The Fucking Vandals ! Live Fast Diarrhea !......

When there's people on the other side of the room trying to wipe out your life and things are stacked against you, you can get nervous.....

Lake Karachay

Lake Karachay is definately not a place to spend your next holidays at. Located in the southern Ural mountains in eastern Russia, it is considered to be the most polluted spot on Earth, after being used as a dumping site for radioactive waste for decades.

Spending only 5 minutes at the shore of lake Karachay is enough to receive a deadly radioactive dosis, spending an entire hour near the lake will probably kill you within the next few hours and in most cases you even won't make it to the next hospital.

In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You

The Monastery of Skellig Michael

Nine miles off the coast of County Kerry in the west of Ireland there are two small rocky islands peeking out of the Atlantic Ocean. The larger of the two, Skellig Michael, is home to something quite extraordinary – a 1400 year old monastery which only a handful of people get to see each year.

Kuriositas

Welcome To Evergreen National Park

Via

The Kokopelli Dilemma. The Use, Abuse, and Care of Rock Art

"The wisdom of the ages is written in the stones
May we see with the eyes of stones"

John Trudell, Santee Sioux

Deterioration at rock image sites can be split into two categories. First there is the natural deterioration from the normal forces of nature that cause archaeological sites to breakdown. These include wind, dust, ice and water erosion, seasonal variations in temperature and sun exposure, plant overgrowth, animal activity, and so forth. The origins of the sites themselves can often be attributed to these actions. Commonly rock shelters and shallow caves (favored locations for many types of rock art) were formed by natural erosion and continue to alter under the impact of these forces.

The second category of deterioration is that caused by human actions, both deliberate and unintentional. It is arguably the most destructive form of decay, damaging sites very rapidly and aggressively. The spray paint, scratched graffiti and theft we so quickly associate with urban living finds its way all too commonly to rock art sites

It is now the common policy of land managing agencies not to give out the locations of rock art sites (other than those on developed and patrolled trails), in order to protect them from concentrated visitation and vandalism.

The visitor can no longer expect to be told where the "best sites" are, and we must accept this until such time as resources are available for the agencies to control access appropriately. We hope that general education and learning to respect the sites as sacred landscapes, as well as places of history and examples of human expression, will lead to behavior that will naturally prolong the intended life of these extraordinary places.

Article

Lifes journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserve body,...

.....but to slid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting Holy Shit ! What a ride!

Something to think about.....

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Mark Twain

Uranium's Legacy in Southeastern Utah

The U.S.’ first commercially operated uranium mill was built on the bank of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, by Charlie Steen’s Uranium Reduction Company in 1956, and expanded by Atlas Minerals Corporation beginning in 1961. This facility extracted yellowcake uranium for nuclear bombs and reactors from ores trucked from over 300 mines on the Colorado Plateau. The slime-like wastes from the mill, laced with radium, uranium, thorium, polonium, ammonia, molybdenum, selenium and nitrates, were slurried into an unlined pond in the floodplain of the river. As more capacity was needed, contaminated soils were bulldozed up to raise the sides of the tailings impoundment. By 1984, when the mill was put on standby, this pile of mill wastes had grown to 16 million tons, covering 130 acres to a depth of 110 feet.

The Atlas site is the fifth largest uranium tailings pile in the U.S. and by far the most dangerously polluting. Located in a deep, narrow valley with the town of Moab, irritating dust and heavier-than-air radon gas often blanketed the community in the days of mill operations, until Atlas was required to spray a synthetic binder over the tailings in the late 1980s. From the unlined bottom of the pile, toxic seepage has turned the groundwater into a radioactive broth of heavy metals and ammonia that bubbles up in the Colorado River just a few hundred feet away. The nearshore water in the river is so poisoned with ammonia that it is immediately lethal to any fish unlucky enough to swim there.

Today’s discharge of contaminated groundwater into the river is estimated at 110,000 gallons/day. In wet years, when the spring flood in the Colorado River exceeds about 45,000 cfs, the river tops its banks and inundates the base of the tailings pile, leaving it not merely leaking into, but standing in the drinking water for 25 million downstream users in Nevada, Arizona, California, and Mexico. This level of flood was observed in 23 different years during the last century, most recently in 1993.

The Utah Mill Project

Artifacts discovered in Texas debunk Clovis first settlement of North America

Researchers in Texas have discovered thousands of human artifacts in a layer of earth that lies directly beneath an assemblage of Clovis relics, expanding evidence that other cultures preceded the Clovis culture in North America.

This pre-Clovis toolkit appears to be between 13,200 and 15,500 years old and it includes biface and blade technology that may have later been adapted—and improved upon—by the Clovis culture.

Archaeology News Network.

Oh, So I guess your the responsible one?

Arizona issues permits for three uranium mines near Grand Canyon

Sacred place of prayer for the well-being of the world approved for uranium mining in Arizona

SUPAI TERRITORY (Grand Canyon) -- When the Supai opposed uranium mining here -- which Arizona just approved last week -- Supai said it is a place for prayer for the well-being of the world. Now in Japan, the truth of the danger of nuclear power is revealed.
Gathered at sacred Red Butte in the Grand Canyon to oppose uranium mining here in 2009, Supai said this is a sacred place where they go to offer prayers for the protection of the earth.
Speaking of the Supai responsibility to protect the land, water, and air here from the poisons of mining, Supai Waters said, "If we do let this happen, we would be the murderers of the world. We cannot let that happen."
Supai Waters said that protection of the Grand Canyon also affects the weather patterns and climate of the earth.
"My people have lived in the canyon since time immemorial. The canyons contain power points and vortexes. If there is tampering or pillaging, the earth will not be the same. There are places where we guard. These sacred places have to do with the weather, the wind, the sun, the celestial movements. That is why we are here protecting it," Supai Waters said.
Matthew Putesoy, vice chairman of the Havasupai Nation, said the Grand Canyon is a national treasure, inviting 5 million people every year to explore and be inspired by its beauty. "To the Havasuw 'Baaja, who have lived in the region for many hundreds of years, it is sacred. As the 'guardians of the Grand Canyon,' we strenuously object to mining for uranium here. It is a threat to the health of our environment and tribe, our tourism-based economy, and our religion."
American Indian Nations joined local residents to oppose this threat to their water and air.
However, Arizona regulators caved in to the pressure from the corporation -- Denison Mines based in Toronto, Canada -- and the coopted US government.
"Ignoring widespread public opposition, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality today issued three air- and one aquifer-pollution permits for three uranium mines located on public lands within Grand Canyon National Park’s immediate watershed," said the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Trust.

The Incident at Tower 37

Chris Perry, who worked at Pixar for many years, created an incredible animated short that aired for World Water Day. Titled The Incident at Tower 37, the film tells the story of a company that is siphoning off all the water from a pristine lake, until they figure out that they're ruining an ecosystem -- and the message comes from a rather extraordinary hero

"Humans exploit the natural world, harnessing it selfishly for their own use. Tower 37 is about the natural world fighting back... The film tells the story of one person's transition from ignorance to awareness. Tragically, it happens too late to save them. But it shows we have the capacity to understand our broader impact on the world and, ultimately, do something about it. My personal hope is that we all recognize the ticking clock and act responsibly sooner rather than later."

Understanding Wari mortuary practices

The discovery of nine ancient tombs in the Peruvian jungle is being called the most important find since Machu Picchu.


Archaeologists discovered the tombs -- which lie 680 miles southeast of Lima -- in 2010, but the news remained under wraps until Irina Bokova, general director of UNESCO, came to inspect the site.



Around 362 artefacts have already been studied, including a silver breastplate belonging to a noble referred to as the Lord of Wari. A silver mask, gold bracelets, silver-coated walking sticks and feline figurines were also discovered. According to Juan Garcia, the nature of the artefacts suggest close links between the Wari and the Nazca -- a coastal civilisation that dissipated around 750AD.



Nazca culture appears to have been passed on to the Wari, and likewise the Wari to the Incan. Although July 2011 sees the region's most famous ancestors being celebrated when the 100-year anniversary of Machu Picchu's discovery is marked, it seems there may be more to be learned from the Inca's Wari predecessors -- the Wari reigned in the region for a longer period and, if rumours of the city of treasures Paititi existing on the site are realised, then they may finally come to prominence in the history books.

Past Horizons

Bad Religion ......

.....I may have failed to mention that Bad Religion is my favorite band...

Don't you worry your pretty little heads...It's only your Childrens and Grand Childrens future......and nobody cares....

But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach...

...It is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need-if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us-if only we were worthy of it.

Just a side note....Zion is just down the road from the homestead.... >:P

For Wildness And Anarchy

For Wildness and Anarchy is a collection from anarcho-primitivist Kevin Tucker expanding upon the anarchist critique of civilization from all angles. Taking an indepth look at the failures of domestication and revolution before turning towards the reawakening of the "primal anarchy" of our nomadic gatherer-hunter ancestors.
The essays focus on challenging traditional anarchist and Leftist assumptions about the nature of power and the ecological, social, and psychological insanity that are the result.
This book offers a reappraisal of what it means to be human and the coming collapse of civilization.

Something to think about.....

“We have all heard of the web of life. The way we live threatens to trap us all in a web of death.”

Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

World's oldest music instrument

The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it is the world’s oldest known musical instrument, but this is in dispute. The continuing dispute notwithstanding, the artifact remains on prominent public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum’s visitor leaflet maintains that manufacture by Neanderthals “is reliably proven”.

Article

"It calls back a time when there were flowers all over the Earth . . ."

"... and there were valleys. And there were plains of tall green grass that you could lie down in—you could go to sleep in. And there were blue skies and there was fresh air . . . and there were things growing all over the place, not just in some domed enclosures blasted some millions of miles out into space."

The Chaco Research Archive

The Chaco Research Archive is an online resource providing access to a wealth of information documenting the history of archaeological research in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The archive includes material from dozens of sites excavated in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park and beyond.

Archive

Something to think about.....

"I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."

Thomas Jefferson

If only more People would become........

It's only the Childrens future at stake.....

I Gave Up On My Species

George Carlin will be forever missed. I must admit, like a lot of our readers I share many of the same ideas as the late Mr. Carlin, and this video sums up a lot of my feelings toward humanity and the world we live in. He is one of history’s greatest thinkers, and we should all “take notes”.

Via

Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror and you wouldn't have been notified........

Dighton Rock

The tide receded in the Taunton River exposing a sandstone rock that has been speculated about for centuries.........

Dighton Rock is a mysterious tide-washed boulder that juts up out of the Taunton River at Assonet Neck, just across from the town of Dighton, Massachusetts, and the Dighton Yacht Club. To yachtsmen sailing the river and even to some residents of Assonet Neck, it looks like just another rock, about eleven feet long and five feet high, standing where the river widens abruptly on its way to Mount Hope Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Until recently, no road has led to it, and few travelers ventured to follow the unmarked path which took them to the site. Yet to historians and archeologists, the rock has been a focus of marvel and speculation ever since the year A.D. 1690, when the Reverend Cotton Mather, of witchcraft and brimstone fame, described it and the curious message engraved on its weathered, red-brown sandstone face.

Until recently, no road has led to it, and few travelers ventured to follow the unmarked path which took them to the site. Yet to historians and archeologists, the rock has been a focus of marvel and speculation ever since the year A.D. 1690, when the Reverend Cotton Mather, of witchcraft and brimstone fame, described it and the curious message engraved on its weathered, red-brown sandstone face.

“Among the other Curiosities of New-England,” Mather wrote 268 years ago in The Wonderful Works of God Commemorated, “One is that of a mighty Rock, on a perpendicular side whereof by a River, which at High Tide covers part of it, there are very deeply Engraved, no man alive knows How or When about half a score Lines, near Ten Foot Long, and a foot and half broad, filled with strange Characters: which would suggest as odd Thoughts about them that were here before us, as there are odd Shapes in that Elaborate Monument.…”

Who Really Engraved Dighton Rock?

The World According To Monsanto

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.

Something to think about.....

1. (n.) ecocide
the destruction of large areas of the environment by such activity as overexploitation of resources or dumping of toxic chemicals.

Random Ruins.......

Keyhole Canyon

Keyhole Canyon has everything that makes technical canyoneering a challenging and fun experience. The canyon has a very narrow and deep slot, plenty of wading; several short down downclimbing problems, multiple short rappels and it is completed by swimming down a long dark narrow corridor.


Keyhole Canyon is a technical canyoneering adventure that will require 2 hours to complete. You will require complete technical gear. You will also need a 50-meter rope (100' rope is adequate) and drybags for anything you don't want wet. I recommend bringing several slings. Leave your bolt kit at home. There are plenty of natural anchors at every rappel. Bring 20 feet of extra webbing and a couple of rappel rings and you can eliminate the extra weight of a bolt kit.


The canyon is narrow and short so bring as little gear as possible. Keyhole has some of the coldest water in Zion National Park. There are several cold swims and protection from hypothermia is required.

Tunes for a sunny, warm afternoon.......

Aral Sea

The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet’s most shocking disasters,


Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.


The shrunken sea has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands, leaning over as if they dropped from the air. The sea’s evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.


The abuse of the rivers, main arteries of the Aral actually started in 1930's, with the mass construction of irrigation channels. Years 1960-1990 the agricultural land area has doubled, so did the water consumption.

Mr. Freeman

And There was Grandma, Swingin' on the Outhouse Door, Without a Shirt On ?

Something to think about.....

Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

-Isaac Asimov (1920-1992