What Fun! I spent a couple of days looking for Gold in Southern Oregon

I had a great time with my oldest son, Richard, the last couple of days. He’s been studying the area since he moved to Applegate a year ago, and had a list of sites for us to legally look for gold. We only had enough to to explore a couple of placer sites (that he’s thinking about claiming) and checked out a half dozen old lode mines and tunnels through mountains.

What a gold history Southern Oregon has! I never realized it. I got to learn about some history of the area (he had some good local stories about successful prospectors), along with geological information about where to look for gold.

Numerous books have been written by gold experts (where to look, etc), but there’s nothing like hands-on experience. You have to tromp around those mountains, ravines, gullies, and river beds with a sharp eye out to find the best place to set-up and take a shot at your fortunes.

If you’d like to know more about this subject (history & current gold info), here’s a couple of good links for you:

Gold History in Southern Oregon

Good Year in Mining – Updated Southern Oregon article 

It was a fun, but an exhausting time for my old bones! I don’t know how those old prospectors did it! I don’t think they lived for very long back then! Oh, did I mention the part about bears, cougars, and lots of snakes? thought I’d throw that it…

Here we go again – drug warriors want to impose an insane new law

      Good Day World!

 I’m going to step away from this blog for a couple of days and will see you again on Saturday April 6th. 

Meanwhile, please feel free to explore, and if your interested in reading a free novella by yours truly – Rafter’s Redemption – look for the link (with photo) on the right side of this page.

Todays topic: drug warriors looking to impose a new draconian law based upon no scientific evidence. The ignorance behind this proposal is exposed in the following article:

“In the face of growing public support for marijuana legalization, drug warriors are seeking to tighten the screws on consumers by imposing new and tougher drug testing rules that have nothing to do with safety or impairment.

In Sacramento Sen. Lou Correa is sponsoring a "zero tolerance" drug DUI bill (SB 289) that would outlaw driving by anyone with traces of marijuana or other drugs in their blood. Because marijuana's active component, THC, is typically detectable in the blood for hours or days after any impairment has faded, the bill would effectively criminalize thousands of non-impaired drivers as DUI. Tell Your California State Senator to Say No to SB289.

The scientific facts and fallacies about drug testing are explained in California NORML's newly published booklet, "California NORML Guide to Drug Testing," available through www.canorml.org. The guide covers the reliability and sensitivity of different kinds of tests, their relevance to impairment and performance, how to deal with abusive testing, and drug testing's capricious and discriminatory impact on consumers, medical and otherwise. Order the Drug Testing Guide(contact CalNORML for information on review or multiple copies.)

Unlike the alcohol breathalzyer, chemical tests for marijuana have no clear relation to impairment or safety. Blood tests for THC, unlike alcohol, do not measure the actual dosage consumed or active in the body. Instead, they reflect recency of use, spiking to high levels immediately after smoking regardless of actual dosage, then tailing off to low levels that can nonetheless be detectable for days after last use. "In effect, SB 289 is equivalent to calling drivers DUI if they've had had a glass of beer or wine in the past few hours, or left an empty bottle in their trash," says Cal NORML director Dale Gieringer.

Accident studies have found that drivers who test positive for marijuana often show no signs of impairment, and in some instances even may drive more safely. Regular users, such as most medical marijuana patients, often develop tolerance and may drive safely despite having high levels of marijuana in their system.

The U.S National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calls it "inadvisable to try and predict effects based on blood THC concentrations alone," noting that "concentrations of parent drug and metabolite are very dependent on pattern of use as well as dose." [NHTSA 2013].

Advocates of "zero tolerance" DUI laws have sought to stir up public fears of increased marijuana accidents on the road. Such fears are belied by accident statistics, which show that highway safety has improved steadily over the years even while access to marijuana has expanded. In California, highway fatality rates have posted record lows in recent years, and DUI arrests have likewise been on the decline. Studies have found no evidence that strict per se DUI drug testing limits have any impact on highway safety.

Neither is there any good evidence that drug testing is needed to protect workplace safety or productivity. Unlike other medical devices and drugs, which are required to be proven as "safe and effective" in extensive, rigorously controlled, double-blind studies, no such studies have ever been conducted in the case of drug testing. Ironically, while the federal government continues to ban Americans from using marijuana for medicine on the grounds it isn't FDA approved, it is forcing them to submit to drug tests that have never been FDA tested as safe or effective for improving safety or productivity.

NORML constantly hears from responsible consumers, including seriously ill medical marijuana patients, who have been unfairly barred from employment, housing assistance, child custody, and medical treatment because of abusive drug testing.

"Americans need to stand up for personal privacy and freedom from drug testing," says Gieringer. "In no other nation is drug testing so widely abused. Drug testing is a scientifically unproven technology that impinges on the privacy of millions of Americans. If Americans are seriously worried about drug impairment, they should consider performance tests that measure actual impairment."

California NORML www.canorml.org - 415-563-5858 / FAX 510-849-3974

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Laker’s Retire Shaq’s Number & Beat Mavs in Must Win Game

 What a great half-time ceremony honoring Shaquille O’Neil tonight. Putting his jersey number up there with the other Laker legends was a touching moment. The Hall of Fame isn’t far away.

It was cool seeing Phil Jackson there along with other Laker greats (Jamaal Wilkes, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy, Jerry West & more) who showed up to honor him. Good speech by Shaq. Kobe had a classy tribute to his old team mate too.

In a tough year for the Laker organization – with the death of Jerry Buss and multiple star injuries – the Lakers are struggling to make the playoffs. They’ll be lucky to hold down the 8th seed - which means they’ll have to face the high power Spurs.

Tonight’s win – 101- 81 – means the Lakers will stay on pace for the last seed. Kobe was fantastic with a triple-double, and Earl Clark brought energy, points, and rebounds off of the bench.

Every game counts now, with only nine left in the regular season. There’s no telling when Steve Nash will be able to play again. Metta World Peace is weeks away from playing. So players like Clark, Jamison, Blake, and Meeks really need to step up if the Lakers hope to make the playoffs.

Go Lakers!

Rafter’s Redemption continues…

A novella by Dave Stancliff

   CHAPTER TWO

   In The Army  

 Basic training happened by the sea, at Ft. Ord, the U.S. Army’s Training Center for Infantry in California. It was named after Major General Edward Cresap Ord, who served with Fremont’s Army in the early days of California.

  Rafter and his fellow trainees in Company B, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, ran along the beach in the morning fog every day. They ran all over the base. Everywhere they went they ran. They sang as they ran. They moaned while running miles in full gear with their heavy M-14 rifles at port arms. They ran through obstacle courses. They ran carrying a buddy on their back. They ran in their dreams like dogs sometimes do.

  Every morning they woke to infuriated drill instructors telling them to get their maggoty asses off their racks. The tension got worse every step of the way. Every day. (GO HERE to continue story)

April Fools Day for Cybernet Citizens Can Be Any Day!

Could it be?  Will Bill Gates really give you $5,000 for sharing a link on Facebook?

Of course not. The email is bogus and so is the picture of Gates holding a sign that purportedly shows him making that promise.

This is just one of an ever-growing collection of email hoaxes that fill in-bins across the world. They’re not scams – no one is trying to steal your money or personal information – they’re just fiction. 

Why do so many people accept the bogus messages as fact and forward to others? (Read story here)

Today’s Topic: Autographed copy of Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's' album sells for a record $290,500

Photo: Heritage Auctions via AP   Good Day World!

Even Lucy and her diamonds can't compete with these riches. A rare, signed copy of The Beatles’ "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has brought $290,500 at auction, shattering the previous record for such an item. Boy does this album take me back!

A true classic by the Fab Four.

It was twenty years ago today,
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play,
They've been going in and out of style
But they've guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The act you've known for all these years
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
We hope you will enjoy the show,
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sit Back and let the evening go.
Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper'lonely,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
It's wonderful to be here
It's certainly a thrill
You're such a lovely audience
We'd like to take you home with us
we'd like to take you home
I don't really like to stop the show
But I thought that you might like to know
That the singer's going to sing a song
And he wants you all to sing along
So let me introduce to you
The one and only Billy Shears
And Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

PHOTOS: The Beatles: Rare Photos Offer Inside Look at Fab Four

PHOTOS: John Lennon: Days in the Life

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: Take your politically correct terms and shove them!

By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  The term “politically correct,” is an oxymoron. When I first heard it used while working as an editor for a weekly newspaper called The Desert Trail in 29 Palms, California, I thought it was so stupid it would surely go the way of the fabled Dodo bird and the nickel candy bar.
   In a 1983 “As It Stands” column, I implored readers to reject the term because it was a political ploy to push certain agendas. I pointed out the new name for a manhole cover was a subterranean ingress and egress aperture cover. That got a lot of laughs.
   Somewhere along the line, the laughs slowed down and people started getting serious/stupid about the term. To my dismay, it didn’t go away. Instead it spread like poison oak in our language garden. It became so pervasive that the PC police think nothing of calling insane people selectively perceptive, or some other equally non-descriptive term.
   Call me an old fuddy duddy, but I saw no problem with saying someone without hair was bald. Now, no one is bald, they’re comb free. Remember when someone had BO (body odor)? That same person today is said to have nondiscretionary fragrance. Please!
   You know something isn’t right when censorship is foisted off as selective speech and drunks are referred to as spacially perplexed. Politically correct terms came about in order to tell people how they should act. No, really.

  Political Correctness denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent, according to Wikipedia.
   In other words, political correctness is out of control! My clumsy (excuse me - uniquely coordinated) attempt to illustrate this contention comes with plenty of examples. We no longer just have earthquakes, we have geological corrections. Despite that, when the earth starts to shake like a giant baby’s rattle I will still scream “earthquake!”

   If we don’t already have a PC term for crime rate, I imagine civic leaders would be good with the term “street activity index.” I have to admit - with guilty pleasure - I kinda like the following PC terms for some jobs.
   Now, when you get a job in a restaurant you don’t have to tell your friends you’re just a dishwasher. No, your title will be “utensil sanitizer” and you’ll wear a snappy white apron.
   How about janitor? It’s kinda of a blah description, but when you change it to “sanitation engineer” you’re suddenly vaulted into white collar realms when describing your job. The same goes for the garbage man; who is now a sanitation engineer too.
   Conversation between a father and a lifeguard who just saved his daughter from being pulled out to sea:
  Father: “Thank you! Thank you for saving my drowning daughter!”
   Lifeguard: “No problem. I save aquatically challenged people all the time.”
   Takes the snap out of that conversation doesn’t it?

  I can see where calling someone “differently weighted” instead of fat would seem a kinder description, but as far as descriptions go it’s useless. What’s differently weighted supposed to mean? Too fat or too skinny? Perhaps being at a perfect weight? I think you can see my point here.
   I refuse to consider “motivationally dispossessed” as another term for lazy.
   Just for a laugh, if you want to take this whole PC discussion to the next level, let’s look at some political correct terms for females and males.
  For the Women:
* Her breasts will never sag, they will lose their vertical hold.
* She does not snore, she is nasally repetitive.
* She does not get drunk, she becomes verbally dyslexic.
* She is not a bad driver, she is automotively challenged.
   For the Men:
* He is not a sex machine. He is romantically automated.
* He is not a male chauvinist pig, he has swine empathy.
* He does not get lost all the time, he discovers alternate destinations.
* He does not fart and belch, he is gastronomically expressive.

As It Stands, you may think I’m ignorant (factually unencumbered), but you have to admit the PC police continue to clutter the language with terms best left under rocks!