Posts by Seven

.....................i received an sms from mrs ozzie last night informing me that ozzie is having an extremely risky operation on wednesday morning, 8am australian time.

i can't give more details at this stage as to the procedure due to confidentiality but i can assure you it is going to be dangerous!

mrs ozzie said that it had to be done despite the risk.. so if all of us here could take a moment tomorrow and send positive thoughts.

Seven

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Ozzie}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Sending well wishes, positive thoughts, and love your way. Thinking of Mrs. Ozzie too.

Thank you Bliss.

15

Oh to be a woodpecker

by bikerchic in

jw
friends

if only i was one of these i would have it made in the shade.

life would be wonderful, i would be sought after as the last great hope and cared for tenderly by my adoring public.. funding for conservation.

the nature conservancy works with conservation supporters and partner organizations to create funding for conservation worldwide using a variety of creative methods.

Seven

http://www.songbird.org/

Every time we drink coffee without caring where it came from and how it was grown we play our part in helping to shatter an already fragile economy.

Birds play a part in the fabric of the ecology that helps to support the life we live.

15

Oh to be a woodpecker

by bikerchic in

jw
friends

if only i was one of these i would have it made in the shade.

life would be wonderful, i would be sought after as the last great hope and cared for tenderly by my adoring public.. funding for conservation.

the nature conservancy works with conservation supporters and partner organizations to create funding for conservation worldwide using a variety of creative methods.

Seven

Imagining a world without birds

Source: Copyright 2004, Japan Times
Date: March 14, 2004
Byline: Editorial

Take a walk in a Tokyo garden -- particularly an undisturbed, crow-haunted one such as the Institute for Nature Study's park in Meguro -- and you might find this hard to believe, but the world's bird population is shrinking. According to a report released to coincide with BirdLife International's quadrennial world conference in South Africa last week, one in eight of the world's bird species are threatened with extinction.

That is over 1,200 species. And the rate of extinction is accelerating. In the last 500 years, 129 species were declared extinct; today, 179 species are critically endangered and another 344 are at "very high risk" of extinction, the report says. Some pockets of the planet are so inhospitable they actually face a future in which, in the poet John Keats' phrase for a fatally stricken landscape, "no birds sing."

Anyone who saw last year's documentary "Winged Migration" will have an inkling of what such a loss would represent. For three years, the filmmakers tracked the migratory paths of birds, from pole to pole and numerous destinations in between, accompanying the flocks in gliders, balloons and ultralight, motorized aircraft. The result was a bird's-eye-view of Earth as a place alive with flying, soaring, hopping, darting creatures, extraordinarily various and beautiful. Crisscrossing and encircling the planet, birds weave what the film portrayed as a mysterious, protective web of life around and above us. As long as birds are safe, the movie implied, all the diverse forms of life below are somehow safe as well.

But we, apparently, are not doing a very good job of protecting birds. According to the new report, titled "State of the World's Birds 2004," 966 species have populations of less than 10,000. And nearly 80 species have populations numbering fewer than 50, meaning they are virtually unsustainable in the wild. There are points of light here and there, including in Japan, where the short-tailed albatross, thought to have been extinct for decades, has re-established a breeding colony on Torishima Island, despite twin threats from ocean fishermen and an active volcano. Another success story is New Zealand's black robin, which is reported to have bounced back from a population of five birds, including just one breeding pair, to about 250 -- inbred, no doubt, but surviving.

The general picture, however, is one of nearly unrelieved gloom. Take albatrosses: Despite the tenuous recovery of the short-tailed species (which remains endangered), the family Diomedeidae as a whole is on the brink. According to the report, a shocking 95 percent of the world's albatrosses face extinction. Readers of the British Romantic poets may think now, not of Keats, but of S.T. Coleridge, recalling what happened after his Ancient Mariner "shot the albatross," a bird of good omen. He and his ship were cursed:

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

Unfortunately, humanity appears to be re-enacting the Mariner's transgression on a mass scale. "State of the World's Birds" makes clear that the accelerating loss of avian species is almost entirely a result of human activity, from uncontrolled farming and forestry and the introduction of alien species (a particular problem on islands) to pollution, climate change and illegal commercial trading. Forest fires, also cited by the report as a factor in birds' decline, are sometimes caused by people, sometimes not. But all the other factors illustrate just how incompatible modern human existence is with so-called biodiversity: the variety of organisms coexisting in a given place. And the implications may be as dire for us as they were for the Ancient Mariner and his shipmates.

The alarm triggered by last week's report is not just about birds, much as one regrets the harm done to such spectacular and beloved bird families as albatrosses, cranes, parrots and pheasants, all among the most endangered. Like the canaries that used to be taken down into mines to test the air for carbon monoxide, birds in general are recognized as "indicator species." What happens to them now will likely happen to other forms of life down the road, conservationists say. In the report's words, their present fate appears to indicate "a fundamental flaw in the way that we treat our environment."

The upside of the BirdLife report is its focus on what it can do now to halt the trend, from sponsoring local habitat support groups worldwide to promoting bird-watching and wildlife tourism, as well as other forms of conservation. As for the rest of us, at the very least we can remember the birds, and what their predicament augurs for us all, the next time we vote.

Originally posted at: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?ed20040314a1.htm

It's a shame! Shame on the US Government for caring more about a noisey bird than PEOPLE!

Kate you can't be serious. Considering what money the government pisses away, for example another $81 billion dollars for a f***ing obscenity of a war. Now that's a shame. How about another half a billion for some bombers? That's what I call a shame Kate. As the birds go, we go. Time is running out.

30

Dr Who ... revenge of the BBC !

by Simon in

.

the latest episode of dr who really made me laugh - the bbc script writers made some quite subtle but pointed digs at the government wo had previously 'won' (unfairly) after appointing their own judge as to whether the bbc or the government lied about iraq.. the pm got killed.. downing street got destroyed because of aliens with .... weapons of mass destruction that could be launched in 45 minutes seconds (which in the end turned out not to exist).

brilliant.

Seven

Yeah, that was what Dr Who was always like

Yeah, but isn't it great though? I can watch those old episodes over and over while I play with my little plastic daleks and K-9. I was able to pick up quite a few of my favorites on DVD from BBC Video-Spearhead from Space(with those faceless mannequins) and Carnival of Monsters both from the Pertwee years.

30

Dr Who ... revenge of the BBC !

by Simon in

.

the latest episode of dr who really made me laugh - the bbc script writers made some quite subtle but pointed digs at the government wo had previously 'won' (unfairly) after appointing their own judge as to whether the bbc or the government lied about iraq.. the pm got killed.. downing street got destroyed because of aliens with .... weapons of mass destruction that could be launched in 45 minutes seconds (which in the end turned out not to exist).

brilliant.

Seven

lol "exterminate "

16

Cowboy

by Seven in

jw
friends

dear cowboy,.

my thoughts are with you and your family today on the 10th anniversary of the oklahoma city bombing that claimed the life of a precious little member of your family.

he will not be forgotten.. love you,.

Seven

Dear Cowboy,

My thoughts are with you and your family today on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that claimed the life of a precious little member of your family. He will not be forgotten.

Love you,

Seven

Rest in peace little one.

Little Boy Blue by Eugene Field (1850-1895)

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue---
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place---
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.

98

"I prayed for you"

by Scully in

if you aren't a "believer", does it bother you when someone says "i'll pray for you" or "i prayed for you"?.

one of my colleagues is an incredibly kind and sweet person, and i know she says it because she believes she's doing something good on my behalf.

i always say "thank you for thinking of me", because i know that's the spirit she's intending to convey and that she cares about the situation i'm in vis-a-vis my jw relatives, but she knows i no longer believe in god (at least not in the sense that she does) - i wonder does she think that a few prayers are going to change my mind?

Seven

How do you feel about this?

It used to irritate me (I'm not a believer) but I've come to the understanding that the person(s) doing the praying really cares about/loves me . It probably makes them feel like they're doing something extra special and personal. (Hey, paint my house instead) It's the equivalent of me telling someone I'll be thinking of them or sending positive vibes their way when they're going through a bad stretch. I'm not going to take that away from them. On the otherhand if the prayer is for my spiritual health I comment that I've taken care of that myself.

Seven

19

calling all young single men

by SixofNine in

jw
friends

.

my divorce has been final for 5 years... and i have alot to offer.. namely: beer and pizza for anyone who will help me move or take a load of trash to the dump.

i don't really care if you're a liar or a cheat or even a hottie for that matter, and if you're an alcoholic, maybe you'll work harder for beer?