Magic Mushrooms

I LOVE this guy's photos of mushrooms. He takes wonderful photos of other things, but the mushroom photos really are magical. Check it out:

Start with this gallery and go from there: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/151440721nAWqqy

International Agreements

This is what happens when a country tries do serve two masters - its own consitution and legislature and a treaty with other countries which doesn't take into account possible future developments. It will happen to Costa Rica if the people vote to accept CAFTA.

The "SI" for CAFTA campaign has already spent millions in all out advertising. The "no" for CAFTA people have to resort to grafiti and guerilla advertising. The poles show "si" is ahead by a very small margin. This could be a time of testing the country's sovereignty.

clipped from adsfree01.mail.com The Tocqueville Connection Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:33 AM PDT PARIS, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - France is planning a freeze on commercial genetically modified crops, which cover less than one percent of farmland in Europe's top agricultural producer, Le Monde newspaper reported on Thursday. The Tocqueville Connection Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:36 AM PDT BRUSSELS, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A total freeze on commercial genetically modified crops, such as France may be considering, is not allowed under EU rules, the European Commission said Friday.

Army Tests Brains of Men Going into Combat

The press has done a mediocre job at reporting the numbers of soldiers kiled, but has somehow not been able to pick up on the terrible tragedy of the numbers of Brain Damaged men returning from combat. Some of this brain damage takes the shape of a personality disorder and the men and women are being misdiagnosed. But brain damage at any level can produce personality changes which make these people dangerous to society.

clipped from news.yahoo.com By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 19, 9:16 PM ET It's all part of a fledgling Army program that records how soldiers' brains work when healthy, giving doctors baseline data to help diagnose and treat the soldiers if they suffer a traumatic brain injury — the signature injury of the Iraq war. The mandatory brain-function tests are starting with the 101st at Fort Campbell and are expected to spread to other military bases in the next couple of months One veterans group wants to ensure the Army doesn't use the results to deny treatment by claiming that soldiers' problems came from pre-existing conditions. Brain injuries caused by explosions have become some of the most common combat wounds suffered in Iraq. Thirty percent of soldiers taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center since 2003 suffered traumatic brain injuries, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center

Our Good Friends the Saudis

Lest we forget, Bin Laden is not Iraqui. He is Saudi and related to the ruling family. He is known to be in Afghanistan - not Iraq.

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East

Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas

"Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States,"

The Saudi central bank said today that it would take "appropriate measures" to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg

global investors will start to shun the US bond markets

The danger is that this could now accelerate

leaving America starved of

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright By

Ben Bernanke