Pete Klein's Blog

Humans are defined by torture

2012-01-29T07:12:00.000-08:00

What makes humans different from other animals?

We like to pride ourselves on our superior intelligence. I think, therefore I am. Nice try but I think I may have discovered what truly makes us different and the picture isn't very pretty.

We are the animal that tortures. We torture in many different ways. It's not just waterboarding, electric shock, blow torches and on and on and on.

We have what we call the criminal justice system where we lock people up for years and years, sometimes for life.

We multiply laws so that we have more opportunities to torture people, always for their own good and ours.

Other animals will kill, almost always in self defense, to win a mate or, most commonly, to have something to eat. But we humans have come up with many more reasons to not just kill but to torture. You hear phrases such as, "Killing is too good for them."

We excuse the torture we do, saying we do it for a higher purpose. We want to protect "society," save souls, promote moral behavior, balance the scales of justice, etc.

And not only do we do this, we use the criminal justice system to do the dirty work we are afraid to do ourselves and with good reason. We want to wash our hands of the dirty work because we don't want to find ourselves subject to the criminal justic system.

The religions of the world are partners in torture. Good people go to Heaven. Bad people are torutured forever in Hell. And let's not forget the days of the numerous inqusitions when the Church actively tortured people for their own good to save their "immortal souls." Did you know waterboarding was one of the prime tortures used during the inquisitions?

Yes, humans are profoundly different from other animals but often not in ways there is anything to be proud about.

Long life

2011-12-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

On the public radio program On Point today, the talk was about the possibilities of people living for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
I only heard a few minutes because of work but that was enough to remind me once again about how stupid smart people can be.
Here we are today in a world with a human population that is probably double of what it should be if you just happen to care about the health of the planet. And let us not forget that the marvels of modern medicine are pretty much limited to a person's ability to pay for the marvels of modern medicine.
Obviously, I am firmly against any and all research to prolong human life beyond what it now is. And this is not to say I wish death upon anyone. Rather, it is to say I do appreciate life with all its complexities and view death as one of its most needed components.
Death is a mechanism for change, for growth and evolution. We seem to recognize this fact when it comes to products bought and sold but have a hard time recognizing this when it comes to humans. Oh, sure there are some we are happy to see die, such as a Hitler. But would be satisfied with drawing the line with only the most unsavory of characters? Would we soon find ourselves deciding who gets to live a long, long time and executing the less desirable? And who determines who is less desirable?
But perhaps the more important question should be - would an exceedingly long life diminish the wonder and value of life? Already it seems the vast number of humans is reducing the value of a human life. You doubt that? Okay. How much are you willing to be taxed to house the homeless, feed and educate the poor? Face it. There is an economic consideration.
And what about the children? Would children become the enemy of a growing older population. Have children already become the enemy?
Sometimes you get what you ask for and then find out what you wanted and got is holy hell.

The American People

2011-12-19T06:52:00.000-08:00

Listening to the news this morning, I once again heard some politician say, "The American people."

It should be a federal offense for any politician to use that phrase.

First of all, Americans are a very diverse group. There is no consenses about anything. Politicians claim a landslide victory if they get over 51% of the vote and they make that claim in spite of the fact that many who cloud vote don't vote.

Let's face it. Our politicians are clueless. Much of this is due to them being among the top 5% and some even belong to the 1%. They live in a different world and so don't know much about "the American people."

I don't claim to know what the American people think. Hell, I'm not always all that certain about what I think. I've been know to flip alot on issues but I haven't done much flopping back to where I flipped from. I do know people change and I think that is a good thing. If you still have the same opinions you had when you were ten, I can only guess you haven't lived much and certainly haven't thought much.

The American people. I can't say I know the American people even though I am one and have know quite a few. Each and everyone is different in some ways and alike in others. I kind of like it that way. I know they are American people because they look human, walk and talk like humans, and live here.

I guess politicians are American people too for the reasons stated above but I really hate it when they claim to know me when most of them haven't even met me to ask for my vote.

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Philosophy: What's in a Blog?

2011-12-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Philosophy: What's in a Blog?

You can reduce the debt

2011-11-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

I'll bet you didn't know but when JFK was president, he introduced a little known program that provides a way for anyone to help lower our nations debt. You might say the idea was to help individuals respond to his challenge, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
The challenge and the opportunity can be found at Treasury Direct
There you can find a link to donate any amount online or by mail.

Tax me, please!

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here in NYS, like many other states, the cry is no new taxes and cut the budget. The Governor doesn't want to extend the so called millionaires tax but wants to cut the budget.
Talk about being courageous!
Being someone who doesn't want to pick on anyone, I have a plan. Rather than pick on the millionaires, why not raise taxes on everyone?
We have become a nation of selfish cowards. We thank those in the military for their service but don't join. We want our roads and bridges to be safe, our nation defended and our children educated but we would rather not pay for any of it.
The Greatest Generation paid for what we have (and are now losing) with their blood, sweat, tears and higher taxes.
Shouldn't our country mean more to us? Shouldn't we step up and be counted by doing more than shouting, "We're number one!"?

Ebook prices lowered

2011-11-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

INDIAN LAKE, NY, November 15, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ravenwolf Publishing has expanded the formats available for its four books, with all books available and ready to ship in time for the Holidays:

Books available include: The Dancing Valkyrie, The Vampire Valkyrie, the second and newly revised edition of Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County, plus the recently published Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute.
The sale of ebooks now tops sales for paperbacks, due largely to the popularity of the Kindle readers from Amazon and the Nook readers at Barnes & Noble.

In the spirit of the gift giving holidays and in anticipation of the third book in the vampire series, And God Created Vampires, all four ebooks are now priced below the $5 mark.

"The Dancing Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1440432198 | ISBN-13: 9781440432194) begins and ends in the Adirondacks of northern New York. It is the story of a young woman who is an erotic dancer at a topless club in Schenectady, NY, who becomes a vampire while on a hike in the wilds of the Adirondacks. The novel follows her rapid acclimation into being what she was born to be - a vampire with a lust for both blood and sex, and draws to a conclusion when she meets with a vampire who lives to kill other vampires - and whose name is Van Helsing.

"The Vampire Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1452877793 | ISBN-13: 9781452877792) continues the tale of the vampire Mary Hoffman, a.k.a. Erica, the Dancing Valkyrie, who fights to protect her erotic dance club and her girls from mobsters who want to control her and her club - or kill her if she resists.
A Schenectady City Councilwoman wants to pass legislation to close down or strictly limit the operation of adult businesses, an a upstate crime boss wants control of Mary and her club and a New York City crime family seeks to discredit the upstate crime boss through Mary and her club. Many people die, both the innocent and the guilty, as a result of Mary's determination to save herself, her girls and her club, while wondering if she should stop being involved with humans and just kill all who infringe upon her freedoms as a vampire.

"Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" (ISBN: 1453608141 | ISBN-13: 9781453608142) is the first published hiking guide aimed only at trails and attractions in Hamilton County, NY.
In addition to being a trail guide, the book offers tips on many outdoor activities, state campgrounds, local chambers of commerce and who to call in an emergency.

"Confession of an Online Male Prostitute" (ISBN: 145374245X | ISBN-13: 9781453742457) is about a middle aged married man whose sex life with his wife has been absent for a number of years. Yearning for some sex but not willing to go to bars or pay for some mutual fun and not yet willing to divorce his wife, he decides the Internet is the safe way to go and works up the nerve to see if he can get anyone to pay him to take off his clothes and perform what amounts to an online peep show. One day, one of his male clients asks him to exchange emails to talk and maybe meet. He agrees even though he doesn't consider himself gay. He does because he has unresolved, suppressed issues from his distant past and tells himself this may be a way to see and resolve those issues.

All the books are now available in print and Ebook formats from Amazon in its Kindle edition and Barnes & Noble in its Nook edition.

Pete Klein, author of the books who is now working to complete his third vampire book, And God Created Vampires, says, "Publishing is rapidly changing. Readers expect a variety of ways to access the written word. This is why I have chosen to make my books available in a variety of formats. The Ebook format is the least expensive way for readers to purchase my books. For myself, I prefer to read a printed bound book but have read several Ebooks and just figure there are many out there who like to read but want to save money during these troubled economic times. Ebooks can be quickly downloaded, either to a reading device or on the computer. Not only are the ebooks less expensive than the print versions. The ebook reader also saves on postage and the time it takes to receive a printed copy."

And God Created Vampires is currently scheduled for publication in late December or early January.

Website: http://www.petekleinvampires.com/

Buffalo Springfield - For What Its Worth (good sound quality!)

2011-10-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

Jobs and Jobs

2011-10-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Jobs, Jobs. Every time you buy something you help to create jobs. Every time you sell something you help create jobs. Nothing happens until something is sold.
You can make something but until you or someone else sells it, nothing happens unless you purchased products to make what you made. In other words, trade is the grease for jobs.
I mention this because all the talk about creating jobs is darn near next to meaningless unless there is a demand for a product. We seem to be caught in a debate over which comes first, the chicken or the egg. But if there were not a demand for either the chicken or the egg, or no one had the money to buy either product, it wouldn't really matter.
When I was in sales, my employer told me to sell the sizzle, not the steak. With the recent death of Steve Jobs, I was reminded of those words of wisdom because Steve Jobs was excellent at selling the sizzle. We always buy the dream, or at least as much of it as we can afford.
Maybe we just need to dream again because if you dream, you usually are willing to make the sacrifice needed to achieve it. If you don't dream, nothing happens.

Expanding Universe

2011-10-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was reported that three U.S.-born scientists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for their research on the expansion of the universe.
This is all very well and good but it seems to me the scientists are making the same mistake made by many theologians.
The mistake is thinking (presuming) nothing came before this Universe.
As I imagine it, this Universe is but the latest in an infinite number of universes that came before it and the infinite number of universes that will follow it.
The scientists pretty much agree with the Big Bang theory but see the expanding universe expanding forever. Here I disagree.
I propose that what is happening is very similar to the reclining 8 figure used to indicate infinity. Laying the lazy 8's side by side, you will see expansion followed by contraction to expand again. Imagine the breathing process. Exhale and Inhale, almost like the breath of God and you needn't believe in God to understand the process.
Maybe we could call this the Diaphragm Theory which could include the Big Bang Theory. This would also include the theory that matter is neither created nor destroyed as long as one understands that matter and energy are one and the same thing in but different forms, similar to the many forms of water - vapor, water, ice, snow.
We may and probably never will know the truth because we are within an evolutionary system and are unable to see outside of it - the Universe, the universe we are now in. But I do believe it is highly presumptuous of us to think nothing came before or will come after us and this particular universe.
As with the Big Bang theory, the Diaphragm theory neither proves nor disproves the existence of a Creator God.

Pete Klein interviewed on vampire books.

2011-09-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

Learn about Pete Klein and his vampire books.

Check out this link to read and maybe make comments or ask questions.
The link is: http://www.brendawoodystevetindle.yolasite.com/author-interviews/au...
Below is the actual interview done by Brenda Woody and Steve Tindle.
Author Interview - Peter KleinPosted by Brenda Woody on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Today and Thursday we welcome Peter Klein to our blog. Peter (Pete as he is called by friends) is a reporter by day and author by night. He is currently writing his third installment to the Valkyrie series. Vampires; his passion to write about. But his stories are very different and as you read on you'll see why.
I (Brenda) met Pete Klein through Freado.com. I won one of his books in a bid and Pete emailed me an ebook format. In return I gave him a review and posted where I could to help promo his book. My review is below. I found his email very friendly and quickly added him as a friend on Facebook, and of course asked if he would do an interview on our blog. He agreed and Wow what an interview this is. I know now why I'm drawn to him as a fellow author and glad he is an online friend.
So grab your favorite beverage, get comfy and enjoy our latest interview on our blog.
Brenda & Steve: Pete welcome to our blog! We are so excited you could join us. When did you first decide to submit your work to be published? Please, tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step.Peter: I have a long-time friend dating back to when we were in our 20’s who eventually became the owner of a major NY literary agency. She has encouraged me for many years and has on several occasions tried to find a traditional publisher for me. A few years back, knowing I wasn’t getting any younger and knowing that it can take years to find a publisher and even more time before the publisher finally prints the book, I asked her if she would mind me going the self-publishing route. With her blessings and me not getting any younger, that is what I have done.Brenda & Steve: I (Brenda) had the pleasure of reading Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute and submitted a review. We viewed your new book trailer. Wow, it was good! You now have released two installments from your Vampire Valkyrie series. Please tell a little about the series and when the books were released.Peter: The first, “The Dancing Valkyrie” was first published by Lulu in 2005. The second, “The Vampire Valkyrie” was published by Lulu in 2008. In 2010, I switched both books to be published by CreateSpace for cost reasons and because Amazon has always accounted for most sales anyway.I have had a long time interest in vampires, going back to when I was in the seventh or eighth grade and saw the original Dracula movie. Since my grandparents were born in Romania, I asked my grandmother if there was any truth to the stories. “Foolish superstition,” was her answer. But my interest continued over the years, last renewed by the Rice stories.Along the way, in both books and movies, I found myself objecting to two ideas running through all of the various stories, both centered on the idea of vampires being evil.One question I dared ask was, “Why is it not okay for vampire to kill people while it’s perfectly alright for people to kill vampires?” The second was more of a decision than a question. I came to conclude that if there were vampires, they would be natural creatures that have eluded discovery and confirmation by humans.

Brenda & Steve: Do you plan all your characters out before you start a story or do they develop as you write?
Peter: I view much of my writing as reporting (my day and night job that pays most of my bills). By that I mean I start the action and report on what my imagination sees as scenes unfold. There is an inevitability to life. One domino falls, then another and another. Characters are interesting. Sometimes they do the damnedest things but I let them go ahead and do it as long as it makes sense for them.
Brenda & Steve: How much research do you do for your books? Have you found any cool tidbits in your research?
Peter: Since most of my stories take place in locations I know, that isn’t a problem. If going out of the area, I use the Internet to get the feel of a place. The Internet saves on trips to the library.
Brenda & Steve: True with the price of gas these days. What is your writing process? Do you outline, write by the seat of your pants (Pantser) or a combination of both?
Peter: Seat of the pants and then it’s time to rewrite, review and edit. I’m guessing here but I think most writers wish they did more editing after the book comes out and you see mistakes you shouldn’t have made. I shrug and figure the same is true for any art form. You always think you could have done better. But as the old saying goes, “You either fish or cut bait.”
Brenda & Steve: Do you write full time? What did you do before you became a writer or still do?
Peter: As I alluded, I am a full time writer because I am a reporter for a weekly newspaper. That I have been doing for about 10 years now. Before that I have been a blacksmith, manager, cleaner and repairman at a small summer resort, an automotive parts salesman, have worked in a bank and did a short stint as a stock clerk on Wall Street. The oddest job I ever had was building church bulletin boards in a small shop in lower Manhattan. I also served as a corpsman in the Navy.
Brenda & Steve: Do you have a ritual when it comes to writing? Example….get coffee, blanket, paper, pen, laptop and a comfy place.Peter: Writing always begins with a blank page. It’s you against nothing. Coffee and cigarettes are my vices. The coffee goes cold and the cigarettes go out until I light them again and again. My cigarettes go out because I roll my own and the tobacco doesn’t have the chemicals in it that makes manufactured cigarettes burn without any help from you.I like the blank page, paper or computer screen, because it is so much like the real world in that you don’t know what will happen next until it happens. Life is more about reacting than it is about acting with any forethought.Brenda & Steve: Describe a typical writing day for you.Peter: Again, my typical day is mostly about going to meetings and then writing about the meetings I attend. Most meetings are at night, sometimes both day and night. On the days when I don’t have a meeting, I write the story about the meetings I have attended. My writing, the writing we are talking about here, is sandwiched in whenever I get the chance and am not too tired from doing the newspaper thing.I think I am like most writers who haven’t hit it big and wish that day would happen so I could quit my day job and just write what I want to write.Having said that, I do believe I am fortunate in the sense that I do make a living from writing and the newspaper writing has provided me with some training in how best to use words to make a point.
Brenda & Steve: Please give us a sneak peek at any of your future books.
Peter: I hope to finish and publish my third vampire novel before the end of the year. I’ll give away the title. Don’t anyone dare try to steal it or I’ll send my vampires after you. The drop dead title is – “And God Created Vampires”.I believe this title gets at what I have been trying to get at from the start. If there were vampires, they would be like all of the other major predators we fear in that they have the ability to kill us without regard. They will kill if attacked and they will kill if they happen to need our blood.I haven’t decided on what to write next. I have toyed with the idea of writing something more “realistic,” such as my view of what the 60’s in New York was really like. How could I not look back on a time when I was younger and could rent an apartment for only $40 per month.
Brenda & Steve: Now for the fun question! For the last three months, you have worked as a volunteer on NASA’s ongoing mission exploring other solar systems. You found a new planet which is habitable! How exciting! What would you name the planet? And give us a little description of the planet as seen through the telescope.Peter: Interesting! Just for fun, you say. How about Eden? How about a second chance to not screw up the second time around? How about if we insisted on screwing up by eating the forbidden fruit again, the next time we choose to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life instead of from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.As far as the planet goes, I imagine it would be much like Earth in its general appearance. Of course there would be some variations. Just look at all the variations of plants and animals on Earth. The experience could be compared to the variations one will see right here going from North America to Africa. Just look at the variations you see just going from San Diego to Yosemite – all in the state of California!
Brenda & Steve: Great answer! Tree of Life - *pondering if we would want to live forever* Probably. LOL Is there anything else you would like to tell the readers we have not touched on?
Peter: Yes. Never give up the ship of writing. Do it because you love it, not because you expect it will provide you with fame and fortune. Realize you are competing with millions of writer and even more millions of books. You are a needle in the haystack but so is everyone else.In addition to being a writer, I also review some books. Most of the books I have read by unknown authors are good and some of them I have liked better than those on the best seller lists. There is something known as the fickle finger of fate. It is real. Personally, I prefer writing to reading. But we writers do do both. For me it’s the words that get me. Words have a power. Were it not for words, we would not be able to think. Think about it! Without words you would be nothing more than a mass of emotions, only reacting to pain and pleasure. It is the spoken and written word that makes it possible for us to think. Once you accept the power of words and come to understand how they can trick and deceive you, you will realize all words have pain and pleasure as their foundation.This was fun. Thank you for the opportunity to play with words.
Pete, thank you again for visiting with us and the awesome answers. It's been fun!
Readers, Pete has graciously agreed to give away signed copies of both of his Valkyrie books to one lucky commenter. Yuppers! So please, please be sure to leave your email address in your comment to make it easier for us to contact the winner. Pete will then email the winner for your snail mail address.

Blog - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction

2011-09-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Blog - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction
Pete Klein interviewed at Pete Klein's Vampires

Author Interview - Peter Klein

2011-09-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

Author Interview - Peter Klein
Author Pete Klein interviewed by Brenda Woody and Steve Tindle.
Stop by a comment or ask a question.

Turn off. Tune out. Drop in to reality.

2011-09-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you are not too young, you might have heard of Timothy Leary who was semi famous back in the 60's and said, "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out."
That was before + 200 channels on the TV, the Internet, cell phones, Twitter, etc, etc.
Today the slogan might better be, "Turn off. Tune out. Drop in to reality."
As we become more and more connected and interconnected, it can be difficult to have any time for ourselves and those we say we love. Awash in a turbulent sea of "information" it can get to feeling like we are drowning in sea of words with out any real meaning.
When asked what he was reading, Hamlet said, "Words." There are times when I a lover of words feel words are all I am reading and hearing. They may be as different as snowflakes but who notices the difference in snowflakes when caught in a blizzard?
Dropping into reality? How is that possible?
I would like to suggest the following as a way to possibly answer the question.
We live on the Earth but live in many different worlds. Think of the Earth as the bottom line reality. The Earth, you might say, is the reality of flesh and blood, skin and bone. It is the physical reality that has its causes and effects no one can escape.
The reality of the World, on the other hand, is a total fantasy we ourselves construct or allow ourselves to endorse to varying degrees. Think of it this way. If you were up on a space craft orbiting the Earth, we would not be able to see religions,political parties, governments or any of the inventions of our minds. They exist only because we say they exist. This is not to say they do not have real consequences upon our physical reality. But it is to say they do so only because we collectively allow them to do so.
Of course it is impossible to totally dismiss these fantasy worlds we have created or have been created for us. But we do have the ability to see them for what they are. We should be able to notice the emperor is not wearing any clothes and thus, hopefully, step to the side and smile, and maybe get out of the way before our true identity is crushed under the weight of fantasy.

Global warming = next Ice Age?

2011-08-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Global warming = the next Ice Age?
The question is not quite as dumb as it sounds. Here's why.
For glaciation to take place you need more snow to fall in the winter than melts in the summer.
For snow you need an source of open water.
Antarctica is blessed, so to speak, by being a land mass surrounded by an ample source of open water. The Arctic, on the other hand, is an ocean surrounded by land.
A good example of the effect of open water as it relates to heavy snowfall, you need only look at what happens along the eastern shores of the Great Lakes before the lakes cool and begin to freeze. What you get are snowstorms and snowfall totals that equal what takes place in the Rocky Mountains. But as the lake cool and begin to freeze, the snow storm diminish.
There is evidence that during the last Ice Age the Arctic was largely ice free. This seems logical since you need open water to make the snow that makes the glaciers.
So maybe those who like to worry should worry that Global Warming could result in the next Ice Age.
One thing is certain. Weather/Climate tends to change and the longer it gets stuck in a pattern, the more sudden and extreme the change. Here too the tendency to sudden change is shown in how the last Ice Age abruptly ended when the Earth's climate suddenly warmed well above what we are now experiencing.
Go figure.

And God Created Vampires show 2 08/18 by Pete Klein | Blog Talk Radio

2011-08-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

And God Created Vampires show 2 08/18 by Pete Klein | Blog Talk Radio
Reading today at 4 pm EST

An inconvenient truth

2011-08-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

No, this is not about global warming, although I will mention it later on down. It's about jobs and the economy.
What is not mentioned or I have not seen mentioned is how we are entering a period where all bets are off and none of the solutions from the past will fix what is obviously broken.
There are two problems, chickens coming home to roost so to speak, that started about 100 years ago and they are automation and population growth.
Both served us well until about 50 years ago but both are now threatening to sink the ship the middle class hoped to ride forever.
First, automation made it possible for us to make more things better and faster. Better and faster is now accelerating rapidly, thanks in large measure to computers and the Internet. Just about every job including blue collar and white collar requires fewer workers to produce more and more.
While fewer and fewer people are needed to make a product or provide a service, continued population growth means more and more people are finding themselves unemployed or underemployed. Business just doesn't need them. No one wants to say that.
The only solution as I see it is to at the very least put a stop to population growth. We don't need more hands on deck when the ship is fully automated.
I realize this solution which should be obvious will be met with great opposition from government, business and just about every religion.
Government wants more and more tax payers. Business wants more and more consumers and religions want more and more souls to save. But surely we are more than just tax payers, consumers and souls to be saved. Or are we?
So just for fun, let's return to Global Warming.
Even here if you want to be honest, the number one problem is more and more people consuming more and more of the Earth's natural resources, more and more people demanding more and more energy for both necessities and luxuries. More efficient this that and the other thing - yes - and more environmentally friendly ways to produce power, also yes. But the human population is growing faster than are the environmentally friendly ways to produce power. Even if that need were met, you still have the problem of the diminishing need for workers to produce the products. So your high unemployment problem will continue to get worse.
I believe we are on a collusion course with ourselves. We are becoming like lemmings and are our own worst enemy. We are playing the fiddle while we destroy the only Earth we have.

Star Gazzing

2011-08-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

I have a question and it's not about movie stars. It's about all that twinkling stuff we see when we look at the night time sky.
I was watching something on TV about worm holes and the speed of light, and began to wonder if anyone really knows what they are talking about.
Experts say that when we look at distant stars thousands and millions of light years away, we are looking into the past. This seems logical at first glance but then my mind began to wonder if we might be missing something here.
Here's why. If we look up at the stars from the northern hemisphere we see one group of stars. If we look up from the southern hemisphere we see a different group of stars. Okay, not a problem. There is more that can be seen from any one vantage point. But here is where my devious mind asks a question. From a certain vantage point should we be able to see nothing where the future should be? Or, to look at it in a slightly different way, is it possible some of the stars we see are actually many, many years in the future and we are seeing them from the past???
I think these are valid questions when you consider how we humans think. We have a tendency to think everything is about us. Once upon a time we thought the Earth was flat because that was the way it seemed to us. We thought the Sun went around the Earth because that was the way it looked to us. We believed what we believed because we were unable to see the big picture.
Now throw in the idea of the Big Bang. Did it explode out in all directions or did it explode only forward like a shotgun blast? If it were an explosion like a bomb, where are we in relationship to the point of explosion? If it were more like a shotgun blast, where are we in relationship to forward and sideward trajectory?
So my question is this. Has anywone heard of any scientist addressing these questions? Do we have any idea where we are in relationship to both time and space?

Grover Norquist - the Anti-Christ?

2011-07-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

While no one likes to pay taxes and most of us would prefer not to have to pay any taxes at all, taxes are needed to provide governmental services we all use and need.
We may argue over what services are needed and in deed we do. But to swear not to raise taxes no matter what strikes me as the act of a child who argues with a parent in the store.
In the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, instituted by Grover Norquist, candidates and incumbents solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases. To solemnly pledge to anything other than the Constitution of the United States is childish at best and is dangerous to the continued existence of the United States at worst.
Norquist has been quoted as saying, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Since I doubt he is talking about Canada, I must presume he would like to drown and kill off the United States.
Here is a man who comes from wealth, was Harvard educated for whatever that is worth, who has never been elected to anything, serves on numerous boards but has never had a real job, and who has become the Pied Piper of the extreme right wing of the Republican Part. Not elected to anything, he demands complete obedience to his no new taxes dogma.
Now the future of the United States is at risk. The budget does need to be controlled, expenses must be curtailed and most importantly, we must not default on our debt. To avoid default (defaulting on the full faith and credit of the United States) taxes may need to be raised. To refuse to raise taxes no matter what may in fact be crossing the line between patriot and traitor.
Reason needs to prevail over blind obedience to dogma and ideology.

Do gays really want to get married?

2011-06-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Do gays and lesbians really want to get married?
I ask the question because of the following I read on another blog. Anonymous asks, "Homosexual couples don’t realize how good they have it right now. They are free to live their lives as they pleas at the present. It is utterly baffling why anyone would encourage government intrusion into their lives. Lets face it, the issue of gay marriage benefits women, not men. How does that joke go? What does a lesbian bring to a first date? A suitcase. The second date? A turkey baster. Women desire long-term monogamous relationships. Men don’t. If this passes gay men in this state are about to be monumentally hosed. Remember, with gay marriage comes gay alimony!"
As the poster suggests, even among homosexuals there is a difference between men and women when it comes to sex.
On average, I would say, the main reason most men want to get married is for what they hope will be guaranteed sex. This is not to say women don't want sex. It is just to say most women want more guarantees, such as children and a father who sticks around to help raise the children.
So maybe the question should be - is the push by gays for marriage more about the legal advantages of being married, such as tax status, medical insurance and end of life decisions, than having much to do about about sex?
Let's be real. One thing shared by heterosexuals and homosexuals is engaging in promiscuous sexual activity whether married or not.
When gays and lesbians say they just want to get married because they are in love, I wonder. I wonder because I know many if not all men will tell a woman they love her for no other reason than they want sex with her. This leads me to believe using love as the reason why gays and lesbians argue for marriage equality is a bit of a red herring.
I'm not opposed to the idea. I guess what I would prefer is civil unions for all for the legal reasons. Then leave it up to the various religions and the people themselves to call it whatever they want.

Why I write about vampires

2011-06-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Why I write the way I write about vampires.
One of my reasons for writing my vampire stories is that too many of the vampires in the fiction of recent years have become wimpy. They are always complaining about being a vampire. They apologize for being a vampire. They look for ways to control their need for blood and look for substitutes that don't cause the death of humans.
Sure, some of them are blood thursty but these are portrayed as the "bad vampires."
When I set out to write about vampires, first with The Dancing Valkyrie, then with The Vampire Valkyrie, I wanted my vampires to be deadly without any remorse. This led me to create vampires who were essentially natural creatures who would be capable of living amongst humans both by day and by night, creatures who were not demons and were no more condemned than lions and tigers.
These ideas were long in the works and were the result of trying to understand some of the quirks of humans. We humans have a tendency to believe everything is about us. We're number one. Nothing in creation is equal in value to us. Everything here is here just for us. This attitude allows us kill and destroy anything when ever it suits our purpose and the purpose is often for our economic benefit. This attitude at its extreme allows us to view other humans, such as humans of differing races, creeds, sexs and sexual orientation as somehow less than human and thus candidates to be abused and even killed. You see this attitude played out everyday throughout the world.
These ideas with relation to vampires began for me with Dracula. I saw a disconnect in how it was okay for humans to kill vampires but it wasn't okay for vampires to kill humans. This attitude is clearly seen when it comes to humans and other natural predators. It's okay for humans to kill every other animal on earth for food or for sport but it is not okay for animals to kill other animals for food, especially not okay to compete with humans when it comes to hunting wild animals humans want to kill.
The final piece of the puzzle I found was when I came up with the idea that if in fact there were vampires, than these vampire would be flesh and blood creatures created by God - not some demon - for whatever reason God might have to create vampires. My vampires would be the ultimate predator, not bound by any human morality. I never had any problem with accepting this idea because as I look at all of creation, the most obvious thing I see is variety. Apparently, God has no liking for sameness. God is God. God is not a human. As God as said to have said to Job, "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways." We like to say that God made us in his image and likeness when the truth of the matter is that we have made God in our own image and likeness because we are so full of ourselves.
Thus my vampires - created by God for whatever reason God might decide to create vampires. If you think vampires are too strange to exist and be created by God, then why would God have ever created dinosaurs?

NYS sends tax dollars to out of state corp.

2011-05-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

NYS sends tax dollars to out of state corp.

The NYS Department of Health (DOH) is asking county legislators to take a ten minute survey by phone, conducted by RTI International, asking them and the director of health in each county to determine their views on regulating tobacco product advertising in the retail environment.
The letter was sent to “New York Community leaders” on May 9 by Harlan Juster, Director of Tobacco Surveillance, Evaluation and Research at the DOH.
Our community leaders are promised their responses will be kept “completely confidential” and as an added bonus and in an effort to get them to take the survey, “RTI will make a $25 donation to the charity of your choice.”
RTI maintains headquarters in North Carolina and seven regional offices in the United States, non of which are located in NYS.
This survey might be interesting if it were more inclusive and asked the leaders of our communities how they feel about the advertising and display of gambling, beer and condoms in the retail environment but that is not the case.
In a Sunday, May 22, editorial by the Plattsburgh Press Republican has some advice for the Akwesasne Mohawks: diversify the reservation economy.
The editorial says: “We aren't judging the morality issues involved in the heavy dependence on gaming and cigarette revenue. This is a business issue, and the economy would be stronger if the tribe had more major income producers to provide income and jobs.”
If the PPR is not judging morality issues, then why even bring it up?
Major income producers?
Maybe because when it comes to morality issues, truth be told, NYS gains the most in profit from tobacco products and gambling? NYS is the biggest of Big Tobacco and the number one advertiser of gambling.
Think about it. Your tax dollars are going out of state to help the state regulate you.

Indian Lake, NY, Pete Klein, Hamilton County Author, Is Now Available For Book Signing and Readings of His Books: The Horror Novels and Adirondack Hiking Guide

2011-05-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Indian Lake, NY, Pete Klein, Hamilton County Author, Is Now Available For Book Signing and Readings of His Books: The Horror Novels and Adirondack Hiking Guide

Help end the suffering of bears in New York State

2011-05-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

Help end the suffering of bears in New York State

Vampire T-shirts

2011-05-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

This probably won't go anywhere but I have added something called "CafePress Shop" to my web page petekleinvampires. In it are some T-shirts and coffee mugs imprinted with "Warning, protected by a vampire" and "I love Pete Klein's vampires.
This mostly for fun but maybe I'll sell enough to cover what I end up buying.
Now it's back to writing my third vampire book that I hope to finish before the end of summer.

Writers of fiction and venttiloquists

2011-05-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I draw the connection between writers of fiction and ventriloquists because I believe both do what they do for a similar reason. Both get to say and do things through their characters that they would be unlikely to say or do in their real life.
The thought crossed my mind when listen to Bob Edwards of NPR talk with Mark Goffman, about his documentary DUMBSTRUCK, which is about the trials and tribulation of 5 ventriloquists.
During the interview, it was said ventriloquists say things through their puppets they wouldn't have the nerve to say without their puppets. I think this is true for many writers.
Cases in point, my vampire novels, The Dancing Valkyrie and The Vampire Valkyrie, and especially in my novella, The Confession of an Online Male Prostitute.
Over the years I have come to wonder about how most people have no problem reading a book or watching a movie that has graphic scenes of violence and murder. No problem. They don't become disgusted. But tell a story in print or on film that has graphic scenes of gay and lesbian sex and many say, "I can't read or watch that filth."
It doesn't stop there with declarations of disgust. While few if any wonder if you might be a murder because you write about murders, many will question your sexual orientation if you write about gays or lesbians in graphic detail.
Does it matter to me what people think of me because of what I write? My honest answer is both yes and no.
It matters primarily because I don't believe it should matter. To me, it would make more sense to worry about any potential I might have to be a murderer than it would make sense to wonder if I might be gay.
It doesn't matter because I deeply believe all of us have within us the potential to be all things we would like to be and all things we hope we will never be. You know the phrase - "There but for the grace of God go I."
While I guess I'm safe writing about vampires because we all know vampires don't really exist - we hope. But when it comes to gays and lesbians, we know they do exists. So why take the chance and write about them with explicit scenes of them having sex? Simply put: all sex is fantasy.
It has been said and I believe it is true that the main sexual organ is the brain. It can imagine anything. Obviously, you can imagine vampires which don't exist. Why the fear in imagining what two men or two women can and do do in a sexual situation? What they do is basically what men and women do when the clothes come off and they are alone together. If the brain doesn't put up any stumbling blocks for the body to respond, the body will simply respond to the touch of another person, be that person of the opposite sex or the same sex.
If we can understand this and can appreciate the very basic human need to be close to another human being, we can begin to understand the why and the how of two men or two women engaging in sexual intimacy.
I have known at least one man, maybe more without my knowledge, who wanted to be intimate with me. The one I know for certain was one whom I loved in a platonic way but rejected at the sexual level. Because I rejected him and thus hurt him, I felt somewhat guilty over having hurt someone who loved me and whom I loved. Was I wrong to reject the desires of his love? I think not. It would have been wrong to pretend to feel what I didn't feel. But that is the nature of intimacy. You can't fake it. If you try, you do so at risk to yourself and the other. It's either there or it isn't. It is for this reason I believe it is wrong to act with disgust towards those who find the intimacy we all need but find it with a person of the same sex. It is for this reason that I write about people, humans and vampires, who find sexual intimacy with someone of the same sex. I guess I just want to experience what I can't experience in my personal life and rejected when the opportunity was there many years ago.

Remembering Pebbles

2011-05-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I brought home the ashes of my friend, Pebbles, a Springer Spaniel whose only fault was laying down in spots where she blocked you from walking. She always trusted me and anyone to step over her without stepping on here.
She turned 15 years old in April and died on the May 5.
She had been in decent health until around April 30 when she rapidly began to lose interest in her food. This was something she did from time to time, so for the first few days I didn't give it much thought.
As the week progressed, her interest in food continued to drop until she stopped eating on May 4. All she wanted to do was sleep.
When I got up on Thursday morning, I saw Pebbles had an accident in the house, something she never did. I cleaned up after her and then cleaned her up. She could stand and walk if I encouraged her but by then her breathing was labored.
Maybe the vet could have saved her. I don't know and I know I'll wonder for as long as I live if I should have asked the vet to do whatever to save her, instead of asking the vet to put her to sleep.
It didn't take long. I was there on the floor with her while the injection was given. In less than a minute she was gone and we were alone on the cold floor.
People ask when/if I'll get another dog. I don't know. I do know that no dog can replace her. She was with me longer than any of the dogs I have had since I was a very young boy and I do feel a avoid but not for a dog. The void is for her.
I guess the best way to describe what I'm feeling is that you can't replace a living being that you loved and who loved you. You might find another to love but that will be a new love, not a replacement. This holds true for dogs as well as humans.
I hope all dogs go to Heaven, just as I hope all people go to Heaven. I hope but I don't know. And considering how I feel about Pebbles - trusting and loving and putting up with me - I don't think I want there to be a Heaven unless there is a Heaven for all God's creatures.

Save our schools

2011-04-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here in Hamilton County, NY, the situation is serious but the problems here exist throughout the USA as property taxes rise and our beloved elected officials seek to save us by attacking education.

The future of Hamilton County NY

Does Hamilton County have a future? Does anyone care?
Recent population figures, based upon the 2010 census are scary to say the least. According to those figures, the year-round population fell by 543 residents, from 5,379 in 2000 to 4,836 in 2010.If that drop were to continue at the same rate over the next ten years, the population could fall to under 4,000. But maybe more.
Maybe much more if something isn’t done to save our schools.
While many in local government seem to direct most of their concern at how much land is owned by the state, none have raised any concern about the future of our schools.
You hear talk about how important it is to save hunting camps and a couple of jobs in the forestry industry while at the same time you hear nothing from them about saving the jobs of those who teach our children nor do they say anything about the needs of our children for a quality education?
Do they care? Does everyone wish the schools with the teachers and the kids would just go away so that the school tax would just disappear with them?
But what if that wish were to come true? Then what? Would the parents of school age children be willing to see their kids bused to a distant school, one that could be 50 or more miles away.
Do you really think they would stay? Do you think anyone with children would ever considering moving to a county that didn’t have quality schools reasonably near to where they live?
These questions need to be addressed and answered because if they are not answered, there is no future for Hamilton County.
Parents with children will move out. Parents who have children will not move in. The population would nose dive far below 4,000. It would become a death spiral. State, county and town jobs would go begging as more and more families left. Businesses both profit and not for profit would close as their workers left. Even the part-time and seasonal residents would begin to leave as businesses closed, government services found it impossible to provided expected services with a shortage of workers and the all volunteer ambulance and fire departments failed to provide their emergency services because their volunteers were also part of the exodus.
This could happen if there is not a revamp in the priorities of our citizens and those we elect to provide the services we require.

Pro-Death

2011-03-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

No, this is not about the Death Penalty but is a play on words.
Abortion is closer to what I am thinking about.
We have our Pro-Life people and we have our Pro-Choice people. Whose side you might be on is not of my interest. Nor am I thinking about assisted suicide, although that is closer to what I would like to write about here.
I suppose under normal circumstances on a day to day basis we all like to live and wish to continue to do so. But have you ever thought about how death is an important component of life, how for there to be life there must also be death?
A simple example of what I mean is food. You need to eat in order to live. Everything you eat is something that once lived. This includes plants as well as animals.
If no one died, how long would it be before the planet was overcrowded to the point where there was no room for plants and other animals to feed us? How long would it be before the planet was so trashed that we decided life wasn't worth living?
Life is valuable only because of death. Death clears out the old to make way for the new. Without death, we would need to stop procreating. Without death, everything would become older and older and older.
Yes, do live. But do understand death is not the enemy of life. It is but life's partner in the creation of new life.

Ten years after

2011-03-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

I know it's not quite 10 years after 9/11 but it is beginning to seem longer than that.
Terrorism and terrorists seem so yesterday and I think this is true also for most Muslims.
Things are rapidly changing throughout the World, including in the Muslim countries. With little or no help from us, unless you include Social Networks and the Internet, Muslims are tired of the same old same old and are demanding more freedom.
For far too long the only requirement the US government demanded for a Muslim country to be our "Friend" was that they talked tough on terrorism. It didn't matter if they were dictators who oppressed their people. All that mattered was that they say that they stood with us on the War on Terrorism.
This approach needs to stop.
Yes, I fully realize that our ideas of freedom and Muslim ideas on freedom are not exactly the same. But stop and think for a moment how even in this country, the USA, ideas on freedom are often hotly debated. Think of abortion and gay marriage as just two of the many freedom issues we fight about. Disagreeing is just part of being free.
Radical nuts and religious extremests are in our own country and in every part of the world. The time to recognize this and act accordingly has come.
We need to support people throughout the World who rise up against dictators, be those dictators or friend or foe.
We should never have crawled into bed with these dictators, sending them military goodies to suppress there people.

How small we are

2011-02-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

We humans like to think our of ourselves as special. Some of us even like to think we are made in the image and likeness of God.

There was a time when humans thought the Sun revolved around the Earth. Now, most of us know better

But still, how many humans continue to think all of creation is just about them. They view creation as but a stage to act out a morality play to decided who gets to go to Heaven and who is condemned to Hell. It’s all about us, so they say.

I wonder how they view the latest scientific information on the size of the Universe. How do they react to the estimate that there are 50 billion planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way? How do they react to the estimate that of those 50 billion planets in our galaxy, as many as 500 million might be able to support life?

But it doesn’t stop there. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is but one galaxy in a Universe containing as many as 100 billion galaxies and maybe even more! Would they accept these scientific estimates and rejoice at the power and glory of the God they claim to believe in or would they reject them out of fear that God’s interest in creating goes far beyond them and their pride filled self importance?

Amazon.com: The Vampire Valkyrie (9781452877792): Peter Klein: Books

2011-02-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com: The Vampire Valkyrie (9781452877792): Peter Klein: Books

Watson is stupid

2011-02-17T17:59:00.000-08:00

The IBM computer Watson is much in the news because it won on Jeopardy. Now all the talk is about how smart and intelligent it is. Actually, folks, Watson is stupid. It has no intelligence whatsoever. It is very good at computing but this is because it is a computer, not a brain.
What's the difference?
Well, to start with, I am sure you know some people you would call intelligent but would never call smart.
See, you just thought of someone who fits the bill.
Do you remember the Star Trek episode - THE RETURN OF THE ACORNS - where Kirk defeats a superior computer by finding a bug in its program that had gone unnoticed for hundreds of years. As with all superior computers, as soon as its program enters an infinite loop, it immediately starts smoking and shooting off sparks until it explodes.
But on a more basic level of intelligence, is there any computer smart enough to escape a burning building on its own?
The same can be said of smart phones which aren't even as intelligent as Watson.
So let's cut the nonsense and stop calling cell phones and computers as something that is smart. They are dumber than a worm that at least has enough sense to go above ground when rain threatens to drown it in its hole.

Technological singularity

2011-02-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

This week Time magazine focuses on Singularity, a hypothetical event occurring when technological progress becomes so rapid that it makes the future after the singularity qualitatively different and harder to predict. Many of the most recognized writers on the singularity, such as Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil, define the concept in terms of the technological creation of superintelligence, and allege that a post-singularity world would be unpredictable to humans due to an inability of human beings to imagine the intentions or capabilities of superintelligent entities. Some writers use "the singularity" in a broader way to refer to any radical changes in our society brought about by new technologies such as molecular nanotechnology,although Vinge and other prominent writers specifically state that without superintelligence, such changes would not qualify as a true singularity. Many writers also tie the singularity to observations of exponential growth in various technologies (with Moore's Law being the most prominent example), using such observations as a basis for predicting that the singularity is likely to happen sometime around 2045.
What I found disturbing about the article was the glorification of intelligence without one word about the value of emotions.
We humans are quite proud of our intelligence and point to it as what makes us better than other animals. While I don't have a problem with our intelligence, I strongly believe our emotions are what truly make us human.
It is our ability to love and hate, hope and fear that shape and define us. If all we were was intelligent, we would be no more than a machine - a smart phone or a super smart computer.
Yet these people who are pushing for their singularity dream seem to have a goal where humans would stop being human and become more like powerful computers with human bodies to move them around. Not once in the article is sex mentioned. I guess sex is just too damned human and results in irrational behavior. While this is true, sex is often the foundation for love and compassion, and who among us would trade off sex and love for more intelligence.
Just remember, while money cannot buy love, neither can intelligence buy love. Money can't buy happiness and neither can intelligence. Both are tools. Neither should be elevated to the position of a god because both are false gods.
If this push to achieve singularity continues, we may need to push back to preserve our humanity.

Indian Givers in the Adirondacks

2011-02-14T05:46:00.000-08:00

The phrase "Indian Giver" is often thought to be a slur upon Native Americans but if you give any thought to it based upon history, the phrase should be seen as a slur upon the US Government and its treatment of Indians - broken promises, broken treaties when ever it is conveinient to screw the Indians.

A similar situation is taking place here in the Adirondacks.

A few years back, local governments (towns) approved a plan by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to purchase over 160,000 acres of forest land from a paper company known as Finch Pryun. The towns needed to approve the deal because TNC wanted to resell a portion of the land as an easement to the state and sell the balance outright in fee to the state to make it part of the Forever Wild Forest Preserve. This was required because in the Adirondacks under current law, no one can sell their land to the state unless the local municipalities approve. Part of the deal on the easement lands was that those lands would be kept in timber production and the easement would allow free public access, including snowmobile trails that would connect the towns and provide much needed winter revenue to the towns.

It was largely because of the new and expanded snowmobile trail system that the towns agreed to sign off and approve the deal.

Fast forward to the end of last month when a group known as the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board passed a resolution oppossing the fee purchase portion of the deal by the state from TNC just AFTER the state purchased the conservation easement to provide the snowmobile trails already in use and other expanded recreational opportunities to the public. Their argument is that lumbering jobs will be lost on the lands slated to become part of the Forest Preserve and the state, so the resolutions says, cannot afford to spend about $60,000,000 to purchase the land.

While it might be argued that the state might not currently have money to spend on land purchases in the Adirondack Park during difficlut economic times, the loss of logging jobs is highly questionable. But these arguments are beside the point because the main and never ending argument of the Review Board and many in local government is that the state shouldn't purchase any more land to be included the the Forest Preserve. In addition, if they could find away to do it, they would have the state start to sell off the Forest Preserve to second home developers and log all of the forerests in the Adirondacks until there is nothing left to log. They won't say this openly but this is what they wish would happen.

Forget about the wishes, dreams and other assorted fantasies of some in local governments and the special interest groups who lobby them, the fact of the matter is that the local governments did sign on to the deal and now after they got the snowmobile trails they wanted so desperately, are perfectly willing to renage on the deal - just like the Federal Government has done in the past and continues to do when it comes to Native Americans

Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks

2011-02-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/

2011-02-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Feb. 10)

2011-02-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Feb. 10)

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

2011-02-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

2011-02-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

Black, white, red, yellow brown, whatever

2011-02-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

Do you really care?

Naked writer vs.those who wear the hijab

2011-02-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

Obviously, since there are both male and female writers, I am not talking about clothing. Contrary to the popular view, I don't believe clothing makes the man or the woman.
No, what I'm talking about here is the exposure of the self. Some, maybe most people, would rather not show their true self. When their true self is exposed, they often blush.
Adam and Eve weren't trying to hide their bodies from God. They were trying to hide what they had done. We continue to do the same. But for artists, including writers, it is difficult to hide the true self or at the least, a part of their true self.
Sooner or later, every writer needs to admit that every character they write about is someone who shares some of their traits. No matter how much the writer might try to hide, they expose a portion of their self.
As to physical self? Why worry if someone sees you naked. You were born naked and the undertaker has a pretty good look at you after you can no longer blush.

Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute by Peter Klein (Paperback): booksamillion.com

2011-01-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute by Peter Klein (Paperback): booksamillion.com

Non Classifiable Books: The Vampire Valkyrie by Klein, Peter: Better World Books

2011-01-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Non Classifiable Books: The Vampire Valkyrie by Klein, Peter: Better World Books

Guest view: Adirondack easements not bound by state Constitution’s ‘Forever Wild’ clause - Utica, NY - The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York

2011-01-22T06:14:00.000-08:00

Guest view: Adirondack easements not bound by state Constitution’s ‘Forever Wild’ clause - Utica, NY - The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York

NCPR News - Natural Selections: Barred Owl

2011-01-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

NCPR News - Natural Selections: Barred Owl

Share on Myspace

2011-01-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

Share on Myspace

http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/

2011-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/

Cell phones and other toys

2011-01-09T05:44:00.000-08:00

There was a story in the local paper today, talking about how Blacks and Hispanics use cell phones and other hand held devices more often than Whites to access the Internet. Percentage wise, they Tweet more often than Whites.
The story suggests that minorities use of the Internet, via cell phones, is primarily one for entertainment purposes.
I don't know what all of this means but my overall feeling about cell phones is that they are toys more than they are useful devices. I look upon them as a form of Bling.
I do own a cell phone but it spends more time on top of my dresser than it does in my pocket. Part of this is due to the fact that cell phone coverage is poor to zero in the area I live. More importantly, I really don't care much for phones in the first place. To me, they are more of an unwanted intrusion in my life. I think a ringing phone is a bit rude. Like I'm supposed to drop everything and respond to that intrusion.
What I really can't figure out about using cell phones and other hand held devices for any form of entertainment is their small size. While TVs become larger and larger, I'm to want to watch a movie or a TV program on a screen about the size of a playing card? Then there is the high cost of doing this. It just doesn't make any sense.
I'll stick to using my computer and carry my cell phone when traveling to use for emergency purposes only. When I'm away from home, the last thing I want is to be bothered by any ringing phone. Sometimes, we really do need to be away from it all. And if Steve Jobs and the wireless phone companies don't like it, they can call me up to complain.
Thank god for caller ID

Word games

2011-01-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

I hear there is a new version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
What's new about it is substituting the word slave wherever the word negro is used.
Supposedly, this might help with the book not being banned by people who find the word negro to be offensive.
Some people actually refer to negro as the N word. Kind of like pussy footing around the very good word that is often hush hushed at the F word.
People, could we please stop this politically correct stuff?
The word "negro” means "black" in Spanish and Portuguese, from the Latin niger (black) and Greek Négros (black).
Personally, I've never met a person who was truly black. Just like I have never met a person who was truly white, red or yellow.
Me, I'm kind of a pinkish gray in skin tone and have decide to check "other" when required to admit to a race. It's all rather goofy, especially when you consider more and more people aren't a "pure" anything.
So could we please stop trying not to offend people who really need to take a trip to namby pamby land where maybe they might find some courage?
Same goes for all the offense taken if you say anything about some religion.
God, if you really need to defend a religion, it isn't worth defending. I'm sure God is quite capable of taking care of God without any help from sanctimonius humans.

Get a job

2011-01-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

Times are tough but if you are waiting for "Happy Days are Here Again" - forget about it!
We will never again see anything approaching full employment (0% unemployment) or even what passed for full employment (3% unemployment) in the past.
We will be lucky if we can even reach and hold to an unemployment rate of 6%.
The reasons are simple. Business can get much more from fewer workers because of automation and computerization. Also, the world wide economy makes it possible to quickly shift jobs around the world to get the best bang for the buck.

New Year Resolutions

2010-12-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here we are with just a few days remaining in 2010. Does anyone really want to make any New Year Resolutions?
I find the best thing to do is to not make any resolutions. That way you won't get depressed one you start to break them one by one. Or maybe just make resolutions you have a good chance of keeping.
Here is my spur of the moment list of resolutions I can probably keep most of the time.
I resolve not to kill anyone unless needed to do in self defense.
I resolve to continue to work and pay taxes.
I resolve to continue to voice my off the wall opinions with the hope of not offending but getting a laugh.
I resolve to continue to believe most people, including politicians, are usually decent people.
I resolve to continue to doubt most experts in science, economics, education and religion because it is up to them to try to prove their points without needing me to simply believe in them because they claim to be experts.
I resolve to finish my latest vampire book, And God Created Vampires, before summer 2011 and get it published by hook or by crook.
Now it's time for you to make your new year resolution and offer just one suggestion for you. Please by all my books in print or as ebooks and get all your friends to do the same.
Happy New Year!
IFRAMES not supported

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/A-Global-Assault-on-Speech.html?soid=1103168065129&aid=MDd3O1Ek5cI

2010-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/A-Global-Assault-on-Speech.html?soid=1103168065129&aid=MDd3O1Ek5cI

Pete Klein talks art and politics | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

2010-12-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Pete Klein talks art and politics | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio
On today, Sunday, Dec. 19, at 3 pm EST.

Book Publishing News - Book Publishing Industry Today

2010-12-15T09:03:00.001-08:00

via books.einnews.com

Ravenwolf Publishing now offers "The Dancing Valkyrie," The Vampire Valkyrie" and "Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County"as ebooks with Google eBooks and American Booksellers Association (ABA) member stores with IndieCommerce websites.

Ravenwolf Publishing Partners with Google eBooks to Offer "The Dancing Valkyrie," The Vampire Valkyrie" and "Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" as eBooks. - Book Publishing Industry Today - News Media Monitoring

2010-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Ravenwolf Publishing Partners with Google eBooks to Offer "The Dancing Valkyrie," The Vampire Valkyrie" and "Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" as eBooks. - Book Publishing Industry Today - News Media Monitoring

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

2010-12-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

Whatever you think of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the unprecedented
campaign by the U.S. government and corporate America to silence the site
is a chilling assault on free speech and a free media.

WikiLeaks has not been charged with a crime related to the release of
documents, yet the site's access to the Internet has been disrupted and
major efforts are underway to block credit card processing of donations to
keep the site running.

It's not surprising that the U.S. government and some of our nation's
largest corporations would want to take down a site that provides a
powerful new way to expose official lies and pierce their veil of secrecy.
But if we don't stand up and beat back this powerful assault on WikiLeaks,
we will put our democratic institutions at risk and deliver a blow to
human rights work around the world.

I just signed a petition asking the U.S. government and corporate America
to protect our democracy and the rule of law by ending the crackdown on
WikiLeaks.

I hope you will too. It's easy to take action at the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wikileaks/?r_by=-3470026-X8cIcIx&rc=mail
to1

The Problem with Faith

2010-11-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

The problem with faiths, all faiths, including all of the world's religions and often including various forms of secularism to include science, comes when belief becomes a substitute for knowledge.
This would not be a problem except when "people of faith" display a complete lack of trust in the god, gods or goddesses they say they believe in. They often act as though their chosen divinity has very little power and needs their help and the help of civil law.
Sadly, faith often seems to lack any true faith or trust in God. Faith seems to recognize faith is not knowledge and fears knowledge has the potential to knock down the house of cards of the carefully constructed faith system, which is its dogma. In other words, you must believe this or that they say you must believe in while knowing full well they don't know what is true.
Belief is always a substitute for knowledge. It can be a useful tool to gain knowledge.
Science at its best does recognize that what it believes is true today could be proven false tomorrow and is willing to change what it believes is true when what it believed was true is proven false.
On the other hand, religions have a hard time when it comes to changing what they believe even when what they believe is proven to be false. An obvious example comes to mind when the Catholic Church found itself forced to accept the fact that the Earth travels around the Sun and not the other way around.
Looking back at those times, you wonder why it was ever such a big deal. The only answer it seems to me is the basic sin of human pride. How we hate to be proven wrong! But this wouldn't be a problem if we actually had faith (trusted) in God and were not out to prove how smart we are about things we actually don't know for certain.
You might ask, "Is faith a hold-over from a more primitive time, a stick wielded by cynical politicians? Or is it a force for awakening and enriching our lives?"
I would answer by saying it often is both, one in the same at the same time. At its best, it is a trust in the workings of creation without placing any demands upon the One you believe is the Creator.

Press Release - Ravenwolf Publishing Offers Books For Holiday Shoppers

2010-11-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

Press Release - Ravenwolf Publishing Offers Books For Holiday Shoppers

Books for the Holidays

2010-11-13T05:50:00.001-08:00

Books for the Holidays
INDIAN LAKE, NY, November 13, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ravenwolf Publishing has expanded the formats available for its four books, with all books available and ready to ship in time for the Holidays: The Dancing Valkyrie, The Vampire Valkyrie, the second and newly revised edition of Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County and the recently published Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute.

"The Dancing Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1440432198 | ISBN-13: 9781440432194) begins and ends in the Adirondacks of northern New York. It is the story of a young woman who is an erotic dancer at a topless club in Schenectady, NY, who becomes a vampire while on a hike in the wilds of the Adirondacks.

The novel follows her rapid acclimation into being what she was born to be - a vampire with a lust for both blood and sex, and draws to a conclusion when she meets with a vampire who lives to kill other vampires - and whose name is Van Helsing.

"The Vampire Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1452877793 | ISBN-13: 9781452877792) continues the tale of the vampire Mary Hoffman, a.k.a. Erica, the Dancing Valkyrie, who fights to protect her erotic dance club and her girls from mobsters who want to control her and her club - or kill her if she resists.

A Schenectady City Councilwoman wants to pass legislation to close down or strictly limit the operation of adult businesses, an a upstate crime boss wants control of Mary and her club and a New York City crime family seeks to discredit the upstate crime boss through Mary and her club. Many people die, both the innocent and the guilty, as a result of Mary's determination to save herself, her girls and her club, while wondering if she should stop being involved with humans and just kill all who infringe upon her freedoms as a vampire.

"Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" (ISBN: 1453608141 | ISBN-13: 9781453608142) is the first published hiking guide aimed only at trails and attractions in Hamilton County, NY.

In addition to being a trail guide, the book offers tips on many outdoor activities, state campgrounds, local chambers of commerce and who to call in an emergency.

"Confession of an Online Male Prostitute" (ISBN: 145374245X | ISBN-13: 9781453742457) is about a middle aged married man whose sex life with his wife has been absent for a number of years. Yearning for some sex but not willing to go to bars or pay for some mutual fun and not yet willing to divorce his wife, he decides the Internet is the safe way to go and works up the nerve to see if he can get anyone to pay him to take off his clothes and perform what amounts to an online peep show.

One day, one of his male clients asks him to exchange emails to talk and maybe meet. He agrees even though he doesn't consider himself gay. He does because he has unresolved, suppressed issues from his distant past and tells himself this may be a way to see and resolve those issues.

All the books are now available in print and Ebook formats from Amazon in its Kindle edition and other online retailers, as well as from traditional book stores.

Pete Klein, author of the books who is now working on his third vampire book says, "Publishing is rapidly changing. Readers expect a variety of ways to access the written word. This is why I have chosen to make my books available in a variety of formats. The Ebook format is the least expensive way for readers to purchase my books. For myself, I prefer to read a printed bound book but have read several Ebooks and just figure there are many out there who like to read but what to save money and are content to read what they have downloaded, either to a reading device or on their computer."

Pete Klein is a reporter at the Hamilton County Express in the Adirondacks of norther New York and author of erotic vampire fiction, bisexual fiction and an Adirondack hiking guide to trails in Hamilton County.

Ravenwolf Publishing Offers Books For Holiday Shoppers

2010-11-13T05:20:00.001-08:00

Ravenwolf Publishing now offers a variety of books in paperback and Ebook formats in time for the Holidays
INDIAN LAKE, NY, November 13, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ravenwolf Publishing has expanded the formats available for its four books, with all books available and ready to ship in time for the Holidays: The Dancing Valkyrie, The Vampire Valkyrie, the second and newly revised edition of Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County and the recently published Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute.

"The Dancing Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1440432198 | ISBN-13: 9781440432194) begins and ends in the Adirondacks of northern New York. It is the story of a young woman who is an erotic dancer at a topless club in Schenectady, NY, who becomes a vampire while on a hike in the wilds of the Adirondacks.

The novel follows her rapid acclimation into being what she was born to be - a vampire with a lust for both blood and sex, and draws to a conclusion when she meets with a vampire who lives to kill other vampires - and whose name is Van Helsing.

"The Vampire Valkyrie" (ISBN: 1452877793 | ISBN-13: 9781452877792) continues the tale of the vampire Mary Hoffman, a.k.a. Erica, the Dancing Valkyrie, who fights to protect her erotic dance club and her girls from mobsters who want to control her and her club - or kill her if she resists.

A Schenectady City Councilwoman wants to pass legislation to close down or strictly limit the operation of adult businesses, an a upstate crime boss wants control of Mary and her club and a New York City crime family seeks to discredit the upstate crime boss through Mary and her club. Many people die, both the innocent and the guilty, as a result of Mary's determination to save herself, her girls and her club, while wondering if she should stop being involved with humans and just kill all who infringe upon her freedoms as a vampire.

"Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" (ISBN: 1453608141 | ISBN-13: 9781453608142) is the first published hiking guide aimed only at trails and attractions in Hamilton County, NY.

In addition to being a trail guide, the book offers tips on many outdoor activities, state campgrounds, local chambers of commerce and who to call in an emergency.

"Confession of an Online Male Prostitute" (ISBN: 145374245X | ISBN-13: 9781453742457) is about a middle aged married man whose sex life with his wife has been absent for a number of years. Yearning for some sex but not willing to go to bars or pay for some mutual fun and not yet willing to divorce his wife, he decides the Internet is the safe way to go and works up the nerve to see if he can get anyone to pay him to take off his clothes and perform what amounts to an online peep show.

One day, one of his male clients asks him to exchange emails to talk and maybe meet. He agrees even though he doesn't consider himself gay. He does because he has unresolved, suppressed issues from his distant past and tells himself this may be a way to see and resolve those issues.

All the books are now available in print and Ebook formats from Amazon in its Kindle edition and other online retailers, as well as from traditional book stores.

Pete Klein, author of the books who is now working on his third vampire book says, "Publishing is rapidly changing. Readers expect a variety of ways to access the written word. This is why I have chosen to make my books available in a variety of formats. The Ebook format is the least expensive way for readers to purchase my books. For myself, I prefer to read a printed bound book but have read several Ebooks and just figure there are many out there who like to read but what to save money and are content to read what they have downloaded, either to a reading device or on their computer."

Pete Klein is a reporter at the Hamilton County Express in the Adirondacks of norther New York and author of erotic vampire fiction, bisexual fiction and an Adirondack hiking guide to trails in Hamilton County.

Website: http://www.petekleinvampires.com

---

Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com

via einpresswire.com

Ravenwolf Publishing Offers Books For Holiday Shoppers

2010-11-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

Ravenwolf Publishing Offers Books For Holiday Shoppers

INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITER PETE KLEIN

2010-11-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITER PETE KLEIN

WHAT DID YOU FIRST READ? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote?
Probably Dick and Jane. Maybe before Dick and Jane was comics. I don't recall any early desire to write, certainly not before high school. Reading came first. Listening to the radio, watching TV and movies. In grade school, I advanced to Classic Comics. The first major novel in High School was "Great Expectations."
My first creating writing was for a literary high school publication where I published some poetry.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GENRE? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it?
I consider myself very catholic in my reading. Favorite subjects include religion, philosophy, history, science, outdoors. In the fiction category I prefer horror, sci-fi and mystery.

WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE? What happens before sitting down to write?
When I was in grade school, I used to like to day dream. I view writing as a form of day dreaming. I play with words and ideas for awhile. Look at a blank page, then put down a word and see where it leads.
Words often act like dominoes. One leads to another. There is a hidden logic behind each word.

WHAT TYPE OF READING INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE?
There is not one type of reading leading me to write.
Inspiration can come from any of my five senses.
Inspiration is mostly emotion. Words trigger emotion, as do smells, sounds, taste, sight and touch.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF A STORY?
Here I would like to answer with an opinion.
Basically, one could say a story is anything with a start and a finish. How you go from start to finish is called a plot. Here is where I have a problem with the question.
Humans want to believe there is preordained logic to everything. I rather think there is a logic which stems from chaos. I guess this puts me in with free verse, avant-garde and the Theater of the Absurd.
This attitude, no doubt, may cause difficulty for some when I write fiction.
On the other hand, when I put on my non-fiction hat, I strive for objective, logical prose.

WHAT VOICE DO YOU FIND MOST TO YOUR LIKING: first person or third person?
In both fiction, non-fiction and in my role as a reporter, it is always third person.
Only in opinion do I use first person.

WHAT WELL KNOWN WRITERS DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?
Well I certainly need to start with Shakespeare. I've read every play and poem he wrote.
I like Joyce, Herman Hess, Thomas Mann, Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman.
But to list everyone I have ever liked would create a small book and I'd probably still leave someone out.

WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR A CHARACTER TO BE BELIEVABLE? How do you create yours?
Oh dear! What is believable? Who is believable? Life is unbelievable.
I think in fiction, as well as in real life, characters do some unbelievable things. Just when you think you know someone, they do something you would never have thought they would do.
Now I have a question for you? Haven't you ever acted out of character and done something you never thought you would do?
Maybe it is doing something unbelievable that a character becomes believable.

ARE YOU EQUALLY GOOD AT TELLING STORIES ORALLY?
What I am very good at is talking BS for the fun of it and being believed.

DEEP DOWN INSIDE, WHO DO YOU WRITE FOR?
I think every writer writes for themselves. The hope is that you end up pleasing others as well. As Ricky Nelson said in a song, "You can't please everyone so you might as well please yourself."

IS WRITING A FORM OF PERSONAL THERAPY? Are internal conflicts a creative force?
I think the answer is yes to both questions. For me, writing is mostly fun. Bottom line, all art is play and play is often the acting out of things both in yourself and in others you find both pleasing and disturbing. Play brings them out from the darkness into the light.

DOES READER FEED-BACK HELP YOU?
I like reader feed-back, especially when it is positive.
Is it helpful? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.
What I would say is every artist must be careful when it comes to feed-back. You want to recognize constructive criticism while not be destroyed by the negative.

DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN COMPETITIONS? Have you received any awards?
No and no.

DO YOU SHARE ROUGH DRAFTS OF YOUR WRITINGS WITH SOMEONE WHOSE OPINION YOU TRUST?
No again except from my longest running friendship, a woman I met when studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and who now owns a literary agency in New York.

DO YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE ALREADY FOUND "YOUR VOICE" or is that something one is always searching for?
I believe my voice is always changing and I would hope it continues to be so.

WHAT DISCIPLINE DO YOU IMPOSE ON YOURSELF REGARDING SCHEDULES, GOALS, ETC.?
Because I depend on my job as a reporter for the money I need to live, my discipline is to put that job first.
Because reporting comes first, my creative writing is done whenever possible.
I should be working on my novel instead of doing this.

WHAT DO YOU SURROUND YOURSELF WITH IN YOUR WORK AREA IN ORDER TO HELP YOUR CONCENTRATE?
Coffee and cigarettes. The coffee goes cold and the cigarettes often burn without any help from me.

DO YOU WRITE ON A COMPUTER? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process?
The best subject I took in high school was typing. Now I keyboard on a computer.
I use OpenOffice to compose and edit. Since I self-publish, the final draft is saved as a PDF file.

WHAT SITES DO YOU FREQUENT ON-LINE TO SHARE EXPERIENCES OR INFORMATION?
There are numerous author groups I belong to on the Internet. I do attend local author book signing gatherings where I get the chance to talk with other writers.
Most of the sharing I have done is on my BlogTalkRadio show -http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheAdirondackBookhouse- where I have interviewed many authors.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH PUBLISHERS?
I'll tell you a short story.
A dear, dear friend is an agent who owns a major Literary agency. Before I decided to go with self publishing, I sent a manuscript to her. She liked it well enough to send it out to several publishers. I think it was the third publisher she sent it to that didn't get back in the usual time. She checked with them and - they lost it!
This was back before I had a computer. I did not have a backup copy. It was gone, gone, gone.
She did not object when I said I wanted to self-publish. My reason to self publish was simple. I was beyond the age of 60 and was in the mode of not knowing how long I might live. I didn't want to wait the years it can take from the time you finish a book to the time it MIGHT be eventually published by a traditional publisher.
We still keep in close contact and I’m hoping my third vampire novel can be sold through her.

WHY HAVE YOU WRITTEN THE BOOKS YOU HAVE WRITTEN?
"Adirondack Hikes in Hamilton County" was the result of hikes I took with my twin granddaughters. The stories were first published in the paper where I am a reporter, The Hamilton County Express. Several readers of the paper suggested I publish the hikes in a book form, which I did.
The two vampire books, first "The Dancing Valkyrie," then "The Vampire Valkyrie," were the result of a long fascination with vampire stories and my desire to do something different. Though I like all forms of fiction and horror in particular, I am a bit of a skeptic. I don't believe in monsters of any sort to include ghosts, werewolves, zombies and vampires. I figured: if there were vampires, they would be natural creatures. This belief resulted in my approach to my vampires.
The latest, Confessions of an Online Male Prostitute, was the result of needing a break from the vampires and a desire to switch from sex scenes involving two women and see if I had the nerve to write about two men having sex.
Though I regard myself as heterosexual, I believe everyone as a bit of the bisexual in them and we shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge its existance.

WHERE ARE YOUR BOOKS AVAILABLE?
My three published books are available at local book stores and libraries (and any book store by order if not in stock, as well as at many online sources including Amazon and Google.
Let's not forget my own web pages at http://www.lulu.com/ravenwolfpublish and http://www.vampirevalkyrie.com and http://www.petekleinvampires.com

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?
I have two vampire novels, "The Dancing Valkyrie" and "The Vampire Valkyrie," and am now working on the third in the series, tentatively titled "And God Created Vampires."

WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND I DO WITH ALL THOSE THINGS I WROTE YEARS AGO BUT HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO BRING MYSELF TO SHOW ANYONE?
Show them! Publish them! Be naked and don't be afraid.

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=252474

2010-11-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=252474

My political positions

2010-11-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Now with the Republicans and Tea Party people excited over their victories, I can only wish them luck. But the reality may soon be very different for them when the economy does not suddenly turn around.
I predict: Happy Days will not soon be found.
For myself, everyone I voted for was elected except for one candidate. I did not vote for Andrew Cuomo,only because I knew he would win. Knowing he would win, I voted for Christin Davis, the Manhattan Madam. Otherwise, I voted straight Democratic and all won.
I voted for Davis because I firmly believe prostitution and all drugs, not just marijuana should be legal.
I firmly believe all religions should stay the hell out of politics. Let them control their members without trying to use the government to enforce their rules, regulations and beliefs.
You let Christians draft laws to bolster their beliefs and things you must not do and before you know it, you will have Muslims pushing for their religious laws to be enforced by the government.

Win books

2010-11-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your interest in my book - here's a gift for you
You get 1,000 points, with my compliments, to use on Freado.com - the world's biggest book winning site. My book - 'The Dancing Valkyrie', appears in the games on this site. Just click anywhere in this box, and follow the instructions.

The American Nightmare

2010-11-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Simple solutions for simple minds.
We need to realize the foundations of our current problems have been brewing for over 30 years and maybe even more.
The foundations I am referring to are automation, growing populations and globalization.
Automation requires fewer people to produce more goods. More people simply means there are more people looking for fewer needed jobs. Globalization means companies can tap from the entire world to find where they get the best bottom line.
Both we the people and government at all levels have used borrowing to fill in the gaps.
As governments and people now start looking for ways to lower their budgets, more and more people will be out of work or accept work they wouldn't have dreamed of accepting at lower wages.
Forget about bandwagons. How many people can get on a life raft before the life raft sinks?
Sorry to be so negative here but I only wish to point out how quick and simple solutions will not work.
Create jobs? Sure but jobs are not created by snapping the fingers. First there NEEDS to be a product or a service for which there is a demand and people who have the money to purchase the product or service. Remove just one item from the equation and you get what we now have.
I guess after all is said and done, and all things are considered, we all went a little too far out on the limb. It seems to me the so called American Dream was designed and marketed by business and government to get us to want more and more of everything, and it didn't much matter if we really needed it. Buy, throw away and buy so you can throw more away. Borrow if you can't afford it but whatever you do – BUY! Not to buy became Un-American and the American Dream became the American Nightmare.

The end is in sight

2010-10-30T16:57:00.001-07:00

The end is in sight. No, I'm not talking about the end of the earth. I'm talking about one of the most, if not the most, disgusting election seasons ever.

I am totally sick of all the ads, even from those I will probably vote for. I haven't answered the phone in weeks when my caller ID even hints it might be someone taking a poll or asking me to vote for their candidate. Email and snail mail that says anything about the election is deleted or tossed without taking a look.

I'm to the point where I really don't care who wins. I predict, whoever wins will soon come to regret their victory. They will find themselves in the same boat the current incumbents now find themselves in and the voters will again be as made as hell by the time the next election rolls around.

Why? Because we seem to have lost the ability to discuss almost anything without going off the deep end. Democracy requires some civility and there is very little civility around today.

The solution. I guess the only solution is to start on the one to one level and gradually work out in an expanding circle. Some trickle down civility from those in office and those seeking office would help too.

2010-2011 Winter Forecast

2010-10-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

2010-2011 Winter Forecast

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

2010-10-28T19:08:00.001-07:00

Pete Klein was born and raised in Detroit, Mich. where he attended Notre Dame High, Harper Woods. After high school, Pete joined the US Navy and served as a Corpsman in New Port, RI, and Long Beach, CA. After receiving an Honorable Discharge, it was back to Detroit for a year before moving to NYC to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Klein says, "I lived in New York at the right time (mid 60's) in the Lower East Side (East Village) and enjoyed discovering the city and myself.
In 1968 Klein married. In 71 he moved upstate where he raised his family and worked in the automotive… Read more(please enable JavaScript to read more)

" + "Peter Klein Biography" + "

via amazon.com

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

2010-10-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com: Peter Klein: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

Speak Up for Wolves in the Great Lakes Region

2010-10-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Speak Up for Wolves in the Great Lakes Region

For Bats, the Future Is Spooky

2010-10-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

For Bats, the Future Is Spooky

Help Save Mt. Lemmon's Ancient Trees

2010-10-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Help Save Mt. Lemmon's Ancient Trees

Adirondack Almanack: Guest Commentary From APA Chair Curt Stiles

2010-10-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Guest Commentary From APA Chair Curt Stiles

ESO - eso1041e - The era of reionisation (artist’s impression

2010-10-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

The era of reionisation (artist’s impression)

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Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have measured the distance to the most remote galaxy so far, UDFy-38135539, which we see as it was when the Universe was only about 600 million years old (a redshift of 8.6). At this early time, the Universe was not fully transparent and much of it was filled with a hydrogen fog that absorbed the fierce ultraviolet light from young galaxies. The period when the fog was still being cleared by this ultraviolet light is known as the era of reionisation, visualised in this artist’s impression. The glow from UDFy-38135539 seems not to be strong enough on its own to clear out the hydrogen fog. There must be other galaxies, probably fainter and less massive nearby companions of UDFy-38135539, which also helped make the space around the galaxy transparent.

Credit:
ESO/L. Calçada

Usage of ESO Images and Videos

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Home - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction

2010-10-21T06:00:00.001-07:00

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http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/

2010-10-21T05:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.freewebs.com/peteklein/
hiking book, vampire books

Are you tired yet?

2010-10-17T06:13:00.001-07:00

I don't care what political party or political group you belong to or not. But I think there is at least one thing we can agree upon. Political ads on TV have become really obnoxious.

First, there are just too many. The only way you can get away from them is to watch stations like A&E and Chiller.

Then there are the phone calls that show up as "Unknown" on caller ID. I never pick up the phone for an Unknown caller.

About as aggravating as the ads are the polls and the pundits. Yes, Virginia, we wouldn't have the foggiest idea in who to vote for if we weren't being told by the ads, the polls, pundits and other experts who to vote for.

It's almost enough to make you vote for no one.

Wouldn't it be great if no one showed up to vote except for those who are running for office and they were to learn that not even their families, relatives and friends came out to vote for them?

Are you tired yet? - ravenwolfsmoon's Blog - Blogster

2010-10-17T06:11:00.001-07:00

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The Coffee Party

2010-10-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

Now that we seem to have a Tea Party, might it be time for their to be a Coffee Party?
Coffee Party people could do the opposite of Tea Party people. Instead of "Wanting our country back," we could offer to give it away to anyone who wants it.
Of course, being the loyal Americans we are, we would be the first in line to accept the gift of this country.
We believe in freedom but it's just that we believe in more freedom than the Tea Party people seem to believe in.
We believe in honest dialog without all the yelling and screaming.
We believe everyone should be free, not just a chosen few who seem to want to exclude people on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, level of economic wealth, etc., etc., etc.
Me being a white Christian obviously means I would include white Christians in the Coffee Party, so long as they don't try to kick everyone else out of the party except for them.
Just to stir the pot and aggravate some spies from the Tea Party, I would be willing to admit prostitutes and drug dealers because they are the true entrepraneurs and have a lot in common with our elected and appointed leaders in both the Democrat and Republican parties.
Yes, you are welcome to join the Coffee Party even if your preferred drink is tea. We Coffee Party people tend not discriminate against anyone.

Ravenwolf Publsihing

2010-10-16T06:38:00.001-07:00

The Vampire Valkyrie Part two of The Dancing Valkyrie sagasThe Vampire Valkyrie Part two of The Dancing Valkyrie sagas (book)

Download: $15.99
Hardcover Print: $22.76
"The Vampire Valkyrie" takes off where "The Dancing Valkyrie" concluded and resumes the tale of a young female vampire who just may be the most dangerous vampire in vampire fiction to date. "The Vampire Valkyrie" is the story of a young vampire woman who is an erotic dancer at a topless club she owns in Schenectady, NY. A Schenectady City Councilwoman wants to pass legislation to close down or strictly limit the operation of adult businesses, an a upstate crime boss wants control of Mary and her club and a New York City crime family seeks to discredit the upstate crime boss through Mary and her club. Many people die, both the innocent and the guilty, as a result of Mary's determination to save herself, her girls and her club, while wondering if she should stop being involved with humans and just kill all who infringe upon her freedom as a vampire.

via stores.lulu.com

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=252474

2010-10-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=252474
Books, CD, calendar and photos by Pete Klein

Some thoughts on evolution

2010-10-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Some people don't like evolution. Some even argue that everything was created by God in six day a few thousand years ago.
I ask, You find it difficult to believe that we EVOLVED from an amoeba?"
I don't understand when one considers how we evolve from an egg and sperm over the course of nine months.
An oak tree evolves from an acorn. A tropical depression evolves into a hurricane. A moth becomes a butterfly. Evolution happens every day in thousands of ways.
You start with a letter, add a few more and you form a word. Add some more words and you have a sentence. Sentences form paragraphs and eventually you could even have a book, such as the Bible.
It takes time for something to become what it eventually becomes. It isn't what it becomes until it becomes what it is. The Bible didn't become the Bible until all the books in it were completed and agreed upon.
Does a little bit of steel and plastic become a car? Eventually they could become a car if all the material is processed and refined correctly, and the parts are eventually assembled into the final product.
Oh, no! See where you have forced me to go now? The same might be said of that little egg and sperm. I could argue a human being doesn't exist until the evolutionary process within the woman is completed and she gives birth to a finished product.
Now I know why some people don't like the idea of evolution.

Speak Up for Wolves in the Great Lakes Region

2010-10-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

Speak Up for Wolves in the Great Lakes Region
Protect wolves or pass a law that makes it a felony if you don't eat what you kill.

http://www.petekleinvampires.com/

2010-10-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.petekleinvampires.com/

The above link will give you access to all my books.

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Oct. 7

2010-10-08T06:25:00.001-07:00

This announcement is for general use - local conditions may vary and are subject to change.
Listen for the weekly Adirondack Outdoor Conditions Report Friday mornings on WNBZ (AM 920 & 1240, FM 105 & 102.1) and the stations of North Country Public Radio.
The Adirondack Almanack publishes occasional Forest Ranger incident reports which form a stern reminder that wilderness conditions can change suddenly and accidents happen. Be aware of the latest weather conditions and carry adequate gear and supplies.
SPECIAL NOTICES FOR THIS WEEKEND
Fire Danger: LOW
Columbus Day & Canadian Thanksgiving Day Weekend
Visitors to the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness should be aware that trail head parking lots and interior campsites will reach capacity early on this holiday weekend. Plan accordingly, seek backcountry recreation opportunities in other areas of the Adirondack Park. Day hikers should check DEC's list of Trails Outside the High Peaks.
High Waters/Flooding
Heavy rains last week and steady rains this week have kept water levels high. Low water crossings may not be accessible and paddlers should be prepared for high waters. Expect muddy wet, trails through the weekend. Wear appropriate footwear and to stay on the trail - hike through muddy areas and puddles to avoid widening the trails or creating “herd paths” around those areas.
Special Blowdown Notice
Last week’s storm resulted in a good deal of blowdown. Limbs, branches and trees may be found on and across trails, especially on lesser used side trails.
Central Adirondacks Lower Elevation Weather
Friday: Chance of afternoon showers. Partly sunny; high near 61. Breezy.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Light winds.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 51. Breezy.
Saturday Night: Clear and cold with a low around 25.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 57.
The National Weather Service provides a weather forecast for elevations above 3000 feet and spot forecasts for the summits of a handful of the highest peaks in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties. [LINK]
Trout Season Ending
Trout season closes October 15 in most places. There are a few exceptions; check the updated 2010-2011 Freshwater Fishing Regulations Guide for details. Male brook trout are beginning to group together in preparation for the upcoming spawning.
Cooler Weather
Cooler temperatures have arrived in the mountains. Night-time and morning temperatures in the 30s or colder are likely, especially at higher elevations. Pack extra non-cotton clothes, including a hat and gloves.
Darkness Arriving Earlier
Autumn has arrived and daylight hours have decreased. Know when sunset occurs and plan accordingly. Always pack or carry a flashlight with fresh batteries.
Fall Foliage Season
Fall Foliage Season is well underway in the central Adirondacks. For an updated foliage report see the state tourism site's Foliage Report.
GENERAL ADIRONDACK CONDITIONS
Accidents Happen, Be Prepared
Wilderness conditions can change suddenly and accidents happen. Hikers and campers should check up-to-date forecasts before entering the backcountry as conditions at higher elevations will likely be more severe. All users should bring flashlight, first aid kit, map and compass, extra food, plenty of water and clothing. Be prepared to spend an unplanned night in the woods and always inform others of your itinerary.

Motorists Alert: Moose
There are upwards of 800 Moose in the Adirondack region, up from 500 in 2007. Motorists should be alert for moose on the roadways at this time of year especially at dawn and dusk, which are times of poor visibility when Moose are most active. Much larger than deer, moose-car collisions can be very dangerous. Last year ten accidents involving moose were reported. DEC is working to identify areas where moose are present and post warning signs.
Hunting Seasons
Fall hunting seasons for small game, waterfowl and big game have begun or will begin shortly. Hikers should be aware that they may meet hunters bearing firearms or archery equipment while hiking on trails. Recognize that these are fellow outdoor recreationists with the legal right to hunt on Forest Preserve lands. Hunting accidents involving non-hunters are extremely rare. Hikers may want to wear bright colors as an extra precaution.
Motorized Equipment in Wilderness, Primitive and Canoe Areas
The use of motorized equipment in lands classified as wilderness, primitive or canoe is prohibited. Public use of small personal electronic or mechanical devices such as cameras, radios or GPS receivers are not affected this regulation.
Storage of Personal Belongings on State Land
Placing structures or personal property on state land without authorization from DEC is prohibited. Exceptions include: properly placed and labeled geocaches; legally placed and tagged traps, tree stands and blinds. The full regulation regarding the use of motorized equipment on state lands may be found online; the regulation regarding the structures and storage of personal property is also online.
Firewood Ban
Due to the possibility of spreading invasive species that could devastate northern New York forests (such as Emerald Ash Borer, Hemlock Wooly Adeljid and Asian Longhorn Beetle), DEC prohibits moving untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its source. Forest Rangers have begun ticketing violators of this firewood ban. More details and frequently asked questions at the DEC website.
Do Not Feed Bears
Recently a forest ranger shot and killed a bear that was harassing campers at the Eight Lake State Campground near Inlet. Wildlife biologists believe the yearling had been fed by campers and grown not to fear people. Eight problem bears were killed in the Adirondacks last summer.
Bear-Resistant Canisters
The use of bear-resistant canisters is required for overnight users in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness between April 1 and November 30. All food, toiletries and garbage must be stored in bear resistant canisters; the use of bear-resistant canisters is encouraged throughout the Adirondacks.
Low Impact Campfires
Reduce the impact on natural areas by utilizing lightweight stoves, fire pans, mound fires or other low impact campfire techniques. Use only dead or small downed wood that can be broken by hand and keep fires small. Leave hatchets, axes and saws at home. Never leave a fire unattended, don't burn garbage, and restore the appearance of your fire site; do not move fire rings. Campfires are prohibited in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness [LINK].
ADIRONDACK LOCAL BACKCOUNTRY CONDITIONS
** indicates new or revised items.
NORTHEASTERN ADIRONDACKS
** Boquet River / Willsboro Fish Ladder: Over the past 2 weeks 49 landlocked Atlantic salmon and 1 brown trout were processed and released from the Willsboro fish ladder, on the Boquet River. Recent rains have made the river high. Anglers should use caution and be alert for changes in water levels. Typically Columbus Weekend is the peak time for the salmon run but this varies depending on weather and temperatures.
Chazy Highlands Wild Forest: The newly acquired Forest Preserve lands on the Standish and Chazy Lake Roads in the Lyon Mountain area, and on the Smith and Carter Roads in the Ellenburg Mountain area, are open for public use. State boundary lines are not yet marked, contact the DEC Region 5 Natural Resources office (518-891-1291) to obtain a property map. Be aware of your location at all times, do not trespass.
HIGH PEAKS
** Bushnell Falls: The high water bridge at Bushnell Falls has been removed, the low water crossing may not be accessible during high water.
** Upper Works to Duck Hole: All the foot bridges on the trail between Upper Works and the Duck Hole have been replaced and the trail has been cleared.
** Moose Pond Horse Trail: The bridges on the Moose Pond Horse Trail have been replaced, horse drawn wagons can access the trail to Ermine Brook.
** Newcomb Lake - Moose Pond: A bridge on the Newcomb Lake to Moose Pond Trail has been flooded by beaver activity. The bridge is intact, but surrounded by water.
Northville-Placid Trail: Crews have constructed and marked a reroute of the Northville-Placid Trail around an area flooded by beaver activity between Plumley Point and Shattuck Clearing.
Opalescent River Bridges Washed Out: The Opalescent River Bridge on the East River / Hanging Spears Falls trail has been washed out. The crossing will be impassable during high water.
Big Slide Ladder: The ladder up the final pitch of Big Slide has been removed.
Caulkins Brook Truck Trail/Horse Trail: Much of the blowdown on the Caulkins Brook Truck Trail/Horse Trail between the Calkins Brook lean-tos and Shattuck Clearing has been removed. The trail is open for hikers but remains impassable to horses and wagons. DEC crews continue to work to open the trail.
Mt. Adams Fire Tower: The cab of the Mt. Adams Fire Tower was heavily damaged by windstorms. The fire tower is closed to public access until DEC can make repairs to the structure.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ADIRONDACKS
** Perkins Clearing/Speculator Tree Farm Conservation Easement: Camping is limited to designated campsites, 8 campsites have been designated at this time.
** Adirondack Canoe Route: Due to heavy rains last week and recent moderate rains water levels are high. Check the current USGS streamflow data for selected waters.
** Adirondack Canoe Route: Northern Forest Canoe Trail volunteers rehabilitated the takeout at the north end of Eighth Lake. The 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail celebrates its tenth year this summer. Winding its way from Maine through New Hampshire, Quebec, Vermont, and into New York ending at Old Forge.
Forest Ranger Greg George: Ranger George has retired after 33 years of service. If you had contacted Ranger George in the past for camping permits, backcountry conditions or for any other purpose, you should now contact Forest Ranger Bruce Lomnitzer at 518-648-5246. For matters regarding Tirrell Pond contact Forest Ranger Jay Scott at 315-354-4611.
Coyote Activity in Old Forge: There has been some anecdotal evidence for higher than usual numbers of coyotes in the Old Forge area. No nuisance animals have been reported, but their presence is a reminder that as coyotes increasingly adapt to people, more encounters between humans and coyotes will occur, either as sightings, confrontations with pets, disturbed garbage or pet foods, or howling at night. To minimize conflicts don't provide food such as coolers or garbage, and do not feed wildlife.
Ferris Lake Wild Forest / West Lake Boat Launch (Fulton County): The boat launch was impacted by August rains and floods. DEC staff have made repairs to the roadway, parking lot and ramps, however, be aware that the waters off the boat launch are more shallow than before.
** Moose River Plains Wild Forest: The New York State Muzzle-Loaders Association is be holding it's Primitive Rendezvous and Hunt, on Limekiln Lake Road about 7 miles from the Limekiln Lake entrance near Inlet. Now in its 19th year, the event features about 50 men, women, and children dressed in 1740 to 1840 attire and camping with period equipment. This year's rendezvous will include tomahawk and knife throwing, Dutch oven cooking, tipi and canvass lodge living, an demonstrations of muzzle-loaders and other tools of the era. Visitors are welcome only on Sunday, October 10th, from 10 am to 5 pm.
Moose River Plains Wild Forest: Rock Dam Road and the campsites along it have reopened. The main Moose River Plains Road (Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road), the Otter Brook Road up to the Otter Brook Bridge will also be open this weekend. Gates to other side roads, including Indian Lake Road, Otter Brook Truck Trail, and Otter Brook Road, remain shut and the roads closed to motor vehicle traffic at this time.
Moose River Plains Wild Forest: Work has been completed on the main Moose River Plains Road (Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road). Once again vehicles may travel between the Cedar River entrance and the Limekiln Lake entrance. See photos of the two new bridges.
Sacandaga Lake: Warning! The spiny water flea, an aquatic invasive species, is has been confirmed present in Sacandaga Lake in the southern Adirondacks near Speculator. It was previously confirmed in Great Sacandaga Lake in 2008, Peck Lake in 2009, and Stewarts Bridge Reservoir earlier this year. It is not clear when the spiny water flea was introduced into each of the lakes. It is clear that the initial introduction, and very likely the others as well, were through adult, larvae, or eggs being transported to the waters by bait bucket, bilge water, live well, boat, canoe, kayak, trailer or fishing equipment. Prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species - INSPECT, DRY and CLEAN all fishing and boating equipment between waters. See advice in the "Do Not Spread Invasive Aquatic Species" webpage.
West Canada Lakes Wilderness / N-P Trail: The bridge over Mud Creek, on the Northville-Placid Trail northeast of Mud Lake, has been washed out.
Shaker Mountain Wild Forest: The lean-to on the south shore of Chase Lake has been removed, and a new one is now been built on the lake's north shore (See photos). A new trail spur leading off the old trail and approaching the new lean-to from the west has been marked. The site of the old lean-to is now a designated tent site.
Chimney Mountain / Eagle Cave: DEC is investigating the presence of white-nose syndrome in bats in Eagle Cave near Chimney Mountain. Until further notice Eagle Cave is closed to all public access.
** Wilcox Lake Forest: Trails to Wilcox Lake and Tenant Falls beginning at the end of the Hope Falls Road, cross private property. While DEC does have a trail easement for the East Stony Creek Trail to Wilcox Lake, there is no formal agreement with the landowner for access to the Tenant Falls Trail. DEC is working on a resolution to this matter. In the meanwhile, hikers and day uses must respect the private driveway at the trailhead and not block it. Also respect the landowner's privacy - stay on the trail, do not enter the private property.
Wilcox Lake Wild Forest: Flooding is affecting the Pine Orchard Trail and Murphy Lake Trail. Bridges at Mill Creek, approximately 3 miles from the trailhead on Dorr Road has no decking, only stringers, the bridges over Mill Brook, north of Pine Orchard, is not decked, and the Dayton Creek bridge is out on the trail from Brownell Camp (at the end of Hope Falls Road) to Wilcox Lake.
EASTERN ADIRONDACKS
Gore Mountain: The Schaeffer Trail to the summit of Gore Mountain, has undergone a significant reroute. The new trailhead is located at the parking lot for Grunblatt Memorial Beach in North Creek. From there the trail leads southwest and then north, looping around the North Creek reservoir before continuing southwest to the summit.
Lake George Wild Forest / Hudson River Recreation Area: Funding reductions have required that several gates and roads remain closed to motor vehicle traffic. These include Dacy Clearing Road, Lily Pond Road, Jabe Pond Road, Gay Pond Road, Buttermilk Road Extension and Scofield Flats Road.
Lake George Wild Forest: Equestrians should be aware that there is significant blowdown on horse trails. While hikers may be able to get through the trails, it may be impossible or at least much harder for horses to get through. Lack of resources, resulting from the state's budget shortfall, preclude DEC from clearing trails of blowdown at this time.
NORTHERN ADIRONDACKS
** Adirondack Canoe Route: Due to heavy rains last week and recent moderate rains water levels are high. Check the current USGS streamflow data for selected waters.
St. Regis Canoe Area: The carry between Long Pond and Nellie Pond has been flooded by beavers about half way between the ponds. A short paddle will be required. DEC and Student Conservation Association crews will be working through mid-October to move 8 campsites, closed 23 campsites and created 21 new campsites [online map]. This week they are rebuilding a lean-to on Fish Pond. Please respect closure signs.
Whitney Wilderness / Lake Lila: Beaver activity has caused the flooding of the Stony Pond Road approximately one mile from the trailhead. Use caution if you choose to cross this area.
--------------------
Forecast provided by the National Weather Service; warnings and announcements drawn from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and other sources. Detailed Adirondack Park camping, hiking, and outdoor recreation and trail conditions can be found at DEC's webpages. A DEC map of the Adirondack Park can also be found online [pdf].
The new DEC Trails Supporter Patch is now available for $5 at all outlets where sporting licenses are sold, on-line and via telephone at 1-866-933-2257. Patch proceeds will help maintain and enhance non-motorized trails throughout New York State.

via adirondackalmanack.com

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Oct. 7)

2010-10-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Oct. 7)

Adirondack Almanack: Election Voter Registration Deadline Friday

2010-10-07T05:39:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Election Voter Registration Deadline Friday: "For state residents to register to vote for the November 2, 2010 general election mail-in voter registration forms must be postmarked by mid..."

Adirondack Almanack: Moose River Plains Primitive Rendezvous and Hunt

2010-10-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Moose River Plains Primitive Rendezvous and Hunt: "There's a unique event happening this week about seven miles from the Limekiln Lake entrance in the Moose River Plains Wild Forest - a Primi..."

Adirondack Almanack: An Onion River Lesson: DEC Needs Our Help

2010-10-06T06:07:00.001-07:00

People who oppose the state’s acquisition of land in the Adirondacks often complain that the state can’t manage the forest it already owns. So, the thinking goes, why buy more?
That argument always struck me as risible. Forests can manage quite well without our help. They did so for eons before homo sapiens existed.
I assume, then, the critics mean that the state has done a less-than-superb job creating and maintaining recreational facilities on the public Forest Preserve—trails, parking lots, signs, and the like. In this, they have a point. It was driven home to me last weekend when I paddled the little-known Onion River.

The Onion is part of a Forest Preserve parcel that also includes Madawaska Flow and Quebec Brook. The parcel was purchased by the state in the Champion International transaction in 1998—the first big conservation-easement deal engineered by Governor George Pataki. In all, the state acquired twenty-nine thousand acres outright and protected another 115,000 acres through easements that permit logging but prohibit development.
To reach Madawaska Flow, the put-in for trips on the Onion River and Quebec Brook, you have to drive for six miles on a dirt road through easement lands. The road begins at a wooden DEC sign on Route 458 west of Meacham Lake.
Complaint No. 1: On the way to the parking area, the road passes three junctions where the way is not obvious. None of them is marked by a sign. I guessed wrong once and eventually ended up on a muddy logging track.
Complaint No. 2: When you arrive at the parking lot, there are no maps, signs, or trail markers to indicate where the portage is. I walked down a gated woods road for 0.4 miles to reach the water, but I’m told there is a shorter portage with a different put-in. The carries should be marked.
Complaint No. 3: There are many places amid the pines that would be ideal for pitching a tent, but I saw no official campsites. In a comment in the trail register, another visitor also complained about the lack of campsites.
In short, more than a decade after the state purchased the Madawaska tract, DEC has failed to provide such basic amenities as signs, trail disks, and campsites.
I’m not going to criticize DEC. We all know how short-staffed and underfunded the department is. And last week the governor announced that the department’s budget will be cut even more.
So the critics are right. DEC lacks the staff to adequately “manage” the forest. I disagree with their conclusion, though, that the state should stop buying land. The primary purpose in preserving the Adirondacks is the protection of wild habitat and natural ecosystems. Recreation, however important, is secondary.
That said, we ought to make the Forest Preserve more user-friendly. In this era of austerity, we cannot expect DEC to do everything. Hikers, paddlers, cross-country skiers, anglers, hunters, and others who use and love the Forest Preserve need to pitch in.
DEC already relies on volunteers recruited through its Adopt-a-Natural-Resource program. Among other things, the volunteers maintain trails and repair lean-tos. But this approach can be greatly expanded with the help of the Internet.
Here’s my idea: DEC, perhaps in conjunction with the Adirondack Mountain Club, should create an interactive website listing Forest Preserve projects that need doing and solicit volunteers to undertake the work. At the same time, the public could submit suggestions for other projects. The aim would be to match volunteers with projects that they are highly motivated to undertake. It might be clearing blowdown on a favorite hiking trail, marking a portage, or snipping brush on a ski trail.
Those who love the Forest Preserve are willing to give generously of their time to make it a better place to visit. Just this week, DEC gave its annual stewardship award to a passionate hiker, Len Grubbs, who has devoted 2,336 hours to trail work over the years. For another example of the dedication of volunteers, check out the story about Lean2Rescue in the September/October issue of the Adirondack Explorer. (The Explorer story is not available online, but the Almanack also covered their award-winning work last year last year.)
The passion is out there. DEC just needs to harness it.
Anybody out there capable of building a few signs to point the way to Madawaska?
Photo: The Onion River by Phil Brown, editor of the Adirondack Explorer newsmagazine. A description of Phil's trip on the Onion is online along with another possible trip at Madawaska.

via adirondackalmanack.com

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Groups Win Round Over Canoe Route

2010-10-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Groups Win Round Over Canoe Route

2010-10-05T05:47:00.001-07:00

Two Adirondack conservation groups, the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) and Protect the Adirondacks! (PROTECT), have won an important round in a lawsuit to force the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) to classify a state-owned wilderness canoe route in the heart of the Adirondacks. According to the local conservationists their lawsuit challenges the failure of the state to classify the waters of Lows Lake and other water bodies at all and is not challenging a particular classification determination.
State Supreme Court Justice Michael C. Lynch denied the state’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit against APA and the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). According to a press release issued Friday, "the groups brought the lawsuit because of APA’s failure to classify the waters of Lows Lake and nearby water bodies. The groups assert that state law requires the state to classify state-owned water bodies that are part of the Forest Preserve."

“We are pleased that the Court has rejected the state's effort to delay the resolution of this case and look forward to the day when APA and DEC will have to comply with the State Land Master Plan and classify Lows Lake as part of the Five Ponds Wilderness Area," said Dale Jeffers, co-chair of PROTECT’s Conservation Advocacy Committee.
The decision reaffirmed that the Master Plan has the force of law according to ADK’s executive director and counsel Neil Woodworth. “There is a persistent misconception that the Master Plan is just a set of guidelines or recommendations,” Woodworth said. “That is not the case. The provisions of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan are state law, codified as Section 816 of New York State Executive Law. State agencies do not have the discretion to ignore the plan. That is what this case is all about.”
In his ruling, Justice Lynch determined that issues raised by ADK and PROTECT are “justiciable,” in other words, substantial issues that are appropriate for resolution by a court.
The groups also assert that APA had already classified Lows Lake as Wilderness in 1987 and that classification was approved by Gov. Cuomo in 1988. The state moved to dismiss that claim as untimely, but Justice Lynch recognized that the lawsuit is not challenging the earlier classification but instead seeks to enforce it. He ruled that the claim was timely brought.
In April, the APA banned floatplane use on Lows Lake after 2011. The following month, the APA and DEC proposed classifying Lows Lake and other nearby water bodies as Wilderness. The groups assert that the Master Plan requires APA to classify all state-owned lands and waters in the Adirondack Park according to “their characteristics and ability to withstand use.” In September, the APA voted to classify a portion of Lows Lake as Wilderness and a portion as Primitive. Both classifications prohibit motorized public uses. But Gov. David Paterson’s representatives on the APA board later changed their position and supported a resolution that left the lake unclassified.
A copy of Justice Lynch’s decision is available as an online pdf.

via adirondackalmanack.com

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Conservation Easements: Trends and Expectations

2010-10-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Adirondack Conservation Easements: Trends and Expectations

2010-10-04T05:38:00.001-07:00

Definition: “A conservation easement typically consists of permanently enforceable rights held by a land trust or government agency by which the landowner promises to use property only in ways permitted by the easement. The landowner retains ownership and may convey it like any other property, subject to the easement’s restrictions. Conservation easements have been made possible by enabling legislation in virtually every state” (from Reinventing Conservation Easements: A Critical Examination and Ideas for Reform by Jeff Pidot, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2005).
Society has many expectations for large tracts of forest under conservation easement. The list often includes some form of public recreation on private ownership, sustainably harvested timber and pulp, biological diversity including diverse watchable and huntable wildlife, recreational leases, drivable roads, protected streams, ponds and wetlands, shared taxes, timely enforcement of the rules.

If that list is not long enough, some believe that these protected private lands can be managed to help slow or mitigate a changing climate that is likely to continue to warm for centuries, even if Homo sapiens cut emissions dramatically in order to maintain current atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, which we are not.
During a winter 2009 workshop about Adirondack conservation easements, it was reported that there were 737,000 acres under some form of state conservation easement in all of New York State, with 98% occurring in the Adirondack region. An additional 100,000 acres were being negotiated. According to Regional Forester Tom Martin, in DEC Region 5 (two-thirds of the Adirondack Park) there were 365,000 acres under conservation easement with 113 different landowners in 2009. 340,000 of those acres were certified by third-party certification systems such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
During the workshop, Jerry Jenkins of the Wildlife Conservation Society offered his opinion that easements in the Northern Forest have achieved a basic goal to conserve biodiversity. Jenkins’ report Conservation Easements and Biodiversity in the Northern Forest Region (2008 by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Open Space Institute) provides important background and recommendations. As Jenkins stated at the workshop, conservation easements negotiated in the future should also address the issue of carbon emissions, which have global consequences.
If conservation easements are to address climate issues, landowners must be provided with the information and spectrum of management options. Forestry management plans which utilize low grade trees as biomass feedstock are on the “front lines.” To satisfy the Chicago Climate Exchange, forests need to be FSC certified.
Certification provides the standards and incentives to capture this low carbon energy source and the practice of low carbon forestry. Would easement lands qualify for carbon offset markets? Jenkins noted that the dollar value to landowners may not come solely or even primarily from carbon offsets, but from the avoidance cost of replacing fossil fuels as primary heat source in the northeast. As Jerry Jenkins put it, “how much money can we save the local school board by putting in a wood chip boiler in place of the old oil burner? How can those savings be translated into financial benefits for the landowner?”
In September, 2010, the Adirondack Park Agency sponsored a field visit with the Adirondack Park’s largest private landowner and manager of lands under conservation easement, Lyme Timber. Lyme’s land manager Sean Ross led the APA to lands they have harvested north of Tupper Lake. Adirondack Wild’s Dan Plumley and I went along. These foresters manage blocks as large as 15,000 acres. Lyme owns 250,000-acres in the Adirondack Park.
In general, Lyme views the conservation easement positively, as well as the rigorous certification requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Ross made the case that the Adirondack Park’s protected status, including laws and publicly-owned Forest Preserve, were strong incentives to engage in easements and certification. Lyme’s field operations must be audited each year by the FSC or one of its third party certifiers. As Sean told us, FSC certification is an expected cost of doing business these days.
Why is Lyme in this forest land business? Trees are adding diameter and value yearly. This steady return on investment jumps when a large cherry or maple grows into a larger diameter class. Lyme’s markets are wherever they can find them – the Ticonderoga mill, nearby biomass plants, Canada and the world.
If he had the power to do so, what would he change about the conservation easement? Sean Ross said that he might take small parts of a given parcel out of the easement, and put other areas in it. Other than this, he saw no need for change. In answer to other questions, Sean Ross noted that fragmentation of land ownerships across the Northern Forest is making it challenging to manage lands for forestry. Asked if Ross could estimate Lyme’s minimum viable tract size, Ross stated it was around 10,000 acres.
Were there any collaborative efforts to conduct ecosystem-based, wild land planning for wildlife and ecosystem integrity on these lands, such as wildlife corridors? In response, Ross noted that Lyme was able to get a grant through DEC to hire a wildlife biologist that is exploring these issues for their Adirondack lands. He noted collaboration with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Audubon New York.
Lyme also participated in the 2009 workshop. During that meeting, its representative noted the time pressures to complete contracts, and to assess what’s important to conserve in a conservation easement. On the other hand, biologists at the workshop felt that on large forested tracts several field seasons were required to survey and document rare or unique ecological communities.
The 2009 workshop concluded by identifying the following needs and tasks:
• Studies to indicate whether easements in the Adirondacks are truly meeting stated ecological, economic and social objectives.
• Studies of how easement lands respond to climate change.
• Methods for compensating landowners for achieving easement objectives
• Funding for baseline documentation and monitoring programs for both land and aquatic resources.
• Completing a conservation easement registry program, already required by law.

Photo: Sean Ross of Lyme Timber addresses questions during APA-sponsored field visit in September. Photo by Dan Plumley, Adirondack Wild.

via adirondackalmanack.com

Adirondacks, New York, forests, easements

Home - Pete Klein's Vampire Fiction

2010-10-03T13:53:00.001-07:00

via petekleinvampires.com

http://www.petekleinvampires.com/

2010-10-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

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Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Sept. 30)

2010-10-01T05:35:00.000-07:00

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Sept. 30)

Adirondack Almanack: Current Conditions in the Adirondack Park (Sept. 30

2010-10-01T05:34:00.001-07:00

This announcement is for general use - local conditions may vary and are subject to change.
Listen for the weekly Adirondack Outdoor Conditions Report Friday mornings on WNBZ (AM 920 & 1240, FM 105 & 102.1) and the stations of North Country Public Radio.
The Adirondack Almanack publishes occasional Forest Ranger incident reports which form a stern reminder that wilderness conditions can change suddenly and accidents happen. Be aware of the latest weather conditions and carry adequate gear and supplies.
Fire Danger: LOW
Very Heavy Rains/High Waters/Flooding

The National Weather Service is predicting 3 to 4 inches of rain in the Adirondacks through Friday morning, with some areas receiving more. Strong winds are expected with stronger winds at higher elevations. A flood watch is in effect into Friday night. Water levels are expected to be high - low water crossings may not be accessible and paddlers should be prepared for high waters. Expect muddy wet, trails through the weekend. Wear appropriate footwear and to stay on the trail - hike through muddy areas and puddles to avoid widening the trails or creating “herd paths” around those areas.
Central Adirondacks Lower Elevation Weather

Friday: Showers before 2pm. Cloudy, high near 58.
Friday Night: Chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, low around 37.
Saturday: Chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, high near 50. Gutsy winds.
Saturday Night: Chance of rain and snow showers; low around 31.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy, high near 45.
The National Weather Service provides a weather forecast for elevations above 3000 feet and spot forecasts for the summits of a handful of the highest peaks in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties. [LINK]
Cooler Weather

Cooler temperatures have arrived in the mountains. Night-time and morning temperatures in the 30s or colder are likely, especially at higher elevations. Pack extra non-cotton clothes, including a hat and gloves.
Darkness Arriving Earlier

Autumn has arrived and daylight hours have decreased. Know when sunset occurs and plan accordingly. Always pack or carry a flashlight with fresh batteries.
Fall Foliage Season

Fall Foliage Season is well underway in the central Adirondacks. For an updated foliage report see the state tourism site's Foliage Report.
GENERAL ADIRONDACK CONDITIONS
Accidents Happen, Be Prepared

Wilderness conditions can change suddenly and accidents happen. Hikers and campers should check up-to-date forecasts before entering the backcountry as conditions at higher elevations will likely be more severe. All users should bring flashlight, first aid kit, map and compass, extra food, plenty of water and clothing. Be prepared to spend an unplanned night in the woods and always inform others of your itinerary.

Motorists Alert: Moose
There are upwards of 800 Moose in the Adirondack region, up from 500 in 2007. Motorists should be alert for moose on the roadways at this time of year especially at dawn and dusk, which are times of poor visibility when Moose are most active. Much larger than deer, moose-car collisions can be very dangerous. Last year ten accidents involving moose were reported. DEC is working to identify areas where moose are present and post warning signs.
Hunting Seasons
Fall hunting seasons for small game, waterfowl and big game have begun or will begin shortly. Hikers should be aware that they may meet hunters bearing firearms or archery equipment while hiking on trails. Recognize that these are fellow outdoor recreationists with the legal right to hunt on Forest Preserve lands. Hunting accidents involving non-hunters are extremely rare. Hikers may want to wear bright colors as an extra precaution.
Sporting Licenses On Sale
The new sporting license year will begins October 1. Find out how to purchase a sporting license on the DEC website. Information about the 2010 Hunting Seasons is also available online [pdf].
Motorized Equipment in Wilderness, Primitive and Canoe Areas
The use of motorized equipment in lands classified as wilderness, primitive or canoe is prohibited. Public use of small personal electronic or mechanical devices such as cameras, radios or GPS receivers are not affected this regulation.
Storage of Personal Belongings on State Land
Placing structures or personal property on state land without authorization from DEC is prohibited. Exceptions include: properly placed and labeled geocaches; legally placed and tagged traps, tree stands and blinds. The full regulation regarding the use of motorized equipment on state lands may be found online; the regulation regarding the structures and storage of personal property is also online.
Firewood Ban
Due to the possibility of spreading invasive species that could devastate northern New York forests (such as Emerald Ash Borer, Hemlock Wooly Adeljid and Asian Longhorn Beetle), DEC prohibits moving untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its source. Forest Rangers have begun ticketing violators of this firewood ban. More details and frequently asked questions at the DEC website.
Do Not Feed Bears
Recently a forest ranger shot and killed a bear that was harassing campers at the Eight Lake State Campground near Inlet. Wildlife biologists believe the yearling had been fed by campers and grown not to fear people. Eight problem bears were killed in the Adirondacks last summer.
Bear-Resistant Canisters
The use of bear-resistant canisters is required for overnight users in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness between April 1 and November 30. All food, toiletries and garbage must be stored in bear resistant canisters; the use of bear-resistant canisters is encouraged throughout the Adirondacks.
Low Impact Campfires
Reduce the impact on natural areas by utilizing lightweight stoves, fire pans, mound fires or other low impact campfire techniques. Use only dead or small downed wood that can be broken by hand and keep fires small. Leave hatchets, axes and saws at home. Never leave a fire unattended, don't burn garbage, and restore the appearance of your fire site; do not move fire rings. Campfires are prohibited in the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness [LINK].
ADIRONDACK LOCAL BACKCOUNTRY CONDITIONS
** indicates new or revised items.
NORTHEASTERN ADIRONDACKS
** Chazy Highlands Wild Forest: The newly acquired Forest Preserve lands on the Standish and Chazy Lake Roads in the Lyon Mountain area, and on the Smith and Carter Roads in the Ellenburg Mountain area, are open for public use. State boundary lines are not yet marked, contact the DEC Region 5 Natural Resources office (518-891-1291) to obtain a property map. Be aware of your location at all times, do not trespass.
Lake Champlain Tributaries: The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative (Cooperative) has completed applying lampricide to portions of the Salmon River, Little Ausable River, Ausable River, and Putnam Creek in New York. The Department of Health recommends that the treated river and lake water not be used for drinking, swimming, fishing, irrigation, or livestock watering while the health advisories are in effect.
HIGH PEAKS
** Northville-Placid Trail: Crews have constructed and marked a reroute of the Northville-Placid Trail around an area flooded by beaver activity between Plumley Point and Shattuck Clearing.
Opalescent River Bridges Washed Out: The Opalescent River Bridge on the East River / Hanging Spears Falls trail has been washed out. The crossing will be impassable during high water.
Big Slide Ladder: The ladder up the final pitch of Big Slide has been removed.
Caulkins Brook Truck Trail/Horse Trail: Much of the blowdown on the Caulkins Brook Truck Trail/Horse Trail between the Calkins Brook lean-tos and Shattuck Clearing has been removed. The trail is open for hikers but remains impassable to horses and wagons. DEC crews continue to work to open the trail.
Calamity Dam Lean-to: Calamity Lean-to #1, the lean-to closest to the old Calamity Dam in the Flowed Lands, has been dismantled and removed.
Mt. Adams Fire Tower: The cab of the Mt. Adams Fire Tower was heavily damaged by windstorms. The fire tower is closed to public access until DEC can make repairs to the structure.
Upper Works - Preston Ponds Washouts: Two foot bridges on the trail between Upper Works and Preston Pond were washed out by an ice jam. One bridge was located 1/3 mile northwest of the new lean-to on Henderson Lake. The second bridge was located several tenths of a mile further northwest. The streams can be crossed by rock hopping. Crossings may be difficult during periods of high water.
Duck Hole: The bridge across the dam has been removed due to its deteriorating condition. A low water crossing (ford) has been marked below the dam near the lean-to site. This crossing will not be possible during periods of high water.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ADIRONDACKS
** Adirondack Canoe Route: National Weather Service is predicting 3 to 4 inches of rain in the Adirondacks, with some areas receiving more, from Thursday morning to Friday morning. Water levels are expected to be high through the weekend. Check the current USGS streamflow data for selected waters.
Forest Ranger Greg George: Ranger George has retired after 33 years of service. If you had contacted Ranger George in the past for camping permits, backcountry conditions or for any other purpose, you should now contact Forest Ranger Bruce Lomnitzer at 518-648-5246. For matters regarding Tirrell Pond contact Forest Ranger Jay Scott at 315-354-4611.
** Coyote Activity in Old Forge: There has been some anecdotal evidence for higher than usual numbers of coyotes in the Old Forge area. No nuisance animals have been reported, but their presence is a reminder that as coyotes increasingly adapt to people, more encounters between humans and coyotes will occur, either as sightings, confrontations with pets, disturbed garbage or pet foods, or howling at night. To minimize conflicts don't provide food such as coolers or garbage, and do not feed wildlife.
Ferris Lake Wild Forest / West Lake Boat Launch (Fulton County): The boat launch was impacted by August rains and floods. DEC staff have made repairs to the roadway, parking lot and ramps, however, be aware that the waters off the boat launch are more shallow than before.
Moose River Plains Wild Forest: Rock Dam Road and the campsites along it have reopened. The main Moose River Plains Road (Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road), the Otter Brook Road up to the Otter Brook Bridge will also be open this weekend. Gates to other side roads, including Indian Lake Road, Otter Brook Truck Trail, and Otter Brook Road, remain shut and the roads closed to motor vehicle traffic at this time.
** Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road: Work has been completed on the Sumner Stream Bridge Project on the main Moose River Plains Road (Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road). Once again vehicles may travel between the Cedar River entrance and the Limekiln Lake entrance. See photos of the two new bridges.
Sacandaga Lake (Near Speculator, about 20 miles north west of Great Sacandaga Lake): Warning! The spiny water flea, an aquatic invasive species, is has been confirmed present in Sacandaga Lake in the southern Adirondacks near Speculator. It was previously confirmed in Great Sacandaga Lake in 2008, Peck Lake in 2009, and Stewarts Bridge Reservoir earlier this year. It is not clear when the spiny water flea was introduced into each of the lakes. It is clear that the initial introduction, and very likely the others as well, were through adult, larvae, or eggs being transported to the waters by bait bucket, bilge water, live well, boat, canoe, kayak, trailer or fishing equipment. Prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species - INSPECT, DRY and CLEAN all fishing and boating equipment between waters. See advice in the "Do Not Spread Invasive Aquatic Species" webpage.
West Canada Lakes Wilderness / N-P Trail: The bridge over Mud Creek, on the Northville-Placid Trail northeast of Mud Lake, has been washed out.
** Shaker Mountain Wild Forest: The lean-to on the south shore of Chase Lake has been removed, and a new one is now been built on the lake's north shore (See photos). A new trail spur leading off the old trail and approaching the new lean-to from the west has been marked. The site of the old lean-to is now a designated tent site.
Chimney Mountain / Eagle Cave: DEC is investigating the presence of white-nose syndrome in bats in Eagle Cave near Chimney Mountain. Until further notice Eagle Cave is closed to all public access.
** Wilcox Lake Forest: The trail to Tenant Creek Falls has been closed indefinitely. DEC is working to reroute the trail entirely on public land. Currently, parking and initial trail access are on private land for which there is no easement.
Wilcox Lake Wild Forest: Flooding is also affecting the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest, particularly the Pine Orchard Trail and Murphy Lake Trail. Bridges at Mill Creek, approximately 3 miles from the trailhead on Dorr Road has no decking, only stringers, the bridges over Mill Brook, north of Pine Orchard, is not decked, and the Dayton Creek bridge is out on the trail from Brownell Camp (at the end of Hope Falls Road) to Wilcox Lake.
EASTERN ADIRONDACKS
** Gore Mountain: The Schaeffer Trail to the summit of Gore Mountain, has undergone a significant reroute. The new trailhead is located at the parking lot for Grunblatt Memorial Beach in North Creek. From there the trail leads southwest and then north, looping around the North Creek reservoir before continuing southwest to the summit.
Lake George Wild Forest / Hudson River Recreation Area: Funding reductions have required that several gates and roads remain closed to motor vehicle traffic. These include Dacy Clearing Road, Lily Pond Road, Jabe Pond Road, Gay Pond Road, Buttermilk Road Extension and Scofield Flats Road.
Lake George Wild Forest: Equestrians should be aware that there is significant blowdown on horse trails. While hikers may be able to get through the trails, it may be impossible or at least much harder for horses to get through. Lack of resources, resulting from the state's budget shortfall, preclude DEC from clearing trails of blowdown at this time.
NORTHERN ADIRONDACKS
** Adirondack Canoe Route: National Weather Service is predicting 3 to 4 inches of rain in the Adirondacks, with some areas receiving more, from Thursday morning to Friday morning. Water levels are expected to be high through the weekend. Check the current USGS streamflow data for selected waters.
St. Regis Canoe Area: The carry between Long Pond and Nellie Pond has been flooded by beavers about half way between the ponds. A short paddle will be required. DEC and Student Conservation Association crews have moved 8 campsites, closed 23 campsites and created 21 new campsites [online map]. Please respect closure signs.
Whitney Wilderness / Lake Lila: Beaver activity has caused the flooding of the Stony Pond Road approximately one mile from the trailhead. Use caution if you choose to cross this area.
--------------------
Forecast provided by the National Weather Service; warnings and announcements drawn from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and other sources. Detailed Adirondack Park camping, hiking, and outdoor recreation and trail conditions can be found at DEC's webpages. A DEC map of the Adirondack Park can also be found online [pdf].
The new DEC Trails Supporter Patch is now available for $5 at all outlets where sporting licenses are sold, on-line and via telephone at 1-866-933-2257. Patch proceeds will help maintain and enhance non-motorized trails throughout New York State.

via adirondackalmanack.com

Ontario courts move to decriminalize prostitution

2010-09-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ontario courts move to decriminalize prostitution