| Magic Meme
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| Date and Time |
- | Mar. 28th, 2008, 02:59 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  mellow | |
| Current Music |
- | Dead Can Dance - Song of the Stars | |
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| Snowy Night in Menotomy
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| Date and Time |
- | Jan. 15th, 2008, 12:14 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  okay | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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| Bird Torture by Volkswagen
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| Date and Time |
- | Nov. 16th, 2007, 03:26 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  pissed off | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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| What do European robins, garden warblers, and zebra finches have in common?
They're all beautiful birds who love the freedom of flight and their natural surroundings. They all have glorious voices and instincts to match. And many of these beautiful birds have been decapitated in cruel experiments sponsored by Volkswagen.
IDA was sickened to learn that the Volkswagen Foundation is paying experimenters at German and U.S. universities to capture and use these beautiful songbirds in worthless experiments that terrify the birds before they are ruthlessly killed for curiosity's sake. Although the use of any animal for experimentation is objectionable, the thought of birds-who are universal symbols of joy and freedom-captured, caged, terrorized, and vivisected, is particularly heinous. Birds are indeed so fragile that they often die of fright from the capture or transportation process.
These atrocious acts are taking place at the University of Oldenburg in Germany and Duke University in North Carolina. Songbirds captured from the wild and captive canaries and finches are exposed to different light cycles or are fitted with eye caps glued tightly to their heads to block out all light. Researchers then cut the birds' heads off to slice their retinas out of their eyes, and dissect and study their brains for clues to the secret of migration.
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| Free Daffodil Wallpaper
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| Date and Time |
- | Nov. 13th, 2007, 04:01 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  awake | |
| Current Music |
- | Cindytalk - Dream Ritual | |
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| Two Trips to Mount Auburn
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 21st, 2007, 07:06 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | awake | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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I've been to Mount Auburn Cemetery twice this weekend. Yesterday, I went with Ila. We walked up the winding paths and climbed to the top of the tower. The sky was overcast, which served to deepen the reds, gold and purple that extended to the horizon in one directions and to the Boston skyline in the other. Today, Skye had her bi-weekly lupron shot. After the shot, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) purpleglitter and I took her to Mount Auburn. This time we drove to the tower, and I walked Skye to the top. Today was sunny and bright and Skye was treated to what some have called the best view on the continent. She loved every minute of it up there. Skye in the sky. |
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| Saint Paul's Cemetery in Autumn
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 19th, 2007, 12:50 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  groggy | |
| Current Music |
- | Cindytalk - Through Flowers | |
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| Autumn Birds at Arlington Reservoir
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 7th, 2007, 07:30 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  cheerful | |
| Current Music |
- | lake humming my funny valentine | |
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My birding camera is still giving me a lot of grief. I'll get it working only to lose power again in less than a minute. I'm more and more convinced the problem is internal, and the prospects of getting it fixed anytime soon are dim. Even so, I was able to get a few shots with it at the Arlington Reservoir today. 
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| 50 Years in Space
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 4th, 2007, 12:51 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  blank | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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The USSR launched Sputnik 50 years ago today, starting the space age. Poll #1065940
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllIn the next 50 years, humans will... |
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| Household Hints
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 4th, 2007, 10:54 am | |
| Current Mood |
- | awake | |
| Current Music |
- | air purifier | |
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From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884): | Household Hints. — Do not deposit wood ashes in a wooden vessel or upon a wooden floor.
Never use a light in examining a gas-meter.
Never take a light into a closet.
Never read in bed by candle or lamp light.
Never put kindling wood on top of the stove to dry.
Never leave clothes near a grate or fire-place to dry.
Be careful in making fire with shavings, and never user any kind of oil to kindle a fire.
Keep all lights as far from curtains as possible.
Always fill and trim your lamps by daylight, and never near a fire.
Good nice pie-crust can be made by always observing the following rule. One-quarter of a cup of shortening to every cup of flour used; to be mixed as dry as possible with cold water, and mixed only with a knife.
Take sweet butter only for baking purposes, and never fail to thoroughly beat together your butter and sugar, if you would be sure of good results in cake baking.
Have metal or earthen vessels for matches, and keep them out of reach of children. Wax matches are not safe.
Ground mustard mixing with a little water is an excellent agent for cleansing the hands after handling odorous substances.
Cut hot bread or cake with a hot knife, and it will not be clammy.
Salt extracts the juices of meat in cooking. Steaks ought therefore not be salted until they have been broiled.
In boiling dumplings of any kind, put them in the water one at a time. If they are put in together they will mix with each other.
Do not cut lamp-wicks, but trim them by wiping off with a scrap of paper.
Never boil vegetables with soup stock, for if you do it will certainly become sour in a short time.
Boil your cream for coffee, and see if the coffee will not taste better, as well as keep hot longer.
Pin-cushion covers made of cheese cloth embroidered and trimmed with lace, wear well and keep their looks.
Some one says that leaves of parsley, eaten with a little vinegar, will destroy the odor of breath tainted by onions.
Hot liquid lye is recommended for removing obstructions in waste pipes. Or let the potash dissolve over night in the pipes.
To wipe dust from papered walls, take a clean, soft piece of flannel. Of course it must not be damp, but the dry flannel will remove the dust.
Varnish the soles of your shoes, and it will render them impervious to dampness, and will also make them last longer. This is a good plan.
Clean the mica in stove doors with vinegar. Take clinkers out of stoves by putting a few oyster shells into the grate, when they will become loosened, and may be removed without injuring the lining.
Save the droppings from spermaceti candles, tie them in a cloth, and keep to smooth rough flat-irons.
Never starch napkins.
An old black bunting or cashmere dress may be made to serve a further period of usefulness by being made into a petticoat.
Between two evils choose neither.
Writing a will does not shorten life, and yet many men fear it will.
Save old suspender rings, and sew them on the corners of kitchen holders to hang them by. It will be easy then to flip them on to a nail, and they will not be so likely to get lost.
Powdered borax with a little sugar, blown into the cracks and crevices with a small bellows, will drive away house-ants.
Have a high stool in the kitchen to sit on when tired, to continue your work if necessary. Perched on its top you can wash dishes or iron with ease. A low stool placed on a wooden chair forms a substitute, but a poor one. A soft sheep-skin mat is restful to stand upon.
There is nothing better for cleaning brass or copper than coal ashes. They are also good to scour knives and forks with. For tin, whiting or fine sand is best.
To cleanse jars or jugs or any earthen vessel slaked lime is good, or warmed lye.
To keep a stove smooth, take a coarse and pretty large piece of flannel, roll it hard, and dip it in fine sand. Proceed to rub your stove whenever you are through cooking. Almost any stove will look better for being done the same way occasionally. Boiled starch is also very good to keep a stove looking well; put it on where it will not burn off — around the back and sides where it doesn't get very hot. | |
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| Free One Pass Icons
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| Date and Time |
- | Oct. 3rd, 2007, 03:11 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | blank | |
| Current Music |
- | Poe - Haunted | |
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| Showing Some Tail
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| Date and Time |
- | Sep. 29th, 2007, 10:51 am | |
| Current Mood |
- | mellow | |
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| Squirrels are not as helpless as they may seem when confronted by rattlesnakes eager to make dinner of their pups. A new study reveals one of their most powerful tactics: the rodents heat their bushy tails and wave them back and forth to warn infrared-sensitive snakes they will not get fast food.
Infrared video showed that California ground squirrels' tails warmed by several degrees, up to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit), when threatened by northern Pacific rattlesnakes, which detect the infrared glow from small mammals using so-called pit organs in their noses. But no heating occurred while the rodents defended against gopher snakes, which lack such heat seekers, according to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
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| The Washington Elm
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| Date and Time |
- | Sep. 25th, 2007, 04:57 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | chipper | |
| Current Music |
- | Changelings - Melusine | |
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I took these pictures of the Washington Elm in Cambridge Common last week while I was sitting under it with Jeff last week. It is the same tree which General George Washington stood under when he took command of the Continental army in 1775. That old tree has seen a lot in its time. 
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| Not Doing So Well Today
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| Date and Time |
- | Jul. 12th, 2007, 12:50 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | blah | |
| Current Music |
- | dubbins screeching | |
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Fed the birds. Skye got out while I was feeding her. She's in condition, but as none of the other budgies are out I figured I'd just let her fly around a bit. Not being able to get into any of the cages, she crawls into the tray of the big cage. I had to fish her out then turn off the lights so I could get her back into her cage.
After all that, I sat down at my computer and promptly vomited on my keyboard. I don't feel particularly ill, and I don't know why that happened. Luckily the keyboard still seems to work.
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| Solstice
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| Date and Time |
- | Jun. 21st, 2007, 10:57 am | |
| Current Mood |
- | cheerful | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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Sol, lifebringer and lightgiver, our star, the one which holds us tight and keeps at bay the outer darkness. Sol, thank you. Your winds dance in our sky and your breath allows our existence. There is nothing more powerful, nothing greater, nothing more brilliant or amazing in this system than Sol. While there may be bigger things out there, that effect our existence here and now than does Sol. While today we may look to Sol, truly everyday is Sol's day, for without Sol there are no days.
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| Free Squirrel Icons
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| Date and Time |
- | Jun. 13th, 2007, 10:41 am | |
| Current Mood |
- | awake | |
| Current Music |
- | budgies in conference | |
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| First Package
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| Date and Time |
- | Jun. 6th, 2007, 06:44 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | mellow | |
| Current Music |
- | The Changelings - Melusine | |
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This afternoon, I received my first package at my new residence. A housewarming gift from my sister. I hope I can keep good care of it, I've never had much of a green thumb.  |
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| Davis Square Wisteria
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| Date and Time |
- | Jun. 6th, 2007, 02:10 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- | happy | |
| Current Music |
- | Billie Holliday - These Foolish Things | |
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| Daffodil and Sol
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| Date and Time |
- | May. 5th, 2007, 05:38 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  hungry | |
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