pondering one:

"In addition to launching frequent verbal attacks on U.S. "imperialism," Castro and Chavez have deepened a trade agreement that brings 90,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the communist island a day - at rock-bottom prices and on relaxed payment schedules.

Now, as crude prices soar, analysts say the preferential treatment Cuba receives from oil-rich Venezuela is providing a veritable lifeline - not only keeping the Cuban economy afloat, but also subverting tightened U.S. economic sanctions on the island. [...] "Without Venezuela, Cuba would have been forced three years ago not only to continue previously instituted commercial reforms, but to expand commercial reforms," [...]
That's frustrating news for the Bush administration, which had hoped to push Cuba toward democracy by choking off more than $500 million in annual tourism revenues from U.S. visits. Analysts estimate the market value of the Venezuelan crude sent to Cuba is more than twice that amount."

ouch. venezuela= 5th largest petrol producer in world

pondering two:
"Hemingway certainly helped to bury the notion, if anyone seriously held it, that the more you pile on the adjectives the closer you get to describing the thing. Refinement works against the object. The more adjectives one uses, the more precision is demanded of the description, and the more the grail recedes. [...] what it really demonstrates is that prose in itself does not describe at all. The words rely very much on what the reader brings to them. In fact, it is the associative power of words rather than their "meaning" that makes prose work on its ultimate level. It seems to me that Hemingway's achievement, whether calculated or instinctive, was to get his effects by making the reader do the work. "

it's called... it's associated with... i heard something about it one time in education... aiyiyi... constructivism?

pondering three:
"Hype can lead to cynicism."

pondering four:
Submission

pondering six:
re: femininity (which i cannot pronounce for the life of me) ... ahhh, will have to be pondered at a later date...