Where's Osama bin Laden?

Bin Laden sighting.

Uses for cats

I know I risk the tuna mines ... but these are just too funny.

There are many uses for Cats, here are a few;
Puppy Play Thing

Entertainment (Lavatory Retriever)

Move over My Space

Move over MySpace, now canines have a social networking site called Kelly's page is here. If you're unfortunate enough to have a cat, then there is

FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON

We took the little black dog back to the Columbine Lake Trail in the Indians Peaks Wilderness. Our previous hike here was a few weeks ago and we had warm sunny weather. Today's hike took a bit of a detour when it started snowing on the way there. We ran into snow showers just outside of Winter Park. When we got to the trail head we were greated with three inches of fresh power snow. It was pretty cold out, but Kelly didn't seem to mind since she immediately rolled in the snow. We hiked up to the meadow and came directly back. We didn't see a soul, except for a pair of rangers at the trail head, the whole time we were there.

Canine American

Last night while watching TV with her humans, the little black dog learned that she is no longer a dog, but now a Canine American. There was no indication whether cats are anything new, but I'm sure they will still be fun to chase!

911

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...


William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

Not Forgotten

Today is the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. I remember the sight of that plane hitting the world trade center on CNN. I was visiting New Mexico and had the tv on while I dressed. The sight made me sick. I can't image what the people of New York felt.

While there is still a national debate whether or not the country is on the right path, I think everyone can agree that today is a day for a remembrance of the dead. The scratching post has a nice post about a tribute to the victims of 911 called project 2,996.

This weekend I attended a lecture by the photo journalist Nanette Martin. She has spent most of the recent part of her career covering natural and unnatural disasters. She got to know many in the NY/NJ Port Authority Police department while she covered Ground Zero. The port authority lost 30% of their officers on that day. Many who survived are now sick with cancer and respiratory ailments. They feel forgotten. She has produced a special edition of her book "The Thousand Mile Stare: Images from Ground Zero" to present to the officers and their families so that they will know that they are not forgotten.

New Camera

... These are not the droids you're looking for ... You can move along ... You will walk me now. You will walk me now!

I mentioned in a previous post that my digital camera had finely died. It was a little 2 MP Olympus pocket camera. It survived four years of hard use and world travel. I was playing with my new casio and snapped this shot of the little black dog. The anti-red eye pre-flash had some unexpected impact on her eyes.

Feline Sense of Humor

That bastion of al-Qaida propaganda, the New York Times has this insight into the feline sense of humor - Very dry and slightly wicked. Didn't we already know that?

The War on Terra

Global Warming Die Off

Kelly was a busy girl this weekend. On Sunday we took a scenic drive along Colorado state route 40 from Denver to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped along the way to hike in the Indian Peaks wilderness. We took a nice mellow hike along the Columbine Lake trail. (My camera broke, so I stole the image from the web).

The drive along route 40 wound through beautiful wooded canyons and over high mountain passes. The colors ranged from the expected greens, yellows and golds to a peculiar new color. Huge stretches orange trees. The site was pretty, although a bit unnatural looking. Unfortunately the orange signifies death. An unprecedented infestation of tiny flying beetles has put the great forests of the Mountain West under siege. Tens of millions of Colorado's mature pine trees will die within the next few years. Federal and state forest managers have conceded defeat. It is believed that the recent regional warming in the Rocky Mountains and the prolonged Western drought has supercharged the life cycle of these rice sized dark-brown tree killers. Once beetle eggs are deposited, within a week or two, thousands of larvae emerge and begin eating the tree. Within a month, the tree is dead. In the White River National Forest in central Colorado, as many as 90% of the pines across 2.2 million acres are expected to die.