moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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WRITER'S LINKS
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On the getting of agents
Writer Beware
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Writer's Net

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(and my Wish List)

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Different Lives  
Whew! How's that for The Onion.
www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4108&o=2
The Soapbox By James W. Henley
"I Support the occupation but I don't support our troops"

Fear, Loathing, and Great Reporting

www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000809389
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is most remembered for over-the-top writings and personality. But it's worth remembering that he was also a damned fine reporter, with a gift for details and one of the best crap detectors in history.
by Sam Smith

(February 22, 2005) -- One of the brightest lights in the American firmament blinked out Sunday. Word of Hunter Thompson’s death arrived at our house via the crawl on the network happy news this morning, and there’s irony enough in that fact alone.

Hunter Stockton Thompson, the Good Doctor, is most remembered for his over-the-top tours des excès – "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" being the most famous. But it’s not the gonzo high spots I’ll remember him for. What has gotten so lost in the legend that Thompson became (and the self-parody he sometimes lapsed into later in his career) is that he was a damned fine reporter.

911digitalarchive.org and www.911digitalarchive.org/about

What is a Backyard Habitat?
One House Can Make A Difference!
href="http://planetsave.blogspot.com/2005/01/nobody-ever-dies-of-overpopulation.html">Nobody Ever Dies of Overpopulation [WHAT!?!?!]
www.projex.com.au/wolfin/spec.html
Wolfin is only sold to licensed Wolfin applicators. We recommend you check the license status with Wolfin Membranes Australia (phone 02 8336 1666 or email mail@projex.com.au ) because many applicators claiming to be licensed and/or experienced Wolfin applicators are in fact not – and therefore cannot be supplied

www.livejournal.com/users/jmhm/
www.livejournal.com/users/jmhm/1231232.html
Why did nobody report this?
Well, as it happens, these parents were homeschoolers, so there were no mandated reporters to tell the state that the children were coming to school emaciated and with cattleprod marks and sans toenails.

As a matter of fact, the Dollars were doing such a fabulous job as the completely unsupervised caregivers and homeschoolers and "biblical" chastisers of five children that they decided to become open a completely unsupervised Christian school
www.tennessean.com/local/archives/05/01/65897337.shtml?Element_ID=65897337
Before they were accused of torturing five children, John and Linda Dollar ran a private Christian school out of their home near Knoxville.

The Mountain View Christian School opened in fall 1999 in rural Strawberry Plains, about 15 miles east of Knoxville ... Children aren't that big. They're kinda likely to fall through when you take out all the boards between the cracks.

The Labor Department is going to investigate why they've agreed to notify Wal-Mart fifteen days in advance of inspections as part of a settlement against Wal-Mart for underage labor violations.

Yep. In order to keep from getting prosecuted, Wal-Mart was forced to agree that the Labor Department would stop checking if they're breaking the law www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21walmart.html?pagewanted=all.
The inspector general of the Labor Department has decided to investigate its agreement to give Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before investigating any stores facing complaints of child labor violations, according to department officials.

The inspector general's decision comes after lawmakers and children's advocacy groups criticized the department's settlement of child labor complaints against 24 Wal-Mart stores in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Arkansas. Without admitting any wrongdoing, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $135,540 to settle complaints involving 85 youths.
08:44 am February 21st, 2005

Alternative Minimum Tax
The A.M.T. effectively sets up a parallel tax system for all households, in which few deductions are allowed. Taxpayers whose alternative tax is higher than their regular federal income tax must pay the alternative one.

[permalink] posted by Mez at 8:28 pm