How Google can help clean your bathroom

The Internet isn't a library, but like library stacks, it can be a lot of fun to browse. Ten or twelve years ago when I would attend a professional conference, we'd hear comments like "The Internet is like having a key to someone else's garage," or "The Internet is like a library with everything on the floor." It's come a long way with incredible finding tools, especially Google. But I still love serendipity and browsing, the same thing I do in libraries. Here's this morning's trip and I started with a book:

For morning devotions I've been reading "Keep a quiet heart" by Elisabeth Elliot. Flipping through the back I noticed the 266 essays are actually culled from Elliot's newsletter, "The Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" published 6 times a year, for $7.00/year. I flip to the front and see that my paperback copy was published in 1995, so I figure it's unlikely the newsletter is still in publication. I've actually met her when she gave a talk at our church many years ago on finding God's will for your life. But I get up from my comfortable chair and sit down at the computer--for two hours!

When I Google "Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter" I find a website for AA, Alcoholics Anonymous bibliography, that had quoted her newsletter's mention of Gertrude Behanna, who is apparently a well-known star among speakers on alcoholism, and I stop to read her autobiography, "God is not dead." It's really super, and I strongly recommend it if you have an alcoholic or druggie in your life.

I see that her life story was made into a movie starring Anne Baxter, The Late Liz, but skip over that tucking it away to check our library's excellent video collection (assuming it hasn't been rejected because of spiritual content).

But I got interested in her sons (of different marriages)--one a recovering alcoholic who is not a Christian and the other a priest who isn't an alcoholic, so I Google "son of Gert Behanna" since she didn't mention their names. This just brings up more references to the movie, but does link to the 27 page pdf list of videos by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This looks like something our church librarian might like, so I print it in draft, and the printer spits the 27 pages all over my office while I'm in the basement putting a load in the washer.

The last page I pick up is p.1, since it prints backwards, and my librarian's obsessive spirit asks, "Well, just how difficult could it be to check a few of these titles on the Internet to see if they are available for purchase?" The first title is "The gift of the creed," by Dr. Timothy F. Lull and Rev. Patricia J. Lull, presented to the 1993 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA (our synod). Although I find a reference to it, I don’t see availability, so I then Google “ELCA DVD” browse its list of available video products and decide it’s either too old, or was a very limited production only sent to churches.

Then I Google “Timothy F. Lull” and find out he died in 2003 after surgery. However, he was such a popular teacher at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, some of his students put together his lectures on Luther and Lutheranism and published it on Lulu.com at “The Press of the Society of the Three Trees” dedicated to the study of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. This press has published 5 titles, plus a journal, Christus Lux.

Because I collect first issues of journals, I decide to Google Christus Lux to see if it might be worth buying Vol. 1, no. 1. (It’s $15--a bit out of my range).

I notice another book by this press titled, “What’s wrong with sin,” by Derek R. Nelson--and I wonder if our church library might want this so I google the author, and find out he is now at Thiel College in Pennsylvania, a college with Lutheran ties I’ve never heard of. So of course I have to check out its web page, stopping at its library to look at an art show by a Kenyan. I stop to e-mail the author to ask if he thinks it is appropriate for a parish library of a very evangelical Lutheran church.

Then I notice it is about 6:45, so I take my printed and reassembled pdf list of the videos of the Eastern Synod of Canada and go to Caribou. While drinking coffee, I note many other videos I think would be good, like The joy of Bach (Gateway Films), The Great Mr. Handel (Gateway Films) and an interesting video on the art of choral directing by Lloyd Pfautsch of Southern Methodist University produced by Augsburg Fortress in 1988.

When I get home, I carry the laundry up to the bedroom where my husband is getting dressed. I recount to him all the fabulous things I found on the Internet this morning starting with Elisabeth Elliot’s book. His eyes glaze over.

While I’m hanging up his towels, I see the bathroom needs a good scrubbing.

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Why marriage matters

If marriage weren't so important to the survival of society, it wouldn't be worth saving. We are not a society of rich and poor; we're married and unmarried.

"There is a reason that all cultures treat marriage as a matter of public concern and even recognize it in law and regulate it. The family is the fundamental unit of society. Governments rely on families to produce something that governments need—but, on their own, they could not possibly produce: upright, decent people who make honest, law-abiding, public-spirited citizens. And marriage is the indispensable foundation of the family. Although all marriages in all cultures have their imperfections, children flourish in an environment where they benefit from the love and care of both mother and father, and from the committed and exclusive love of their parents for each other.

Anyone who believes in limited government should strongly back government support for the family. Does this sound paradoxical? In the absence of a strong marriage culture, families fail to form, and when they do form they are often unstable. Absentee fathers become a serious problem, out-of-wedlock births are common, and a train of social pathologies follows. With families failing to perform their health, education, and welfare functions, the demand for government grows, whether in the form of greater policing or as a provider of other social services. Bureaucracies must be created, and they inexorably expand—indeed they become powerful lobbyists for their own preservation and expansion. Everyone suffers, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering most."

And much more here.

What liberal bias?

Seen at a library digitization publication, Digital Document Delivery:

A 2005 cartoon by Pat Oliphant depicts God working at a drawing board, with a bearded angel looking over His shoulder, and ascribes to God the words,

“I’ve been trying to perfect some kind of intelligent design, but all I keep coming up with is a bunch of simple-minded, right-wing, fundamentalist, religious fanatics. I think I’ll just let the whole thing evolve.”

They don't mind insulting millions of Christians and Jews who think evolution is a pile of horse pucky, but they are careful to note that they are not reproducing the cartoon out of fear of copyright violation.

Two out of three isn't bad

Yesterday I had lunch with a home-schooled eleven year old. After our Advent services at church we serve lunch, and when I was finished, I sat at a table with Mom, her son, and her male friend. The young man was so articulate and well-behaved I was amazed. He held his own offering opinions on a law suit about a gas line issue here in Columbus. His mom told me that every day she drives him to the east side so he can participate on a swim team. Obviously, she turns off her cell phone and connects with her kid during the 30 minute drive time.

I also met one of our new part-time pastors on our care team. He visits the sick, elderly and shut-ins and helps out in other areas as needed. He has relatives here, so he had actually been visiting our church for years before his retirement. We served communion together, with me giving him a few tips on how we do it, because I don't think he'd served before in our Lutheran church. He is a Southern Baptist.

Then in the evening our Visual Arts Ministry spent an hour or so shifting our supplies and equipment from a first floor phone closet, to a larger storage area on the upper floor near our hanging space. We chatted briefly with the security guard, a handsome young man named Muhammed. I'm still digesting that one.

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Dear Mr. Hotz

I noticed your science column today in the Wall Street Journal--your faith in global warmists is admirable, if misplaced. I'm certainly no scientist, and don't have your credentials. However, if I were going to measure CO2 I probably would not be doing it above the world's largest volcano, as you report. I'd also assume that equipment for measuring it in 2007 was a bit more sophisticated and sensitive than it was in 1958, when it was started, therefore certainly showing big increases. I watch the nightly weather reports, and I'm surprised that even in 1958 when there were no records, that people predicted backwards coming up with a model that just fit their need for grants and publication. Why just last night, I watched today's prediction change from what it had been 12 hours before.

And hundreds of sensors? Where would that be exactly? In countries that can't maintain a government or a road, and where women are covered head to toe and they haven't figured out why AIDS is on the increase?

Sorry, Mr. Hotz, you're not even warm on this. We don't control the earth, the sun or the moon. We gave up trying to figure out what to do with abandoned TV sets, disposable diapers, and old tires, so we decided to change the climate. Now, isn't that a bit silly?

This is your gravy train, so keep it up. Excuse me if some of us aren't buying into it.

Librarians and privacy

What were librarians, the guardians of privacy when it comes to the Patriot Act and pornographers on the internet, saying about Facebook, the social networking site. Well, if you google "librarians Facebook privacy" you'll find they were practically wetting themselves in their eagerness to be relevant.

In today's Wall Street Journal Randall Rothenberg calls the news of the shutdown of Facebook's Beacon program, a victory for "market forces."

Within the space of a month or so, Facebook launched and then shut down an advertising program called Beacon that alerted users to purchases and other activities their "friends" made outside Facebook. The episode has been called many things: "annoying," "upsetting," "creepy," a "nightmare," a "privacy hairball." I call it proof that when it comes to the evolution of the Internet, market forces work.

Apparently, Facebook subscribers didn't like their friends being exploited, even if they didn't think of it in privacy terms. When the internet users respond quickly, and massively, it saves us all from more government regulations, says Rothenberg.

The internet is not free. It's supported by advertising. The advertisers using interactive technology is estimated by Rothenberg to be at $20 billion in 2007, growing to $62 billion by 2011. But they overreached, and alert subscribers said NO.

Still, I've got to wonder where were all those librarians who wanted to keep terrorists' library patterns private and fought the Patriot Act, and not put filters on library computers to protect children because it might interfer with "information gathering." Interesting concerns, these liberals.

It's all the same players

Usually I'm a big fan of the entrepreneurial spirit, the cottage industry that takes off, the bootstrapper who makes it big. Not in this case. They are part of the scam industry of the ages. Along with alcohol, tobacco, electric chairs and viaticals, I'm telling Dave, my investment guy, I want nothing to do with these companies. They are the new snakeoil salesmen. Are you emitting something dirty into the air. Just call your good old "green and clean" representative and they can make it all go away--on paper. Of course, it will cost you.

Green Exchange

Global Change Associates

Nymex Holdings

Evolution Markets

European Climate Exchange

Chicago Climate Exchange

CME Group Globex

It's already a $60 billion dollar business from the folks who brought us the subprime mortgage meltdown. Yes, it's the same players.

Let it snow!

Snow is in the forecast to begin tomorrow around noon. Columbus usually gets less than predicted, Cleveland more. Yesterday I was listening to 700 a.m. (Cincinnati) and Mike was gleeful at the prospect of 4". I think that has been downgraded to about 1" or rain. But over at A Gentleman's Domain, a Floridian who has lived in Canada, comments about snow. It's pretty funny--a month's diary of snow. Our daughter stopped by last night and the 3 of us were remembering getting stranded at different times by the weather between Indianapolis and Columbus. It's just not amusing being trapped by a plow on a rest stop access road when he's coming from the other direction pushing mounds 7-8' high. But it makes for a good story 15 years later.

Faulty weather data

Would you drink water that was as contaminated as the climate change/global warming data?

data from weather satellites
data from weather balloons
equipment changes
poor countries with sparse weather-stations
fewer than 1/3 of the 1970s weather stations are in operation
urban center bias
time changes for measuring
different countries use different models
ignore counter-evidence
slanted language in reporting

"This is no mere tiff among duelling experts. The IPCC has a monopoly on scientific advising to governments concerning climate change. Governments who never think to conduct due diligence on IPCC reports send delegates to plenary meetings at which they formally "accept" the conclusions of IPCC reports. Thereafter they are unable -- legally and politically -- to dissent from its conclusions. In the years ahead, people around the world, including here in Canada, could bear costs of climate policies running to hundreds of billions of dollars, based on these conclusions. And the conclusions are based on data that the IPCC lead authors concede exhibits a contamination pattern that undermines their interpretation of it, a problem they concealed with untrue claims."

Read the report and graph

Thirteen Reasons I'm not stressed at Christmas

There seems to be a lot of stress in the air this time of year. Here's 13 reasons I'm not part of it.

1) I'm volunteering at the weekly (noon) Advent services at our church. This allows me a mid-week opportunity to reflect on what this season is about. If they were at night, I'd probably stay home.

2) Because of my career, I didn't do much of the hands-on work like serving lunch or helping in the kitchen. Although working in the kitchen is out of my comfort zone, it is a pleasure to mingle with the saints who can now take a bit of a rest. Wonderful music by our fabulous church organist, and great food and fellowship.

3) Then I slip on my robe and help with communion. Nothing says what it is all about like placing a piece of bread in the hand of a person who has struggled to come to the communion rail to be refreshed by the body and blood of our Lord.

4) My husband painted a watercolor of a wonderful scene with a man and child walking through the snow with a cut tree for our annual Christmas card. This relieves me of any pressure to go to a store or look through a catalog. He even sorts, stamps and puts the return address label on the envelop.

5) I write the letter that goes in the envelop with the card. This gives me an opportunity to sift through the year's events and decide what's worth keeping and what gets thrown out. I enjoy thinking about the family and many friends--some we haven't seen since the early 1960s, and this is the only time of year we're in touch. I keep a scrapbook of all the old photos and have been watching their children grow up, now their grandchildren.

6) Although I sighed when the computer crashed right as I was getting ready to run address labels, handwriting the envelopes wasn't that bad--did about 25-30 at a time and then would do something else.

7) In late November I decided to have a simple open house on the last Sunday afternoon in December. Close church friends, easy menu. Plenty of time to clean and prepare. Maybe the carpet will be cleaned in January, so I won't even look down at what gets tracked in (white carpet). If you keep the menu simple, you have more time to enjoy your guests.

8) I'm running recipes through my head and counting plates--decided not to use paper. Will polish the silver soon while listening to Christmas carols. While I do this I think about the joys of friendship and other Christmases, like when Daddy came home after the end of WWII (and Mom went all out and got us children a sled and a doll house, to be shared by four).

9) I spent a few minutes thinking about some awful Christmases, too--like 1963 and 1964 and 1986 and 1987. If you don't give the bad times their due, they might try to knock on the door and slip in to spoil the day. Now they've been examined and packed away.

10) We'll have the opportunity to spend the week-end before Christmas with my husband's family in Indianapolis. The calendar only cooperates on certain years, since they have this gathering the Saturday before Christmas. So unless Christmas is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it usually interfers with our Columbus at-home activities. All we do in the way of preparation is buy and wrap 2 exchange gifts, bring a dish to pass and show up at a niece's home.

11) I bought a new Handel CD which I'm playing during the day, and I'm reading a new (to me) book by Elisabeth Elliot, "Keep a Quiet Heart," for morning devotions.

12) We've had just about the right number of invitations for the Christmas-New Year season. We had a dinner at friends' home 2 weeks ago, a few restaurant dates with other couples, followed by dessert at their homes, and an invite to a New Year's Eve gathering. Nothing frantic, but we don't feel left out, either.

13) We talked about a budget for Christmas in November and won't be hit with big bills in January. My husband's gift was ordered from a catalog and should be arriving any day. Of course, there's the new computer and tires for the van, but we can't call those Christmas related even if the bills show up in January.

So that's my stress-free Christmas. How's yours going?

Big thank you to Amanda for the pretty Christmas banner.

Shelby Steele on Barack Obama

Shelby Steele's new book, "A bound man; why we are excited about Obama and why he can't win," suggests that black voters may reject him, not whites. I think you might want to buy the book because like the "Dewey defeats Truman" headlines in 1948, Steele might be wrong.

". . . Today we blacks have two great masks that we wear for advantage in the American mainstream: bargaining and challenging.

Bargainers make a deal with white Americans that gives whites the benefit of the doubt: I will not rub America's history of racism in your face, if you will not hold my race against me. Especially in our era of political correctness, whites are inevitably grateful for this bargain that spares them the shame of America's racist past. They respond to bargainers with gratitude, warmth, and even affection. This "gratitude factor" can bring the black bargainer great popularity. Oprah Winfrey is the most visible bargainer in America today.

Challengers never give whites the benefit of the doubt. They assume whites are racist until they prove otherwise. And whites are never taken off the hook until they (institutions more than individuals) give some form of racial preference to the challenger. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are today's best known challengers. Of course, most blacks can and do go both ways, but generally we tend to lean one way or another.

Barack Obama is a plausible presidential candidate today because he is a natural born bargainer. Obama--like Oprah--is an opportunity for whites to think well of themselves, to give themselves one of the most self-flattering feelings a modern white can have: that they are not racist." Steele, The identity card

Review by Jason Riley here.

Christians who expect the government to do their job

Chuck Baldwin writes about Christians who want the government to do the heavy lifting.

The idea that James Madison and the other authors of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights intended to prohibit children from praying in school, or state and local governments from posting the Ten Commandments and from erecting Nativity scenes is the invention of modern-age humanists, whose real goal is to eviscerate America's Christian heritage. Such reasoning is a complete inversion of the real meaning of the First Amendment. All the First Amendment was designed to do was recognize religious liberty, something Americans enjoyed until the infamous Supreme Court decisions in 1962 and '63.

That said, it is equally apparent that many Christians and ministers today have developed the attitude that somehow the federal government is supposed to enforce by law what only the Spirit of God can enforce through grace. Let's be plain: the federal government cannot do the church's job.

I suspect Baldwin is a libertarian by politics, because he states that although the government has the right to regulate pornography, prostitution and drugs, it shouldn't be in the business of legislating morality. I wouldn't go that far, because I see much of that as a mental pollution linked heavily to organized crime. But if he's talking about Christians who support it with crossed fingers hoping no one will find out, he's right. These businesses would probably collapse if all the Christians withdrew both their investments in these businesses and their patronage. Christianity Today a few years ago did a report on the millions of Christians addicted to pornography and gambling. Unbelievers like to think that Christians are smugly pointing fingers, but if they are, it isn't in my church, where in 30+ years I've never heard a sermon on any form of public or private morality.

Baldwin goes on to relate this to the upcoming election. And I do agree with him. You can't wedge a piece of dental floss between the theology of Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee--they are all Baptists and believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. I don't doubt their faith for a minute. If I don't meet them in this life, I know I will in the next. How they will translate their personal and political beliefs into policy, however, is very different. Gore and Clinton technically aren't on the ballot, but Clinton's persona, fake and flip-flopping as it may be, is very much a part of the campaign; and Gore's wingnut beliefs are invading every follicle and hair of our lives. Don't let the MSM frighten you about Romney or Huckabee. Look at policy and issues:

Therefore, instead of looking to presidential candidates who will use the federal government to accomplish everything we want done (even the good things we want done), we should support only those candidates who recognize the proper role of the federal government as being limited and narrowly defined (by the Constitution). And then, it behooves us to look to ourselves to be the parents we should be to our own children at home, and to look for pastors and churches that are not trying to be popular, but that are courageous and faithful custodians of the truth.

Greenspan bursts some bubbles

Demand driven by expection I think is a fancy phrase for greed

"I do not doubt that a low U.S. federal-funds rate in response to the dot-com crash, and especially the 1% rate set in mid-2003 to counter potential deflation, lowered interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgages and may have contributed to the rise in U.S. home prices. In my judgment, however, the impact on demand for homes financed with ARMs was not major.

Demand in those days was driven by the expectation of rising prices--the dynamic that fuels most asset-price bubbles. If low adjustable-rate financing had not been available, most of the demand would have been financed with fixed rate, long-term mortgages. In fact, home prices continued to rise for two years subsequent to the peak of ARM originations (seasonally adjusted)." in Today's Wall Street Journal

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When is an increase a decline?

When journalists look at job figures and the economy. My friend A.Z. and I were reminiscing about housing prices this week. We're old. We don't remember the Great Depression, however, so we can't tell the stories our parents told us. But like our parents, we wish our children had some perspective. She remembered when they sold their home in south Arlington in 1980 the interest rates were 17%. I recalled paying 10% in 1988 when we bought our summer home in Lakeside, and we were happy to get it. Thirty years ago the unemployment rate was around 7.8%; today it is 4.7%. No matter. It is always gloom and doom when the media get ahold of the figures. Sort of makes me happy I didn't read the economic news in the 1970s.

Kelly Evans at the WSJ reported "little cheer" in the job report for November. Employment ROSE by 94,000 in November (it was 44,000 in September), and unemployment stayed at 4.7% for the 3rd consecurive month. And consumer expectations have "slipped" according to a Reuters/University of Michigan survey (can't imagine a worse state for economic news if that's where the survey was taken). Its index of current economic conditions rose in December to 92.1 from 91.5 in November, but consumers (who have to listen to a constant roar of negative news from the MSM) found higher gasoline prices and are not happy (let's reduce taxes on gasoline and make the consumer smile). Evans' article also mentioned low inflation, and the fact that the average hourly wage earnings jumped to $17.63, up JUST 3.8% from a year ago, and a resilient labor market. Oh woe is me. Can you stand the pain?

I don't know where

Florida Cracker finds her news stories, but she's always entertaining. (She's a librarian.) Women are apparently making some headway in areas formerly reserved for dirty old men.

Mike addresses the immigration problem

Sure, it would be nice if he'd jumped in earlier, but this is workable, certainly better than what we have now, which isn't even being enforced.

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CIA Freedom of Information web site

In 2000, before 9/11 and the current war, the CIA prepared a 15 year forecast. [These are scanned, not digitized, so not particularly easy to read.] It is really instructive to go back and see what career government intelligence employees were warning our elected leaders about. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)were probably the most consistent warning. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Iraq were said to have "the capability to strike the U.S. and the potential for unconventional delivery of WMD by both states and nonstate actors." I'm sure this is not the only document in there with this information, because we know a number of prominent Democrats like Kennedy, Edwards and Kerry were beating the WMD drum in the late 90s, but then backed off when a President not of their party took their warnings seriously.

There were erroneous predictions about the global economy, and we were in a down turn then and no one foresaw the incredible boom of the 21st century. Although reading between the lines, they were general enough to be true--such has Europe and Japan needed to manage their aging work force or there would be consequences (well, duh!). If the global energy supplies were disrupted, it could have a devastating affect on the whole world (take that you "it's all about oil" peaceniks!). Also, this interesting tidbit: "Recent estimates indicate 80% of the world's available oil still remains in the ground, as does 95% of the world's natural gas." p. 17

I'd say the report was spot on about information technology and biotechnology predictions, if anything, it is a bit sluggish as those fields blossom like mold in a damp basement. The report was pretty accurate here, too: "Most anti-U.S. terrorism will be based on perceived ethnic religious or cultural grievances." Now, I wonder who plays that up and then asks, "What can we do to regain our place in the world and get along?"

For a 51 page report, the amount devoted to global climate change/warming is extremely modest, or maybe it just seems that way given the constant coverage we have today. It did address the "environmental neglect" of the formerly Marxist countries as a problem, and predicted the failure of the Kyoto Protocol, not because of the danger of a Republican administration, but because of the growing economies of China and India.

But it was soooo on target with comments about religion, I almost couldn't believe it: "Activist components** of [Christians and Muslims] and other religious groupings will emerge to contest such issues as genetic manipulation, women's rights, and the income gap between rich and poor. A wider religious or spiritual movement also may emerge, possibly linked to environmental values." Someone in the CIA spotted the rise of pantheism as a world religion. Good job!

You can do a dual search: first search your topic (Iraq= >1000 documents) then limit by year (2007=26). The date will most likely refer to the year it was "released," so you can easily see what was being said or researched in the 90s and review how that works out today. Check out NIE 2002-16HC, "Iraq's continuing programs for WMD, October 2002" which makes a "key judgement" that Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of the UN restrictions. It estimated 100-500 metric tons of chemical warfare agents including mustard, sarin, GF and VX stockpiles.

**"Religious voices are part of a two-week-long United Nations conference on climate change being held in Bali. Delegations from the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, and many Catholic orders are among the participants. The conference plans to develop an international pact to battle global warming. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and other religious leaders urged the delegates to take aggressive action to protect the environment." Report from Bali

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When Blacks are sentenced

Michael Vick, a black football player, is to get 23 months for dog fighting. And he deserves every minute and I hope they get the rest of the ring because these fights don't happen with only one guy. However, I'm looking forward to the day when a big, burly NBA or NFL guy gets 23 months for beating up his wife or girlfriend. She usually ends up dropping the charges and he might get a reprimand and returns to the court or field to make millions for an industry that looks the other way. (And yes, I've heard of Mike Tyson, but that's a different "sport.") Oprah or another woman's show occasionally covers the topic, but the media doesn't give nearly the attention it gives the dogs. Or how about jailing the creeps who sing and dance about the bodies of females encouraging assaults with easily recognisable hate speech?

Then there's Conrad Black who's been sentenced to 6.5 years for cheating the shareholders of Hollinger International (now Sun-Times Media Group), mail fraud and obstruction of justice. He was caught on a security camera removing 13 boxes of documents from his office. Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's national security adviser, was caught also--stole important documents about the Clinton administration response to terrorism from the National Archives, destroyed them, and then lied about it. He got no jail time. Didn't I see somewhere that he was working in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign? He should be doing more time than either Vick or Black.

And if they are lazy?

"OSU Extension/University District, a member of the Franklin County Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition, is looking for volunteers to help hard working low- and moderate- income families prepare their taxes and receive refunds. Experience in preparing taxes is a plus, but training will be provided." Seen at OSUToday, Dec. 7, 2007.

I guess lazy but employed workers won't get any help with their taxes.

Should Al Gore be required lose weight?

Should environmentalists lead the way to reducing the impact of obesity on the environment? [Interesting perspective on Gore's career leading to the prize, here.] "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated, albeit roughly, “previously undocumented consequences” of the ongoing obesity epidemic in America. They report that, through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds. This extra weight caused airlines to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in the year 2000, with represent an expenditure of $275 millions and emissions of 3.8 million tons of carbon dioxide. In other words, obesity is causing increased fuel expenditures and emissions." from Sensors Watch This writer thinks cheap gasoline may actually lead to obesity since it encourages more driving.

Sheldon Jacobson, U. of I., has crunched the numbers (he looks a tad on the thin side) and figures "Americans are now pumping 938 million gallons of fuel more annually than they were in 1960 as a result of extra weight in vehicles. And when gas prices average $3 a gallon, the tab for overweight people in a vehicle amounts to $7.7 million a day, or $2.8 billion a year." (reported in Science Daily)

Forbes.com reports there are other social costs for obesity: "Obese people are less likely to be given jobs, they're waited on more slowly, they're less likely to be given apartments, they're less likely to be sent to college by their parents." Obese people miss more work, costing employers something on the order of $4 billion. Because people are fatter, airlines spend more on jet fuel, and the obese themselves spend more on gas. But these tend to be hidden from consumers themselves. Many researchers believe that it's actually cheaper, in our fast-food society, to eat a high-fat, high-calorie diet than it is to stay slim. Supersizing a meal at McDonald's, Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken costs a consumer only 67 cents out of pocket. But after health costs and the price of extra gasoline are factored in, for some people, the price of the meal may have been effectively doubled.

Over at Food System Factoids, the author reports "Food and drink cause 20 to 30% of the various environmental impacts of private consumption, and this increases to more than 50% for eutrophication. This includes the full food production and distribution chain ‘from farm to fork’."

Mike Huckabee, Republican candidate for President, lost 105 lbs. after being diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes. He says it was hard work.

Bride inherited bad genes

Dear Abby (Jeanne Phillips) had a letter from a distraught mother last week. She was giving her daughter a lavish wedding, paid for by her and the step-father. Dead-beat dad had done nothing for his kid--no child support, ran up bills using her name, etc.--over the years, but a week before the wedding the daughter decides she wants to include him.

Dear Abby replies to mom: She is her father's daughter. Your sacrifices have resulted in a selfish, self-centered, rude adult.

So did the daughter get both her mother's doormat genes and her father's selfish genes? Someone needs to warn the groom!

If the election were today

the lawyers representing both parties would be lining up to sue over the electronic voting, because they haven't fixed it yet. We need to go back to paper ballots. But

between Gore and Obama, I'd vote for Gore.

between Hillary and Obama, I'd vote for Obama

between Hillary and Edwards, I'd probably stay home.

Between Gore and Rudy, I'd vote for Gore

between Hillary and Rudy, I'd stay home.

Between Gore and Romney, I'd vote for Romney,

between Romney and Huckabee, I'd vote for Mike.

The Republicans have a much better field of candidates than do the Democrats.

Our no renters policy

Our condo association has an owner-occupied-only policy. Unfortunately, some owners who are quite wealthy, spend half the year in warmer climes. Then there was the career mom who travelled a lot and left her college age daughter in charge of the high school daughter. My oh my--the parties we were privy to.

So the condo is turned over to the "children" (adults behaving badly). Eight or ten cars (expensive) may be parked haphazardly on our narrow street on a week-end, the garage door left up, lights on all night, beer cans strewn around the lawn.

If they weren't low class they'd have no class at all.

The Bali Earthquake

After the ridiculous vision of 10,000 people flying to Bali to discuss global warming and stay in tents (imagine the "carbon footprint" and pollution), and then having an earthquake on Dec. 7 remind them all that they are in no way in charge of the planet earth, well, it was just too rich. Virtually every story is the same AP report, which down played it (called it a jolt), but over at Forbes.com I did find:

JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's Bali on Friday, officials said, and it was strongly felt at a UN climate conference in the resort island. The earthquake, which hit at 17:45 pm (1035 GMT), struck 261 kilometers southwest of the Bali resort of Nusa Dua, where delegates are meeting to craft a strategy to combat climate change, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said in a statement. There was no threat of a tsunami, and the quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometres, the agency said.

If you don't care for the Genesis account of creation (who did it and why and how long it took) try the more poetic Job 38-41 where the Lord asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? . . . Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?" And Job admits he spoke of things he didn't understand which were too wonderful for him to know. And he repented.

Gasoline conservation tips

Save on food prices. Put corn in cows, pigs and chickens, not cars. Gasoline prices in central Ohio range from about $2.80 to $3.20. Anything made with basic food stuffs is going up much faster than gasoline, according to yesterday's Columbus Dispatch.

From the Tok, Alaska Mukluk News--and this town really knows transportation (Thanks, Cuz):

1.) Fill up your car in the morning when the temperature is still cool. (The colder the ground, the denser the gasoline.)

2.) If a tanker is filling the station’s tank at the time you want to buy gas, do not fill up. (Dirt from the bottom of their tank might transfer into your car’s tank.)

3.) Fill up when your gas tank is half-empty. (The more gas you have in your tank the less air there is and gasoline evaporates rapidly, especially when it’s warm)

4.) When you’re filling up, squeeze the trigger at the SLOW setting. (Minimizes vapors created while you are pumping.)

Tok, Alaska, established in 1942 has about 1400 residents, 13 churches, a public library, an elementary school, a 4-year accredited high school and a University of Alaska extension program. Local clubs include the Lions, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Chamber of Commerce. According to its nice web site, Tok is not short for Tokyo Camp (as I was told years ago), but was named for a Husky puppy, Tok, which belonged to men of the 97th U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Photo source, Nicky

In Ohio if the election were tomorrow

Given the margin of error and the undecideds, Huckabee could beat Clinton in Cincinnati, Ohio, and does better than Rudy and Mitt. If it were Obama, he definitely would. However, in Cincinnati, McCain does the best against Clinton. This poll was taken in Cincinnati by SurveyUSA.

Remembering why I hate coupons

Generally, I refuse to play games with my food--coupons, sweepstakes, loyalty cards, filling out forms on the internet, etc. But this week we got a coupon for our favorite pizza place up the road. Well, it's not really our favorite--that one is in Grandview and since we moved in 2002, it takes too long to get there. But this one is pretty good. Anyway, there was a "$1.00 off any size" coupon. So even though we really didn't need a pizza tonight (we ate out last night), I called one in. The price had gone up about $3! That's the primary use of a coupon--to cover up a price increase. And I know that because I used to write and interview about these scams, but it still makes me mad. Based on other price increases, it shouldn't have gone up more than $.40. It's you global warminists doing this, you know--putting corn in our gas tanks instead of our cows.

It's not too late

to purchase American made gifts. Made in the USA has some lovely things--glass, pottery, toys, backpacks, etc. You can also support local Christmas bazaars and church sales. This tip came from Janeen's web site, a mommy with a lot of good information about allergies and yummy recipes.

Sweet potato muffin mix at Homestead Gristmill

Homestead also has a craft, workshop and learning site you'll have fun exploring.

4412

Usually this is called homophobia

observes James Taranto, on the "proof" provided by the Idaho Statesman on Larry Craig. I wonder what is the point? Can closet gays not be good Senators? I admit they probably don't make the best husbands, but that's between him and Mrs. Craig. To look at the roster the Democrats have put forward for president, a Senator's qualifications aren't all that important. They're deciding among the wife of a philanderer (he kept her busy trying to take over health care in the 90s), a lawyer with good hair who's made his fortune suing American businesses and now has a huge carbon footprint to show for it, and a guy who was writing essays about becoming the president while in kindergarten in Indonesia. Maybe it's time they took another look at Bill Richardson or Al Gore.

[Tom] Russell, 48, a Nampa native who lives in Utah, was among three men who contacted the Statesman about what they described as unusually attentive behavior on Craig's part. . . .

Russell worked as a food service manager at Bogus Basin ski resort and said his encounter probably occurred in the 1983-84 ski season, soon after Craig had married following the 1982 page scandal. Russell had taken a food class from Suzanne Craig [the senator's better half] and had heard the rumors that Craig was gay.

Russell, openly gay at the time, said he set out to engage Craig "and attempted to show a personal interest--not in a suggestive way--but a personal interest to see if he would respond."

"I recall that he was very delighted to talk to me--smiling, happy, very delighted--and that he had suggested that we could get together sometime," he said. "Why would he have a personal interest in meeting me elsewhere?"

Russell said he became convinced Craig was gay because he used subtle signals consistent with communication between gay men in public places.

"You've heard the term, 'gaydar'? OK, it's there. You know it. You know when somebody is raising an eyebrow at you because it's their gesture when they say 'hello' or when they are subtly trying to send you a message that they recognize you as being a gay person."

Nothing came of the meeting, Russell said. But he came forward now because he is offended by Craig's denials.

"I'm disgusted because it's hypocritical, and he's lying. He's lying through his teeth. Heterosexual men do not behave like that."

SpudNuts redux

Certain blog entries get hits regularly--broken zippers, frozen car doors, the auto show, Fornesetti plates, Roger Vernam--and SpudNuts. I blogged about this treat which I enjoyed on the Urbana side of the University of Illinois campus in the 1950s and 1960s here.

In rechecking the sites that mention this delectable donut, I found an article written about the inventors, the Pelton Brothers, in the April 1952 Modern Mechanix magazine. The whole article is scanned and almost as tasty as the Spudnuts I remember. However, I'm not sending you to the link, because right after I enjoyed it, I got a notice from McAfee that I had a virus, various messages appeared, and then everything went down. But it's out there, if you want to pursue it. The virus might be totally unrelated, but just thought I'd mention it if any SpudNut fans are reading this.

Update on pedometer: Currently at 8802, which means I'm about 6,000 steps behind. Not easy to get stepping in bad weather.

Hackers hit Oak Ridge

I've lost track of how many times my information has been stolen at Ohio State and the state of Ohio. Sometimes, I don't even know why the information was in the database that was hacked. I surely don't know why an intern was carrying around an unsecured laptop in his car. A recent report on 60 minutes said credit card information is being stolen from retail stores because they're using insecure wireless networks. But even smart, techie people can be fooled, particularly by "phishing," so don't open those attachments.

"Employing a highly targeted social-engineering trick, hackers were able to gain access to a database at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory -- one of the United States' biggest nuclear facilities -- containing information on people who visited during the past several years. Since the lab handles nuclear material, it collects quite a bit of personal data on visitors, including their Social Security numbers. The bad guys sent e-mails that appeared to be either an invitation to a scientific seminar or a Federal Trade Commission complaint. In both cases, users were prompted to open attachments. Despite the fact that this place employs some of the smartest people in the country, 11 staffers opened the attachments, and the hackers got in. Worse yet, the attack may have been part of a larger coordinated effort -- investigators are looking into that possibility." from TechNewsWorld

The Oak Ridge site posts this warning--and I'd call 15 years a bit more than "several":

The original e-mail and first potential corruption occurred on October 29, 2007. We have reason to believe that data was stolen from a database used for visitors to the Laboratory.

No classified information was lost; however, visitor personal information may have been stolen. If you visited ORNL between the years 1990 and 2004 your name and other personal information such as your social security number or date of birth may have been part of the stolen information. While there is no evidence that the stolen information has been used, the Laboratory deeply regrets the inconvenience caused by this event.

They laughed at me and moved on

Years ago, when I was a bit more militant about women's accomplishments, I suggested at a faculty meeting that a new campus library (I think it was the depository on Kenny Rd) be named for the first Ohio State University Librarian, Olive Branch Jones. I mean, what could have been more perfect--she even had the word "branch" in her name, and most library systems have branches. My suggestion was dismissed as a joke, but I was serious.

Raimund Goerler, University Archivist gave a 2003 Kent State LIS convocation address about Miss Jones here and it is stored in OSU's Knowledge Bank, a digital repository (I backed into this article in a google search and the author was not identified so I redid the search starting with Knowledge Bank--which means you should always have the author's name on the scanned item). I'm so happy to see her getting some credit--after all, she was head of the library from 1887 to 1927. As far as I know, there is no tree, brick or building which bears her name.

She started as Assistant Librarian, becoming the first University Librarian after 8 years--although she hadn't had "professional training." I'd guess the 8 years prepared her, since not much was out there in the way of "library" training. The library degree even today is sort of a key to the door and you'll be an apprentice the rest of your career. After experimenting with various classification schemes, she was one of the first to select the Library of Congress system in 1902 because of the availability of the printed catalog cards (and she had no cataloger on staff). She oversaw the move of the library from a classroom to Orton Hall (where it remained for 20 years), and the eventual design and construction of William Oxley Thompson Library in 1912 (obviously not named for her, but it should have been).

She lost the argument not to build something monumental--she wanted a more practical and useful building, rather than large open spaces and grand staircases. Eventually, long after Olive had gone to the big stacks in the sky, she got her wish, because in the 1970s, Thompson Library was chopped up, modernized and mongrelized into a hodge podge of inconvenient cubicles and little spaces. It's now closed for 4 years and is being restored to something that will look like a monument to learning and knowledge.

It was on the 3rd floor of that library building that Fred Kilgour developed what would become OCLC with 1200 employees and offices in 7 countries, with headquarters in Dublin, Ohio. We both came to Thompson Library in 1967--although he went a bit further--establishing the first computerized library network, while I soon went home to raise children.

Rest in peace, dear Olive Branch Jones. I found out by reading this article that somewhere there is a memorial to you dedicated in 1933. I wonder where it is?

Almost a Friday Family Photo

When I was a little girl, this major league pitcher for 14 years lived on our block, and played with the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns, and Boston Braves. I went to school with his children. I knew he'd gone to Mt. Morris College with my parents, but didn't know he'd graduated from Manchester College in 1934. In 2006 he was inducted into the Manchester College Hall of Fame which was established in 1994.

Church kitchens

As long as I was employed, the church kitchens of Columbus were safe. But this week I've worked in two different church kitchens, one to make candy and one to serve an Advent lunch (I also served communion, but that's not done in the kitchen). Yesterday I made cole slaw a new way and wanted to record the recipe before I forgot it. I think it is called "Asian cole slaw," (but not quite). It doesn't taste at all like my mother's slaw, which was sweet and had apples and raisins.

The woman in charge of the kitchen and Advent lunches wasn't there--she has a part-time Christmas job, so she had written out the instructions and purchased the ingredients. Fortunately, a woman I knew whose teen-agers were in Luther League (or whatever it was called in the 80s) with mine had made this before and was able to assist me. I've looked this recipe up in Google today, but most versions have sugar, some have peanuts, some have mayo, some have onions, some seseme seeds and most had more salt. I tend to over salt things, and I thought this was fine and it wasn't dripping with oil like so many church salads. Because so many of the guests are 80 or over, or have special dietary needs, I suspect sugar and extra salt is left out.

First, find a really huge bowl, bigger than anything you have at home and a giant spoon. If you don't spend much time in church kitchens, this is the first challenge--our church has a commercial grade kitchen, guaranteed to drive the ordinary woman crazy.

Add four packages of chopped raw cabbage slaw mix (don't know the size but I'd recognize it if I saw it) to the bowl.

Mix in four packages of Ramen noodles, reserving the flavor packets which are inside (I think this is what it is called--real stiff, hard things in little curls?) Crunch and separate the hard dry Ramen noodles, and mix with the cabbage. If you don't do this, you'll have hard dry lumps in the slaw and your guests will break a tooth. I'm so glad the other lady had made this before, because that part was left out of the written instructions.

Then mix the 4 flavor packets into the dressing, which is made of

2 cups of oil
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper


Mix the dressing thoroughly with the cabbage/noodle mix. Ignore the more experienced church ladies who try to rush you.

Put the bowl in the commercial size frig for at least an hour; friend from the 80s said overnight is even better to enhance the flavor.

Before serving, toss in 2-3 small packages of slivered almonds.

Serve this crunchy delight with the black bean and rice soup, corn bread, and scoops of colorful sherbet in plastic cups with a crisp sandwich ice cream cookie on the side (these are fixed ahead, refrigerated, and put out with the meal) on tables decorated for the season by the other church ladies who were asked to help.

Bring the leftovers home after they've first been offered to the guests; a perk of service for Jesus.

Thursday Thirteen about protecting your skin

Today's Wall St. Journal had a skin care article because that's the woman's business, and WSJ is all about business! I glanced through it, and decided I could glean 13 ideas from it, some I'd never thought of. For instance, I always thought nice skin came as an inheritance from your parents or grandparents, and doing sensible things like staying out of the sun or tanning booth, and not smoking, but this article didn't even mention those things. The interview was with Tracie Martyn, a skin care specialist for celebrities and socialites, and here's what she does in cold weather. This looks like a lot of work, but if it is your business, I suppose it is like investing in yourself. I looked her up, and she really does have fabulous, glowing skin.

1. She exfoliates 3x a week (I looked this up on her web site and it is $90.00 a jar),
2. 10 minutes in the morning,
3. followed with a shower,
4. then moisturizes,
5. applying with an upward movement so she doesn't drag down her skin.
6. Tracie sleeps with a humidifier in cold weather,
7. and wears sunblock even in the winter (I don't know if this goes under or over the moisturizer)
8. and applies extra moisturizer before going outside,
9. and then covers her face with a scarf.
10. She drinks only moderate amounts of alcohol.
11. She sleeps on her back.
12. She never uses a pillow, and says she can tell by her client's skin if they do.
13. She always gets her beauty sleep.

I've heard drinking a lot of water is important for skin health and eating a good diet. But Tracie didn't mention it to the interviewer, so maybe there's a second interview somewhere out there.

They should also sue Jackson and Sharpton

The parents of Justin Barker who was beaten December 4, 2006 in Jena by the "Jena 6" plus others who were juveniles are suing the parents of the cowardly thugs who beat up their son. They should also include Jesse and Al, who decided to jump in and defend these young criminals to boost their flagging careers as so-called black leaders. These two old men are trying to get African Americans to blame others for their community problems. The criminal behavior of the kids (and their whiny moms) are increasing the danger that black Americans will be the victims. I'm just guessing, but what do you want to bet that the Jena 6 had already beaten up a few of their black peers before they took out their adolescent rage on Justin and weren't called to account for it?

And they have help from the experts. Yesterday James Alan Fox, a criminologist, reported in USAToday that there is silence about the escalating crimes committed by blacks against blacks.

"Murder statistics can be misleading. Despite a modest 1.8% increase in homicides nationally in 2006 from 2005, the situation in many cities is more dire. Police chiefs report escalating street violence, particularly involving youngsters and gangs with guns.

Some startling trends can be seen in the latest national homicide data. From 2002 to 2006, the rate of murder committed by black male teens rose 52%, with a smaller but significant increase among black male young adults and black women. In contrast, there was no increase among whites of any age.

Gang-related homicides have crept upward in recent years, virtually returning to the peak of the early 1990s. Since 2002, gun killings have climbed 13% overall — but 42% among teens and 71% among black teenage males — while non-gun homicides have essentially remained unchanged."

So who is at fault? Not the kids, not their parents, not the aging, sagging has-beens of a 50s-60s civil rights movement. No. It's the federal government. Cuts in funding for youth programs. Backing off from gun control. Even without being hit over the head with it, it's all Bush's fault, is the sub-text (given the dates he cites). Well, I don't buy it Mr. Fox. Back to the drawing board for you and the other experts. It just could be that youth programs and more regulations and marches on Washington just don't do it for this generation.

4404

Our first snowfall of the season

We don't get a lot of snow in central Ohio, so those of you from Chicago or Cleveland will laugh at this. It started snowing around 3 a.m. and these photos were about 7:30 a.m. The bus driver told me she is from California and is having a little trouble.

Scottish handwriting website

I expect to see my DH on this site any day.

The primary purpose of this site is to provide online tuition in palaeography (reading old handwriting) in the context of early modern Scottish historical documents. It is aimed mainly at those whose research involves reading Scottish historical records written in the period 1500-1750,although some assistance is given with 19th century writing too.

Take a Bite Out of Road Rage

While enjoying my morning paper and coffee at a Lane Avenue shop, I observed the long term effects of driver rudeness and bad manners, or as it is known, “road rage.”

A young man driving a forest green, late-model car slowed down to make the sharp turn into the coffee shop parking lot. Behind him, the driver of a white, older-model automobile honked, probably because the young man thought turn signals were just for sissies. The rudeness of the second driver (white car) prompted the first driver (green car) to come to a full stop while negotiating his turn just to teach the other guy a lesson. He then made a well-known gesture with his finger for emphasis. As these two immature whiners glared and made threatening motions, they were oblivious to the cars accelerating behind them from the near-by traffic light. Two other cars driven by young people, probably on their way to classes at Ohio State, collided.

Tough-guy (white car) appeared as though he was going to pull into the parking lot from the side street and pummel macho-boy (green car), but when he saw the accident, he drove off. The first driver disappeared quickly into the coffee shop absolving himself of blame to all within earshot.

I haven’t read any physical profiles of rage-roadies, but I know that dog bites are usually a guy thing, and I suspect road rage is also. A thumbnail sketch of a dog bite is: young male adult owns young male dog which bites male child. It’s not that female dogs never bite or that girls are never victims, but statistically, you need to protect your male children from guys who own male dogs. Well, little boys can mature, dogs can be neutered and children in your care can be kept away from Pit Bulls, Rottweilers or German Shepherds, the breeds that cause the most fatalities in children.**

But is there a solution for road rage? Yes. You can’t leave the testosterone at home, but men (and women) can practice good manners, empathy and common sense while driving. The next time someone cuts in front of you, instead of swearing and making obscene gestures, say “dog bite” and smile.

Fortunately, those two young adults were not injured, but they needlessly will have the burden of the rudeness of two older drivers on their driving record and check-book for a long time to come.

**JAVMA 210, no.8 (April 15, 1997):1148-1150; JAMA 279 no.1 (January 7, 1998):51-53; Pediatrics 96 no.5 (November 1995):947-950 and 97 no.6 (June 1996):891-895.

Written in 2002

Library Principles for Students, from the Old Testament

This was written by Jim Farrington, music librarian at Wesleyan (source: posted on MLA-L by the author) based on "Lamentations of the Father" by Ian Frazier. I found it today in my computer files while making a file transfer. Ah, such happy memories.

Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the Library.

Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the Library.

Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the Library.

Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the Library.

Of the round pies of baked dough, topped variously and wondrously with goodness of the Earth, especially with extra garlic and double cheese, you may eat, but not in the Library, neither may you carry such therein.

Of quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but not in the Library.

Of the juices and other beverages, you may drink, but not in the Library, unless it is that drink of two parts hydrogen and one of oxygen and only then should the mixture be held in a container of the prescribed shape and nature that miraculously do not spill even when
up righted.

Indeed, when you reach the place where the Library carpet begins, of any food or beverage there you may not eat, neither may you drink.

Laws When at Table, in Carrel, or in Wingback And if you are seated in your comfy chair, keep your legs and feet below you as they were. Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me. Yes, even though this might be something you would do in confines of your own domicile, your feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of rebuke.

Draw not with your pens or pencils or other implements of writing upon the table or the books before you, even in pretend, for we do not do that; that is why. Yours shall not be the last eyes to gaze understandably upon the words so written, and they should be as fresh for your followers as for you and your antecedents.

On Vocal Discourse

Do not speak loudly with thy neighbor or study mate within the Library; for it is as if you scream all the time. If you find a troubling idea foisted upon your eyes between the bindings of a book, your voice rises up even to the ceiling, while you point to the offense with the finger of your right hand; but I say to you, scream not; only remonstrate gently with a knowing nod, that you may correct the fault of the author in your own essay.

Likewise, if you find your mind wandering from the soulfulness of your studies, again I say, refrain from conversing with whoever be at hand so that others might not be so distracted.

Play not the electronic gadgets fitted to your ears at such a volume as to cause others to march to your drum machine.

Though the need will eventually arise that you must give in to your ignorance of a matter bibliographic and throw yourself prostrate to the all knowing ones behind the Great Oaken Desk in the Reference Center, wail not despairingly nor gnash the teeth loudly, for the sound carries great and far in that part of the Library, and then many of your peers will know of your misfortune; behold, I whisper myself, yet do not die.

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances

Attempt not to repair broken word carriers with your own tape, for these are matters better left to our specialists.

Forget not that to steal is one of the original sins, and you will be punished woefully, if not now then in the fullness of time.

4400

Using a pedometer to improve your health

The other day I walked 5 miles. I know that because I was wearing a step pedometer (similar to the photo), and only one mile was "exercise" done outside. The rest was my activities at home, and going out twice to shop. Recently I read, "Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health" (a review article) in the Nov 21, 2007 issue of JAMA, pp 2296-2304 (many public libraries have a subscription). The researchers had reviewed 26 published studies that reported on pedometers among outpatients, 8 randomized controlled trials, and 18 observational. The conclusion was that use of a pedometer is associated with significant increases in physical activity and significant decreases in body mass index and blood pressure. This was across all ages, races, gender, and state of health.

Some guidelines specifically recommend 10,000 steps a day, although I don't know that this goal would change the outcome. So, if you're like me and exercise isn't your thing, clip on that pedometer. I'm not sure why it works, but people, me included, seem to increase their activity level when using a pedometer. When I'm wearing it, I'm more likely to walk upstairs to the bathroom rather than use the one 2 ft. from my desk; I might take the laundry from the basement to the bedroom in three trips instead of one; I'll walk into a room on a different floor to ask my husband something, rather than holler; I'll pace while reheating my coffee rather than stand and stare at the microwave. It's not brain surgery. Here's some other ideas from the Walking Site.

Take a walk with your spouse, child, or friend
Walk the dog
Use the stairs instead of the elevator
Park farther from the store
Better yet, walk to the store
Get up to change the channel
Window shop
Plan a walking meeting
Walk over to visit a neighbor
Get outside to walk around

So during this high calorie Christmas season when it is cold and drippy outside, I'm setting a goal of 5,000 steps a day through January 5, 2008. If I can do more, I will, but if I set it too high, I'll get discouraged. One good walking place is the Giant Eagle store. I can never find anything I want in that store and spend a lot of time walking around.

Bone health in older men

Age, weight and COPD are the predictors of bone health in men writes Jacob Goldstein in the WSJ yesterday. One in four men over 50 will have osteoporosis related fractures. Staying fit is important because strong muscles mean better coordination, and weight bearing exercise helps bone density. Of course, being a non-smoker will help the lungs and the bones. Another predictor is weight below 175--thin men are more likely to have weaker bones, just like women.

"[Angela] Shepherd's system, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, uses three variables: age, weight (lighter men are at higher risk) and a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which mainly affects smokers. Smoking and excessive drinking both increase the risk of osteoporosis."

It also helps to stay off ladders and roofs and hire someone to clean the gutters while you rake, even if you were a good athlete in high school, drank a lot of milk, and currently lead an exercise class for women that includes weights. Last week a local architect in his late 60s fell off a ladder and died from his injuries.

[Public service announcement for the other resident of this household]

4398 Ohio has dirty cars

In Ohio we're used to dirty cars. I may run my van through a car wash 4 or 5 times a year, especially if we need rain. The van is gray, the asphalt is gray, the sky is gray--you hardly even notice the dirt. In California and Florida where the weather is 50-90% better, the cars are spotless. Maybe dirt shows up more on sunny days.

On the left coast where cars are king, they're starting to notice that you can get from point A to point B in a dirty car just like we do in fly-over country. The WSJ reported that 30-40 million gallons of urban run off in Santa Monica Bay is from car washing. Now it's the eco-mites vs. the clean-car buffs. Following the carbon footprint steps, city governments and non-profits are now selling coupons to allow the owner to use a commercial carwash.

Will the car owner emit more carbon when he puts on weight from the lack of exercise he got hand washing and polishing his car?

Fabulous 50s photo from www.godblessamericana.com/2004-01-15/

Chocolate and peanut butter

Yesterday I helped in the kitchen at Advent Lutheran making "Buckeye Candy" for a Christmas fund raiser. We don't do fund raisers at our Lutheran church (UALC); each ministry applies for a portion of the budget, which is raised through tithes and offerings of the congregation. But these projects are useful also for fellowship and bonding. When we're in Lakeside in the winter, the little churches in the area are running so many fund raisers you wonder when they have time to do anything else. You could eat an ethnic style dinner at a different church all winter long. Anyway, back to the candy.

Yesterday we rolled dozens and dozens of little peanut butter/confectioner sugar/butter balls, to be refrigerated over night. Then today they will be dipped in chocolate (with paraffin to harden), placed in little candy papers, and boxed. They take orders, but don't actually have a bazaar. I'd planned to go back today and buy maybe 2 or 3 dozen to set out at a party we're having on the 30th. Here's my dilemma. I can resist chocolate; I can resist peanut butter. Together--it's a huge problem. I have a refrigerator in the garage and I could store them there. However, I do walk past that frig several times a day.

I wonder if my neighbor has room for a box of candy.

One of the ladies told me about another fabulous recipe, too. Called "Rolo Pretzels." Google it. Sort of like bite size "turtle" candy. Sounds really easy and very yummy--assuming you have great resistance and fortitude around the holidays.

And where should our confidence be?

Exactly when are we the people, the president and the congress supposed to believe the National Intelligence Estimate. Is it the 2005 report which tried to take all eyes off Iraq, or the 2007 report which appears when interest in the mideast is flagging as an election approaches? Pardon me if I find the media salivation and hysteria about this a bit transparent.

In 2005, the authors of the report "assess[ed] with high confidence that Iran currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons despite its international obligations and international pressure, but we do not assess that Iran is immovable."

In 2007, they "judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program. Judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years. . . . Assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons." Excerpt from Taranto

Does anyone have confidence that the WMD intelligence reports we heard about all during the Clinton years (including the inspections), or the Iran threat we've been hearing about and seeing results of in Iraq are in any way accurate? Well, if you are a Democrat, you discount all WMD reports even if your own Senators (Clinton, Edwards, Kerry, Kennedy, et al) preached and warned about it; if you are a Republican, you seem to hang an awful lot of our security and freedoms on agencies with very little accountability when it suits your purpose and ignore them when they don't. Hmmm. Two peas in a pod, innit?

Update: "The Wall Street Journal http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010946 reports in an editorial that "the NIE's main authors include three former State Department officials with previous reputations as 'hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials,' according to an intelligence source." So it could be that when the media and Democratic politicians treat the NIE as a political document, that is exactly what its authors intended. " Best of the Web, Dec. 5, 2007

We've finished the Christmas cards!

This year my computer failed the day after the night I printed out a draft of the letter and a list of the labels. So we had to hand write the cards, and run the letter through the photocopier looking a bit squiqqly, but they are done earlier than most years. Is that the unintended consequences of technology--you tend to leave it all to the last moment because you've saved a bit of time on the front end? My husband wrote some and I wrote some, and I think some of you who were supposed to get personal notes didn't if your card was addressed by him. He paints; I write.

I suppose the day will come when no one sends cards--sort of like calling cards in days of the early 20th century. My daughter and nieces still send cards, but now most of them are 40 or over and they aren't the young generation anymore, except in my mind. Do 25 year olds send Christmas cards? But I love getting the cards and photocopied letters--all the trips, the theater, the opera, the hikes and picnics, the photographs of oodles of grandbabies, and now great-grands. And of course, at my age, many of the letters contain news of terrible losses and illnesses, or sadly come with only one name when for years there were two.

As I addressed a card to a first cousin once removed (daughter of an Illinois first cousin) who lives here in Columbus on the far east side I was reminded again that I've only seen her once, in 1993 at a family reunion. I last saw her parents at my mother's funeral in 2000. I've watched her kids grow up on Christmas cards, and learn about her brothers and sisters and their children through her once a year notes. Some years I hear from her parents, some I don't.

Almost 60 years ago

Harry Reid's tirade against Rush Limbaugh on the floor of the Senate was addressed by Margaret Chase Smith almost 60 years ago.

It is ironical that we Senators can in debate in the Senate directly or indirectly, by any form of words, impute to any American who is not a Senator any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming an American—and without that non-Senator American having any legal redress against us—yet if we say the same thing in the Senate about our colleagues we can be stopped on the grounds of being out of order.

It is strange that we can verbally attack anyone else without restraint and with full protection and yet we hold ourselves above the same type of criticism here on the Senate Floor. Surely the United States Senate is big enough to take self-criticism and self-appraisal. Surely we should be able to take the same kind of character attacks that we “dish out” to outsiders.

Read the whole 1950 speech. Back biting, freedom stomping senators are not just a product of our age.

One less candle

A few days ago Christians and non-religious consumers were being told to get rid of all their incandescent Christmas tree lights and buy new, low energy LED bulbs (if any at all)--you know, those same energy saving China-made-in-coal-fired plants where we can't see the smoke. Now Jews are supposed to light one less candle. This carbon footprint thing is the biggest "cry wolf" fiasco in my life time. Pretty soon, you won't be able to get people to consider picking up their own trash or giving up smoking because they won't believe it's a problem compared to their so called carbon foot print.

However, you can offset this carbon footprint made by your outside Christmas tree lights by staying married.

"A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household," said Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University whose analysis of the environmental impact of divorce appears in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mlive.com

Malaria is a leading cause of death and illness worldwide.

(CDC)--742,000 child malaria deaths in Africa alone were estimated for the year 2000. The U.S. has contributed to this death toll by caving in to environmentalists' hysteria about DDT. Now we hand out nets soaked with pesticide.

In the U.S., about 6,000 teen-agers die in automobile accidents each year, 4 times the adult rate, and a lot of these could be prevented just by raising the legal driving age to 18. About 7,000 people a year die in hospitals from medication errors. It appears that more people in the U.S. now die from the mostly hospital-acquired staph infection MRSA than from AIDS, according to a new report from the CDC. Simple hand washing by staff could have prevented many of these. More people die in a given year in the U.S. as a result of medical errors (estimated at between than from motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297), or AIDS (16,516). (To err is human).

Drug intervention is saving the lives of many obese Americans from cardiovascular disease, allowing them to live longer with debilitating conditions--arthritis, diabetes, stroke, cancer--because it doesn't solve the obesity problem. (JAMA, Nov. 7, 2007). But it's still most dangerous of all to be an unborn child of a mother with a choice in America--at least since the beginning of the women's movement in the late 60s. The late 70s through the early 80s were particularly dangerous for the unborn. Johnson Archive

Taxpayer bailout for subprime borrowers?

Why not? The government bails out both agribusiness and the small farmer, the corporations and the mom and pop stores, the railroads and the airlines, the state and local government officials who botch up their congressional earmarks, the auto industry, the poor public schools and the floundering charter schools, the state highways and the interstates alike, the student loan recepients and the university administrations that talked them into it, the medicaid nursing homes and the welfare moms. The USA bails out former enemies and future enemies both. We have been conditioned to think that there will be a safety net no matter what because the good times will always roll.

By the end of 2006, 61% of the subprime loans were going to people who had credit scores good enough for a conventional loan. Whether it was greed, thinking they would flip the property, or emotion, they fell for it. And all sorts of industries benefitted in spending frenzies.

We don't have a subprime loan on any of our properties, but we will certainly be affected if our neighbors in UA or Lakeside or Canal go into foreclosure. We have many friends who work in unrelated industries such as retail, or banking, or construction or service trades, or the university, or travel and leisure, to say nothing of the ones who are living on savings and pensions. Those people struggling to meet $1500-$2000 a month mortgage payments certainly won't be buying new baggy jeans for junior, or buying plane tickets to visit Grandma at Christmas, or meeting their college loans for their daughters.

I wasn't around in the 1920s--but the signs of the coming Great Depression were all around as loans were being called in on the people who bought land to support the war effort. Hoover can't be blamed for the depression and FDR didn't do anything to get us out of it that was effective in the long run.

If giving people a few more months on their mortgage, however badly they planned, will save the whole nation from a collapsing economy, how could that hurt?

The definition of rich

According to a new survey, the Republicans get it right.

Rich" to a Republican isn't quite the same thing as it is to a Democrat or independent. Only 28% of Republicans associate "rich" with having money, material goods and power, compared with 41.5% of Democrats and 51% of independents. Republicans were much more inclined to define "rich" as having family, friends, freedom, faith and peace of mind.

Click on the thumb nail to read the entire survey.

Must, may and might

When I learned grammar these were called auxiliary verbs. Used with a verb they become a verb phrase helping with an action or condition. There are twenty-three auxiliary verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, shall, will, should, would, may, might, must, can, could. I can't imagine how confusing it must be for non-English speakers to make their way through this list of auxiliaries, and how to use them. Some speakers of English go overboard with these little crutches.

I recently read a draft report called Draft Report of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control . Control is a favorite word of librarians. But what I noticed in this draft report (they are requesting comments) is the overworked auxiliary verbs. The first part of the document is loaded with "must." In case you hadn't noticed from my blog, librarians are fond of dogmatic, strongly worded statements, and are very opinionated. So, in this draft were "must"

continue
step forward
look beyond
realize
begin
do their work
continue
be used
be a part of
analyze
work
devise
be taken
purchase
be derived
be openly arrived at (wordy too)
be created
be pursued
be considered
be usable
be able
be seen
come
achieve

Then after that powerful mandate, the writers soften up a bit and move on to "might"

take on
be shared
have participated
include
be to develop
be to engage
lend
be made
exist
be facilitated

and then finally wimp out altogether with "may"

still conclude
be operated
be forbidden
also lead
be opportunities
also be possible
change
be openly available
not be compatible
change
not provide
prove
be required
potentially be
of most interest
result
benefit
require
be unfamiliar
vary
have changing and expanding needs
be considered
arise
not be optimally applied

If you are a school teacher or a social worker or anyone working in a government agency, you probably use these helping verbs throughout your documents too. I think they mainly contribute to the time it takes to accomplish anything in publically funded agencies. These little verbs might be the reason Google, a start up 9 years ago by two grad students, is stomping out the need for librarians. Now that the Google founders are rich and going all greeny on us, we can expect them to act more like librarians, which will give my profession a chance to catch up.

Deadly winter storm

From the Dakotas to the northeast--and I'm betting it will be blamed on global warming.

Drivers in much of the Northeast navigated a treacherous mix of rain, sleet and snow Monday as a storm blamed for at least 14 deaths slid through the region after pounding the Upper Midwest.AP story

How to update your Christmas card list

I saw this at Shirley Hornbeck's Genealogy Tips, #2:

FINDING LIVING RELATIVES:

To contact a living person whom you have lost, write a letter to the person, be sure to include your address and telephone number in the letter. Send the letter in an unsealed stamped envelope, along with a cover letter to the Social Security Administration, Letter Forwarding Unit, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235. Include in your cover letter as much as you know about the person: Name, Social Security number, birthplace, birth date, name of the person's parents. You do not have to know all of the information, but the process will be quicker if you give more identifying information. If the person you are seeking is listed in the SSA files, the letter will be forwarded to them and it's up to that person to contact you.

If they owe you money, don't hold your breath.

We deserve better than Rudy

Nice guy. Did a lot for New York. Funny. Charming. But Americans can do better. His personal life is a mess--now they're dragging up the details of public funds being used to escort and protect his mistress (now his wife) during the 9/11 period. We're-so-above-being-judgemental writers and commenters really aggrevate me. Then if public money is used, then maybe they'll take a second look. The personal is political. Just ask the Clintons. If his wife and kids can't trust him, why should we?

4385 Kennedy to get 8 million for his book

How much would you pay to own it? How much would you have to be paid to read it? How many copies will Upper Arlington Public Library buy? Great cartoon, Nov. 29

4384

Hillary's handlers

may want to get Bill out of the kitchen. His remarks this week in Iowa about opposing Iraq from the beginning, were just false, and so easy to check, that it's just a reminder for the American people about how glib and prone to lying for no particular reason, he was. Even I remember his lauching air strikes to take out WMDs, "Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors." He believed Hussein had the weapons and believed he'd use them again. Like Bush, he still believed in the cause months after we went to war in 2003. Why not just say that you used to believe in regime change and then admit being wrong or saying he would have done it differently? Is it better to lie about what you said and believed? I can't imagine that this helps his wife. He didn't help Gore, so maybe he'll stab her in the back too. Maybe it's all about Bill?