Back in 1972 an Italian singer put together a gibberish song that is supposed to sound like English to a non English speaker. If you can resist the urge to "jump up and get down" while listening to this, you are a better man than I am. Thanks to Ace of Spades for the link to this great fun.

Perspective, its a wonderful thing.

Former President Bush's anti AIDS campaign in Africa has saved 1.1 million lives.

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/07/bush-aids-fight-saved-11-million-study-says/

This video is the reason the internet was invented!

hat tip : Ace of Spades

Socotra Island, floating in the Indian Ocean south of Yeman, is one place that should be on everyone's adventure travel list.

The island of Socotra is a place like no other. About 50,000 people live on the island, but it is famous for its bizarre plant life, half of which is found nowhere else on earth.

The desert rose seems to need no roots, and looks like an elephant's leg in bloom.

The dragon's blood tree.

The cucumber tree, which is fact distantly related to the lowly cucumber.

The art of teapot blowing. My take: these people need jobs ... or a psychiatrist.

www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/09/11/update-teapot-blowing-contest-pictures/

Saturday porch picture.

In searching for the porch picture, I came across this picture someone took of a mountain lion climbing onto their porch during a snowstorm. That would make me think twice about wandering around in the yard after dark.

Cap and Trade is dead, dead, dead, thank God. Next, lets kill socialized health care.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574558070997168360.html

Darvaz, doorway to hell.

englishrussia.com/?p=1830

Women of the Israeli Defense Forces .... they can take you out at 1000 yards!

bighollywood.breitbart.com/ravrech/2009/11/25/one-shot-one-kill-one-beautiful-sharpshooter/

The Other McCain: IG-Gate: White House Walpin Spin Game

Worth the read, as usual.

The Other McCain: IG-Gate: White House Walpin Spin Game

Stocking stuffer!

www.amazon.com/Accoutrements-11706-Bacon-Flavored-Mints/dp/B0017T0X9G/ref=pd_sim_t_3

This is what Santa is bringing me for Xmas.

www.bumperdumper.com/bumper2.htm

Saturday night motivational posters.

Global warming scientists emails hacked, and we learn that they were twisting the data to get to the conclusion that there was global warming. Not only that, it appears they were conspiring to damage the careers of non believing scientists who challenged their lies. This is probably the beginning of the end of the global warming hoax.

gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/11/man-bear-pig-is-dead-emails-prove-global-warming-junk-science-conspiracy/

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Spectacular time lapse photography. Enlarge for a great ride.

Camouflage artists. First, Emma Hack.

From China, Liu Bolin, who considers his work to be a political statement.

More Scratch and Spit pictures.

Walker Lake and Sierra Nevada. Lake Tahoe is directly on the other side of the far mountain range.

Basin and range aspens.

Carson City, Nevada, and the Sierras beyond.

Out in the Nevada desert, wherever there is water, aspens pop out of the sage, like a vein of gold in barren stone. Its magic.

Here is my kind of country, eastern Sierra Nevada. If that isn't a picture of the quintessential road to adventure, I don't know what is.

Giant salmon found not in Alaska, but the Sacramento River in California!

www.siskiyoudaily.com/news/x347034986/Giant-salmon-found-in-Sacramento-River

Lord Howe Island, half way between Australia and Norfolk Island. A lonely island paradise, little known and isolated in the vast Pacific Ocean. 350 Australians live there year round, and only 400 visitors at a time are allowed. Snakes and spiders have never been found on the island, but it has in the recent past been home to odder creatures, once believed extinct but that may return again if plans now laid out are successful.

The only animals native here got to the island by somehow crossing the Pacific. Then they evolved into their own kind of creature. Once, there lived a large phasmid, an insect elsewhere known as a walking stick, called here the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect. Growing up to 15 cm long, and also called "land lobsters," they were thought to have gone extinct after rats invaded the island from a grounded ship. However, in 2001 they were discovered alive in an isolated colony on a dramatic rock 14 km offshore from Lord Howe Island itself. Called Ball's Pyramid, and seen in the distance below, the insects survived under a single large bush growing out of a crack in the "pyramid." Two mating pairs were taken to Australia, from a population of 30 adults, and now the captive population is up to 200. A rat eradication project to begin in 2011, if successful, will be followed by reintroduction of these unique insects to their former home. They are disgusting in appearance, and so I won't post a picture, but they can be found with Google if you just have to see.

Behold the mighty Martin Mars flying tanker, now in Southern California helping to fight the fires there. Built in 1941 by the Martin Aircraft Company, only two out of the seven built remain, both as flying tankers. When filling up, they take on water at the rate of 264 gallons per second! Total capacity is 7200 gallons. Nothing else even comes close. Its nice to see something built at the beginning of WWII still doing an extraordinary job.

Here is an actual picture of the paw of the bear that was shot in Soldotna by Mr. Brush. The 454 Casull he shot the bear with is a bu!t kicking cartridge, as I can testify from personal experience. Good thing he brought it along.

Spring snow on a cabin, Carson Pass California.  Likely nearly all gone now.