Non-native plants clog Japanese river

post from Japan Probe on 22 October 2008 03:40:38 AM. © Japan Probe

Part of the Kyu-yoshino river in Kagoshima Prefecture has turned green:The surface of the river is covered in water lettuce plants. Water lettuce is not native to Japan, and it is illegal to cultivate it here, but somehow a few plants managed to find their way into the river and multiply. It is [...]

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Dear Mr Obama

post from Ferroever on 22 October 2008 03:20:00 AM. © Ferroever

If Obama's for change, he'll scrap the current National Defense Strategy in it's entirety.
Great article here for Obama to read
http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=347&keywords=the+long+war
And start focusing on problems at home.
Of which there are plenty.
I'm sooooooooo tired of the US interfering in affairs abroad under the guise of spreading democracy.
Yeah right.
And the rest of the bullshit that I can't be bothered to list, but which a lot of the time concerns convenient 'suspicions' about this and that. [Insert massive yawn here]
Give it up, already.
You had your chance and you screwed up big time.
Vote First Party in the next congressional elections.
Vote for some peace and respect for others.
And stop the hating on countries and cultures you know fuck-all about.

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http://ihaveaboat.blogspot.com/2008/10/dear-mr-obama.html

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The Future of the Travel Blog live blog, tonight
20:00 British Summer Time

post from Europe a la Carte Blog on 22 October 2008 03:14:59 AM. © Europe a la Carte Blog

I’d like to invite you to tonight’s live online discussion, “The Future of the Travel Blog” at 20:00 British Summer Time (one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time). The box below will go live just before 20:00, and you’ll be able to read the live discussion and type in your comments and questions. There [...]

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The Future of the Travel Blog live blog, 22
October 2008

post from Europe a la Carte Blog on 22 October 2008 03:14:59 AM. © Europe a la Carte Blog

You can read the transcript of the live online discussion, “The Future of the Travel Blog” below.Here are the panelists bios and their predictions for the future of the travel blog emailed to me before the live blog took place. A big thank you to the panelists and guests for their contribution to the discussion.Pam [...]

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http://www.europealacarte.co.uk/blog/2008/10/22/the-future-of-the-travel-blog-liv
e-blog-22-october-2008/

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UFO and Novy Most in Bratislava

post from Europe a la Carte Blog on 22 October 2008 02:52:33 AM. © Europe a la Carte Blog

If you drive along the foreshore of the Danube River in Bratislava, Slovakia, one of the most noticeable things will definitely be the Novy Most, or New Bridge. It’s quite high-tech looking and not at all in keeping with the surrounding Bratislava Castle or Old Town, not to mention the fact that most of the [...]

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Escalator girls at a Japanese department store

post from Japan Probe on 22 October 2008 02:02:50 AM. © Japan Probe

Fuji TV reports that Odakyu is deploying escalator girls to one of its entrances as a celebration of the relaunch of its renovated Shinjuku main branch department store:Escalator girls stand at the top of escalators at department store entrances to bow and greet customers. According to the report, escalator girls were a common sight [...]

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President McCain

4.13am
I slept all the way through from 8pm. I seem to have got into a good routine.

Anyway, I've been thinking.
It wouldn't surprise me if McCain won.
I say this because voter turn-out in the US has been dire for a number of years.

The clever Americans didn't vote because they knew that any vote for a third party would be a wasted vote and would merely result in the election of the worst of what was on offer.

Unfortunately, the clever Americans still think this way, with many still not voting because they don't see what good an Obama presidency would bring; just more of the same old bullshit.
I say unfortunately because I'd like to see a few more people stick their necks out and vote Third Party.
I mean, why not?
McCain?
Obama?
There's very little difference between the two when one looks between the lines.
I certainly won't be rejoicing for either new President. They both suck.

And then there are the folks who don't give a shit about who's in office and who have never been near a voting booth in their lives.
These people are potential McCain voters this time around, the ones who have yet to show their faces at the polling stations, but who have nonetheless remained a silent and deadly vote de force.

You know the kind; the section of society too busy drinking Bud, bitching about 'Arabs' and watching sports on TV, to truly give a toss and head to the voting booth; that kind.

But this time it's different.
Obama. Is. Black. [Insert yawn here]
And there are more racist white people in the USA than there are clever white people in the USA. [Not that Obama is the answer here. He's just the best of the worst]
And there are more racist white people willing to vote this time around, than there are clever people willing to vote this time around.
None of my longtime non-voting clever friends are voting this year.
Not one of them.
'Obama's not change', they say.
And I agree.
Shoot me.
Go on.

Now imagine you are a dumb white person who keeps hearing that an Obama victory is a given.
The polls are telling you this.
Your friends are telling you this.
Your enemies are telling you this.
The news stations are telling you this, ' We're not sure what we'll do with all the broadcasting hours that will be left empty after such a sweeping and early victory by Obama'.
You know, that kind of information.
It's an Obama win.
Obama will win.
McCain might as well go back to Arizona already.

'Obama's gonna win?
Hell no! This year I doggone gonna vote. I don't want no %&%$#$% in office.'
Just saying.

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http://ihaveaboat.blogspot.com/2008/10/president-mccain.html

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Berlin in Ruins

"Give me ten years time and you will not recognize Germany!" This 1933 campaign slogan proved sadly accurate, though not as candidate Hitler imagined. Ten years after his election as Chancellor, Germany's cities lay in ruins and, by war's end, Berlin had been crushed beneath Allied bombing and pulverized by Soviet artillery. In prewar plans for Germania, their gargantuan rebuilding of Berlin, Hitler and architect Albert Speer developed a "Theory of Ruin Value" proposing that the monumental buildings of the new German capital be constructed so as to leave heroic ruins for generations hundreds or thousands of years hence. Like the Roman and Greek cities before them, the impressive ruins of Berlin (and Munich, which Hitler also planned to "improve") would be testament to the greatness of the Thousand Year Reich.

While Hitler would commit suicide in the burning ruins of Berlin days before war's end, Speer survived. Prosecuted at Nuremberg and imprisoned until 1966, Speer wrote two bestselling memoirs before his death in 1981, though he failed to indicate whether he found the city's ruins heroic or inspirational. Post-war (and more recently post-reunification) rebuilding cleared away almost all evidence of the war's decimation of the city -- but there remain enough ruins to testify to what the Nazis did "for" Berlin.