Fossils may Turn 'Evolution on its Head'

This image released today by "Science"

shows the probable life appearance in

anterior view of Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi").

Analysis of a near-complete skeleton of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia radically changes scientists' thinking about the appearance and behavior of our earliest forebears.


Photos: Fossils may turn 'evolution on its head'

By Thomas H. Maugh II
October 1, 2009 7:30 a.m.

A treasure trove of 4.4-million-year-old fossils from the Ethiopian desert is dramatically overturning widely held ideas about the early evolution of humans and how they came to walk upright, even as it paints a remarkably detailed picture of early life in Africa, researchers reported today.

The centerpiece of the diverse collection of primate, animal and plant fossils is the near-complete skeleton of a human ancestor that demonstrates our earliest forebears looked nothing like a chimpanzee or other large primate, as is now commonly believed.

Instead, the findings suggest that the last common ancestor of humans and primates, which existed nearly 2 million years earlier, was a primitive creature that shared few traits with modern-day members of either group.

The findings, analyzed in a large group of studies published today in the journal Science, also indicate that our ancestors began walking upright in woodlands, not on grassy savannas as prior generations of researchers had speculated.

The discovery of the specimen called Ardipithecus ramidus "is one of the most important discoveries for the study of human evolution," said paleoanthropologist David Pilbeam of Harvard University, who was not involved in the research.

"The find itself is extraordinary, as were the enormous labors that went into the reconstruction of a skeleton shattered almost beyond repair," he said in an e-mailed statement."It is so rare to get a more or less complete skeleton," said paleoanthropologist Andrew Hill of Yale University. "In the entire course of human evolution, at least until you get to Neanderthals, there are only three to four available. We can always tell so much more from a skeleton" than from the jawbones and skulls that are more commonly found.

The fossils described in the new studies were found 15 years ago in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia by a team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White of UC Berkeley. But White and his team have been relatively closemouthed about the fossils, and other researchers -- some of whom have accused him of hoarding the fossils for his own use -- have been eagerly awaiting more information.

Today, they are getting a surfeit: Eleven papers by 47 authors, and a similar number of short summaries prepared by each paper's authors.The fossils were found in a layer of sediment sandwiched between two layers of volcanic ash, each dating from 4.4 million years ago -- indicating that the fossils are also of that age.

In addition to the nearly complete fossil specimen of the female primate, which investigators have dubbed Ardi, the team found more than 100 fossils from 36 other members of the same species."These fossils are much more important than Lucy," the 3.2-million-year-old specimen of Australopithecus afarensis that was found in the Afar desert in the 1970s, said paleoanthropologist Alan Walker of Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the research. "The reason is that when Lucy was found, we already knew the major features of Australopithecus from fossils found in the 1940s. . . . These fossils are of a completely unknown creature, and are much stranger and more primitive than Australopithecus."

The White team also found fossils of 29 species of birds, primarily small ones like doves, lovebirds, mousebirds, passerines and swifts, as well as several that were previously unknown. Animal fossils included 20 new species of small mammals, including shrews, bats, rodents, hares and small carnivores, as well as larger animals, including baboons, colobus monkeys and spiral-horned antelopes.

Fossilized wood, seed and other plant remains indicate the presence of hackberry, fig and palm trees. Collectively, these finds indicate that the environment was more humid and cooler than it is today, and contained grassy woodland with forest patches.

Today, the Afar is a desert. But go back in a time machine and "4.4 million years ago, this was really a different world," White said. "We look up in the trees and we see that they are full of monkeys. We look around on the ground and we see that there are a lot of kudus. And we see an occasional hyena. And we see elephants and we see lots of small mammals. And we know what all of these . . . are because we have found evidence of them.

"This whole collection of data "gives us information we have never had before about human evolution," said paleoanthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University, one of the primary authors of the papers. "The whole savanna theory goes out the window in terms of it being the explanation for upright walking. . . . And the idea that we evolved from something like a chimpanzee also goes out the window."

Ardi stood about 47 inches tall and probably weighed 110 pounds. Many researchers had previously believed that such an early ancestor would, like modern chimps, be a knuckle-walker, using the knuckles for support while moving on all fours. Instead, Ardi appears to have climbed on all fours on branches, but walked upright on the ground. Her feet, like those of monkeys but not chimps, were designed more for propulsion than for grasping.

Her face had a projecting muzzle, giving her an ape-like appearance, but many features of her skull, such as the ridge above the eye socket, are quite different than those of chimpanzees. Her brain is about the same size as Lucy's.

Her hands lacked many of the specializations that allow modern-day African apes to swing, hang and easily move through trees. Those specializations apparently evolved in large primates after they separated from the last common ancestor with humans more than 6 million years ago. (Few fossils of such primates are available because they lived primarily in forests, which are not conducive to preservation of bone.)

The finds "are turning evolution on its head," Lovejoy said.The most controversial aspects of the papers involve the authors' -- particularly Lovejoy's -- interpretations of what the fossils say about behavior.

Of particular importance, he said, is that the sizes of males and females were about the same, and that the specimens do not have large, sharp canine teeth. Both findings suggest that the fierce, often violent competition among males for females in heat that characterizes gorillas and chimpanzees was absent in Ardipithecus.

That implies, Lovejoy concluded, that the males were beginning to enter into monogamous relationships with females and devoted a greater proportion of their time to caring for their young than did earlier ancestors."This is a restatement of Owen Lovejoy's ideas going back almost three decades, which I found unpersuasive then and still do," Pilbeam said. Hill was more blunt, calling Lovejoy's speculation "patent nonsense."

thomas.maugh@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Related stories
Around the Web
Treasure trove of fossils may turn ’evolution on its head’chicagotribune.com
Our long-lost motherguardian.co.uk
Fossils find in Ethiopia threatens to ’turn evolution on its head’baltimoresun.com

A second version of this stunning Knewz from the U.K. Guardian online press~

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/01/fossil-ardi-human-race


How fossil Ardi pushes back the story of human evolution farther than ever before

Fossil Ardi reveals the first steps of the human race
Ardi evolved from the common ancestor we share with chimpanzees and was equally at home walking on the ground and swinging through the trees

Ian Sample, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 October 2009 15.30 BST

Link to this video
The remains of a woman who lived and died at the dawn of humanity have been uncovered in Ethiopia, giving the clearest picture yet of the origin of our species.

The partial skeleton, the oldest from a human ancestor ever ­discovered, belonged to a female who walked on two legs but was adept at climbing trees and moving through the forest canopy some 4.4m years ago.

Experts have described the find as the most important regarding human evolution in the past century.

The woman, named Ardi by the researchers who worked on her, belongs to a new species Ardipithecus ramidus and may be the earliest human ancestor ever discovered that was capable of walking upright.

The finding sheds light on a critical but unknown period of evolution at the root of the human family tree, shortly after our ancestors split from chimpanzees more than 6m years ago.
Remnants of the skeleton, skull, pelvis, hands, feet and other bones were excavated from the reddish-brown sediments of an ancient river system near the village of Aramis in northern Ethiopia, along with fragments from at least 35 other individuals.

Fossil hunters first glimpsed the new species in 1992 when a tooth belonging to Ardipithecus was spotted among pebbles in the desert near Aramis. Over the next two years, the researchers scoured the area on hands and knees and slowly uncovered pieces of bone from the hand, ankle and lower jaw, and finally a crushed skull.

A total of 47 researchers then spent a further 15 years removing, preparing and studying each of the fragments ahead of the publication tomorrow of an in-depth description of the species in 11 papers in the US journal Science.

Their investigation shows Ardi stood four feet (1.2m) tall and weighed a little under eight stone (50kg), making her similar in size and weight to a living chimpanzee. But many of Ardi's features are far more primitive than those seen in modern apes, suggesting chimpanzees and gorillas have evolved considerably after they split from the common ancestor they shared with humans.
The discovery of Ardi provides vital clues about the earliest human ancestor that lived at the fork in the evolutionary road that led to humans on one side and chimps on the other.


Link to this audio

"Darwin was very wise on this matter. Darwin said we have to be really careful. The only way we're really going to know what this last common ancestor looked like is to go and find it," said Tim White, a lead author on the study and professor of human evolution at the University of California, Berkeley. "Well, we haven't found it, but we've come closer than we've ever come, at 4.4 million years ago."

The remains of animals, seeds and pollen uncovered at the excavation site reveal it to have been a woodland where colobus monkeys swung in trees full of swifts, doves and lovebirds, and spiral-horned antelope, elephants, shrews and early forms of peacock roamed the forest floor below.
The discovery is being seen as more important than Lucy, the 3.2m-year-old skeleton of a potential human ancestor which proved at a stroke that early humans walked upright before evolving large brains. The remains of Lucy, who belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis, were uncovered in another part of Ethiopia in 1974.

"We thought Lucy was the find of the century but, in retrospect, it isn't," palaeontologist Andrew Hill at Yale University told Science. "It's worth the wait."

Measurements of Ardi's skeleton reveal she had a brain the size of a chimp's, but very long arms and fingers, and opposable toes that would have helped her grasp branches while moving through the forest.

Though Ardi would have spent much of her time in the trees, her pelvis was adapted to walking upright when she came down to the forest floor. Her unusual skeleton led White to comment of her species that "if you wanted to find something that moved like these things, you'd have to go to the bar in Star Wars."

Analysis of Ardi's teeth points to a diet of figs and other fruit, leaves and small mammals. Remarkably, both male and female Ardipithecus had very small incisors and canines, which are enlarged in modern apes. The finding suggests that unlike chimpanzees, baboons and gorillas, the male did not bare its teeth in battles over females and was already part of a more cooperative social group. It was probably involved in the parenting process.

"Natural selection has led to the reduction of this male canine tooth very, very early in time, right at the base of our branch of the family tree."

It may take years to confirm exactly where Ardi fits in the history of human evolution. One possibility is that she is a direct ancestor of Lucy's species, Australopithecus.

"The most important thing in the broader sense is that we now no longer have to guess about where we came from ... We now have an evidentiary basis for understanding that we didn't get here in the form we see today, we evolved," said White.

Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, said: "This is as important as the Lucy skeleton in terms of what it tells us about an even earlier stage of human evolution."

"The assumption among many researchers is that while humans have evolved a lot, chimps haven't changed much, so we can use them as a model of the common ancestor we shared. But why shouldn't chimps have changed? Everything evolves."

"We are really trying to establish what set us off on our evolutionary path," he added. "What would start the process off? That is one of the great mysteries."

In pictures: Standing tall
Gallery (9 pictures): The remains of a woman who lived at the dawn of humanity give the clearest picture yet of the origin of our species

Ardi's link to chimpanzees
Audio (10min 14sec): Anthropologist Tim White explains how fossil Ardi relates to the last common ancestor we share with chimpanzees
The discovery
Audio (9min 36sec): How the earliest human ancestor ever found came to light in Ethiopia
How she lived
Audio (11min 40sec): Ardi's probable lifestyle: how she moved, what she ate, social relations
The male of the species
Audio (12min 59sec): What the small teeth of male Ardipithecus tells us about their socialisation
Related
1 Oct 2009
Audio: Fossil Ardi Tim White on the male of the species
1 Oct 2009
Audio: Fossil Ardi Tim White on how Ardi lived
1 Oct 2009
Audio: Fossil Ardi Tim White on the link to chimpanzees
21 Sep 2009
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Fossil Ardi illuminates the dawn of humanityThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 15.30 BST on Thursday 1 October 2009. It was last updated at 18.55 BST on Thursday 1 October 2009.
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Arnold's Evil Twin Sister...?

Iris Kyle, Winner

Arnold's Miss International Body Building Competiton,

Arnold's Sports Festival

03/06/09

A few days ago I received an email from a friend. I almost deleted it, because of the title. The Subject read: Arnold's Evil Twin Sister. And if you read my rant when Ahhrnold tried to extort the Native Tribes for more money to pay off the budget deficits, that 'white men with forked tongues' had created, then you know he doesn't impress me.

And no, in case you didn't read the caption, the woman in the photo above is NOT his twin sister. Nor is she evil.

I just wanted to see if you were...paying attention.

However, I'm glad I opened and quickly read the message. It details the recent speech given by Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBAY as she announced her candidacy for govenor of California.

Humph....Republican women on the move...

Is it just me, or is there a conspiracy afoot by the Republican party? You see, also this week, headlines read that, Alaska's former Governor Sarah Palin's autobiograpy which is due to be released November 17th, has already earned 'best seller' status.

Brings to mind the image of long cancelled late night TV host Arsenio Hall, when he'd place his hand to the side of his narrow face, tap his temple with his index finger, raise his eyebrow, and nod his head while uttering that famous "Hhmmm".

Yep folks, keep your eyes and ears open, cause more "Things that Make You Go Hhmm," are about to go dancing by.

From my scan of her speech, Whitman seems to be putting all her eggs in 'Business' Basket' as the place where societies problems can be hatched.

In my book, helping Business does nothing, if Business doesn't share it's profits with it's workers.

And lowering the taxes on Businesses and deregulating agencies that keep Business mindful of how it's activities effect communities' health and well-being, creates cities and nations with polluted air and toxic water sources.

Take these months to learn all you can, about the candidates, so that your decisions are well rounded. The introduction that came with this email is biased. In fact it came with the title "Arnold's Evil Twin Sister," and because my friend is a former State employee, there was an urging from her colleagues that,

We need to get the word out to NOT vote for this lady for our next Governor if you treasure your state jobs!!!!!!!!

And this was the introduction that followed,

This is the same woman who has been making life miserable for people who sell on eBay. She was the CEO when changes were made, such as sellers not being able to leave negative feedback against ANY buyers, whether they were paid or not. She was trying to attract large companies like GMC, Ford, etc, and has left the little guys in the dust. Since eBAY receives a percentage of every sale, they no longer care about someone who is making a few hundred dollars a month, because they don't bring in a huge amount. Just look her opinion of State workers, and ask yourself... DO YOU WANT THIS PERSON TO BE THE GOVERNOR?

You, intelligent reader, can begin forming your own analysis, by reading her speech below. It's long, but very clear, and worth the time to become introduced to her agenda. Even though November 2, 2010 is more than a year away, we might as well begin paying attention now to this important race. Afterall, it's still hold true in many areas, that as 'California goes, so does the nation'.

Meg Whitman formally announcing her candidacy 9/22/09 in Fullerton, CA .


It’s such a privilege to be here with all of you. Since February, when I began to explore my possible run for governor, I’ve been going non-stop listening to people, sharing ideas, thinking hard about the problems Californians face. I’ve visited dozens of towns in every corner of our state and participated in more than 100 events.
Californians have welcomed me into their homes, shown me their businesses, and introduced me to their families and communities. I’ve been deeply touched.
I’m quickly learning that the campaign trail is as rewarding as it is tough. Yes, there are some grueling days, but actually, every day is a gift. I already treasure the time I’ve spent with Californians during the campaign, and we’re only just beginning.
As I said, I’ve traveled to every corner of our state, and what I’ve heard time and again, from Californians in every walk of life – from Republicans to Democrats to decline to state voters – is that people desperately want California to be great again.
There’s a profound hunger for change, for leadership, and for authenticity. Californians want to trust their leaders again. They want to be told the truth. And most of all, they want to live in a place of opportunity and optimism, not a place of small dreams and scaled-down ambitions.
Californians love their state, but they understand that their home is in deep trouble. They know because they’re confronted by the problems every day.
More than 2.2 million Californians are out of work. Our unemployment rate is at a record-shattering 12.2 percent. And in some parts of the state, things are much worse. In Mendota, unemployment is at 38 percent. In Huron, we’re at almost 35 percent. And parts of Riverside County hover at around 30 percent unemployment.
Think about what that means… Think about the number of heartbreaking conversations that have taken place: Employers telling long-time employees they must go… Husbands telling wives that they can’t afford their homes… Parents telling children their college dreams are over.
For Californians who still have jobs, taxes and fees are eating into their lives. Every year we pay more to sustain an out-of-control state bureaucracy… A wasteful bureaucracy, out of touch with the needs of Californians… And a selfish and arrogant bureaucracy, unwilling to give an inch even in the toughest of economic times.
During the past decade, California ’s government spending has grown by 80 percent, while our bureaucracy has increased by 28 percent. Do you feel like our state is 80 percent better? … Of course it isn’t…
And since 2004, state government has added more than 40,000 employees. This year, at a time of deep recession, when local governments, families and businesses across our state are cutting back, the government of California has actually hired 10,000 more bureaucrats! Is it any wonder that Californians are fed up?
And if unemployment, taxes, fees, and out-of-control spending don’t ruin your day, there’s a good chance you’re very worried about your children’s education.
Too many Californians send their children to broken public schools. Schools where our best teachers lose faith and where union rules give our worst teachers a free pass. Schools where our children fail to learn and where the state’s future diminishes a little more each day. Is it any wonder that Californians are fed up? … Of course not…
Californians have every right to be in a foul mood. Cynicism towards everything Sacramento – towards the politics and the politicians – runs deep. People are tired of the lies. They’re angry at the lack of values and commitment. And they’re worried that if we don’t do something soon, it may just be too late.
I understand those feelings. I’ve lived in California for nearly 28 years. My sons were born here. I built a business here. My husband became a doctor here. I care deeply about this state. And I refuse to accept that California cannot be better than it is today.
I refuse to let California fail. The time has come for all of us to take a stand – to make an all out effort to reclaim the California we love. And that is why today I’m here before you to officially announce my candidacy for governor of the state of California .
Now, for those of you who know me, you know that first I’m a mom. I have two older boys, one’s in college and one just graduated. And I’m happy to report that the college graduate has actually found a job and is paying his own rent!
My husband, Griff, is a neurosurgeon at Stanford. We’ve been married 29 years. And after all those years, he’s still the love of my life, my inspiration… without him I wouldn’t be standing here today.
I’ve spent the past 30 years in business. I’ve worked for such great companies as Procter & Gamble, Disney, Hasbro, Stride Rite, and FTD. I’ve had to be confident, efficient, focused, and accountable.
During the past 10 years, I was the President and CEO of eBay. I built eBay from a 30-person, $4 million dollar company, to a company of 15,000 employees and nearly $8 billion in revenues.
eBay was the culmination of my business career. It’s the place where I tested my years of experience and honed my leadership skills. But it was also much more.
At eBay, I helped millions of people create small businesses in the marketplace. I became intimately familiar with the challenges small businesses face in this country.
I came to understand that job creation is dependent on a fragile mix of circumstances – circumstances all too often disrupted by the intrusive hand of government.
And I came to love the inspired individual – a person set free to pursue his or her dreams by an open marketplace and a free society.
Government does not create wealth in this country – inspired individuals create wealth. Helping those people succeed on eBay was the privilege of a lifetime.
My interest in public service blossomed from my years at eBay. It’s an interest that was fueled by my parents, both of whom served their country in the Pacific during World War II. And it’s an interest that was inspired by my long friendships with Mitt Romney and John McCain.
I am running for governor because California simply cannot continue on the path it’s on. And I want your support because I believe I’m uniquely qualified to help turn our state around.
California is the world’s 8th largest economy. It contributes 13 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product. America ’s future is deeply woven into the fabric of California . And I believe that the outcome of our struggles to govern our state and fix our problems will define America ’s destiny in the 21st century.
California is at a tipping point. Our finances are bankrupt. Much of our society’s infrastructure – the roads, the ports, the water delivery systems – is at the breaking point. Our schools don’t teach our kids. Our taxes force people and businesses to leave the state. And our politics and government are so broken that people wonder whether Californians are even capable of governing themselves.
Now, we can continue down the path we’re on: We can bury our heads and just accept the inevitability of reckless government spending…
We can keep sucking up tax increase after tax increase…
We can pretend that it’s not a big deal when a neighbor we know or a business we depend on moves to another state…
We can ignore the schools, especially if our kids aren’t in them…
And we can blame the whole mess on the politicians and move on.
But if we do that – if we continue down the ugly path we’re on – our children and grandchildren will inherit a much-diminished state… a state with much lowered expectations and limited opportunity…
California will become a symbol not for what’s possible, but for the missed potential of a great people.
I want to take a different approach. I’m a big believer in focus. And I believe the next governor has to focus on three things to save our state. She must create jobs, cut spending, and fix our broken education system.
We could spend hours talking about each of these areas. Instead, what I’ll do now is share the main parts of what I propose to do. I invite you to visit my website at Meg Whitman dot-com for more details.
Since early this year, I’ve been crystal clear that if I’m elected I will look at everything through the lens of job creation. California simply cannot begin to solve its problems until our people are working again. We must put jobs first.
My number one goal as governor will be to help the private sector create at least 2 million jobs for Californians by 2015. This is the amount we need if we’re going to replace the jobs our economy has stopped producing or is losing to neighboring states. It’s the target we need to hit if we’re going to restore prosperity.
The way you create jobs is by lowering taxes and eliminating redundant and ill-conceived regulations that stifle job growth. You have to create an environment where businesses can afford to stay in California and create more jobs.
As governor, I’ll cut taxes to create jobs. … Specifically, I’ll cut taxes on job-creating businesses of every size and implement targeted tax relief to rebuild manufacturing in California . I’ll expand research and development tax credits. I’ll establish tax incentives and credits for companies that train and hire displaced workers.
And I’ll establish a cabinet-level position in my administration dedicated to private sector job growth.
Times have changed and California has to compete for jobs. When I was CEO of eBay, I frequently got calls from governors around the country trying to get me to move business to their states. If I’m elected, you can bet I’ll be burning up the phone lines to businesses in Nevada , Utah , Colorado , Texas , and beyond.
If the burden of taxes and fees in California don’t kill off your business, don’t worry, regulation will.
When I began to tour the state, I expected to get an earful about taxes, and I have. But the passion I’ve seen around government regulation, especially from small business owners, has been just as strong, and with good reason.
For the sake of one cause or another, California has piled mountains of bad regulations on business. We do a lousy job of anticipating the unintended consequences of all those rules. Half the time, we don’t even bother to check whether existing laws address a particular problem. …
You see, bureaucrats rarely have the desire to think things through, and politicians rarely have the courage. And that’s why California ’s regulatory environment is a proven job killer.
I recently visited Teixeira Farms in Santa Maria . Teixeira Farms owns about 4,500 acres in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. They produce huge amounts of broccoli, cabbage, celery, lettuce, and cauliflower. I’m certain you’ve eaten their produce.
Mark Teixeira, general manager of the farm, is a 5th generation California farmer. Mark and his sister, Pam, pride themselves on their family’s history and the fact that they use the latest technology to run their farm.
As I toured the farm with Mark, he explained to me how often government bureaucracy had stifled his intentions to do the right thing, whether it was to create better conditions for his workers, plant new fields, or improve water usage and reclamation.
Mark’s stories are simply remarkable. He told me about government commissions fighting with each other at his expense. About political appointees with no farm experience telling him how to plant his crops. And about smug, government-backed environmentalists telling him that farming destroys the environment and should be restricted. As Mark said to me, “don’t these people eat?”
Now, all this might be frustrating to just Mark and his family, except the same thing is happening across every type of business in California . …
If you elect me, I’ll stop the insanity. On my first day in office, I’ll issue a moratorium on all new regulations until our economy has begun to recover. I’ll initiate a complete review of the state’s existing regulations to root out and eliminate the rules that don’t make sense or are outdated. I’ll appoint people who share my view on regulations. …
And once the economy is stronger, I will require that all new regulations be thoroughly reviewed for their impact on businesses and jobs in our state.
And if I’m elected, I’ll take a careful, thoughtful approach to environmental regulation.
The environment of California is important to all of us. California ’s natural beauty is one of the reasons I love this state so much. And I worry that man has not always been a careful steward of our state’s natural resources.
As governor, I will work hard to protect our environment. But, the needs of our environment have to be balanced with the needs of our people and our economy.
We have unilaterally implemented too many over-reaching environmental regulations – laws that have left us at an economic disadvantage.
AB 32 is a prime example. Governor Schwarzenegger signed this legislation into law in 2006. It’s goal was admirable – to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions. But the consequences to the economy were ignored.
A recent study estimates that AB 32 could cost the state more than a million jobs and implementation costs could exceed $100 billion. That’s devastating.
As governor, I would place a moratorium on AB-32 by executive order, until we fully understand the law’s impact on our economy.
My bottom line is this: I love California ’s environment. But I reject radical environmental policies that do little for the environment and devastate California ’s economic future. … Liberal environmentalists may not like jobs or people, but California needs both.
Now, let’s talk about spending. And honestly, when I talk about spending, I get mad. I simply do not understand how even politicians could have let things get so bad.
It’s really very simple. California cannot spend more money than it takes in. Why is it so hard for politicians to come to terms with this concept? Families get it. Businesses get it. We all get it.
Our problem is not revenue. We collect enough taxes to run this state and then some. Our problem – our addiction – is spending. And it’s an addiction that’s killing us. It is killing our state and it is killing our country.
Simply put, Californians can no longer afford the government they have. The Democrats and special interests can jump up and down all they want and try to convince us that our taxes are reasonable, and that we should all just be grateful to live here. But people know better.
Californians are tapped out. They have no more money to give to Sacramento or Washington for that matter. And Californians are mad. They don’t have the luxury of getting a pay raise whenever they need one. So why does California ’s government get to raise our taxes whenever they want more money?
We need a governor with a spine of steel who will look at the books, decide on priorities, deal with the legislature, and take the heat for what we cut and what we fund. If being popular and getting re-elected is your goal, then being governor is a really bad job-person fit.
As I committed to in February, if elected I will identify and implement at least $15 billion in permanent spending cuts from the state budget. I’ll eliminate redundant and underperforming government agencies and commissions. And I will reduce the state workforce by at least 40,000 employees. That’s a 17 percent reduction that would reset the workforce to 2004-2005 levels and save the state a projected $3.3 billion annually.
But cutting simply isn’t enough. We have to get our heads around the concept that mismanagement and waste in government is sapping precious dollars away from the things we want to do.
Did you know that almost every state worker receives a merit pay increase every year until they reach the top of their pay scale? How can that be? Are your pay raises guaranteed?
With automatic pay increases every year, there is no incentive for state workers to perform, and managing performance is nearly impossible.
As governor, I’ll reform government management. I’ll crack down on the overly generous benefits of state employees. I’m deadly serious about rooting out the waste of tax dollars.
And I am serious about the need for California ’s government to finally enter the 21st century.
Technology and innovation have improved business efficiency and saved companies billions of dollars during the past decade. We need to systematically apply technology to our government agencies, so we can realize the same savings and efficiencies that have helped our overall economy.
Finally, I believe you can only manage what you can measure. I want to start measuring government performance. I will create meaningful performance goals for departments and publish the results on line. I want our government – and your governor – to be held responsible for delivering the services Californians are paying for.
Education must be the third priority for our next governor. And again, the issue here is very simple.
If we don’t rededicate ourselves to education with the same energy Americans have applied to going to the moon and fighting wars, the results will be profound. We will lose our ability to innovate and create the next generation of companies and jobs in California – to create the next eBay, the next Google, or the next Genentech. We will permanently erode California ’s prosperity.
We must start producing more and better-qualified high school graduates – graduates ready for advanced studies or prepared for strong vocational careers.
More than fifty percent of our state budget, or about $50 billion, goes to education, and we are still failing our children. We’re ranked at the bottom in the quality of our K-12 education. In two of the most important skills for elementary school education – math and reading – our state ranks 47th and 48th. In science, we rank 43rd.
The issue is not money. There’s plenty of money. It’s how the money is spent.
If you send me to Sacramento , I’ll put more control in the hands of local educators and parents…
I’ll grade our schools A through F and put the results on line so parents can easily determine how their schools are doing…
I’ll give parents the ability to move their children out of failing schools…
And I’ll remove the state cap on the number of charter schools so we can have more competition in our education system…
I will reform our spending programs so that the people closest to our children – teachers and principals – can make spending decisions that make sense. Right now, too much is decided by bureaucrats in Sacramento …
Finally, I’ll reward outstanding teachers and those in key areas, such as math and science.
My goal is nothing short of bringing California ’s schools back to number one. It’s an audacious goal. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen right away. But it has to happen. The prosperity of California and the strength of our nation depend on our success at reclaiming educational excellence.
As I hope you’ve noticed by now, the theme of my campaign is A New California. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well Californians seem to like the phrase. People will come up to me just to talk about what A New California means to them. And this has been really interesting.
For most of the older Californians I meet, A New California means the California they grew up in… the idealized California of the past… where jobs were plentiful, schools were strong, the roads were new, taxes were under control, and California had its act together. Our state was the envy of the world. Our leaders seemed honest and bold. Things were better, safer, less confused, and more optimistic.
For younger people, the phrase speaks to the future. They talk about how they want things to be. And guess what? They talk about honest and bold leaders. Plentiful jobs. They want strong schools and better roads. They want to be able to afford an education. They love technology and its ability to change things. They want to be optimistic.
Californians young and old want the same thing – they want California to be great again. They want their communities to be strong and safe. They want jobs that pay well and give them a chance to enjoy the American dream. They want government in its proper place.
Californians want to feel opportunity again – the joy of knowing that when they work hard and play by the rules, really terrific things will happen. That the future can always be better than today, and that California ’s best days are ahead, not behind.
I’m asking for your help. I need your support. Restoring California is a daunting challenge. Too much has gone wrong for too long. But there’s so much that can go right.
The potential of our state and her people has never been greater. For generations, Californians have shown that they’re wired for innovation, courage, creativity, and compassion. Our struggles have been the struggles of our nation, and California ’s success has defined the American experience.
If today’s Californians can come together to uproot old habits, old ways of thinking, and old ways of doing business, then we will save the state we love and the country we cherish.
I invite you to join my campaign… I look forward to building A New California with you.
Thank you so much…

A Portrait of Change

President Obama hugged his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, at her December 2003
wedding to Konrad Ng, third from right, in Hawaii.

From left, his daughters, Sasha and Malia; his grandmother Madelyne Dunham, seated; Konrad's parents, Joan and Howard Ng, and brother Perry Ng; and Michelle Obama.

This is an article that was written in January 2009, but it's just now coming to my attention. I'm sharing it in case, you also have not seen it. I absolutely love how it details a deeper significance to the Obama election and presence on the global scene.

His individual life, the history of his and Michelle's ancestry, their genetic coding, and the cultural blending that their sensibilities have made of it all, are symbolique of a truth that most people still do not want to, or know how to accept.

And that is that all human beings of the animal kingdom, are all members of One Family ~ The Human race. The Obama - Robinson household are a living expression of this truth.

And oh, how their individual family histories speak of men and women rich in 'open mindedness', the spirit of adventure, courage, soul-based integrity and spunk. Yes, in these Lifelines exists a practice of listenening to what one's Heart is dictating, and following that lead, even when the societal rules and boundaries appear to put one in conflict with the norm.


We see in the movement of these lives, people establishing high goals for themselves, that are born out of their dreams. We see people doing their part, giving 100% of their best effort, so that as the wave of their destiny sweeps in and lifts them up in it's crest, they are able to stand up, and "Walk the Board", and majestically surf the seas of great opportunity.


These people are having fun. I repeat. They are having fun.
Their lives continue to be as good as they are because they Listen Internally. They Listen and follow their Hearts deliberations.

Not caring what society, family members, religions, the media, academics, psychologists, etc. are saying. They have found that Inner Voice that exists within us all, loving us more than all of those listed above. And from that Inner grounding, they move forward, wholesomely, and joyfully into greater fulfillment.

Ooh! I want more of that as my Life's expression!!! Some years ago, I made a prayer that I wanted to see, and find love (Good) in 'New places and new faces'. Reading this article has refreshed my committment to continue to call this into my existence.

My only prayer, is that as the President, Barack Obama, continues his way of deep mindfulness, with his ear turned inward.

I hope that he is stubborn to the cries for political expediency and compromise that dilute the objective. I hope he is not moved by the catcalls and slings of the opposition and those from his own cabinent and party. It's sad to see the Democrats, again, disappoint us with their preferences for the status quo.



The continued appeasement of the inorganic, morally bankrupt, decrepit and defunct values, imposed by a few and programmed into Western culture is what has weakened and destroyed the fiber of America's coat (image) here and abroad.

Too long She has swaggered through the halls of decisions, a 'glamourous' glib, forked tongued Diva in swapmeet garments, gaudy (bling) fake jewels and Walmart shoes. Here She comes, with nothing of true quality from, on, or about Her. But roll out the red carpet, flatter and kiss Her flabby ass, and do Her bidding (that is unless you're Israel), because if you piss Her off, She's got warehouses of Weapons of Mass Destruction ready to launch. And until recently, there were fools at the trigger button.

Completely concerned with material wealth and PROFIT and the quickest way to accumulate it, this culture has lost sight of the primary importance of those intangible aspects of Life, that are nourishing, and lasting. And the way this culture makes choices and it's sense of judgement has lost all credibility. Mother Nature Herself, has proven that case, and condemned the planet for the offenses.

In a thoughtful moment last week, it came to me that for my satisfaction, President Obama does not need to make decisions that will insure him another 4 years.

I just want him to 'Do The Right Thing', in each moment of these four.
Kentke

In First Family, a Nation's Many Faces

January 21, 2009

By JODI KANTOR

WASHINGTON - The president's elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk,
a mark of power at home in Kenya . Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where
the first lady's great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family
came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King's Birthday.
The president and first lady's siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American
half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with
a white wife.

When President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an
extended clan that would have shocked past generations of Americans and instantly redrew
the image of a first family for future ones.

As they convened to take their family's final step in its journey from Africa and into the
White House, the group seemed as if it had stepped out of the pages of Mr. Obama's
memoir - no longer the disparate kin of a young man wondering how he fit in, but the
embodiment of a new president's promise of change.

For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling
families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks
almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in
the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and
Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese;
German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases
of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and
some - like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and
running water in her metal-roofed shack - are quite poor.

"Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don't think it's new in terms of the
country," Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president's younger half-sister, said last week. "I don't
think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country."
Though the world is recognizing the inauguration of the first African-American president,
the story is a more complex narrative, about immigration, social mobility and the desegregation of one of the last divided institutions in American life: the family. It is a tale of self-determination, full of refusals to follow the tracks laid by history or religion or parentage.

Mr. Obama follows the second President Bush, who had a presidential son's self-assured
grip on power. Aside from a top-quality education, the new president came to politics with none of his predecessor's advantages: no famous last name, no deep-pocketed parents to finance early forays into politics and, in fact, not much of a father at all. So Mr. Obama built his political career from scratch, with best-selling books and long-shot runs for office, leaving his relatives astonished at where he has brought them.

"It is so mind-boggling that there is a black president," Craig Robinson, Mrs. Obama's brother,
said in an interview. "Then you layer on top of it that I am related to him? And then you layer
on top of that that it's my brother-in-law? That is so overwhelming, I can't hardly think about it."

Though Mr. Obama is the son of a black Kenyan, he has some conventionally presidential roots on his white mother's side: abolitionists who, according to family legend, were chased out of Missouri , a slave state; Midwesterners who weathered the Depression; even a handful of distant ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. (Ever since he became a United States senator, the Sons of the American Revolution has tried to recruit him. )

But far less has been known about Mrs. Obama's roots - even by the first lady herself.
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, "it was sort of passed-down folklore that
so-and-so was related to so-and-so and their mother and father was a slave," Mr. Robinson
said.

Drawing on old census data, family records and interviews, it is clear that Mrs. Obama is
indeed the descendant of slaves and a daughter of the Great Migration, the mass movement
of African-Americans northward in the first half of the 20th century in search of opportunity.
Mrs. Obama's family found it, but not without outsize measures of adversity and
disappointment along the way.

Tracing Family Roots




Only five generations ago, the first lady's great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was born
a slave on Friendfield Plantation in Georgetown , S.C. , where he almost certainly drained
swamps, harvested rice and was buried in an unmarked grave. As a child, Mrs. Obama used
to visit her Georgetown relatives, but she only learned during the campaign that her forebears
had been enslaved in the same town where she and her cousins had played.


According to Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist who has uncovered the roots of many political figures, Mrs. Obama has ancestors with similar backgrounds across the South. The public
records they left behind give only the briefest glimpses of their lives:

Fanny Laws Humphrey, one of Mrs. Obama's great-great-grandmothers, was a cook in Birmingham , Ala. , born before the end of the Civil War.

Another set of great-great-grandparents, Mary and Nelson Moten, seem to have left Kentucky for Chicago in the early 1860s, a hint they might have been free before the end of the Civil War.

And in 1910, some of Mrs. Obama's ancestors are listed in a census as mulatto, adding some support to family whispers of a white ancestor.


The jobs that her relatives held in the early 20th century - domestic servant, coal sorter, dressmaker - suggest an escape from sharecropping, the system that trapped many former slaves and their children in penury for generations.


Still, the family's progress has a two steps forward, one step back quality. Jim Robinson was
born into slavery, but his son, Fraser, ran a lunch truck in Georgetown . In turn, his son, Fraser Jr., struck out for Chicago in search of something better. But he was unable to find work, and left his wife and children for 14 years, according to his son Nomenee Robinson.

As a result, Mrs. Obama's father was on welfare as a boy and started working on a milk
truck at 11. After serving in the Army in World War II and finally securing a job as a postal clerk, Fraser Robinson Jr. rejoined his family. He was so thrifty that he would bring home
chemicals to do the family dry cleaning in the bathtub.


But his son - Mrs. Obama's father, Fraser Robinson III - became overwhelmed with debt and dropped out of college after a year. He worked in a city boiler room for the rest of his life, helping to send his four younger siblings to college, then his two children, Mrs. Obama and her brother, to Princeton .


Classroom Values


For all of the vast differences in the Obama and Robinson histories, a few common threads
run through. Education is one of them. As a young man, Mr. Obama's father herded goats, then won a scholarship to study in the Kenyan capital. When Mr. Obama lived in Indonesia
as a child, his mother woke him up for at 4 a.m. for English lessons; meanwhile, in Chicago, Mrs. Obama's mother was bringing home math and reading workbooks so her children would always be a few lessons ahead in school.

Only through education, generations of Robinsons taught their children, would they ever
succeed in a racist society, relatives said. "My mother would say, 'When you acquire
knowledge, you acquire something no one could take away from you,' " Craig Robinson said.
The families also share a kind of adventurous self-determination. In the standard telling, the
Obama side is the one that bent the rules of geography and ethnicity.


Yet the first lady's family, the supposed South Side traditionalists, includes several members who literally or figuratively ventured far from home. Nomenee Robinson was an early participant in the Peace Corps, serving in India for two years; later, he moved to Nigeria , where he met his wife; the couple now live in Chicago . Capers Funnye Jr., a cousin of Mrs. Obama's and a rabbi, was brought up in the black church, he said, but as a young man, he felt a calling to Judaism he could not ignore.

In daring cross-cultural leaps, no figure quite matches Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro,
Mr. Obama's mother. As a university student in Honolulu, she hung out at the East-West
Center, a cultural exchange organization, meeting two successive husbands there:
Barack Obama, an economics student from Kenya, and later, Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian.

Decades later, her daughter Maya Soetoro was picking up fliers at the same
East-West Center when she noticed Konrad Ng, a Chinese-Canadian student, now
her husband.

Now the Obama-Robinson family's move to the White House seems like a symbolic end
point for the once-firm idea that people of different backgrounds should not date, marry
or bear children. In Mr. Obama's lifetime, racial intermarriage not only became legal
everywhere in the United States , but has started to flourish.

As many as a quarter of white Americans and nearly half of black Americans belong to a multiracial family, estimates Joshua R. Goldstein of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Diversity inside families, said Michael J. Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Stanford University, is "the most interesting kind of diversity there is, because it brings people together cheek by jowl in a way that they never were before."

"There's nothing as powerful as family relationships," Mr. Rosenfeld said, "and that's why
interracial marriage was illegal for so long in the U.S. "

Initially, some of the unions in the Obama family caused consternation. "What can you say when your son announces he's going to marry a Mzungu?" said Sarah Obama in an interview, using the Swahili term for "white person." But it was too late, she said, because the couple was deeply in love.

Now, the relatives say, their family feels natural and right to them, that they think of each
other as individuals, not as members of groups. Ms. Soetoro-Ng said she was not "the
Indonesian sister," but just Maya.

A Special Reunion

On Monday, some of Mr. Obama's Kenyan relatives milled around the lobby of the
Mayflower Hotel here, their colorful headscarves earning them more curious glances than
even the sports and pop music stars in the room. Zeituni Onyango, the president's aunt,
explained that their family had always been able to absorb newcomers.

Pointing out that her male relatives used to take on multiple wives, she said, "My daddy said anyone coming into my family is my family." (Ms. Onyango, who lives in Boston , recently
faced deportation charges, but those orders have been stayed and she is pursuing a
green card.)


At holidays and celebrations, "you get a whole lot of people who are happy to be around
family," Craig Robinson said. "They happen to be from different cultures, but the common
thing is that they are all family."


"Like the inauguration, those celebrations draw on a happy mishmash of traditions and
histories. Take the Obamas' 1992 wedding, which included Kenyan family in traditional
dress, a cloth-binding ceremony in which the bride and groom's hands were symbolically
tied, and blues, jazz and classical music at the reception (held at a cultural center that was
once a country club where black and Jewish Chicagoans were denied admission).



White House events may now take on some of the same feel. Four years ago, when the
family descended on Washington for Mr. Obama's Senate swearing-in, Mr. Ng strolled
over to the White House gates and took a picture of his then-infant daughter,
Suhaila - "gentle" in Swahili - sleeping in her stroller.


Days before leaving Hawaii for the inauguration, Mr. Ng stared at the picture and wondered
how much had changed since it was taken. After Tuesday's ceremony, he said, "folks like
me will have a chance to be on the other side."

Disgraceful - What

Scroll all the way to the bottom for ~


A couple of great examples of what MONEY or TALENT can't buy you ~

Class, Grace, Good Character and Love

Posted on 11. Sep, 2009

Various news sources are reporting that a Wells Fargo & Co. Executive banker moved into a lavish $12 million Malibu beach home, shortly after it was foreclosed on.

The executive in question is reportedly Cheronda Guyton. Click here to see a photo image of Cheronda Guyton, formerly Cheronda P. Brown.

http://topgoogletrends.netcashdaily.net/cheronda-guyton-photos-and-pictures

Ms. Guyton who is a Los Angeles based Wells Fargo executive is responsible for the Foreclosed Commercial Properties Division.

It is said that the home’s previous owners were forced to hand the property back to the bank, after losing much of their wealth in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Cheronda Guyton is accused of throwing galas and other extravagant parties in the house. The owners signed an agreement that required Wells Fargo to keep the house off the market for a while.

Cheronda Guyton’s Resume reads~

Senior Vice PresidentWells Fargo Bank
1992 — Present (17 years)
Head of Commercial ORE

Cheronda Guyton’s Education
USC MBA , 1994 — 1996
Emory University, 1987 — 1991

Special thanks to “Bubba Dubya” who found the picture of Cheronda Guyton.

Kanye West Taylor Swift VMA 2009

Kanye West MTV Outburst –

Kanye West made a fool of himself again by running up on the stage and interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech during Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards by saying:

“I’m really happy for you. I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”
He later apologized by writing on his blog:

His Grace Blesses our World ~ Mandela at 91 ~July 18th, 2009

South Africa Former President Nelson Mandela celebrates his 91st birthday in Houghton, Johannesburg. Mandela, South Africa's first black president, celebrated his 91st birthday with the launch of a special day for good deeds to be done in his name.

(AFP/HO/Debbie Yazbek)

Nelson Mandela launches a global tradition I hope will live forever in celebration of his birthdate.

To honor him, for his ninty first birthday, his world wide admirers were encouraged to give one minute for each of the sixty-seven years he spent in prison, in volunteer service on July 18th.

A volunteer, right, leads children from the Children of Fire organisation as they sing 'Happy Birthday' for former President Nelson Mandela at their shelter, in Johannesburg, Saturday July 18, 2009. Mandela called on people to donate time (67 minutes) to good causes in celebration of his 91st birthday. Mandela spent 67 years fighting apartheid in South Africa. The Children of Fire cares for children who have been injured and disfigured by fire.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

A volunteer, right, helps a child translate a braille birthday greeting for former President Nelson Mandela at the Children of Fire organisation shelter, in Johannesburg, Saturday July 18, 2009. Mandela called on people to donate time (67 minutes) to good causes in celebration of his 91st birthday. Mandela spent 67 years fighting apartheid in South Africa. The Children of Fire organisation cares for children who have been injured and disfigured by fire.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Volunteers exercise rescued dogs at the Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW), on the edge of Soweto, Saturday Saturday July 18, 2009. Former South African president Nelson Mandela called on people to donate time (67 minutes) to good causes in celebration of his 91st birthday. Mandela spent 67 years fighting apartheid in South Africa.(AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Volunteers load apples for redistribution to programs serving hungry families as part of Mandela Day in New York. Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, celebrated his 91st birthday with the launch of a special day for good deeds to be done in his name.(AFP/File/Don Emmert)

More Lessons from The Nature at It's Best File~

“These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned. Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.”

“Noah is a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon/rock dove that is in the rehab center. Noah kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in—even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.”

”Then suddenly, there were only two bunnies in the cage. To everyone’s surprise there was the tiny bunny under Noah’s wing sound asleep! That little bunny rabbit had crawled through the cage, preferring a featherbed!”

When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak! It is a beautiful and amazing thing to see.”

“Now, they are all together and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah’s feathers, he carefully extends his wings out to surround them and then they snuggle.

Condi Gets a Namesake!

....Or...Would it be a Namesnake?

A couple in Beirut, who have no children but are living happily with their 13 snakes in a two-room apartment east of Beirut, have named one of their snakes 'Condoleezza' in a tribute to former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, seen here in January 2009.

(AFP/File/Mark Ralston)

Sibling rivalry at it's best! A Lesson from the Pros

I love Venus' last statement about her sister, in the article below~

Sept. 2008 at the U. S. Open

Serena Williams Wins Wimbledon 2009

Serena Williams serves during her victory over her sister Venus in the Wimbledon final.

Williams beats her defending champion sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2 to win her first singles Wimbledon title in six years.

By Chuck Culpepper 8:55 AM PDT, July 4, 2009

Reporting from Wimbledon, England --

Heightening a second, separate phase of Grand Slam dominance in a long and still-burgeoning career, Serena Williams won Wimbledon today and completed a Serena Near-Slam.Six years after she held all four Grand Slam titles at age 21 and fully six years after her previous singles Wimbledon title, Williams holds three of the four most coveted prizes -- and almost the fourth -- after defeating her two-time defending champion sister Venus 7-6 (3), 6-2, on a sunny, blustery day on Centre Court.

Her third Wimbledon title and 11th Grand Slam title came an hour and 27 minutes into a quirky match with funny bounces and inconvenienced service tosses, when a fourth match point found Venus ripping a backhand into the net. As Serena prepared to answer from behind the baseline, she instead fell to her knees and bent over backward in the elation of a wait curtailed, before rising to run up and hug her older sister.



"I feel like I shouldn't be holding the trophy," Serena said on court afterward in an allusion to her sister's five-title dominance here, yet her intent across the last 12 months has suggested otherwise.

Wimbledon 2008

Ever since a loss to Venus in the 2008 final left her reeling, she has blasted to a U.S. Open title, an Australian Open title and a Wimbledon title in which she became only the second player in the Open Era (after Venus) to win after running across a match point, the one she dug out in a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 semifinal win over Elena Dementieva. She also came within shots here and there of surpassing a French Open quarterfinal with Svetlana Kuznetsova that would have left Serena a favorite to win the title from there.

Venus wins the Wimbledon crown in 2008

Yet as Serena found her sister in a second straight Wimbledon final and fourth overall, she found a player whose tear through the tournament had been so sublime that it had extended her consecutive-sets run to 34. In a semifinal on Thursday, Venus roared through Dinara Safina in the most lopsided win over a No. 1 player, according to WTA Tour records, requiring only 51 minutes.


After 51 minutes today , Venus found herself embroiled in a first-set tiebreaker with an opponent considerably upgraded from the thicket against Dementieva, and one who beat Venus in two tiebreakers to win a stirring U.S. Open quarterfinal last September. Adding to her usual role of big-point prowess, Serena played exceptionally well in the tiebreaker, dominating most points and winning on a backhand lob that curled across the court and smacked down in the corner.


It ranked among the 25 winners Serena hit to Venus' 14 to go with the unexpected 12-2 edge in aces, plus the winning of 31 of 33 first-serve points.


"She had an answer for everything," Venus said on court afterward.

Williams sisters take opposite routes to Wimbledon final rematch

Reporting from Wimbledon, England --

With stunning precision and the gutsy survival of imprecision, respectively, Venus and Serena Williams roared into another all-Williams Wimbledon final today in semifinals that awed the Centre Court crowd for contrasting reasons.

Where Serena Williams fought through the longest women's semifinal since pros began playing at Wimbledon in her 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 marvel against Elena Dementieva, Venus Williams blasted through the most one-sided women's semifinal in 40 years in her 6-1, 6-0 demolition of No. 1 Dinara Safina.

"I have so much experience on this court," Venus said, a matter that will extend on Saturday when she plays her eighth Wimbledon final against her younger sister's fifth in their fourth final together and second in a row.

Her semifinal with Safina took 51 brisk minutes and featured such ferocious accuracy that Venus wound up with the dreamy ratio of 16 winners to one unforced error. She extended her consecutive-match win streak at Wimbledon to 20 and her consecutive-set streak to 34, just six behind the 40 Martina Navratilova strung together between the 1982 final and the 1985 final.

When Safina's last hopeless return plunked into the net, Venus pumped her left fist gently and trotted to the net, her understated demeanor reflecting the severity of the romp. She had spent most of her afternoon not playing but watching her sister's 2-hour, 49-minute tussle with the upgraded, 27-year-old Dementieva, the Beijing Olympic champion.

Said Venus to the BBC immediately thereafter, "To watch all that drama was so difficult."

`The Williams Way' still rules Wimbledon

By Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
Updated: 06/30/2009 11:47:41 PM PDT

WIMBLEDON, England -

Her 19th consecutive victory at the All England Club already wrapped up, Venus Williams grabbed a seat and watched younger sister Serena win easily to reach the semifinals, too.
Afterward, Venus and Mom, Oracene Price, strolled out of Centre Court arm-in-arm, chatting and laughing.

Sure is fun to be a Williams at Wimbledon.

Five-time champion Venus beat No.11-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, 6-1, 6-2, before two-time champion Serena defeated No. 8 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, 6-2, 6-3, a pair of overwhelming performances in 90-degree heat Tuesday that moved the siblings closer to another all-in-the-family final at Wimbledon.

"They are both playing super-well. They're playing `The Williams Way,"' said their father, Richard Williams, who kick-started their careers in Compton. "And when you're playing `The Williams Way,' it's very difficult for anyone to touch you."

Particularly at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament, where a Williams has won seven of the past nine championships.

If No.3 Venus gets by No.1 Dinara Safina of Russia in Thursday's semifinals, and No.2 Serena eliminates No.4 Elena Dementieva of Russia, the siblings would meet Saturday in their second consecutive final at the All England Club and fourth overall.

It also would be the eighth all-Williams Grand Slam championship match; Serena leads, 5-2.

"I would love it to be a Williams final," Venus said, "and so would she."

They are competitors, of course, but also form a team in many ways: The sisters are sharing a house during this tournament, practice with each other and have reached the women's doubles quarterfinals together.

"We've got it all figured out at this point," Venus said.

She is trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three consecutive Wimbledon titles; Serena wants to add to the trophies she earned in 2002-03 by beating her sister in the finals.

At least one person has no doubt there will be a rematch Saturday.

"It will be. I'll go home because I can't watch," their father said. "I think they both definitely make it to the final."

Be Creative Genius, Be A Big Giver, Be Kindness...like Michael Jackson

An idea by singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte turned into a moving force of united world consciousness and generosity when

45 major stars of the music world recorded "We are the World", raising over 50 million dollars for famine relief in Africa. The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

Dear Beloved Friend,

It is with respect, love and appreciation for you that I write these words.

I have been sharing with you from whatever wisdom and insight that Spirit bestows thru me for many years. Often times you have expressed your gratitude for how some word, suggestion, idea or concept that flowed thru me expanded your understanding, perspective and brought clarity.

In honesty, I was quite disturbed by the email that you sent to me, and your other friends. It makes me wonder if you hold on to, and build upon the wisdom Spirit has sent? This even includes the content of the most recent book we discussed, The Prospering Power of Love?

Can I ask you a few questions?

First, didn't you used to go to O.C. Smith's church? And I think that I recall, that you liked that church very much. Am I correct?
If so, do you think, that the message you sent, is something that would have come out of his pulpit? In this time and moment, would he have preached such a message to his congregation?

Second, I'm just wondering....in your Heart of Hearts, what was the message you were intending us to get from the email? I do not mean what the words of the email stated. I mean, what is the message that you were sending to us?

Although the subject reads 'Interesting', I disagree that what's presented is interesting. There are other words I would use to describe the material presented, but interesting is not one of them.

Third, are you asserting that Michael Jackson did not have a faith or belief in God?

One thing I believe, is that no death is Untimely. I believe that everything operates from the Divine Right Order of the Cosmic Mind (some call God). So ~If there is only the Divine Presence as All Powerful, whatever time anything happens is in Divine Right Order.

Of course, this is not always something that we wish to accept. Loosing the presence of a Life that we love and are used to having around us, is very hard. And yes, people have their own idea of 'what is the right time', according to how we want Life to proceed.

That Michael Jackson, who had a full life, with rich giving and receiving, ups and downs --- far beyond what any of us could accurately imagine ---has ended his time on the Earthly plane at the age of 50 ---is not untimely. In his 50 years, he experienced a fullness of existence far beyond the total that 100 peoples' lives, could have amounted to.

Some might say for you to call his death untimely is to blasphemy God who called him.....

My Grandmother taught me, that if you can not say something nice, do not say anything at all. It's a tender time in the Heart of our Planet right now. Many souls are leaving that have had an impact upon the lives of the masses.

The radiance of Love is what we need right now. It's a good time to be quiet, and thoughtful....to let Kindness spread. For if nothing else, Michael Jackson was a very kind soul. This is evidenced in his way of speaking about others, and his tremendous generosity.

Christianity is one of those world religions that has a very nasty arrogance that would judge others, from their sense of Righteousness. Christians assume this 'right' based on the Bible. Muslims, use the Koran, and Jews, the Torah.

However, in all of my reading, I can't recall instances where Jesus, the person himself, had this very unattractive habit or nature. He offered people 'more life', but he did not threaten, disdain, judge, condemn and label nor ostracize them if they chose, not to accept it.

Let us all be gentle with one another in these days. And even more so with the departed. None of us is in any position to judge anyone or their life. The very man that called for the creation and printing of your Bible, King James I, was himself an open homosexual and bisexual.

Click here: to read a quick biography about 'Queen James' as he was known as the King of England. http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/king-james.html
I also include a quote he made, that would have had him dying a horrible and 'untimely death' as the email states. It is very close to some of the statements in your email:

King James was quoted as saying, "Monarchy is the greatest thing on earth. Kings are rightly called gods since just like God they have power of life and death over all their subjects in all things. They are accountable to God only ... so it is a crime for anyone to argue about what a king can do."

Your signature reads, 'Believing God's best for you". Couldn't God's best also mean that when one receives messages that are unwholesome, instead of Forwarding it, we have the right to delete it? To send them back into the void, the nothingness of cyberspace, leaving room in our InBoxes, just for those messages that feed us and nurture God's Best and Highest thinking within us?

Loving and praising your sweet Heart~
Kentke