet totally sustained.
The sensation didn't last long. Alas it never does.
That's the connection.

Alas it never lasts long.
On the other hand, I'm in mourning.
Shift the consciousness out of the sense of mourning, and transmute it into loving light.
Ok.
I can do that.
Nothing changes, everything changes.
Paradox.
Brain fry
I'm going in the pool.
Peace

this is my favourite Atlantic Ocean New Jersey pic. The tide is on the ebb - you can tell by the little bit of sea foam left behind. The birds and the shells and the pier and the colour. The Jersey Shore. No place else like it on Earth.

Phytoplankton blooms can be seen from Space :D

phytoplankton blooms can be seen from space.

marvelous. and they're blue green.

We're in the Whallop

We're in the whallop of the energy now, and that's all I'm going to say.
It is difficult not to categorize it as positive or negative. But it is a whallop.
Energy shift will occur on L'ag B'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer. L'ag B'Omer is Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai's death anniversary. Today is day 26. It is experiential.

Good dolphin story in the news. It doesn't surprise me at all. As the concealed continues to become the revealed, we are going to see a lot more. How dare we humans be so high and mighty as to sincerely believe we are the be all and end all?

Dolphins 'have their own names'

Dolphins were monitored in Sarasota Bay off Florida (Image: Randall Wells)

Dolphins communicate like humans by calling each other by "name", scientists in Fife have found.

The mammals are able to recognise themselves and other members of the same species as individuals with separate identities, using whistles.

St Andrews University researchers studying in Florida discovered bottlenose dolphins used names rather than sound to identify each other.

The three-year-study was funded by the Royal Society of London.

Dr Vincent Janik, of the Sea Mammal Unit at St Andrews University, said they conducted the research on wild dolphins.

I think it is a very exciting discovery because it means that these animals have evolved the same abilities as humans
Dr Vincent JanikSt Andrews University said: "We captured wild dolphins using nets when they came near the shore.

"Then in the shallow water we recorded their whistles before synthesising them on a computer so that we had a computer voice of a dolphin.

"Then we played it back to the dolphins and we found they responded. This showed us that the dolphins know each other's signature whistle instead of just the voice.

"I think it is a very exciting discovery because it means that these animals have evolved the same abilities as humans.

"Now we know they have labels for each other like we do."

The research was conducted in Sarasota Bay off Florida's west coast.

The findings are published in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

.....

Dolphins also have consciouness of self. The research is going on in Florida. I'll have to surf it. Maybe I should move to Sarasota. :P

.....

Plankton blooms linked to quakes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4750557.stm

Phytoplankton blooms can be seen from space

Concentrations of the natural pigment chlorophyll in coastal waters have been shown to rise prior to earthquakes.

These chlorophyll increases are due to blooms of plankton, which use the pigment to convert solar energy to chemical energy via photosynthesis.

A joint US-Indian team of researchers analysed satellite data on ocean coastal areas lying near the epicentres of four recent quakes.

Details of the research appear in the journal Advances in Space Research.

They say that monitoring peaks in chlorophyll could provide early information on an impending earthquake.

{Because everything exists if you see as the sea sees, even the answers exist. }

The authors say the chlorophyll blooms are linked to a release of thermal energy prior to an earthquake.

This causes the sea surface temperature to rise and increases the surface latent heat flux - the amount of energy moving from the surface to the air due to evaporation.

And in turn, there is enhanced upwelling - the process by which cold, nutrient-rich water is transported from the deep sea to the surface.

In bloom

Upwelling boosts phytoplankton productivity and gives rise to blooms, which can be seen as increased concentrations of chlorophyll, specifically, the type called chlorophyll-a.
The grinding of plate tectonics essentially couples the temperature of the land with that of the ocean, creating the conditions for plankton to thrive.

The 6.9 magnitude Gujarat quake caused widespread devastation

"I do not think scientists expected such anomalous behaviour of [chlorophyll-a]," co-author Dr Ramesh Singh of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, said.

"If the epicentre of a quake lies very close to the coast then anomalous [chlorophyll-a] concentrations are clearly visible along that coast."

The researchers used as case studies four recent earthquakes in Gujarat, India (2001), Algeria (2002), the Andaman Islands (2002) and Bam, Iran (2003).

Using satellite images and measurements of sea temperatures, they found a correlation between peaks in chlorophyll and proximity to an impending earthquake.

The amount of "advance notice" depended on the ocean depth and proximity to the epicentre of the quake, with the second factor taking precedence.

In the event of heavy cloud cover preventing satellites from monitoring chlorophyll production, sea temperatures could serve as a parallel means of information on impending earthquakes, argue the researchers.

.....

coolness. chlorophyll predicts earthquakes.

.....

I'm grateful for the intensity of the energy now. It is needed. No complacency during the month of Iyar allowed. But I do tend to drive myself wacko. In actuality, what I'm doing is giving myself added resistance, as if enuff weren't enuff. Intensity. Alway so intense. Sighs. And Extreme. Always intensly extreme am I. So I go off to the sea and I see, and I can deal with myself for a while longer.

Peace

Chakras - from Rebecca

De bumbity bumb of the energy :D :P

I forgot to remember.
Yes I did. I forgot to remember Israel Memorial Day - Yom Hazikaron, and Israeli Independence Day- Yom Ha'atzmaut.
Can you imagine that.'
I was up in New Jersey, Ocean County, Atlantic City, looking at the houses , staying at Bally's on the Boardwalk and being on home turf. And I forgot. There is no excuse for the forgetting.
However,
constantly
we forget
to remember.
Especially during Iyar because the level of comfort during this month is high.
The Omer was not forgotten.
This phenomonon interests me very much. Humans seek companionship among their own kind. Yet each individual mind is an isolated universe.
I keep on repeating to myself, Vav. Pei. Pei Vav.
That's the energy flow. And I love the ritual of the Omer. Yuppers. I was told that you aren't supposed to love it, that it is supposed to be horrible. I disagree. It is a wonderful opportunity for understanding. And we need understanding. Binah now.

In Torah reading we are in Leviticus, or Vayikra, the third of the five Books of Moses, connected to the Sephira Binah. Binah is Understanding. Chochmah Wisdom, Binah Understanding.
This is the book that has all the strict laws. I really don't understand the metaphor in play. I need to constantly remember Vayikra = Calling, and it shoul be called the Book of Calling.
The Understanding part, the connection to Binah is in the Calling of the Letters.
And the laws are really strange, and the portions are about oozing discharges and gunky stuff. I don't understand :(. But, then again, you aren't supposed to understand Binah, you are supposed to connect to Binah to access understanding.
Oy. I love a good paradox.
.....
News about re-creation.
It seems that as species are disappearing, new ones are replacing them.
The Eternal Cycle in play. It really is an honour to be here, in the now, experiencing it all.
Everything is being revealed. And, this is only the Beginning. Just Wait.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4973240.stm

Deep ocean trawl nets new 'bugs'
By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website


Catches from the deep include a possible new species of dragonfish
In pictures

A three-week voyage of discovery in the Atlantic has returned with tiny animals which appear new to science.

They include waif-like plankton with delicate translucent bodies related to jellyfish, hundreds of microscopic shrimps, and several kinds of fish.

The voyage is part of the ongoing Census of Marine Life (CoML) which aims to map ocean life throughout the world.

Plankton form the base of many marine food chains, and some populations are being disrupted by climatic change.

Zooplankton are tiny marine animals. Many live on floating plants (phytoplankton), and many are in turn eaten by fish, mammals and crustaceans.

If you say 'how do you sample the oceans and see what global climate change is doing?', you've got to have the background data .

One of the aims of the Census of Marine Zooplankton (CoMZ), part of CoML, is to provide a global inventory of these tiny organisms which will help scientists look for changes induced by climate variations or other factors.

"The deep ocean below 1,000m (3,300ft) is rarely sampled," observed Peter Wiebe, from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US, lead scientist on the recent voyage.

"It's very difficult; you need many thousands of metres of cable," he told the BBC News website. "We were able to sample at 1,000m intervals down to 5,000m (16,500 ft)."

Gooey creatures

Thousands of specimens were captured during the cruise, of which 500 have been catalogued.

They include shrimp-like copepods and ostracods, swimming worms, and tiny jellyfish - some of the gooiest and most fragile animals in the sea.

Most are adjusted to living in the cool deep, where temperatures hover around one or two Celsius.

Samples were caught in nets which could descend several kilometres.

Bringing them to the surface meant transporting them through a layer of much warmer water, around 27C.

As soon as they came on board ship, they were plunged into ice-cooled buckets to restore a semblance of their usual habitat; even so, many perished before they could be studied.

This was one of the first projects to sequence DNA at sea, a process which Dr Wiebe believes will become much more common as scientists seek quick and easy ways to identify species.

"Many of these creatures occur in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and you can't tell them apart visually, but maybe we'll discover that genetically they are different," he said.

"If you say 'how do you sample the oceans and see what global climate change is doing?', you've got to have the background data."

Several more voyages are planned in the next two years specifically to examine zooplankton, and scientists involved in CoMZ are also finding places on other cruises in relevant areas.

By the time CoML ends in 2010, it hopes to have found and studied every zooplankton species in the ocean.

.....
News release close enough to the Parting of the Sea to be synchronistic to me.
.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4963526.stm

More species slide to extinction
By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

A decline in hippo numbers has led to Red List classification

The polar bear and hippopotamus are for the first time listed as species threatened with extinction by the world's biodiversity agency.

They are included in the Red List of Threatened Species published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) which names more than 16,000 at-risk species.

Many sharks, and freshwater fish in Europe and Africa, are newly included.

The IUCN says loss of biodiversity is increasing despite a global convention committing governments to stem it.

"The 2006 Red List shows a clear trend; biodiversity loss is increasing, not slowing down," said IUCN director-general Achim Steiner.

"The implications of this trend for the productivity and resilience of ecosystems and the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who depend on them are far-reaching."

WHAT ARE THE THREATS?
Human activities threaten 99% of Red List species
Habitat loss and degradation are the main threats, affecting more than 80% of listed birds, mammals and amphibians
Climate change is increasingly recognised as a serious threat

Other issues relating to human activity include introduction of alien species, over-exploitation and pollutionOverall, 16,119 species are included in this year's Red List, the most detailed and authoritative regular survey of the health of the plant, fungi and animal kingdoms.

This represents more than a third of the total number of species surveyed; the list includes one in three amphibians, a quarter of coniferous trees, and one in four mammals.

"The more species we assess, the more threatened species we find," commented Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy co-ordinator of IUCN's species programme.

"And because it is such a massive effort to assess a species, to gather all the data, get it all peer-reviewed and so on, 16,000 is a massive underestimate of the true problem," he told the BBC News website.

Climate and hunting

Polar bears are particularly affected by loss of Arctic ice, which the IUCN attributes to climatic change.

{I love Polar bears. When you see them in the San Diego Zoo, they're green because algae grows on their fur. :( Polar bears are White on White. I love Polar Bears. }

They need ice floes in order to hunt seals and other prey; without it, their food supply will decline. There is also evidence that the snow caves where they raise their young are melting earlier in the year.

See species on the brink
In pictures

Polar bears are listed as Vulnerable to Extinction based on forecasts that their population will decline by 50% to 100% over the next 50 to 100 years.

In the tropics, the common hippopotamus has entered the Red List for the first time because the population in the Democratic Republic of Congo has declined spectacularly - by about 95% in a decade.

The country's turbulent political situation has allowed unregulated hunting for meat and for the ivory in their teeth.

"Regional conflicts and political instability in some African countries have created hardship for many of the region's inhabitants, and the impact on wildlife has been equally devastating," said IUCN chief scientist Jeffrey McNeely.

The common hippo's decline in DRC has led to a Vulnerable listing even though other African populations including the largest, in Zambia, have held up well.

The much less well known pygmy hippo has suffered from illegal logging and poor protection in several West African nations, leading to an upgrade in its status from Vulnerable to Endangered.
British threats

Included on the Red List for the first time is the black-tailed godwit, a bird familiar to British and European enthusiasts, which gains a Near Threatened classification.

RED LIST DEFINITIONS
Extinct - Surveys suggest last known individual has died
Critically Endangered - Extreme high risk of extinction
Endangered - Species at very high risk of extinction
Vulnerable - Species at high risk of extinction
Near Threatened - May soon move into above categories
Least Concern - Species is widespread and abundant

Click the link above for more story.
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This is something that Sci Fi has been aware of for a long time now. Nano creations. They take on consciousness you see.
Check it out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4968346.stm

Toxic warnings for nano industry
By Jonathan Fildes BBC News science and technology reporter

Carbon nanotubes are a basic building block of nanotechnology

{Human binks are Carbon Based life forms you see, as opposed to silicon based, which would be the Positronic Brain of Isamov and Clarke, the science fiction writers. But the visual current science fiction has been doing nano warnings for a number of years now. uh huh. And being a science fiction person, I knows it blah. }

Industry should disclose how it tests products containing nanoparticles, the Royal Society of the UK has said.

Public information was needed because of uncertainties over the safety of some products that contained particles engineered at small scales, it added.

A new inventory of consumer goods lists over 200 items that are already available and contain nanotechnology.

Enta (European Nanotechnology Trade Alliance) responded by saying that safety was its top priority.

"There are strict regulations to check that products are safe and suitable for the public to use and our members follow these," Del Stark, the chief executive of Enta told the BBC News website.

"The members of Enta are committed to developing new nanotechnologies in a safe and responsible manner and are working closely with the government to ensure this."

Unanswered questions
I
n 2004, the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering published a report that urged tighter controls in Europe and the UK on some aspects of the industry.

In particular it highlighted the potential risk of "free" nanoparticles that might escape to the atmosphere and have an effect on health.

{Uh huh. }

Particles on this scale already exist in the air - produced by the burning of fossil fuels and by volcanic eruptions, for example; but scientists are now able to engineer materials at these tiny sizes to give them specific, useful properties.

Some studies show carbon nanotubes have a toxic effectFor example, "free" nanoparticles are used in cosmetics and in some food supplements.

"This is one particular area where there is some uncertainty about safety," said Professor Ann Dowling, chair of the report.

The Royal Society statement was made in the same week that a leading UK researcher also said there had been a failure to act on the recommendations of the royal societies' report.

Professor Anthony Seaton of the University of Aberdeen told a conference that specific questions raised in the report about nanoparticle toxicity and how to measure it in the workplace had still not been adequately answered.

{Sheesh}

"There is very little evidence that anyone has put any thought or money into answering these questions," he told the conference.

Carbon tubes

But Enta believes that the perception that industry is dragging its feet is wrong.
"I don't think that it is anything to do with industry not being interested or government not being interested," said Mr Stark.
Instead, Mr Stark believes that both are waiting for a new European law known as Reach (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) to be passed.
Any single incident could jeopardise the whole future of the industry

The law has been described as the most important EU legislation for 20 years and puts the onus on businesses to show that the chemicals they use are safe.

It will also start to address the lack of standardised tests for assessing the toxicity of nanomaterials in some industries.

Currently standards vary depending on which industry regulations a product falls under or how the tests are done.

A recent paper in the journal Nano Letters reported that experiments done to assess the risk of inhaling carbon nantotubes, a common manufactured nanoparticle, sometimes showed strong toxic effects and sometimes did not, depending on which methods were used.

"Once [Reach] has been agreed, we will move forward," Mr Stark said.
Tighter controls
Professor Seaton made his remarks during the Nanoparticles for European Industry conference in London.
The event allows nanotechnology companies to showcase new ways of fabricating the tiny particles and to discuss how laboratory processes can be scaled up for manufacturing consumer products.
During his address he also warned that "very little" was still known about the health impacts of nanoparticles engineered at small scales and that industry should take his comments as a "warning shot". He said his concern covered lab workers as well as consumers.

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And I get pulled out at Orlando International Ariport and have to submit to a dispicable body search.

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Another double Torah Portion, Achrei Mot-Kedoshim.

Candelighting 7:45, + 4.

Shabbat Shalom.

Think Peace, Be Peace.