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Bears, songs & vids. And Bears. And stars.
Source: http://www.bitsofnews.com (3-26-08)
Professor Benny Shanon of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has written a paper arguing that Moses, the Jewish prophet, was on drugs. Shanon argues that Moses was on Ayahuasca, a mixture of the Acacia tree and harmal plant in conjunction. He argues this based on some very easily obtainable facts. In South America, shamans take a mixture of chemicals as Ayahuasca, a different mix than available in the Middle East, to generate mystical experience. The writer, Professor Shanon, a professor of psychiatry, himself has experienced the kind of highs that are obtainable from this particular drug and in conjunction with other anecdotal evidence, he suggests that lots of the experiences of this type of drug convince those who take it that they are speaking to God or to approaching death. This particular drug creates an impression which is incredibly impressive for the taker but the point is that Shanon doesn't produce any evidence within literature or from studies for this, just the evidence of anecdotal impression.
Source: http://www.sunherald.com (4-8-08)
BILOXI --Forty visitors showed up for the unannounced soft opening of the grounds of Beauvoir on Monday, and by 10 a.m. this morning there was another dozen waiting to take what the museum staff calls the "disaster tour."
Just the grounds, not the National Landmark 1850s Beauvoir House, is open to the public until the grand reopening of the restored house on the June 3 birthday of Jefferson Davis.
Source: International Herald Tribune (4-14-08)
Dr. Johnson declared a tavern seat "the throne of human felicity." The Frenchman Hilaire Belloc, who spent his life in England, said: "When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves. For you will have lost the last of England."...
Some say the pub is in crisis. A few years ago, The Guardian reported that for the first time since the Norman Conquest fewer than half the villages of England have a pub. Chains of horrendous corporate-owned "vertical drinking establishments" — giant Identikit bars — threaten the real pubs, and the real pubs are mostly owned by equally horrendous "pubcos," companies invented to dodge laws against brewing monopolies. Yet somehow real ale, championed by Camra (the Campaign for Real Ale), and real pubs do survive.
While on assignment in Afghanistan, Steve Featherstone began taking pictures of latrine walls at an airbase in Kuwait, not far from the border with Iraq. The images, he says, are a rare glimpse into the minds of U.S. soldiers.
Source: AP (3-17-08)
YREKA, Calif. - In extreme Northern California, far from the bright lights of Hollywood and the foggy charms of San Francisco, is a place unknown to most people: a handful of counties that once sought to make themselves into a separate state called Jefferson.
The idea lasted only a few days in 1941 before it was quashed by the attack on Pearl Harbor. But for a few who remember its history, the movement embodies the mindset of this sparsely populated country that still longs for more autonomy.
"We've always fostered an independent streak up here," said Pete LaFortune, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce in Yreka (pronounced why-REEK-ah), about 270 miles north of San Francisco.
More than six decades later, many residents of the mountainous region along the California-Oregon border continue to complain that their concerns are overlooked and undervalued by decision makers in more populated areas.
The State of Jefferson began as part publicity stunt, part political gesture. Even today, the movement is made up of tourist-friendly whimsy intertwined with more serious themes of discontent.
Source: Sacramento Bee (1-28-08)
A statue of "Chief Lemee," who was actually an Indian park employee who danced in Miwok and Plains Indian regalia for visitors, occupies a place at the Yosemite park museum, as does a photo showing the ceremony. Members of the Paiute tribe contend the display, as well as others, are historically inaccurate.