News, Some New, Some Old:
Squirrel Appreciation Day: 5 Ways to Go Nuts
"January 21st is Squirrel Day this year. In honor of our tree-inclined friends I thought we could swap squirrel stories and memories. I’ve been thinking a lot about how wildlife impact our daily life, and very few animals are as accessible as squirrels. They scamper openly in parks, they take advantage of our bird feeding and they make interstates out of our power lines. It’s hard not to be impressed by an animal that has adapted to humans so well.
Here are five ways you can celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day." Read the rest at: http://blog.nwf.org/2012/01/squirrel-appreciation-day-is-january-21st-5-ways-to-go-nuts-for-squirrels/ From Wildlife Promise
10 Tips for Outwitting Squirrels
Tired of squirrels raiding your bird feeders? Here are 10 ways to thwart the furry bandits. Read more at: http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2010/Squirrels.aspx
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Eurozone Crisis: What Investors Want To See From Eurozone Countries. Posted: 1/19/12
"The question is far from trivial. Without private investors buying up the bonds of troubled European countries, the economic crisis overseas is likely to limp along. And though Europe has faded from the minds of many Americans as election season heats up, worries of the crisis spreading to the U.S. persist. On Friday, ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded nine eurozone countries, including France, Italy and Spain. After months of uncertainty, Greece drew closer to a settlement with private bondholders that would force them to take a significant loss on their Greek government debt holdings and help prevent a Greek government default." From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/19/eurozone-crisis-investors_n_1211305.html
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Can The Euro Survive? Jan 20, 2012
"After the events of last Friday when the Greece bailout talks with her creditors stalled and Standard and Poors downgraded 9 eurozone nations, this subject just went straight back to the headlines and is clearly very important in its potential significance."
Uploaded by HeadsUpShowTV http://youtu.be/J-NFIrYKufU
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European Crisis Can Spread to US. 17 Jan 2012
"The European debt crisis has now claimed France, which just lost its coveted AAA rating amid a Standard & Poor's downgrade, and eventually U.S. financial systems could be due for a fresh bruising", says Robert Wiedemer, financial commentator and best-selling author of "Aftershock."
Like Greece and other European countries, the United States is carrying too much debt and won't be able to handle it much longer without facing backlash from ratings agencies or markets.
"I think what most people are ignoring is that the U.S. has a lot of these same problems. I think they think it's just a Europe problem just as France and Germany thought it was a Greek problem or an Ireland problem," Wiedemer told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview."
Story Continues Below Video." Read more at: http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Wiedemer-European-Crisis-US/2012/01/13/id/424197
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The Iranian President's Goals For Mankind
"The Koran, Islam's holy book, envisions a world in which Islam will eventually dominate the entire globe."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Source: Wikimedia
"Failure to understand this basic fact blinds many Western leaders to the overall goal of Muslim leaders who take their religion seriously. Some Muslims, predominately Shiites, believe in a coming Islamic messiah whom they refer to as the mahdi, meaning "Guided One." This mahdi, they believe, will lead Islam to what they believe to be its rightful place as the dominant religion over the entire world, with followers of other religions either forced to convert or put in subjugation to Islam.
Though such religious fervor seems far-fetched to those in the largely secular and irreligious West, some Islamic leaders are quite open in stating this as their belief and ultimate goal. For example, in his last three speeches before the United Nations General Assembly (2009, 2010, 2011), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed his ultimate desire for the world—a new age in which the mahdi would come and establish Islam as the religion for all mankind in a world governed by the Koran. Notice these excerpts:
• UN speech in 2009: "Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the universe, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet Muhammad . . . O God hasten the arrival of Iman Mahdi" (Sept. 23, 2009).
• UN speech in 2010: "The Holy Qu'ran [Koran] is the Divine book and the eternal miracle of the Prophet of Islam [Muhammad]" (Sept. 23, 2010).
• UN speech in 2011: "A promising future for humanity . . . will be built when humanity initiates to [tread] the path of the divine prophets and the righteous under the leadership of Iman Al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind . . . The creation of a supreme and ideal society with the arrival of a perfect human being who is a true and sincere lover of all human beings, is the guaranteed promise of Allah" (Sept. 22, 2011).
The Bible, however, presents a very different picture. The apostle Peter said of Jesus Christ: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
See All...). The perfect human being, without sin, came to this earth some 2,000 years ago." From: http://www.ucg.org/news-and-prophecy/iranian-presidents-goals-mankind/
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Telling Symbolism From the Hamas Logo
"Hamas is the Islamic group that controls Gaza, from which attacks are regularly launched against Israel."
Source: Wikimedia
"The symbols of the Hamas logo illustrate the group's intractable attitude toward Israel. At the top is an outline of the territory of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank shown as one entity covered in green, Hamas' symbolic color. In the center is the Muslim shrine the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, surrounded by banners bearing the phrases "There is no god but Allah" and "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Underneath those are the words "Palestine" and "Islamic Resistance Movement—Hamas." The swords are a common Islamic motif, representing the power of Islam and the desire to spread the religion, by force if necessary." From: http://www.ucg.org/middle-east/telling-symbolism-hamas-logo/ About Hamas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
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On This Day:
Rebels recapture Sabine Pass, Jan 21, 1863:
"On this day in 1863, two Confederate ships drive away two Union ships as the Rebels recapture Sabine Pass, Texas, and open an important port for the Confederacy.
Sabine Pass lay at the mouth of the Sabine River along the gulf coast of Texas. The Confederates constructed a major fort there in 1861. In September 1862, a Union force captured the fort and, shortly after, the port of Galveston to the southwest. The Yankees now controlled much of the Texas coast. In November, Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder arrived to change Southern fortunes in the area. Magruder, an early Confederate hero in Virginia, was assigned the difficult task of expelling the Federals from Sabine Pass and Galveston.
Magruder's efforts paid quick dividends. He recaptured Galveston and then turned his attention to Sabine Pass. The decks of the two Rebel ships, the Bell and the Uncle Ben, were stacked with cotton bales. Sharpshooters were placed behind the bales and the ships steamed towards the two Union ships, the Morning Light and the Velocity. Some of the sharpshooters became seasick and had to be removed, but the expedition continued. The Confederates chased the Yankee ships into open water, and the sharpshooters injured many Union gunners. Both Union ships soon surrendered. Magruder's victory reopened the Texas coast for Confederate shipping.
The Union tried to recapture Sabine Pass later in the year, but the effort was thwarted when less than 50 Confederates inside the fort there held off a much larger Union force."
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Vladimir Lenin dies. Jan 21, 1924:
"Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, dies of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54.
In the early 1890s, Lenin abandoned his law career to devote himself to Marxist study and the provocation of revolutionary activity among Russian workers. Arrested and exiled to Siberia in 1897, he later traveled to Western Europe, where in 1903 he established the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. The Bolsheviks were a militant party of professional revolutionaries who sought to overthrow the czarist government and set up a Marxist government in its place.
In 1905, workers rebelled across Russia, but it was not until 1917, and Russia's disastrous involvement in World War I, that Lenin realized that the opportunity for Communist revolution had come. In March 1917, the Russian army garrison at Petrograd defected to the Bolshevik cause, and Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. Lenin immediately left Switzerland and crossed German enemy lines to arrive at Petrograd on April 16, 1917. Six months later, under his leadership, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, and Lenin became virtual dictator of the country. However, civil war and foreign intervention delayed complete Bolshevik control of Russia until 1920.
Lenin's government nationalized industry and distributed land, and on December 30, 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established. Upon Lenin's death in early 1924, his body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum near the Moscow Kremlin. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. Fellow revolutionary Joseph Stalin succeeded him as leader of the Soviet Union."
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Toyota officially passes GM as planet's biggest car maker
Jan 21, 2009: "After more than seven decades as the world's largest automaker, General Motors (GM) officially loses the title on January 21, 2009, when it announces worldwide sales of 8.36 million cars and trucks in 2008, compared with Toyota's 8.97 million vehicle sales that same year. However, the news wasn't all rosy for the Japanese auto giant, which later in 2009 posted its first-ever loss as a public company.
The roots of GM competitor Toyota Motor Corporation date to the late 1920s when Kiichiro Toyoda, who worked for his father's Japan-based textile machinery business, Toyoda Loom Works, began plans to develop an automobile. In 1933, an auto division was formed within Toyoda Loom Works and two years later a prototype vehicle, the A1, debuted. In 1937, Toyota Motor Corporation was formed as a spinoff of Toyoda Loom Works. In 1947, Toyota produced its 100,000th domestically made vehicle and in the 1950s began exporting cars to America. During the oil crisis of the 1970s, Toyota's small, fuel-efficient vehicles experienced a boost in popularity in America and by the end of the 1990s, Toyota had produced over 100 million vehicles in Japan."
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Yesterday:
We changed out the propane tank that makes my gas cooktop work. That tank had lasted about a year! Then another trip up to Ray's attic with the small TV, digital box, tools, etc, and made Ray's HDTV show all 73 channels again, but not with the new fancy splitter.
Then both armed with rakes, we scooped up all the piles of pine needles and made another burn pile. I cheat, I use a dustpan to hold them on the rake when I scoop up piles, not gloved hands, to put them in the bin. Works for me. Then Jay drags the big bin to the burn pile on the side lot.
So far we have had 12 days in January in the 70's. Then yesterday even T-shirts felt hot, as it was a very humid 80° day.
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