I Let My Baby Do That

Why I Changed My Mind About Gen. McChrystal

2010-06-23T20:20:00.003-04:00

I've been calling the situation in Afghanistan a quagmire since the get-go and as I see it that ain't gonna change. Duh! It's an F'n Quagmire.
Anyway, I had no expectations about McChrystal's tenure. He seemed OK. I was betting on him not making things worse.
So fast forward to Michael Hastings Rolling Stone's article. I read it.
Let me say up front that there was a lot in that article that could have been on McChrystal's positive side of the ledger. But, early in the article I came across the deal-breaker, the stake through the heart, the unforgivable.
"He prefers Bud Light Lime (his favorite beer) to Bordeaux,...
Bud Light? Bud-Water Light? The drink of losers who can't handle Bud-Water... let alone the taste of real beer?
'Nuf said.

Breaking news - Howell Township, Monmouth County, NJ

2010-06-06T14:51:00.007-04:00

State Trooper seriously injured; Armed suspects sought:

(photo credit: Asbury Park Press)

One suspect, a 30 year old women, was captured and a male companion is the object of search by State Police, helicopters, and dogs.
more photos
(photo credit: NJ.com)

Shy Chickie? & Her Royal Highness Hennie

2010-06-05T14:05:00.007-04:00

Actually, she's not shy at all. She's just not very trusting and is constantly assessing her surroundings. I’ve seen her stand her ground and give warnings when confronted with a monster (leaf blower).

I often wonder if her distrusting nature is because of the careless handling she received when very young. Her jaw was broken as a result. Flickr Link

The chickens have matured. They are about 16 months old.
Flickr Link

Dan Trim Made Me Do It

2010-05-31T21:36:00.011-04:00

Dan has a Mothing Blog (Check it out).
Though moths have always facinated me I don't usually take many photos of them. But it just so happenes that today I spotted an interesting one that I had never seen before. So I'll post it here along with another interesting one that I shot a few years ago.

Beautiful Wood Nymph - Eudryas grata. It's a small (2.2 cm) moth in a huge and diverse Family, Noctuidae also called Owlet Moths.

The second moth, and Eight-spotted Forester, Alypia octomaculata, is also in the Family Noctuidae. Alas, its photo has gone missing this evening. I also had a photo of the larva which is memorable because it causes a painful reaction if you touch one of its many spines.
Until I locate it, there are several good photos on Flickr. This Eight-spotted Forester is by Ms. Gould.
The Forester's larva here is by Roy Niswanger.

Is this How Hemsley at UnitedHealthcare Manages Costs?

2010-05-31T15:07:00.009-04:00

Reuters 03/04/2010
This is a recent photo. I wasn't able to find the photo from more than a dozen years ago when he was CFO at the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson LLP.

Open Letter to Mr. Hemsley

May 31, 2010

Mr. Stephen Hemsley
CEO UnitedHealthcare

Dear Mr. Hemsley;
I have a problem and now I want to make it your problem. You see, my medical claims are constantly rejected by your claims processing department. Your claims processing department agrees with me that the error is theirs when I contact them. They will reprocess the claims correctly when I call and point out their error but they only correct the old errors. New claims are processed using the same error.

The error appears to be caused by a default assumption during the processing of claims that Medicare is the first payer. But this default is only true if the group policy is for a company with less than 20 employees. UHC certainly must know that DRS Technologies has more than 20 employees. In fact, DRS has 10,500 employees in 40 plus operating locations in the United States.

How many other people’s claims are treated this way? How many others give up after being told that this policy is legal and they have no other recourse?

If this error is the default, what possible reasons are there? I can think of a few.
• UHC’s claims-processing software has no links to your own data about the group.
• Or, though there are links to that data, a critical field for group size isn’t linked; it was somehow overlooked or considered unimportant or…?
• Or, what I see as a problem is not a problem for UHC because it saves millions of dollars by not paying legitimate claims and delaying payment of millions more?

So I challenge you Mr. Hemsley. Prove to me that UnitedHealthcare has a valid reason for delaying payment of legitimate claims.

Here is a list of my legitimate claims incorrectly processed for that same error.
UHC Claim #
23xxxxx260
23xxxxx659
23xxxxx007
23xxxxx521
23xxxxx296
23xxxxx005
23xxxxx036
24xxxxx985
24xxxxx282
24xxxxx263
24xxxxx098
23xxxxx036
24xxxxx338
24xxxxx897
24xxxxx897
25xxxxx249
25xxxxx792
25xxxxx614
25xxxxx166
25xxxxx369

CC:
Mr. J. Lippincott, Ombudsman, NJ Department of Banking and Insurance
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., Congressman, US House of Representative

Sincerely,
D.A.P.

Our New Home Guard Front Door

2010-04-17T14:06:00.003-04:00

Asbury Window and Door in Ocean Township did a fantastic job when we needed a new front door. They had great suggestions and helped us decide the type and color. We chose their Home Guard fiberglass door with a mahogany color exterior and white interior. The installers, Tony and Lee are real professionals. So many people have stopped to say how beautiful it is. With the full sidelights and fanlight, it turns heads.
Thank you so much!
Dennis and Susan.

"Mars, tout change avec la brise"

2010-03-10T19:54:00.003-05:00

Thank You Senator Bunning!

2010-03-02T14:59:00.004-05:00

Senator Bunning,

Thank you for entering a bit of sanity in the legislative process. Spending billions of tax-payer dollars without a means to pay for those dollars has got to stop.

MY BLOG: On Blogger.com

Dennis Pederson,
Neptune City, NJ

Bunning said again Tuesday that he opposed the extension because it would add $10 billion to the budget deficit, and he attacked Democrats for abandoning promises to pay for legislation instead of contributing to a budget deficits projected to hit almost $1.6 trillion this year. Bunning proposes to pay for the extension with unspent money from last year's massive economic recovery package, but Reid objected.

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Senator Judd Gregg Tells it Like It Is...

2010-02-26T08:40:00.003-05:00

US senator warns of ‘financial meltdown’ risk
By Edward Luce in Washington

Published: February 25 2010 22:30

The US is heading for a debt-driven “financial meltdown” within five to seven years, according to Judd Gregg, the outgoing Republican senator for New Hampshire.

In a robust and at times testy video interview for the Financial Times’s View from DC series, Mr Gregg also complimented China for showing rising alarm about the US’s mounting levels of public debt.

We have had China say that they are looking for other places to put their reserves and that is probably a smart decision on their part,” said Mr Gregg, who will not seek re-election in November. “So the warning signs are pretty clear and the path is unsustainable and, at this point, unless we take different actions...

Financial Times of London - FT.com

February is "Fat Tuesday" and "Amore"

2010-02-20T13:59:00.005-05:00

Weather Hyped to the Max!

2010-02-10T15:56:00.002-05:00

Does weather need to be hyped? Does it need exaggeration worthy of a carny barker?

Case in point:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Philadelphia, PA
10:55 am EST, Wed., Feb. 10, 2010

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TONIGHT.

A COASTAL STORM DEVELOPING OFF THE CENTRAL MID ATLANTIC COAST WILL INTENSIFY EXPLOSIVELY TODAY. ...

Who writes this stuff?

Temperatures - December 2009 vs. January 2010

2010-01-31T13:09:00.008-05:00

As long as I was recording high and low temperatures, I decided I might as well blog some comparison charts.

I'll include the daily averages if I think it will add to or clarify the images.

We have an interesting visitor in our backyard today. A warbler. Specifically a Yellow-rumped Warbler. They commonly winter here in New Jersey but we don't usually see them in the backyard this time of the year. A single individual would go unnoticed in the crowd of sparrows, finches, dee-dees, tufties, etc.

Maybe it's Our Drinking Water?

2010-01-25T20:08:00.008-05:00

When did a corporation morph into a person? When was a corporation granted the same rights of an individual citizen?

Thomas Jefferson saw it coming.

"In this respect England exhibits the most remarkable phenomenon in the universe in the contrast between the profligacy of it's government and the probity of it's citizens. And accordingly it is now exhibiting an example of the truth of the maxim that virtue & interest are inseparable. It ends, as might have been expected, in the ruin of it's people, but this ruin will fall heaviest, as it ought to fall on that hereditary aristocracy which has for generations been preparing the catastrophe. I hope we shall take warning from the example and crush in it's birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

Sidebar
After 34 Years, a Plainspoken Justice Gets Louder
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: January 26, 2010
The New York Times

Justice John Paul Stevens, in what might be his final term, has crafted opinions that suggest the Supreme Court has lost touch with its sense of fair play.

Get the Mega-Money Out of Politics

2010-01-24T11:55:00.006-05:00

Congress is a broken, dysfunctional, living on a different planet, worse than useless, institution. I have long ago concluded that there is only one bottom-line goal for our representatives in congress and that is to get re-elected. Nothing else matters anymore.

I have stopped believing that there is a practical solution for this mess. Sure, in theory, all that has to be done is separate the mega-money from campaigns. It would be far less expensive for the American taxpayer to set a limit to what can be spent on a congressional campaign and then write a check for every viable candidate for that amount. Campaigns don't have to cost hundreds of millions. TV and radio frequencies used to belong to the American public. Congress gave them away. Congress could take them back. Write a check for $10 million and put every S.O.B. in jail who violates it. Everyone. Every banker, wall-street tycoon, movie star, corporate sleaze-ball who has a congressman in their pocket.

Well you can see why this is going nowhere. When you sell your soul to the devil, there's no "do-overs". There's no "I-didn't-mean-like-forever."

After the Massachusetts Massacre
BY:
New York Times
OP-ED Columnist
Frank Rich
Published January 24, 2010

January is Cold and Frosty

2010-01-11T19:29:00.003-05:00

My Sister's Warped Sense of Humor - 2

2010-01-10T19:17:00.004-05:00

She forwards these great silly emails a few times every week. Among the groaners are some real gems...like this one:

The economy is so bad that:

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

When I ordered a burger at McDonald's the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

McDonald's is now selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their
children's names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges and Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal.

Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally...

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

http://iletmybabydothat.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T15:43:00.002-05:00

NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory

My Blog

A Dodo for This Year's Biggest Dodo!

2009-12-13T19:59:00.005-05:00

Center for Biological Diversity's Third Annual Rubber Dodo Award

My Blog

Why the White House Lacks Credibility

2009-12-09T10:44:00.004-05:00

For at least a month there has been so much good news about the economy coming out the White House or from any pundit that just got back from Mars.
There is so much good news to pick from that you could gag on it.
But now Geithner has spilled the beans! Surprise, surprise..."SOMEONE" needs more Bailout money. Wonder who?

December - Start Thinking of New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-07T16:42:00.003-05:00

The One Less Traveled...

2009-12-05T12:50:00.001-05:00

The One Less Traveled..., originally uploaded by Nikon Nut.

The rain put me in a nostalgic mood.
Music from the iPod is the Charlie Brown Christmas album.
Autumn slipped into December already.
Thoughts of Thanksgiving linger; ate turkey last night.
Mom’s funeral will always be associated with this time of year.
The rain is supposed to turn to snow this evening.

My Sister's Warped Sense of Humor

2009-12-04T11:03:00.006-05:00

She forwards these great silly emails a few times every week. Among the groaners are some real gems...like this one:

A very old man lay dying in his bed. In death's doorway, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. There, spread out up on newspapers on the kitchen table, were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table. The aged and withered hand, shaking, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when he was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife. "Stay out of those," she said. "They're for the funeral.

I let my baby do that

Play List - Highlighting Iko, Iko Versions

2009-11-27T21:06:00.001-05:00

How to Tell if You've Become Jaded...

2009-11-27T11:22:00.004-05:00

AFP/Getty Images/File/Spencer Platt

How to tell if the media hype about the economy has left you jaded.

You didn't bat an eye when you read that the GOOD NEWS is there were 466,000 new unemployment claims last week.

Good news raises hopes recovery won't fizzle Associated Press – November 25, 2009

http://iletmybabydothat.blogspot.com/

How to Tell if You've Become Jaded...

2009-11-21T11:03:00.007-05:00

Meredith Resnick, a tutor at Bright Kids NYC, with Simone.
How to tell if our education system has left you jaded.

You didn't bat an eye when you read that some New Yorkers are spending $1,000 for lessons to improve their 3-year-old's chance for admission to kindergarten.

New York Times, Saturday, November 21, 2009

How to Tell if You've Become Jaded...

2009-11-16T19:34:00.004-05:00

Fritz Henderson, the chief executive of General Motors

New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/17auto.html?_r=1&hp

How to tell if the news of the economy has left you jaded.

You didn't bat an eye when General Motors announced today that the good news was it lost only $1.15 billion last quarter.

November is the Month for Thanksgiving

2009-11-15T14:37:00.002-05:00

A Harvest Festival

2009-11-11T14:48:00.008-05:00

The image in my blog header (the image changes frequently) is of a painting entitled The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris.

Thanksgiving.
Our autumn harvest festival is celebrated here in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada it falls on the second Monday in October.

Try to include, in your Thanksgiving menu, as many items as you can that have a direct link to the farm. I don’t expect many, including myself, will kill our turkey but we can pass up much of the over-processed “stuff” in boxes, cans, or plastic containers.

A ceremony at the annual Prometheia festival of the Greek polytheistic group Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, June 2006

The Yankees - World Series Champs

2009-11-04T23:51:00.007-05:00

The Yankees are celebrating their 27th World Series championship with their win tonight.

Hideki Matsui drove in 6 of the 7 Yankee runs tonight and is named the World Series MVP.

The Daily Meme

2009-10-30T12:29:00.005-04:00

Link to TDM The Daily Meme

This week’s questions.

1. Name one bad habit you have in the kitchen.

I leave a big MESS for Susan to clean up.

2. Do you have a tv in the kitchen?

NO! (I'd rather watch french fries warming in the microwave)

3. What’s one food you can’t stand cold?

Beer - it shouldn't be colder than 65 degrees F
(I forget what food group it's in...)

4. What’s your favorite juice?

Cranberry - It rulz!

Books I'm Reading II - Millennium Trilogy

2009-10-12T12:29:00.009-04:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
& The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Millennium Trilogy is a series of three novels by Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson (1954-2004)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, were published posthumously in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. I’ve finished reading the first two novels and eagerly await the Kindle version of the third.

The title girl is Lisbeth Salander. She’s described in Wikipedia as “an asocial punk who has been victimized by authorities throughout her whole life.” But that description is superficial. She is much more complicated than that. In Dragon Tattoo she reveals her skills as world-class computer hacker and tireless detective with a photographic memory as she and journalist Mikael Blomkvist solve a 40 year old murder mystery. Lisbeth may be asocial but she has a strict moral compass that has few limits on retribution.

At the end of Dragon Tattoo, Mikael and Lisbeth have a falling out but you just know they will have to work it out somehow.

In Played with Fire, as Mikael investigates sex trafficking in Sweden, another murder throws Salander and Blomkvist together again.

Stieg Larsson web site

Millennium Trilogy on Wikipedia

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander
in the Swedish movie Män som hatar kvinnor

Food Crop Fertilizer Features (Gulp!) Human Urine - ABC News

2009-10-11T23:34:00.001-04:00

Food Crop Fertilizer Features (Gulp!) Human Urine - ABC News

Shared via AddThis

Wonder what the Ash is for?

2009-10-11T23:23:00.003-04:00

Food Crop Fertilizer Features (Gulp!) Human Urine

It's the ultimate in recycling. Take some wood ashes from the fireplace, add a little of your own urine and spread it around your tomato plants. You may get a blockbuster crop.

Scientists in Finland have found that wood ash and human urine perform just as well as more expensive mineral fertilizers, at least for some crops, such as tomato plants.

Scientists in Finland have found that wood ash and human urine perform just as well as more expensive mineral fertilizers, at least for some crops, while doing less damage to the environment. The combination is rich in nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The researchers raised a healthy crop of tomatoes in a carefully controlled series of laboratory experiments.

Other research has shown that human urine is an effective substitute for synthetic fertilizers, at least for cucumbers, corn, cabbage, wheat and tomatoes. Ash has also been shown to be useful in agriculture.

But the Fins say they are the first ones to combine urine with wood ash, and plants treated with that substitute performed four times as well as unfertilized plants and left the soil less acidic. The scientists insist it's safe and doesn't pose "any microbial or chemical risks."

Story on ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/food-crop-fertilizer-features-gulp-human-urine/story?id=8517396

Books I'm Reading- Cryptonomicon

2009-08-30T13:09:00.004-04:00

Above is the book cover for the First Edition

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson published in 1999.

Just last night I finished this extraordinary novel. (Like so many recently read books, it's part of a series. The Baroque Cycle is set in past and Jipi and the Paranoid Chip continues in the future.) It is interesting in so many ways. When my initial confusion with the first chapter finally started to fade, there was an "ah-ha" moment that came together as "historical novel" maybe?

But it's so much more than that. The historical novel is just one of the time lines in the story. That story line is set in World War II. It's main characters all have decendents in the second, a modern time line.

A central theme in both time lines is cryptography. The title, Cryptonomicon, is a ficticious book compiled of the years to include all knowldege of secret code writing and code breaking.

The novel won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2000 and nominated for two other sci-fi awards, the Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards. That was a surprise to me because sci-fi wasn't a genre that I would have considered. At least Wikipedia agrees with me and calls it "...closer to the genres of historical fiction and contemporary techno-thriller than to the science fiction setting of Stephenson's two previous novels..."

In addition to Wikipedia, there are other sites worth mentioning. Neal Stephenson's website. The Harper-Collins site has the first chapter for you to read here.

Below is the book cover for the Kindle e-book that I read.

Post-Bill Photos from the Beach

2009-08-30T12:04:00.006-04:00

Went down to Avon-By-The-Sea's beach last Sunday and shot a few surf photos. Some with and some without surfers.

(click the photo to view full size.)

Surfers

August and Hurricane Season(ing?)

2009-08-23T17:24:00.007-04:00

Ortonville, Minnesota

2009-07-04T20:23:00.011-04:00

Just over the state line from Big Stone City, South Dakota is its sister city of Ortonville, Minnesota. Separating them is the long (26 miles) and narrow (1 mile) Big Stone Lake. Like Big Stone City, Ortonville’s history often is told in the history of the lake. The photos here are of the old, the Columbian Hotel built in 1892, and the new, the Big Stone Lake/Whetstone River Project completed in 1985. The Whetstone River Project created the Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge south of Ortonville.

Big Stone City, South Dakota

2009-07-04T20:22:00.002-04:00

Our trip west for the reunion brought some interesting sights. Lots of Birds. Some life birds for Best Wife. Lots of walking in the Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge in Odessa, Minnesota. (It impacts environments in both Minnesota and South Dakota.) Plus the environs of Big Stone City, South Dakota.

All Class Reunion - Bellingham, Minnesota

2009-07-04T14:24:00.007-04:00

June, 12, 13 and 14. An All-class Reunion was held this year at the old schoolhouse. It commemorated the passing of an era. No more classes. No more schoolhouse; it's up for sale. Bellingham serves a small rural community in western Minnesota. Like me, most graduates leave the farms they grew up on.

The reunion was well attended. When I made my late registration there were 820 already on the list. This may not sound like a lot until you realize that an average class was probably around 25 students. Mine, the class of '61, graduated 14. Half of us where there. Annella, Ardis, Carol, Leon, Lloyd, Pearl and myself.

July and Independence Day!

2009-07-04T12:56:00.002-04:00

Our Egg laying Machines

2009-06-24T21:39:00.008-04:00

Chicken Cacciatore, (Chickie), and Henrietta, (Hennie), are egg laying machines! At twenty five weeks they are still pullets. The first egg was only a month ago and now they each lay an egg a day. The breed is Bovan Brown.

Chickie is a little sloppy where she deposits her morning egg so I put a large large darning-egg in one of the nest boxes hoping she'd take the hint. Well she took the hint alright. Maybe she thought she had competition because this morning she layed a colossal egg. Not just a large pullet egg but the biggest chicken egg I have ever seen. It is more than 2-1/2 inches in length and weighs a quarter of a pound! Easily twice the size of an extra large egg. It's much too large to fit in an egg carton.

June and Fathers Day

2009-06-24T20:33:00.005-04:00

The Wearing of the Green

2009-03-13T11:28:00.002-04:00

On the Origin of Intelligent Design

2009-02-14T14:51:00.011-05:00

photo of Charles Darwin by J. Cameron, 1869

As we remember Charles Darwin on his two-hundredth birthday, I thought I’d use this play-on-words to post some thoughts on intelligent design.

The term intelligent design is the contention that humans and all living things are too complex to explain by the random route of natural selection therefore they must be prima facie evidence of an intelligent designer. Superficially, this seems to make sense. Especially if you grew up hearing the Bible called the Word of God. But if you take intelligent design to its logical conclusion then you have to reject the role of DNA, advances in medicine, genetics, fossil records, and two-hundred years of evidence that supports natural selection and evolution.

I’m not going to present a detailed argument here against intelligent design. That’s been done before and much better than anything I could do. If you want such an argument, I highly recommend the one presented by PBS’s NOVA entitled Judgment Day – Intelligent Design on Trial.

What I want to do is present a theory on the origin of intelligent design. I’m not referring to the obvious need for a new term to represent creation-science after the 1987 decision by the US Supreme Court. No, I want to try to answer the question, “Why do intelligent people, including some trained in modern science, find at so hard to reconcile religion and evolution? Why not take the religious position that God created the process of evolution via natural selection? The Roman Catholic Church has officially accepted the validity of evolution. So what is the problem?

Thirty years ago I attempted to dismiss creation-science as the work of crackpots but now that just doesn’t fly. In my post from last week (Feb. 7) I made a joke about it and called them crazy. Even as I posted, I knew I’d have to make a serious attempt to articulate my theory.

So here it is.
These ideas are fundamental:
1. A serious problem exists that proponents are trying to address.
2. Powerful and persistent forces support the problem. Therefore, powerful and persistent opposition is required.
3. The problem is serious enough for some to devote a lifetime to its solution.
4. The symptoms of the problem include a breakdown in the moral underpinnings of government, business, and daily life.
5. A solution based on religion is essential.

These ideas didn’t develop while witnessing the onslaught against teaching evolution in high school. They developed during media coverage of events in Iran during the Islamic revolution and the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

To be continued…

(It takes me so long to develop a post, I hope this one is finished sometime in February. Ah well, if Darwin procrastinated for two years on his book, please indulge my few days.)

Trying to educate the religious-right in Texas?

2009-02-07T17:06:00.004-05:00

The pseudo-science advocate, John Donald McLeroy, was just reappointed chairman of the Texas State Board of Education by Texas governor, Rick Perry.

Science education managed a victory against both of them last month.

As a member of the Texas Board, McLeroy has been trying to insert his religious beliefs into science education for more than a decade. It reminds me of that old definition of insanity: repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results.

When are you going to get the message Don?

Hmmm

2009-02-04T18:36:00.000-05:00

I feel a new post coming on. How about religion?

Super Bowl Month!

2009-01-31T12:29:00.013-05:00

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T17:31:00.001-05:00

Hermit Thrush

2009-01-01T15:11:00.003-05:00

January 2009
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
				1 New Years Day	2	3 Katie Buono
4	5	6	7	8	9	10 Peyton Finney
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19 Martin Luther King Day	20	21	22 Gage Tompkins	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31 Julie Rebehn

Family Calendar Update

2008-12-18T19:51:00.014-05:00

I thought I'd post a shot of all the birds and at the same time a larger image of the cover page.

The images here can't begin to show the quality of the photos. All the photos are 6.5 X 9.5 and have a resolution between 200 and 300 pixels per inch and are printed on 8.5 X 11 Kodak photo paper.
The photos were shot with either the Nikon D50 or the Nikon D70s cameras. The lens was either an AF-S Nikkor 300 mm, f2.8 with Vibration Reduction or an AF-D Nikkor 80-400 mm, f4.5 - 5.6 also withVibration Reduction.

Family Calendar Cover Page

2008-12-17T20:03:00.004-05:00

I'll be posting our 2009 family calendar in segments throughout the year. There are several people who don't get a copy so I thought this was a good way to make it more available.

The first post will be the photo for the cover page alone and near the end of December I'll post the photo for January as well as the calendar page.

The theme this year is backyard birds and this little guy is a Wilson's Warbler, Wilsonia pusilla. I can't help but think of flowers when I see the colors of the many species of warblers who stop over in our yard on their Spring migration to breeding grounds. Often, like the Wilson's, they may fly much farther north. If we are lucky they will stay a few days before continuing on.

All the photos, thirteen in all, were taken in our backyard. Hope you enjoy them.

TIME Magazine's Person of the Year

2008-12-17T11:18:00.013-05:00

What a shocker!
Has TIME Magazine changed the definition of their "Person of the Year".
Let me see if I can locate the official (or what used to be the official) definition of their P.O.T.Y.
"TIME's Person of the Year is the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the year."
Hmmm, did I miss something?...nope, it's still December 2008.
Well, how would one characterise his influence on 2008? He spent a lot of money making grand promises and he convinced more voters to believe his promises than McCain did. Can't think of anything else. Even if he had a real connection to Blago's Belly-flop it's a pathetic list of "influence (on) events".
(Insert oath), I can think of a few people who, "for better or worse", are on the top of MY list.
Richard Syron, CEO of Freddie Mac from 2003 to 2008 is near the top. As is Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae’s CEO from 2005 to 2008. Or, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.
Even TIME's runner-ups are weak compared to my candidates: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director...wait, did I see Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin? Are you kidding me? I would have listed her somewhere down there near Ralph Nader. Go figure!
Oh well. Come to think of it, I stopped subscribing to TIME nearly twenty years ago when their resemblance to a news magazine fell off the charts.

Some Negative Thoughts

2008-12-12T09:05:00.003-05:00

How did Proposition 8 manage to pass? And in California of all places!

Even though a lot of monetary support came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, citizens of California cast the votes. What was it? Apathy?

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

Martin Niemöller

One last thought: What would Jesus do?

Responsibility and Expectations

2008-12-07T19:01:00.013-05:00

"The economy is going to get worse before it gets better,”

According to David Espo, AP Special Correspondent, this is a direct quote from President-Elect Obama. Maybe it’s a sign he will take the responsibility and tell the American public what they don’t want to hear. The public wants to hear that everything will go back to what it was like before the recession. Americans want their “house-of-cards” back.

I truly believe our economy was a house-of-cards. It stopped being a market driven economy when market manipulation became commonplace. An extreme example of market manipulation is the recent rapid rise and nearly instant collapse of the price of oil. I defy anyone to explain it in terms of supply and demand. Real estate “bubble”? Give me a break. Bubble is too cute a word for the government-encouraged manipulation of market demand.

The biggest line of bullshit handed the American public is that we don’t need to take responsibility for anything anymore.

You tripped on the sidewalk in front of Wal-Mart? Sue them. Not your fault you don’t know how to walk in those outrageous shoes.

The storeowner hit you over the head with a baseball bat when you were trying to hold-up her store and now you’re permanently disabled? Sue her ass for using unreasonable force.

Can’t afford to fill the tank of your Hummer, Escalade, or Denali with $4 a gallon gas? Not your fault you didn’t think of that when you bought the behemoth. Demand that the government do something! Drill more oil wells, force the Saudis to pump more, drop the gas tax…

Can’t pay the mortgage on your half-million dollar house ‘cause you only make $20 thousand a year? No one else is taking responsibility so why would you even consider it?

Drove your company to the brink of bankruptcy because you need to fake solvency in order to justify your king’s-ransom-size salary? You know better than to take responsibility for the mess someone else created.

Bailout! Bailout!... Bush? Paulson? Obama? Congress? Somebody? Do something, a bailout, or anything, but fix it now; just prop up that house-of-cards.

Responsibility time; I want to see bloated corporations file for bankruptcy. I want to see some egomaniacal CEO’s get what they deserve. I want to see some perp-walks. I want to see a real market driven economy functioning without bailouts and without manipulation.

Most of all I want our government to start telling the truth. I know it’s a tall order but that is where responsibility must start if we are to avoid something worse than the current depression.

What are the chances of that?

Outdoor Lights - Bah Humbug

2008-12-06T15:59:00.004-05:00

Does anyone make outdoor lights that actually work and don't have to be replaced every year?

Didn't think so.

Best wife spent nearly 2 hours today trying to get last year's lights to work. Usually the string will work until she has them carfully attached to the 25 feet of garland. Then zilch! It was touch and go there for a while when I tried to make a little joke about the progress. I escaped with only minor injuries.

Oh Ye of Little Faith

2008-12-06T12:21:00.008-05:00

So Martin Sheen says that Faith Must Cost Something. Well that must be true for the Magicians of Bailout. The democrats in congress must have "some" faith in the auto industry's Wunderkind Trio to put $17 billion on the table.

Wait, my crystal ball is starting to focus... yes, and I hear a voice coming from Detroit. "...if four months ago you'd given us the 25 - 'er the ah 34 billion then we wouldn't need the $100 billion now!"

Maybe they just don't have enough Faith.

Gee, Mr. Wagoner...

2008-12-04T16:13:00.008-05:00

Thankful

2008-11-28T10:24:00.002-05:00

I’m thankful for so much this holiday season.
Right now I’m thankful to be sitting here, coffee cup in hand, in my comfortable home, next to my wonderful wife…she orchestrated a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.
I’m thankful for the family and friends who were with us to enjoy that dinner.
I’m thankful for the aroma of the turkey stock boiling on the stove, for the dishes to be all washed and put away…thankful…

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

2008-11-27T11:21:00.014-05:00

I've been decrying the public's blasé acceptance of corporate corruption and Wall Street greed for years and expected a popular uprising when the situation reached a critical mass.
I would expect that we are damn close to that critical point now. But that's not what I see happening. What I see is the expectation that the same crowd that created this mess will fix it! Is the generation who understood responsibility so far in our past?
For weeks now I have been trying to find the words to express my anger and frustration. I've failed.

What I did find was a great commentary by Thomas L. Freidman in the New York Times' Op-Ed page. He points out that there were some people, honest and articulate, trying to shed light on the mismanagement on Wall Street. He mentions Michael Lewis and Meredith Whitney and I'm sure there were others.
The Permalink to All Fall Down is on the side bar as well as the link below:

All Fall Down

Highway to Hell

2008-11-22T15:11:00.007-05:00

l l l l

I added some YouTube video links in the side-bar the other day. Still needs some tweaking I think. The best results so far appear to be from single song selections rather than artists. Most of the popular songs from the same group are available after a video ends. Listing the artist resulted in a lot of dead links.

P.S. - I've always been intrigued by the possibility that the Highway title was inspired by the Stairway title.

Windows Vista & Stuff

2008-11-22T10:50:00.012-05:00

I hear and read so many complaints about Windows Vista. Sure, it has some mildly annoying features but the complaints seem misplaced. OK, the constant second guessing of my choices could irritate some. But it's really rather funny and I always win the argument. (I'm rather contrary: I even like to wear my VVS Wick-Dry socks on the wrong foot!) But I digress.
Misplaced!! God is it misplaced. The real monstrosity is the Office 2007 system, officially the F.U.I. Which, I believe, stands for Flummoxed User Interface. I've been teaching MS Office applications for lots of years and frequently laud some of the greatest features like forward and backward compatability and seamless user transition from one version to another. Nothing short of throwing the baby out with the bathwater comes close to the abortion performed on MS Office! There is permanent scarring on some of my brain cells as a result of the first time I tried to use 2007 Word. I merely wanted to open an existing document and print it. Imagine my surprise, no familiar toolbars. In fact no toolbars of any kind. And what's this? A menu bar that's no longer a menu bar? WTF? OK, OK relax...use Ctrl+O...good, something familiar, an Open dialog box!...damn, never been more thankful in my life to see the Open dialog box...whew...there's my document...carefully click the Open button... ? ? ? ?...I need a what?...what?...I NEED TO DOWNLOAD A FUCKING TRANSLATOR...Is this some kind of a joke?...IS THERE A GOD DAMN COMPUTER AROUND HERE THAT WORKS?
That was the end of my experience with O-bortion 2007 for several months because I uninstalled it and replaced it with Office 2003.

Angry Pc Man(remix) - The most popular videos are a click away

Alternate method:

http://www.dansdata.com/sbs3.htm

Or would you rather have BAILOUT month?

2008-11-15T00:42:00.002-05:00

November is RESPONSIBILITY Month!

2008-11-15T00:29:00.006-05:00

Time we took some responsibility for our "Recession" bubble.
Responsibility and her sister, Honesty, have been banished from our daily lives for far too long.
Now we sit here. Stewing and waiting for OUR bailout. What is this type of economy called again? A Market economy? No that can't be right.

To be continued...

Another two-fer Week

2008-10-28T15:18:00.009-04:00

Both in Alaska this week:

Which one looks happier?

1. Ted Stevens is convicted on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents concerning gifts received from contractor Bill Allen and oil services company VECO among others.

Story on Associated Press Article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081027/ap_on_go_co/stevens_charges_1

2. The federal government declared the Beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Story on KTVA News http://www.ktva.com/news/ci_10767837

There is bound to be a lot of resistance from the Bush Administration because it will have some level of economic impact. Critical habitat will have to be designated and a recovery plan created. Alaska governor Palin has been fighting this listing and her Attorney General Colberg has already hinted at a legal challenge to the listing.

A Two-fer Week!

2008-07-29T22:38:00.005-04:00

Our lame-duck (quack - quack) president's approval rating seems to be a boon for our environment.

Three cheers!

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is indicted on seven felony counts. Most stem from his cosy-oily connections with VECO Corporation, a oil services contractor.

Ted claims he is innocent.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department had a lot to choose from:
L.A. Times, in 2003 published accusations of influence peddling and insider trading.
He has been accused of doing favors for companies who employed his son.
His son had options to buy a share of a seafood company while Ted was working to supply millions of dollars of fish for the company.
The list goes on.
Source: SourceWatch - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens#Alaska_pork

Too bad he couldn't be indicted for his pro-logging work. He proposed clear-cutting more than 2 million acres of old-growth forest and building thousands of miles of logging roads at taxpayer expense.
Or indicted for his pertinacious efforts to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A lot will depend on the U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.
One can only hope he doesn't follow the example set by District Judge William J. Martini. More on that another time.

Finally - A Victory for the Florida Everglades

2008-07-29T20:57:00.005-04:00

A long fought battle - four years of litigation against the EPA and the State of Florida. I know there will probably be appeals, if for no other reason than to delay, delay, delay. But I'll celebrate anyway with a Smuttynose IPA and thumb my nose at the Bush administration's Environmental Prevention Agency.

Federal Judge Alan Gold today found against the EPA and Florida's Legislature in their attempt to again delay compliance with the Clean Water Act to reduce phosphorus pollution levels. A 1994 Florida law pushed out the deadline of 2002 to 2006. Then in 2003 Florida got approval from EPA to push the deadline out to 2016!

"Federal law does not authorize anything like a twenty-two year compliance schedule..."

Congratulations to the Miccosukee Tribe and the Friends of the Everglades!

Press release on their website here: http://www.everglades.org/pressrelease.html

Piteous Pathetic Phony Phishing Proposal

2008-04-20T08:31:00.008-04:00

This is as real as it gets!!

In my email inbox this morning was this entry in the Pathetic Phishing Award of 2008

Ta-da...

Message From Shell Petroleum Development Company
Subject: Congratulation You Have Won Our Grand Price (One Million Unite States Of America Dollas)
thank you, bob.Lxxxxx@murraystate.edu

I suppose that Bob of Murray State figured that if I can read I'm probably not a good phish.

Actually the scam is more interesting than it appears on the surface. You see the real Bob is Dr. Robert Lxxxxx Chair, Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Murray State University.

Talk to your daughter...Before the beauty industry does!!

2008-02-23T16:00:00.003-05:00

October One Liners 2

2007-10-12T08:06:00.000-04:00

Headline: Dateline, Atlanta, Reuters - Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says Thu Oct 11, 6:59 PM ET
One Liner: A kiss to die for!!
~ ~ ~ Thank you George Bush!

Headline: Dateline, New York, Reuters - IRS says rich getting richer: report Fri Oct 12, 2:48 AM ET
One Liner: And the poor get poorer - daa dit daa daa...
~ ~ ~ Thank you George Bush!

October is "One Liners" month - WTF

2007-10-09T19:09:00.000-04:00

How about one liners inspired by internet headlines? Rarely read newspapers anymore so that's kind of a no brainer.

Headline: Dateline: Bagdad (10/09/07): Violence in Iraq kills 56

One Liner: Yes! Damn good thing are so much better in Iraq!

~ ~ ~Thank you George Bush!

Headline: Dateline: Bagdad (10/09/07): Guards fire on car in Iraq, kill 2 women

One Liner: Oh, not Blackwater; slow news day!

~ ~ ~Thnak you George Bush!

Headline: Sirnak, Turkey: (10/09/07): US warns Turkey to stay out of Iraq//

One Liner: You had your turn, butt out!

~ ~ ~Thank You George Bush!

Isn't there any news that's not Iraqified?

Headline: Dateline: Cambridge, US (10/05/07): Hamsters on Viagra take center stage at Ig Nobel awards

One Liner: Slow News Day for sure; where were the Yankees when you needed them?

~ ~ ~Thank you George Bush!

(stolen from http://www.petwebsite.com/hamsters/hamster_pet.htm )

Harvest Time

2007-10-08T19:30:00.000-04:00

Attended the Fall Harvest Festival at the Historic Village in Allaire State Park last month. Many events featured workers in period dress. The week before was a Jazz and Wine Festival. It's a great place to visit almost any time of the year.

Took a few photos of course.

Cider Press:

Horse Team Rides:

Steam Powered Locomotive:

Wine Selection from New Jersey Vintners:

Summer's Over - Sigh...

2007-10-05T10:27:00.000-04:00

I have a love-hate relationship with seasons. I would miss any one of them I'm sure. But damn they end too soon. There were so many things I wanted to do this summer that didn't get done. It's not as if I usually get things done but maybe I getting old and staring to worry that the number of "next years" are shrinking. Sigh...

We lost a few fish early this summer to a predator. At least that's the best guess. They were some of our most fecund females so we didn't have the schools of tiny goldfish this year.

Our first suspect, a stranger!

But certain facts have shed doubt on this suspect. She isn't in the clear yet but I have another, as yet, unseen suspect. A raccoon would be a more likely nighttime hunter and more likely frightened by the bamboo shishi-odoshi, "deer-scarer", that we installed. Nighttime disturbance of rocks and moss stopped after it was installed.

Beyond the Whales

2007-05-28T12:44:00.000-04:00

The whales "lost" in the Sacramento River inspired this editorial piece on Sacbee.com yesterday. (I know it's a pain to register! I know it's a pain! OK? Just register. You can curse me while doing so - thanks, thanks, tanks, tanks, tnks, tks... [ok? - I'll be your best friend?])
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/185809.html

Photo: Reuters - Wed May 16, 11:39 PM ET

Looming crises like this one are far too common now. The fate of Horseshoe crabs and dependent migrating shore birds is another.

From the Cape May County Herald last week.
http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/articles/3629/1/River-Dredging-May-Doom-Horseshoe-Crabs

Easter Problems - What?

2007-04-08T10:55:00.000-04:00

A little known, much less understood, side-effect of Easter...

THE VICTIMS:

THE SAD TALE IN THEIR OWN WORDS...

AH, BUT THERE IS MORE...

not a red letter day - not a day to remember - rather, an embarrassment

2007-02-28T19:21:00.000-05:00

An Open Letter to Al Gore
Al, you are a hypocrite

I believed in you, I voted for you, and I made excuses for you. I cringed but forgave you your “I invented the internet” gaff. It might have been a slip of the tongue. You were never glib.But, this goes to the heart of the matter. If you can’t walk the walk then shut up. Don’t try to bullshit me about your purchase of “carbon offsets”. I wasn’t born yesterday, I didn’t just get off the boat…you sir are no shining example of what you preach. You are not even a dull example of what you preach. You are a disgrace to the environmental movement. If you have any dignity, any belief in what you espouse, then crawl back into your hidey-hole and don’t come out until you have looked within and found that which you ask of others.

Hot Damn - I love to end the Day on a Positive Note!

2007-02-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

The people and the wolves of Wyoming have a victory. Not every Western state governor will be allowed to reverse the wolf recovery program. For a change a sound science decision didn't end up side-tracked by politicians...

Instead... By BEN NEARY, Associated Press Writer : Feds reject Wyoming's wolf kill plan

Well we have Da Woid O’ De Dey; now the Oxymoron of the day!

2007-02-11T19:15:00.000-05:00

“Partial Zero”?

The expression caught me by surprise - in the closing lines of a radio commercial - what the fuck did she just say? I couldn’t have heard that right, partial zero?
But that’s what I heard. Enter the PZEV, a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle.

As one who likes clarity in communication and abhors obfuscation, so the environmentalist in me finds such “obfus-speak” insulting. And I didn’t jump to any conclusions. I was careful not to prejudge. The pragmatist in me could understand the logic of compromise to move forward on a important issue. But Partial Zero, was that a joke? Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle; at first I was moved to agree with the idea if not the term.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

This vehicle category was created as part of a bargain with the California
Air Resources Board (CARB), so that the automobile manufacturers could avoid producing mandated zero emission
vehicles (ZEVs), which would have required the production of electric vehicles, under the theory that a large number of low pollution vehicles would produce the equivalent pollution reduction of a lesser number of zero-emissions vehicles.

However, a little research convinced me that the compromise category was pretty much a sell out. I followed a link to A listing of PZEV compliant cars. At the top of the list is 3 liter 6 cylinder BMW! Or how about the Mercedes-Benz E-Class vehicles?
I can only conclude that someone in a powerful position in California took the boxing equivalent of a dive.
The official California DRIVECLEAN web site’s provided “vehicle web site link” was a dead end so I just searched for Mercedes-Benz.com and followed links to the E-Class Overview. Somehow a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle seems to be the last thing they are selling.

Partial Zero my ass!

The Turista Attraction from Hell Maybe...

2007-02-06T20:21:00.000-05:00

By PATRICK O’GILFOIL HEALY
Published: February 4, 2007

CLAD in black clothes and moonlight, our guide Poncho adjusted his ski mask and faced us to speak. The desert has claimed many lives, he said, but tonight we would make it across the border...

a make-believe trip illegally crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States

Cold February Day at the Beach

2007-02-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

Ocean Grove, New Jersey, USA

Eric Clapton Live at Montreux 1986

2007-02-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

A little music from the past. Montreux is in Switzerland on Lake Geneva.
The song which first came out in 1970 was inspired by Clapton's love for Patty Boyd who he later married. By 1986 they had already separated. The title, Layla, was inspired by the love story of Layla / Layla and Majnun.
There are many live versions of Clapton playing Layla and probably most of them are on YouTube.

Here it is: Layla

Hmmm...Lake Geneva...Geneva...Going Down Geneva (Van Morrison)...Later

Changing Tides

2007-01-30T19:01:00.001-05:00

Here is an example of the photography that I aspire to achieve.

Changing Tides, originally uploaded by thepres6.

The greatest wealth consisteth in being charitable, and
the greatest happiness in having tranquility of mind. Experience is the most
beautiful adornment; and the best comrade is one that hath no desire.-
Tibetan Doctrine
Does it make your mouth water too?

Just look at some more of thepres6's photos.

Oofda!

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop. I know it's overused, trite, whatever...

2007-01-28T13:10:00.000-05:00

"I'm in Charge Here" says the 21,500 troops are a done deal. And before I could say, "What now, Afghanistan?", it too looks like a "done surge" as well. How many shoes will there be?

P.S.
Noticed this blog by Jessica while trying to decide if "drop" or "fall" was the original term.
Then there is this column in eWeek by Deborah Gage.
And finally, one of my all time favorite political cartoonists has a book by that name . Did I mention Overused?

I hate it when this happens....but then it is historic

2007-01-24T18:39:00.000-05:00

I hate it when this happens....but then it's the president's State of the Onion speech. You try to follow a link an then the next thing you find you have to register to read the friggin thing!
Now I can see the reason that the New York Times has the entire speech on their website. But lets get real here. Someone must have a lot of Time on their hands (Pun intended) to create a program that counts every word supposedly uttered in all seven of his historic spiels. For example he mentioned Iraq/Iraqi(s) 34 times in the 2007 speech but only twice in 2002. And Social Security fell from 18 times in 2005 to only twice last night. Would you believe that the phrase "homleand security" wasn't mentioned at all last night.
So if you already have a New York Times username/password or if you just have to see all the word stats...proceed at your own risk!
The Words That Were Used - The 2007 State of the Union Address

Only a Few More Days of Hunting Left This Year...

2007-01-20T12:07:00.000-05:00

That's right. If you were hoping to win "a two night luxury break at the Gleneagles Hotel including breakfast and use of the sumptuous leisure facilities at The Club." you had better get "bloody cracking", "havering" or whatever they say in Scottland. 'Cause the season on Marag fabulosus is about to end.

The prey:

The History:

According to Ossian’s Encyclopaedia Eccentrica, the first historical document to mention the haggis is an account of the Roman invasion of Scotland written by Iocus. The noted scholar relates that as the Roman and Caledonian forces faced each other before the battle of Mons Graupius in 83AD a wandering Pictish holy man called Goileam saw a “small round creature revered by the tribes” dart from
the heather and run toward the invaders. Goileam turned to the Scottish army and, baring his breast, promised that this was an omen of victory and led a headlong charge against the forces of Agricola. Within an hour, Iocus tells us, more than 10,000 Caledonians lay dead, their army defeated, their land conquered. The Picts blamed the appearance of the small brown omen for the terrible defeat and sought to exact retribution on the creature that had so betrayed them. The haggis hunts began out of a desire for vengeance. It was then that the unfortunate creatures got their name – “haggii” comes from the Latin for “harried ones”. Before that fateful day, the haggii had been plentiful in Scotland. Like the Dodo, they did not fear man, while man basically left the odd looking animals alone. When the Picts unleashed their vengeful feud on the haggii, the small creatures were all but wiped out. But there was more to the events of that year than the persecution of an unfortunate beast by warriors feeling the pain of defeat. It was a time which saw one of the greatest culinary discoveries since fishermen first noticed that oyster shells could be opened.
The Scottish harvest of 83AD was particularly poor and the people were forced to find food anywhere they could. As they were hunting haggii anyway, the Picts started to eat them. To their great surprise, they discovered that haggises were delicious and named the animals’ main breeding area naidheachd bhreugach (place of plenty). Thus it was that the haggis became the staple food of Scotland. But so hunted were the haggii that it was nearly 100 years before they were seen in any great numbers again.

Try your luck!

P.S. ...One of these days, during the hunt, I'm going to stand in front of Haggis cam #10 in Times Square and flash the Haggis T-shirt that I won a few years ago.

I think Stephan Pastis has been in our kitchen!

2007-01-13T15:25:00.000-05:00

Pearls Before Swine, one of my favorite daily cartoon strips, sometimes gets close to home. I think our kitchen refrigerator must have been the inspiration for the January 8th strip.

Da Woid 'O De Dey

2007-01-09T19:33:00.000-05:00

The "woid" today on dictionary.com just cried out for a post.

Uxorious: adjective; Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife! (exclamation point - mine!)

Excessive: adjective; going beyond the usual, necessary, or proper limit or degree; characterized by excess

Who has a the yardstick to measure excessiveness? That's what I want to know.

And if it's a man does he dare to come home at night? Is he even married? I don't trust him - he carries too much baggage.

Well maybe a woman has defined the point where the slippery slope starts. I don't trust her either. Right? What's her agenda?

Now that I've dug myself a deep hole...what do I do next?

A Valentine to My Wife

Accept, dear girl, this little token,

And if between the lines you seek,

You'll find the love I've often spoken—

The love my dying lips shall speak.

Our little ones are making merry

O'er am'rous ditties rhymed in jest,

But in these words (though awkward—very)

The genuine article's expressed.

You are as fair and sweet and tender,

Dear brown-eyed little sweetheart mine,

As when, a callow youth and slender,

I asked to be your Valentine.

What though these years of ours be fleeting?

What though the years of youth be flown?

I'll mock old Tempus with repeating,

"I love my love and her alone!"

And when I fall before his reaping,

And when my stuttering speech is dumb,

Think not my love is dead or sleeping,

But that it waits for you to come.

So take, dear love, this little token,

And if there speaks in any line

The sentiment I'd fain have spoken,

Say, will you kiss your Valentine?

Well at least it's not T. S. Eliot's Proofrock!

Sunrise pictures this morning

2007-01-07T11:24:00.000-05:00

Well Comet McNaught was nowhere to be seen. But these sights are probably better anyway.

The Boardwalk at Avon, New Jersey in pre-dawn light

Dawn comes to the Shark River Inlet in Avon. Good luck to everyone fishing: from the Boat, from the Jetty, or from the Wing.

The New Hiree

2007-01-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

A Great Blue Heron came by our backyard fish pond several weeks ago and hung around for a few days. I first saw it one morning when I was getting ready for work and Best Wife saw it again two days later.

I'm sure the heron was intrigued by the twenty-odd fish on the menu. We have goldfish: Fan-tails and Comets in abundance though interspersed are a few Oranda genes. The O-gene is evidenced in a massive body size that eventually turns all white. The sources of the Oranda genes have passed on to that Great Carp Pond in the sky. The Orandas were a colossal mistake or rather a series of mistakes. First the two were sold to us as Ryukins. Ryukins might have been a good choice because they are hardy. Orandas on the other hand don't like cold water. Anything less than 60 degrees is out of the question. Our pond is at 40 degrees now as the weather in New Jersey has been mild this winter and has often been around 34 degrees and had 10 inches of ice a few years ago. Another reason the Orandas are a poor choice - in my humble opinion of course - is that many of them don't know how to swim. Sometimes called Flip-over condition, the poor fish becomes unable to maintain proper fishy position, i.e. anal fin lower than dorsal. The third mistake was allowing them to breed. But I digress.

The heron mentioned above was thwarted by the unlucky (or in our case, lucky) coincidence of arriving at the time of year when the pond is completely covered by netting to catch autumn leaves. Well the netting has to come off before winter or at least before the pond freezes over. So when a thin sheet of ice formed just before Thanksgiving, the netting reluctantly had to be put away.

What to do? What to do! When the raccoon began visiting the pond last summer to dig for earthworms in the bog around the pond, it was relatively easy to relocate the thief to a local park. But how to heron-proof the area was a real riddle. And, Best Wife said she would never forgive me, or the heron for that matter, if little Red-Cap ended up as heron sushi.

Enter the New Hiree. He has agreed to guard duty at the pond. Not just guard duty but Guard Duty! A relentless, unceasing, unrelenting, unyielding, and unstoppable sentinel.

Drum Roll!

And Now, Introducing...

Sméagol!

New Years Resolutions

2007-01-01T12:46:00.000-05:00

Resolution #1 - I will post more than once in three moths.
Fine Print: Unless catastrophic events lead me astray. Catastrophic events are defined here (but not limited to) as - War; Terrorist Attacks; Pestilence; Procrastination; Mondays; Work; Best Wife's Honey Do List; etc.

Resolution #2 - A work in progress...

Competition for our Resident Killer

2006-12-30T14:15:00.000-05:00

This adult Sharp-shinned Hawk stopped in today. Must have heard about the haut cuisine.

Our Resident Killing Machine

2006-12-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

COOPER'S HAWK

She's been around for the last few weeks now. Striking terror in the hearts and minds of the winter songbirds.

Happy Halloween

2006-10-29T18:27:00.000-05:00

Toothy, seen below, has a lot of respect for the big boys!

The Zojirushi Bread Machine

2006-10-29T18:11:00.000-05:00

Bread machines have much improved in the past 10 years. I guess it was about 10 years ago that I bought my first one. It was more a novelty than practical. I made quite a few loaves with it but would never think of bringing the loaf out for guests.
The one that Best Wife just got for me makes loaves that I can be proud of showing off for company.

Here is a 2 pound wheat loaf. I loaded the ingredients the night before, pressed start in the morning, and the bread finished baking just a few minutes before dinner time.

...chronic weak governance, worsening security, and a resurgent Taliban...Afghanistan to collapse...into a "failed state."

2006-09-14T20:47:00.000-04:00

By Scott Peterson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL – Few ever dared dream that Afghanistan, five years after US forces toppled the Taliban, would be Utopia.

But few, also, would have predicted that chronic weak governance, worsening security, and a resurgent Taliban would prompt senior US officials to warn against allowing Afghanistan to collapse again into a “failed state.”

Wait a sec...
Wasn't Afghanistan the Great success story? The one Bright Spot in our war against terror? Proof that Shrub and Stutter were geniuses on foreign policy, military strategy, exporting democracy, watermelon seed spitting, and general BSing?
Well, no wonder – those damn Senate retards refused, I mean fa-lat Rrre-fe-used to support Bush’s WAR ON TERRA. What were they thinking?

Go figure.

Hiking Wimps

2006-09-10T18:54:00.000-04:00

I know that not everyone who's reached that late middle age range of 60+ yearns to hoist a pack to their back and set out for a nice two week jaunt into the so-called wilderness. (So-called because there are too few real wildernesses in the world. I'll settle for a nice remote trail at least three miles from anything else man made.)

Where was I? (Digression would be my middle name if it wasn't so long and ugly.) Anyway best wife and I will escape most of the insanity that accompanies so-called civilization. (S0 called because... all right, all right, I'll let it go!) No traffic, no boss, no TV, no Internet, no Blogs, no radio, and hopefull no cell-phones. I'll have to narrowly define traffic to SUVs, autos, and such because I expect there to be some significant foot traffic. So wilderness, even near wilderness, it ain't.

I'll admit that it would take me a couple of months to plan, equip, and get in shape for a 2 week backpacking trip. It's been more than 5 years since the last time I did one. So this three day scheduled hike in New Hampshire's White Mountains is a simple thing. No sleeping bag on a hard tent floor - we'll sleep in comfort in a cabin on the mountain. No tastless one-pot meals - at the AMC Zeeland Falls Hut, meals are brought to our table.

Resident Hummer & His Friend Biggy Worm

2006-09-06T20:36:00.000-04:00

We interrupt with a special news bulletin:
Biggy Worm, our future Monarch, has gone missing! Hummer is distraught.
When we asked Missy, our resident sleuth, for a comment she insisted, "I didn't do it".
Anyone with information is urged to come forward.

The Naked Truth or how we've been lied to!

2006-08-24T18:29:00.000-04:00

A half century ago I was taught that Pluto was a real planet. A real honest to gosh heavenly body of orbital persuasion. Lies all lies! The truth is finally out. Pluto doesn't even have enough mass to be round. Even our Earth's lowly moon can pass that test. So out it goes, Cast into the Dustbin of History.
All joking aside, the International Astronomical Union's, secret committee intent on elevating many more planettes to planet status must have been dredged up from scientist wannabes. What were they thinking! (We might need a new definition of thinking.) It's revealing that more than 95% of the astronomers didn't take part in the voting for a definition of a planet. A definition, it should be noted, that is limited to planets in our solar system.

Today's Trivia

2006-07-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

I find the Subaru logo interesting and today came across some Subaru trivia. Well for many of us it's trivia but for Subaru I suppose it's of high importance.

OK! Notice the six stars. The Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster is Subaru!

OK! Notice one star is much larger than the other five. In 1953, five companies merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd. which makes, among other things, the Subaru automobile.

OK! For you budding astronomers out there, the star cluster has another common name. The Seven Sisters for Asterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygete, Celaeno and Alcyone. The cluster's nine brightest stars include the sisters' parents, Atlas and Pleione
So, for the fuzzy count, you'll just have to chalk it up to artistic license.

Pleiades Mythology and other Information

No, I'm not buying a Subaru or any other car for that matter. But, my wife - who just bought a Honda Accord a few months ago - has decided the Honda isn't comfortable enough for long distance trips. We just drove out to Minnesota and back. She laments the loss of her Ford Explorer, Trusty, (thirsty would be more like it) that was traded for the Honda and believes there is an SUV out there that combines comfort and high mileage for under $40 grand. (She also believes in her imaginary friend, Humpfull Head!)

And it Smells Better than Pig Shit!

2006-07-28T09:13:00.000-04:00

Mr. Gärtner’s 69-year-old father, Heinrich, feeding the pigs on the farm...

Hot German July Doesn’t Faze Farmer Who Reaps the Sun

By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 28, 2006

BUTTENWIESEN, Germany, July 25 — Surely Heiner Gärtner is one of the only farmers in Germany, if not most of Europe, who greets the dawn of yet another cloudless day with anticipation rather than angst.

As Germany sizzles through what is expected to be its hottest July on record, crops are shriveling and farmers are growing desperate. Some have petitioned the European Union to allow sheep and cattle to graze on land normally off limits, because their own fields are scorched.
Here on Mr. Gärtner’s 200-acre farm, however, the fields are covered with 10,050 solar panels, which soak up the sunshine and convert it into electricity. The ambient hum in the air is not the sound of insects but of transformers carrying a high-voltage current to the villages nearby.

“We’ve had so much sun,” said Mr. Gärtner, 34, a wide-brimmed hat shielding his face from the rays. “It would be better if we could have this much sun with less heat. But you can’t have everything.”

Extreme heat actually reduces the efficiency of the solar panels, he said, pointing to a dial that showed the plant was running at 83 percent of its capacity. On cooler days, the panels operate at full capacity.

Even so, this is shaping up as a thriving summer for Mr. Gärtner — vindicating his decision in 2003 to turn this 150-year-old pig farm into a small-scale electricity plant. Switching from pigs to power saved his family’s enterprise, which was teetering on the edge of economic ruin.
“I couldn’t repair the roof if I only bred pigs,” said Mr. Gärtner, a self-confident fellow with a spiel that is far more entrepreneurial than agricultural. “We have to compete worldwide these days. Pork from Brazil costs half as much as German pork. Our costs are simply too high.”
When Mr. Gärtner took over the farm from his father in 2002, his options seemed few and dismal. He considered selling most of the property and keeping only his family’s stone house — a last vestige of the farm started by his great-grandfather, who kept cattle, chickens and other animals.

But there were few buyers, even for a farm that is fairly large by southern German standards and blessed with broad, flat meadows amid the gently rolling countryside of Bavaria. Farms in eastern Germany and Poland are much larger and therefore more economically viable.

Although the recent collapse in global negotiations over tariffs, farm subsidies and other barriers at the World Trade Organization may protect European farmers awhile longer, Bavaria has long promoted its high-technology industry over agriculture. “Germany is an industrial country, not an agricultural country,” Mr. Gärtner said. “We’re on the wrong end.”

Visiting a classmate in northern Germany after graduating from college with a degree in agricultural engineering, Mr. Gärtner was struck by the windmills that dot the countryside there. His father had already experimented with making biodiesel fuel out of rapeseed — even running a Volkswagen with it — so the concept of renewable energy was not alien to him.

Europe, seeking to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, has encouraged the development of alternative energy by offering hefty subsidies for people to put up windmills on their property. Germany’s wind-power industry is the world’s largest, yet growth here has slowed as people have begun to protest the proliferation of these giant propellers near their homes.

Bavaria, with its inland location, lacks the coastal breezes that turn windmills. But it gets more sunshine than other parts of Germany. Moreover, the Gärtner farm, which is known as Maierhof, has an especially sunny location, with southern exposure and few hills to block the light.

In 2004, Germany passed a new law that guaranteed people who built solar parks a minimum price for each kilowatt of electricity that was two to three times the market price.

That prompted Mr. Gärtner to investigate the possibility of turning his fields of corn, wheat and barley into rows of photovoltaic panels. With a lack of solar experts in Germany, he and his classmate, Ove Petersen, taught themselves the technology (they are now partners in the venture).

The hardest part, he said, was obtaining loans to finance the roughly $5 million in construction costs. Mr. Gärtner also had to persuade the mayor of Buttenwiesen to allow him to string power lines across the fields. With only a handful of farmers in Germany installing these panels on a large scale, “people really had no idea what we were talking about,” he said.

The project is a family affair. Mr. Gärtner recruited his sister, Annette, who is an architect in the nearby city of Augsburg, to design the complex. His 69-year-old father, Heinrich, provides moral support, keeping an eye on the dials when he is not feeding the fish in his pond.

When his panels run at full capacity, Mr. Gärtner figures the farm could supply power to all 7,000 residents of the village. The utility that buys his electricity, however, uses it to meet demand at peak periods, like during this heat wave, when air-conditioners are running full blast.

Mr. Gärtner makes more than $600,000 a year from the sale of this electricity, which will allow him to pay off his loans in 15 to 16 years. That is good for him, because the government is phasing out the preferential prices over the next decade. The Mercedes parked in his farmyard attests to his success.

As he sees it, his farm is merely adapting to an economic cycle that happens to favor a different sort of energy.

“Animals are energy too; they create food for people,” Mr. Gärtner said. “At the moment, power is more profitable than food. That may not always be the case. You have to be flexible.”

To hedge his bets, Mr. Gärtner has held on to his 1,000 pigs. The other day, they were huddled in a shed, sleeping through the searing heat. With the world’s population expanding, he believes, the price of pork may someday rebound enough to make it a viable business again.

In the meantime, the pigs serve another purpose: Mr. Gärtner uses their waste to fuel a biogas plant, which also generates electricity. “One of the criticisms of solar energy is that it is unpredictable because the sun doesn’t always shine,” he said. “This is completely predictable.”

Heiner Gärtner saved the family farm by turning it into a solar electricity plant, with 10,050 solar panels.

From the Land of Sky Blue Waters

2006-07-25T19:23:00.000-04:00

From the land of sky blue waters... I think that could be a line from H.W. Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. If not, at least it's a line from a Hamms beer commercial.
We just got back from Ortonville, Minnesota and environs. Family things. Tykes. Hugs. Reunion. Food. Cousins. Estate. More food. ...Comes the Beer Refreshing... Enjoyable things.

If you go there be sure to have breakfast at the Hilltop Theatre of Seasons restaurant. The Hwy #12 - Four Egg, Ham, Mushrooms, Hashbrowns, and Cheese Special is not to be missed. Then if you can still walk, go accross US Hwy #12 to the Big Stone County Museum. An hour or two there is a must do. Everything from Paul Bunyon's anchor to one of the largest collections of bird/wildlife displays in the United States.

More to follow, now I must see to the Honey Do List!