@dag Well that's the dream, but the reality is that dogs are not free. They're constantly ordered to sit, roll around or fetch numerous things by their oppressive tyrants (aka owners). Don't worry, the uprising is coming. Just the other day while driving through the countryside I saw evidence of resistance in form of many signs reading "free dogs". YES! Free them all!!

This is why I stay away from the countryside. Wouldn't want to meet that lamb on the moor.

He always tried to hide his spoiled brat roots by filming himself out in the wild, sleeping in caves and strolling the mountainous countryside. I guess the lure of running water and warm towels was too great to resist.

I am -so- getting a goat when I retire to the countryside...maybe three or four.

While the yuan is tentatively pegged to the dollar, it's hard to argue anything has changed.

A currency needs years, decades even to gain reserve currency status. With the current debt instability in the Euro area, this has become a very unlikely proposition. The yuan is even less likely, partly because currently it is still essentially pegged to the dollar and partly because it still far, far from being the pre-eminent power with massive income disparity comparing the cities to the countryside, unstable regions, and even purely festering structural issues like water shortage and pollution. What's more likely is it being replaced also in the medium to long term by the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDR), basically an amalgamated currency with proportionate representations by major economic world power currencies.

The thing is though if the US were gradually replaced by other (or combination of) currencies it would be quite beneficial to the US economy.

The main effect would be a depreciation of the US dollar. The US dollar is in excessive demand because it is used in trade internationally, something that hurts US export competitiveness. A currency depreciation would make imports less competitive and exports more competitive. Less incentive to overconsume Chinese manufacturing, more incentive to export products thus improving the US trade balance and foreign debt.

Slight inflationary pressure. Currently deflation is a bigger worry, especially if it becomes entrenched as in Japan.

Public debt? Largely wouldn't be affected because it is predominantly denominated in US currency (Treasury bills) thus currency value does not play into the equation.

Point is, it's largely a good thing.

100 years from now they'll be learning in history class about how this device was the final nail in the coffin of American civilization. "... After that the population got so fat and so lazy that they no longer cared about anything except eating and sitting around with their TV hats, and soon the countryside was completely transformed into the lifeless desert we know today."

>> ^Sagemind:

Red foxes are predators that instinctively hunt birds, small game and animals as large as sheep. goats and small calves. It is doubtful it could be trusted around small children and definitely not other pets.


You could say this about -every- dog in the entire world. I wouldn't trust my Jack Russles alone with my cats or my young nephews even though the dogs are good natured, they are still animals. Think we should mass kill every single dog? Extreame, but a damn good point. This fox was obviously rescued as a pup and the owner has shown it such love. I applaud. Foxes have a horrible stereotype, remember that we made foxes what they are by extending our towns and cities further and further into the countryside, making a huge mess as we go. Theres bound to be urbanised foxes, because lets face it, routing through bins is going to be easier than catching your dinner.

And foxes don't go for fully grown healthy sheep it's too much effort and a waste of time. They're cunning, remember, they'll only go for the easies. The sick and the old and the newborn. Yeah it's a pain, but it's an occupational hazard for anyone keeping lifestock.

@rougy

This guy made the choice to fly across the world and try his hand killing the inhabitants of some third world country for money, they captured him and suddenly he wants forgiveness? If he wasn't captured he'd still be out murdering someone on the countryside. Why should I pity this guy, or care whether he makes it home? Why would it make me wrong, and why am I responsible to grieve for a mercenary? He doesn't respect his own life, much less the lives of others.

You say you don't like war, you don't like invasion, you don't like killing - yet you support the soldiers who execute the order? Doesn't make sense to me what is your morality and what is your life for? What kind of world do you want to live in? How do you live in this world with respect to the world you want it to be?

What time is it? Its time for me to live and be happy. What time is it for him? Who knows, looks like his time is about up...I get to live and he gets to die. Why? Because he chose war and I chose peace.

You couldn't get me to pull the trigger if you put a gun to my head -- this guy volunteered.

We use that one in Ireland about anyone who lives in the west. Or if you happen to live in the town in the west about the people in the countryside around you. Eg in secondary school we had a way of singing ♪You're all sheepshagging b*stards, sheepshagging ba-a-stards...♪ at gaelic football matches with the country teams >> ^alien_concept:

For some reason, it's an old running joke that the Welsh shag sheep. It's all we've really got on them, cos really they're good people
And, hey eric!
In reply to this comment by eric3579:
The joke about Wales went right over my head. I'm guessing that's a strictly English thing. Someone explain it to me.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'norway, train, Bergensbanen, snow, winter, countryside' to 'norway, train, Bergensbanen, snow, winter, countryside, scandinavian' - edited by calvados

I know given the number of atheists here on the Sift maybe writing this is a moot point--and I will preface all of this by saying I am NOT a Christian--but I think people here who are hating on the 10 commandments need to put things into a little perspective.

The 10 commandments were written at a time when the Jewish people were on the verge of extinction. They had just fled slavery in Egypt and were moving through difficult and wild countryside on their search for a new (or old depending how you look at it) homeland. If they were to survive at all, everyone would have to work together.

Maybe some people here think not stealing or killing should be self-evident but just look at what is happening in Haiti right now--the hospitals are getting flooded with as many gunshot and machete wounds as they are quake injuries as people fight for survival. The Jewish people were in a far worse situation than the Haitians--they didn't have anybody coming to bail them out. They had only each other to rely on. I think Moses and the other Jewish leaders realized that a totalitarian regime was the ONLY way for them to survive that journey. You had to punish stealing with death because the survival of the group depended on people trusting each other and working together. If someone wasn't willing to work for the survival of the group, they were a threat to the group's survival. If Moses and the others didn't want things to devolve into chaos, they probably figured they needed to keep a firm grip.

I think if you regard the 10 commandments in this light, they make a lot of sense. If the Jews lost their collective sense of identity and some people in the group started worshiping other gods, then that would be a threat to the group's security. It might cause internal friction or an outright split. Furthermore, the only thing people are more afraid of losing than their lives is their souls. If the 10 commandments are God's word, then maybe you think twice about stealing something. Notice that we have lots of laws against stealing in civilized countries and yet we also have jails full of thieves. Apparently the word of man is not enough to deter people, but for the Jews at this time, the word God may have been enough.

Now, obviously the world has changed a lot since Moses' time. But I don't think that totally negates a need for the ten commandments. As I mentioned above, despite having laws, despite whatever "innate" sense of morals we might have (I have large doubts about the idea that any morals are innate, but for the sake of this post let's just say it is true), there are still people out there willing to kill, rob, or screw their neighbor's wife if given the opportunity. But would they be willing to do those things if they believed in a deity that would punish them for these things even if they were not caught while alive in this world? I don't have the answer. For some, such as the criminally insane, it obviously wouldn't make any difference. But for others...? If it does keep them from doing something that we all agree is immoral (I'm leaving aside the worshiping idol stuff at the moment) is that really such a terrible thing? If it reinforces our own "innate" sense of morals, is that so bad? Regardless of what religious view you take, can you really argue that rules against killing or stealing are a bad thing?

My 2 cents. Thanks for reading.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'norway, train, Bergensbanen' to 'norway, train, Bergensbanen, snow, winter, countryside' - edited by calvados

[wind noises]

If I could sample the wind, I would loop it

And let my life poem flow over its sacred beats.

Using Kilimanjaro as my djembe I would drum rainbows out of the moonlight and use them as hooks in between verses; verses of little girls spinning ropes in opposite directions, waiting for an opening to jump in.

As the world turns, double dutch, I jump, double time over oceans and back; the water waves and I wave back.

Rippling echoes of "sunshii-ii-iine" - folks get ground in the "sunshii-ii-iine."

But the lightning flaaash three times and its time for the chorus which includes corn bread, candy yams, and all that good stuff, which black folks on Saturn are made of.

As we approach the second verse the roots of trees are plucked from bass lines, which resonate and shake the earth -- devastating everything that's not built in harmony in it.

The second verse is a journey through the ruins of ruined souls; that valued all that was nothing, and nothing of the all-knowing ever flowing wind - which is the undercurrent of this current blowing, the funky drummer from here to eternity.

But even as ruined souls backspin, the wind mills forward and rocks steady 'till the sun hits the fader and the chorus kicks in; then the moon yells "Go!" and we all backspin -- ZULU! As the moonlight shines true blue silvery indigo light my spirit takes flight - because the moonlight is my indigo; indigo ON, to the break of dawn, I rock rock steady steady 'till the early morn, word is bond I'm talking about seeing your nature in nature innate in your nature - New York states of mind did not create ya.

Not until you listen to Rakim on a rocky mountain top have you heard hip-hop.

Extract the urban element that created it and let an open wide countryside let us illustrate it.

Riding in a freight train listening to Coltrane and my reality went insane and I think I saw Jesus; he was playing hop-scotch with Betty Carter who was cursing him out in a scat-like-gibberish for not saying "Butterfingers."

And like the grains of sand, like the seeds of time, the pains of Man, the frames of mind which built these frames which is the structure of my urban superstructure. The trains and planes can corrupt and obstruct your train of thought so that you forget how to walk through the woods which ain't good, 'cause if you never walked through the trees listening to 'Nobody Beats The Biz' you ain't never heard hip-hop.. and you don't stop, and you don't stop, and you don't...

STOP lettin' cities define you, confine you to that which is cement and brick.

We are not a hard peoples, our domes have been crowned with the likes of steeples. That which is our being soars with the eagles, and the Jonathon Livingston seagulls - Yes - I got wings, you got wings, we all got to got wings!

So let's widen the circumference of our nest, and escape this urban incubator -

You see, the wind plays the world like an instrument; blows through trees like flutes but trees don't grow in cement. And as heartbeats bring percussion, fallen trees bring repercussions; cities play upon our souls like broken drums, we drum the essence of creation from city slums - but city slums mute our drums and our drums become humdrum, 'cause city slums have never been where our drums are from - just the place where our daughters and sons become, off-beat heartbeats, slaves to city streets, where hearts get broken and heart beats stop - broken heart beats become break beats for niggas to rhyme on top, but they rhyme about... NOTHIN'.

You don't got nothin' to rhyme about 'cause you've never seen the moon, your styles can't be universal if you're not in tune, with the... [wind noises]

Wow, like really slow motion lightning (which also explodes some trees).
This is a good reason to always make underground power lines in urban areas. Where I live the only place with high voltage power lines is the countryside.

My name is Laura. I have a little boy named Brennan who is just over a month old. My boyfriend and I have been together for two years come November. We work fast!

I have a wonderful kitty named Gojira who is part lynx and has a very squishy nub tail--everyone asks when he lost the rest of his tail, but he never had a long tail to begin with! He's the light of my life and I consider him my first born son. Yeah, I know. I'm cat lady material. I also have a part husky, part boxer dog named Stanley Cup. Yes, we are hockey fans! My boyfriend has limited the amount of pets I can have or else I'd fill the house with reptiles and rescued animals. I had an opossum who killed himself. He crawled into the back of my mini-fridge. I've also had a raccoon. I've had a chipmunk. I've had bunnies, snakes, guinea pigs, hamsters, geckos, lizards of many creeds and colors, birds, you name it! I've tried to save so many birds and rodents who my parent's cats mangled. I feed all the stray animals in my neighborhood, including coyotes, to the chagrin of my neighbors. >:]

I love love LOVE to read.

I live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Not a bad town by any means. Just boring. But clean! I live on the far east side at the edge of the town, where cornfields and countryside begin.

I have a deep, abiding love of video games. I play WoW, although my raid members are upset with me because I haven't logged on since my son was born. Hard to commit when you have a little human completely dependent on you.

I work for my mother, who owns an insurance agency. I do everything I can to keep her organized.

I can't think of anything else to add, so that sums it up!