DUNKIRK
PIONEER OF THE NILE
What does everyone else think? I've read some hype on I Want Revenge and a few others. Wish I could be there in person!!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Don't mark my words
Kentucky Derby 135 is Saturday and I'm makin' my picks on absolutely no basis at all. I like these particular horses, and I usually pick my favorites merely on looks and I'll perhaps glance through their race records and pedigree. The last time my strategy worked was ... uh ... back when Real Quiet won. That was a few years ago. lol.
DUNKIRK
PIONEER OF THE NILE
What does everyone else think? I've read some hype on I Want Revenge and a few others. Wish I could be there in person!!
DUNKIRK
PIONEER OF THE NILE
What does everyone else think? I've read some hype on I Want Revenge and a few others. Wish I could be there in person!!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Things to do before I'm 30 ... er, ok 40.
So since I will be turning 30 is a mere 4 months or so, I decided to make a list of things to do before I'm 40. I had made a similar list when I was in high school, and surprisingly have accomplished nearly everything on that list. So I'll include those here, too.
• Go skydiving. (DONE, summer of 1998)
• Drive across America
• Visit Hawaii
• Visit Australia. See a kangaroo.
• Go horseback riding in Ireland. Kiss Balarney Stone.
• Go parasailing
• Ride a horse in the beach (DONE, March 2009)
• See a concert at Red Rocks, Colorado (Planned for July 2009)
• Ride in a Grand Prix dressage test
• Try to snow ski
• Watch a foal being born (DONE, too many times to count)
• Start a Web site for my photography and portfolio (planned, basics done)
• Write a song (DONE, but still going to write more)
• Get out of debt (planned, working on it)
.. any other suggetions? :-)
• Go skydiving. (DONE, summer of 1998)
• Drive across America
• Visit Hawaii
• Visit Australia. See a kangaroo.
• Go horseback riding in Ireland. Kiss Balarney Stone.
• Go parasailing
• Ride a horse in the beach (DONE, March 2009)
• See a concert at Red Rocks, Colorado (Planned for July 2009)
• Ride in a Grand Prix dressage test
• Try to snow ski
• Watch a foal being born (DONE, too many times to count)
• Start a Web site for my photography and portfolio (planned, basics done)
• Write a song (DONE, but still going to write more)
• Get out of debt (planned, working on it)
.. any other suggetions? :-)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Booze
I had to laugh when I saw the google ad on my blog today. It is:
IN Alcohol Detoxification
Restoring. Healing. Transforming. Let Us Help You. Call 866-536-7158.
Thank goodness my acid reflux problem keeps my drinking in check.
IN Alcohol Detoxification
Restoring. Healing. Transforming. Let Us Help You. Call 866-536-7158.
Thank goodness my acid reflux problem keeps my drinking in check.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Poor polo ponies
Vets blame toxin in 21 polo horse deaths in Fla.
WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) — The sudden death of 21 polo horses in Florida may have been caused by a toxin that has yet to be identified by tests and could have been in the animals’ feed, vitamins or supplements, veterinarians said Monday.
The horses from the Venezuelan-owned team Lechuza Caracas sickened just before a tournament Sunday, collapsing and dying on the scene or while being treated at vet clinics or transported, officials said.
Dr. Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at Palm Beach Equine Clinic near the polo grounds, treated one of the sick horses. He said it appeared the animals died of heart failure caused by some kind of toxin that could have been in tainted food, vitamins or supplements or some combination of all three that caused a toxic reaction.
“A combination of something with an error in something that was given to these horses caused this toxic reaction,” Swerdlin told reporters.
It may take days or weeks to get the results of toxicology tests that could identify the toxin, he said.
Another veterinarian who was at the scene said something triggered heart failure among the horses.
“Well clearly, it’s an intoxication, clearly there’s some sort of a poison,” Dr. James Belden told NBC’s “Today Show”.
The team is owned by Venezuelan businessman Victor Vargas but most of the horses and players are Argentine, Swerdlin said. The team travels most of the year.
Swerdlin said the team has up to 60 horses. All of those who fell sick have died, he said.
The Lechuza Caracas horses were being unloaded from their trailers Sunday afternoon when two collapsed and others acted dizzy and disoriented, according to the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Seven horses died at the scene and the rest while being treated elsewhere or en route to medical care.
The polo grounds in Wellington, a wealthy equestrian and golfing community in central Palm Beach County, hosts the U.S. Open every year.
John Wash, the polo club’s president of club operations, told reporters Monday that doctors had ruled out any sort of airborne infection. “This was an isolated incident involving that one team,” Wash said.
“This was devastating,” he said. “It was heartbreaking to see that many horses to get sick all at once.”
Veterinarians already at the event quickly tried treating the horses, inserting intravenous lines and trying to cool them down with fans and water. Observers hung blue tarps to shield some of the horses from the crowd’s view.
The match in the U.S. Open Polo Championship was postponed and an exhibition game with a substitute team was held in its place.
The carcasses of at least 14 horses were taken to a state agricultural laboratory for necropsies to learn the causes of their deaths.
Wash said these types of horses can be worth from $10,000 to $200,000 each.
He also said that because doctors had ruled out an infection, the games will resume Wednesday.
WELLINGTON, Fla. (AP) — The sudden death of 21 polo horses in Florida may have been caused by a toxin that has yet to be identified by tests and could have been in the animals’ feed, vitamins or supplements, veterinarians said Monday.
The horses from the Venezuelan-owned team Lechuza Caracas sickened just before a tournament Sunday, collapsing and dying on the scene or while being treated at vet clinics or transported, officials said.
Dr. Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at Palm Beach Equine Clinic near the polo grounds, treated one of the sick horses. He said it appeared the animals died of heart failure caused by some kind of toxin that could have been in tainted food, vitamins or supplements or some combination of all three that caused a toxic reaction.
“A combination of something with an error in something that was given to these horses caused this toxic reaction,” Swerdlin told reporters.
It may take days or weeks to get the results of toxicology tests that could identify the toxin, he said.
Another veterinarian who was at the scene said something triggered heart failure among the horses.
“Well clearly, it’s an intoxication, clearly there’s some sort of a poison,” Dr. James Belden told NBC’s “Today Show”.
The team is owned by Venezuelan businessman Victor Vargas but most of the horses and players are Argentine, Swerdlin said. The team travels most of the year.
Swerdlin said the team has up to 60 horses. All of those who fell sick have died, he said.
The Lechuza Caracas horses were being unloaded from their trailers Sunday afternoon when two collapsed and others acted dizzy and disoriented, according to the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Seven horses died at the scene and the rest while being treated elsewhere or en route to medical care.
The polo grounds in Wellington, a wealthy equestrian and golfing community in central Palm Beach County, hosts the U.S. Open every year.
John Wash, the polo club’s president of club operations, told reporters Monday that doctors had ruled out any sort of airborne infection. “This was an isolated incident involving that one team,” Wash said.
“This was devastating,” he said. “It was heartbreaking to see that many horses to get sick all at once.”
Veterinarians already at the event quickly tried treating the horses, inserting intravenous lines and trying to cool them down with fans and water. Observers hung blue tarps to shield some of the horses from the crowd’s view.
The match in the U.S. Open Polo Championship was postponed and an exhibition game with a substitute team was held in its place.
The carcasses of at least 14 horses were taken to a state agricultural laboratory for necropsies to learn the causes of their deaths.
Wash said these types of horses can be worth from $10,000 to $200,000 each.
He also said that because doctors had ruled out an infection, the games will resume Wednesday.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Proudest Monkey ... you'll ever see
This is the song that turned me on to Dave Matthews Band ... way back in 1996 when a classmate was playing it in photography class. (sidenote: The song actually came out of an impromptu jam the band played as a soundcheck for a gig at Williams College in 1993)
From 1996 on, I saw DMB several times a year ... totally close to 30 times and I NEVER heard this song played live until last summer, 2008.
From 1996 on, I saw DMB several times a year ... totally close to 30 times and I NEVER heard this song played live until last summer, 2008.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
one day ...
I LOVE this photo!! One day I will be creative enough and skilled enough to make awesome photographs like this one. I hope! (And the band featured isn't too shabby, either.)
Soon I'll blob about my horse happenings ... been very busy!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
It's tax day.
Turns out I don't owe ANY taxes this year! And a nice refund will be coming my way. What a significant change from last year's horrid tax nightmare where I ended up owing $3000. That is a major reason why I will never again be self-employed.
Friday, April 10, 2009
really.
Sometimes I think I work too hard and have nothing to show for it.
By the way, the above slideshow is a sample of photos I took at Hampton, VA, Phish show.
By the way, the above slideshow is a sample of photos I took at Hampton, VA, Phish show.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Disgusting.
Critics assail Afghan law that ’legalizes rape’
(The Associated Press)
KABUL (AP) — A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects.
Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban’s strict Islamist regime.
The law — which some lawmakers say was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of this country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.
One of the most controversial articles stipulates the wife “is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires.”
“As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night,” Article 132 of the law says. “Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.”
One provision also appears to protect the woman’s right to sex inside marriage saying the “man should not avoid having sexual relations with his wife longer than once every four months.”
The law’s critics say Karzai signed the legislation in the past month only for political gains several months before the country’s presidential election.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, said the law “legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.”
“The law violates women’s rights and human rights in numerous ways,” a UNIFEM statement said.
The strongest criticism came from Canada, a country that has lost 116 soldiers fighting the Taliban and spent up to $8 billion to support the Karzai government.
“The concept that women are full human beings with human rights is very, very central to the reason the international community is engaged in this country,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week in London, where he’s attending the G-20 summit.
Canada’s Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he will use this week’s NATO summit to put “direct” pressure on his Afghan counterparts to abandon the legislation.
The issue of women’s rights is a continuous source of tension between the country’s conservative establishment and more liberal members of society. The Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.
Much has improved since then. Millions of girls now attend school and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.
But in this staunchly conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed.
Fawzia Kufi, a lawmaker who opposed the legislation, said several of its articles undermine constitutional and human rights of women as equals and take the country backward.
“All the efforts that were made in the last seven years to enhance women’s rights will be undermined,” Kufi said.
Karzai has not commented on the law. A spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president is “aware of the discussion surrounding the law, and is looking into the matter.”
Brad Adams, the Asia director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the law is a “dramatic setback for women’s rights.”
“It directly contradicts the freedoms enshrined in the Afghan constitution and the international conventions that Afghanistan has signed up to that guarantee the rights of women,” Adams said.
Safia Sidiqi, a lawmaker from Nangarhar province who condemned the legislation, said she cannot remember parliament debating or even voting on the law and she does not know how it came to be signed by Karzai. She called for the law to be recalled to parliament for debate.
“It is impossible in a two-month session for parliament to pass a law more than 200 pages long,” she said of the 263-page law.
Sayed Hossain Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite lawmaker involved in drafting it, defended the legislation saying it gives more rights to women than even Britain or the United States does. He said the law makes women safer and ensures the husband is obliged to provide for her.
As Karzai seeks re-election later this year, he is courting voters in the Shiite community, Kufi said. Women voters are presumed to vote as their husbands do.
“Women’s basic freedoms are being sacrificed for the political and electoral gain of a few parliamentarians,” Human Rights Watch’s Adams said.
——
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.
(The Associated Press)
KABUL (AP) — A new Afghan law makes it legal for men to rape their wives, human rights groups and some Afghan lawmakers said Thursday, accusing President Hamid Karzai of signing the legislation to bolster his re-election prospects.
Critics worry the legislation undermines hard-won rights for women enacted after the fall of the Taliban’s strict Islamist regime.
The law — which some lawmakers say was never debated in parliament — is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan’s Shiite community, which makes up about 20 percent of this country of 30 million people. The law does not affect Afghan Sunnis.
One of the most controversial articles stipulates the wife “is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires.”
“As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night,” Article 132 of the law says. “Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.”
One provision also appears to protect the woman’s right to sex inside marriage saying the “man should not avoid having sexual relations with his wife longer than once every four months.”
The law’s critics say Karzai signed the legislation in the past month only for political gains several months before the country’s presidential election.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM, said the law “legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.”
“The law violates women’s rights and human rights in numerous ways,” a UNIFEM statement said.
The strongest criticism came from Canada, a country that has lost 116 soldiers fighting the Taliban and spent up to $8 billion to support the Karzai government.
“The concept that women are full human beings with human rights is very, very central to the reason the international community is engaged in this country,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week in London, where he’s attending the G-20 summit.
Canada’s Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he will use this week’s NATO summit to put “direct” pressure on his Afghan counterparts to abandon the legislation.
The issue of women’s rights is a continuous source of tension between the country’s conservative establishment and more liberal members of society. The Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women from appearing in public without a body-covering burqa and a male escort from her family.
Much has improved since then. Millions of girls now attend school and many women own businesses. Of 351 parliamentarians, 89 are women.
But in this staunchly conservative country, critics fear those gains could easily be reversed.
Fawzia Kufi, a lawmaker who opposed the legislation, said several of its articles undermine constitutional and human rights of women as equals and take the country backward.
“All the efforts that were made in the last seven years to enhance women’s rights will be undermined,” Kufi said.
Karzai has not commented on the law. A spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president is “aware of the discussion surrounding the law, and is looking into the matter.”
Brad Adams, the Asia director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the law is a “dramatic setback for women’s rights.”
“It directly contradicts the freedoms enshrined in the Afghan constitution and the international conventions that Afghanistan has signed up to that guarantee the rights of women,” Adams said.
Safia Sidiqi, a lawmaker from Nangarhar province who condemned the legislation, said she cannot remember parliament debating or even voting on the law and she does not know how it came to be signed by Karzai. She called for the law to be recalled to parliament for debate.
“It is impossible in a two-month session for parliament to pass a law more than 200 pages long,” she said of the 263-page law.
Sayed Hossain Alemi Balkhi, a Shiite lawmaker involved in drafting it, defended the legislation saying it gives more rights to women than even Britain or the United States does. He said the law makes women safer and ensures the husband is obliged to provide for her.
As Karzai seeks re-election later this year, he is courting voters in the Shiite community, Kufi said. Women voters are presumed to vote as their husbands do.
“Women’s basic freedoms are being sacrificed for the political and electoral gain of a few parliamentarians,” Human Rights Watch’s Adams said.
——
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies and Charmaine Noronha in Toronto contributed to this report.
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