Taps began to play at 10:58. Everything else goes silent. Only the breeze and a single trumpet can be heard. And then at the eleventh hour, not even the wind makes a sound.

At that moment a freight train rolled through the village. For the full two minutes of silence the only sound was the undeniable melody of train moving at a constant rhythm. Finally the sound fades off in distance and time. And then, the single trumpet sings again.

Suddenly the sun came out from its heavy cloud cover.

Thank you soldier. Lest We Forget.

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BEST VIEWED IN HD AND FULLSCREEN (with scaling off)

Midnight Sun: A natural phenomenon occurring in the summer months north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle where the sun never fully sets and remains visible 24 hours a day.

This short time lapse film was shot during the Icelandic Midnight Sun in June of 2011.

………..

Move on back two squares

suckas.

We’re fighting wars based on lies.  To quote a Christmas message from long ago; War Is Over, if you want it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9az6MMNZJl8

App installed and then I logged in fully expecting it to then tell me I’m not worthy by being “off shore”.  Wow, there’s my account and the list of movies I’ve recently watched.  Let’s test it by watching the last bit of a movie I didn’t fully watch.  I’m on WiFI so that won’t be a problem.  Click, landscape mode, spinning wheel, I think it’s going to work.  Bam, big fat popup telling me that I can’t instant stream from my region.  Ok, what else can the app do?  Nothing, nada.  No queuing, only searching.  What good is that if I can’t watch it or queue it for watching later on at home?

F.A.I.L.

None of this streaming business is ready for prime time especially if you don’t reside down in Yankee Land.  ”Available on many many devices”.  Except for any and every device and app I own.  Thank goodness for a free month of testing because now I know not to give my money away.

complete article:: Meteorologists Follow Fate of Snowdrift on Mt. Esja

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND (AP) – How do you write a new constitution in the 21st century? You go where the people are _ online.

That was the decision of tiny but tech-savvy Iceland, which is overhauling its constitution in the wake of an economic catastrophe, and has turned to the Internet to get input from citizens.

….

The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. My Mother sewed all our clothes on a foot treadle sewing machine. She used extremely worn out clothes, and fabric scraps, stitched into quilts for our beds in winter. I think that my Mother invented recycling.

But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We took our shoes to the shoemaker, to be “half-soled” or “reheeled”, instead of throwing them out and getting new.

Back then, we had one radio, in the house, in one room. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by walking, riding a second hand bicycle, planting our Victory gardens, kids playing outside with jump ropes, hide&seek, etc., so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. (My Mom never drove.) We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. We didn’t even have Pizza joints, or any other kind of junk fast food. My Mother cooked 100% from scratch, 3 meals a day, and it was beyond good.And, not one scrap of food was wasted, it became soup, or stew for next day.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Then the lights go out. Transformer outside gets knocked over by a truck. Crap, no more AC. Computers still up on UPS for a while but eventually that goes down too. Boss man freaks out, laptop still good but no internet. Hold on, I start up my WiFI Hotspot and boss man plus a few others get online. He’s amazed and thrilled. A few seconds later the lights go back on. He looks at me and asks, what did you do? I tell him not much but Android is so powerful it is powering your office. But not for long, the battery is rather small.

karma points for the day.