May 27, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 27 is … Body Painting Arts Festival
The Chicago Bulls choked on national TV; before the nation and the home town fans. Derrick Rose has lost most of his petals. A Rose by any other name, like Pansy, would not have stunk as bad as he did. The Bulls are in a thorny position now. What do you do with this team?
Updating old news; Disney has withdrawn its Trademark Application for the term “Navy Seal Six” Last week the Navy filed a similar Trademark Application. Disney said in a press release they were withdrawing their application “out of respect for the Navy.” Disney did, however, request permission from the Navy to use the term for video games, movies and TV shows.
For some reason, this does not bother me. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature or screw with the United States of America. I hope they like Tequila in Iran. From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth.
"Look, the boat is stuck... It cannot move anymore," said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away. The long popular lake, home to migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls, has shrunken by 60 percent and could disappear entirely in just a few years, experts say – drained by drought, misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it.
Until two years ago, Saadat supplemented his income from almond- and grape-growing by taking tourists on boat tours. But as the lake receded and its salinity rose, he found he had to stop the boat every 10 minutes to unfoul the propeller – and finally, he had to give up this second job that he'd used to support a five-member family. "The visitors were not enjoying such a boring trip," he said, noting they had to cross hundreds of meters of salty lakebed just to reach the boat from the wharf.
Other boatmen, too, have parked their vessels by their houses, where they stand as sad reminders of the deep-water days. And the lake's ebbing affects an ever-widening circle. In April, authorities stopped activities at the nearby jetty in Golmankhaneh harbor, due to lack of water in the lake, now only two meters deep at its deepest. Jetties in Sharafkhaneh and Eslami harbors faced the same fate.
The receding water has also weakened hotel business and tourism activities in the area, and planned hotel projects remain idle since investors are reluctant to continue. Beyond tourism, the salt-saturated lake threatens agriculture nearby in northwest Iran, as storms sometimes carry the salt far afield. Many farmers worry about the future of their lands, which for centuries have been famous for apples, grapes, walnuts, almonds, onions, potatoes, as well as aromatic herbal drinks, candies and tasty sweet pastes. I guess they will have to start making jerky or potato chips. There is a story in the Bible about people disobeying God turning to salt. Lot’s wife looked where she was told not to and turned into a pillar of salt.
For some reason, this does bother me. Hitler, after turning half a race into monsters moved on to the world of dogs. Hitler may be on the short list of despicable dictators most undeserving of a dog's unconditional love, but that didn't stop him from trying to talk them.
According to a new book titled "Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities," Nazi specialists attempted -- apparently with some success -- to train a fleet of "intelligent" dogs to read, write and speak.
The research comes from Cardiff University associate professor Dr. Jan Bonderson, who found that the Nazis collected pups from across Germany and put them through intense training during the 1930s at the Tier-Sprechschule ASRA (School for Dog-Human Communication) in the town of Leutenberg.
"The Nazis were sentimental enthusiasts who were really fond of animals and liked the idea that dogs were intelligent and could communicate with people," Bondeson told AOL Weird news. Under trainer Margarethe Schmitt's direction, the institute trained dogs such as Rolf the Airedale terrier, which was said to be able to discuss religion, contemplate complex mathematics and communicate with humans by tapping out an alphabet code using his paw. Another dog, Kurwenal, supposedly cracked jokes like a comedian and was a symbol of the educated canines of Germany.
But Hitler's presumable pick of the litter was a pooch named Don, who apparently barked “Mein Fuhrer” when asked who Adolf Hitler was.
Just a couple of thoughts I had.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
The most original authors are not so because they advance what is new, but because they put what they have to say as if it had never been said before." - Johann Wolfgang von Goe
