you Scots men especially will enjoy this but yur wives will enjpy it more... http://www.resiststorage.org/images/ScotishWife_New6.wmv

Mums Petals

Mum's Petals.

She dropped free flowing the petals, in her daily travel,
Just a hand shake or movement and they'd gently unravel.
As the sky drops its stars and the waves drop their sand.
Her petals dropped quietly all over the land.

Finding one of her petals, we'd say, filled with the devil.
"Oh! Mother dear, it does appear you've dropped a little petal.
Her action of retrievement, by tucking into strap or sleeve,
To our delight forced other petals there, to take their leave.

At all birthday parties and on every Christmas night,
A batch of photos taken of Mum all show tiny bits of white.
Clutched in hand, or at a sleeve, or nestling round her shoes,
Were her lovely little petal friends, in more than ones and twos.

She was a 'petal' person, on bus or on a train,
She always took them while out walking or on a jumbo plane.
Leaving petals, in her wake in a manner very grand,
Her petals dropped like autumn leaves, from sleeve and from her hand.

At the Kiwi wedding of her darling child, she left the petal-trail.
The petals travelled to New Zealand, it was their holy grail,
To appear in every wedding shot, in that frigid foreign land.
and make a 'petal protest' against the man who took her baby's hand

From a myriad of mum's old handbags, came petals white and soft,
So good for waving us goodbye, when held up high aloft.
From behind all lounge chair cushions, mum's petals could be found,
Squashed sadly flat within the fluff, or very finely ground.




It is no lie, but solemn truth, the petals bred like rabbits,
Ensuring their survival, because of mum's petal- dropping habits.
And true it is they'd hide away, before mum went out, to the store,
And puzzled, she'd declare, 'No petals - I'd better get some more!'.

We called them mum's little petals, so freely they did fall,
She'd use them to do everything, or use them not at all.
Huge piles of petals, found a cosy haven in mum's friendly place,
To be firmly held while writing letters and always while saying Grace.

Each small petal, waited patiently, its brief moment of petal- glee.
As Mum gave her "Petals of Kleenex" their one chance to be free.
I'll bet there are soft white petals in heaven, without number or end,
For mum to drop and scatter, or just hold and to tend.

Vera

Vera.

Does the music played by my Grandmother still circle old Earth, disipating with time to become part of the hum I still hear when I lie in peace on the verandah? Do the gentle inland autumn days in the mountains still breathe in her music, drifting though windows long since submerged under water? Do the soft, frost rimmed stars, still resonate with the joy of her youth and her dreams and her love, as she sits softly stroking the notes into life eternal? Ah! To have known her, to have seen into her eyes. To have this memory of her to give to my daughters; would it make my life richer and theirs? - I think so.

My own Mother now gone, remembered so little of the young mother who, generations ago, bent over the toddler and said ,to "Put your shoes on Margaret, my dear!" Thats all her words recorded . But there's the music, handwritten in books whose delicate language sings to my ear, of a soul for whom beauty was much more important than waxing the floor, and sifting the flour. Now I have no doubt she did these things, in the high heat of summer, I have no doubt she cleaned chamber pots, broke horses, killed first and then stuffed dead chooks with her hands. But there is no doubt in me that when her heart was a stirring, those same hands stroked the music, that still hums in my head.

How different as she than I and my sisters and daughters? A few years and time are all that seperate us all? Would we, could we have been friends in a time that is nowhere on earth? Is there so much between us that would make us seem strangers? My Mother, her Daughter. My Daughters, her shoot into the future, wherein her music still circles the globe of our living, her sense of beauty still pulls us in complete understanding.

The fey-faced bride with her large eyes still looks out of her youth at me from browning photos, and fading dreams of my Mother. The stories I gleaned from my Mother and Aunty, see my Grandmother still young and moving like perfume through my own aging life. And yet she is older than this century and those still living around me. How much of her lives in me, in mine and on into the future? Where does she bide?

In the dear eyes of my Mother, my daughters and my sisters, she lives in the beauty, the fun and the laughter. She lives in the twinkle, the eyeshine and the suprise. She lives in the wind, and the sky and the starlight. Those who have loved, and been loved are never lost to old earth. Somewhere she lurks, still childlike, behind doors. Poking her tongue out at the years that are weighing the rest of us down. But I'd have rather I had known her, and she having the life with us.

There is music in the hum I hear in the autumn air. It sounds like bells on water, on sunlight in cool places - up high in the mountains. Its there in the night stars, its there by the fire. Its there inside my heart , the music played by my Grandmother, Vera.

What is the point of all of this nanny state stuff



Thu 23 Nov 2006
Big Brother is watching you!
GEMMA FRASER (

gfraser@edinburghnews.com)
SMOKERS stubbing out cigarettes in the street have been chased by environmental wardens armed with cameras in a city centre litter crackdown.
A council team has been scouring the Old Town this week trying to catch litter louts in the act, a drive which has raised more than a few eyebrows.
One girl was stopped and quizzed after discarding the end of her sandwich, while another untidy citizen was reprimanded during his music class after being followed by the wardens.
And the keen-as-mustard environmental officers even attempted to track a diner to an Old Town restaurant after he was spotted throwing away his cigarette.

If you have a view on this or any other subject, let us know. Tel: 0131 620 8747 Email: news_en@edinburghnews.com
The council today defended the use of mobile cameras alongside the highly-visible wardens, and said the crackdown reassured local businesses and residents.
The Evening News joined traders and commuters watching in slight bemusement yesterday morning as the CCTV van parked up on George IV bridge.
Two large pivoted cameras and several smaller ones filmed passers-by, while at least two pairs of environmental wardens patrolled the streets.
Simon Angelosanto, 21, who works in the Elephant House coffee shop on George IV bridge, said: "It is a total waste of money - I dread to think what that van costs. They just sit there waiting for an unsuspecting member of public to be caught on camera dropping litter."
He said a friend had been caught out by the environmental wardens this week in the Grassmarket area.
"They interrupted his music class at Sound Control because they saw him dropping litter and he was given a £50 fine," he said.
Staff at an Old Town restaurant revealed that environmental wardens came in looking for a suspected litter lout. One worker said: "They came in and said they saw someone in an orange jacket throwing a cigarette and coming into the restaurant.
"They asked if we had any workmen on site, but we hadn't seen this man. It was just so bizarre."
Alice White, 18, who also works at the Elephant House, said: "My friend was eating a sandwich and she chucked her last bit of bread on the ground and they tried to fine her, but in the end they didn't.
"What's going to happen is the same as what happens with speed cameras - if people see these cameras and wardens then they're obviously not going to drop litter round here."
Smoker Michael Grant, 20, who also works on George IV bridge, said the cameras were "a bit extreme" and added: "It's definitely a bit 'Big Brother'.
But trader Abdul Mula, 33, who runs Mediterranean Gate on George IV bridge, is delighted the council is doing something.
"I think it's great," he said. "The cigarette ends are the worst. I think it's good that they're giving out fines because it might make people stop."
George Gear, 40, from Kirkliston, agreed the operation was a good idea. He said: "I think anything that keeps people on their toes is a good thing. Saying that, if I got lumbered with a £50 fine, I don't think I'd be very happy."
The CCTV unit, which is operated in partnership between the council and the police, has been used on a weekly basis in the Capital since 2004.
Sheila Gilmore, executive member for community safety, said: "Technology such as CCTV helps us to identify possible offences which otherwise may not have been picked up by the human eye.
"The presence of the mobile CCTV unit, which is a marked council vehicle, not only stands to reassure local business owners and residents but also to act as a deterrent to possible offenders.
"This is reinforced by the highly visible environmental wardens who work on the streets."
The council has issued 4847 fixed penalty tickets for littering and fly-tipping offences and 648 dog-fouling fixed penalties since October 2001.

You might enjoy these. A writing group I belong to was going through Metaphors. It was a warm afternoon and we were all half asleep and bored out of our skulls so our metaphors were half asleep and boring also... but these these are a real hoot.

Metaphors found in NSW (Australia) Year 12 Essays: (Year 12 are usualy between 16 and 18 years old)

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

3. She grew on him like she was a colony of E coli and he was room-temperature prime English beef.

4. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

5. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 6. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

7. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

8. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

9. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

10. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Sex & the City" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

11. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

12. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot oil.

13. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

14. Even in his last years, Grandad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

15. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

16. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

17. "Oh, Jason, take me!"; she panted, her breasts heaving like a Uni student on $1-a-beer night.

18. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

19. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

20. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

21. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

22. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

23. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

A mysterious and learned [ ; ) ] friend sent this to us...

"I thought the meaning of the 33 foot sculpture (pictured below) recently erected at Grand Rapids - the home of the world's first mass fluoridation experiment - by the West Michigan Dental Association, was quite clear.

Regards Dennis Stevenson

Firstly, at the right of the picture is a patient. That they are a dental patient is obvious from their mouth being wide open. As their tongue is all the way out, obviously they are screaming. We'll get to why they are screaming in a moment. Gathered around the patient are 5 dentists. Equally obviously, as there are five dentists and not just one, it must be a training session, as only one dentist is required to extract whatever money a patient might have.

The two dentists on the left can be seen to be senior to the other three, as is clearly shown by their height. The tallest dentist is the lead instructor and his colleague, on his immediate right, is the 'watchdog'. I'm sure all of us are aware that when a dentist speaks at a public meeting, there has to be another ADA approved dentist in the audience to report on what the first dentist says.?Naturally the same requirement exists when dentists are being trained. Though it is almost preposterous to consider that any ADA approved dentist would tell the truth (remember what happened to Mel Gibson in the movie Conspiracy Theory) the ADA is ever vigilant to ensure that no dentist should mention, even accidently, that fluoridation is anything but "absolutely safe and effective". Though it seems silly and is extremely unlikely to occur, imagine the repercussions if a dentist told students that fluorosis was chronic fluoride poisoning of the 'whole body' and not just a 'minor cosmetic effect' on teeth only?

Which leads us into exactly what the trainee-dentists were learning at the time the picture was taken. This is revealed by the attitude of the students. You will note their proximity to the patient: this shows that the 'cosmetic effect' of dental fluorosis is being discussed and specifically, the vast fees that can be made from gluing white plastic covers over the fluorosis disfigured teeth of patients - at $600 to $1,200 per tooth. This is, of course, why the patient is screaming.?

However, you can imagine why the trainees are so excited. Not only have they just learned how much they can charge patients, but they have also discovered that fluorosis, or 'egg-shell white' mottling as they prefer to call it, is a never-ending source of money, provided they keep promoting fluoridation, as this is what causes the mottling. Now they realise how they can easily pay cash for a new premier Mercedes every year, not to mention the endless golf and wonderful conferences sponsored and paid for by Mars Bars Pty. Ltd.

You will also notice at the bottom left side of the picture, almost hidden behind trees, is what can just be seen of a car window. The window, exactly positioned so that it has a clear view of the meeting through the trees, looks black. However, expanded digital film analysis reveals that state of the art video equipment is recording everything that is being done at the meeting. This is another requirement of Sigma-Delta-Sigma, the secret society of dentists, which dentists are on a blood oath never to mention. You may recall the deputy President of the NZ Dental Association who accidentally acknowledgedly that the society exists before he realized his error and stumbled out with "My membership of any organisation has got nothing to do with your interview." Have you ever seen him again?

Something to also be seen in the photograph is the golden path. Because of poor reflection, this shows in the photograph as a white section on which the dentists are standing. This is always there when dentists are being trained to ever remind them of the dental brotherhood and the riches that await them if they obey the 5 Golden Rules.

You will notice one of the dentists, the smallest and most junior one, has the 5 Golden Rules written on his back. Enlarged, they read:

1. I promise to always pretend I and brother dentists are doctors though we are not medically qualified and do not have doctorates.

2. I promise to protect any brother dentist who kills a patient with mercury or a topical fluoride treatment.

3. I promise to?charge every patient extras for: cleaning, topical fluoride treatment and x-rays and to never reduce fees or disclose to outsiders how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I make annually.

4. I promise never to publicly debate fluoridation but only to forever repeat the dental mantra "Fluoridation is absolutely safe and effective". I will always vehemently deny that fluoride is a rat poison.

5. I promise to follow the 50 year old published advice from the American Dental Association to always denigrate and ridicule those who speak against fluoridation, no matter how well qualified they are.

Hopefully this brought a smile to your lips...it did to ours but we are too easily amused.

This is my little family taken last Christmas. Some of you know, but for others, he has been a Quadriplegic since 1982 after an accident. Luckily we had had our two lovely girls just before that...why muck about?

This man may be frail in body...and he is that, after all these years with rotten bones and teeth, dislocated hips which can't be mended, and levels of pain which would knock a horse...but he is mighty in spirit and with the advent of computers (he got his first in'82) he has been a real agitator for many causes which have made us unpopular with bureaucrats and others of that ilk...

Its been a tough road for him because he will not compromise his ethics and secretly (don't tell him) I am sooo proud of this. There is nothing namby about this man...nor is there about most Quads and Paras...they are people...full stop. Old attitudes do not die they just go underground ... today my heart broke a little for this mighty man...

He's independent when and where he can be. So when he had to go to the dentist this morning... I agreed to meet him at our favourite coffee shop... this is something we have done for years...we are too fiery to ever shop together.

I was horrified when he told me of his experience on the way from the dentist (only about 2 country town blocks) to the coffee shop. He had been crossing the road...safely...when for some reason known only to the electric wheelchair it lurched. He over balanced...but still in the chair just leaning over hard over the right armrest he was unable to get himself back upright... this would have been very painful for him as his ribs would have been up against the armrest hard.

He was in the middle of the road and unable to control the chair. I have never heard him sound so heartbroken as when he told me that there were about 10 cars banked up in front of him and not a one got out of their car to see what was wrong. It would have been totally obvious he was in distress.

Then he began to fall over forwards onto the controls and he knew if that happened he would be out of the chair on the ground... for him, with limited breathing and bones so rotten that any fall or excessive movement will break them, this is for the likes of us a tragedy. Bedbound means shortened life and life is pretty good while you have got it...no matter what.

(My husband explained to me how it felt as a Quad... that its like trying to balance your head and shoulders on a big plate of jelly.) but in his case that plate of jelly is usually racked with such pain that it takes Physeptone (methadone) to shift it.

It took all of 3 mins - they sat there angry because they could not move - for anyone to actually get out of their car and see what was wrong and only happened after this man's girlfriend yelled at him to do so.

May I add this was not out on the highway...all lonely and scary... no excuses for this pack of shits...this was in town...in the little shopping centre.

Some things shake my husband... not much after all these years and the crap we've dealt with from the'norms' who are anything but... but today he was shaken, scared and I feel had his faith in humanity tampered with a fair bit.

If EVER you see anyone in this situation, or an old lady fall on the train steps, or any one young or old, whatever fall, or in danger, please do not look away...to do so takes away your humanity nd the humanity of the person you ignore...

I wanted to write to the local paper re this but my husband said not to as the editor would think its just another whinging person in a wheelchair... and thats how it is in todays wonderful cvilised society...

If you can still scrunch your toes in the sand, walk on the grass, and have no great personal tragedy in your life...please look outwards to others...for "there but for the grace of god"...you know the rest...

You know we usually find that it is those who have other illnesses and things to deal with who "SEE"....a few too many norms are just too wrapped up in imaginings and self gratification and a crazy treadmill which allows them to sit on a road and watch a frail man in a high backed wheelchair in distress...and not even get out of their car to see why.

BASTARDS.

I recently began writing to a very old relative about family things...we discovered each other on a genealogy site... He had spent a lot of time at my mother's farm when they were chilfdren in the '20's and '30's...

There was an uncle who was always hard to get close to for me as a child...he didn't seem to like kids much...fair enough. But this younger uncle said that he had been gassed in WW1 and had other things happen to him, which he hasvn't told me about yet. Knowing this quiet, gentle dignified man who never married, and loved his horses his experiences with his horses in France must have been dreadful.

Some of you might be interested and horrified at the treatment of the horses and the men as I was. But I am glad I know now at least some of the things which made him who he became. Once he was a lighthearted good looking young fellow... and he has no one else left really to tell his stories so I am really honoured to have been able to find out what I have..., This is a part of the letter I received today,

"I think you said you had obtained Alf's war records (from the Australian Archives in Canberra??). If so and as I recall you may see his rank as "Dvr" short for Driver, but not of the motor vehicle kind.

Alf served in France with the field artillery which consisted of batteries of 18 pounder guns, the 18 pound being the weight of the shell they fired. These were the standard field artillery guns for the Brit army at the time. The guns plus a limber which contained ready use ammunition plus seating for the crew of four were pulled by six horse teams in tandem.

The lead horse on the left was controlled by the "Driver" who sat astride and was responsible for getting the gun and crew into action by galloping to wherever they were required and unhitching the horses so that the gun could be prepared for firing. The horses were taken a distance to the rear and held there by the "Driver" until they had to move to another position or bug out as they say.

The Driver like his mates wore leather leggings but he also had a steel wrap around "legging" on his right leg to protect it from the offside horse gear which rubbed against his leg as they gallopped about.

Given the situation in France the field artillery was under continual counter battery fire from the German side and suffered severe casualties with whole gun crews being blown to pieces from time to time.

Alf told me at one time that the thing that really got to them all was the screaming of the horses when they were wounded. As time went by the army vets cut their vocal chords so the troops would not hear them screaming and later they replaced the horses with mules who seemed to be less sensitive.

Another piece of info which you may or may not find interesting but I pass it on anyway

Incidentally Your g/father Tom, and his brothers Frank and Alf were all superb horsemen and Alf and Tom always had excellent stock horses on the property.

When Pam and I drove into the Rouchel some years ago coming back to Q'land from a visit to Canberra we noted that the properties from Aberdeen out all had stockmen on horseback and as it was around lunchtime we noted a couple of places where saddled horse were hitched to rails outside the homesteads. The country around there is all a bit hilly and not suitable much for motor bikes which are used in other districts to round up sheep or cattle.

Love to all"

I see this Shopping Trolly Faery everywhere. She is a portent of my future... I feel. One da after years of lugging groceries I know I will "give in" and get myself a TROLLY!! My Mum has one and when she died it was a treasure for me for a short while...then I gave it to St. Vincent de Pauls so someone else could use it.

My 29 year old has a shopping trolly... She is proud of it...she needs it...

I NEED IT TOO!!!
 

Lancert article warns of Brain damage

Lancet Article warns – One in Six Children Brain Damaged by Industrial Pollutants

See link below for full story -
‘The Hastings Safe Water Association has just been informed of a study published in leading medical journal “The Lancet” that millions of children – “One in six children” throughout the world may have suffered brain damage as a result of industrial pollution. Says Therese Mackay, President of the Hastings Safe Water Association. In the past year there have been at least ten scientific articles like this warning of the extreme dangers of Fluorides to human health, now this latest one in the Lancet should have alarm bells ringing in even the most inflexible Fluoridation proponents ears.’

Therese Mackay says, “In light of this all Councils have a responsibility first, to the residents, especially to children, to call an immediate halt to any plans to fluoridate our water.”
In the Lancet, the two scientists Philippe Grandjean, from the University of Southern Denmark in Winslowparken and his co-author, Philip Landrigan, from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York conclude: “The combined evidence suggests that neurodevelopmental disorders caused by industrial chemicals has created a silent pandemic in modern society.”
The American and Danish researchers say that “ lead, methylmercury, arsenic and solvents such as ethanol and toluene are among 202 industrial and agricultural chemicals with potential to damage the brain... Other substances that could prove to be toxic in excessive amounts include fluoride, a common additive in drinking water and toothpaste.” End quote.

The Lancet article stated, “Potential effects of exposure to even tiny amounts of toxic chemicals include lower IQ scores and conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, and cerebral palsy.”

‘How many more nails does the coffin of Fluoridation need before the lid is finally secured? Worldwide, almost weekly, responsible and credible bodies of scientists are warning of grim long and short-term effects of Fluorides. One out of six of all our children worldwide is too big a price to pay. Therese Mackay said

‘We have kept our Council informed of these studies and they will not be able to say they did not know. But far better for the health of our community if they stop Fluoridation before it begins. President of The Hastings Safe Water Association said.
Contact Therese Mackay – President of the Hastings Safe Water for comment.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2442654,00.html

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/06/OCEANS.TMP

The plastic garbage pit of the Pacific Trash particles, looking like food, imperil sea life
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Monday, November 6, 2006
Plastic trash caught up in a swirling vortex in the North Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii is killing sea life, choking birds and fish and entangling seals and sea lions, a new Greenpeace report says.
Soda six-pack rings, plastic bags, condoms, beach toys and stray nets -- much of it washed off U.S. shores and some tossed directly into the ocean -- float in a mix of plastic pollution that injures hungry animals as big as whales and as small as zooplankton, according to a report by the international environmental group.
Scientists traveling aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza said Sunday they now are gathering firsthand data on threats to the world's oceans from pollution, overfishing and whaling. As part of that investigation, they released the report, a compilation of studies published since 1990 on plastics in the marine environment.
The current research examines plastic as it weathers into particles the size of sand grains, so small they become part of the tissue of ocean organisms.
"These small fragments of plastics may pose more of a threat to marine life because they resemble the prey of lots of organisms -- everything from zooplankton to whales,'' said Adam Walters, a chemist speaking by telephone aboard the vessel and an author of the report.
These bits can fill the stomachs of birds and other sea creatures that mistake them for food, causing malnutrition and eventually starvation. The researchers are measuring the distribution of the particles as they that float or fall to the ocean floor.
This latest report on plastic accumulating in the North Pacific comes just three days after a study in the journal Science concluded that, if trends continue, the world's fish stocks are headed for severe depletion by 2050 as a result of global warming, fishing and pollution.
The Esperanza, headed for San Diego, is conducting research in a Texas-sized patch of ocean called the North Pacific Gyre near the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. As winds and currents circulate clockwise in the oceans, this area stays calm in the summer and becomes a collection basin for plastics and other litter.
Over the past three decades, marine biologists have found plastic bags blocking the digestive tracts of sea lions, discarded fishing line strangling sea turtles and nets cutting off the flippers of manatees.
The research on micro-particles is new.
Since last March, scientists on the Esperanza have sampled plastic particles in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and near the Philippines. Next come the Sea of Cortez and the South Pacific.
Thilo Maack, a marine biologist with Greenpeace in Hamburg, Germany, also speaking from the ship, said he has been diving for samples.
"Between the plankton, you see the red, yellow and all colored plastics floating. We find the plastic in the tissues of animals. For us, this is a very worrying signal,'' because it could be accumulating in the food web, Maack sad.
They often find "ghost nets,'' abandoned floating nets filled with fish.
"The marine mammals try to feed on these fishes, and get entangled in ropes and loose net parts. Eventually they drown because they can't get to the surface,'' Maack said.
The report, which doesn't contain the results of the research on micro-plastic, offers solutions.
Floating plastic debris can be cut worldwide by cleaning beaches, reducing garbage in storm drains, improving the handling and transport of raw pellet and other plastic materials, and adopting an international treaty prohibiting vessels from dumping trash at sea, according to the report.
The ultimate solution lies in policies that allow the use of plastics and synthetics only in cases where they are absolutely necessary, it said.
Other findings in the report compiled by Greenpeace are as follows:
-- At least 267 different species, including 111 species of seabirds, are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of plastic rubbish.
-- Plastics consistently make up 60 to 80 percent of all marine debris. The seabed, particularly near coasts, is littered with plastic bags.
-- About 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean washes in from rivers, storm drains, beaches, sewage treatment plants and other sources; about 20 percent gets dumped in the ocean from vessels and fishing boats.
-- Much of the plastic litter in oceans comes from derelict fishing debris, since plastic and other synthetic materials have replaced natural fibers over the past 35 years.

My youngest sister sent these...taken at our place at Easter time. These are two of her three children. I know what I am getting them for Christmas... have a close look at the hair...(a brush and comb set)...its funny you can tell when their mum is down the street and father is minding them...their hair stays like this all day...TRUE ... l 

I was sent these two beautiful photos from U.S friend in Florida who was sent them by a friend of his Paul Carson...I believe he may have taken these so giving him credit...if not so sooorry.

This bird is juat amazingly beautiful.