I never saw your sweet face,or even held your small hand in mine. I never passed you on the street or saw you playing in a park. I never saw the wonder in your eyes or the smile that graced your lips. I never held you to say it would be okay~ and I am sorry no one else did.
Today we bury a small member of our community who I hope has a huge impact.
No more violence towards children.
If you see something,if you "feel" something is not right~ report it.
May you rest in peace Kevin.
Now this is funny.
I hope no ones feelings are hurt,no implied threats are made,no ones panties get in a knot,and trust that the world is not going to a mythical warm place. ;-)
Transitions are always hard,but often times that is exactly where the best possibilities lie~ best wishes to one and all!
Slip Slidin' Away~ by Paul Simon
As a follow up to an earlier post of mine~~
"ORDERS ARE NOW BEING TAKEN FOR THE GALILEOSCOPE
www.galileoscope.org
The time has come!
We are now taking orders for delivery beginning in late April. If you’ve already ordered one or more Galileoscopes, thank you! If not, read on!
The Galileoscope is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit developed as a Cornerstone Project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009
www.astronomy2009.org
For just US $15 plus shipping by postal/parcel service, you get a 50-mm f/10 refractor that snaps together in less than 5 minutes and gives great views of the celestial wonders that
Galileo first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today, including lunar craters and mountains, Jupiter’s moons, the phases of Venus, Saturn's rings, and the Pleiades and Beehive star clusters.
The Galileoscope comes with a 25x eyepiece and 2x Barlow lens and incorporates features such as achromatic optics, stray-light rejection, and a 1.25-inch focuser normally found only on telescopes costing at least 10 times more. It attaches to any standard photo tripod (not included).
Accompanying the kit are educational materials based on active inquiry, cooperative learning, testing of ideas and predictions, and hands-on experimentation.
You can download these free activity guides,
and order small numbers of Galileoscopes with payment by credit card or PayPal, at www.galileoscope.org.
IYA2009 National Nodes, museums, planetariums, schools, astronomy clubs, and other institutions wishing to order 100 or more.
Galileoscopes can get a discounted price of US$12.50 per kit, save on shipping via bulk freight service, and pay by purchase order.
To initiate a large order of 100+ kits, simply fill out the Request for
Quotation form at
https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/sites/galileoscop e.org.gs/files/Galileoscope-RFQ.doc
and send it by e-mail to freight@galileoscope.org.
Galileoscopes are in production and will begin shipping to customers
in late April 2009"
If any of you own or have lusted for a better telescope~ this is a spectacular deal. The scope has high end features for a rock bottom price.
I can hear you now~~~ What?
Simple answer: bobbasheely, used in Gulf Coast states as a noun meaning a good friend or a verb: to hang around with a friend. It comes from the language of the Choctaw tribes.
More complex and fun answer~ the Dictionary of Regional English is almost complete and ,even better an on-line version is in the works.
“Reviewers called the dictionary "one of the most visible public faces of linguistics," and a "national treasure."
The concept dates to 1889, when the American Dialect Society was formed. But the project did not start in earnest until 1965, when English professor Frederic Cassidy dispatched workers to 1,000 carefully chosen U.S. communities to interview residents and make audio recordings of their speech.
Workers often slept in "word wagons" — vans emblazoned with the UW logo — and even were chased out of a few Southern towns. The field work alone took five years and collected 2.5 million different words and phrases.
Since then, linguists have painstakingly researched the words using print materials to decide which should be included. The dictionary project has about a dozen workers and a $750,000 annual budget.
Cassidy died in 2000, still looking toward publication of the final volume. His tombstone reads: "On to Z!”
Not how we should talk~ how we do talk.
"It's one of the great American scholarly activities and people will be reading it for a century learning about the roots of the American language," said William Safire, who frequently cites the dictionary in his "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine. "It shows the richness and diversity of our language."
Doctors have used it to communicate with patients and investigators have referred to it in efforts to identify criminals, including the Unabomber. Dialect coaches in Hollywood and on Broadway have used the dictionary's audio recordings of regional speakers to train actors.
Author Tom Wolfe has called the dictionary "my favorite reading."
More here.
We watched "The Golddiggers of 1933" last night~ here are two great musical numbers from the film.
Fairly pertinent, even today.
Enjoy.
I just had to share my most recent unsolicited job offer with you all! I am so upset that I must pass this up~not! Another variation on the money transfer scam,names and numbers changed...but this ones phrases are quite*Thanks Steve!) funny! I turned red my favorite parts~ but when they learn to spell,use a near approximation of correct English,make a modicum of sense and I actually apply for a position....they might have me at hello!
Phone:deleted , Fax deleted
Work at home Money Manager (Work at home, part-time vacancy; 2000 usd (?)per month):
We value your response back regarding the open vacancy P***** Insurance is offering. We're currently seeking motivated and responsible individuals to attend the post (sure I have to show up!)of a 'Work at home Money Transfer Assitant'. This remote position itself covers a broad range of directions an individual would have to perform. It's a part time position, which let's you perform your duties directly from your home location. In the nearest future, we're planning to achieve the expansion of our company throughout the United States of America providing local offices and departments in the vast areas, where logistic and insurance services are definitely in demand. Until then, we're trying to fill in our personnel with new individuals, which will increase the efficiency of the services we're catering. If you wish to apply or have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact me back either via e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon.
In order to reduce the corporate overhead, we've implemented the thrift solution of disseminating bases of control over certain regions of the United States of America. It provides a great opportunity for beginners to participate in the standard operations of the future subsidiary departments.(What ?) Besides the expansion project, the upcoming regional accountants are expected to learn a great deal about different realms of the insurance market mainly through digesting the experience gained from the large scale practical assignments.
1. This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
2. Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
3. You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as *name a money transfer service. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
4. You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
5. To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
6. You can work 1-4 hours per day or fulltime.
7. This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is a Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
8. Your education and status don't matter.
9. We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
Job Description:
1. An ACH or Wire transfer will be made to your bank account from our client. I'll let you know it's exact transfer amount and date.
2. You should receive the transfer and send me the confirmation that you've received it. Then you'll have to cash out this transfer at your bank.
3. Then you'll have to sent the money you took from you bank account via Western Union. I'll let you know all the necessary information on this transfer(the name of person who will receive the money and destination city/country).
4. Then you should send an email to me to confirm the Western Union transfer is sent. This email should include sender's name, name of the city the transfer has been sent from, exact #money transfer service*transfer amount, and *name a money transfer service*(it's essential for receiving the money).
5. We communicate with our agents mainly by e-mail, but we will also communicate by phone (if your e-mail is not available). It is your responsibility to check your e-mail daily and inform us about any change in your contact information. Supporting communication is your top-priority obligation.
6. The fixed monthly salary which is 2000 usd will be sent to you by direct deposit after 30 day period from first transfer.
Let's see how it works. For example, 2000 usd have been transferred to your account. The amount you'll receive for each transfer is 5% from the initial payment to your bank account. 5% from 2000 usd is 100 usd so you'll have to send 1900 usd via Western Union. Western Union fee(it's about 100 usd) should be deducted from 1900 usd.
Please ask me with more questions or just let me know you're ready to get started.
We do not need access to your bank accounts. This is information that you can see at any check and only let us to send ACH and Wire transfers to this accounts.
Note: Actions depicted below, are authorized by Prime Insurance Company, and therefore sustain legitimacy status. Our venerable organization doesn't condone or incite improper or out of border incentives, which may contradict to federal law.
If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at ***********!.
Respectfully,
Name Deleted to Protect the Scammer. HR department.
This meticulously crafted film is relentless, drawn into the story by real life events, fine acting, cinematography, and a tight pace, one cannot turn away. Nor should one turn away, as the courage to have lived these short but very human lives requires nothing less of the viewer.
Directed by Marc Rothemund, screenplay by Fred Brienersdorfer the film runs one hour and fifty seven minutes with Julia Jentsch giving one of the best performances I have ever seen. The story draws on interviews with the survivors and transcripts that remained hidden in East German archives until 1990. The DVD has these interviews and some snippets of actual trial footage as special features.
Part of a small group of University students that stand up to the evil that is all around them~ something I never heard in my history classes~ and pay the ultimate price for their convictions. Calling themselves the White Rose they have been writing and distributing manifestos (leafs) demanding that the populace wake up to what is all around them~ the sixth leaf is their downfall.
On February 18th, the very day that Gobbels delivers the speech calling for Germany’s commitment to “total war”, Sophie and her brother Hans are arrested for distributing leaflets at the University. The other active members are soon arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. By February 22nd, after a sham trial, Sophie, Hans and Christopher Probst are all guillotined. One is forced to ask~ would I, could I, hold tight to my beliefs under such circumstances~ and at the ages of these youths?
The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group formed by a core of students~ between 21 and 25 years of age~ and their Philosophy Professor Dr. Hubert. They wrote reasoned appeals to the minds of the German people calling for Hitler’s ousting, a cessation to the war and an end to the extermination of the mentally ill, the handicapped and the “lesser races”. They managed to distribute some five “leafs” in a campaign that lasted from June 1942 to February 1943.
The definition of “total war” is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a belligerent engages in a mobilization of all available resources in order to entirely destroy or render beyond use a rivals capacity to continue. In total war there is no differentiation between combatants and civilians.
Following her death, a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to the UK by German jurist Helmuth von Moltke, where it was utilized by the Allied Forces. In mid-1943, they dropped millions of propaganda copies over Germany of the tract, now retitled The Manifesto of the Students of Munich.
“Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us can imagine the degree of shame that will come upon us and our children when the veil falls from our faces and the awful crimes that infinitely exceed any human measure are exposed to the light of day? ”
— From the first leaflet of the White Rose
Even though the clip states "coming soon" the DVD is available now.
There is a wealth of information on the web ~ here is a start. For those with “wiki-itis”, just type Sophie’s name into a search engine.
This story is every parents nightmare~ and why I choose poverty and hardship over "outsourcing" my child.
HOUSTON – Seven employees of a state-run home for the mentally disabled have been suspended for staging fights between residents who were forced to shove, punch and strike each other, authorities said Friday.
Police learned of the fights when someone gave a cell phone containing videos of the brawls at the Corpus Christi State School to an off-duty officer on Friday, police Captain Tim Wilson said by phone from Corpus Christi.
"Workers were running their own fight club using clients. It's pretty appalling that someone would think of this," he said.
In the videos, which show several fights dating back to 2007, mentally disabled male residents can be seen fighting each other while the employees watch. In one video, a disabled resident raises his hands in victory after a bout, Wilson said.
"It's pretty appalling. I've been in police work over 30 years and I've never anything like this," he said. "These people who were charged with caring for these clients were exploiting them for entertainment."
More here
"What a piece of work is man"..."Man delights not me"~ with apologies to W. Shakespeare.
Sen. Patrick Leahy recently proposed a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate abuses during the Bush-Cheney Administration - so they never happen again. These abuses include the use of torture, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.
“We have just emerged from a time when White House officials often acted as if they were above the law. That was wrong and must be fully exposed so it never happens again.
That is why I proposed the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate abuses during the Bush-Cheney Administration. These abuses may include the use of torture, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.
During the past several years, this country has been divided as deeply as it has been at any time in our history since the Civil War. It has made our government less productive and our society less civil. As we commemorate the Lincoln bicentennial, there is need, again, "to bind up the nation's wounds." President Lincoln urged that course in his second inaugural address some seven score and four years ago.
Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened. The best way to move forward is getting to the truth, finding out what happened, so we can make sure it does not happen again.
The Obama Administration has already made huge strides to restore the Constitution and renew our commitment to international law after eight corrosive years. But we must read the full page on this dark chapter in American history before we can turn it for good, which is why I feel so strongly about investigating what really happened.
I hope you agree. "
Please go here to listen to Senator Leahy's remarks proposing a Truth and Reconcilliation Commission and to sign the petition to create such a commision.
I try not to watch Fox based on general principal but this show has got me hooked.
Lie to Me stars Tim Roth as the world leading deception expert. We follow his team as they assist government and law enforcement to find the truth behind lies. Each episode has fascinating insights as to how one can tell when a lie is being told.
The series is based on Dr. Paul Ebman’s life and work. He has written several books on the subject and is a professor of psychology at the University Of California San Francisco School Of Medicine.
They have a four-part quiz to determine your “lie detector” natural ability. I am a natural lie detector~ which surprised the heck out of me…and Mr. Sage. Hum. ;-)
So would a web cam be a good idea here as we post? LOL
I know the world is falling apart,and doom is near,but...NASA is naming the node being added to the ISS and the public is asked to help.
Apparently there is a strong Firefly fan base out there~~ so far a whopping 86% are voting for the name Serenity. Handily beating all the other contenders to date. The home/ship of our favorite film space crew apparently has a quite few hard core nerds, umm fans.
Voting is open until March 20th and the winner will be announced in April. Go here to cast your vote ...not that I care or anything ;-)
Please have no children in your home when viewing this. It is not for the squeamish or the easily offended .It should be required viewing for all adults.It is beyond horrifying.
I watched this last night and for once I have no words.So here are Roger Ebert's.What follows is an excerpt.
"There are those, their numbers shrinking every day, who would agree we have to "work the dark side." Growing numbers of us are yearning for the light. This movie does not describe the America I learned about in civics class, or think of when I pledge allegiance to the flag. Yet I know I will get the usual e-mails accusing me of partisanship, bias, only telling one side, etc. What is the other side? See this movie, and you tell me."
The 2008 Oscar for Best Documentary,Feature was awarded to this film.
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