Dreamways

"Does anybody know of another city with portable toilets in its most important civic space? ... I travel quite a bit, and I can't think of one." Thus does John Temple challenge the reader in his editorial, "Vision for Civic Center Blurry" (The Denver Post, 26 Jan 08). He jumps into the ongoing fray about how to refurbish Denver’s Civic Center Park, asserting that in Denver "we treat our civic heart like a junkyard." This is what the idea to give the park a facelift is all about, to make this space pleasing and perhaps even grand.

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The black-and-white photo shows a Chinese fellow squatting in the middle of a solid mass of pale fish that range from a foot to 2 feet long. It is an unbroken, writhing mass of fish, a vortex, taking up the entire frame of the photo. The fellow is holding a round net, a couple of feet in diameter, on a long pole, in the direction of the camera. In his net are half a dozen or so fish. The caption reads: "A Chinese fish farmer with one of his catfish, bred on the outskirts of Hanzhou.  read more »

"Four simple behaviors – being physically active, not smoking, drinking moderately and consuming fruits and vegetables – can increase longevity as much as 14 years, researchers have found.“ This amazing news was reported in The Denver Post ("Four Healthy Habits Linked to Longevity“ by Jeannine Stein, 21 Jan 08).

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"The trees around George and Agnes Spaulding’s 170-year-old farmhouse [in Royalton, Vt.] are as good as money in the bank, many old-growth maples valuable not only for the quality of their wood but also for the sweet sap boiled into syrup each spring. So when a neighboring farmer crossed onto the Spauldings‘ land and chopped down 30 or so of their best trees, the couple was devastated.“ People stealing trees seems unbelievable, something ridiculous created in a sleep dream.  read more »

"The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs‘ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.“ This disturbing news comes in an article by Benedict Carey ("Researchers Find Bias in Drug Trial Reporting,“ The New York Times, 17 Jan 08).

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"A species of self-destructing palm trees that flower once every 100 years and then die has been discovered on Madagascar,“ The New York Times reports (17 Jan 08). Mijoro Rakotoarinivo of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madagascar is quoted as saying: "It does not flower for maybe 100 years and can be mistaken for other types of palm.  read more »

"One of the most thrilling trailers for a ‘Superman‘ movie featured no blue tights or red cape. It was just the blue sky. Clouds skimming past. Like you were flying.“ This classic image straight out of sleep dreams is conjured up in a recent Denver Post article entitled "Dreams of Flying Solo … On a wing and a Prayer.“ The article explores human flight without sitting in a machine, which is a common and powerful Sleep Dream experience.  read more »

"Kokomo, Ind. A man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store Tuesday, police said. A clerk told police that a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun entered the Village Pantry demanding cash and a pack of cigarettes. The clerk put the cash in a bag, and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge. Police say surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants. The clerk wasn’t injured.  read more »

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a "stew of plastic and marine debris, at least twice the size of Texas by some estimates, … floating in the Paciifc Ocean some 1,000 miles off the West Coast.“ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch? This senario sounds like Li’l Abner meets Godzilla, something out of a 1950’s „B“ science fiction movie, but is a waking-world reality, according to Paul Miller („The Plastics Paradox: We’re Drowning in an Ocean of Garbage,“ The Denver Post, 13 Jan 08).

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Jules, the tiger-striped kitty is seated alone on a hill at night, gazing at a star-spangled black sky, in the first panel of this Sunday funnies odyssey. (“Mutts,” Patrick McDonnell, 02 Dec 07) The next panel is headed with: “Jules Dreams of Africa”. The kitty, standing below says: “Ooooh – this is very exciting.” Next we see Jules in the midst of lush green vegetation, surrounded by all sorts of African animals and birds of a friendly nature. The final panel shows Jules alone in the jungle, his body language indicating pleasure: “I might meet Jane Goodall!”

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