The Pilgrims would have put him to work...

A case of " Bad Karma" for the Lobsters in Gloucester, MA

Looks like a case of "Bad Karma" for the lobsters on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

First they were rescued from becoming somebody's supper by local Buddists who sought to give the lobsters a chance at freedom....(see " The rest of the story" after this first part)

Buddhists liberate lobsters, rerouting from boiling pot to sea
By Lauren Keiper - Boston Globe

Thu Aug 4, 2011

GLOUCESTER, Mass (Reuters) - Instead of plunging headfirst to their death in a pot of boiling water, 534 live lobsters escaped the dinner plate and belly flopped to freedom into the dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

A group of Tibetan Buddhists flanked the sides of a whale-watching boat at dusk on Wednesday, sprayed the lobsters with blessed water, clipped the bands binding their dangerous claws and gently released them one by one into the deep water below.

The 30 Buddhists of all ages trekked to the North Shore beach community known for its massive lobster hauls to purchase 600 pounds of lobster from a seafood wholesaler and save the critters from imminent death.

The lobster liberation was scheduled specifically for August 3, which is Wheel Turning Day on this year's Tibetan lunar calendar, the anniversary of the first sermon Buddha taught. On this holiday, the merit for positive actions is multiplied many times.

"Even if they get captured again, they've had a longer life," said Wendy Cook, a yoga instructor and former director at the Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Medford, Massachusetts, a town just north of Boston.

If not for the liberation, "you know they are going to be shipped to restaurants and headed to the boiling pot," she said.
Buddhists from the Kurukulla Center typically liberate masses of the expensive seafood a couple times each year.

Cook led a ceremony ahead of the liberation that included prayers, mantras and walking the 13 boxes of lobsters in circles around a display of blessed objects. These important steps develop a karmic connection for the animals' future lifetimes and help ease future suffering, she said.

Among those setting the lobsters free was Vikrant Bhasin, a chef from Cambridge, Massachusetts who called the life-giving experience "beautiful."

THEN, our friends the lobsters find out they were destined to be dinner afterall....


Released lobsters retaken, group says
Caught at site of Buddhist ritual
By John M. Guilfoil
Globe Staff / August 9, 2011

Talk about bad karma.

On Thursday, a group of Buddhists traveled to Gloucester and purchased 534 lobsters, about 600 pounds worth, from a wholesaler and dumped them back into the sea in a prayer ceremony in which the crustaceans’ bands were cut and blessed water was sprayed on them.

Freedom. But it may have been short-lived.

Yesterday, lobstermen from the fishing vessel Degelyse said they had traveled to the site of the ceremony, laid their traps, and hauled up exactly 534 lobsters, according to a local blog, Goodmorninggloucester.org.

And then they brought their haul right back to market.

“It’s really not meant as a slight toward Buddhism at all,’’ said Joe Ciaramitaro, who runs the blog that broke the story and co-owns Captain Joe and Sons Dock, where the boat and several others offload their catch. He also runs Captain Joe and Sons Wholesale Lobster Co. in Gloucester. “We’re just having fun.’’

The Reuters news agency reported on the Buddhists’ release of the lobsters, which featured a group of 30 who boarded a whale-watching ship and conducted their ceremony.

The actions included prayers, mantras, and walking boxes of lobsters in a circle around blessed objects, which is designed to “develop a karmic connection for the animals’ future lifetimes.’’

“Even if they get captured again, they’ve had a longer life,’’ Wendy Cook, who helped lead the ceremony, told Reuters.

Cook did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

In a video on Ciaramitaro’s blog, the lobstermen joke that the Buddhists are welcome to re-purchase the lobsters and release them again.

The captain of the Degelyse could not be reached for comment.

Ciaramitaro did not know how the crew ascertained the location of the Buddhist drop zone, but he admitted that the whole episode may have been a joke designed to break up the long days and hard work of fishing the Atlantic.

“The job is so tough, lobstering and being down the dock at 5 a.m. seven days a week, and it’s a lot of monotonous physical labor,’’ he said.

“Anything to break up the day and have some fun is what we’re all about. We’re not trying to antagonize them or anything like that.’’

IN THOMAS WE TRUST - A SALUTE OF SUPPORT TO THE BOSTON BRUINS FROM THE 26TH YANKEE DIVISION

The enclosed picture is located at FOB PHOENIX near Kabul Afghanistan. This is where the 26th YD YANKEE DIVISION, 181ST INFANTRY is located.

The 26th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the United States Army. As a major formation of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, it was based in Boston, Massachusetts for most of its history. Today, the division's heritage is carried on by the 26th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.

The 26th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade ("Yankee"[1]) is a Combat support brigade of the United States Army. Its headquarters is maintained by the Massachusetts Army National Guard. It is the modern incarnation of the 26th Infantry Division.

These men(and ladies) don't know the meaning of the word " QUIT" and they are steadfast in their support for the BOSTON BRUINS.....

We maybe down 2 games - 0 BUT we can fight on just like the 26th YD has done and will continue to do !

To the BOSTON BRUINS from AFGHANISTAN - FIGHT ON !! WE ARE PULLING FOR YOU !

US Marine from Falmouth, MA promotes Bio-Fuel and helps Afghan Farmers power their own economy from within Afghanistan

Falmouth, MA is one of the more scenic places on Cape Cod. You are near Woods Hole and the embark spot for Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The town has many fine beaches and recreation spots that during the summer bring tourists from miles....if you haven't spent time on Cape Cod during the summer, you don't know what you are missing.

Enclosed is a story about how a US Marine from Falmouth is trying to get farmers in Afghanistan to grow Bio-fuels and stop the scourge of Opium. This will assist the farmers and the need for clean, green fuels.

I'm sure that Marine Sgt. Brian Nelson would rather be home to spend this summer on Cape Cod but he is doing what US Marines do - He is serving the people of Afghanistan by giving them a helping hand to their future.....

SEMPER FI Sgt. Nelson.


U.S. Marine Wants Afghan Opium Farmers to Grow Biofuel Crops
By Scott Doggett on
Emunds.com 03/22/2011

According to Interpol, 90 percent of the world's opium -- the chief ingredient of heroin -- comes from Afghanistan. And according to a recent report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghan opium farmers are, at $4,900 per hectare, doing great. Everyone from the lowly poppy grower to the country's druglords are reaping large cash harvests. But that's not stopping one U.S. Marine from trying to get the opium farmers to switch to biofuel crops.

The subscription news service Greenwire, in a lengthy report this week, described how Marine Sgt. Brian Nelson found himself alone with four hard-won barrels of cottonseed oil one day last fall in a Afghan field in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province.

The 31-year-old chemical engineer from Falmouth, Mass., was waiting for an Osprey aircraft to take him and his 55-gallon barrels to Camp Leatherneck, the launchpad for some 30,000 coalition forces conducting counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan's rugged southwestern provinces.

Nelson, who has already served two tours in Iraq and recently signed up for a third, spent this past winter tinkering with combinations of cottonseed oil and JP-8, the military's universal fuel, to find a blend that works best in Camp Leatherneck's generators, Greenwire reported. His work is part of an experimental U.S. effort to maintain gains over the Taliban by developing local biofuels the military would presumably purchase.

Nelson isn't the first person to push for biofuels in Afghanistan. Several years ago a couple of Army veterans had hoped to produce poppyseed oil as a biofuel and give Afghan farmers an alternative product for their more than 8,000 tons of yearly opium. A report on that unsuccessful effort appeared in a recent issue of The Atlantic magazine.

A CIA analysis concluded that poppy-derived biodiesel offered excellent value, excellent quantity and quality, and a positive environmental impact, the magazine said. However, "poppy fuel" would no doubt leave approving politicians open to ridicule and, predictably, gained no traction.

As it stands, the illicit opium poppy crop, grown mostly in southern provinces, is a thorn in the side of coalition forces. In 2006 and 2007, shortly after the Taliban returned to the region, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that insurgents and warlords made between $200 million and $400 million off the crop. Meanwhile, opium addiction is a mounting problem among the Afghan population.

But by the time Nelson, who has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of New Hampshire, was recruited for the project, the anti-poppy campaign had shifted course, instead focusing on creating incentives for farmers to grow legal food crops like wheat, which sells for a fraction of the price of opium. But the biofuels idea did not die.

The Marine Corps alone uses 200,000 gallons of fuel each day in Afghanistan, Greenwire reported, and fuel convoys are an especially easy target for improvised explosive devices set by insurgents -- a fact that has not escaped the notice of military leaders. All the services are taking steps to cut their fuel dependency and switch to alternative sources, and shortly after Nelson deployed to Afghanistan, the Marine Corps commandant issued some of the most aggressive energy-reduction goals of all the services.

"By tethering our operations to vulnerable supply lines, it degrades our expeditionary capabilities and ultimately puts Marines at risk," wrote Commandant Gen. James Amos in the Marine Corps' new expeditionary energy report, which was released this week. "Transforming the way we use energy is essential to rebalance our Corps and prepare it for the future."

The marines' targets are especially notable because they include energy usage cuts for the tip-of-the-spear operations Marines are known for, such as those happening out of Camp Leatherneck. By 2025, the Marines aim to use half the amount of fuel they do today, Greenwire reported.

So Marine Corps leadership was eagerly scouting out ideas for alternative fuels when they learned that a newly reopened cotton gin in Helmand province was producing an excess of cottonseed oil. The Afghans were using some of the extra oil for animal feed, but the Marines realized it could also make a good biofuel.

The Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office told Nelson to test the idea of making a biofuel out of cottonseed oil with a pilot project. Nelson succeeded in obtaining four barrels of cottonseed oil and only recently just burned the last of those initial 220 gallons after running experiments through the winter. He concluded that the fuel holds promise.

"As long as the temperature stays pretty warm, we have some great results," he said. "It burns just a little bit slower than JP-8 (Jet Propellant 8), the generators require just a little bit more maintenance, but it was easy to clean out the filters and it burns just a little bit cleaner without putting so much nitrous oxide in the air."

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who has made energy security his touchstone, touted the nascent effort in written testimony to Congress earlier this month. The pilot project is "simultaneously demonstrating to Afghan farmers that there are alternatives to opium, and demonstrating to Afghan leaders that they can power their own economy from within Afghanistan," he wrote.