The S.S.Athenia and Mrs.Axel Wenner Gren

This is an eerie story involving the first passenger ship sunk by mistake

by a u-boat at the beginning of ww2.

In 1939, Axel wenner Gren, a Swedish industrialist who was a great proponent of vacuum cleaners and was famous for the commercialization of the well known ELECTROLUX

brand (his sales manual from 1912 is still used today) decided his wife needed a vacation, she had frayed nerves because of an episode

one evening at their house. He owned the largest private yacht in those times, the SOUTHERN CROSS, that

he purchased from Howard Hughes who used it to entertain many ladies then.
Their destination was the Bahamas, a place he had fallen in love with. He later was instrumental

in its development and was good friends of the governor, the duke of Windsor.
The southern cross had received a distress signal from the torpedoed SS.Athenia and was one of the first on the scene and rescued 370 people. the passenger ship had been attacked by sublieutenant fritz Julius Lemp aboard the u-30 who later was going to be court martialled because Hitler was furious of the attack on an unarmed vessel. He later was shot in the water

abandoning the sinking U-110, this was the event that inspired the movie U-571 where the British hms bulldog captured the sub and its contents of valuable codes that was so secret that president Roosevelt was not informed until almost 2 years later. So much for lemp. Wenner gren

was accused of spotting the athenia and giving its position away to the sub and its proximity to the whole event was not viewed as a coincidence. years before he had studied in Germany and before the war tried to avert it by having an audience with Herman Goering, lecturing him and the Nazis of their nefarious intents. he was a poor self made diplomat and even wrote a book about it. To make matters worse he had a mistress- Inga Arvad, who accompanied Hitler during the Olympics and was one of the few foreign journalists to be granted interviews with him. his association with her and the nazis got him on a f.b.i. blacklist and his bank accounts were frozen world-wide and he lived in exile in Mexico. this inga arvard also got john f. Kennedy in trouble

as they were dating when he was in naval intelligence in Washington d.c. in 1940- his father was able to squirm the family out of this most disastrous affair and he was reassigned to the navy in the pacific theater. She later became a screen writer in Hollywood. After the war president Truman exonerated him of the witchunt he was subjected to during the war.

Weeks before Mr. and Mrs. wenner gren took their yacht trip, Mr's. gren was walking upstairs

one night and screamed in the dark- she confronted a man drenched in water on the staircase

holding in his arms a young child with a bleeding head injury. the sudden screaming brought Mr. gren to the stairs and the man and child disappeared in thin air. Mr. gren hearing his wife's telling of the reason for the outburst rightly thought she needed a vacation, so off they went.

When the southern cross came upon the hapless victims in the north sea, the first survivors

coming up the gangplank was a man drenched in water holding in his arms a young girl with a head injury. This story was told to a reporter in Canada by the couple when they invited many years later some of the survivors to their yacht for lunch.

The platonic solids

the universal elements: convex polyhedra. Plato and those before him
would be surprised to know the stones below are from a neolythic
site about ten centuries before. they are in the Ashmolean museum of art
ine the U.K.

Dark forces

Mans search for the meaning of life will find all theanswers in nature. Observing the beasties provides Understanding of the primordial forces of survival and procreation. The study and application of the four elements bring forth the true essence of divine
Powers granted to us by our heavenly creator but in
Order to reach the lofty realms of the higher spirit worlds the fith element must be grasped for it separates
Us from understanding of the good and bad is not right or wrong but in our hearts and souls the answer will be found through diligent prayer to dominate the dark forces………

too late

GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU SMILE..... ESPECIALLY SINCE IT'S A TRUE STORY. ON JULY 20, 1969, AS COMMANDER OF THE APOLLO 11 LUNAR MODULE, NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON. HIS FIRST WORDS AFTER STEPPING ON THE MOON, "THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND," WERE TELEVISED TO EARTH AND HEARD BY MILLIONS. BUT JUST BEFORE HE REENTERED THE LANDER, HE MADE THE ENIGMATIC REMARK "GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY." MANY PEOPLE AT NASA THOUGH IT WAS A CASUAL REMARK CONCERNING SOME RIVAL SOVIET COSMONAUT. HOWEVER, UPON CHECKING, THERE WAS NO GORSKY IN EITHER THE RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAMS. OVER THE YEARS MANY PEOPLE QUESTIONED ARMSTRONG AS TO WHAT THE "GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY" STATEMENT MEANT, BUT ARMSTRONG ALWAYS JUST SMILED. ON JULY 5, 1995, IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA, WHILE ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOLLOWING A SPEECH, A REPORTER BROUGHT UP THE 26-YEAR-OLD QUESTION TO ARMSTRONG. THIS TIME HE FINALLY RESPONDED. MR. GORSKY HAD DIED, SO NEIL ARMSTRONG FELT HE COULD ANSWER THE QUESTION. IN 1938 WHEN HE WAS A KID IN A SMALL MIDWEST TOWN, HE WAS PLAYING BASEBALL WITH A FRIEND IN THE BACKYARD. HIS FRIEND HIT THE BALL, WHICH LANDED IN HIS NEIGHBOR'S YARD BY THE BEDROOM WINDOWS. HIS NEIGHBORS WERE MR. AND MRS.GORSKY. AS HE LEANED DOWN TO PICK UP THE BALL, YOUNG ARMSTRONG HEARD MRS. GORSKY SHOUTING AT MR. GORSKY. "SEX! YOU WANT SEX?! YOU'LL GET SEX WHEN THE KID NEXT DOOR WALKS ON THE MOON!" TRUE STORY. hehe

amblyphygi

click on photo- i forgot to mention our little friend is over a foot with legs

cancellations

cancellations are normal in any enterprise 3%-10% is normal for client initiated and could be as high as 40% when seller initiated. emotions play a part here and it doesn't matter who is right or wrong-it is immaterial when emotions are involved. a refund at the dept. store is harmless, nobody suffers- but if you have 5 hours invested and $100 of your own money invested and the marketing and company have $800 invested-it hurts a little if you are a pro and it hurts more if not a pro, I've seen people quit their career when they lost $1200 least when they expected it.

a medical study showed that some doctors had more lawsuits than others and the study showed

the ones that had less lawsuits is because the patients "felt" the doctor cared for them even if they messed up. the same applies to sales where no matter what happened they did not cancel

because they "felt" the salesperson really cared (empathy). anyway besides the boring details

of sales gone south-- i will share some cancellations caused by ANIMALS. most of these occurred

in time share sales.

a customer is on a penthouse deck in puerto vallarta ($63,000 sale) he's having a grand time

envisioning travelling in style from now on-his icy drink in his hand plus the warm sun on his face/ not to mention the bikini parade down below is the perfect scenario for the sale being consummated and whammo!!! a fish smacks him on the face! I'll explain-the frigate bird who you have seen on t.v. the one that inflates his neck like a big red balloon when mating-their m.o.

is to dive down on seagulls and the like when they have plucked a fish out the water, this bird has a 7 foot wingspan and is quite intimidating to the smaller birds- in this way ,to escape the possible attack they drop their payload to escape the frigate bird-this where the fish came from.

the idea is to get free food that has been dropped, in this case on your clients head. it fell from

100 to 200 feet. it was a Spanish mackerel (looks like a small barracuda with yellow spots) the client was shocked (so would you-try it) and the sting must have been lasting. the loss of pride

as there were 5-6 witnesses was not as bad as the "omen" it presented--this is a bad dealmmmm. i personally can see why the deal went south, but in all honesty i believe the fish shit splattered in a downward spill all across his aloha shirt while going down the elevator and thru the lobby was the clincher here.

this middle aged lady who never really went anywhere was on an idyllic beach (yelapa)and probably wondering why she had been neglecting her valued vacation time in the past.

she had just bought her time share the day before and we gave her family a complimentary

boat-lunch-beach tour. shes sitting in a chair sunburning her tonsils staring at the majestic

sierra madre mountains that descend to the ocean when aaaaahhhhh a monster! to her at that moment and time a monster was attacking her-the beach vendors would walk around with a 4 foot iguana and thrust it into your face to get your attention to get a photo sale -you and the iguana-like mickey mouse in Disneyland-but the lady went berserk-she had never seen one

and the first time should not be by surprise and that big and colorful and horrendous. she really lost it-some people react differently to things- i felt sorry for her she was still shaking when she came to cancel and the manager was furious and was insulting to them-you cant cancel because

of a iguana (see above re emotions)we lost the sale #%@& iguana.

in the warmer Latin climes they call it the cankle, the most horrible looking spider ever, honest.

you can guess where this story is going....our new members from that day were celebrating a night on the town possibly recounting how they got a better deal. somewhat drunk they flick the light switch on in their hotel room and (remember the movie "the thing" where the virus has made a decapitated human head grow legs and it is scurrying away and the actor says gimme a f*****g break!) this would be your reaction too-someone is pulling a fast one here-this thing cannot exist, disbelief grows to concern to say the least as it rose to its hind legs and hissed!

it also has claws, its not a spider per-se its called amblyphygi something or other, since I'm not

well versed to place photos I'll put the photo of one on the next page, anyway it looks like a cross between a cockroach-scorpion-spider-worst nightmare. he tried to attack it and it hid in plain

sight, so he claimed, do you think you would sleep well knowing this thing was creeping around?

they stayed in another room and we killed it in the morning- i was impressed--if you are not i will send one to your house. look for the photo-ambly and i have many more animal induced

cancellation stories-later.

Open source

Open source refers to the ability of collecting information without resorting to the usual means;

spying, stealing,eavesdropping,paying,observing,collecting and a myriad of other methods to accomplish collecting information. the abwehr in Germany during ww2 did a good job gathering
information.American Prisoners in Germany were amazed how much was known about them.

U.S. newspapers were collected by the thousands, some microfilmed like v-mail and shipped by various ways even on convoys taking supplies to England. besides all the Germans who went to call of the fatherland and returned there for the fight taking knowledge back, those who remained sent continuous streams. Turner halls were German athletic based social clubs with bowling and the like, mostly in Texas-they provided daily info. in this fashion a typical u.s. prisoner was faced with hearing from his captors things like-your ex-girlfriend is going out with

Joe and your aunt just died,who will take care of her dog -the one you played with last year.

that and information collected by other means, like in the camps themselves by listening bugs

allowed them to get a comprehensive picture of their prisoners enabling them to demoralize and/or let their guards down. At the beginning of the war German subs would send shore parties

in long island and n.y. city to buy newspapers to see the convoy manifests and shipping dates and lanes!many ships and men were lost. residents of one south Texas town could hear wireless telegraphs on their bed springs,communicating with offshore u-boats providing info on mil. camps in south Texas-padre island was dotted with outposts to watch for German agents.

that's how many there were. the Irish in England were sympathetic to the axis and would contribute as well. there is the famous case that important codes concerning d-day showed up in a crossword puzzle in a newspaper, the Irish were listening around the camps and they placed them in the puzzle. one abwehr agent would sit around pretending he had an appointment in the s.o.e office (special operations executive-London) this was the spy and covert behind the lines clan. he was taking photos of everyone-his posting there compromised many agents. in our times

the Internet is supreme as you well know how important information is leaked and collected.

the above mentioned newspaper abwehr operation is still alive today it is called COLLATING

you can pay any collating company to give you anything you want- like ufos and you will receive

from every country in the world anything printed as far back as you want. why? take for example this open source method implemented by the D.O.D, they outsourced to bell labs to collate all European newspapers especially the rags to read between the lines for smears regarding certain remarks made about potential lawbreakers, it was remarkably correct and lead to their endeavours. I searched on the net how to spy and found very valuable info. it was very easy-how to get unsuspecting victims to give sensitive codes. the intelligence community says 93% of everything on the web is white noise like an out of tune radio-worthless garbage,google can only offer about 25% of whats out there. open source goes even further, its about information you can capitalize on. your open source frequency from your key less entry on your car can be recorded by a scanner and programed to another fob, that easy. people can see your luggage tags and go rob your house. right before pearl harbor a German family would visit

open house on the battleships, their son who was very much liked by the navy personnel was able to collect an amazing amount of detailed information on much of the ships moored there. they were abwehr agents and contributed much to the Japanese Intel leading to the attack.

during the 20's and 30's it was common in Europe to bribe private aviators to photograph

airfields and the like for espionage purposes, it is believed Amelia Earhart was on such a mission

(on the side) as the Japanese and u.s. were busy fortifying islands and preparing for war. in fact the marines were doing soundings around the pacific islands 10 years before. in one operation

they complained about the poor quality of photos taken from subs for beaches and one officer stated that he had seen superior photos from the Dardanelles in ww1 23 years before from a sub ,how can that be? they discovered the photos were taken with the leica camera, so in a reverse open source they placed ads in popular mechanics magazine that a camera collector

was paying top dollar for them, after that great beach shore photos came in.

the 2 most expensive single projects during ww2 were the a-bomb and the b-29 to carry it.

the a-bomb (project Manhattan) was to be shrouded in secrecy but in reality the nkvd (the pre-KGB) noticed the flurry of scientific papers that are commonly sent for review to their peers concerning atomic research

dried up instantly and alerted them that something was up. maybe it didn't help either that

Oppenheimer's second wife , kitty, was a high ranking communist party member in the u.s.

nowadays Intel uses the gopher technique-having monitored as many suspects as they can

a false message of concern is sent and dormant suspects raise their heads like gophers do,

since they usually don't raise at all, the new heads reveal themselves, its human nature also.

new cars have tire valve stems that send a signal to alert of low tire pressure-so even if you take off or disable on-star -gps- and so forth this signal can be picked up by a satellite and relay your position.

More hardball

I just read this long drawn out military institute studies center treatise on Brazil and its involvement in ww2. read it if you want-socio-economic info regarding its neighboring countries
and their Germanic influence which was vast and dangerous to the U.S., Chile-Paraguay-Argentina
were pro-Nazi and had enormous resources to feed the war machine in Europe. in fact Hitler and
his ilk had already drawn up elaborate plans to take over south America and make it 2 countries
only, brazilia and the Argentine with a divisory line right across the country ignoring the other established countries. to get the Brazilians won over to the allied side was not easy as it seems
the axis was unstoppable at that point. this is how the u.s. won them over. they made a movie
about Brazil showing the abject misery of the people and the injustices of a despotic regimen.
it was well made insofar as inflammatory psychological undertones regarding the current state of affairs. the pre-screening in Washington d.c. was a gala affair and of course the ambassador of Brazil would surely not miss this great movie extolling the beauty and grandeur of his country.to make it easy it was like 9/11 Fahrenheit to the government then -and worse-it was designed to create an enormous uproar quite possibly and specifically to lead to a civil uprising and revolution. the ambassador was speechless and furious-film canisters were already in place in brazil ready for showing. the government there realized this was only the beginning of the things that could be thrust upon them by a capable adversary. below is a photo of brazilian pilots, happy with their contribution in the war effort-unaware of how their country was hoodwinked.

Parasailing

Do you know what para sailing is?
that's when you give a perfect stranger $40 to entrust your life with a rope.
Living in resorts i got plenty of stories to tell you. i saw lots of hard landings and many water
landings both provided broken limbs and watery graves due to cord entanglements.
one guy takes his 6 yr old with him, the rope snaps and the strong winds blow him 3 miles
and they plop right down smack in front of a foursome on the 7Th tee on the golf course and end up against a palm tree-unhurt.

i watched a woman on the edge of a 10 story bldg. hanging, with cords entangled, she was stone cold out, fainted or by the initial blow. 30 people were trying to pull her down-this lasted at least an hour-(i had to get back to work ) never found out her final condition.

an ex parasailer employee came looking for work with us. after he was hired we found out 2 people died on his tour , they fell out of their tandem chair from about 250 feet, they were celebrating their anniversary.

at a resort that was still being built, a lady got off course and was suspended from a high crane for 4 hrs, being a Sunday we had to call in the operator to help get her down.

most of the seasoned operators are very good, they wont take you up if the wind is too much too little and can usually land you within a 15 ft. radius. the creeps who don't enough revenue will put you in jeopardy. the inexperienced ones, to save and make money-rather land you in safe water will try the land landing and smack you against a palm tree and this is where i saw most mishaps.

some of them are so good- there was a watch and perfume counterfeiting operation in a foreign country beach resort penthouse-that an Interpol team sought out the best parasailer to take up a photographer to record what they could-he got him right on the dime carefully lowering and
lifting him as to not arouse suspicion--zzzt-zzzt-zzzt a high speed camera recorded everything.

Hardball

conspiracy stories often have a grain of truth to them-often it is hard to gather information due to disinformation. the following scenario makes for creative minds at work, be that as it may this one in particular has no precedent that i know of.

since the very beginning of launches out of cape Canaveral in the sixties there were always

Russian tuna boats present as the territorial waters between Florida and Cuba squeeze the limit from 200 to about 90 miles. these fishing boats concealed sophisticated electronic eavesdropping devices prying as much as they could gather from the then called telemetry

streams between the rockets and land receivers. every single launch was monitored -all of them without exception---the only time they did not was when the Columbia exploded. law enforcement and military as well as private investigators as a general rule do not believe in coincidences -it is protocol and taught as generally accepted principles and this one is not exempt. Morton thiokol is not to blame here. the Russians did not approve of the payload.

most military payload launches go west- and east for regular missions. at one point the u.s.

started hiding secret loads on known schedules trying to hide the fact. the palapa satellite

launched for Indonesia's communication system, courtesy of NASA, for example- disguised a orbital release of who knows what at the same time. payback is a bitch as the saying goes and Chernobyl was it. you guys wanna play hardball? take this! a known and respected Latin political journal (proceso) exposed a scam where all the tainted dry milk exported from Russia to Mexico

was radiation laden and unacceptable for human consumption (corruption on both sides)

they discovered witnesses at the site who saw a UFO hover over the plant and shoot a beam down

that threw the cooling system out of kilter-the UFO was really some secret craft from the the u.s.

if you think the story was dreamt up by someone who had one too many margaritas then you should start reading more to understand the human nature side of rat f*****g- that is what the pentagon coined for the term to describe the activities they would undertake to get things done

that were most urgent, this was back in ww2 in a special office called room 34. if you have never

seen rats do it- it is the most unpleasant thing to see and imagine yourself on the receiving end-

i really do suggest you see it -maybe its on YouTube or something, the term has a reason why the lawyers and spooks use it.

the shield and spear

there was a man in the Chinese village trying to sell a spear and shield, extolling the virtues of his wares he stated the shield was impenetrable to any sword or spear. the spear he said could penetrate any shield in china. someone asked what would happen if he threw his spear at his own shield? embarrassed he left as people said these two things could never co-exist.

veterans pages

place any number followed by st or rd, for example 334th or 221st (you will develop a knack for it) and you will find associations from ww2-korea-vietnam, other countries have similar search results. i have read at least 300 of them, some have limited reading others have 850 pages.
but most of them have the most fascinating stories of men (and women) at war that bring out the best and worst of humans during those trying times. im going to ramble off a few i remember.

this guy saves a driver from a car wreck in d.c.,pulls him out saving his life. it was snowing heavily. the family tracks him down to thank him. 6 years later he is on a death march from mooseburg germany in the snow-the germans have made the prisoners march up to 500 miles
to keep them out of the hands of the advancing russians. falling out is not an option as guard dogs
and angry soldiers would most likely kill them. he sees a fellow soldier drop but since he has the energy he rolls him over to pick him up and carry him--hey, how many times do i have to save you in the snow? it was the same guy from the car wreck!

a jewish lady escapes a prison camp and almost dies crossing the alps -she only survived by not sleeping as she would have frozen to death. on the verge of giving up she hears the famous sheep trumpet of swiss fame around some rocks and as she comes out she scares the young man as her condition is most deplorable. the boy said there was a yeti out there! his family saves her and nurses her back to health. she manages to escape to the u.s. and although has very litlle wages
sends food parcels through switzerland despite the criticism of her peers who point out they will never reach their destination during the war. every week she sent the parcels for a total of 20% of her earnings. after the war she is asked to be a tour guide for europe tours in 1947 as she speaks various languages and is familiar with the area. she takes a break to look for her saviours
in austria and finds the family with 30 others living in a bombed out bldg. everyone else in that small canton starved to death- the swiss post was able to deliver all packages secretly, we only survived because of the parcels. thank god she did not cave in to the do-gooders- oh honey why are you wasting your money on them.

a soldier is the first one in an indian file of a squad walking down a street in france on recon-he trips on his shoelace as a hidden machine gun opens up- falling down the other soldiers are killed.

in italy 7 soldiers are at a table with wine and dinner- a shell from nowhere comes thru the window -after the explosion one guy is sitting alone on a chair no table no 6 guys no house
just the one guy with a fork in his hand.

a german trooper comes back home minus one leg. his father is also missing a leg from ww1
he asks where-thats the same town i lost my leg! what part? a church, in the cemetary behind it.
same town same church same cemetary-father and son lost a leg except in different wars.

brittish flyer strafes truck and armor convoy in north africa repeatedly. when landing 2 ambulances and crew wagons chase him till he stops-whats up? why are you chasing me?
the plane had over 300 hits and looked like a sieve the majority just back of the cockpit,
the pilot was unhurt and totally unaware.

coming thru the paddies in vietnam upon a village the lead soldier steps on a trap wire, the noose
closing on his ankle and pulling him up in the air upside down, and now here comes a mortar shell with the fins still attached straight down from the tree as a planned booby trap but he catches it and is dangling in mid-air with a mortar shell in his hand.
another one-soldiers are moving thru trees and a mortar shell comes down right on top of them but is stuck in the fork of a tree 2 feet above them.

the first landing of american troops in north africa include 2 coca-cola bottling plants!

the red cross hid escape tools in marked red cross parcels for p.ow.s. including monopoly games with hidden silk escape maps.

this one from russia--as german troops move on a russian cannon battery-all the crews are dead
but in original positions frozen in time no blood no damage nothing damaged, they are sitting with shells in hand ready for loading but dead around 100 of them-the troops are told it is a secret weapon that killed them and not gas and to not discuss it--more on secret weapons later.
i have shown this site to experts of the field and they say it was gas-dont think so -hitler and everyone else had it and were waiting for the first use to unleash all they had.

good luck-bad luck

a chinese farmers son was admonished because their only horse bolted and ran away, being the

lively hood of the farm the neighbors said it was bad luck-bad luck has nothing to do with it he answered, but they insisted it was bad luck. the next day the horse came back with a herd he found on the plains. now they were the richest farmers all around with 27 horses-oh thats good luck they said, its not good luck it just happened he stated-good luck/ bad luck its all the same to me. the next day the son broke his leg in all fall while training the horses. oh thats bad luck they started in again. the day after, a war lord took all abled bodied men for a battle looming on the horizon except the son with the bad leg.-oh thats good luck. well the story goes on with the see-saw of good-bad luck untill you get the point---good luck.

critics

An old man, a boy and a donkey, were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions. Then, later, they passed some people who remarked, 'What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.' So they then decided they'd both walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey. Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man figured they were probably right, so they decide to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned. The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well... ...Kiss your ass goodbye!

letters

dear Marie,

I have been preparing this letter ever since your engagement announcement. On the eve of your wedding i as your mother decided to share with you what i believe will strenghten your marriage. The mistakes i made and observations of other wives gives you valuable insight to avoid mistakes and navigate successfully the trials and tribulations you will share with your husband.

We know how men are-and you must do everything possible to keep him happy and make sure he doesn't stray. Don't ever talk about about your past boyfriends especially Phil- i have talked to him recently and he has agreed to never mention you again regarding "that" party. I STRONGLY SUGGEST you never weaken even in the most intimate moments of confidentiality anything about

your past abortions. Never ever mention your uncle and his triple manslaughter conviction.
If you feel right about discussing your past "experimental" lesbian encounters it might even make him feel more secure about his own sexuality and the other ladies agree. About your fathers alcoholism--we wont be able to hide it, so slip this one in gently. But dont and i repeat
dont ever tell him your brother sells time-shares!!!!

letters

A Parental Nightmare...
A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see the bed nicely made up and everything neat and tidy. Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands: Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Mom. I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice. I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, her tight motorcycle clothes and because she is so much older than I am but it's not only the passion, Dad, she's pregnant. Joan says that we are going to be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood, enough for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Joan has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for cancer so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it! Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren. Your son, Chad P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my desk drawer.

The silly old man

That's what people called him as he fed fish to the seagulls, a routine the old "codger" made for himself

to amble about on the beach, the birds eagerly awaiting their meal. Usually the activity is frowned upon in ocean resorts as the flock of birds mess up the area. As you get older there might or might not be a reason why you do things.

The old man was Eddie Rickenbacker, the top scoring U.S. pilot ace in world war 1, highly decorated and an aviation pioneer, race car driver, president of the now defunct eastern airlines among many other notable achievements. The man had escaped death many times including the most unbelievable injuries sustained during a dc3 crash.

During WW2 President Roosevelt called him to the white house for a secret mission. MacArthur (another WWI hero) had become a rogue element and they had lost control over him as he acted now on his own

disobeying all orders regarding the pacific theater.

This secret mission is still classified but recently the leaks have begun. No way was anyone to know how this spat could be made public during the war, the morale in the U.S. concerning a general like Mac Arthur was of utmost importance.

Apparently MacArthur looked up to Eddie only- he was his idol. MacArthur was also a highly decorated WWI1 soldier. No records could ever exist demonstrating the communications going back and forth regarding his loose cannon condition and you can read between the lines here

if you know what i mean. So they enlist Eddie and a selected crew for a B-17 flight to get him to

the pacific secretly-no small feat considering the distances involved. He would put MacArthur

in his place. Much has been written on why they ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean, but by most accounts an unskilled navigator. The injured survivors ran out of food and water during the first week of their 24 days in a raft, the crate of oranges that floated up from the sinking plane made conditions worse

as the gastric juices made them hungrier. One of the crew died and you would have to read the story of this ordeal to understand the miracle of a seagull landing on eddies head. Besides the meal they used the entrails to fish more food. This was the third time in his life newspapers had declared

him dead ! Only because of his wife's insistence was the search extended and a small float plane

towards the very end found them in Japanese held waters. The pilot won an award as he put the most injured in the confined space and tied the rest to the wings and drove on the waves for 40 miles where they met up with a navy ship.

So, many people would scoff at the old man feeding seagulls unaware of why some people do the things they do- he would say thank you to every bird he fed still wearing the cap he wore during his 24 days at sea.

TEOTWAWKI AND THE SURVIVALISTS

Stands for-- the end of the world as we know it--- and has many sites. Another one is SHTF(poo-poo hits the fan).




After much analysis i will save you from being confused and will share my thoughts on the survivalist scenario. I am trying to be as rational as possible.

Make no mistake-unprepared people suffer and or die. The survivalist is fully aware of the past.

millions and millions have perished from and will continue to do so from the following life extinguishing events:

earthquakes-floods-volcanoes-fires-firestorms-plagues-wars-civil disturbances,disease,social upheavals, economic breakdowns and the like. Some are combined and inexorably add exponentially to the disaster. Survival is an everyday exercise-look around you-fire exits-fire sprinklers-air bags-fire stairs on older bldgs.-first aid kits-emergency bags in the car trunk-bomb shelters from the cold war and WW-2-medical bracelets-warning signs for everything.

But we are complacent in our relatively protected environment and take for granted without even thinking about the basic life sustaining necessities. Our consciousness relegates to the
back rooms of our brains the imminent dangers that are around every corner. This is called
out of sight out of mind. If you interviewed a thousand people 10% have life changing events,
they have survived- wars, being raped, shot at, car wrecks- natural disasters-fires etc.
There are the others who didn't make it-you don't see them so- out of sight and hence the complacent attitude. We are aware but would rather not address negative issues as it interferes
with our current pursuit of happiness-like the fable of the grasshopper and the ant. I have a friend who scoffs at anything because he his too busy in his business(i lost all sales one day because a tv was turned on to see replays of the shuttle exploding) so i understand his avoiding bad news. Here comes a hurricane, about the 10th for us, he dutifully prepares with stocks
and protective measures but its worse than EXPECTED and the family hides in a closet as high water and winds do their thing. This happened in Cancun and what happens? the city is in chaos!




Looters stole their generator-many streets in Cancun are cul-de-sacs and neighbors are barricading the entrances with fires made out of 55 gal. drums and debris and have to gather together with machetes and tools to run off criminals-it was close to being life threatening and very scary to say the least. Yet a few days before it was paradise-civilization crumbles very quickly and leaves you wondering how precious we had it. You've seen it on tv recently Haiti,Chile---Katrina, L.A. riots. I could have saved time by just directing the reader to wikipedia
and search-- human death toll natural disasters in recorded history--you will have a better grasp on reality. Who cares? you guys are paranoid! im Joe normal-i live in pleasant ville and i run thru the park with my pink poodle and balloons enjoying my Dr. pepper and beef jerky. I am smug in my self contained world. Well that is exactly the mind set of the millions and millions who share your view. Except they died a most gruesome death. 30% of the world is in survival mode as we speak-bombs-no water-no electricity-disease-malnutrition, it is daily life for them, almost normal. Any more and i might as well write a F.EM.A manual and a history book. Point is




the scenario is real,very real and the proponents are not necessarily a negative lot either--an evolutionary study shows negativity is crucial to survival. For example early man survived by being in a negative frame of mind-he leaves his cave on all fours to reveal less of himself, care full



of his surroundings he walks crouched now, knife and spear ready- sensing and looking for danger



before it looks for him ,and maybe, just maybe might make it home with food. Speed up the years
and his offspring 20x times down are more complacent-less danger is present. He runs out the cave to tip toe thru the tulips and rejoice in the beauty of th---aaaaheaaargggh---- some animals lunch!! Hey, i told you to not let your guard down! Negativity is primordial as you will not be surprised in this mind set-you expect danger and are prepared--being positive belongs to the realm of progress and visualizing catching a fish. Positive has its place and has no place for the unprepared. How is positive going to save you when you are in a disaster?



The survivalists web sites vary and mix-up different trains of thought so lets sort this out first.




1)The Gov. has F.E.MA. claiming they are ready but offer advice in case you are on your own.
2)5% of the U.S population lives in harsh wilderness and their lives depend on survival wits.
3)continuation of government programs are now classified but the released ones prove concept.
4)the seed depository on a barren island (Norway?) makes me more nervous.
5)many secret underground cities and facilities worldwide-foreign investors also!
6)many companies specialize in shtf survival gear and info. to survive disasters.
7)individual teotwawki web-sites that feature very uneducated knee-jerk reactionaries
but most are educated sites with insightful and valuable lectures that will and i guarantee you save your live--but there are levels in regards to practical and common sense usage and expectancy.



I would assume that the average reader will dismiss some of the sites and the idea for readiness
due to the bombastic nature of the content including ads for hoarding gold -seeds-guns-equipment. On the other hand if he was a boat owner he has no qualms buying-life vests, flare guns,survival kits,survival food,etc.



The forums get mixed readers-some actually live in Alaska-northern Canada and scoff at the Barrett 50. cal (A huge rifle)toting crowd--they in turn fail to understand why they are dead
set in extolling the virtue of a knife being the only thing practical to true survival. They are talking about different scenarios and confuse the issue.
As mentioned, there are many disaster scenarios but all of them call for you to continue living-
someone watching me write this said suicide doesn't fit here! Tell that to the 10,000 German
women who committed suicide when they could not take it any longer when the Russians had their way with them at the end of the war- including 2000 nuns and females from 8 to 80
tell that to the girls school who after being raped were mutilated. tell that to all the suicides likewise in Russia -tell that to the Japanese women who suffered the same fate.
All most all victorious armies rape and plunder and murder -their government unable to protect them-tell that to women in Africa whos pregnant bellies were sliced open on money bets to see if it was boy -girl! These people committed suicide because of disasters and were unprepared.One
river in Germany was a body dump as parents killed their daughters unable to cope with the disaster. It wasn't that long ago and its going on right now again- in the world close to us. All these poor souls were unprepared and led down the complacent road by their governments.


If you study the numbers you have as much to fear if not more from humans as natural disasters.


The SHTF proponents have a valid point and in fact almost mandatory. The basic premise is a breakdown in society due to any of the fearful possibilities.


Water and food distribution networks as we've seen breakdown real fast.


Transportation networks are very vulnerable.


People are not civil when starving and lacking basics they have come to rely on their whole life.


We have seen you will be on your own very quickly.


Most people perish as they are unfit in every way to survive on their own.





I have come to these conclusions;


Large natural disasters are hard to avoid and luck plays a part.


Awareness of real or imagined dangers favors the fearful.


Statistically there will be more survivors unprepared than those who are prepared.


The nature of chaos does not favor your preparedness and in fact can lead to your downfall.


Most preparations that you have will be out of reach.


Assumptions made over iced tea in your living room are not real to what you will encounter.


The most prepared are the very wealthy and know the facts -their consultants are tops in their fields and have prepared many scenarios to survive, this is a big business and totally unavailable
to 95% of the population, again you are on your own except for these helpful sites.
Some curious facts;

Blizzards leave horses and men dead frozen-except those who gutted the horse and got inside.
you can make fire from ice
you can get water from stones
insects will lead you to water
you don't need a cannon to shoot the shell
you can make a bomb very easily in the outdoors
where most died in a high rise fire the savvy breathed air from the toilet tubes inside the top bowl
people have perished with food and water all around them
you can make weapons from mouse traps and shotgun shells
spears and arrows are still tops in the kill hall of fame
small animal livers will save your life re snakes-scorpions
you can make a shelter from 6 inch grasses.
chemical warfare from plants
ambush followers and kill them with firecrackers
instant poisons from household ingredients





We can go on and on---


the survivalists can add plenty more.





Here is a scenario not listed above- in the 80's a navy flotilla lost all comm. capabilities due to a

electromagnetic? wave from a far star. They lost almost all abilities due to the fried electrical
systems, it was an eye-opener for the military although this is a common occurrence (i know avionics people) but this burst was very big and damaging-it happened in the south pacific. It
was assumed by scientists that it indeed had covered a very large area maybe a few thousand miles wide. In 2006 a solar flare shocked the scientific world because never before had one sped so fast-ever -about 1/2 the normal rate to reach the earth-textbooks would have to be re-done!!

I know one of the scientists and he says the reaction is exaggerated. If we had a nasty one hit where it hurts, the consequences would start slowly and problems will develop where you don't expect. Add to this an uneasy political instability and an upset population and it wont be pretty.

Read what happened when the very upset masses in France during the revolution did to the nobility- the favorite was tying husband and wife face to face nude and thrown in the rivers to drown nobody could have imagined this days before as they enjoyed themselves in the lap of luxury. Read how thousands were interned in the stadium in Chile, Americans included, during the coup de'tat. many suffered.

Now then, it is clear things can go wrong and you re not prepared.

So lets study those who escaped by wits or preparation or luck, and use statistical models dealing with hard data.

The teotwawki's have prepared for almost every contingency but under the leadership of Gen. Murphy things will go wrong.

Theoretically you are prepared with------
a bug out bag
weapons and ammo
stored food
an emergency medical kit
an arranged hide out
alternate routes
taking the family
a means of escape

The past has shown---

You have a 50/50 chance to retrieve it

weapons are targets themselves-are heavy-invite trouble-slow you down- ammo is gone quick

food and water weigh a lot-is soon gone

providing you can keep it-supplies are limited- you cant flee with wounded and/or sick

your hide out will be occupied before you get there and if not good luck keeping it

your alternate is every ones

saving your family might not be possible

your vehicle has an average 450 mile flee zone radius-so do all the others- so you will be in good company with other refugees who might not have what you have managed to save. gas will dry out real quick. mandated evacuation routes will be a nightmare. the stay put alternative has its own problems.

At this point 20% will have successfully extracted themselves from the chaos, most wont be survivalists, not to say in some cases they will be the only ones present due to extenuating circumstances.

odds are increased with 3 bug out bags one in the office or home- one in the trunk of car and a hidden one on a planned route. and the same applies to the other necessaries.

even when relatively safe new problems will arrive;

a constant water and food supply

dog packs -not kidding

insects

maintenance medicine

protection from hoards (its not fair you have that and wont share)

inclement weather

leadership dilemmas and psychological effects could be your biggest problem of all.

It wont matter that you invested tons of money and time preparing and can have it all or not.

Solid evidence shows your survival rests on what you can have on your person that is within reach and that is the bug out bag or survival outfit and it better be within 50 ft. or less at all times.

the survival outfit is a civilian attire that looks like a jacket and pants yet on close inspection

in cleverly outfitted with a myriad of hidden and sown in pockets-pouches that will even

hold an ar-7 break apart survival rifle and small pistol and the necessary amount of emergency

paraphernalia to last running on foot and surviving for up to a month.

And far away (100) miles an underground shelter to last 2-3 years.

WILL SOON PROVIDE MORE INFO NEXT PAGE SOON

Rotterdam

History is fascinating because those who track it have their own agenda and although we can rely
on most accounts to be somewhat factual, some finer points on what really happened lead us to believe otherwise.

A quick search of the bombing of Rotterdam in ww2 will lead us to believe the brutal attack
was just that. But read the info sites and start seeing discrepancies. Books and web sites state
Gen. Kurt Student was wounded there and convalesced for 8 months. Another site says he was shot by friendly fire with no further explanation. Yet another has more detail of an s.s. trooper
shooting him mistakenly from a window.You would think that someone who shoots a GENERAL
by mistake would have some press interest or the fact that no news comes from it at all especially under Nazi censorship is being covered up. The following story comes from one of the
most decorated and recognized dutch underground leaders who i met in Mexico.
Bridges are crucial targets in war. A soldier there sadly watched German paratroopers take over the city network bridges. He was upset how easily they scattered the small defending bridge guards. He left the bridge ramparts to escape captivity and laid low in the adjoining tulip fields.
Under the hot sun in an army coat and unable to move at all , even to take his coat off as he would be spotted from the bridge. Pondering his dilemma, he watched a small group of officers set up a table next to the bridge under its shadow. Spreading maps on the table ,it was obvious
these were high ranking officers and taking his time to sight the distance--he took a shot--
the officer slumped over the map table as his companions leaned over wondering why.
Another shot and the second casualty went down. The bridge noise covered his shots and he managed to scurry away from the field and crawl in a ditch until he could run fleeing the
errant shots as the German troops finally sensed the danger.
His second target was the air force general of all German paratroopers.
Hitler rushed to his bedside in the hospital-and was outraged- the city was taken, how did a general get shot after the hostilities? Leaving the ward he had only one thing to say--bomb
Rotterdam into rubble. The part time sniper was interviewed in 1957, he owned a sandwich shop.
Better no one knows what i did and what it caused, many people, my own, died, had i known....

seminars

You can hear 20 seminars regarding life--bla-bla-bla. been there done that.
I was taken to one by S. Levitin, a famous sales guru who had invited another well known
life changer to speak for us. I learned from him the best way to explain the following------

SUCCESS IS NOT A DESTINATION IT IS A JOURNEY

This man had many companies and thousands of employees. he told the controller to sell his assets for millions-he bought a real yacht-he played golf worldwide- made his dreams come true
and came back to re buy the companies-he was bored and enjoyed being productive, the climax was anticlimax. enjoy the ride. ( i hung around big bucks for 5 months once and wanted for nothing didn't have to lift a finger- trust me its not good for your soul)

TOO MANY PROBLEMS

the seminar topic was about carrying too much baggage you don't need.

This therapist or shrink whatever, has his patients meet in a parking lot unfamiliar to them.
meets them and takes them in to a building where he leads them all over the place like they will get to their destination soon, up and down they go and after a while he ditches them. Most of them are now cured of their problems--they had been all over the halls of a children's cancer ward.

Creativity

I will be reminiscing about my years in the antique and collectible business later, but some of my notes revealed an event long ago, a story that should uplift those who think they are trapped.



We are working 2 stores in Manhattan and one of the partners apologetically mentions that an unwanted visitor will appear.....someones brothers uncles long lost aunts....you know the drill....



and hes down on his luck....you know the drill.....and can we help out anyway we can by giving him odd jobs ,whatever. The guy looks rough.



that's the impression.



I think i read him to be someone who has learned just recently the advantages of a complete



360 degree change of lifestyle and he is dead serious about the change. If you have been given a second chance this may be the look you have.


Anyway, theres not much for him here as he doesn't hang around very much. But he was interested in taking advantage of the biggest celebration I've ever seen, the 200th


anniversary of the United States. the bicentennial was to be celebrated across the nation with emphasis in major seaports where the most distinguished and historical tall masted sailing ships

from the world over (operation sail) were to partake in the events. The show stealer's were

3 and 4 masted majestic sailboats, the survivors of bygone years when nations ruled primarily

on the high seas. These ships even today are used in training naval cadets by their respective

countries and serving on one qualifies you for a career. The royal yacht Britannia was there and i was able to see her on her last voyage with the queen of England in Mexico in the late 80's.

So hes kind of late to merchandise decals-t-shirts and related souvenirs, mind you millions

of people will be in and around battery park and adjoining areas to see the event. if i remember

correctly street traffic was closed from 14Th,and down. He didn't have the money anyway to buy and sell. A week before the event, he comes in the store with curtains and sheets that he bought. The linen is sailboat motif and the majority are prints of the actual ships that will be present.For example, a single bed sheet had repetitious images of sailboats that provided 60 cutouts for making "official" patches. Someone lent him a sewing machine and by cutting out

and sewing to a felt backing he was amassing hundreds of patches. In 24 hours he sold everyone of them and made about $2500, that's like $6000 today's dollars. Because it wasn't so well known,
the DAR pomorza, a polish ship, he didn't have that many patches but the polish community was buying them up, he told me he could have sold another 100 or so. Entrepreneurs abound in big cities and making decals, patches and souvenirs to hawk at specific events is not new but cutting up linen that you paid $40 for and making $2500 in a day is creative. What was really creative was his goal--under normal circumstances to save that amount in that time and place would take 6 mos. to 2 years. I've seen it done but the $ was spent very quickly. this guy said he was going to start a new life somewhere and i hope he did. A friend of mine showed up in a city
with less than a dollar after a divorce and in 6 years had a major co. under his belt.

ressurect the dead

I'm having drinks with an elderly Swiss couple, but the tropical beach scene is marred by the lifeguards removing a dead man who drowned and/or heart attack. In their heavily accented
English she tells her husband, you should have brought the pills, yes i might have saved him,
and he explained (they were doctors) that they use a pill that revives dead people. Ok, im game
lets hear it i said-yes we are serious certain death episodes warrant this pill-its like a switch, we put it under the tongue and if it was a heart attack and he his dead no but if he drowned maybe.
or was it the other way around? we use it a few times a year and revive people. Its not a miracle
there are many medical ways and means around the world unheard of by the others and vice -versa, we are still in the infant stages concerning true accumulation of knowledge. For example have you heard of the foehn? I was familiar with the term used to describe the sudden cold winds that would fly at great speeds down Swiss mountains into the heated valleys. the sudden change of temperature would wreak havoc on people, even creating a temporary mental illness.
He stated they use common elements to bring patients back to par. I guessed and was correct!
A Vermont country doctor who lived in similar terrain used apple cider vinegar and honey to correct p.h. and acid levels who discovered it cured many other ailments and disorders.
Also this part of Europe gave us Bach and hanneman(homeopathic flowers) and i mentioned
how a retired American in Mexico was going to have much of his ears cut off due to sun cancer
and a homeopathic doctor said lets try this before they cut you, he swabbed one ear as a control
and lost the other ear as the doctor had plain disappeared from town.The other ear was fine till
he died years later. These doctors know the German lady doctor in Canada who claims a lot of cancers are a result of flukes that propagate in the body weakened by alcohol and are cured by a secret walnut extract. More on this later.

Strange flight

The flight to a foreign country is ahead of schedule by 10 min. and i held the plane up by being on time! The lady at the ramp is waiting for me as the counter desk had called that i was on my way-hurry youre late! im not late i said as i glanced at my watch. As this is a rare occurence, i was spoiling the early departure and in the cabin the stewardress scowled as she rudely pointed to a seat, smoking or not smoking? smoking i said, sit here for now so we can take off! everyone in the plane was staring at me as she dutifully "put" me in my place. The general atmosphere was me against everyone. I guess they had been talking about me while the airplane idled on the tarmac-pinng----booonng-folks as you know we take pride in always being on or before schedule and the captain and crew apologize as the last passenger is very late and we have been informed the schmuck is on his way. This i gathered must have taken place, otherwise there is no other explanation for the all the passengers craning to see this most inconsiderate person come aboard with his shopping bags. She sat me next to a couple who resented me sitting next to them. As soon as the no smoking sign went out i lit a cigarrete and the guy went ballistic--whats wrong with you? you cant smoke here, this is non- smoking waving his hand to dismiss the toxic


smoke that would kill him any minute now. As i extinguished the butt sheepishly i offered that maybe he had heard the lady say this was a smoking section and i apologized. Because he had yelled loudly the lady came running up and denied she messed up ,which she did. Im sure she meant to move me after take off but neglected to mention it. But now, being on a roll with the


"bad" passenger she could capitalize on not having to be cordial to me or even apologize. And having the whole cabin staring up front at the unruly passenger who, besides delaying the flight

and possibly the whole U.S. air flight plan is haranguing an innocent passenger! I never said that, she stated, and you cant smoke here. She would have an uncomfortable time trying to sell me off to someone else in another chair and i was going to submit to her with the approval of the whole plane. I did'nt start this but i will end it right now and shut up.(win-win/ win-lose/lose-lose -i had to pick.



You know at the movies, how a dominant tries to take possesion of the center arm rest with his elbow? The meek give it up to those more assertive. He was now doing this, and proud of himself. He had decided now that i could be pushed around.



Sodas--cocktails? yes! i'll have a rum and coke please. As she handed me the drink bozo looked at me in the eyes, this was the only time in 2 hours he would look at me---youre also a drunk!

Im that type of person who shouldnt drink when upset. The alcohol was not the correct prescription for my condition. So i asked for another one.

Im not a fighter, so all thoughts were of a pent up anger, and i knew my infantile revenge fantasies would dissipate with the alcohol fumes.

As you can surmise, none of this Stephen king horror film nightmare could have been planned

and must be chalked up to the dynamics of convoluted human intereactions.

Pinng---booongg- ladies and gentlemen we are approaching the airport--seat belts and trays

up. She said it twice as the passengers were not complying fast enough as she did her rounds.

Much to my delight smartypants has elected to leave his tray down--not to disobey the authorities but to mess with me as i would have to move it myself, or quite possibly to pin me in

once on the ground and i would have to ask him and his tray to get out--a confrontation!!

The lady couldnt believe it as she came by again searching for truants-- Sir! you must bring your

tray to an upright position it is against f.a.a. regulations!! she looked at me like maybe my rebel ways were contagious and now my opponent had contracted whatever was wrong with me.

He pretended to go trhough the motions and as she left, he kept it down......big mistake....

PUT YOUR TRAY UP WHATS WRONG WITH YOU--YOURE ENDANGERING MY LIFE

WHATS GOING ON HERE?? she unbuckled and ran up and ripped him a new one. The tables have been turned and i had every right to serve back the same plate of popular thought to her -him and the sheeple on the plane who foolishly contributed to this scenario. He was angry,embarrased and befuddled as to how he had gotten himself into this predicament.
Passengers gave me sweeping looks of disdain and contempt while pitying the hapless and innocent seatmate of mine. Everybody stayed clear of me, the troublemaker as we made our way down the stairs and walked under the hot sun to stand in lines to clear immigration and customs. He made a concerted effort to be immediatly behind me at all times, rudely cutting off people to keep track of me. He was already asking workers for someone of authority to report me or whatever he believed would rescue him from his own follies.

Before this trip, on my way out of this foreign country, i had made friends with the top command
of customs and immigration. I had made their acquaintance because like most countries of limited means, they take anything they can get their hands on, legally or not. I had told them that it was rude and impolite of me to ignore their customs and laws and graciously thanked them for letting me go with a warning and was thankful i only had half my belongings confiscated.
However this was a common occurence and i was tiring of telling recipients what i had shopped
for them and im on my way back-only to have little of what i claimed i had brought, paid for or as a gift. Maybe your wife would rather have channel no.5 rather than old spice cologne i explained and i would be more than happy to receive your shopping list at no cost to you!
That way my peolple and your people get exactly what they want. The main reason for my trips was to bring hard contracts for sales. If you have an agreement you can bring foreign contracts
but you cant have the agreement without the contracts-catch-22--all this ends if you give me $$. Allowing them to confiscate desirable goods the contracts made good their escape. On this particular pleasant trip i was bringing talking dolls with expensive batteries installed, not local baterries
with a 20 min. lifespan, and the rage then was a plush dog with a zipper in the belly that held many tiny plush puppies. These were gifts for the daughters of local chieftains, plus bonus gifts
of the most wanted and unobtainable in this country. Shithead has finally gotten the attention of
someone and here comes these guys with guns and outlandish eupalettes straight for me---
the faces of delight and glee that the passengers displayed is difficult to describe. Horror stricken
faces replaced the happy mask as they shook my hand and politely relieved me of the shopping bags and brought me to the commanders who hugged me like they do in foreign countries. Since it was one the daughters birthdays they checked the batteries right there and then, the customs line paralyzed as the unzippered pups fell to the floor, being hastily picked up by guards bending over with their machine guns strapped to their backs. They give me a large box they had recently confiscated from a friend and didnt like the contents. I peered inside and ordered it to my holdings, we all hugged again and was being offered a ride. It is now obvious to my air companions that they have inadvertently stumbled on as witnesses to an international web of
criminal smugglers involving top echelons who in their brazen contempt of any law are doing it openly in the airport in front of international travellers-besides they have machine guns-. I can
only guess where their imaginations led them with the puppies and dolls. Not one to let opportunities go wasted and to be sure my treatment on the plane has not gone unnoticed in case they have forgotten, i mention to the commander who is holding dolls under his arms(containing uranium tablets:)? that the open tarmac in the sun is too hot for the passengers
and point to my new friend-incredibly like oil on water-like ghosts who move but dont walk
like dandeloins leaving the stalk he is now alone as the group has left the target rich environment. He went grey not white, standing alone, i really thought he was going to have a heart attack and regretted my action but was amazed how the incompetent stewardress tried to shrink out of sight behind her crew and they too abandoned her as they wafted away. Amazing!
the guilty have been pointed out without a word. Now it is apparent most of them heard her say smoking and i was never in the wrong. I will bet big bucks that my new friend and possibly others never made it to their hotel -checked in to another- and left the next day on another wonderful flight.

are you sure?? wanna bet? be careful!

Some examples of how we perceive our surroundings.
We admire a starry night, yet some of those stars don't exist. They disappeared long ago, but the light that represents them took a million years to get here. scientifically you are admiring something that doesn't exist.

The wide spectrum bands of sound waves and light waves are not available to you in their
entirety. This becomes crucial in understanding many unexplained phenomena. To understand
it better, make a cross with two rulers with a circle in the middle, say 4 inches. This circle
represents the limits of your hearing and perceived visual ability all under the waves known
hertz-x-rays-gamma etc. You cant see and hear all. Other life forms can, and they in turn
have restrictions also.

Not too long ago, we wondered why elephants could meet at a precise point when to begin with
they were 15 miles away. Now we know they communicate on a wave length we cant hear.

In ww2 color blind people were immediately placed as forward observers and in artillery
units because they could "see" (classified) things we cant.

It was discovered during the development of television systems that young female lab assistants
could hear frequencies from aluminium rods nobody else could, as a result the early remotes
were very heavy as they contained thick rods of aluminium. Our female ancestors had a keen sense of hearing beyond that of males and had early warning systems built in ,males did not.
Think of all the crime stories--honey wake up i heard something! unfortunately this ability
in no way favors unfaithful husbands--she can hear what you say on the phone 3 rooms away.
This ability fades past childbearing age.

Flowers are pretty but insects dont see what we see. they see a spectrum close to x-rays
and in this fashion are attracted to reverse images.

I've seen dog races where the inside dog, on a corner lunges full right and wipes out the run order often with dogs crashing and falling down. Bettors tossing their totes lamenting their bad luck. I will spare you the training method but involves the dog whistle only they can hear.
The dog hearing that whistle does what he was conditioned to do -lunge full right. Since
the box they are assigned is raffled this event only works from box 1-2-3 and thats when the con goes down. If you didn't understand this-here it is--the dog hears things you don't.
So what? we knew most of this-big deal- big deal? i know people who make money in one month you wont make in your life- feel better now?- what you see is not what you get and vice versa.
Im not sure they do it anymore but in the old days predator cat grease would make you a small
fortune. A fast breaking horse would have big cat (mtn lion-cougar) grease smeared on its rump,
out and running it would be more difficult for a jockey on a horse behind him to goad his horse to run towards a cougar!! he can smell it you cant. If you don't frequent race tracks don't worry
There are things you cant hear or see that 100% Make you and 95% of the worlds population
SLEEPWALKERS. You are unaware of many things that affect your life you cant see or hear and feel. In the year 1901 track crowds were angry at the sight of huge needles laying on the grounds of a new york racetrack, jockeys in the hidden curve would turbo-charge with a needle
jab pure cocaine, they were doing it for years and got sloppy. Tons of money was lost because
we couldnt SEE how he could lose, it was unHEARD of, so i know how you FEEL. more to come

observations

I've done a lot of things and talked to a lot of people. For 25 years i was in sales running up t0

50 clients a day. when you talk to 5 clients a week its not the same, sales techniques are perfected much quicker and you cant practice when it counts. Besides my observations i have
those of 250 more with similar experiences, and yes a million people can be wrong, but we make a living by what we know works. There are exceptions of course but foundations are not built on
if, come, maybe-----and its all cyclical as well. When a client forks over 10,000---there is trust involved, and i have some rather amazing observations from them too.

Arminius

Arminius was a Cherusci, one of the many Germanic tribes that existed in that land in A.D. 9.

His victory over the Roman empire in the battle of the Teutoburg forest was unparalleled.

Rome had suffered worse defeats before, but the consequences of this reversal were to have



an effect far in the future in continental Europe. As a youth he had been taken hostage and lived in Rome where he was trained in the military and was elevated to horseman. When the Romans

sought to create a province in germania they placed in charge an experienced province administrator- Publius Varus. Arminius was an advisor for him, but secretly was consolidating
other tribes who had been life enemies with the Cherusci, to revolt against the Romans due to the poor treatment they received under their rule. Arminius staged a revolt in some far remote area
where Varus sent three legions and auxiliary local troops plus three squadrons of cavalry not to mention the assorted followers-cooks-wife's-tradesmen that follow large armies. This army had a total of around 25,000 people. Varus was not an experienced military leader and probably complacent as much of Europe was under roman rule. Letting his guard down he let Arminius
lead him into unfamiliar territory in a large forest as much of Europe was at that time.



Roman legions were unbeatable in the open fields but could not deploy their magnificent maneuvers in constricted areas like the one they were being lured into now. The long thin
road that meandered thru the forest stretched the army up to 10 miles in length. It was muddy as well, where the Romans could not march in battle formation. Varus neglected to send advanced scouts also, probably because Arminius's father in law who opposed his marriage tried to warn Varus but was dismissed as a personal feud, and why bother- who would attack 3 legions anyway? Arminius left under the guise to drum up more support. A torrential rain storm
made the passing even worse as ambushes were sprung on the weakest links where maneuvers
were hampered, compounded by the camp followers who intermingled in the roman formations adding to the confusion. The ferocious attacks in close quarters did not allow the Romans to deploy and use weapons of all sorts that involved projectiles that normally were accurate and deadly even at great distances-but not in the forest, in the rain, in the mud, with camp followers

running amok. The rain wet and made useless the animal sinews used in bows and assorted wind- up projectile machines. The armor was waterlogged and heavy-arrows penetrating easily

the soggy protections. Over 3 days of fighting in the rain under these conditions, had the legions

setting up night camps with unsuccessful breakouts that would lead them to further ambushes

one after another. In one case the land configuration had the legions coming up to a difficult

to scale trench only to be rained on by arrows from behind the cover of a man-made wall.

Who knows if Arminius had planned the rain season into the well sprung trap. In many historical
battles the weather was used to advantage. The Germanic army now pounced on the disintegrating roman legions, those that broke out or attacked were swallowed up in the forest

harboring the fierce pagans. The prescribed manner in which roman officers were to admit defeat was to fall on their own swords, pommel facing the ground ,the point in the body. Most officers did just that, a few cowards surrendered. The rest died fighting, Varus committed suicide,

the second in command Numonius Vala rode off with his cavalry abandoning the remaining legions and they too perished once they broke out. 20,000 killed and about 5000 escaped, some in battle order most fleeing in disarray. Pagan rituals called for beheading of the defeated and

for sacrificial purposes of the cooking alive the officers, their leftover bones as offerings.

The few who escaped regrouped in favorable terrain and were able make good their escape about a month later.

This loss represented about 12% of the total legion roster. Even when annihilated a legion was resurrected with its original i.d. number and associated standards(battle emblems and flags.) which had a pseudo religious power and were always kept in altars when not in battle.

Because legion xvii, legion xviii and legion xix had lost their standards to the enemy, these

legions were discontinued, this being a first in legion history!

Arminius tried to make an ally out of his most powerful Germanic neighbor with the severed

head of Varus as an offering, but the head was forwarded for burial in Rome to in order to remain neutral.

5 years later an avenging roman army of 70,000 strong moved into the area. Severed heads

were still nailed to trees and the bones of 20,000 were in heaps scattered about in areas where

rituals deemed they offer themselves to the pagan deities. Over the years, the standards were recovered in different military operations. Thusnelda, Arminius's wife was captured as well. Forty years later the last standard was recovered along with roman prisoners who had been held prisoner by different germanic tribes. After the reconquest was complete, the roman empire restricted itself west of the Rhine, rivers being so important to city establishments

and military as well as geographic matters. As a result of this, Rome romanized most of Europe

ignoring germania and thus being left out of the "fold". Christianity also took much longer to take hold here and because of this it took Germany much longer to go along with the modern world. Some scholars even suggest the Franco-Prussian war, WWI1 and WW2 might not have happened

had Germany "Settled" their differences with their neighbors much sooner. Because of their isolation they were left out of the roman trade scheme. Martin Luther called Arminius "Hermann the German" in a way to describe pagan deference to new ways. Most European city states were established long before Germany did. Be that as it may, in the 1600's renewed interest in Arminius as a cultural heroic icon helped solidify nationalism in the growing new country of Germany. Recently festivals and holidays that glorify Arminius are somewhat muted lately

with political overtones.

One scholarly camp views Arminius as a traitor who took advantage of his roman upbringing

and education to treacherously lure Varus into a killing field. Another camp sees him as a liberator of the downtrodden defending the homeland. In any event when news of the disaster

reached Emperor Augustus he butted his head against the palace wall repeatedly yelling

Varus-give me back my legions!

19Th century nationalism in Germany used the Teutoburger Wald battle as a unifying element to consolidate the divided states against the Napoleonic and Austro-Hungarian forces whom they regarded as foreign invaders who shared no common values with them.The historical and archaeological findings have documented the battle sites and are most fascinating in their detail.