A tour of the C.I.A., led by one of their explosive sniffing K9 dogs

By Jack Brummet

The C.I.A. has always had an outward facing element--mainly the CIA World Factbook, which has long been available and is a pretty standard reference work.

Lately, though, they have jumped into the world of Social Networking, with Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook accounts.

This is a short video tour of the CIA, released on YouTube, conducted by one of their bomb-sniffing dogs, and narrated using the voice of a young girl. . .

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Painting: Wired up

by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Painting: Summertime

By Jack Brummet

Detail:

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Drawing: Faces No. 838 - illuminated first class menu

By Jack Brummet

This is from our trip to Colombia last November, where we were able to upgrade with miles and fly round-trip in first class.  With about 20 hours on my hands, I went to work on the menu (the food and drink, BT Dubs, was fantastic).

click images to enlarge

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Run, Rudolph, Run: a reindeer watches a German bomb strike over Russia

A confused reindeer watches German planes bombing Mourmansk, Russia in 1941.  Photograph by Yevgeny Khaldey.

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Poem: September 13, 1985

By Jack Brummet

It was quiet as a painting 
in Berkeley, 

driving at three a.m. 
on Telegraph Avenue 

toward Oakland, 
to the delivery room. 

I saw a new moon 
hung on our old sky. 

We watched the monitor 
and waited.

Her robber-stockinged face 
came down and one bleat 

to the rafters 
started us all breathing again. 
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Poem: [don't look back]

By Jack Brummet

Don't look back
Means no regrets

Look back on the good times
But leave the rest

Just ask Lot's wife
And the other pillars of salt

Standing outside Gomorrah
Like Easter Island statues

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President William Howard Taft's sleeping porch on the White House roof

By Jack Brummet, Presidents Ed.

William Howard Taft was 27th President (1909–13) and later, tenth Chief Justice of SCOTUS. No one else has ever held both offices.   This is his sleeping porch on the White House roof.

photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

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Drawing: Faces No. 837

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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More fun with Google search. . .

By Jack Brummet, Research Ed.

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Drawing: Faces No. 836

By Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Christian Aerobics a/k/a Praise-r-cise

By Mona Goldwater

Found via tsutpen.blogspot.com a/k/a "If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" (which comes from the title of a Charles Mingus song).

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