Monday, June 25, 2012

The Coffee Mugs


Here are the coffee mugs
We used to sit and sip
Sometime we needed a hug
Most times we laughed at the kids

Then one day they were grown
And our lives had changed
No more time to sit and sip
But our dreams were never tamed

Use your mugs to sit and sip
Enjoy one another
Enjoy your kids
And most of all your new found love

Writing Goals

Goals are funny things. If they are not set right they are not achieved. Goals have to be reviewed periodically and changed to fit what you are capable of. For instance, her is what I learned about my writing style.

1. keep writing. Set a time aside each day and write and do not stop.
Re evaluated after I felt I did not need a required time.
Presently, I have a goal to write 2,000 words a day.
This is what works for me, for now. Beginning with writing 2,000 words a day would not have worked in the beginning. Everybody is different. I am at 20,000 words!
What works for you?

Friday, June 8, 2012

Group Work

Writing is something that those hermits like because it is a loner activity. Scientist no longer work alone in a lab over long hours. They work in teams. The latest example is the Eliminate Dengue has scientist all over the world. They are working in a group and it doesn't always end happily. The team needs to be cooperative and listen. Some scientist get kicked out because they can't hang in a group setting. But, the Dengue team has succeeded.
So, back to my question...Is writing a solititude activity? Movies are written by a team. Pixar picks a team and they write a movie. 'Up' is created by a team. Then they promote the next movie as "from the creators of 'Up' comes a new movie.   Groups are the new thing, schools don't allow kids to sit by themselves, they have to work in groups. Why is this so important in our society? Some books are written by two people, but rarely a team. I wonder if books will be written by teams one day? Worth a thought...

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Afghan Girl flees to US military, NPR

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151768550/facing-death-afghan-girl-runs-to-u-s-military


May 1, 2012
In a remote part of Afghanistan early last year, a girl was sentenced to death. Her crime was possession of a cellphone. Her executioners were to be her brothers. They suspected her of talking on the phone with a boy. The girl, in her late teens, had dishonored the family, her brothers said.
"My older brother took the cellphone from me and beat me very badly. It was dinnertime. They told me that they would execute me after dinner. They said to me this would be my last meal," says "Lina," a pseudonym.
The question of how to protect the rights of Afghan women after U.S. troops leave the country has become a key question. But this task hasn't been easy, even with a huge American troop presence in Afghanistan.
Lina's story illustrates the point: When she came to an American military base pleading for help, U.S. officials had to figure out how to save her life without enraging the local community.
"I was terrified to think of running away from home, but suddenly a voice from inside told me to flee before my brothers killed me. Maybe the devil made me do it," says Lina. "I took one of their cloaks and wrapped it around me to look like a man. Then I slipped out of the house and started walking to the foreigner's base nearby."
An Afghan woman makes handcrafts last October at a shelter run by women, for women. So-called honor killings are common in deeply conservative Afghanistan, along with other punishments for women suspected of contact with men outside their family.
EnlargeAdek Berry/AFP/Getty Images
An Afghan woman makes handcrafts last October at a shelter run by women, for women. So-called honor killings are common in deeply conservative Afghanistan, along with other punishments for women suspected of contact with men outside their family.
So-called honor killings are common in Afghanistan, along with other gruesome punishments for women suspected of contact with men outside their family. It's considered a dishonor even when a woman is the victim of sexual assault. Hundreds of women are in Afghan prisons for "moral crimes" such as being the victims of rape.
Seeking Refuge
It's not clear if her brothers knew it, but Lina says one of her in-laws was regularly abusing her — physically and sexually. Women in remote villages have little recourse, almost no route of escape. Most spend their lives barely leaving the house. Advocates say they have heard of only a few cases where Afghan women approached American bases for help.
"She approached the gate. When they realized she was in danger, they took her in," says U.S. Marine Maj. Jennifer Larsen, who was to become Lina's almost constant companion for the next several weeks. (The location of the base is also being withheld to protect Lina.)
Larsen says the guards at the gate saw the same car passing again and again. Each time it drew near, Lina looked petrified. They took her to a doctor who discovered fresh bruises on her back and knees from the beating. After treating her, Lina moved into a tent with three American women and an Afghan translator — her exposure to male soldiers on the base was limited.
[Lina] wanted to get away from where she was. Anytime you asked her a question, her answer was, 'Do I have to go back?' Our answer at the time was no, and we had to figure out how to keep that promise.
But even that small corner of the American base was a new world for Lina, after a life of sequester in the village. Things like television and hot running water were new — as was the existence of books, written words and even written numbers.
But Larsen says the girl embraced them. She devoured new foods from the cafeteria, especially ice cream and Doritos. She quickly gained a small English vocabulary, including phrases from the PG-rated movies they watched to pass the time. Some showed men and women kissing. "Kiss" was a favorite new word, says Larsen.
"She was scared and overwhelmed, but she was a strong person, and as she had new things come to her, she adapted quickly. I found out she was very bright," says Larsen.
"She wanted to get away from where she was. Anytime you asked her a question, her answer was, 'Do I have to go back?' Our answer at the time was 'no,' and we had to figure out how to keep that promise," Larsen says.
Pressure To Return
But saving a teenage girl was not part of the battle plan for U.S. forces in Afghanistan — it might even have jeopardized that mission.
Afghan advisers told Americans at the base very bluntly: To keep peace with the community, Lina had to go home, even if it meant her death. Her original "crime" now paled in comparison to the fact that Lina had spent weeks living with non-Muslim soldiers, says Huma Safi, a women's rights advocate in Kabul.
"In Afghan society, women stay with their families. When they spend nights in other places, it's a dishonor for their families. It's not just the military base ... they don't want their daughters to spend the night anywhere," says Safi.
I have everything I ever dreamed of. I live with a big family, and they all love me very much.
An elder from the community stayed on the base with Lina, but he stopped speaking to her once she said she wanted to stay with the foreigners. Her family also tried to convince her to come home, but Lina knew it was a trick, says Larsen.
"The hard part was as I watched her sister beg her to come home. Even her niece and nephew, who were very young, were there as well," Larsen says. "She was glad to see them, she hugged them and kissed them. But as soon as her sister even suggested that she come back home, the whole meeting came to a screeching halt. She had no time for her sister, and she asked her to leave. It was hard to watch. At that moment, an interpreter was unnecessary."
Lina also saw her brothers again — they surprised her by showing up at a meeting near the base. Larsen says she feared the brothers might try to kidnap Lina or even throw acid on her at the meeting. Lina says she knew her family planned to lure her home to kill her.
"My brothers pleaded with me to return home. I told them no. They said they would let me marry whoever makes me happy. I asked them, 'Why would I ever believe you?' " Lina says.
This is where the story in Afghanistan often ends: The woman is sent home, and later killed by her family to cleanse the dishonor.
But Lina's tale has a rare happy ending. U.S. officials helped fly her to a women's shelter in a larger city, while Afghan officials in her province agreed to look the other way.
A Life Of Hope
Women's shelters in Afghanistan can be virtual prisons, and Lina says she felt depressed after about eight months there. But the same pluck that helped her escape death served her again.
When she was brought before a female Afghan judge, Lina asked for help. The judge said she knew a young man looking for a wife. Lina insisted on seeing him first, and that she not be made a second wife to a married man. They met, and after a short discussion, decided to get married. She is now expecting her first child.
Larsen, Lina's Marine caretaker, says that news brought tears to her eyes.
"It's overwhelming sometimes. I don't even know what to say. There are so many women who have this issue. It would be nice if there was something we could do that was tangible, but I don't know what that thing is," Larsen says. "We did help one, and hopefully she'll be able to help others in the future."
Speaking by phone from her new home, Lina says she wants for nothing. After fleeing her home with only the clothes on her back, she now wears the traditional rings and necklaces given to a bride by her husband.
Lina's husband is aware of her past and, unlike most men in this deeply conservative society, is still accepting of her. She says she'll never forget the Afghans and the Americans who helped her escape.
"I have everything I ever dreamed of," Lina says. "I live with a big family, and they all love me very much."

Iceland Polar Bear 2008


The polar lies dead after being shot by police in Iceland

A polar bear that swam more than 200 miles in near-freezing waters to reach Iceland was shot on arrival in case it posed a threat to humans.
The bear, thought to be the first to reach the country in at least 15 years, was killed after local police claimed it was a danger to humans, triggering an outcry from animal lovers. Police claimed it was not possible to sedate the bear.
The operation to kill the animal was captured on film.
The adult male, weighing 250kg, was presumed to have swum some 200 miles from Greenland, or from a distant chunk of Arctic ice, to Skagafjordur in northern Iceland.
"There was fog up in the hills and we took the decision to kill the bear before it could disappear into the fog," said the police spokesman Petur Bjornsson.
Iceland's environment minister, Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, gave the green light for police to shoot the bear because the correct tranquiliser would have taken 24 hours to be flown in, the Icelandic news channel Visir.is reported.
Sveinbjarnardottir's account was disputed by the chief vet in the town of Blönduó, Egill Steingrímsson, who said he had the drugs necessary to immobilise the bear in the boot of his car. "If the narcotics gun would have been sent by plane, it would have arrived within an hour," he said. "They could keep tabs on the bear for that long."
Steingrímsson also criticised police for not closing a mountain road where people congregated after hearing news of the bear. "There were around 50 to 60 people there watching. The police did not have many options when the bear ran down the hill, approaching the crowd," Steingrimsson said. "I'm very unsatisfied that the police did not try to catch it alive and did not close the road."
The oldest record of polar bears being sighted in Iceland is from 890, 16 years after the first settlers arrived. The last visit was in 1993, when sailors saw a bear swimming off the coast of Strandir. It was also killed.
Polar bears were frequently tamed during the middle ages, but since then no bear has been captured alive in Iceland. Receding North Pole ice is diminishing their hunting and mating grounds and jeopardising their survival.
A spokesman for PolarWorld, a German group dedicated to the preservation of the polar regions and the creatures which inhabit it, called the bear's death "an avoidable tragedy ... another great day for mankind".


 http://website.lineone.net/~polar.publishing/curseofthedriftice.htm

Curse of the Drift Ice

by Thor Edward Jakobsson, translated by Keneva Kunz

Dr Thor Jakobsson is the head of the Sea Ice Research Unit of the Icelandic Meteorological Office and a member of the Expert Team on Sea Ice at the World Meteorological Organisation. His article looks at the chief characteristics of sea ice in Icelandic waters and its impact on the country and its people. Translated by Keneva Kunz.



The habitat of the polar bear extends across the polar ice. The animal ranges widely, travelling great distances across the frozen ocean surface. It catches fish and seals by diving skilfully off the edge of the ice in pursuit of its prey. It can also swim great distances, across long stretches of open water or from one ice flow to another. A polar bear has no easy life, but it is a hardy animal, which can withstand all sorts of trials.
Viewing a polar bear in its natural environment is an engaging experience. The author was once aboard an icebreaker in midwinter, located in Baffin Bay between Greenland and Canada. Endless, gleaming white stretches of ice surrounded us on all sides. We were stuck fast, aboard Canada's largest icebreaker, so thick and solidly frozen was the ice.
One day we saw a grey spot on the horizon to the south, which appeared to be moving. Through binoculars we could see that it was a polar bear travelling across the ice in the direction of the vessel. As it approached we could see two cubs trotting along beside their mother. The she-bear forged ahead and passed the icebreaker at what she must have considered a reasonable distance. The cubs were curious and sniffed in the direction of the icebreaker. But their mother had no time for foolishness and the little family gradually disappeared from our sight on its journey north across the expanse of ice.
Icelandic annals contain fairly frequent reports of polar bears which had been transported to Iceland by polar ice. As might be expected, they were more frequent visitors in past centuries when the ice was more extensive. All the same, they were a rare enough sight to cause a flurry of excitement when word spread of a polar bear in the vicinity. People closed themselves securely in their dwellings while the most daring men joined up to take on the uninvited guest.
There are stories, for example, of the shooting of a polar bear in 1792 in the West Fjords and another in North Iceland. In 1802 two bears came ashore in the Strandir district of the West Fjords. After spending several days visiting fish-storage shacks, one of the bears was killed. Nothing more was heard of the other. In 1874, a number of polar bears came to Iceland; three were killed in the Hornstrandir region of the West Fjords while three came ashore in Mjóifjörður in the East Fjords. Bears have not been known in Iceland since the year 1988, although in 1993 fishermen noticed a polar bear swimming several miles offshore.
In recent years polar bears have been a rarity, since the polar ice has been much less extensive, as was mentioned. Polar bears also decreased in number due to human impact, but since they have become protected their numbers have grown once more. Some scientists are concerned that the shrinking polar ice cap resulting from the Greenhouse Effect will make it more difficult for the polar bear to survive.