TheSwirl.org

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning. As I let Trey out the door I couldn’t resist snapping this picture.

The planet’s population is projected to reach 6.5 billion at 7:16 p.m. EST Saturday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and its World Population Clock (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html) . Population levels are growing, but at a slower rate than in the past few decades. The current growth of world population is estimated at 1.1 percent a year, and has slowed from its peak of 2.1 percent annual growth between 1965 and 1970.

A large portion of the world’s population lives in nations that are at sub-replacement fertility, meaning the average woman has fewer than two children in her lifetime. Countries in this camp include former members of the Soviet Union, Japan and most of Europe. Demographers attribute the slowing rate of global population growth in part to more widespread availability of birth control and to people in developed nations choosing to have fewer children. But low-birthrate countries are counterbalanced by nations like Yemen, where the average woman has seven children in her lifetime.The highest population growth rates emanate disproportionately from the poorest regions of Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

I found a great web site of lists at http://www.listible.com/ They use tagging, voting and listing to sort resources in a way that will be digestible. You can search what you need quick. You can contribute your resources easier. They maintain pages of favorite, featured and new lists.  Their current front page 16 featured lists are:

1. Windows open source and/or freeware
2. List of Torrent Sites
3. Listible Suggestions - What you want Listible to add, change, or remove.
4. Best Web Design Resources - Resources for web designers. XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX
5. Top FREE Anti-Virus Software
6. Search engines
7. Beer
8. Best “Music Recommender” Websites
9. Free blog hosts
10. Best free wallpaper websites
11. Best PC Security Sources
12. Ever Expanding list of Chinese Blogs
13. Free webmail providers
14. AJAX Tutorials
15. Best Online Calendars
16. Essential WordPress Plugins

Usually every year I accumulate enough down limbs, brush and old fence posts over the course of Spring, Summer and Fall that I have a big brush pile to burn in the winter. This year’s pile was one of my largest ever due to the tree damage from the July microburst and cleaning out the fence line to install the new fence. Trey and I went to check out the progress on the fire after it had been burning for about an hour.

Eric’s pal Trevor’s dad works in a sawmill and as a result Trevor is very knowledgable of chainsaws, log skidders and the tools of the trade. Eric and Trevor each got matching toy chainsaws from Trevors grandpa - batteries included.