Message In A Bottle

SEATTLE, Washington — Merle Brandell and his black lab Slapsey were beachcombing along the Bering Sea when he spied a plastic bottle among the Japanese glass floats he often finds along the shore of his tiny Alaskan fishing village.

He walked over and saw an envelope tucked inside. After slicing the bottle open, Brandell found a message from an elementary school student in a suburb of Seattle. The fact that the letter traveled 1,735 miles without any help from the U.S. postal service is unusual, but that's only the beginning of the mystery.

About 21 years passed between the time Emily Hwaung put the message in a soda bottle and Merle Brandell picked it up on the beach.

"This letter is part of our science project to study oceans and learn about people in distant lands," she wrote. "Please send the date and location of the bottle with your address. I will send you my picture and tell you when and where the bottle was placed in the ocean. Your friend, Emily Hwaung."

Brandell, 34, a bear hunting guide and manager of a local water plant, said many of the 70-plus residents of Nelson Lagoon were intrigued by his find. Beachcombing is a popular activity in remote western Alaska. Among the recent discoveries was a sail boat that washed onto shore last October.

"It's kind of a sport. It keeps us occupied. It's one of the pleasures of living here," Brandell said of the village reachable only by plane or boat that is too small to have its own store.

He had no idea just how unusual his find was until he tried to track down the sender: a fourth grader from the North City School in the Shoreline School District.

No one answered the phone when Brandell called the school in December so he sent the school district a handwritten letter, which eventually ended up on the desk of district spokesman Craig Degginger.

After some searching, Degginger discovered Emily Hwaung is now a 30- year-old accountant named Emily Shih who now lives in Seattle. She was in the 4th grade during the 1986-87 school year at a school building that closed more than a year ago.

"I've been getting a kick out of it for a month now," Shih said during a recent interview.

She said she was flabbergasted by the news and immediately shared it with her Kirkland co-workers.

"I don't remember the project. It was so long ago. Elementary school is kind of foggy," Shih admitted.

The project may have been more memorable if each child had created her own message and personally dropped it in the water, but the letters from Carol Aguayo's fourth grade class were typed. The students only added their names and signed them, then a friend carried the bottles on his boat and dropped them in the ocean.

"It took away a little of the mystique," Shih said of the form letter.

She also was a little chagrined by the offer to mail a photo to whomever found the letter and by the environmental implications of dropping plastic bottles in the ocean, and noted that times have changed a lot in 21 years.

"I've had a good laugh about that with all my friends," Shih said.

As she was sharing her story with friends and co-workers, Shih realized how rare it was for a message in a bottle to arrive safely somewhere.

"Many of them had tried to do it themselves, but you never hear of one coming back. The odds are so low that you'll ever hear back from somebody," Shih said. "It was just kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Brandell has a theory about how the bottle ended up on the shore of Nelson Lagoon and how the letter remained so readable after its 21 years in transit. Maybe the bottle didn't spend those years in the water. It might have blown his way quickly and then remained buried in the mud for years.

It was found among some Japanese floats that took a similar journey many years ago. They don't really wash ashore. They extrude out of the mud and into the hands of beachcombers, who sell them on eBay or craft jewelry out of them like Brandell's mother does.

Article Complete / http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340791,00.html

Why Do You Seek The Living Amoung The Dead ? / Christ Has Risen

The Death Of Christ / 10,000 Angels Could Have Saved Him

On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone

Gotta love some of the classic Rolling Stone Covers !
Which is most memorable in your opinion ?
My favorites are many, but I will select of a few.
Please, if you have a favorite lets hear which one & discuss pop culture throughout the years.

''Gonna See My Picture On The Cover, Gonna Buy 5 Copies For My Mother, Gonna See My Smiling Face On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone''

Manson Victims Buried In Notorious Camps / Forensic Experts Say Dig

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.

Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live.

But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.

And the results of just-completed follow-up tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.

Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge..... Dig.

Please Copy / Paste Link For Complete Story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23651072/

So You Want To Be A Professional Tornado / Storm Chaser Huh ?

I think when I first got started tornado chasing I never thought it would become so much of my life. The idea of chasing storms for a living didn't even cross my mind. I just thought about chasing when I had the time and money to buy gas. Maybe going out of state once or twice a year, it was a hobby that didn't make money, it took it.

But I went from chasing a couple of weeks in May to now chasing a few months every year. I am doing more chasing than I ever thought I would, doing tornado research, and and even making money while doing it. But hard core chasing entails traveling tens of thousands of miles each year to get the best storms, with many weeks off in a row, and lots of money just to cover your costs. Making money doing it is very hard.

I am now doing serious tornado research in the hope of helping develop tornado warning systems for people and also working on tornado education and safety. But my research isn't making money, it costs money. Some researchers are making a full time living from storm/tornado study, but again, they work all year long on the research, and only part time actually chasing. That means most of their year is spent at desks, in front of computers and not chasing tornadoes. So again, picture the reality here, they are sitting at a desk and computer working hard on their research. Not chasing storms and tornadoes all year long. These researchers are highly educated professionals, so if research is your thing, plan on many years in a university getting your needed degrees. Also, you had better be good at complex math since advanced meteorology requires it.

With as far as I have come, I still don't consider myself a full time tornado/storm chaser, but just a part time chaser because I am only out chasing a few months each year. I hear of people who claim to be full time year around chasers, but I would ask them a few questions. Do you make all your money just chasing storms and no other income at all except what you make at tornado chasing? As far as I know, and I talk to many chasers from around the world, no one is making their entire living just chasing storms. No one. Surprised?

Storm chasing and chasing tornadoes is a business like any other. What do you have to sell, what product do you offer? Many tornado chasers are videographers, and great at it. Warren Faidely was one of the first to make good money at filming storms and tornadoes, and is still one of the best in the world with a camera. Does he just chase storms? No, he is a photographer and videographer and makes money chasing because he knows how to use a camera better than most everyone else out there. He is really a photographer/videographer, and a fantastic one. So there are photographers and videographers who are making money, but you need very good video or photos to compete.

It comes down to the fact that you need to be able to market and sell something. If you aren't great at photography and videography, you aren't a professional researcher, than you need something else to sell. You could do chase tours. There are many chase tours with some tours like Silver Lining Tours with Roger Hill who are really tour guides for a living, with Roger maybe being the best in the world currently. No, he does not make a living just chasing, he sells tours and is also highly talented at photography and video, and sells those for money too. Some of his video is so good I have cried watching it, really. Again, you need to have something to sell and market besides just sitting in a car and chasing down storms and tornadoes.

You could be filming the best tornado in history, but if you don't know how to use a video camera no one will buy your video. You may love chasing storms, but to run a chasing tour you had better be great at finding most every tornado, be a fun person to be around, and know how to keep people entertained, or you will have many unhappy travelers along with you demanding their money back. Some smaller, less known tours out there are finding running a tour is very risky, expensive and difficult, with their riders asking for all their money back because they didn't see one tornado. I personally am not interested in making a living being a tour guide, even when it means chasing tornadoes and storms.

So, can someone make a living at chasing tornadoes and storms? Only if they have something that can be sold or is of value to someone else. The trick is finding the someone else who will buy what you have to offer and what you have needs to be exceptional. Then, how much money a year do you need to call it a living? $20,000.00 per year? But is that all profit or is that gross income before expenses? Would $30,000.00 dollars gross income leave you enough to live off of? Do the math and you will see how hard it is to make a full time living from tornado/storm chasing. Chasing costs are very expensive, especially with gas over $2.00 per gallon traveling 400 or more miles everyday, motel cost and meals out. Profit is almost as elusive as the tornadoes we seek, it takes hard work to make it.

Being a part time chaser is still great and maybe is the best route for you to work towards. Part time chasers who make up pretty much the vast majority of chasers find that a second or third income is what makes it all work. Maybe you will find you have so much to offer you can gross $70,000.00 per year or more, but still the bottom line is, will you be able to live off of what is left after all expenses are paid. However you add it up, you still have to pay for food, shelter, medical, and all the other bills all year long. Of course vehicle costs is always very high with wear and tear, repairs, tires, windshield replacement, oil changes, you get my point. Then there are equipment costs, repairs, and replacements.

Don't get discouraged if other chasers make you feel like they are making great money and living well off of chasing and you aren't, because chances are, they aren't doing that great. Instead you should feel like one of us if you are out there in search of seeing a tornado, while still having to hold down some kind of secondary income. I believe making a very good living as a tornado/storm chaser and making all your income from only chasing, and doing it year in and year out is still just a dream for almost everyone chasing. Short of winning the lottery, retiring and having a nice pension to live off of, living at home with your parents, inheriting a million dollars, or striking it rich by luck, plan on working besides chasing and you will be in touch with the real world.

That's how it is: Tornado Tim

http://www.tornadochaser.net/living.html

Salvia / More Powerful Than Marijuana & It's Legal

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: "Time is running out! ... stock up while you still can."

That's because salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, are considering a ban or have previously.

"As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one," said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.


Some say legislators are overreacting to a minor problem, but no one disputes that the plant impairs judgment and the ability to drive.

Native to Mexico and still grown there, salvia divinorum is generally smoked but can also be chewed or made into a tea and drunk.

Hour-long hallucinations
Called nicknames like Sally-D, Magic Mint and Diviner's Sage, salvia is a hallucinogen that gives users an out-of-body sense of traveling through time and space or merging with inanimate objects. Unlike hallucinogens like LSD or PCP, however, salvia's effects last for a shorter time, generally up to an hour.

No known deaths have been attributed to salvia's use, but it was listed as a factor in one Delaware teen's suicide two years ago.

"Parents, I would say, are pretty clueless," said Jonathan Appel, an assistant professor of psychology and criminal justice at Tiffin University in Ohio who has studied the emergence of the substance. "It's much more powerful than marijuana."

Linked to boy's suicide
Salvia's short-lasting effects and fact that it is currently legal may make it seem more appealing to teens, lawmakers say. In the Delaware suicide, the boy's mother told reporters that salvia made his mood darker but he justified its use by citing its legality. According to reports, the autopsy found no traces of the drug in his system, but the medical examiner listed it as a contributing cause.

Mike Strain, Louisiana's Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner and former legislator, helped his state in 2005 become the first to make salvia illegal, along with a number of other plants. He said the response has been largely positive.

"I got some hostile e-mails from people who sold these products," Strain said. "You don't make everybody happy when you outlaw drugs. You save one child and it's worth it."

An ounce of salvia leaves sells for around $30 on the Internet. A liquid extract from the plant, salvinorin A, is also sold in various strengths labeled "5x" through "60x." A gram of the 5x strength, about the weight of a plastic pen cap, is about $12 while 60x strength is around $65. And in some cases the extract comes in flavors including apple, strawberry and spearmint.

'Experience immortality'
Some Web sites tout the product with images like a waterfall and rainbow and include testimonials like: "It might sound far-fetched, but I experience immortality."

Among those who believe the commotion over the drug is overblown is Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group that does research on psychedelic drugs and whose goal is to develop psychedelics and marijuana into prescription medication.

"I think the move to criminalize is a misguided response to a very minimal problem," Doblin said.

Doblin said salvia isn't "a party drug," "tastes terrible" and is "not going to be extremely popular." He disputes the fact teens are its main users and says older users are more likely.

"It's a minor drug in the world of psychedelics," he said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23573004/?GT1=43001