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Going down to Maine
Featuring one of the most scenic drives on the East Coast, Acadia
National Park is one of the most visited parks in the United
States. This tour takes you along the 27-mile Park Loop Road
offering spectacular coastal, mountain and forest scenery. You'll
first pass through the quaint town of Bar Harbor to view some of
the charming Victorian mansions built by America's rich and famous
at the turn of the century. Entering Acacia National Park near
Hull's Cove, your journey on Park Loop Road will take you along the
ocean's edge passing Otter Cliffs and Thunder Hole, where the ocean
swells converge against the granite cliffs to create a thunderous
roar. A short photo stop is a must at Thunder Hole before
continuing past Otter Cliffs, the Jordon Pond House and making your
way (weather permitting) to the top of the 1,530-foot Cadillac
Mountain, the highest point on North America's Eastern Seaboard,
for another photo stop. With a 360-degree panoramic view, you'll
see how glaciers carved through the granite cliffs to form a
beautiful landscape of lush forest, lakes and valley. From this
vantage point you'll have magnificent views of Frenchman Bay, the
Porcupine Islands, the Atlantic Ocean.
Note: Walking is at your discretion. Most surfaces are paved
but there are some uneven, slippery-when-wet areas and some steps.
If weather conditions do not permit a stop at Cadillac Mountain, an
extended stop will be made at the Acadia National Park Visitors
Centre.
Discover the historic community of Bar Harbor with its
beauty, charm and unique character. Nestled between the mountains
of Acadia National Park and the Atlantic Ocean on Mount Desert
Island, Bar Harbor has attracted visitors, naturalists and
scientists for decades. Your knowledgeable guide will provide
ongoing commentary about the major highlights that you will see
along the way. Pass the College of the Atlantic, devoted to marine
biology with an emphasis on whale management. Catch a glimpse of
Bar Harbor's attractions including the Village Green and beautiful
"summer cottages" originally built by wealthy Victorian era
residents that survived the Great Fire of 1947 and now operate as
Bed and Breakfast Inns. Pass by the impressive St. Saviour's Church
featuring 10 original Tiffany stained glass windows.
GoogleEarth
What is happen?
The OBAMA Difference
Let me ask you a few questions.
1) Are you tired of the NEGATIVE FOR THE PAST 8 YEARS?2)
Tired of senseless COSTLY WARS that are making Headlines
daily and hurting your pocketbook?3) Sick of the Scandals,
Lies, Corruption from Wall Street
and the White House?4) Are you worried about this ECONOMY ,
your HEALTH CARE, OUR
YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN AT WAR AND THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY?5)
Are you sick of not being able to do anything about it?
Sick of having these rich oil companies controlling
everything?Well so am I, and that's why I can tell you that we will
see
light at the end of this tunnel and a beautiful rainbow if we
choose Barack Obama as our President!
VOTE BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!
From the Subprime Crisis to the Financial Meltdown, Peak Oil the Hidden Responsible
In a recent article Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize laureate in
Economics, argued the current financial crisis was caused both by
"dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence
on the part of policymakers"
[1]. Others like the Australian Prime-Minister
add that widespread greed is to blame for the current events
[2]. While these explanations manage to
explain the evident excesses of our financial system, they do not
say how the system which used to run roughly well suddenly stopped
working.
Everyone would agree that the financial crisis started once
the banking sector got into troubles. The banking sector for its
part, finds the causes of its difficulties in the subprime crisis.
To go back further in the events timeline, we acknowledge that the
subprime crisis happened once borrowers became unable to pay back
their mortgages.
So yes, it was a serious mistake to lend money to people who
could not afford it, but why did these people abruptly become
unable to pay? The reason is most important and commentators of the
crisis systematically fail to discuss and analyze it. In 2006,
interest rates were raised in the USA, so the monthly bill, usually
poor borrowers of subprime mortgages had to pay, rose dramatically,
until they could no longer pay it and saw their houses confiscated;
thus contributing to the housing market plunge.
Finally, interest rates were increased in order to fight
rising inflation, which started with the dramatic surge in oil
prices the world faced over the past few years. So yes, the
financial crisis finds its roots in the oil crisis and nobody seems
to care about it.
The current events that nobody saw coming, were already
announced in as early as 2006 by Dr. Colin Campbell, a geologist,
former Vice-President of Fina Oil Company and founder of the
nowadays respected ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil). On
a video interview
[3]
available on YouTube, he declared:
"Expansion becomes impossible without abundant cheap energy.
So I think
that the debt of the world is going bad. That speaks of a
financial crisis,
unseen, probably equalling the Great Depression of 1930; it's
probable we face
the Second Great Depression. It would be a chain reaction,
one bank would fail,
and another one would fail, industries will close…"
For people who are not aware of the Peak Oil theory, and
sadly they are still the vast majority today, this theory advanced
by a wide range of energy experts argues the world is going to
face, in the near future, a permanent and irreversible decline in
global oil production. While it would be too long to present in
details the theory, the following quote from Dr. Schlesinger, the
former US Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Defence and CIA
Director tell us how seriously the theory is taken at the highest
levels of decision-making:
"It's no longer the case that we have a few voices crying in
the
wilderness. The battle is over. The peakists have won."
[4]
Nowadays, we only found three leading and loud opposing
voices to Peak Oil in the energy market, namely the OPEC,
ExxonMobil and the CERA consulting group. As we can see, neither
OPEC nor ExxonMobil are renowned for their scientific integrity and
objectivity. Regarding CERA, their predictions in the evolution of
oil prices made since 2002, were wrong seven times in a row
[5].
In light with these appalling projections, the legitimacy and
strength of CERA's denial of an imminent peak are at best
mistrustful.
Before going further, aren't their any alternatives?
Hydrogen, ethanol or electric cars? Well here the problem comes
from timing, as the decline in oil production is expected to happen
in 2008 according to the ASPO. A report requested by the US
Department of Energy, known as the "Hirsch Report", concludes:
"Over the past century, world economic development has been
fundamentally shaped by the availability of abundant, low-cost oil.
Previous energy transitions (wood to coal, coal to oil, etc.) were
gradual and evolutionary; oil peaking will be
abrupt and revolutionary… The world has never faced a
problem like this. Without massive mitigation at least a decade
before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and long lasting."
[6]
Unfortunately, we don't have ten years and world leaders do
not even understand the crisis. From this point how is the
situation going to evolve? Michael Meacher, a British Labour MP and
former Environment Minister identifies the Peak Oil crisis as "an
apocalyptic scenario"
[7]. A Deutsche Bank paper on oil depletion
goes in the same direction:
"The end-of-the-fossil-hydrocarbons scenario is not a
doom-and-gloom picture painted by pessimistic end-of-the-world
prophets, but a view of scarcity in the coming years and decades
that must be taken seriously."
[8]
To come back to the financial crisis, we have witnessed an
impressive fall in oil prices over recent weeks under fears of an
imminent global recession. However, the massive US bailout plan and
similar European supports to the banking sector are likely to
maintain an artificial growth at high costs and to the detriment of
states' debts. Once we realize oil demand will not decline and will
even continue to grow, as mentioned last week by the IEA
[9], oil prices will once again surge.
Regrettably, when facing the next crisis
which is likely to be unprecedented, the world will no longer
afford an emergency plan. In fact, the US bailout makes an
emergency plan to develop alternatives to oil improbable. We have
used our last bullets, and missed the target.
Recent events have showed us how officials and mainstream
commentators failed to forecast the current crisis. It is time to
finally take the Peak Oil movement seriously, failing to do so
would result in a nightmare scenario, Dr. Campbell and others have
been desperately warning for too long.
-----
[1]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/16/economics.wallstreet
[2]
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2382783.htm?tab=latest
[3]
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=71Y2yAAHHRw
[4]
http://www.odac-info.org/sites/odac.postcarbon.org/files/TIME31-3-08colourC.JPG
[5]
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cera.htm
[6]
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/Oil_Peaking_NETL.pdf
[7]
http://www.petroapocalypsenow.com/film.html
[8]
http://www.dbresearch.de/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000181487.PDF
[9]
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9gBHHeTGzmU&refer=home
VOTE FOR OBAMA "YES WE CAN CHANGE"
American is banking on presidential nominee Barack Obama to
pull them out this financial crisis. Obama is honest about how and
how long it will probably take to do such a task. Obama want's the
faithful believer to hang their and tell everyone not to give up,
keep spreading Obama's slogan "YES WE CAN CHANGE".
GoogleEarth
What is this?
Read the books or see the Movie (books R better)
For all the hate- and fear-mongers out there, and so that
(fictional) history does not repeat itself, I would highly
recommend reading the several (Political Fiction) books written by
Allen Drury in his "Advise and Consent" series. I can only cite a
few titles here as all my books are all over the place (never time
enough to organize them. Just under my bed, I found Advise and
Consent, Capable of Hono(u)r, A Shade of Difference and, Preserve
and Protect.
I hope that nobody taking my advice and reading those books
interprets it (my advice) as an incitement to (paraphrasing) "Kill,
Kill, Baby, Kill" whether ti's kill this candidate or that
candidate.
I shall not reveal the books' endings (this second 's' is not
a typo but that's all I'm willing to reveal without torture.)
This series of books should be mandatory reading (for those
voters who can read) so that, maybe, they'll PAUSE and try to think
(if they can) a bit more rationally about their impulses to kill
one candidate in order to crown the other. And I'm thinking of both
parties as I'm writing this paragraph
Report: Russian strategic bombers launch cruise missiles,,,
Russia's Tu-95MS strategic bombers launched cruise missiles
Saturday following an earlier report that it test-launched a
long-distance ballistic missile in the same day, the Interfax news
agency reported.
"The Tu-95MS aircraft of Russia's Long Range Aviation took
off from tactical airfields and successfully launched training
cruise missiles in the Arctic region of the country," Col. Lieut.
Vladimir Drik, aide to the Russian Air Forces commander said.
The missiles accurately hit training targets at the firing
range, he said.
The launch was made as part of Stability-2008 exercises
conducted with Belarus from Sept. 22 to Oct. 21.
It was reported earlier that Russia test-launched a
long-distance ballistic missile Saturday as part of its Northern
Fleet's military exercises. It was the first time that a submarine
launched the Sineva ballistic missile to its maximum range.
(Tupolev)
The Tu-95 'Bear' first flew in 1954 and entered service
little more than a year later. It is a classic post-war aircraft
design, with jet-type performance provided by four extremely
powerful turboprops, each driving massive contra-rotating
propellers and mounted on swept flying surfaces. Powered by four
turboprop engines, driving contra-rotating four-blade propellers 18
ft across, the Bear is one of the world's noisiest military
aircraft. 'Bears' were initially operated by Long Range Aviation,
which was the Soviet strategic air force. The Bear was also use by
the Soviet Navy as a long range maritime reconnaissance and ASW
aircraft. The successor states of the Soviet Union still operate
about 125 Bears in strategic roles. The original 'Bear-A' is a
strategic Bomber, with a 20 ton payload of free-fall weapons.
'Bear-Bs' and 'Bear-Gs' are missile carriers, while the latest
'Bear-H' is a dedicated long-range cruise missile carriers, armed
with 10 AS-15 'Kent' air launched cruise missiles.
The Tu-95 BEAR was perhaps the most successful bomber
produced by the Soviet aviation, enjoying long service in a variety
of roles and configurations. It was the only bomber deployed by any
country to use turbo-prop engines, which provided extraordinarily
long endurance at speeds only slightly less than comparable
turbojet-powered heavy bombers.
You do know he is white too!
I have SO had it with the media and the press. I actually saw an
Editorial article in our local paper here in PA, "The Daily Local
News" in which the author of this article actually said "If Obama
was white".....
As a MOTHER, I find this insulting and utterly absurd. When
people ask what my ancestry is, I NEVER leave my Irish mother out
and say I am an "Italian -American." That would be ridiculous. I am
SURE Obama is PROUD of his mother, family and grandparents who
raised him and made him comfortable in his own skin, no MATTER what
color it was.
I have seen exactly ONE TV add with his mother and
grandparents in it.
For the IGNORANT voters who actually think they cannot vote
for this intelligent, vibrant and communicative "black boy" (how
insulting) remind them he is "white boy" too and maybe they can
vote for the half that they feel comfortable with, which in itself
is ridiculous.
OUTRAGED in PA - Don't belive the polls - PENNSYLVANIA is for
Barack Obama - Black, white, red, and blue!!!
Austrian Fall
Pictures from the Austrian countryside
Paris Statue of Liberty against Eiffel Tower
Granted the quality of this picture leaves much to be desired but
for a scanned 20 year old picture taken from a moving boat on the
seine in less then ideal weather it is not bad. Although we have
had our temporary disagreements with France (we had to get last
mintue visas due to the bombing of libya for this trip), it is
important to remember that we had no greater ally then France as a
fledgling country seeking self rule and democracy. The French have
their own mini stautue of liberty to commemorate us. Here it is
against the Eiffel Tower in the background.
"Speaker at McCain rally says non-Christians want an Obama win"
I was disgusted when I read about a minister who delivered
the invocation at John McCain's rally in Davenport, Iowa, who
proceeded to tell the crowd that non-Christians are "praying to
their god..." that McCain's opponents win and to suggest that one
god is "bigger" than another.
It's fundamentalist like that who continue to alienate us
from the rest of the world by giving other countries the impression
that the United States of America is a nation of Evangelical
Christians on a mission to convert the world to Christianity with a
"you're either with us or against us" type attitude.
I run an Earth-Centered (Pagan) group for the cadets
attending the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
We talk about other religions quite often and of course we talk
about our differences, but we also talk about a "Coexist"
philosophy that the world desperately needs to adopt.
When you hear someone saying things like this minister did
for someone who could be the next President of the United States of
America; then it's hard for people of minotiry faiths to not think
about what may lie in their future, especially if someone who
believes in what this minister believes in were to make it to the
White House. Once again, we just took two steps backwards.
As a nation, we must cease using religion to promote
politics. I'm not Christian, but as far as Christianity goes in
regards to prayer; Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6:6 "(6) when you
pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father,
who is unseen..." not in public only "to be seen by men".
Brandon- Colorado Springs, Colorado
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