I really need a better camera...........

....but since I beat the living shit out of this cheap one when I am wandering the desert......

Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself

Monsanto, enemy of organic farmers and anti-GMO advocates alike, will likely be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies as part of a two-year USDA experiment. But there is no good that can possibly come of an experiment where the company behind nearly every genetically modified crop in our daily diets is allowedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif to decide whether its products are causing any environmental harm. And Monsanto isn't the only biotech company that will be permitted to police itself.

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I thought it was a dream what I knew in the desert, but it´s the only truth......

Desert Solitaire

Wilderness. The word itself is music.

Wilderness, wilderness . . . We scarcely know what we mean by the term, though the sound of it draws all whose nerves and emotions have not yet been irreparably stunned, deadened, numbed by the caterwauling of commerce, the sweating scramble for profit and domination.

Why such allure in the very word? What does it really mean? Can wilderness be defined in the words of government officialdom as simple as "A minimum of not less than 5000 contiguous acres of roadless area'? This much may be essential in attempting a definition but it is not sufficient; something more is involved.

Suppose we say that wilderness invokes nostalgia, a justified not merely sentimental nostalgia for the lost America our forefathers knew. The word suggests the past and the unknown, the womb of earth from which we all emerged. It means something lost and something still present, something remote and at the same time intimate, something buried in our blood and nerves, something beyond us and without limit, Romance--but not to be dismissed on that account. The romantic view, while not the whole of truth, is a necessary part of the whole truth.

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."

Some people who think of themselves as hard-headed realists would tell us that the cult of the wild is possible only in an atmosphere of comfort and safety and was therefore unknown to the pioneers who subdued half a continent with their guns and plows and barbed wire. Is this true? Consider the sentiments of Charles Marion Russell, the cowboy artist, as quoted in John Hutchens' One Man's Montana:

I have been called a pioneer. In my book a pioneer is a man who comes to virgin country, traps off al the fur, kills off all the wild meat, cuts down all the trees, grazes off all the grass, plows the roots up and strings ten million miles of wire. A pioneer destroys things and calls it civilization.

No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.

If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his own making. He will make himself an exile from the earth and then will know at last, if he is still capable of feeling anything, the pain and agony of final loss. He will understand what the captive Zia Indians meant when they made a song out of their sickness for home:

My home over there,
Now I remember it;
And when I see that mountain far away,
Why then I weep,
Why then I weep,
Remembering my home.

World on Fire.....

It's the END of
the WORLD as
We know it and I
feel fine....

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In Dangered Species

Aboard a spacecraft a lowly janitor jumps eagerly behind the ship's controls during the captain's bathroom break and quickly discovers that the captain's job is much harder than it looks.

In Dangered Species from Ringling College of Art + Design on Vimeo.

Via

"Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship

or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves."

And I say to myself "What a wonderful World".....

Stone tools 'demand new American story'

The long-held theory of how humans first populated the Americas may have been well and truly broken.

Thousands of 15,500-year-old stone tools unearthed over the past several years prove that the Clovis culture was not the first human population in the Americas......

Ancient Tides

Something to think about.....

"All governments need enemies. How else to justify their existence?"

Petroglyphs.....

and of course vandalized petroglyphs.....

Where??? *looks out the window*

If you have this view I'd be there !

Monticello Utah...........

12,000 year old textiles found in Peruvian cave

“By dating the textiles themselves, we were able to confirm their antiquity and refine the timing of the early occupation of the Andes highlands,” Jolie said. His team used the latest radiocarbon dating technique—accelerated mass spectrometry—to place the textiles at between 12,100 and 11,080 years old.

VIA

Grand Canyon

Flew down to the Grand Canyon last week and saw some old friends.....the weather did not cooperate for photo opportunities.

One minute they were singing a terrible rendition of Oklahoma, next minute, Bam straight to hell ......

Flaming Arrows

Flaming Arrows is a compilation of works by political prisoner Rod Coronado. Most of the chapters were taken from the zine Strong Hearts, which Rod wrote while in prison from 1997-1999.
For over 20 years, Rod Coronado has been at the forefront of the radical ecological and animal rights movements. A loving father and compassionate warrior, he has inspired countless numbers of young radicals and scared the crap out of dozens of corporations. As a member of the Pascua Yaqui Nation, Rod has made clear the links between the current destruction of the planet and the ongoing genocide perpetrated against native peoples. All proceeds from this sale of this collection go to Rod's legal defense.
"As Earth warriors, we choose to be participants in the ancient battle between good and evil. On our side stand the waters and wind, and all things wild and of the Earth. On the other side, consumed with greed and in pursuit of power, control and money, stand all the dark forces that lay waste to Her." - Rod Coronado
"[Rod Coronado is] a danger to the community... I know he wasn't tried here for being a violent anarchist. This trial isn't about Rod Coronado being a violent terrorist, but he is one." - Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst

Something to think about.....

"Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear-the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break....I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun."

Edward Abbey

Serpent Mound

"The most famous of all such (effigy) mounds is the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, 1,330 feet in length along its coils and averaging three feet in height."

--E.H. Roseboom & F. P. Weisenburger
A History of Ohio

Great Serpent Mound

"I would imagine that if you could understand morse code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy."

Damn ....it has been a few days....

I have been rather busy doing some research for this up coming wandering season...
getting maps together and researching locations of ruins.....
I leave for Monticello next Monday and have a pretty killer itinerary prepared so stay tuned for pictures........

The ones who don't do anything are always the ones who try to put you down ......

Bureaucratic Dysentery

Something to think about.....

If you ever hear a fellow student say, "I'm not turned on politics," give that student a history book because if you don't turn on politics, down to the air you breathe, the water you drink, the racial profiling you detest, the health insurance many people don't have, and on and on, If you don't turn on politics, politics will turn on you in very disagreeable ways.

Ralph Nader

Hanford Nuclear Reservation

The disaster at Fukushima has raised questions around the world about nuclear safety. But contamination is much worse in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The former plutonium plant in Hanford, Washington is one of the most contaminated places on earth, and still decades from being cleaned up.

The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, but the manufacturing process left behind 53 million U.S. gallons (204,000 m³) of high-level radioactive waste that remains at the site.

This represents two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Today, Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup.

While most of the current activity at the site is related to the cleanup project, Hanford also hosts a commercial nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, and various centers for scientific research and development, such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the LIGO Hanford Observatory.

Article

My favorite Natural Bridges......

The Hazarchishma Natural Bridge is a beautiful and awe inspiring wonder ...but....
I am still partial to local attractions......

Rainbow Bridge

“Higher than the nation's capitol and nearly as long as a football field” describes Rainbow Bridge. It is the largest natural bridge in the world at 290 feet/88 meters tall and 270 feet/83 meters across. Rainbow Bridge is considered sacred by the Navajo culture as a symbol of deities responsible for creating clouds, rainbows and rain--the essence of life in the desert.

Sipapu Bridge

A Hopi term for the opening between worlds, the present name was given by William Douglas, who led a government survey party to the bridges in 1908, mapping the exact boundaries of the new national monument. Douglas thought that the ruins and rock art found in the area must be related to the Hopi people of northern Arizona.

Owachomo Bridge

Owachomo means rock mound in Hopi and is named after the rock formation on top of the southeast end of the bridge.

Hazarchishma Natural Bridge

Hazarchishma Natural Bridge is located 100 km north of Band-e-Amir National Park at the northern edge of Bamyan Province, near the border with Samangan Province. The arch is a young meander natural bridge carved through limestone karst in Jawzari Canyon (Dara-i-Jawzari), which joins the Ajar valley as part of the Amu Darya watershed and the main Caspian basin. In the recent geological past, the river became subterranean, leaving Dara-i-Jawzari dry. The elevation of the arch is 3100 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level.

The Bridge is formed of massive limestone which co-exists with marl limestone shales, bituminous shales, marlstone, limestone, conglomerates, and sandstones as the over- and under-laying layers. These rock formations and layers are from the Jurassic to the Lower Eocene in the Cenozoic.

The area is also of archaeological importance. The canyon below Hazarchishma village in which the natural bridge is located contains a series of caves that may have been occupied by cave-dwelling humans. This canyon lies on an ancient route between north and south and even now this route is locally used. An ancient fort was also observed during the previous field survey supporting the idea that this route must have been of some importance in earlier times.

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“Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks......"

".....Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you ALIVE.”

Cooper Forks Canyon cliff dwellings

The Citarum – Dirtiest River in the World?

What happens when nine million people throw their trash in a river, and corporations use it to dump hazardous waste?


It becomes like the Citarum in West Java, Indonesia – choked with plastic, loaded with chemicals and human waste.


A generation ago, the Citarum River was a peaceful waterway where wildlife enjoyed the clean, fresh water and villagers caught fish and made a living off the rice paddies.