The 80th sashay through the Rainforest!

We've just passed 64 acres saved as a team.

64!

Isn't that amazing? Who thought we'd get here?

64

The Beatles wondered about 64 as well.

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight
If it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck & Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?
Ho![/i][/color]

ehBeth, WOW!! What a great site!! Thank you for caring.

I posted about 10 mins after you announced your new site.........So, MA and I have clicked for today and saved one more tree in a Rain Forest somewhere from destruction.

Ahem,,,,,, My Martha Stewart improv =

"It's a Good Thing."

Amigo, I congratulate you on a great site also....... Thanks for being a Wildclicker and joining the team....... We are Number One in the World in saving Rain Forest.

Just before 1964, the hamburgers moved into #64. They're still there, and the number makes me smile. My years at #64 were wonderful.

or so the mists of time tell me :wink:

danon - take good care of yourself up on the roof

3 members of my school's dance company were taken to hospital on Saturday - 2nd and 3rd degree burns to the soles of their feet after dancing on some sort of asphalt-floor in the heat

~~~


When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me
Let me tell you now

When I come home feelin' tired and beat
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof)
I get away from the hustling crowd
And all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof)
On the roof, the only place I know
Where you just have to wish to make it so
Let's go up on the roof (up on the roof)

brief instrumental-chiefly strings

At night the stars put on a show for free
And, darling, you can share it all with me

I keep a-tellin' you

Right smack dab in the middle of town
I've found a paradise that's trouble proof (up on the roof)
And if this world starts getting you down
There's room enough for two
Up on the roof (up on the roof)
Up on the roo-oo-oof (up on the roof)
Oh, come on, baby (up on the roof)
Oh, come on, honey (up on the roof)

[Fade]

Everything is all right (up on the roof)

I think we should all learn to say hello in Chinese.

I made that prediction as a Military Intel Officer back in 1982 serving our country in Seoul, Korea.........

I saw the future.

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

Except for one tiny little detail - recently, during a news report I saw Chinese people all learning American English.....!!!!!!

Damn, was I wrong or what???

CLICK

Thanks for the new thread, ehBeth!

My God! Beth's shimmied out, sues movin' earth, dans feetsies cooked, Merrys puters still in hospital, and people and icecaps shrinking!

Good news ~ the new shingles will protect ya all from winter - the garden will rival Golden Gate Park - and Beth will win a dance prize!

64 acres! Stradees 64 last b-day, staying fit and hummin' cool songs.

OMB Hits the Brakes on Right Whale Rule

By Cindy Skrzycki
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; D01



The international shipping industry, in a battle of leviathans, is asking the White House to water down a proposed federal rule requiring that ships reduce speed to avoid collisions with the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in June 2006 recommended a 10-knot speed limit around 16 Atlantic ports and coastal areas while the whales are feeding, migrating or reproducing. Shippers say the rule would be expensive and ineffective.

Now, six months after a final draft was completed, the Office of Management and Budget has not approved the rule, and some members of Congress are upset about the delay.

"It is our understanding that the draft final rule is still at OMB and may be undergoing substantive revisions that are not supported by the best available science," six House members said in an Aug. 6 letter to President Bush. Senators, including Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), also wrote the president on behalf of the whales on Aug. 10.

Advocacy groups, including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, call the delay a case of the White House dragging out the process to avoid a rule that would hurt industry. Shippers challenge the validity of the scientific data the agency used to justify the action.

The World Shipping Council, whose 28 members include A.P. Moller-Maersk Group in Copenhagen and Evergreen Marine of Taipei, Taiwan, argued against the rule in comments filed in October and again in a May 3 letter to the president's budget office.

"We are concerned that the government will take action despite the fact that there is no meaningful scientific basis to conclude that the chosen action will protect whales," the council's letter said. The group says its members carry $500 billion worth of goods into and out of U.S. ports each year.

The speed limit may ultimately cause more deaths because vessels, which usually travel at speeds of 20 knots or more, will be in whale habitats longer, the shippers say. The council said the rule would cost the shipping industry $100 million to $150 million a year in lost time and increased fuel consumption, or two to three times what the government predicts.

The industry prefers an existing plan, in which right whales are spotted and ships warned to look out for them. An alternative would be a speed limit of 14 to 15 knots, the council said.

The budget office, which routinely reviews major rules in 90 to 120 days, has been double-checking the agency's work since February. There has been interagency consultation as well: An employee of the White House Council of Economic Advisers e-mailed marine scientists last month seeking information on whale deaths.

Andrea Wuebker, a spokeswoman for the budget office, said that it is not unusual to involve other agencies in such work and that she could not comment on the review of the whale rule.

National Marine Fisheries Service scientists say fatal collisions with ships average about two a year and are the greatest source of known deaths in a right whale population that has dwindled to about 300. The whale's name comes from the fact that for centuries it was considered the "right" whale to hunt.

The government's research shows that most deaths occurred when the whales were hit by vessels traveling faster than 13 knots.

"Ship strikes of right whales are a huge issue to us," said Gregory Silber, coordinator of recovery activities for endangered whales at the fisheries agency, which is part of the Commerce Department. "The agency believes it is one of the main factors holding this population in check."

The rule would cover ships longer than 65 feet, including tankers, barges, cruise ships, ferries and whale-watching and fishing boats. The agency estimated the cost to commercial shipping at $49.4 million, not counting indirect costs such as port delays.

Some ship operators complained in comments that the rule could put them out of business.

"I would hate to think we have spent our lives working hard on the water with long hours day after day, generation after generation, to have a speed limit rule be the end of our business," Leslie M. Davis Sr., owner of a charter-fishing service in Atlantic Beach, N.C., told regulators.

The letter that Sens. Kennedy, Snowe and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote to Bush last week cited their "grave concern" that the administration "is not acting strongly or swiftly enough" to protect the whales. Public interest groups favoring the new restrictions also criticized the delay.

"We have been trying to get this rule out, in any form, for years," said Kyla Bennett, director of the New England office of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

"This has been deliberately pushed into an abyss, and it's not coming out anytime soon," Bennett said. "It's not politically palatable to this administration to put out a rule that will have an economic impact on industry."

Another advocacy group, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, of Yarmouth Port, Mass., carried a similar message to the White House in a meeting in March.

Thanks for the concern folks - - -

MA and I have Cleeked.....

My Mexican improv

aktbird57 - You and your 300 friends have supported 2,790,645.8 square feet!

~~~

1 aktbird57 64.062 acres

~~~

1980 - what happened then?



link


1980. I thought I didn't remember it, but I remember the Mt. St. Helen's sundae they served at Chances R. 8 scoops of ice cream, sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate flowwwww, sparklers, and 8 spoons.

Great list, ehBeth!


80 Years Ago today... {give or take a few months}

John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution.

The Grand Old Opry was invented.

American Indians won the right to vote.

The 'Great Gatsby' was published.

Rudolf Diesel invents the namesake engine.

Reginald Fessenden of Canada developed over a hundred patentable inventions.

Charles Lindbergh begins an Atlantic flight.

###

Awwwwwwwwwww...

A female lion reunited to humans after a few years. Christian is the name of a pet lion bought from "Harrods" department store in London. After about a year with his owners the lion had grown too big to remain with them. After a chance encounter with the stars of the film Born Free, the owners handed the pet lion over to the "Lion Man", conservationist George Adamson in order to be rehabilitated into the wild in Kora National Reserve, Kenya. A movie was made documenting the translocation from England to Kenya. In this footage, a year has passed and it looks like this pet lion has adapted to living with a pride of lions when his old friends come back to visit him. Watch closely and you can see the look of pure disbelief that dawns on his muzzle- it's awesome. ^_^ Next thing you know, we have a heart warming reunion. Not long after, members of the pride approach and even they seem to accept his human friends.
More info at Wikipedia and Daily Mail (UK)

http://www.flixxy.com/lion-pet.htm

aktbird57 - You and your 300 friends have supported 2,791,184.3 square feet!

~~~

grrrr, the care2 site isn't letting me send the team message

gonna have to think about this

grrrrrrr, thinking

~~~

1 1481 64.074 acres

That footage is just wonderful, had to watch it twice. It almost teared me up. Thanks, Stradee.

http://rainforest.care2.com/

Click

Global Warming Simplicities
__

By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, August 15, 2007; A11



We in the news business often enlist in moral crusades. Global warming is among the latest. Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. A recent Newsweek cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder. It's an object lesson on how viewing the world as "good guys vs. bad guys" can lead to a vast oversimplification of a messy story. Global warming has clearly occurred; the hard question is what to do about it.

If you missed Newsweek's story, here's the gist. A "well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change." This "denial machine" has obstructed action against global warming and is still "running at full throttle." The story's thrust: Discredit the "denial machine," and the country can start the serious business of fighting global warming. The story was a wonderful read, marred only by its being fundamentally misleading.

The global-warming debate's great unmentionable is this: We lack the technology to get from here to there. Just because Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 doesn't mean it can happen. At best, we might curb the growth of emissions.

Consider a 2006 study from the International Energy Agency. Using present policies, it projected that emissions of carbon dioxide (a main greenhouse gas) would more than double by 2050; developing countries would account for almost 70 percent of the increase. The IEA then simulated an aggressive, global program to cut emissions that is based on the best available technologies: more solar, wind and biomass energy; more-efficient cars, appliances and buildings; more nuclear energy. Under this admitted fantasy, global emissions in 2050 would still slightly exceed 2003 levels.

Even the fantasy would be a stretch. In the United States, it would take massive regulations, higher energy taxes or both. Democracies don't easily adopt painful measures in the present to avert possible future problems. Examples abound. Since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, we've been on notice to limit dependence on insecure foreign oil. We've done little. In 1973, imports were 35 percent of U.S. oil use; in 2006, they were 60 percent. For decades we've known of the huge retirement costs of baby boomers. Little has been done.

One way or another, our assaults against global warming are likely to be symbolic, ineffective or both. But if we succeed in cutting emissions substantially, savings would probably be offset by gains in China and elsewhere. The McKinsey Global Institute projects that from 2003 to 2020, the number of vehicles in China will rise from 26 million to 120 million, average residential floor space will increase 50 percent and energy demand will grow 4.4 percent annually. Even with "best practices" energy efficiency, demand would still grow 2.8 percent a year, McKinsey estimates.

Against these real-world pressures, Newsweek's "denial machine" is a peripheral and highly contrived story. Newsweek implied, for example, that Exxon Mobil used a think tank to pay academics to criticize global-warming science. Actually, this accusation was discredited long ago, and Newsweek shouldn't have lent it respectability. (Exxon Mobil says it knew nothing of the global-warming grant, which involved issues of climate modeling. And its 2006 contribution to the think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, was small: $240,000 out of a $28 million budget.)

The alleged cabal's influence does not seem impressive. The mainstream media have generally been unsympathetic; they've treated global warming ominously. The first Newsweek cover story in 1988 warned: "The Greenhouse Effect. Danger: More Hot Summers Ahead." A Time cover in 2006 was more alarmist: "BE WORRIED, BE VERY WORRIED." Nor does public opinion seem much swayed. Although polls can be found to illustrate almost anything, the longest-running survey questions show a remarkable consistency. In 1989, Gallup found 63 percent of Americans worried "a great deal" or a "fair amount" about global warming; in 2007, 65 percent did.

What to do about global warming is a quandary. Certainly, more research and development. Advances in underground storage of carbon dioxide, battery technology (for plug-in hybrid cars), biomass or nuclear power could alter energy economics. To cut oil imports, I support a higher gasoline tax -- $1 to $2 a gallon, introduced gradually -- and higher fuel-economy standards for vehicles. These steps would also temper greenhouse gas emissions. Drilling for more domestic natural gas (a low-emission fuel) would make sense. One test of greenhouse proposals: Are they worth doing on other grounds?

But the overriding reality seems almost un-American: We simply don't have a solution for this problem. As we debate it, journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale -- as Newsweek did -- in which anyone who questions its gravity or proposed solutions may be ridiculed as a fool, a crank or an industry stooge. Dissent is, or should be, the lifeblood of a free society.

Great rememberances ehBeth..... I survived all of them.

Damn, it's really hard getting old.

But, I'm now a Medicare Card carring member - - - WhoooHoooo.

The sun side of the roof is finished - - - this morning I did wonders on the Northern half - and am really proud to pronounce that all is going well.....





At least my feet are getting used to the heat........

Yeah, Sumac, the roof needed replacing without a doubt - now......

It's going very well.......

Nothing to it.