Archive for January, 2010
http://www.juliabelle.com
Watch as I take off and soar past the St. Lious Gateway Arch and over the Mississippi River at over 1000′ in a compact helicopter.
Duration : 0:3:30
wood land marina Mississippi River boat grafton alton
Duration : 0:0:49
Haitian History is Black History, and we determine how the world remember it, thus how the world remembers us.
edited by Lawrence Gonzalez aka Kompa King
A video about the triumph of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who founded Chicago, a place that defines character in the world today.
4081 productions rewinding reality for the better.
Edited by Lawrence Gonzalez
Voice intro featuring Mecca aka Grimo
Directed by Ecclesiast Guerriere
Assisted by Daniel Nicolas
Pics were found on the web.
a tribute to chicago and its best
Chicago is the largest city by population in the state of Illinois and the Midwest, and a dominant center of finance, industry and culture in the region. The city was long the “second city” (second in population to New York), and is currently the third-most populous city in the United States, with nearly 3 million people. The Chicago metropolitan area (commonly referred to as Chicagoland) has a population of over 9.7 million people in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, making it also the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S.[2] Adjacent to Lake Michigan, it is among the world’s twenty-five largest urban areas by population, and rated an alpha world city by Loughborough University.[3]
Incorporated as a city in 1837 after being founded in 1833 at the site of a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, it soon became a major transportation hub in North America and quickly became the transportation, financial and industrial center of the American Midwest. Today the city’s attractions bring 44.2 million visitors annually.[4]
Chicago was once the capital of the railroad industry and until the 1960s the world’s largest meatpacking facilities were at the Union Stock Yards. Chicago became notorious worldwide for its violent gangsters in the 1920s, most notably Al Capone, and for the political corruption in one of the longest lasting political machines in the nation. The city has long been a stronghold of the Democratic Party and has been home to many Democratic presidential candidates including the current presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
The name “Chicago” is the French rendering of the Miami-Illinois name shikaakwa, meaning “wild leek”.[5][6][7] Etymologically, the sound /shikaakwa/ in Miami-Illinois literally means ’striped skunk’, and was a reference to wild leek, or the smell of onions.[6] The name was initially applied to the river, but later came to denote what is presently the site of city. The sound Chicago is said[who?] to be the result of a French mis-transcription of the original sound by Louis Hennepin, a Catholic priest, missionary and explorer, who in 1683 first placed the place name ‘Chicago’ on a map.[citation needed]
During the mid-18th century the area was inhabited primarily by Potawatomis, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples. The first permanent settler in Chicago, Haitian Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, arrived in the 1770s, married a Potawatomi woman, and founded the area’s first trading post. In 1803 the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in the 1812 Fort Dearborn massacre. The Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi later ceded the land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of 350. Within seven years it grew to a population of over 4,000. The City of Chicago was incorporated on March 4, 1837.
common, obama, hilary clinton, yung berg, dwayne wade, michael jordan, bernie mac, terrence howard, oprah, kanye west,chicago bulls, chicago sox, chicago bears, mike ditka, robin williams, fallout boy
Duration : 0:5:38
TFiJ04: Taking a faux riverboat cruise on the Mississippi River with Dad and Dotto during my recent trip to Davenport, Iowa.
Duration : 0:1:26
Take a sneak peak at life on the Mississippi River with a Nature Conservancy crew as it travels down this mighty waterway from its headwaters in Minnesota to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. From a Native American rice gatherer to a shrimp fisherman, read the stories of people who depend on the Mississippi for their livelihoods, recreation and inspiration. Take the journey at www.nature.org/msriver today.
Duration : 0:1:30
Depending upon the time of year that you decide to visit the lake, catfish fishing results can vary greatly, and you may want to target specific areas of the lake based on the temperature, season, and type of catfish you’re targeting. All these factors are involved in determining your level of success when spending time at the lake catfish fishing.
First of all, the season can have a great affect on your ability to catch catfish. At the lake, catfish fishing will usually be best in the late spring and early summer. During these months, the best catch can be found away from the shores, in the deeper areas of the lakes. Catfish tend to be more active during these months, having recently spawned, and will be out and about, searching for food. By comparison, you may often find that catfishing in early and mid spring is most productive closer to the shoreline or in more shallow areas, where catfish choose to spawn. Be sure to target holes and heavy cover during these months, as these are choice locations for a nest of eggs being laid by a female or watched by a male. If you choose to go lake catfish fishing in late fall or winter, be sure to stick to the warmest, deepest waters and target deep holes. In fact, a depth finder could definitely come in handy in such a situation to find your catch.
The breed of catfish you seek can definitely have an affect on your fishing techniques and habits as well. While there are actually several kinds of catfish to choose from, the most common (and most popular) to target in North America are the channel cat, the blue catfish, and flatheads.
By far the most common (and smallest) of the three is the channel catfish, which can be found in most parts of the United States. These catfish are not at all picky about where they live and simply choose to stay in warm waters with lots of material to scavenge for food. Typically, channel cats will often be found in drainages and other creeks and spillways off the lake or near the dam, where there is lots of “free” food to be found. Because these catfish are about the right size to make a meal for blues and flatheads, you are most likely to find large numbers of them in smaller lakes where the other catfish are not as common.
When searching for flatheads, you’ll want to target murky areas with lots of cover, where the lake bottom is sandy or muddy. Try night fishing off the bank with a trotline, since flatheads come up to the shallows to feed “after hours”.
Fishing for blues in lakes – you should target clearer waters with faster currents, and you should definitely look toward larger lakes for these giants. Blues and flatheads are most concentrated in the Midwest, in lakes that are centered around the Mississippi River, one of their native homes.
Daniel Eggertsen
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/finding-the-best-lake-catfish-fishing-114188.html
President Bush came into office with great promise, and the reality has been one failure after another, and this is coming from a writer who was a conservative Republican before the President knew what the term meant. Let’s use former President Ronald Reagan’s requirements for a successful Presidency. Do you remember the last debate between then President Jimmy Carter and candidate Reagan? The former Republican Governor of California asked the American people in closing if they thought they were better off today in 1980, than they were when President Carter took office four years earlier in January of 1977. The following Tuesday, the American people threw the failed President from Georgia out of office in a landslide.
Here we are now six years into another Presidency, and the only thing that I believe has been successful about this Presidency is the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is somewhat above the same level it was in 2000 when this President was elected. Let’s look at a few of the big issues this President has faced and to which he has reacted poorly in resolving.
1) The tragedy of 9/11 – Six years later, Osama Bin Laden the direct murderer of almost 3000 Americans remains FREE, and unencumbered by the United States military. Do we still have military units assigned to hunting him down? There is not a word in the press about it if we do.
2) Making America SAFER in response to terrorism – Do you really believe we are safer? I for one believe that no American passenger airplane will ever be taken hostage again by terrorists. I believe this only because of the American passengers on board who will react immediately to a hostage situation, not because of the marshal program but because Americans still remember how to defend themselves, and they will. As for planes crashing into buildings, do you really think all those FED EX, UPS, and US Postal Service planes are secure? Do you think private corporate aircraft are secure? What about the tens of thousands of private airplanes in America?
Recently a private airplane in NY flew up the East River, made a U-Turn and crashed into an apartment building on the East Side of Manhattan. Nobody realized what was going on until the crash occurred. As a result the government has not banned flights up the East River. It’s kind of late, don’t you think?
3)The Docks are not safe – How difficult would it be for a terrorist group to sneak a low yield nuclear weapon into this country aboard one of the tens of thousands of merchant transport ships that bring cargo into this country each year? Only a small percentage of the cargo is inspected.
4) Subway and Bus System still completely exposed – The terrorist acts in Madrid and London in the last several years exposed flaws in our own public transportation systems that have not been addressed. Do you really think that terrorists carrying backpacks with explosives in them would have any problem getting on a NYC bus or subway car, and committing their insane acts?
5) Hurricane Katrina – This terrible tragedy exposed government ineptness, and lack of responsiveness. There were bodies of American citizens floating down the Mississippi River in the streets of New Orleans, and this is the 21st century. FEMA which is the Federal Emergency Management Association proved to be completely incapable of handling, or even helping in this crisis. Do you really believe that these inadequacies have been addressed? If chemical or biological warfare were used against the United States by terrorists, do you think that we would have anything approaching an adequate response to such an attack? I don’t believe it.
6) Initial Iraq decision making process – You have got to be kidding us, Mr. President. We know in retrospect that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein posed no direct threat to America. In other words, he was not going to attack us. The basis for the war was in error, and I personally supported it. We have wasted 3000 American lives during the invasion, and 3000 subsequent to the invasion in ERROR, plus 30,000 men who have been injured including terrible losses of their limbs.
7) Post Invasion decision making – Wow, could it really have been worse? Could the people reporting to the President have done a poorer job in post war Iraq, if they had wanted to? We had the unnecessary disbanding of the Iraqi army, to the throwing out of the Sunni civil servants that knew how to run the day to day government operations. We then installed the Shia civil servants who had not run the government in several hundred years. The whole thing was a series of colossal, could have been ANTICIPATED mistakes. Our window of opportunity to do the right thing has now passed. The American electorate has lost its patience with this President, and this war. Our options are running out, and there is no good ending in site for us.
Largest deficits in American history – You have got to be kidding when this man calls himself a conservative President. There is nothing conservative whatsoever about his spending policies. He has systematically outspent every one of his predecessors in history to the tune of trillions of dollars. He has not vetoed one Congressional spending act – first time in history. His prescription drug bill for seniors is costing almost $50 billion dollars per year more than it should because he included overpayments to drug companies, and created unnecessary giveaways to insurance companies to act as intermediaries in the program. Who would have believed that a Republican President would do such a thing?
9) Tax policies that don’t make sense – I believe in the lowest rate of taxation possible. I do not believe that you cut taxes for the rich in a time of deficit, borrow the money from Japan, China, and Europe to fund the deficits, and then send tax refund checks to the richest 2 percent of the population with the borrowed funds. Furthermore, I do not believe that the very rich in our society believe you should do this either. Yet, that’s what the President has done, an act of fiscal irresponsibility at best, and insanity at worst.
You figure it out for yourself. Look at the above and it equals a failed Presidency. All of this from a man who has never once consulted his father as to what he should do about Iraq. Both men have stated that they have not talked about it. This is a President that still can’t talk about issues, or give even a minor speech without READING the entire prewritten document. He is that uncomfortable in his own skin. How will we survive another two years of this kind of leadership?
Richard Stoyeck
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/six-years-later-a-failed-presidency-85219.html
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a nineteenth century writer and a poet throughout all his works has convinced an idea of the presence of inner self reliance mechanism and presence of soul in each human being. People believing that such thing as soul and so called “sixth sense” or intuition, according to which each should live, exist, call themselves Emersonians, or Emersonian scholars. They are the followers of Emerson’s philosophy, who look inside themselves for the answers, rather then seeking them in the outside world. A very similar search fro truth is described in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where two people mistreated by the society are going down the Mississippi River on a spiritual quest. Huck and Jim are the ones in this novel whom we can call the disciples of Emerson’s philosophy, looking for their way out with the help of inner light, because all lights of civilization have failed them.
The situation, in which the protagonist of the novel finds himself, is such that no person would ever wish to happen in one’s life. He is a son of a town drunkard, his mother is dead, and therefore, he is mostly on his own. Huck is taken to Widow Douglas’s house in order to get an education and to become more “civilized”, as he is considered to be quite a savage person. Thus, Huck has his abusive ever drunk father on one side, and a “too civilized” Widow with all her rules, on the other. He likes neither of them. He escapes both in order to find his own new world where he would feel more comfortable. The symbolism in the book is very vivid, describing Huck’s fleeing down the river. The river there being a division between the great society with all made up rules and Huck’s new, not yet found, inner piece and conscious of his own which is not influenced by the outside convictions. Throughout the novel he meets face to face with all expressions of cruel life, with robbers and killers, with storms and other misfortunes. Huck is exposed to a lot of negative experience, but surprisingly he doesn’t become an evil, people hating person, he rather becomes a more understanding and inner guided child-grown up.
The main helper and Huck’s companion is Jim. Widow’s escaped slave, who wants to reunite with his family. Jim’s soul is aching for his loved ones, of course it was not a rare feeling for a slave, but not many were brave enough to run away from their masters in order to see their families as it even could cost them their life. However, Jim only follows what his heart tells him, although he feels that he lets down Widow Douglas. This feeling of remorse also indicates how thoughtful he was of people whom he cared for, even though they were his master. Certainly Jim’s sorrow was caused by that society’s values, of putting white race above the black one, he was born with such understanding and could not distance himself from this believe too far. All this kept in mind; Jim’s remorse over deceiving the Widow and pressure of society, and an inevitable punishment if he is caught, we have one very courageous slave with an immense desire to be freely living with his family. At that time such desire was a mortal sin for a slave.
Both of them apart from each other are the warriors fighting against society. Together on their little floating raft they become soul mates in their quest for freedom. For each of them freedom means different thing, but both of them are led to their goal by inner calling of a better life, a renewed understanding of themselves. Through this quest they are acquiring new qualities and discover lots of things about civilization being actually far from it. Thus, Huck fighting his desire to give up Jim to Widow and never let him reunite with his family. In the closing chapter, however, Huck finally realizes that it would be morally wrong to rob Jim off of his freedom. This moral was not taken from surrounding society, but from the depth of his heart with the help of inner compass indicating good and bad. This realization came to Huck when Jim told him about Pap’s death, “Doan’ you ‘member de house dat was float’n down de river, en dey wuz a man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn’ let you come in? Well, den, you kin git yo’ money when you wants it, kase dat wuz him.” Suddenly, he knew that no one will abuse him and he has nothing to fear from now on. On the other hand Jim is playing a parental role, because he was caring enough to not tell Huck at first that the floating damaged body was that of Pap, not to let him look at his horrible face. Jim also has reached his goal by acquiring a family he has longed for, he becomes a spiritual father to Huck.
Everything in the novel points to the ultimate goal of the heroes of finding what is most important in their lives, and finding it regarding only the instruction of their natural instincts. The ending chapter proves that their choice was the only right, although it may seem that they still have to go through a lot of challenges and that battle is not yet won. Certainly, society will never give up its rules because that’s how it controls people. In case of Huck and Jim, though, society no longer decides for them with whom to be friends and what priorities in life to have.
Jeff Stats
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/huck-and-jim-as-scholars-106336.html
When referencing saltwater catfish fishing, you are looking at an entirely different sport from freshwater fishing. You’ll be fishing for different species of catfish in brackish (salty or briny) waters, and you can expect a completely different experience.
While saltwater catfish fishing is preferred by some and the taste of the catch actually regarded as better by many advocates of the sport, most people do prefer the taste of a freshwater catfish. Of the saltwater variety, the Gaff Topsail is considered to be one of the most flavorful, but again, saltwater catfish are not typically served in restaurants, and many people don’t like the taste.
One similarity between freshwater and saltwater catfish fishing is that catfish are bottom feeders, and you’ll have just as much success in saltwater fishing on the bottom of the body of water as you would in a lake or river.
They are typically either scavengers looking for an easy meal or feed on smaller fish that also dwell along the bottoms. Also, most catfish are not picky about bait. They will bite almost anything you put in front of them and are really considered lazy fish because few of them, with the exception of flatheads (which are freshwater fish) are predators and want their meals handed to them.
Saltwater catfish fishing is good in several coastal areas, especially in the Gulf of Mexico along the borders of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. You can also find saltwater species around the entire coastline of Florida, up the east coast through Georgia, and even into the Carolinas and Virginia.
Interestingly enough, many people have perpetrated the myth that, because catfish don’t have scales, they are allergic to salt. However, consider the fact that moray eels live in briny waters and yet lack scales, and you’ll see that this is completely unfounded.
What fear is not a myth is that saltwater catfish fishing can actually lead to injury if fishermen aren’t careful. These saltwater dwellers have sharp fins unlike the freshwater variety that can cause more than a little pain if handled incorrectly. A small prick with one of these fins can cause severe discomfort, and a rough stick in the hand has been known to cause major swelling and pain, even leading to nausea in some and hospital visits in extreme cases.
Interestingly enough, though two major species of catfish are primarily marine fish, there are several additional species that have adapted to saltwater. While they may not prefer it and are more frequently found in freshwater, these varieties of catfish are tolerant of almost any habitat, including saltwater.
Daniel Eggertsen
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/biggest-things-to-remember-when-saltwater-catfish-fishing-137870.html