Raccoons released by Hermann Goering in Germany in 1934 to "enrich the Reich's fauna" are threatening to succeed where their Nazi benefactors failed by conquering Europe.

They have become so successful that German authorities revealed that raccoon numbers are now at record levels - with more than a million in Germany alone.

In neighbouring Austria the first raccoons have also been spotted and info leaflets have been dispatched warning people against feeding or encouraging the North American natives.

Plans are being discussed to employ "raccoon hunters" to try and reduce the scale of the problem and put a bounty on raccoon pelts.

The first pair of raccoons were released at Kassel, in the wooded hill country north of Frankfurt, where there are now 100 raccoons per square kilometre - the same density as North America.

Residential homes in Kassel resemble fortresses with mesh wire covering all openings and spikes defending drainpipes and gutters. Rubbish bins are secured with bungee cords or padlocks.

Kassel has hired an animal control officer whose sole duty is to patrol the streets in search of raccoons and answer residents' appeals for help.

The city has even paid zoologists from a nearby university to tag and study raccoons in a bid to determine the scope of the problem.

"Kassel is definitely the raccoon capital of Europe," says Ulf Hohmann, head of the raccoon study project. "I'd say 50% of the residents here have had close encounters with raccoons, some of them on a repeated or even regular basis.

Our job is to educate the public about these marvellous animals as we study their true impact on the European environment."

Olga Kowalski goes to the doctor in desperation. "You have got to help me, doctor!" she cries. "I have got twelve children and I just can't stand the thought of looking after any more of the little monsters. What can I do?"
"Well," says the doctor, "have you tried contraceptives?"
"I can't do that," says Olga. "My husband is a strict Catholic. But if I have any more kids to look after, I will go nuts!"
"Okay," says the doctor. "I have been experimenting with a new method. It is not one hundred percent safe, but you can try it if you like."
"Anything," cries Olga. "I will do anything!"
So the doctor takes out Olga's womb and implants a monkey's womb.
The operation is a success and the doctor tells Olga to come back for a check-up in a few months.
When Olga comes back, the doctor asks, "How is everything going?"
"Just great," Olga replies. "They come out, hop onto a tree, and off they go!

If skull and bones were no more than the remains of a human body, or the scare heavy in a Halloween movie, there would be little reason to give it further thought. But it is much more than that.
The Order of the Skull and Bones is far from the fratty, fun-and-games milieu that uninformed people think it is. The fact is, Skull and Bones may be the world's most bizarre, and exclusive, secret society.
Therefore, if both the President of the United States and the top Democratic contender for the job are devoted members of this Order, and they are, the American public ought to know more about it before November rolls around. Not that we can do much more than dissect it at this time. Nevertheless, the dedicated mission of Skull and Bones, though not obvious, should be at least somewhat understood before we elect a member of this mysterious enclave to lead our nation any further.
Before we proceed, it should be stated that the history, background, member roster, and political "connections" of the Order of Skull and Bones is complicated and extensive.
Let us proceed with its most important tenets.
More than a century ago, Skull and Bones was a secret society in Germany, where it was also known, not always in jest, as the "Brotherhood of Death."
The American chapter of the Society was founded at Yale University in 1833, and its members are known as Bonesmen. Today, Bonesmen number less than 1,000, which is quite fantastic when one considers how effectively they manipulate and influence world affairs.
So, Skull and Bones is not just a bunch of "Yalies" getting their kicks with unique handshakes and secret code words. Bones is a unique group of young men from affluent, well-established, Northeastern families; literally a chosen elite of intellectually superior Yale students, who are educated and prepared for positions of influence and power, particularly in politics and government.
Each year at Yale, 15 juniors are chosen by seniors for Skull and Bones initiation, which is performed in occult surroundings with bizarre rituals, where the initiates are indoctrinated and sworn to absolute and binding secrecy. This illustrates the exclusivity and esoteric, cult-like qualities of this strange order.
As the country's leaders, many Bonesmen have held, and still hold, positions of prestige and influence. These include presidents, cabinet members, congressmen, senators, governors, and other positions of the highest political authority.
Why is it vital that Americans know that both George W. Bush and John Kerry are Yale alumni and Bonesmen? For many compelling reasons. Here are a few.
Since both Bush and Kerry, as sworn Bonesmen, are privy to its rituals, inner workings, and secret objective, it would seem to make little difference in both domestic and foreign policies of the United States which man won the November 2004 election. This gave us little choice.
Bonesmen believe that the United States should be the first among the "equals" in the New World order. To achieve this, the Order believes in "constructive chaos." And what is constructive chaos? It is simply keeping true intentions secret by constantly sending out mixed signals on all critical policy issues, and keeping sacrosanct their self-created vision of New World warriors. Both Bush and Kerry appear to be victims of this self-aggrandized thinking.
Bonesmen have an affinity for the Hegelian theory. This is a precept in which the State is absolute and individuals are granted their freedom based on their obedience to the State, i.e. the New World Order.
Does that have the smell of tyranny or not?
This pretentious elitism and dangerous arrogance is rare in most men. But it is all the more troubling when found in two men who were both vying for the most powerful leadership position in the world.
Bonesmen are mostly born to privilege, bred on visions of intellectual superiority, educated in worldly matters, and trained to give orders, not take them. It follows, then, that these men should be the epitome of nationalistic pride. Unless, of course, they have other ideas. Such as keeping their actions secret, using power to achieve ulterior ends, and putting the Skull and Bones oath above allegiance to their country.
And most disturbing of all, the sole purpose of the Skull and Bones Order is to perpetuate power. To maintain and increase this power, politically ambitious Bonesmen strive to put fellow Bonesmen in key positions of influence, to help build the New World organization that is their primary goal.
Recent actions and decisions of President Bush, if carefully scrutinized, tend to bear this out. And there is little reason to believe that John Kerry, as president, would not have followed the same detrimental path.
Like all of us, George W. Bush and John Kerry have skeletons in their closet. But unlike ours, their skeletons have the power to undermine the sovereignty of a nation.
Don't let it undermine ours.

THE BUDDHA SAID:
LOOK UP TO HEAVEN AND DOWN ON EARTH AND THEY WILL REMIND YOU OF THEIR IMPERMANENCY.
LOOK ABOUT THE WORLD AND IT WILL REMIND YOU OF ITS IMPERMANENCY. BUT WHEN YOU GAIN SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT YOU SHALL THEN FIND WISDOM.
THE KNOWLEDGE THUS ATTAINED LEADS YOU ANON TO THE WAY.
THE BUDDHA SAID:
YOU SHOULD THINK OF THE FOUR ELEMENTS OF WHICH THE BODY IS COMPOSED. EACH OF THEM HAS ITS OWN NAME AND THERE IS NO SUCH THING THERE KNOWN AS EGO. AS THERE IS REALLY NO EGO, IT IS LIKE UNTO A MIRAGE.


Untruth is that which is temporary, momentary, impermanent. And truth is that which is, always is, has been, will be. Behind these fleeting shadows find the eternal, penetrate to the eternal, because there can be bliss only with the eternal; misery only with the momentary.

... BUT WHEN YOU GAIN SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT YOU SHALL THEN FIND WISDOM.

Wisdom cannot be found through scriptures; it is an experience. It is not knowledge, wisdom is not knowledge. You cannot gather it from others, you cannot borrow it. It is not information. You cannot learn it from the scriptures. There is only one way to become wise and that is to enter into a live experience of life.
Something is said by Buddha -- you hear it; but you don't become wise by hearing it. It will become knowledge. You can repeat it, you can repeat it even in a better way. You can become very skillful, efficient, in repeating it. You can say it in a better language, but you don't have the experience.
You have never tasted the wine yourself. You have simply seen some drunkard moving, wobbling on the road, fallen in a gutter. You have simply watched a drunkard, how he moves, how he stumbles, but you don't know what the experience is. You will have to become a drunkard -- there is no other way.
You can watch a thousand and one drunkards and you can collect all information about them, but that will be from the outside and the experience is inner. That will be from without, and you will collect it as a spectator. And the experience cannot be attained by seeing, it can be attained only by being.
Now the modern world has become very obsessed by seeing; the modern world is the spectator's world. People are sitting for hours in the movie houses, just watching, doing nothing. In the West people are glued to their chairs for hours, six hours, eight hours even, just sitting before their tv:s. You listen to somebody singing and you see somebody dancing and you see somebody making love -- that's why people are so much interested in pornography -- but you are a spectator.
The modern man is the falsest man that has ever existed on the earth, and his falsity consists in that he thinks he can know by just seeing, just by being a spectator. People are sitting for hours seeing hockey matches, volley ball matches, cricket matches -- for hours. When are you going to play yourself? When are you going to love somebody? When are you going to dance and sing and be?

In the East they had reached, five thousand years ago, to such a peak in every direction and dimension that only religion was left to be an adventure. So those who had any adventurous spirit were attracted towards religion -- the best, the chosen ones, the most intelligent, the genius, the giants, became interested in religion because there was nothing else left.
These people, like Mahavira, Buddha, Krishna, Nagarjuna, Shankara -- these people gave tremendous heights to religion, and all the best minds moved towards religion because that was the only challenge left. Everything else was being done by mediocre people. And they were doing perfectly well, there was no need ....
If Einstein had been born in Buddha's time he would have been another Buddha, for the simple reason that that was the only challenge for a man like him. Mathematics was done by mediocre people, and they were doing perfectly well. There was no need for an Albert Einstein to get caught in a mediocre game. No, he would have moved in the same way as Buddha or Mahavira. All the best people were attracted towards religion; that's why religion touched the pinnacles of height.
But science was ignored, consciously ignored, because the people who had reached religious consciousness could see the destructiveness of science. They changed the direction of science. Rather than science becoming allopathy, in the East it became ayurveda, it became acupuncture, it became yoga .... These are the same kind of people who, in the West, created allopathy. They were the same kind of mind, but in the East they created acupuncture, they created herbal sciences.
The word for medical science in the East is ayurveda. Even the word will show you the difference. In the West you call it "medicine." Medicine means curing, healing, but can you see the implication: it does not mean health, it comes after the disease has already come in. It is a follow-up. First you are sick, then comes the doctor. The doctor follows sickness, with his bag of medicines.
Ayurveda means the science of life. The very word has nothing to do with disease, sickness; it has something to do with life, health, longevity. It is positive, it is not negative. It shows you the way to remain healthy, to remain young as long as you want, to live longer if that's what you want. Its focus is not on sickness, its focus is on health.
In China, Confucius advised the emperor of China that doctors should be paid not for curing a sick man -- that is dangerous because that means the doctor will like people to be sick so that he can cure them. If everybody remains healthy then only the doctor will be sick, he will die of hunger. So to create a system in which the doctor is paid by curing and healing people is to create a dilemma.