Thursday, July 31, 2014

People You Never Think About


Junius Brutus Booth



Junius Brutus Booth (1 May 1796 – 30 November 1852) was an English stage actor. He was the father of John Wiles Booth, an actor and the assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln Edwin Booth, the foremost  tragedianof the mid-to-late 19th century, and  Juiius Brutus Booth, Jr. an actor and theatre manager. Booth was named after Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the lead assassins in Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar

Early life

Booth was born in St. Pancras, London, England, the son of Richard Booth, a  lawyer and avid supporter of the American cause, and Jane Elizabeth Game. His paternal grandfather was John Booth, a silversmith, and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Wilkes, was a relative of the English radical and politician John Wilkes. While he was growing up, Booth's father tried to settle his son in a lengthy succession of professions. Booth recalls of his childhood, "I was destined by my Controllers first for the Printing office, then to be an architect, then to be a sculptor and modeler, then a lawyer, then a sailor, of all of these I preferred those of sculptor and modeler."[
In August 1814, Junius met Marie Christine Adelaide Delannoy while boarding at her mother's home in  Brussles. She followed him to London where they eventually married on 17 May 1815, soon after his 19th birthday. Their first child, Amelia, was born 5 October of the same year, but died in infancy. The only child to survive infancy, Richard Junius Booth, was born 21 January 1819.

Career

Booth’s interests in theatre came after he attended a production of Othello at the Covent Garden Theatre. The prospects of fame, fortune and freedom were very appealing to young Booth. He displayed a talent for acting from an early age, deciding on a career in the theatre by the age of seventeen. He performed roles in several small theatres throughout England, and joined a tour of the Low Countries in 1814, returning the following year to make his London debut.
Booth gained national renown in England with his performance in the title role of Richard III in 1817 at the Covent Garden Theatre. Critics compared his performances favorably with those of Edmund Kean, who was at the time the foremost tragedian in Britain. Partisans of the two actors, called Boothites and Keanites, would occasionally start rows at venues where the two were playing together. This did not stop the two from performing in the same plays; Kean and Booth acted in several Shakespearean productions at the  Drury Lane Theatre from 1817 to 1821. Kean then saw Booth as a threat and orchestrated a way for the two of them to perform those roles yet again, planning to out-perform his opponent. Kean’s long-standing presence contributed to Booth’s never ending comparisons to his rival.

Move to the United States

In 1821, Booth emigrated to the United States with Mary Ann Holmes, a flower girl, abandoning his wife and their young son. Booth and Holmes claimed to be married that year and settled in 1822 near Belair, Maryland. For years they lived in a log cabin Booth bought, moved to his 150 acres, and whitewashed. Just before his death he began building a much grander house which he named " Tudor Hall." It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

 
L-to-r: Booth's sons, John, Edwin and Junius, Jr. in  Julius Caesar


In 1825–1826 and 1836–1837, Booth made tours of his native England. He took his whole family with him for the second of these. During their stay in England, one of his children, Henry Byron, succumbed to small pox. By 1831 he had become the manager of the Adelphi Theatre in Baltimore. His acclaim continued to grow throughout the rest of his life; Walt Whitman described him as "the grandest histrion [sic] of modern times." Although his relationship with Holmes, his supposed wife, was relatively happy, four of their children died, three in the same year (1833), when there were epidemics of cholera . In addition, he suffered from alcoholism , which had an effect on the entire family.
Booth’s alcoholism also caused him to become increasingly unpredictable and reckless. He would drop lines, miss scenes, and cause chaos onstage. During a performance of Hamlet, Booth suddenly left the scene he was playing with Ophelia, scurried up a ladder, and perched up in the backdrops crowing like a rooster until his manager retrieved him. He was once booked for a sold-out performance in Richmond, then disappeared from town for several days. Eventually he was found with “ragged, besotted wretches, the greatest actor on the American stage.” He soon became so unreliable that he had to be locked into his hotel rooms with a guard standing watch. Often he would still find ways of escaping to drink at a nearby tavern.

Some historians and critics have claimed that reality could become overwhelming for Booth, so he would flee into alcoholism and the roles he played. One critic said of Booth that the “personality of the actor was forgotten, and all the details seemed spontaneous workings and unconscious illustrations of the character he represented. He seemed to be possessed by the characters, losing his own identity." Such subjective judgments are perhaps too facile, as Edwin Booth's later comment about his father certainly was: “Great minds to madness closely are allied.” In any case, from February 1817 onward, Junius Booth played almost three thousand performances. Booth brought a romantic, natural acting style to America, which he pioneered in the hearts of American audiences.
In order to help him maintain a modicum of stability and also to ensure that he sent his earnings home to the family, Junius and Mary Ann chose their son Edwin to accompany him as his dresser, aid, and guardian. This was an exhausting job because Junius Brutus could go without sleep for very long periods of time and would often disappear.
In 1835, Booth wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson , demanding he pardon two pirates. In the letter, he threatened to kill the President. Though there would also be an  actual attempt of assassination on the President early that year, the letter was believed to be a hoax, until a handwriting analysis of a letter written some days after the threat concluded that the letter was, in fact, written by Booth. Booth apologized to Jackson, though it is likely that since he and Jackson were friends, the "threat" was Booth's clumsy attempt at a joke. Decades later, Booth’s son,  John Wilkes , assassinated President Abraham Lincoln

Later years

In 1852, he was involved in a tour of California  with his sons Edwin  and Junius  Booth, Jr, performing in San Francisco  and Sacramento, where torrential rains not only closed the theatres but seriously depleted food supplies. Inflation skyrocketed, and the Booths returned to San Francisco without having made a penny. On 1 October he left San Francisco without either of his sons. (Junius, Jr. had previously established his home there, and Edwin struck out on his own, acting in various venues in northern California).
Booth told his wife that he would be touring the United States for several years but would send her money to support her and his young son, Richard. But Booth's sister and brother-in-law arrived with their children from England and demanded to be housed and supported in exchange for keeping quiet about his American family. After some years, this arrangement became financially untenable, and Booth stopped sending his wife money so regularly. This prompted Adelaide to send their son, now 25, to Baltimore. For three years, Booth somehow fooled him into believing that he lived alone, but eventually Richard discovered the truth. He sent word to his mother who arrived in Baltimore in December 1846 and confronted Booth when he returned home from touring in March. After living the requisite three years in Maryland, she was able to divorce him in February 1851.
On 10 May 1851, with the youngest of their ten children now eleven years of age, Booth finally legally married Mary Ann Holmes.

Death


Booth's grave at  Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore
While traveling by steamboat  from New Orleans to Cincinnati in 1852, Booth developed a fever, presumably from drinking impure river water.No physician was on board, and he died aboard the steamboat near Louisville, Kentucky  on 30 November 1852. Booth's widow, Mary Anne, traveled in Cincinnati alone to claim his body


Legacy

Junius Brutus Booth was posthumously inducted into the  American Theatre Hall of Fame  in 1981.

Via: Wikipedia





Today's funny :0)



Sorry, someone took this picture down




Lucy lays an egg, but.....

                      ....stupid Charlie thinks he did all the work! He made more noise that she did!







I don't know about him, sometimes......



Wednesday, July 30, 2014

My bucket list






Stand on a glacier in Alaska:

View Source : alaskacruiseexperts.com






And while I'm there, go fishing for one of these:


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_salmon_jumping_out_of_water.jpg



Visit Ireland and....


ancient chapel ruins   hdr  drab
By: stockvault


....Whitby Abbey, U.K.

Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). - Own work

Explore Notre Dame for a week

File:West rose window of Notre-Dame de Paris 2009.jpg
By CaBLe27 (IMG_4197.JPG  Uploaded by Paris 17) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons




Pay a visit to the Terracotta Army in China


Photo: Terra-Cotta warriors, China
Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta
So nice to think about all those fantastic places....but then I would have to get on an airplane!



However, I would give up my entire bucket list to own one of these:
beautiful-horses-24
From: http://theberry.com




What's on YOUR list????



Today's funny :0)






Cat vs. door


Oops!




An early breakfast

Got up early yesterday. Charlie started a little before 3 AM. Couldn't really get back to sleep - just twisted and turned.

Oh well, what to do now?

Make breakfast!




Rolled, cut out and ready to bake:



 Eight minutes later:



 Hot "rooster" biscuits and fresh scrambled eggs!



Needless to say, Hubby was pleased!



Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Skydiving

This airport is only five miles from us. After the jumpers are out, the plane circles our house to go back to the airport.






Don't think this would ever make it on my bucket list!

 Went for a ride many years ago in a friend's Piper Cub for about half an hour. Never went up again and never will.







Today's funny :0)

H/T to: wild river! :0)

One day an Irishman, who has been stranded on a desert island for over ten long years, sees an unusual speck on the horizon.

"It's certainly not a ship," he thinks to himself. As the speck gets closer and closer, he begins to rule out the possibilities of a small boat, then even a raft.

Suddenly, emerging from the surf comes a drop dead gorgeous blonde woman wearing a wet suit and scuba gear.

She approaches the stunned man and says to him, "Tell me how long has it been since you've had a cigarette?"

"Ten years," replies the Irishman.

With that, she reaches over and unzips a waterproof pocket on her left sleeve and pulls out a pack of fresh cigarettes. He takes one, lights it, takes a long drag and says, "Faith and begorah! Is that good!"

"And how long has it been since you've had a sip of good Irish Whiskey?" she asks him.

Trembling, the castaway replies, "Ten years."

She reaches over, unzips her right sleeve, pulls out a flask and hands it to him. He opens the flask, takes a long swig and says, "Tis absolutely fantastic!"

At this point she starts slowly unzipping the long zipper that runs down the front of her wet suit, looks at the man and asks, "And how long has it been since you've played around?"

With tears in his eyes, the man falls to his knees and sobs, "Oh, Sweet Jesus! Don't tell me you've got golf clubs in there too."

Quiet

Not much going on here.....


Another rose bloomed


Lucy following Charlie up the stairs



Charlie coming over to get his Cheerio treat



Lucy got tired of walking around the other day, so she just plopped down by the deck




Roasted a nice, stuffed chicken for dinner
(NO, not one of mine)!



Like I said, very quiet around here. It won't last long, though......



Monday, July 28, 2014

Good afternoon!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who stops by and visits with me and my silly little blog. I've met so many wonderful people and made a lot of new friends!

All the bloggers have been so encouraging and helpful. I don't know how to say "Thank You!" enough for all your kindness and support.

But I think I'm going to stop the blog at the end of the week.  When I find something interesting to post about - I do. I try so hard to give credit when I find a picture. I use a lot of  "Public Domain" articles and pictures from Wikipedia or if I get an e-mail with something interesting or a funny picture joke, I'll make a post.

For a while someone has been getting into my blog and removing pictures and leaving this with no explanation:


 


I am getting so tired of going through all my posts every day and deleting them. I'm sorry if I was doing something wrong. I truly do apologize. No one has ever notified me of any wrongdoing. I cannot find any information on the internet about why this happens.

I just don't know what to do anymore.  I never see this on other blogs. Any suggestions or help you can give me? I really do enjoy sharing my stories and meeting you through your comments and e-mails! Please help!

My Photo
Chickenmom


Today's funny :0)


 H/T to Donna!  :o)

Sorry, someone took the picture down!
 

 
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!
BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.
JOHN McCAIN: My friends, the chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.
HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road?
GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.
DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?
BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.
AL GORE: I invented the chicken.
JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white?
DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.
OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.
ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.
DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.
GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.
BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.
ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2014, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2014. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.
ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?
COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?


Treat time

 Charlie, Laverne and Shirley never want to miss out on treats!  Here they come a-running when they hear me shake the rice jar. The little stinkers can move pretty fast when they want to!

 



Lucy had been up on the deck already.  When I sit out there in the evening and read, she usually stays next to me.




Sometimes she has trouble going back down the stairs, so I have to carry her to the bottom of the steps.

Lucy needs to go on a diet......


Saturday, July 26, 2014

Saturday Night Doo-Wop



Remember "car hops"? If you backed in to a parking space and blinked your headlights, they would skate out to your car,  take your order and then skate back with whatever you ordered on a loaded  tray that hung on your door! (But you had to order at least 50cents worth of food). If you wanted to sit inside, you pulled into a parking space in the back. That's the way it worked here in Jersey!






from: daveramsey.com Tipping Basics: Should You Tip Your Carhop?




Friday, July 25, 2014

Friday Night Steam

Ever want to go to mysterious Borneo? Ever wonder about the marvelous little steam train there? Well, now is your chance to visit without leaving your easy chair! Grab a cuppa and enjoy!




                                   




History

The romance of an old steam train..A ride on the North Borneo Railwayis truly a journey of rediscovery into the heart of Borneo as it transports you back in time to the days of yore.

The 1880's had brought about a great change in Borneo. The British administrators who came to Borneo were adventure seekers, entering a country of unexplored forests and untapped resources. It was William Clarke Cowie, Managing Director of the British North Borneo Chartered Company who believed that the building of railways would pave the way for the opening up of land for commercial cultivation. He was responsible for initiating the building of the first railway in Sabah.

Sorry, someone is taking the pictures downhistory_01 history_02

Construction started from Bukau to Beaufort and Weston in 1896.

An English civil engineer, Arthur J. West, was appointed to build the railway line from Bukau, north to Beaufort and south to Weston. However, upon completion of the railway in 1890, Weston was discovered to be too shallow for a deep-sea wharf. He came to a decision to extend the line northwards and his ambition to link the East and West remained only an ambition.

In 1903, Arthur J. West extended a 64 km line from Beaufort to Tenom, and to Melalap where labourers, mainly Hakka and Cantonese came from China to undertake what was known to be the most challenging task of construction along the gorge section. In the meantime  the 90 km line from Beaufort to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) was also constructed.

The line constructed for the intention of tapping the natural wealth of the interiors ran through land of rich resources and soon, land between Jesselton and Beaufort was cleared of forests for the cultivation of Paddy. Tobacco estates also sprang up around Tenom and sago mills appeared in Beaufort and Papar. Sugar, tapioca, silk, soya beans, pineapples and rice began to be hauled to the port at Jesselton for export. In 1903, A.J. West continued the laying of the 48 km Beaufort-Tenom rail which was completed two years later. The Tenom-Melalap rail was completed in 1906.

The North Borneo Railway was established on 1 August 1914 and things began to pick up in 1924. However, victory did not last long, for in 1930, the Great Depression spread throughout the world. This threw men out of work everywhere; trade was almost halted; there was no sale of rubber and established companies collapsed. Hardly had the world recovered from this when the Second World War started in 1939. The Japanese 37 Army, under Lt. General Masao Baba occupied North Borneo. WWII and the Japanese Occupation almost paralyzed the whole railway system between 1944 and 1945. Despite severe damages, the railways continued providing its vital service to the state during the war. Locomotives continued running between bridges and “Rail Jeeps” were modified to replace damaged locomotives.

  I don't know how they do it, but these were taken down also.
history_03 history_04


During the Post-War period, immediately after liberation of North Borneo by the 9th Division Australian Imperial Force (AIF), the British North Borneo Company faced the gigantic task of reconstruction and decided to relinquish its ownership of North Borneo to the British Colonial Office. From then on, North Borneo became a Crown Colony until independence on 16th September 1963 when Malaysia was formed.

After Malaysia was formed, the North Borneo Railway assumed the name of the Sabah State Railway Department and several changes were again made to improve passenger and cargo facilities. By 1971, technological advancement in the form of diesel and petrol-powered locomotives replaced the steam engines. The railway celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1996 as the oldest form of transportation in the state.

On 22 January 2000, the North Borneo Railway was relaunched as a joint venture project between Sutera Harbour Resort and the Sabah State Railway Department, signifying a historical collaboration through common initiatives between the private sector and the state government.
From:http://www.suteraharbour.com/v4/index.php/styles/history

Train Overview

The North Borneo Railway features a British Vulcan steam locomotive. The engine is designed for wood burning, a costly yet more environmental form of steam. Stepping into the engine is an opportunity to jump back into the shoes of a child, bringing back childhood dreams of pulling on the whistle as the massive train rolls through the countryside.

The train also features five Japanese-designed carriages tha have been meticulously restored and renovated to reflect the era of the steam train. Although the carriages were built in the 1970s, both the exterior and interior provide an environment that is typical of stepping onto a train in the 1900s. The exterior utilises the traditional deep green and cream of the original North Borneo Railway, with carved brass logos on the sides measuring 3 feet by 2 feet on each carriage. The interior highlights the natural woods of Sabah. Each set seats four passengers, with a table in between to facilitate the dining experience.

Each carriage also features a unisex washroom, providing the amenities of a modern bathroom onboard the train. Each carriage accomodates 16 passengers, with a total train capacity of 80 passengers. Windows remain open throughout the journey to enhance the overall heritage experience, and high-powered fans line the ceilings to ensure maximum comfort. A British Pullman carriage is in tow for the entire journey, functioning as a kitchen car as well as a generator. The kitchen has ben customised to cater for the unique tiffin-style dining concept.

As was this one:

train_diagram
Technical diagram of the Vulcan steam engine.



Today's funny :0)







animal gifs (14)
Tickle, tickle!


Good morning!

Remember those bags of pepper, onions and celery I prepared for the freezer?


For a great lunch yesterday I added a big handful to the frying pan, stirred them around a bit...



 Added fresh eggs from the girls... and let it cook.

 


 Fried up some corn tortillas.....



 and ended up with this.....
 

And this.....



What a great, delicious, easy to make meal!

(Gettin' hungry?)



Thursday, July 24, 2014

Veddy Intresting.....

From the NY Times:

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans

By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: November 9, 2002


The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe — including the United States.
As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.
Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States.
Admiral Poindexter, who has described the plan in public documents and speeches but declined to be interviewed, has said that the government needs to "break down the stovepipes" that separate commercial and government databases, allowing teams of intelligence agency analysts to hunt for hidden patterns of activity with powerful computers.
"We must become much more efficient and more clever in the ways we find new sources of data, mine information from the new and old, generate information, make it available for analysis, convert it to knowledge, and create actionable options," he said in a speech in California earlier this year.
Admiral Poindexter quietly returned to the government in January to take charge of the Office of Information Awareness at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as Darpa. The office is responsible for developing new surveillance technologies in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
In order to deploy such a system, known as Total Information Awareness, new legislation would be needed, some of which has been proposed by the Bush administration in the Homeland Security Act that is now before Congress. That legislation would amend the Privacy Act of 1974, which was intended to limit what government agencies could do with private information.
The possibility that the system might be deployed domestically to let intelligence officials look into commercial transactions worries civil liberties proponents.
"This could be the perfect storm for civil liberties in America," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington "The vehicle is the Homeland Security Act, the technology is Darpa and the agency is the F.B.I. The outcome is a system of national surveillance of the American public."
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has been briefed on the project by Admiral Poindexter and the two had a lunch to discuss it, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
"As part of our development process, we hope to coordinate with a variety of organizations, to include the law enforcement community," a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
An F.B.I. official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said the bureau had had preliminary discussions with the Pentagon about the project but that no final decision had been made about what information the F.B.I. might add to the system.
A spokesman for the White House Office of Homeland Security, Gordon Johndroe, said officials in the office were not familiar with the computer project and he declined to discuss concerns raised by the project's critics without knowing more about it.
He referred all questions to the Defense Department, where officials said they could not address civil liberties concerns because they too were not familiar enough with the project.
Some members of a panel of computer scientists and policy experts who were asked by the Pentagon to review the privacy implications this summer said terrorists might find ways to avoid detection and that the system might be easily abused.
"A lot of my colleagues are uncomfortable about this and worry about the potential uses that this technology might be put, if not by this administration then by a future one," said Barbara Simon, a computer scientist who is past president of the Association of Computing Machinery. "Once you've got it in place you can't control it."
Other technology policy experts dispute that assessment and support Admiral Poindexter's position that linking of databases is necessary to track potential enemies operating inside the United States.
"They're conceptualizing the problem in the way we've suggested it needs to be understood," said Philip Zelikow, a historian who is executive director of the Markle Foundation task force on National Security in the Information Age. "They have a pretty good vision of the need to make the tradeoffs in favor of more sharing and openness."
On Wednesday morning, the panel reported its findings to Dr. Tony Tether, the director of the defense research agency, urging development of technologies to protect privacy as well as surveillance, according to several people who attended the meeting.
If deployed, civil libertarians argue, the computer system would rapidly bring a surveillance state. They assert that potential terrorists would soon learn how to avoid detection in any case.
The new system will rely on a set of computer-based pattern recognition techniques known as "data mining," a set of statistical techniques used by scientists as well as by marketers searching for potential customers.
The system would permit a team of intelligence analysts to gather and view information from databases, pursue links between individuals and groups, respond to automatic alerts, and share information efficiently, all from their individual computers.
The project calls for the development of a prototype based on test data that would be deployed at the Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va. Officials would not say when the system would be put into operation.
The system is one of a number of projects now under way inside the government to lash together both commercial and government data to hunt for patterns of terrorist activities.
"What we are doing is developing technologies and a prototype system to revolutionize the ability of the United States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists, and decipher their plans, and thereby enable the U.S. to take timely action to successfully pre-empt and defeat terrorist acts," said Jan Walker, the spokeswoman for the defense research agency.
Before taking the position at the Pentagon, Admiral Poindexter, who was convicted in 1990 for his role in the Iran-contra affair, had worked as a contractor on one of the projects he now controls. Admiral Poindexter's conviction was reversed in 1991 by a federal appeals court because he had been granted immunity for his testimony before Congress about the case.

Today's funny :0)





DO YOU KNOW JACK SCHITT?

Jack Schitt is the only son of Aw Schitt, the fertilizer king, and Oh Schitt, the owner of the Kneedeepin Schitt Inn.
Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt and they had six kids.
Their first little Schitt, Holy Schitt, passed on shortly after birth.
Next came the twin sons, Deep Schitt and Dip Schitt.
Then they had two daughters, Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt, and then another son, Bull Schitt.
Deep Schitt married a high school dropout, Dumb Schitt.
Dip Schitt married Lotta Schitt, and they have one son, Chicken Schitt.
Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt married the Happens brothers.
The Schitt-Happen's children are Dawg Schitte, Byrd Schitt and Horse Schitt.
Bull Schitt married an Italian girl, Pisa Schitt and they had a baby they named Hawg Schitt.
They divorced and Pisa Schitt remarried a man named Head. She now goes by the name Schitt-Head.

If you have read this far and don't know who these people are, you probably don't know Jack Schitt in the first place.


H/T: Terry in Fla.



Hot and humid


It was hot and soooo humid yesterday, so I made puddles of water for Charlie and the girls to cool off in:



Charlie had dibs on the first puddle

Shirley, Laverne and Lucy share the 2nd one

Lucy bit Laverne, so she moved over to where Charlie was

Lucy drinking the poopy water...sigh

Lucy cooling off her tootsies

Laverne picking out the new feathers on Charlie's neck...again

Look how innocent Laverne looks - right after Charlie bit her!


Remember to always have plenty of fresh, cool water available. Chickens can usually tolerate the heat but not  humidity. If you see them walking around with their mouths open, wings being held away from their body, they are trying to cool down. If they are free ranged during the day, place extra containers of water around for them.


Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Tunnels

Just thought these were quite interesting......






File:Queens-Midtown Tunnel 4.JPG
Queen's mid-town Tunnel




File:Mary's Rock Tunnel.jpg
Mary's Rock Tunnel, VA


File:Swan View Tunnel, Swan View, Western Australia.jpg
Swan View Tunnel, Western Australia

Domain free image Redwood tunnel


Sorry, someone took this picture down:

Little Switzerland Tunnel






From Terry :Vance Tunnel at Altapass, N.C.


Yup, I know -  more rocks and stones........