International campaign for the conservation of the cork oak plantations. I had no idea how cork was harvested. It turns out it's an intriguing process. Naturlink tells you more about it; this is a site that's mainly in Portuguese, but there's English, of course, or I couldn't read it. Anyway, not only interesting info, it offers a clickable thingie that ... well... vocabulary is failing me. Just check it out.

Fer example, thar's some funny stuff here (at the Anita Roddick site): Wit and Wisdom from Donald Rumsfeld. One quote: "I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think and I assume it's what I said." Another: "We do know of certain knowledge that [Osama bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

Funny... I never heard of this person, then when I did "blog this!", suddenly the following appeared, kinda answering my question: Welcome to AnitaRoddick.com by Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop. Well, I don't know what The Body Shop is about... I keep thinking 'Bath & Body Works' but that's not it.... But I like the site. Political stuff, yeah, but also ... the whole 'beauty' smeauty cultural hoo-ha.

No political talk from me at the moment.... Just a link to a good article: Boston Globe Online / Editorials | Opinions / America as lone ranger

I'm very intrigued by old alphabets. A few months ago, I did a lot of research on runes. I didn't even realize that there was a runic alphabet, with different variations through time and in different regions. I don't have any of those links close at hand, but here's some stuff on the Hebrew alphabet: Summary–The Ten Alef-Beit (Alphabet) Significances.

A cool book to check out is "Magical Alphabets" by Nigel Pennick (ISBN 0877287473). The cover says: "The Secrets and Significance of Ancient Scripts—Including Runes, Greek, Ogham, Hebrew and Alchemical Alphabets."

The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph/Alef. Its 'everyday meaning' is 'cattle'.... strangely enough (or not so strangely :), the first letter of the Runic alphabet (Elder Futhark version) is Fehu, meaning 'cattle.' Cool, huh?!

Hebrew alphabet.... 1st letter Alef, 2nd letter Beit.... so the alphabet is referred to as the Alef-Beit. Runic alphabets referred to as Futharks.... from first 6 letters: F(fehu)U(ur)TH(thorn)A(ansur)R(rad)K(ken).

Wow. This is interesting.... Every day of the year is represented by 3 letters–one letter each for the season, month, and day of the week. Check this out for what letters are used for season/month/day and why. Interesting stuff.... Hebrew Letter of the Day - Sefer Yetzirah

You've been trying to remember the Hebrew Alphabet.... You've been frustrated that you can only remember a few of the letters and that you can't remember how to properly write the letters that you *do* remember. Oh. Wait. Is that just me? Sorry.... I'm not just weird... I also took 2 semesters of Hebrew in college.... This place'll help you remember what I forgot: Akhlah: Learn the Aleph-Bet - The Hebrew Alphabet. You can also learn the Hebrew months (which get tossed into crossword puzzles from time to time) and other stuff.