recommended web site

www.dailyhowler.com

chronicles the main stream media and so-called liberal media bias and lies on behalf of conservatives and against liberals.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has Sprung
copyright 1997 Patricia M. Shannon

Spring has sprung,
the flowers grow,
their pollen flows,
so does my nose.
Oh, hear it blow,
how it does glow.

everybody's creative, in their own way

Some years ago, I saw a very small article in a back page of a newspaper, that reported on some reseach genetic vs environmental influences on human thinking. It stated that it did not appear that heridity influenced creativity. There was no information on the way the study was conducted, but I felt doubtful of the conclusion.

However, with time, I have developed a different point of view. I have associated creativity with new ideas. However, I now see that great creativity is used by many people to rationalize their existing views.

inaccurate prediction

I made a spectacularly inaccurate prediction recently. I was talking to someone about the plan by some group to go around to high schools and colleges and lie to students, telling them that IT would be a good job to go into. I remarked that encouraging people to go into a field that they would have such a hard time getting jobs in, as beginners, was dangerous. Having educated people who can't get decent jobs can lead to the development of terrorists. I opined that the job discrimination against older IT people was probably safe enough in that respect, because older people are past the age when most violence occurs, and probably wouldn't suddenly become terrorists. Two or three days later, the following was reported :

http://cbs2.com/national/topstories_story_065072926.html

Mar 6, 2007 4:00 am US/Pacific
Police Investigate Why Gunman Shot Coworkers
(AP) SIGNAL HILL, Calif. Investigators were trying to determine Tuesday why a 68-year-old man opened fire at a menu printing plant, wounding three co-workers who had apparently helped him land a job there.Jose Mendez, of Hawthorne, killed himself as SWAT teams closed in the Kenyon Press offices Monday morning, police said.Capt. Mary Risinger said the business owner told authorities Mendez had been upset that his hours had been cut back amid a company slowdown. The victims had apparently helped him get the job assembling menus there about a year earlier."We're as confused as everybody else," Risinger said. "If he was mad about the hours, he should have been mad with her, not the co-workers."Mendez's longtime girlfriend, Gilma Newhouse, said Mendez hadn't worked since Feb. 9. "It's his only job, that's why he was so worried," Newhouse said in a phone interview.

NRA sickos

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17307316/

This man's career may have been destroyed because he made an intelligent remark. I support the right to own weapons, but the NRA has shown itself to be really sick.

Modern hunters rarely become more famous than Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.
Zumbo's fame, however, has turned to black-bordered infamy within America's gun culture -- and his multimedia success has come undone. It all happened in the past week, after he publicly criticized the use of military-style assault rifles by hunters, especially those gunning for prairie dogs.
"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. "As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles."

The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business, and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.

His top-rated weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel, his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine and his corporate ties to the biggest names in gunmaking, including Remington Arms Co., have been terminated or are on the ropes.

=
=

our share

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/earlyshow/main2504055.shtml

Carlson said that the average American is responsible for 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. That is quite a substantial carbon footprint, which he defined as each person's "cumulative impact on global warming from the energy that you use from the electricity for your home, the gas in your car, flying in a plane."

50,000 pounds, that's 25 tons each year! I can't tell from this article if this figure includes the carbon footprint from items that we buy. If not, it's even worse.

elite whiners : H1-B visas and outsourcing

I am really tired of the rich power elite whining because of conditions they instigated, or at least made worse.

They are complaining that not enough young people are going into computers. When I got my first programming job, I had a degree in math, and a single programming course - in FORTRAN. I was given an IBM programmed instruction manual on Assembler language, and became an Assembler programmer. I taught myself COBOL from a programmed instruction manual, and got a COBOL job. For years, I continued to get jobs and assignments for which I did not have all of the specific experience needed, but which I was able to easily pick up on the job. Now, companies don't want to hire anyone who doesn't have several years of specific experience in every detail of the job, no matter how trivial. They don't want to hire people over a certain age, or people just out of school. In 2000, when many thousands of programmers had been thrown on the trash pile after saving the economy of the world, business got Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to greatly increase the number of H1-B visas, allowing the importing of technical people from other companies. Also, many companies have been outsourcing skilled jobs to other companies. Many skilled and capable people were out of work, or working at low-paid jobs. So college students made the intelligent decision not to go into IT. Now that many baby boomers are retiring, companies are being forced to hire older and less experienced people. So now they are trying to get Congress to again increase the number of H1-B visas. I saw an article in the last couple of weeks saying that there is a program to go to high schools and colleges and tell students that IT would be a great field to go into, at the same time they are trying to make sure this is a blatant lie by increasing the number of H1-B visas and outsourcing.

Of course, much of this is also true for other skilled professions. They are even outsourcing tax preparation and x-ray analysis to other countries.

We are also being told that we are going to have a problem in funding Social Security retirements of baby boomers. Increasing the number of H1-B visas will make this worse. If we can't get decent-paying jobs, we will be forced to take early Social Security retirement just to survive. We are criticized for not saving enough for retirement. If you have a low-paying job, you can't save much, if anything, for retirement.

neurological disease and pollution

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16885883/

Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases may be far more common than most people had believed, according to the latest estimates.
Nearly one out of 1,000 Americans has multiple sclerosis or MS and one out of 100 elderly Americans has Parkinson’s disease the survey found.
“Our estimate of MS prevalence is about 50 percent higher than a comprehensive review from 1982,” said Dr. Deborah Hirtz of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who led the survey.

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/323

In the last two decades reports from different countries emerged associating pesticide and herbicide use with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Conclusions Our data show an increased PD mortality in California counties using agricultural pesticides.

http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1035/1/117

Environmental factors that can trigger inflammatory events in the central nervous system are lipopolysaccharide, aluminum, and particulate matter present in air pollution. These factors may enhance existing age-related inflammation in the central nervous system and thus accelerate neuronal toxicity.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16902534/
The Bush administration continues to help business profits at the expense of the public health.

An order signed by President Bush on the oversight of thousands of government regulations issued every year was praised by business as a step toward controlling an unwieldy process but criticized by others as potentially a loser for consumers.
The White House said the executive order signed by Bush on Jan. 18 makes a senior official in each agency accountable for the regulations it issues and provides greater openness by ensuring that “guidance” documents issued to businesses are available to the public.

Consumer groups say the public would lose out because the order could slow the process by which regulations in the public interest such as pollution controls would be issued, and puts the process under the control of an official appointed by the president.

The Bush administration has repeatedly censored scientific findings, including on harmful effects of pollution on human health (for example, mercury), for the sake of protecting business profits. This sounds like more of the same.

There are names for someone who puts short-term profits for the rich above the good of the country and the world : traitor and sociopath (also know as psychopath).

here we go again

In 2000, when thousands of people in IT were out of work after saving the economy of the world by doing the Y2K conversions, Congress paid of its big business donors by greatly increasing the number of high-tech H1-B visas, which allow busingess to bring in cheap labor from other countries. The result is that people with 25 or 30 years of experience couldn't even get e-mails or phone calls returned, and ended up working at jobs such as teacher's aid, waitress, construction, etc. Also, people w/o experience could not get a job. Now many baby boomers are retiring, so companies are being forced to open up to older people, and those just out of colleges. So, no surprise, Congress is being lobbyed by the business community to greatly increase the limit on H1-B visas.

childhood cancer

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16705760/

A University of Texas study ... found that living within two miles of elevated levels of 1,3-butadiene around the ship channel’s petrochemical complex was associated with a 56 percent increased incidence of childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia compared with those living more than 10 miles away, according to a statement from the city of Houston, which financed the study.

This may be part of the reason the rate of childhood cancer has been increasing by about 20% every 20 years.

trans fat

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060619133024.htm

"over six years, male monkeys fed a western-style diet that contains trans
fat had a 7.2 percent increase in body weight, compared to a 1.8 percent
increase in monkeys that ate monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil.
...
According to the FDA, trans fat is found in vegetable shortenings, some
margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or
fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the majority of
trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats
like shortening and hard margarine by adding hydrogen."

_________________________________________________________________
Communicate instantly! Use your Hotmail address to sign into Windows Live
Messenger now. http://get.live.com/messenger/overview

Secret Santa dies

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_re_us/obit_secret_santa

"Larry Stewart, a millionaire who became known as Secret Santa for his habit
of roaming the streets each December and anonymously handing money to
people, died Friday. He was 58."

How sad that such a good person has died.

_________________________________________________________________
Get live scores and news about your team: Add the Live.com Football Page

www.live.com/?addtemplate=football&icid=T001MSN30A0701

Milk Eliminates Cardiovascular Health Benefits Of Tea, Researchers Warn

"Research published online in the European Heart Journal has found that the
protective effect that tea has on the cardiovascular system is totally wiped
out by adding milk.
Tests on volunteers showed that black tea significantly improves the ability
of the arteries to relax and expand, but adding milk completely blunts the
effect. Supporting tests on rat aortas (aortic rings) and endothelial
(lining) cells showed that tea relaxed the aortic rings by producing nitric
oxide, which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But, again, adding milk
blocked the effect."

I guess I'd better stop adding hot chocolate mix (which contains powdered
milk) to my morning green tea! It sounds like what I do sometimes - adding
cooking cocao and crushed up peppermint candies - might be ok, since I don't
add milk then.

_________________________________________________________________
Find sales, coupons, and free shipping, all in one place! MSN Shopping
Sales & Deals

http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctid=198,ptnrid=176,ptnrdata=200639

Radiation Degrades Nuclear Waste-containing Materials Faster Than Expected

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070110181212.htm

"Minerals intended to entrap nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of
years may be susceptible to structural breakdown within 1,400 years, a team
from the University of Cambridge and the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory reported today (Jan. 11) in the journal Nature.
...
This could lead to swelling, loss of physical strength and possible cracking
of the mineral as soon as 210 years, well before the radioactivity had
decayed to safe levels"

_________________________________________________________________
Type your favorite song. Get a customized station. Try MSN Radio powered
by Pandora. http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001

power blinds

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070110124121.htm

"Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University, Joe Magee of the Wagner Graduate
School of Public Service at NYU, and colleagues at Stanford University found
that possessing power itself serves as an impediment to understanding the
perspectives of others."

Experience, on both a personal and political level, show this is true.
However, another possibility for the results of this particular experiment
is that the powerful just don't care about other people's perceptions.

_________________________________________________________________
Dave vs. Carl: The Insignificant Championship Series. Who will win?

http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://davevscarl.spaces.live.com/?icid=T001MSN38C07001

deficit vs. debt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16599329/

"In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Friday that the
deficit from October through December totaled $80.4 billion, the smallest
imbalance for the first three months of a budget year since 2002. The budget
year starts Oct. 1.
...
The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the deficit for the 2007
budget year will rise to $286 billion, an increase of 15.2 percent from last
year, but that figure could be lowered when the CBO releases its revised
estimate later this month.
...
Bush, who took office while the country was running record surpluses, saw
the deficit hit an all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004."

As usual, the news media only report the amount of the budget deficit (or
surplus, when Clinton was president). The deficit is the amount by which
the national debt has grown in a single year. We citizens also need to know
the national debt, the total amount which the government owes (much of it to
China), which is not usually given. Many people don't know the difference.

Since this administration has no regard for truth, I regard any information
it puts out with scepticism. (Of course, even with honest evaluations, it
takes time for all information to come in, so that there are always later
corrections). People who will change the meaning of scientific reports, to
protect the financial interests of the rich at the expense of the health of
our people and country, cannot be trusted to tell the truth on any topic.

_________________________________________________________________
Type your favorite song. Get a customized station. Try MSN Radio powered
by Pandora. http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001

Pollutants' link to diabetes

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070105-18042600-bc-ecowellness-diabetes.xml

A preliminary study has found Americans who live near toxic waste sites are hospitalized more for diabetes than those who live in clean communities.

Such results suggest environmental triggers of diabetes, a fairly new research area, are worthy of more investigation, Carpenter said. As type 2 diabetes has exploded -- a two-fold increase from 5.8 million to 13.3 million Americans from 1980 to 2002 -- scientists have scrambled to find explanations for the rise. Although experts often point to the obesity epidemic, that alone can't account for it, Carpenter said.
Indeed, the "evidence is accumulating rapidly that environmental exposures are very important factors," he said.
Dr. Larry Deeb, president of medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association, also stressed obesity can't be the only culprit for the dizzying increase in diabetes.

harnessing child power

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14936341/

The Clinton conference began Wednesday with a slew of world figures, among them first lady Laura Bush, who announced a partnership aimed at bringing clean drinking water to communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
The program, called Play Pumps, will install specially designed playground equipment that will use the force generated by children using the equipment to pump clean water from beneath the ground.

After all the people (like me), remarking that we could supply much of our energy if we could harness the energy of children, someone has actually done it.

cheap computers

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16456043/

Rwanda is the eighth developing country to join the One Laptop Per Child initiative aimed at giving away inexpensive computers to all young students.

I would like to buy one of these myself. Microsoft keeps making more powerful and expensive computers. All many people need is a basic computer.

If I could afford it, I would get a Mac suitable for composing music, but since I don't anticipate being able to afford that soon, if ever, I would like to buy an inexpensive, basic computer.

torture

The most effective way I've found to get a lot of housecleaning done is to decide to do my taxes!