Thousands revel at Stonehenge for summer solstice

The summer solstice drew thousands of revelers to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over the ancient monument Saturday for the first time in the new season.

Beating drums and wearing rainbow cloaks, the celebrants walked through light rain Friday to talk, dance and meditate as they awaited the start of the event.

Ray Smith, 60, of Hengistbury in southern England, came wearing blue face paint and a multicolored skirt.

"I think it's a place of our ancestors, its a shrine to our ancestors, and I think it's very important to celebrate each season," he said.

Zoe Neale, 48, cheerfully admitted her visit to Stonehenge "is part of my mid-life crisis." She left her West London office amid gentle teasing from her colleagues Friday afternoon to see a very English tradition.

Organizers expect 25,000 people to journey to the ancient site. They will be allowed access to the stone circle, which is usually closed to visitors. Representatives of English Heritage, the monument's caretaker, will be on hand to make sure no one carried away with the celebratory spirit climbs on or vandalizes the stones.

"People generally respect the stones and we don't have a problem," English Heritage spokeswoman Rebecca Milton said.

The solstice in England occurred at 12:59 a.m. Saturday (7:59 p.m. EDT Friday), marking the start of the day with the most sunlight of the year.

Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain about 90 miles southwest of London, was built between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. It is one of Britain's most popular tourist attractions, drawing more than 750,000 people visit every year.

Solstices were an important part of Europe's pre-Christian calendar and many speculate Stonehenge's orientation offers clues to its creators' pagan traditions.

The original purpose of Stonehenge is debated, but recent evidence has shed some light on the mystery. In May, researchers reported the stone circle was used as a burial ground since its initial construction. Cremated remains found at Stonehenge date back to 3,000 B.C. and radiocarbon dating shows burials continued at the site for at least 500 years. It is estimated that at least 240 people were buried at Stonehenge.

One of these years I will make it there for the solstice.

Thought for the Day

Everything is possible, just not too probable.

Wouldn't Surprise Me If ...

Bill O'Reilly = Child Molester?

Why was Billy Boy in Child Whore Houses in Panama

in 1978-1979 having sex with 12-15 year old girls?

Now this I believe:

Damn, the asshole can speak the truth, who knew!

Life (about a third of it is anyway) Is But A Dream

. . . We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Shakespeare: The Tempest

You spend roughly one third of your life asleep. But that doesn't mean that it's wasted time. Many believe that the dreams you have during the night offer insights into aspects of your waking life.

Plus, theories abound on how the brain actually problem-solves while you're asleep. That's why you sometimes wake up in the morning with the answer to something that has been puzzling you. Dream symbolism and interpretation can provide a fascinating glimpse into your psyche.

The Four Stages of Sleep

Stage 1: The first stage of sleep is very light and usually lasts just a few minutes. If you are not disturbed, you will quickly journey into Stage 2.

Stage 2: This is a much deeper sleep than Stage 1. In Stage 2, dreams start to form. Although there are no clear images, vague thoughts and ideas drift through your mind. If undisturbed, you will soon drift off into Stage 3.

Stage 3: This is a deeper sleep than Stage 2. Your muscles are all relaxed by now and your heart rate has slowed down. Your blood pressure is also falling and your breathing is steady and even. You are very difficult to wake now. Only two things can wake you: a loud noise or a repetitious calling of your name. Before long, you will venture into Stage 4.

Stage 4: This is the deepest sleep of all and is the time full-fledged dreams occur. You are difficult to wake now. If there is a loud noise or if you are shaken, it will take a few seconds to wake up. Both your blood pressure and heart rate fluctuate and your brain heats up slightly. Then comes REM (rapid eye movement). If you are woken up during this period, you will be able to remember recently dreamt dreams. The first REM period lasts only about ten minutes. After that, you go back into a deep Stage 4 sleep. Again, you go into another REM stage after a short period and cycle through REM and Stage 4 until you awaken.

Check out the links below for more on dreams and even learn how to remember more of your nocturnal adventures!

Assoc. for Study of Dreams

Lucid Dreams
Freud's Take on Dreams
The Dream Foundation
On Dreams by Aristotle

Working with Dreams

Paraguayn inmates riot for more sex

Paraguayan prisoners rioted Friday to press a list of demands including more sex.

Inmates seized the Esperanza prison's director and other administrators, demanding nighttime conjugal visits and an end to mistreatment by guards.

Paraguayan prisons allow such visits during the day - but that clashes with working hours at Esperanza, where inmates have jobs, such as at a prison clothing factory.

Justice Minister Derlis Osorio said the riot ended after four hours with no deaths or injuries.

It was not clear whether prison authorities agreed to allow nighttime conjugal visits, but local media reported that they agreed to investigate claims of abuse and end strip searches of visitors.

*****

Mistreatment, I can see fixing that, but just because you have a conflict with work and afternoon nookie is no reason to riot ... besides you're in prison - there are some limitations placed upon you in prison ... don't want the limitations, don't be in prison - it is that simple.

Be a leech in only two years

Chicago's Northwestern to offer 2-year law program

Northwestern University School of Law will offer an accelerated, two-year program for law degrees starting in 2009, becoming the only law school among top-tier institutions to offer both two- and three-year programs, university officials said.

The accelerated track will require the same number of credits as the three-year program, but will cost less because the study will take place in a compressed five-semester period.

The new program is aimed at high achievers eager to begin their law careers, Dean David Van Zandt said, noting that Northwestern will require accelerated candidates to have at least two years of post-undergraduate, full-time work experience.

The plan requires two new courses for both two-year and three-year degree candidates. They will cover analytic skills like accounting, finance and statistics, and "legal services behavior," which will involve social networks, teamwork, leadership and project management.

*****

Just what we need more leeches faster!

Cambodia destroys Ecstasy ingredient

Well, your next RAVE may not be such a rave ...

Cambodian authorities working with Australian police destroyed an enormous stockpile of 33 tons of safrole-rich oil, a key ingredient used in producing the synthetic drug Ecstasy, officials said Friday.

The amount could have been used to produce 245 million tablets of the drug. It had a potential street value of more than 7.6 billion Australian dollars (US$7.3 billion), the Australian Embassy said in a statement.

The oil, which is extracted from the roots of the sassafras tree, was burned over a three-day period starting Wednesday, said Lour Ramin, a police lieutenant general and secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs.

"If this oil had been used to produce Ecstasy tablets, millions of people would have suffered," he said.

Members of the Australian Federal Police oversaw the burning of the oil in a remote village in Cambodia's Pursat province, about 100 miles northwest of the capital, Phnom Penh, he said.

"These seizures demonstrate that Cambodia faces the challenges of suppressing drug production for regional export, as well as challenges faced as a transit center for regional and international drug market," Philip Hunter, an official from Australian Federal Police, said at the ceremony.

The destruction "was a significant blow to the trade of illicit drugs in the region," Hunter was quoted saying in the embassy statement.

At the request of the Cambodian government, an Australian police team of four technicians and two forensic chemists traveled to Pursat province this week to help destroy the oil, it said.

Cambodian authorities have been working since 2002 to stem the distillation of the oil and since then have succeeded in detecting and dismantling more than 50 clandestine laboratories capable of producing up to 15 gallons of oil a day, it said.

In addition to cracking down on the drug trade, Cambodian officials are trying to preserve the sassafras tree, which is classified as a rare species that grows mainly in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, said Lour Ramin. To distill oil from the tree's roots, the entire tree is cut down.

With 7 plus billion gone somebody is gong to to be pissed. We can look for more from this story.

Random Photo

Just a random photo

Thought for the Day

Never knew there was so many ways to obfuscate but the haters are masters at it. Reality must be so painful to them.

Hoops and garters

If you have never seen a bunch of Rennies sewing costumes you have really missed something!
The topics of conversation would make the saltiest sailor blush as would the language - remember there are sharp pointy objects all about not including the scissors that everyone has in multiples so you know we're all on our best behavior!

How many overskirts does one woman need anyway?

Needless to say I have just experienced this phenomena again for the billionth time this evening and it is still going on ... going into phase three - yes, there are phases each 'session' goes through.

The Entry phase ... where all is discussed at length and then some before the first stitch or cut is made. It is in this phase that sizing and colors are determined.

The Whirlwind phase ... where there are at least ten different costumes being worked on at the same time (more likely 15, but who's counting).

The Frenzy phase ... when the realization that there are ten costumes in various stages of development and they all have to be finished by 8am.

The Solution phase ... where all costumes are completed and discussion begins on the next set of costumes they are going to make (this phase has been known to morph directly into the Entry phase and the whole thing start over again immediately - there have been three such instances in the past month alone where one of these sewing sessions lasted the entire weekend - literally)

Through all four phases whips and chains; nude sunbathing; cooking; belly dancing; British comedies; film noir; dogs; motorcycles; learning to speak with an accent; babies; sex in general; shopping; making candles; swords and blades; sports and more that I cannot remember at the moment were the topics of conversation ... and this is the ladies.

911 call released in case of NC teen tied to tree

Two callers didn't answer a 911 dispatcher's repeated questions about what a 13-year-old boy was doing before he stopped breathing on a tape released Tuesday by investigators, who have said the teen was tied to a tree for two nights.

"Our little boy stopped breathing," a woman tells the dispatcher. Later she pleads, "Please hurry. Please hurry."

Brice Brian McMillan, 41, and his wife Sandra Elizabeth McMillan, 36, of Macclesfield are accused of killing their son, Tyler, by tying him to a tree for two nights for punishment. The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office wouldn't immediately confirm whether they believe the callers are the McMillans but said the recording was related to the case.

The dispatcher repeatedly asked the woman and later a man what the child was doing before he stopped breathing, but neither respond. The man said the boy did not have any medical problems. Toward the end of the call, neither responded to repeated questions from the dispatcher as they apparently performed CPR on the teen, who later died at a hospital.

Headlines

Just a few News Headlines. Presented without reference or explanation. I wonder what conclusions you make from just the headline?

Midwest feels misled by feds

Poison sue royalty

Kentucky indicts Ohio over rock

Two longtime survivors meet

School gets transvestite bathrooms

Hula Hoop turns 50

Hats and heels take the day

Rape is a way of life

Man who proved true birth year dies at 83

Bush tells no one he's listening

Germany seeks Nazi from US

Ok, there are a few key words missing from some of the headlines - but not from all of them ... can you tell which ones?
Hint: They're not the ones you might think.
So what do you conclude from these headlines?

Group files suit over 'I Believe' plates in SC

A group that advocates separation of church and state filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to prevent South Carolina from becoming the first state to create "I Believe" license plates.

The group contends that South Carolina's government is endorsing Christianity by allowing the plates, which would include a cross superimposed on a stained glass window.

Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed the lawsuit on behalf of two Christian pastors, a humanist pastor and a rabbi in South Carolina, along with the Hindu American Foundation.

"I do believe these 'I Believe' plates will not see the light of day because the courts, I'm confident, will see through this," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group's executive director.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for South Carolina, asks a judge to stop the state from making the plates and rule that the law allowing them violates the First Amendment.

A spokeswoman said the state Department of Motor Vehicles had not yet received the lawsuit and planned to go ahead with the plates unless told otherwise. The agency plans to unveil the final design and start taking orders by late August.

The bill sailed through the Legislature with little discussion earlier this year. Gov. Mark Sanford let it become law without his signature because the state already allows private groups to create license plates for any cause.

Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell said residents asked for a way to express their beliefs, and legislators responded.

He disputed Lynn's accusation that they were pandering to constituents in an election year.

"That's what critics always say when they see something they don't like," Harrell said. "I think this has less to do with the First Amendment and more to do with their disdain for religion generally."

Lynn said his group would not have opposed the "I Believe" plates had they been advocated by private groups. State law allows private groups to create specialty plates as long as they first collect either a $4,000 deposit or 400 prepaid orders.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said last week that he is willing to put up the money, then get reimbursed, though the Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman said that isn't necessary. Bauer said the idea came from Florida, where a proposal for an "I Believe" tag failed.

He called it a freedom-of-speech issue.

But a Methodist pastor who joined the lawsuit, the retired Rev. Thomas Summers of Columbia, said the plate provokes discrimination.

"I think this license plate really is divisive and creates the type of religious discord I've devoted my life to healing," he said.

Another of the ministers, the Rev. Robert Knight of Charleston, said the plates cheapen the Christian message.

"As an evangelical Christian, I don't think civil religion enhances the Christian religion. It compromises it," Knight said. "That's the fundamental irony. It's very shallow from a Christian standpoint."

This is one more minister here who joins in saying that the separation of church and state is paramount and these vanity plates should never be allowed. Being a scientist as well as a minister I am not blinded by dogma as are those attempting to foist these plates on the people of this nation (you know they won't stay in SC if they are allowed to see the light of day as another put it).

It's not McPain's age - it's his judgment

John McPain's campaign is accusing Democrats of ageism because they say McPain is "confused", "oblivious", and "out of touch".

But this isn't a criticism of McPain's age because the shrub is far younger than
McPain and the shrub is also confused, oblivious, and out of touch.

The problem with McPain isn't his age, it's his poor judgment.
It's not that McPain is to old, it's that McPain. like the shrub, is just
plain wrong and he hasn't learned anything from the shrub's mistakes.

Sixth foot a hoax

Canada's Sixth Foot!

British Columbia's coroner's office is calling the discovery of a sixth floating human foot a hoax, saying it was really an animal paw stuffed inside a running shoe.

At first, Wednesday's discovery deepened the mystery surrounding the feet, all found floating along island shorelines in the Strait of Georgia near Vancouver.

But the coroner's office Thursday called the latest find a hoax, saying an animal's foot had been inserted inside the shoe.

Authorities say they haven't reached any conclusions about the origin of the five human feet.

*****

Ok, who is doing this and what is going on and why are the hoaxers getting in on the action?!

Haters Scream Loudly

What I find utterly amazing is the haters on an old forum are spouting off about 'angry' posters when it is they who are the angry ones and brook no deviation from their proscribed dogma.

People are ceasing to go to that forum because of these people, who have reared their heads once again and are all chorusing the same tune claiming they debate ideas and everyone else 'ruthlessly attacks them personally' when the reverse is reality.

Haters have a problem with reality - it seldom, if at all, meshes with their dogma.

What we are seeing and hearing now is the last screams of the Hater Movement ... the shrub and the rest of the cabal have seen to their death knell by their 'activities' over the last seven plus years - it is the one thing the shrub and the cabal have done that is good for the nation and the world.

Too, bad they have come to dominate a forum that was once vibrant and vital but now is totally irrelevant just as they have done on numerous forums before.

"A" Flirt

Having grandkids I get a lot of MySpace stuff - that and a slew of Rennies on MySpace as well.
I just took one of those tests - this one on flirting - no surprise, I scored an "A" (a professional).
Since my main job at the Renaissance Faire on show days is flirting with the ladies from age 2 to 200 I better have scored an "A".

Poll: Obama leads McPain in swing states

Sen. Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McPain in the crucial swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to a new survey.

Obama lost the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania by 9 percentage points. But a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows him leading McPain by 12 points, 52 to 40 percent.

In Ohio, a state Obama lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March, he's leading McPain 48 to 42 percent.

And in Florida, where he did not campaign this primary season and lost an unsanctioned Democratic contest, he leads McPain 47 to 43 percent.

The Ohio and Florida results are reversals from Quinnipiac polls published a month ago, when Clinton was still in the race and McPain led Obama in hypothetical match-ups.

In the waning days of her campaign, Clinton argued to voters and superdelegates that she should be the nominee because she was the stronger candidate to beat McPain in these swing states during the general election.

Democrats in all three swing states say they'd like to see her on the ballot this fall, but independent voters give the idea a thumbs-down by margins of 9 to 16 percent.

Florida clinched the presidency for the shrub in 2000, and Ohio did the same in 2004.

Quinnipiac surveyed between 1,300 and 1,500 voters in each state June 9-16. The polls had margins of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for Pennsylvania and 2.6 percentage points for Ohio and Florida.

If the swing state momentum for Obama catches on all over the country, there may be a new electoral map.

The latest CNN national poll, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, shows Obama running strongest in the West -- and not just California.

"The 10 Rocky Mountain states have been traditionally the most Republican part of the country. So that's why it's so amazing that the polls show Obama doing well out here," said Bob Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College.

Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, three Western states that Bush carried by narrow margins in 2004, now look vulnerable to a Democratic takeover, even though they all border McPain's Arizona.

So what's behind the change?

"In the upper-class suburbs of Denver that used to be so solidly republican, a lot of aspects of the shrub's administration have not played well there," Loevy said. "His war policies, his policies on abortion, gay marriage ... simply have not played well with the old republican party out there in the Rocky Mountain west. So it's in the upscale suburbs that we see the strongest shift to the Democrats."

Hidden ingredients are making your fast food healthy

PIZZA

The tomato paste on your pizza is said to help beat sunburn and wrinkles.

Researchers believe that lycopene, the antioxidant in tomatoes which gives them their colour, is responsible.

Tomato paste is made from highly concentrated cooked tomatoes which boosts the level of the super-nutrient.

Read more from Hidden ingredients making your fast food healthy

13 Dangers of Excessive Sun

Getting a tan?

We tend to think of a nice tan as something glamorous, healthy and attractive, but actually the process is far from it and is very dangerous. In fact your skin tans in order to protect itself from more skin damage! The sunshine makes people feel good, but the cost of a bronzed body is become steeper and the idea of the healthy tan is slowly evaporating. People are becoming educated in the risks of excessive sun exposure and many are realizing that too much of it will come back to haunt you. Here are some of the dangers that could affect you and your children.

Read more from 13 Dangers of Excessive Sun

However, some vitamin D is good for you, yes? Some people think the higher incidences in the US Pacific Northwest of MS is perhaps due to less sunlight/vitamin D. And what about the better fake tanning products, which have come a long way in ten years?