Searching For the God Within
The way our brains are wired may explain the origin and power of religious beliefs
By Sharon Begley
NEWSWEEK
There is a difference this time, though. The young Tibetan Buddhist has a length of twine beside him and an IV in his left arm. As he approaches the transcendent peak of his meditative state, he tugs on the twine. At the other end, in the next room, Dr. Andrew Newberg feels the pull, and quickly injects a radioactive tracer into the IV line. Then Newberg whisks him into a brain-imaging machine called SPECT—and the man's sense of unity with the cosmos gets boiled down to a computer readout. A region at the top rear of the brain which weaves sensory data into a feeling of where the self ends and the rest of the world begins looks like the victim of one of California's rolling blackouts. Deprived of sensory input by the man's inward concentration, this "orientation area" cannot do its job of finding the border between self and world. "The brain had no choice," says Newberg. "It perceived the self to be endless, as one with all of creation. And this felt utterly real."
The tension between science and religion is about to get tenser, for some scientists have decided that religious experience is just too intriguing not to study. Neurologists jumped in first, finding a connection between temporal lobe epilepsy and a sudden interest in religion. As V. S. Ramachandran of the University of California, San Diego, told a 1997 meeting, these patients, during seizures, "say they see God" or feel "a sudden sense of enlightenment." Now researchers are looking at more-common varieties of religious experience. Newberg and the late Dr. Eugene d'Aquili, both of the University of Pennsylvania, have a name for this field: neuro-theology. In a book to be published in April, they conclude that spiritual experiences are the inevitable outcome of brain wiring: "The human brain has been genetically wired to encourage religious beliefs."

"The absorption of the self into something larger [is] not the result of emotional fabrication or wishful thinking."
— NEWBERG AND D'AQUILI

Even plain old praying affects the brain in distinctive ways. In SPECT scans of Franciscan nuns at prayer, the Penn team found a quieting of the orientation area, which gave the sisters a tangible sense of proximity to and merging with God. "The absorption of the self into something larger [is] not the result of emotional fabrication or wishful thinking," Newberg and d'Aquili write in "Why God Won't Go Away." It springs, instead, from neurological events, as when the orientation area goes dark.
Neuro-theology also explores how ritual behavior elicits brain states that bring on feelings ranging from mild community to deep spiritual unity. A 1997 study by Japanese researchers showed that repetitive rhythms can drive the brain's hypothalamus, which can bring on either serenity or arousal.
That may explain why incantatory hymns can trigger a sense of quietude that believers interpret as spiritual tranquillity and bliss. In contrast, the fast rapturous dancing of Sufi mystics causes hyperarousal, scientists find, which can make participants feel as if they are channeling the energy of the universe. Although the inventors of rituals surely didn't know it at the time, these rites manage to tap into the precise brain mechanisms that tend to make believers interpret perceptions and feelings as evidence of God or, at least, transcendence. Rituals also tend to focus the mind, blocking out sensory perceptions—including those that the orientation area uses to figure out the boundaries of the self. That's why even nonbelievers are often moved by religious ritual. "As long as our brain is wired as it is," says Newberg, "God will not go away."
If brain wiring explains the feelings believers get from prayer and ritual, are spiritual experiences mere creations of our neurons? Neuro-theology at least suggests that spiritual experiences are no more meaningful than, say, the fear the brain is hard-wired to feel in response to a strange noise at night. Believers, of course, have a retort: the brain's wiring may explain religious feelings—but who do you think was the master electrician?

By Amerigo Vespucci Jr. on Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 12:59 am:

Actually, Rights,
The story would be better if the man with house had no house at all. That way it wouldn't matter if he didn't have the right to be secure in his home. Nor would it matter if he did not have a right to refuse to lodge a soldier in his home. Those two (3rd & 4th) could be circumvented in that manner, by prohibiting home ownership.

P.S. I guess one way to stop sprawl would be to stop cutting trees airywhere.

P.S.S. To escape the ghetto, don't go to the gym, learn masonry.

In the middle of winter with the wind howling and traffic grinding over the ice-packed roads, a long line is witnessed outside the county sheriff's office. A similar line extends from the steps in front of the courthouse while another line extends from the handicapped access to the rear of the courthouse.

This scene is being played out in other cities and climates around the country.
The line is moving slowly, if at all. People unaccustomed to talking to one another being to speak to the person in front of, or behind them. As one man crosses the threshold, he shakes off the wooly snow from his shoulders, turns to the woman behind him, and:

Man: What are you in line for?
Woman: I'm registering my vocal cords, says she, crossing the threshold.

The man nods solemnly. Vocal cords. That would be the First Amendment.
Blushing, the man realizes he has something in common with this woman.
Turning, he hefts the typewriter cradled in his arms.

Man: That's what I'm here for. Registering my typewriter.
She nods, turns to the person behind her, another man.

Second Man, overhearing their conversation, cocks one leg up resting the box he has been carrying on his thigh. He lifts one edge of the box back to reveal various religious articles, assorted Bibles, a Koran, Crucifixes, and Rosaries.

Second Man: Looks like we're all registering for the First Amendment.

They share a common chuckle when a third person holds out a small red house, the kind used in the Monopoly game, and says with a grin: Blasts upon them!
I'm here to register my house just because of the Third and Fourth Amendments! Fie upon 'em if they think I'll invite them into my home! That rule is only so they can see what else I may have to register!

The whole lot of 'em: But it's for the common good, after all.

Sandy,
It's great to hear from you. Have missed your musings.

Yesterday, somewhere near
the Siwalik Hills north of Delhi, 22-year-old Benny Bailey unfolds a letter from his dear friend Keats, to read: Memory should not be called knowledge--Many have original Minds who do not think it--they are led away by Custom--Now it appears to me that almost any Man may like the Spider spin from his own inwards his own airy Citadel.

On a playground in a village, two boys are arguing about whose father has the largest arms.

O! for a taste of Negative Capability, an empty slate even. Or, lacking that, perhaps a touchstone with which one could measure the discordant themes of the world.

Astro Alert
January 22, 2001
A major solar flare that erupted from a new sunspot group on the Sun on 20 January produced a high velocity coronal mass ejection that contained an Earthward-directed component. The shock front from this disturbance is expected to impact the Earth over the next several hours (by the early UTC day of 23 January - perhaps by midnight EST on 22 January or the early
morning EST hours of 23 January). The ACE spacecraft is already showing signs that the disturbance is beginning to more closely approach the Earth.
This disturbance may have the potential to produce visible levels of auroral activity over the middle latitude regions on 23 January and possibly 24 January. The best day for possible levels of activity should be 23 January.
The active sunspot group that produced this coronal mass ejection has been fairly quiet since the major flare that rocked the site on 20 January. It may still have the potential of producing another Earthward directed coronal mass ejection.
A middle latitude auroral activity watch has been issued for the present time through 25 January. The associated statement is included below. For current conditions and discussions of activity, visit:
Astro-Alert

Boston Jack is currently stuck in the 19th century on one of his godawful time-travel itineraries, so I'll just have to take up the teacher teacher slack. And being but a humble ovenbird, my goodness, I hope this was pitched as a friendly question. I see Mr. Arp's page was last updated in 1997 and lots has changed since then with regard to experimental data, but here goes...

Word U.P.! We have contact! And this is what's red-shifting into my personal stamping mill at moment presentus here in Hubbell near the ruins of the old C&H smelter:
If the Big Bang theory is invalidated then the Catholic Church is gonna be PO'd. They endorsed the Big Bang theory in 1951.
Hey maybe the "Universe" is both expanding and contracting at the same time in different dimensions. In that case, what we really have is not a Universe but a Biverse.
The meiosis/mitosis replication of a living breathing heartbeating organism.
How's that for an Ecoversial Theory?

Uno:Hey heikki I see dat da DEQ is having one of dem der public hearings wednesday night!
Heikki: I guess so, Uno somding ta do with dem der poopy ponds for Mt. Bohemia!
Uno:Geez doze state people cant keep der nose out of anyones business eh!
Heikki: Well dat perfesser at Da Tech he found some problems with dat der design of dose ponds and stuff!
Uno: Der perfesser at da tech, wat da heck dose he nose anyways.
Heikki: I dunno, someding about too much of dat poop would go in dat der bush!
Uno: Well I dunno, dose people dat designed dat dey went to da tech didnt dey?
Heikki:Dats right, I tink, so.
Uno:Dose students day do der homework?
Heikki:I dunno what da heck does dat perfesser know anyway, engineers know what da heck der doing!
Uno: I dunno, heikki, da poop is getting deeper at da hill.
Heikki: Yeah, careful you dont step in it!!!

For what it's worth. (or for the two or three paying attention)


* On October 30, 2000, (Public Law 106-393), H.R. 2389, the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (Act) was signed into law by the President. This legislation ends rural communities’ historic dependence on timber sale receipts to finance school and road construction.
Counties will have the option of continuing to receive payments under the 25 Percent Fund Act, or electing to receive their share of the average of the three highest 25 percent payments made to the state during the period of fiscal year 1986 through fiscal year 1999 (the full payment amount).
Counties that elect to receive their full payment amount and would receive $100,000 or more, are required to reserve no less than 15 and no more than 20 percent of their distribution for forest restoration, maintenance or stewardship projects under Title II of the Act (Title II special projects), county projects under Title III (Title III projects) or both. The Act requires that consensus-based Resource Advisory Committees (RACs) be formed to recommend special projects funded under the Act. These committees are to be balanced and diverse with equal representation from industry, environmental groups and local people. The appointments to the RACs are to be made within 180 days of the law’s enactment.
http://www.fs.fed.us/news/2001/01/01jan18-FS-FINAL-FY2000-PAYMENTS-TO-STATES.htm

Alfred, Alfred my dear man, just as there is no crying in baseball, there is no whining in the ethereal world(and no "getting ahead" either). The Bard is to blame, I'm afraid, for this spiritual method of overcoming perceived hardship in the realm of motley anonymity. But wasn't the "grand democracy" of his Forest of Arden full of real interesting flesh and blood?

Alfred Stompanato

Listen mates,
If you want to get ahead in the ethereal world, you're going to need to learn how to express dissatisfaction in an interesting way. People have no tolerance for your particular hardship unless you know how to entertain them with it.
Or: being diligently indolent, he who saddens at thought of idleness cannot be idle, and he's awake who thinks himself asleep. Oye, like the spider spin from his own inwards his own airy Citadel. Imagine a grand democracy of Forest Trees with real flesh and real blood.

Some quacks have mistakenly assumed that empty-headed is a synonym for low intelligence or stupidity. Nothing could be further from the truth. Amongst us high-rpm wing-beaters, empty-headedness is a reference to the Zen Buddhist concept of no-mind. A curiosity with and a receptivity to the natural currents of awareness that ever flow around our irritable reachings for logical argument. Keats, one of we hummingbirds favorite poets, called it "negative capability".
Frogs ribbet I'm told ribbet affectionately perceive this aspect of mentality as simply the more musical ribbet ribbet right-hemispheric mode of their cloven cerebrums.

Well, must be off now to flutter toward the sweet nectar of that virginal forest feeling stuff. The Simpsons are on and Krusty(the Kannibal Klown) is barbecuing another Great White Hunter.

Fish: Methinks it be a tasty looking tidbit.
2nd Fish: Tasty true! How pretty it looks! Delightful!
Fish: Surely it will help sustain one of us!
2nd Fish: But look at this, a point! Nay, several points!
Fish: Oh? Indeed indeed-ee, three pronged points!
2nd Fish: What manner of food is this that is painted so prettily?
Fish: Aye, and so appealing to the eye, so tastefully colored.
2nd Fish: On the bottom here! Look! A label, says, "sustainable".
Fish: I think I spy a line attached! 'Tis bait! Most foul and deceiving!
2nd Fish: And look, through the water, on the bank, a singular form, and singing!
Singular Form: Doo-doo-doo,
I am an army of one, that's all we need,
cause there be too many now,
on this planet earth.
So I am an army of one! One! One!
Fish: Whew! I am glad I didn't take the bait.
2nd Fish: This thing, "sustainable" must be deceptively clever. And look, in fine print, 'tis another word, "environmentalism".

On the bank, the singular form, bored, begins reading from a leather-bound book:
"And behold, the Virgin Forest gave birth to a feeling. And the feeling was
good. And the feeling went forth…"

I've had it up to my bill with unkindly folk making passing snide references to being both, number one, empty-headed and two, splay-footed. Whilst frogs might not take offense at being splay-footed, simply because they are slippery-skinned creatures, us Anas genus gentry find the condition to our advantage. Empty-headed on the other hand is a completely useless term. Bird-brained, now might be more like it, in more ways than one considering the bird's use of flight to flee from troubles. Of course, if you bipedal-limited, flightless, large-brained mammals who believe you are at the top of the food chain, would consider your heart, as well as your overly-large brain, when making decisions, the world would be a better place.

Trudging around the Internet, a bit more splay-footed toward purpose than usual, I came across the Heartwood website mentioned previously.

Yes, is it interesting that they confess that they wish to put an end to logging in our national forests. It is also curious, to say the least, that they "realize" a need for sustainable logging on privately owned land. Curious, indeed.

So, wunder whud they t'ink O' loggin' of a sustainable type, in our national forests? Or? Once we've caused enough laws to make it illegal to log in our national forests, will we make it illegal to log privately unless you do an extensive study to see if your potentially illegal activity will harm the bow-legged bullfrog?

Whilst flitting about the internet in my usual empty-headed way I came across an interesting phrase:

"the fascism of political correctness"

Perhaps this is the larger societal affliction of which the Beaver clan speaks.

Just trying to help,
H.H.

Beaver Shrugged:
Let's clear up a mistatement of yours here. Manatee Jones never claimed that "environmentalists" are responsible stewards of God's Creation. He said that "we"(the people), in the absence of other species to do so, should be. There's nothing controversial in that. It's common sense. It's where simple ethics meets the science of ecology. To say that some environmentalists have fascist tendencies(or traces of behavioral fanaticism) is undoubtedly true. The same could be said of many group efforts. Should I abandon a "good faith attitude" toward Christianity or Islam, most of whose adherents from my experience are good decent people, because some of their practitioners not only have fascist tendencies but have killed thousands if not millions in the name of their cause?
Now I don't know the folks at FOLK or Heartwood, but I expect if their lawsuit is frivolous it will be judged as such. I myself am trained in the science of ecology and have worked as a logger. I've always been of the opinion that a well-managed forest is healthier than an unmanaged one. That's what they teach you in forestry school. I suspect some of these "environmentalists" of which you speak apprehend the natural world with an excess of sentiment and a deprivation of science. These people are not "ecologists".

ps I heard on the grapevine that Manatee Jones has been summarily banished from his Florida community in disgrace for fathering a love-child with an Evinrude Seaquest T36H trolling motor.

To the Shrugging Beaver,
What about DHMO! Dihydrogen Monoxide Huh! What about that, Mister, it's-okay-to-rape-and-pillage-our-planet! How many people, environmentalists included, know about the dangers of DHMO! This substance is a tireless ingredient that the
burrowed-craps refuse to do anything about! DHMO has been shown to corrode and rust metal! DHMO is found in acid rain! DHMO has even been found in tumors of cancer patients! If ingested, excessive sweating and frequent urination are the result! Everyone should take a stand to stomp out DHMO! How about THAT! Mr. Beaver Shrugged!
If an environmentalist called for an executive order to ban immediately from the face of the globe all traces of DHMO would YOU stand behind it!!!! No. You probably wouldn't. YOU would b_tch and complain about more governmental regulation! O! When will somebody do something about DHMO! E-mail me at blue lagoon if you'd like to participate in the eradication of DHMO.

M. Jones and other readers,
I've read "Sounds Eerily Familiar" and "Manatee Jones" discussion regarding the environmental movement and if neither of you mind, I would like to add my penny's worth. (I don't know who Jeff is, either.)

Jones, I don't think S.E.F. is saying that environmentalists are Nazis or Nature Worshipers. I can see the similarities between Nazi propaganda and junk science-based environmental arguments that attempt to sway public opinion in much the same way the Nazi swayed the German populace. Yes, environmentalism uses the legal system to their ends. But the Unabomber didn't use the legal system; rather, he took extreme measures to emphasize his anti-industrial view. And there is a massive amount of other cases that run the gamut between legal action and blowing up people.

Too, the environmentalist's insistence on the precautionary principle illustrates just how wrong you are, M. Jones, when you suggest that environmentalists are responsible stewards of God's Creation. The precautionary principle precludes us from a cost benefit analysis for man's actions, assuming the production of man is seeking the good of man. Rather, environmentalism values nature above humans. Nature must be protected even at the expense of human lives. [word search: Yew trees, cancer]
To say that environmentalism is being a responsible steward is, again, in your words, just plain silly. The good shepherd cares for all of the flock, while he moves them from pasture to pasture. The good shepherd doesn't withhold the sheep from the pasture. Rather, the good shepherd provides comfort and safety for the sheep while they utilize the pasture. This is not the goal of environmentalism.
Certainly, M. Jones, there are those within environmentalism whose goals include man. But to adopt a good faith attitude toward environmentalism simply because it seems to have the high moral ground is to ignore the fascist element within environmentalism. One hopes that the illustration of the Unabomber will alert Americans to the evil side of environmentalism. In 1996, for example, a lawsuit was filed against an animal rights group for using $173,000 in charitable donations to buy weapons.
Or take S.E.F.'s example of the lawsuit filed to stop logging in the Ottawa National Forest. Heartwood's origins, as stated on their web-site, says, {the initial organizing focus was on halting logging on the national forests.} I didn't read anywhere on their site the motivation for this. Why would they want to halt logging in the national forests? At the same time, they claim they realized they needed to influence sustainable and responsible stewardship of private forests.
So once you have enough governmental regulations in place to maintain a restrictive central government to pass all the legislation that environmentalism seeks, what happens next? Well, the Heartwood group wants to influence the manner in which private land is logged…and what do we have if not the roots of fascism. Neo-Strasserism?

Now you know how I felt when that idiot building inspector had my "treehouse" torn down.

The pendulum has swung so far out of sight that we need not worry about it swinging back as it will likely come full circle. Is this what we want?

Beavers Given Stern Warning by Michigan Environmental Agency (7/30/98)
From the Wall Street Journal comes a story that stretches even my credulity. Last December, a Michigan landowner was cited and given a stern warning by state environmental regulators for "construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond." The man was scolded that building such inherently dangerous structures would not be tolerated.

Later examination of the structures found that they had been constructed by beavers.

Leave me alone, I'm safe here, under the ice.

Sound Eerily Familiar:
I don't know who Jeff is, but in his absence I'm gonna have to sleep on your provocative response to fully comprehend its ideological nuances.
I will however comment on your last sentence. The Natural World is God's Creation, we've always been an integral part of it, and we are now the responsible steward of its healthy dominion. To say that those for whom this is an important issue are Nazi's and/or Nature Worshipers is just plain silly. So many people have been urbanized now that the natural world and its actual workings have become a nebulous reality that daily haunts their subconscious minds. Do some environmental groups manipulate this evolutionarily powerful instinct with superfluous fund-raising efforts? Yes! There's is too much easy money in tweaking public opinion for this or that "cause" these days because fund raising is both a big business and a refined psychological art. Computerized mailing lists are solid gold whether you're selling magazine subscriptions or supporting some ethical cause.
Lawsuits are lawsuits, not fascist initiatives. The fact that we live in a relatively common sense realm of laws(and not criminal behavior) is precisely what differentiates us from the hellish nightmare that was Nazi Germany.
Demonizing environmentalists is not the solution to America's(and the world's) ecological dilemmas.

A year ago, the Marquette-based Northwoods Wilderness Recovery and another "environmental" group, Heartwood, of Bloomington, Indiana, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block three timber sales in the Ottawa National Forest.
The two groups (visit FOLK's website to read about their picnic together) accused the U.S. Forest Service of "too little consideration of how it might harm the environment, including threatened and endangered species."

Is this an example, Jeff, of legal strategies based on strong beliefs or can Eco and Nazi be rhetorically coupled in this case? Not enough information?

Consider the word, might. The inconsiderate Forest Service didn't ponder the significance of how the logging "might" harm the environment. No word here about how the logging might benefit the local population. Or how the logging might benefit that ignored species, man.

[An aside: The road closures in our forests threatens our local economy. As we have learned, 25% of the sales from timber in our forests is returned to the local economy--our schools, roads. I believe I read that road closures will cause a loss of $160 million. Perhaps we can adapt and we will evolve by tomorrow morning with fur instead of skin? I digress]

Eco? Nazi? Was it the Nazi's who warned with their propaganda that the Jewish people "might" be trying to take over the world, "might" be trying to control the flow of money? And the evidence? Manufactured or mislabeled.

And so we have had a case where environmentalists believed the Forest Service didn't consider how logging "might" harm the environment. The lawsuit that was filed was based on what? The basis of their lawsuit, as the basis of the Nazi's propaganda blitz, was the "unexpected," the "unpredictable," the "unknown."

The assumption of the environmentalists is that the act of logging, the act of man utilizing his resources, would do harm. The Nazis asked their people to sacrifice their lives for the Fuhrer. Now we are being told to sacrifice our lives to nature. The lawsuit accused the Forest Service of ignoring potential harm to rare and sensitive species. Why not accuse the FS of the potential to leave their child unattended in the car while they dash into the store? Again, the basis is not evidence, but a lack of evidence.

Man and his activities to meet his needs and requirements for survival is secondary. Man is treated as the unnatural phenomenon.

Today we have the benefit of history to know that the Nazis were bombed into submission for good reason, and when we hear the word, Nazi we conjure images that were real. Germany had its anti-Semites. Not all Germans were anti-Semites. And I'm sure there were varying degrees of this hatred in Germany.

Today we have a Unabomber so opposed to progress that he made bombs to kill people, whose writings showed a hatred of people. We have others who file lawsuits on what "might" happen to some animal if man is permitted to go to work logging. The Internet is jammed full of cases more extreme than the example of logging in the Ottawa. Lawsuits upon lawsuits. [The Nature Conservancy's new top-gun is a former lawyer.] And it's not difficult to find the other extreme, acts of sabotage, terrorism, all in the name of environmentalism.


Men for whom God is dead worship untouched nature, their god, while man is corrupt, and anything he does for his own purposes is evil and must be stopped.
By
Sounds Eerily Familiar.

Hey Grand Trog:
FYI: Our lawsuit is against drunken boaters not the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. How about excise taxes for watery roadkill like us on boat and boat-engine makers. And while were on the subject, why not excise taxes on binoculars for preserving good bird-watching habitat. And excise taxes on ATV's and snowmobiles for intelligent wilderness routes. And hiking shoes and cross country ski's could be excise-taxed to help in trail maintenance.
O I could go on and on, but I'm just a manatee and our rhetorical talents are quite inferior when compared with your average Homo Sapiens spokes-folk.

Here's some mostly good news for venison eaters:

January 19, 2001
'Mad Deer Disease' No Threat Yet to U.S. - Panel
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:33 p.m. ET
BETHESDA, Md. (Reuters) - Scientific evidence so far does not show that a fatal illness resembling mad cow disease that afflicts deer and elk in the Western United States can spread to humans, a U.S. advisory panel said on Friday.
Still, the possibility that the illness, called chronic wasting disease, could be harmful to people cannot be ruled out, and researchers and the government should continue monitoring and studying it, members of an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration said.
CWD, sometimes called mad deer disease, has been found in both wild and confined animals in six U.S. states. Experts are concerned because it is in the same family of illnesses as mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which is spreading throughout Europe.
People who eat beef tainted with BSE can develop a deadly human version, scientists believe. More than 80 people in Britain have died from the human form, called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
A panel of scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration concluded that studies to date did not show that the same thing can happen with CWD, but that does not mean that it can be ruled out.
Elk and deer meat is consumed as food in the United States, though on a much smaller scale than beef. Antlers from the animals are also ground and used in some dietary supplements.
``There is no evidence for transmission, but that does not mean transmission could not occur,'' said panel member David Bolton of the New York State Institute for Basic Research.
ELK, DEER CASES IN WEST
CWD was first identified in the United States in the 1960s. The illness causes the same spongelike holes in the brain as mad cow disease does in cattle. Initial symptoms in deer and elk include weight loss and abnormal behavior.
Cases among wild animals have been confined to northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and a small part of Nebraska.
Chronic wasting disease also has been found on 13 elk farms in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska and in Saskatchewan in Canada. Industry groups said they voluntarily destroyed herds when one animal was found to be infected with CWD.
Three Americans under age 30 who had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ate deer and elk meat when they were young. CJD has a long incubation period, and young people rarely die of the disease, which can start spontaneously.
The cases ``suggest a possible relationship with CWD,'' but investigations found ``no strong evidence of a causal link'' with the patients' illnesses, Dr. Ermias Belay of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta told the panel.

Phil's nephew,
Regarding your interest in the mouth of the Montreal: In Colorado, land was added to the Castlewood Canyon State Park in 1992 with the help of two LWCF grants totalling almost $1.5 million.

So perhaps if there was a problem with coming up with the "correct" amount of money through the state funding, federal funding could be added to the idea?

Have you see our state's (MI) SCORP anywhere on-line? State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan

The World Bank predicts wars over water, too.
The first battle will likely take place soon, in Hancock, where at least one customer allegedly pays $135.00 per month for water. So much for a plentiful supply of water, eh?
So how did the water systems we know today come into being? Did the mining companies help underwrite the cost?

Whenever I happen upon one of those New Age Junk Science sites, I tell them if you want to write fiction and poetry then write fiction and poetry. Just don't sell this pulp as "journalism".
Personally I prefer my religion grounded in good science, not bad science.
And speaking of making water illegal, the CIA predicts the next war(s) will most likely be fought over water. Kinda makes you really appreciate the long-range potential of the Great Lakes area.

Scientific Psalms & Lamentations
Psalm 1492
Gawd the scientist so loved the world
that he provided his one almighty hypothesis
that whosoever should believeth in the hypothesis
shall not have to deal with the possibility
of religious conversion, that whoseoever shall
take heart in the hypothesis
shall not fear the possibility of
a heaven or a ••••.

So, yay, though I walk through the green valley
or the "Bible Belt"
I will fear no religious persuasion
for Gawd the Scientist is with me
and yay, I can carry my science in my back pocket
wielding it when necessary and quoting from it
various and assorted possibilities.

And though I be confronted by many scientific
denominations, I will stand firm,
in the one true principle of science
whatever that is
And know that Science must be write
For Gawd the Scientist has spoken thus.

In the center of the ring, weighing in on the side of pure unadulterated science, is
Juvee. Though stunted in his growth by his singular fixation on tweaking anything that substantiates the theory of evolution (Piltdown), anything that causes smoke to emit from the ears of creationists, Juvee prefers to ignore the pitfalls of his history by using an old argument: "But they were not following the creed, the Ten Commandments of Science." Backers of Juvee will be chanting their mantra: Can you prove it! Odds-makers favor Juvee three-to-one over his opponent, Junkie.
Junkie is the favorite of all those who believe the world should turn back to the year 1492, and remain there, in stasis, forever and a day. Fundamentalist supporters carry posters of wagon wheels rolling across a vast undulating ocean of prairie grass, developing fire breaks, and enabling an area for larger grasses (trees) to grow where large grasses didn't grow before. Extremist backers of Junkie hope to turn back the clock to an earlier epoch, to the time before dinosaur logging companies rolled onto the prairie, to a time when frolicking and rolling brontosaurus sawyers were clear-cutting the completely forested world resulting in incredibly large prairies.
Juvee enjoys zinging this idea by suggesting, unscientifically, that the dinosaurs should have employed a more gradual, precautionary principle of sustainable knocking down of trees, trees that would rot, releasing carbon dioxide in incremental doses to ensure warming changes in the climate.
Junkie usually counters this with the completely scientific idea that all people die. All people drink water. Therefore, drinking water is harmful and should be criminalized. Second-hand drinking of water (pregnant mothers) is dangerous and the government should step in and punish mothers who drink water. Moreover, drinking of water while in government-owned vehicles constitutes a clear and present danger to the people who would use the vehicle next. The drinking of water worldwide should end.
Juvee has ignored this argument and is working on a hypothesis that the concept of faith, hope and love has no scientific validity and vows to pummel Junkie and any other heretic who dares oppose his worldview.
Junkie has a wide following among the Sierra Club, at least in theory, though not all members know what their congress is doing.
Odds-makers say that Junkie's best chance of winning would hinge on Junkie's ability to whip the crowd into a frenzy with a demonstration of speaking in tongues (Junk Science Speak).
At stake will be the right to enter the Holier Than Thou and emerge, from time to time, with unshakable truths, at least, until more science proves it false.
Ring announcers tonight will be Bill Shakes His Spear and W.Cantbury-Histale

There is an expectation that protesters from P.A.C.E. (various ignored genres) will be on hand if only to provide CNN an offering of sound and photo bites. One of their members will carry a sign, a day is like a thousand years, a thousand years are like a day, seize the day. Another will tout a placard, "My epoch is being ignored for the sake of a fiscal year!"
Fight time is 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific.

Verlyn,

'Preciate it.

It seems unlikely that scientists will ever discover another species on earth that practices the scientific method. The fact would be unprovable, of course, for there might always be some undiscovered beetle testing hypotheses experimentally under a rotting log or in a convoluted burrow somewhere. But the practice of science will probably turn out to be the last fundamental divide between humans and the other inhabitants of this planet. Again and again, after starting from an ancient premise of radical difference between humans and other creatures, scientists have discovered profound similarities among us all, profound enough to undermine the initial arrogance and the false self-knowledge of that premise. The more we know about the rest of life, it turns out, the more we know about ourselves and the less we resemble the iconic, self-exalting ideal of biblical or Cartesian man. The latest example is music. In a pair of articles published in Science magazine this month, scientists map out an affinity for music in a wide array of species. This is not just a chronicle of grunts, squeaks and warbles. The authors suggest that the production of song in, say, Socorro mockingbirds and California marsh wrens, in wood thrushes, hermit thrushes and many other birds as well, follows rules that humans would recognize as musical, rules that in fact govern much human musical composition. The continuing analysis of humpback whale songs reveals a taste for rhyme and a reliance on the ABA form — "a statement of theme, a section in which it is elaborated, and then a return to a slightly modified version of the original theme." Moreover, many animals learn song in just the ways we do, from parents and mentors and peers. There might be something merely analogous in these resemblances, only the appearance of similarity. But anthropologists have pushed back the threshold of human musicality to a date at least as ancient as the earliest known expressions of visual artistry. They have found flutes, carved from animal bones, that are more than 50,000 years old and have a purity and sophistication of tone and scale that suggests they are the result of centuries, if not millenniums, of earlier music-making. We tend to speak, loosely and dismissively, of the "instinctual" nature of music in animals. But these anthropological finds, as well as recent neurological research on how the human brain comprehends music, suggest that in origin our love of music is no less instinctual than it is in animals and that our remarkable skill as music-makers gives us no grounds for self- exaltation. Each of the music-making species makes what music it can with the tools at its disposal, and we happen to make better tools. To some, I suppose, it seems disorienting to imagine the attributes of our humanity so fully vested in other species. But I find it profoundly reassuring. It is not a matter of projecting human traits onto animals or animal traits onto humans, the way it has been done for centuries. It is a matter of finding a language that elicits meaning from a distinction between human and non- human that is not as absolute as we once believed it was. Seen for what we are, co-inhabitants of a slim wet planet, co-evolved under the same strains, the same harmonies, collaborators in a shared environment, how could the resemblances be less than they are?

To the Grand Trog,
I wonder if we could get our state interested in purchasing the mouth of the Montreal property?
Fisher folk have enjoyed that area for years and years. Maybe between excise taxes, whatever they are, and other moneys available, support for securing the mouth of the Montreal and a sizeable chunk of ground on both sides could be fashioned?
Truly Yours,
Phil the Groundhogs nephew

Ms Lead,
When I make my 40 minute journey from Houghton to Mount Bohemia, I usually take the Calumet-Laurium by-pass, 641 northbound. The temptation is there is take the 441 Business Route right into the heart of the Copper Country.
But it's best to get right on the Mohawk Beltway as you want to make good time.
Upon arrival in Mohawk, one has several options open to them. Or one could take one of two Mohawk by-passes, one along the lake, the other along the cliffs. In the heart of metropolitan Mohawk one could take the Mohawk-Gay Turnpike. That 6th Street extension is a real kick!
North of Mohawk, it's on to Bohemia!
Buckle up! It's the law!
Regards, A Little old lady from East Hancock.

Shoot, mundo,
I think the snowmobilers make it from the bridge to Copper Harbor in twenty minutes, course, they miss a lot of the scenery that way and I suspect anyone driving from Houghton to Mt. Bohemia will want to take it slow to take in all of God's creation. LIFE IN THE FAST LANE-ANE-ANE!

Or maybe a subtle way of suggesting people stay closer to the mountain? But who, I say, WHO, who would want to stay next to Buddy Speedster over there grumbling in the corner pew.

Paul,
I thought there was supposed to be more jobs than that when the hill opened? What happened? More misleading statements? How would anyone, with the meager wages paid be able to move near the hill? They certainly would not be able to afford anything in LLB with the raising property values and taxes. Oh, by the way, have you or anyone else seen the new Mt. Bohemia web site? I still would like to know how you can get from Houghton/Hancock to LLB in 40 minutes? Or do they know a route that no one else does? More misleading statements?

Paul:
How about those Gremlins?
Beat the kings, show me the chip bowl.

Seveer dip, Yeah I suppose your right about who got jobs right now, lets see where those who have jobs on the hill wind up living. I would think that as time goes on Keweenaw will look a little more interesting to those who work here. My kid is playing hockey right now for the high school so I don't think a job is possible with practice too. Lets see who laughs last on jobs for the young. By the way I may have messed up your post name, sometimes I get a little ahead of myself. As of now I am happy with just more winter jobs in the Keweenaw. The hill is about ten percent done, what will next year bring?????????
SHOW ME SOME CHIP DIP DIPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!

My fellow troglodytes,
Hunters and anglers continue to be a cornerstone to conservation in America. Their financial contributions through excise taxes paid under the Federal Aid program are vital to maintaining and restoring our nation's fish and wildlife resources.

The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson Act), signed in 1937, and the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (Dingell-Johnson Act), signed in 1950, collectively have raised more than $5.2 billion.

The money is distributed to the states for projects proposed by the states and approved by the Service. Federal Aid funds pay for up to 75 percent of the cost of each project while the states contribute at least 25 percent of the cost.

The preliminary apportionment for wildlife restoration and hunter education programs for fiscal year 2001 totals $147 million. The money is derived from an 11- percent excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition, a 10-percent tax on pistols and revolvers, and an 11-percent tax on certain archery equipment. One-half of the tax on handguns and archery equipment is made available for
state hunter education and safety programs.

Fellow troglodytes, how much money in excise taxes do other users of our national forests, refuges, and lands contribute to our conservation efforts?

Or do they contribute by taking the Fish and Wildlife Service to court because some environmental group (out of the 3,478,923 groups nation-wide) believes the FWS didn't do enough to save the manatee--so $ goes in the other direction.

Little Ole
Little Ole sat at the kitchen table,puzzling over his homework.His assignment was to write about his origins.He asked his mother Lena,"Mama,vere did Gramma come from"?His mother replied,"Da stork brought her"."Mama, vere did you come from"asked Little Ole."Da stork brought me too,Ole" his mother replied."Vell,Mama,vere did i come from" asked Little Ole."Vell,son,Da stork brought you too"said Lena.With a dark scowl on his face,Little Ole began to write...
There haff been no natural births in our family for three generations.

Hey O!('s):
Local environmentalists and residents fought to stop the deforestation and development of the hillside overlooking the Los Colinos neighborhood but a San Salvador judge overruled them. Last week that denuded hillside came tumbling down on top of Los Colinos. Guess whose judicial asss is grasss now!
Come to t'ink of it, maybe dere were some Nature Conservancy contributors living dere, no?

O! Save the Earth,

All non-profits are required by IRS to annually file Form 990. It's akin to an indiviual's 1040. Lots of financial data, etc.

An outfit called Guidestar publishes these public documents on the Internet. You can pull up an organization's 990 (and web site address if they have one)by going to:
http://www.guidestar.org/

Dem sumbitches Recovering the WIlderness s_mb_t_hes don't give a dam if logging in our forests (national, state, or private) help the local economy. They would mush rather that federal hegemony should dictate local concerns. There tain't no argument that says local control (state, county, local) can't decide in a better way that dictates from tke King in Washington.

We've had state regulations for years. The argument that federal regulations are necessary is wrong.

There ain't one centralized "cure-all" for everybody. Whudja mean I can't fix an existing road? If you're going to stand on my front porch, then stand on it, but don't do it vicariously from Washington!

Hey O!('s):
We got with the Earth Movement last week, 7 point something on the Richter scale, but(unfortunately for you and yours, it seems) there were no Nature Conservancy contributors living in our poor Salvadoran neighborhood when the sky came tumbling down.
I t'ink dey all live on da rich side of town, no?

O! Save the Earth!
You idjiot! Environmental, non-profit groups are exempt from scrutiny. Only governmental units, like the county and townships should be opened to view! Get with the earth movement, man!

Does anyone know if that Keweenaw Liberty Library has published The Nature Conservancy's financial records yet?
Maybe there is a record of the various parties that contribute to them?
Or perhaps someone reading this would know where to view this information on-line?

southern nites:
The very city you live in sprays sewage into the woods, its not that uncommon.

Falstaff. Let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say, we be men of good government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
Prince Henry. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed as the sea is, by the moon.

King Henry IV
Act I, Scene II

Good luck at the inaugural, GW...

Three of the five live in houghton county, paulie. Where are the other two from? So much for jobs for you and your kids. ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,

Geez must be some place you all live in. Sewer problems in a town called Mohawk, sewer problems with your new ski hill. Seems mohawk's sewer leaks and the ski hill is gonna what? Spray sewage into the woods. Wouldnt want to be ya.

I've been busyier than a old man picking fly •••• out of a pepper shaker with boxing gloves on. I will have to read up on some of the posts but one i read asked about jobs. I know of 4 men between the ages of 18 and 25 working on the hill, make that five,. seeya later

Ah, yeah, I saw a wolf cross my border the other day and I wanted to know if I could qualify for federal money. It is my position that my backyard now constitutes a newly colonized area for this threatened species. As such, I intend to file suit in court against the Fish and Wildlife Service for their apparent lack of concern. They were not on hand to witness the wolf crossing. They are responsible, as you know, for critical habitat designation. My backyard clearly qualifies.

And if that argument is not enough to bring out the downtrodden environmentalists to activate my wish list, I am also reporting a new species of grass that has taken root in my backyard. Currently, I count 156 plants of this new grass species and with such a low number, they too should be added to the list of critical, rare, and soon-to-be-endangered species. My backyard should be removed from the tax rolls, as I'm sure many will want to come to my backyard to cleanse their spirit by only visiting to witness these rare and unmentionable species. Just the other day one fellow walked up between the garage and my house, after a brief spiritual journey by the dog pen, freshly bathed and scented by the exotic aromas of this new rare grass. He exclaimed, "What a feeling!"
I concurred. Our culture is surely enriched.

If only to prove my point that this mutated grass in my backyard is rare, and threatened, I have pictures of the old lady who lives next door. I caught her in the act of plucking one of these rare grass stems to add to the collection of dried flowers that she intends to sell on-line as spirit wreaths.

Wer-r-r-r-r-'re out-t-t-t here on-n-n-n a Federal Forest Highway-ay-ay and apparently the road maintanence fund is about 8 _ill-illion dollars behind schedul-ul-ule.

And logging trucks are using federal forest roads less than they were ten years ago. Seems recreational type vehicles are using federal forest highways more.

So...ah, ••••, everyone start building birdhouses, rustic cabin birdhouses and we can all go home! Tweet! tweet! tweet!

Or maybe we could all find an empty condor or eagle nest to roost in! Hoo-yah!

In my reclusive tweety-bird opinion, the only hunter that Aubdubon Society members should be worried about is Sylvester.
I wonder how many bird-watchers own cats?

And I'm sure you have heard of the roadless initiative.

What are our federal and state forests for if not for the timber that we'd like to see come from them? But that won't happen if a road can't be built or maintained to access the forest to harvest the timber.

As it stands now, with the Audubon's Society way of thinking, the foresters of America would do better setting up sites for bird-watching, marking trails where the willow fly-catcher might be spotted. In fact, that's probably what the forest service does--they don't have time to oversee timber activities--they're too busy being anthropologists and bird biologists.

You'd think that if the timbermen could have access to the forests, then everyone else would benefit from that.

I'm still waiting to hear where the dollars go from the cuttings on federal and state forests.
Perhaps some of those dollars could be put to use to maintain roads, another issue of access?

Oh, no,
Asked, and answered. Here are some more situations of various groups being denied access to land.
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/newsletter/back_issues/marapr99/gates.html

Gated communities of the coasts deny the public access to the beach

click here
gates, hunters, ATVs

http://www.collectors-mall.com/ALAA/
rock and mineral collectors denied access
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced the Vertebrate Paleontological Resources Protection Act of 1992 into the U.S. Senate. If enacted, the legislation would have ended amateur fossil collecting on all public lands managed by the Federal government except under supervision of certain degreed paleontologists in "acceptable institutions."


http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=2485
ranchers deny deer hunters access to private lands within a federal grazing allotment

The City of Marquette recently had considered denying access to rock climbers at Presque Isle Park. Check it out if you want. I think, in the end, the City decided against it as the rock climbers took a dim view of denied access.
I believe on reason for the attempt at denial was their fears that some shyster lawyer would sue over hurt.

(U.P. EYE) 1:01 am 1/12/01 New Orleans, LA
Jazz doesn't change the content of your brain, it just puts a booster rocket of inspiration underneath it all and changes the tempo, the dynamic rhythmic structure, of how you think about what you think!
Gott that?

Your Full Moon Early Morn EyeBallin' Observer,
Brianne Gumbo

Ever notice how Canada, 'merica and Keweenaw are like, rhymsically identical?
'member that whenever you're in a John Phillips Sousa mood and are lookin' for a little inspiration!

Let's cut to the chase and corner those fascist culprits, Yeah Right:

Who today, other than private property owners, is denying access to fishermen, rock climbers, hikers, bikers, rockhounds and bird watchers?
Who, I say Hoo Hoo Hoo?
(and if so, Why Why Why...?)

Variation on a theme by Reverend Niemoller
In the USA they denied the hunters specials access rights
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a hunter
Then they denied the rock climbers access
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a rock climber
Then they denied access to the hikers, the bikers, and the rockhounds
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a hiker, a biker, a rockhound.
Then they denied access to the fishermen and women
and I didn't speak up because I didn't fish.
Then they denied access to the bird watchers of the Audubon Society
and by that time no one wanted to speak up,

Because we were all in our own little world, safe, simple, secure, and we dared not cross any borders.

I've been called to jury duty. I believe the law that the prosecution claims the defendant has broken is unconstitutional.
Do I have the right to disregard the judge's orders to the jury once the instructions are given to us and we retire to deliberate?
So can I vote to acquit, can I judge both the law and guilt or innocence?

And happy birthday, Aldo.

Three Piece!
Follow the yellow brick road. No not the enterprise the ship of fools is more like it. You been in some kind of vulcan mind meld or just have your head buried somewhere? Click your heels together and say "Their's no place like home", Their's no place like home. Theirs no place like home.
Live long and prosper!!!!!

Steve,
The Nature Conservancy already owns some 778+ acres in Keweenaw County. I understand that TNC opened an office up here because there are areas they'd like to see protected.

The DNR owns land around Highrock Bay amd Keweenaw Point. So is that area protected?

I don't know how critical the land that TNC is to anything. But if they've sold lots in Virginia or Timbucktoo...

And at various times I thought I heard something said about the asking price for land that LSLC may offer---as if LSLC would be wrong to ask for the best price they could get...while I read that TNC has sold land at inflated prices....go figure.

Walt,
I think they are a non-profit (like a church) because corporations can donate to them(all enviro-outfits), have a huge tax write-off. So Gargantuan Ramjac Corporation knows that the enviro-pitbulls will be there to enforce regulations when the heathen infidel smaller company tries to innovate and renovate.

Maybe we'll be okay as long as the commissioners don't run outside and gaze intently at the night sky for a comet. Or the starship Enterprise.
Scotty, Commish here. Beam me up...

And why was the Audobon Society against the Hunting Heritage Protection Act....cause they said lands are already open to hunting, so why make a law so hunting is special.....

Sounds like the NRA when they say enforce the gun laws....

Curious,
I'm not Paul. I haven't checked though I know two people who have worked, or are working at the hill. The wages are compatible with other wages in the area. We may not be getting rich, but we get to live in Paradise while we stay poor.

Now maybe everyone can start building birdhouses and selling them on the Internet. We'll have all kinds of options and alternatives.

Paulie:
Hey fella, conflict of interest raises it's head again huh? Seems the new commissioner who is employed by none other than UP engineering is on the planning commission. Hmm, Pat Coleman is president of UPE. Now they are going to work with the county on the land use planning. Any conflict of interest there? I see old Commissioner Turncoat says he is against the process of new land use planning. Says it will hinder development. Hmm maybe if we have an adequate plan, then his cronies from MJO would not have any work this summer or next huh? After all did they not do the construction on the Ski hill? The same MJO he worked for up to and resigned shortly after his yes vote on the zoning.
Steve and Jeff, ever consider the cultish side of religion? Or it's connections to jobs and other things?

To Paul/Eagle River,
So how many jobs were generated by the hill for the "kids" and are they now making the big bucks? And what job were you given?

Interesting info on-line:

For example: This summer[2000], the Michigan Council of Local Governments and LIAA began seeking applications for the Information Technology for Intergovernmental Cooperation Project. This $1.4 million demonstration project will help to create countywide information systems for land use planning and community development in six different areas of Michigan.

http://www.liaa.org/home.htm

Never heard of it.

I read on-line, somewhere, that there is debate defining "old-growth".
In another area, I read that loggers were stopped from taking out trees in an area hit by fire. The trees would be left to rot.
Someone else suggested on another "page" that they should just kill all those pesky willow fly-catchers and be done with it.
We could always give the land to railroad companies in a checkerboard pattern and see what develops.
They say trees wouldn't have developed on the prairie if the wagons hadn't passed and made a fire-stop. Now prairie grass is rare.

(U.P. EYE 5:00 pm January 9, 2001 Christchurch, New Zealand)
I finally gave in to Naomi's demands today and signed an open-ended union contract with the southern hemisphere production of Lord of the Rings as Sam Gamgee's personal assistant. •••• those meddling marrying women....(sorry guys)...
My first official "personal errand"? Buy an industrial size box of Milky Way's for the alleged "actor" who plays Sam. He entertained me today with the provocative opinion that the late great Louis Armstrong, Unequivocal Seminal Hero of American Jazz, partook of the mara-jew-wanna drug from teenage-hood to the day he died cuz he thought it made him more creative. Imagine Mozart at 16, sans Mommy and Daddy, discovering a steady supply of the "evil weed". How would the 41st Jupiter Symphony have turned out then? Would the discipline have been there to get to #41 or would #41 have come out as #1?
Say...speakin' of 41(and Jupiter): Did anyone hear about the latest post-post-election ballet count results in Dade County? And how about that waterworld which might exist beneath the ice on 3 of the 5th planet's moons?
Will we ever know who really really won?
Does anybody really really care?

Courtesy of AP via AOL:

Forest Service Chief Moves To Protect Old Growth Trees
By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (Jan. 9) - The U.S. Forest Service chief said Monday he was declaring all old growth trees in national forests off limits to logging, a policy that goes well beyond President Clinton's order protecting a third of national forests from timber operations.
Mike Dombeck, the service chief, said he will direct supervisors on every national forest in the country to map and protect the old growth on national forests remaining after a century of logging, and to develop a vision of how much old growth will be created for the future.
The policy would go beyond the plan signed last Friday by President Clinton, which declared 58.5 million acres of national forests where no roads now exist off-limits to new roads and most logging.
President-elect Bush has not said whether he would try to roll back the new Clinton forest restrictions; but during his campaign, he suggested the proposal - announced more than a year ago - paid too little attention to concerns from Western states and the impact on logging and other industries.
Dombeck, under federal rules, has the right to keep his job 120 days after the change in administrations and his new plan would remain in effect at least that long.
Old growth now in areas known as matrix lands, where logging is allowed, would also be protected under the Dombeck initiative.
``In the not-so-distant past, old trees were viewed as overmature or decadent and targeted for cutting because of their high economic values,'' Dombeck said, in prepared remarks to a conference at Duke University in Durham, N.C.,
``Today, national forests contain our last remaining sizable blocks of old growth forest - a remnant of America's original landscape. In the future, we will celebrate the fact that national forests serve as a reservoir for our last remaining old-growth forests and their associated ecological and social values.''
In view of a record season of forest fires last summer, future logging will be in areas already developed, Dombeck said. It will be designed to reduce the risk of wildfire, especially around cities and towns, and improve the health of the forest rather than turn out logs.
Before the turn of the century, President Teddy Roosevelt created the national forests as a reserve after timber barons cleared the woodlands of the Northeast and Great Lakes. That policy changed after World War II, when the nation turned to the national forests for lumber to build homes for returning veterans.
After record logging in the 1980s left a small fraction of the old growth that was standing when pioneers moved into the West, the Forest Service sharply cut back harvest in the 1990s, partly under court orders to protect threatened wildlife such as the Northern spotted owl and salmon.
Previous Forest Service chiefs have announced policies declaring logging would be based on what's best for the ecosystem, but environmentalists continued to find individual timber sales that slated big trees for harvest and violated guidelines for protecting fish and wildlife habitat.
With a 40 percent increase in the Forest Service budget and a backlog of work to improve forest health and reduce fire risk, the national forests are likely to provide more timber and jobs than they do today, said Dombeck chief aide Chris Wood from Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

orky,
that was already done and Mount Houghton will never be the same for years and years.

BOHEMIA:
Huh, if ya ask me maybe we can call in a NATO napalm mission by some F-17 and be done with it.

Paulie,Paulie,Paulie,
There you go again. Doubting that anything underhanded is and has been done in this county in the last twenty five years. I assure you that those ponds exist, and they were, and I repeat were built by the county equipment. I think you have a gripe with the County Attorney, but hey look around ya. She is not the only one with self interest is she? Come on face the facts the whole friggin good ole boy network have their interests covered and their hand in the cookie jar and crumbs on thier mustaches. I am with MOI, who does run the county? Surely not the boards.
Just the good ole boys, never meaning no harm.

CAW<CAW<CAW

I LOVE MT BOHEMIA!

Paul, Buzzard, Moi,
What you need to do, now, is to hire out the county equipment, have the prosecuting attorney drive one of the vehicles (bulldozer?) and try to recoup some of the funds used elsewhere.

Shoot, there must be loads of snowbanks in various and assorted places that need moving. And when they finish that, they could come and keep my neighbor's roof shovelled so the snow doesn't slam into my house when the next thaw arrives.

One of the area photographers could be on hand to snap a picture, post it on Pasty.Cam, and everyone, including those not in the area, can comment on it.

After they finish that, they could use their enormous clout to spearhead a drive to raise the property tax rate on CFR lands. For the kids! So our schools will benefit! SHOW ME THE CFR PROPERTY TAX RATE INCREASE!

Buzzard breath, I stepped out for a week and got my ••• stuck in Houghton County. I doubt if those ponds were dug by the county and if they were the owners must have paid the county boys to dig them. If not I'll be the first to bring it up to the county board. What do you think of our county atty. spending our tax payers money to fight ourselves. She was heard to be telling voters of Keweenaw that the hill would be a bad thing for the county. That statement came from a business man of the area that told me his story. She was out telling people that the hill was a bad thing!! Now if that isn't a crock of •••• what is. Her job was to give legal advise and thats it. It is now time to take the matter before the county board, I will ask our new board to tell us all how much extra money was spent on the fight against the hill by her. She can have her own views but cannot make them public when she holds the position she does. She makes me sick the way she handled this matter and I don't believe she was alone!!!! The •••• has just begun to hit the fan and I will make sure the power is running.
Mr. Jarve you will be able to reach me in Eagle River when you get in, post and i'll read it for sure. Do you think I should press the fancy pants on this issue????

Moi,
The revelation of the ponds is only a fragment of the gargantuan system set up in the Keweenaw. The ponds, you see, are an entrance to the Keweenaw's version of Mount Weather, the subterranean [unspoken above ground, unheard above ground] shadow government that really runs things around here.

Chunks,
Don't feel bad. Whenever I shovel my roofs, my neighbor complains. Go figure.

Tsk!Tsk! All this spare time to nose into other people's business! Instead of worrying about where ponds are, built & stocked by whom, howzabout doing something productive?

Who-oo-ee!
Just finished blowing a bunch of snow up onto the neighbor's roof. This warmer, wet weather has snow sliding off metal roofs, and my neighbor's roof was no different. But then, it slides against a gas meter and an electrical meter on my house.

I think it was this summer that I told my neighbor how one year the snow sliding off his house cracked the foundation on my house.

Earlier this winter I raked some snow off his roof so the •••• stuff wouldn't slam into my house again. This time, one of the dogs was frightened enough to pee on the floor. The joys of winter.

At work? Have a metal roof and the snow on it slides off onto the neighboring house? When you get home, check your roof and see if you can keep it shovelled...

"Ahhh, so •••• doth freezeth over..."

Paul
Its a •••• fine day in the Keeweenaw when I read that you are indeed ranking a title for your verbal inquisitivness on the goings on of the land you chose to be your home. Keep up the good work!!!!!
self professed savior indeed
May I request an audience when I visit the area this summer.
Jack J.

Raised Hand: Not only is the Universe expanding, it's expansion is accelerating due to an as unyet explained ghostly interdimensional anti-gravity force some physicists have coined quintessence.

Does the observance of spiral galaxies suggest they be expanding, or contracting, in this bang of a universe?

By Baby Doe on Wednesday, January 3, 2001 - 03:49 am:

He had been a lad of whom something was expected. Beyond this all had been chaos. That he would be successful in an original way, or that he would go to the dogs in an original way, seemed equally probable. The only absolute certainty about him was that he would not stand still in the circumstances amid which he was born...
"I've come home because, all things considered, I can be a trifle less useless here than anywhere else."
Return of the Native
Thomas Hardy

Paul and Rocking Robin.
Take a trip, take a little trip.
On the five mile point road, somewhere around farmers block, johnsons corner, know where it is. Look and you shall find one pond, stocked with trout but not by trouts unlimited. Another on the outskirts of fulton.
I can see clearly now the rain has gone.
CAWWW, CAAWWW, CAAAAWWWW

Buzzard breath, Being the answers to your far fetched questions are beyond my vast knowledge I would have to guess that a ditch was dug and some kids dammed it up!!! I have yet to see any of those ponds you mentioned . Get real and also get a life. Now I would hope that the county would dig some ponds and that the trout unlimited people would stock them, open them to the public and reduce the taxes paid like CFR lands. That would be betttter than pushing brooms on swept sidewalks. The skiing conditions are the best that they could be. No I am not working for Crosswinds YET!!!!! Take a ride up here and see if this place can have some improvements made, your second hand info is third rate!!!

seeya all

TB,
Why don't you keep an eagle-eye on things and let the rest of us know when construction on a new pond begins? And while you're at it, check to see if the permits were in place before construction on said ponds began. It wouldn't hurt to find out, as well, if there be any trout in these waters, if any watchmen are posted, location of ponds, what kind of bait the trout are biting upon, and if you've had any luck.

P.S. Sweet sixteen is a wonderful age to be! Hang onto it as long as you can! Tweet, tweet, tweet!

Paul:
And the educahded yardbirds:
Can ya all tell me how many ponds on private property will be constructed with equipment from the Keweenaw County Road Commission this year? How many have been constructed already in the last five years? Ponds built by road commission equipment, and they thought no one was watching! Ha, we see, indeed.
Just the good ole boys, never meaning no harm.
Paul how are the slopes? You been on them? Did you get a job working at the hill? Since your the self professed saviour of the Keweenaw lets have some answers?

Happy New Year!!!! The skiers are skiing!!!! Great conditions a new era begins!!!!1