THANK YOU! Firefighters!!

View of a Ferry Being Refurbished

Boarding the Ferry to Bainbridge Island, in the Puget Sound http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/ There is a huge ferry transit system that can take you to many islands around the area, and even to Victoria and Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada.

Jaime and I try to head up to Seattle each Spring, to attend two wonderful festivals happening there. THe first is the Northwest Folklife Festival, a huge festival of music and dance from around the world http://www.nwfolklife.org/ The second, is the Seattle International Film Festival http://www.siff.net Since we can't afford to tour the world, it is a way to take the tour in our imagination, supplemented with Seattle's wonderful mix of ethnic restaurants!

Normally Seattle is known for cloudy and rainy weather. But on this trip, the weather was incredibly beautiful, and it was the first time in 30 years that the four days of the folklife festival were all sunny! We enjoyed it, but couldn't help think that it might be the result of global climate change, and what effect it might have on the incredible Olympic Peninsula Rainforests

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Reading an interesting article in Rolling Stone Magazine, about global warming and the upcoming United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen, which starts in early December, by Naomi Klein http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/30841581/climate_rage

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On Thanksgiving day, I was sitting in a cafe, reading the BBC News online, and was shocked to find a story about a long time online friend. I first met Negar, from Iran, on orkut, a social networking website, about ten years ago. She is a wonderful, compassionate woman. She had mentioned a group that she was a part of, the Raelians, but I never really paid it much attention. But living in Iran, and declaring herself to be an atheist, got her into trouble. And taking part in the big pro-democracy demonstrations, probably did not help her stance with the government. Recently, she had to flee the country, as she was about to be charged with apostacy, a very serious crime there, considered 'anti-Islamic'. She went to Turkey, but was arrested for entering illegally, and is now in a Turkish jail. Since Turkey has an extradition treaty with Iran, they normally send prisoners back there. We are hoping they will make an exception, due to religious persecution. She was hoping to make it to Europe, and apply for amnesty. If you have a few spare moments, if you could sign a petition asking Turkey to release her, it would really be appreciated: http://www.petitiononline.com/negar/
You can read more about her case at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8381385.stm and
http://finance.alphatrade.com/story/2009-11-28/CNW/200911281214CANADANWCANADAPR_C6032.html

Thanks for reading this!

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