"11,000 Year Old Monument"

The Smithsonian reports that in Turkey near Urfa on the Syrian boarder at a dig called Gobekli Tepe a series of beautifully carved standing stones are being investigated.
That makes this very interesting site 6000 years older than Stonehenge.

Income Reports

What is a good and easy way to get the reports on the sources of income and amounts of income for organizations such as FBI, CIA, Army, Navy?

Basque?

Stonehenge is older than the Egyptian pyramids and the Passage Tombs of Ireland are older yet.

What do the Basque have to do with it?

Headed Home

I may need a nurse and some bearers to carry me in a basket on my next trip. I'm tired!
It used to be a great pleasure to fly Varig, that wonderfully generous and hospitable Brazilian airline. It's not gone. I have not seen, but have heard, that it is again flying domestic and foreign routes.
Copa, the Panamanian airline, is a fairly bare-bones operation with few comforts and not famous for it's food. Still, it flies all over the Americas and is often the cheapest way to go. I'll fly from Sao Paulo to Los Angeles via Panama on Copa.

Southern Brazil

Southern Brazil is green and temperate. It is among the very top of world rice growers. and has tremendous beef and dairy industry. It is also well capable of competing with Japan and Europe industrially in many levels.
There are many big beautiful cities in the south and, by far, Sao Paulo is the biggest. Sao Paulo is imposing, energetic, and rich with some scabs of poverty around the edges. That it has over 80 important museums suggests that in has its share of high culture and it, indeed, does. It's beauty is much of the Chicago and Los Angeles. I believe that it still has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. It also may be the fourth largest city of the world.
Pelotas is the city closest to Uruguay. It is there that I noted three adjacent street-level offices along a business. Between a a bronze placked CPA office and the bronze placked office of a Lawyer,was one that at first thought to be and architect's office. However, on looking closer I read, "Magic and Alchemy."
Porto Alegre lives up to its name; except for the fact that it was raining while I was there.
"Floripa," the beautiful capital of Santa Catarina State, is a gem. I just passed through, but its buildings, island and bridges looked gem-like to me. Its small (less than 1/2 mill), rich, and prettily situated. Like much of the South it is strongly Portuguese greatly influenced by early and strong German and Italian immigration. It is also 100% Brazilian. Still, they have a very clear idea of who Garibaldi was.

Buses

Buses in Uruguay and Brazil are generally quite and comfortable. Usually no electronically amplified sound; seldom movies and I never experienced loud music.
In Brazil some passengers might get as unpleasant as some in coach on a flight. In general cross country buses are better than U.S. counter-parts, even back to the days when the "the old grey dog" was young and strong.

Beef and Soccer

Beef has always been big in Uruguay. However, it may now be easier to get some of the best pasta dishes outside of Italy, and adaptations of some of the best European pastries here than it is to get a good cut of prime beef. Still if one looks ....
Little Uruguay competes with Argentina in quality beef productions as it does in futbal. Futbal, soccer, is big here; I've seen major public functions delayed until the end of what seemed rather ordinary soccer matches.

I'm heading to Brazil overland.