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Thursday, April 26, 2007 -- Late Morning Interesting news: the city of Pittsburgh was selected as the Most Livable city for the second time. The first time was in 1985. The rating was based on nine catagories: housing (or cost of living), transportation, jobs, education, climate, crime, health care, recreation, and ambience (museums, arts, restaurants, history). I have to raise my eyebrows at this one because the city sucks at transportation. PAT bus is a corrupt black hole for public funds that gives buses that are overly packed and late. I love how the PAT bus geniuses will schedule all three buses on a particular route to be at the same intersection at roughly the same time. I know, you are thinking it's not scheduled, just a fluke. Nope. Look at the schedules printed by PAT for the 61A, 61B and 61C. They are supposed to be in the same place at the same time. As for housing, I'm not so sure that it is reasonable. House prices have been grossly inflated in the past few years in Allegheny County because of the stupid real estate assessment program that overpriced houses. The climate is crappy--not enough sunny days, and the ambience is what you can make of it. Yeah, we have the museums, but the big art/history tours usually pass us by and go to Cleveland. I guess that in general, I would say that in order to have Pittsburgh selected as "most livable" someone must have had their pockets lined with money--or else the selection process is screwed up! W Monday, April 23,2007 -- Morning I don't who died and put Sheryl Crow in charge of life, but she obviously thinks that she should be telling us all how to live life. She and some other looney liberal accosted Karl Rove at a dinner this weekend to tell him that the government had better do something about global warming. When he wasn't giving the itchy bs the appropriate amount of adulation and agreement that they felt was their due, they got nasty. Rove didn't want to listen to them, and when Crow grabbed Rove's arm, he told her not to touch him. As Crow said later in her blog, she couldn't understand his rudeness. Okay, he doesn't want to listen to a want-to-be celebrity, Laurie David, and a singer, Crow, lecture him about global warming. How rude of him to not want to listen to their babble, and then not want them to grab hold of his arm. Hmm. Seems to me that the rude shoe fits on Crow's and David's feet. But they are liberals who's agenda is more holier than thou and worthy than anyone else--so whatever they would do is sanctioned by a higher God. Crow tried to tell Rove that he had to listen to her because Rove works for her. Rove replied that he didn't--he worked for the American people. So now Crow wants to get into my bathroom and dicate to me how many squares of toilet paper I should be using!! According to Crow, I should use no more than one square per bathroom visit. Unless it is one of those "pesky occasions where two to three could be required". Excuse me? Now that I know that Crow supposedly only uses one square, I wouldn't want her touching my arm either! Gosh knows what contaminates are on her hands! I think that Crow should stick to singing, and leave the bathroom to my discretion. Tuesday, March 6, 2007 -- Early Afternoon Microsoft is coming down on the side of copyright and has chastized Google over making copyrighted material available over the Internet. As Microsoft says, their Live Search Books only gives people access to materials that are in the public domain. Google's plan is to scan in books from libraries and make it accessible. Microsoft also mentioned the Google's acquisition of YouTube shows a cavalier disregard for copyright laws. I think that what it shows is that Google understands that folks want something like YouTube that gives that the average person access to video materials when they want it, on demand, if you will. The move should be to get more materials online, not less--and we definitely don't want Microsoft controlling everything! Unfortunately, Google may become the oppressive Microsoft of the future, but I'll take my chances on them. Thursday, November 16, 2006 -- Afternoon Sometimes I really don't understand people. The case in point this time is the OJ Simpson story. We all know the story of OJ and the murder of his wife. He was found not guilty by a criminal court because his lawyers played up the race card and the prosecution wasn't as adept at playing up the murderous wife beater angle. A civil court found OJ responsible, and he had to compensate Nicole's and Ron Goldman's families. Well, now OJ needs some money, and guess what? He wrote a book entitle If I Did it, and describes how he would have murdered his wife...if he did it. One of those "news" shows is supposed to interview him about the topic next week. What I can believe is that the jerk is allowed to smirk and make money after murdering his wife? I mean, really, is there any doubt now that he did it? So he is allowed to make money off the situation while rubbing his children's faces the mud. I feel so sorry for them. They must want to believe that the jerk is innocent, and to have them do this again to their mother, this time in print, just shows what an incredible low-life OJ is. Monday, October 9, 2006 -- Evening Google has bought YouTube for $1.65 billion dollars. That's an amazing prize. It seems that Google has realized the power of YouTube and hasn't been doing so well with Google Video. According to Google, the two will remain separate for now. Who knows what the future will bring? I think that streaming video and sharing of video content is definitely what people want. You want to be able to just see the show or watch the event in your own time. I don't know what this would mean for television. Maybe they will learn that they just need to offer shows through an On Demand service. Monday, September 11, 2006 -- Afternoon Today is the fifth anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. I almost said the World Trade Center attack, but that would diminish the happenings at the Pentagon and Somerset, PA. I remember the day vividly because I was actually working on someone's computer when I started to get text pages about a plane going into one of the Towers. At first, the user and I both thought it was a small aircraft. Then I called my boyfriend and found out that it was a large airliner. My first thought was that it was a horrible accident until my boyfriend said that there were stories that it was an active of terror. By the time I was able to finish my work with the user and get down from upper Pitt campus to lower, the first Tower has collapsed. I watched the television in the commons room of William Pitt Union unable to comprehend what was happening, as was the case with most around me. When the second Tower collapsed most people just wanted to go home to be with family. I remember that some of my co-workers didn't want to go back to work because they worked in the Cathedral of Learning which is a tall landmark in Pittsburgh's Oakland area, and there were stories about the plane in the Somerset area. It was a very traumatizing day. What I find hard to believe is that I have some "friends"--wacky, conspiracy theorists who believe that there are no terrorists, and that 9/11 was just a government plot to control people with the use of fear. Supposedly, there was a survey that was done of around 1000 people, and it was found that 36% of them believed that the government either allowed the terrorists to act or were behind the terrorists. My only comment is that I wonder how random a pool was it. They could have just happened upon a large pocket of conspiracy types. The NIST actually have a fact sheet that refutes the point that the conspiracy theorists make, but I know that my friend would not listen to anything like that. His mind is already made up and nothing will change it. I have found that it is better not to associate with him because he says such wacky things all the time, and you really can't talk to him about it because he just calls any comments that others make stupid. I suppose he says the same about me because I am just as sure that the acts of 9/11 were those of terrorists--and not terrorists sponsored by the American government. Thursday, September 7, 2006 -- Evening Today has been a very busy day for me. I went to work today, but took an early and lengthy lunch break to go to Bob O'Connor's funeral mass. I arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral around 10:30 am and waited for the funeral procession. While we were waiting, I saw Lynn Swann and Dan Rooney and his wife arrive. The horse-drawn carriage arrived at 10:45 with the procession of family and friends. The funeral mass took around two hours and 15 minutes. Father Terry, Bob O'Connor's elder son, gave a homily. Archbishop Donald Wuerl officiated. Bob's daugher, Heidi, and younger son, Corey, both spoke. Heidi was crying so much that it was difficult to understand her. Then Corey spoke, and he commented on how when his father's coffin left the funeral home, he realized it would be the last time he would see him. He said that the family put a Terrible Towel in the coffin with his dad, who was a huge Steelers fan and had season tickets since 1874 in the end zone. Judy, Bob's wife, unexpectedly, also decided to say a few words, and said that Bob loved Pittsburgh and thanked everyone for everything. It was very touching. After the mass, Bob's coffin was placed in a motorized hearse and the procession took a tour of the city on the way to the cemetary. The most touching moment was when Bob's hearse went past the local Coffee Tree coffee shop and everyone there raised their coffee cups to him in a 21 cup salute. Take a look at the pictures that I took of the event. Tuesday, September 5, 2006 -- Afternoon Some news is out about Bob O'Connor's illness. It seems that he had a very aggressive form of central nervous system lymphoma. It seems that the treatments that were given did nothing, and the cancer had spread to the spinal cord in the final two days. It seems that poor Bob's days were numbered from the beginning. Also, it appears that he had been having headaches for several months before seeking professional help. The thing that doctors say now is that even if he had gotten treatment earlier because of the aggressiveness of the cancer, it might not have made any difference. That brings up the question of whether his quality of life in the past two months would have been better without treatment. It's a hard call to make because I know that I would want the treatment because I would want to live. However, if you were told that it would only add a few days or weeks to your life with the life being poorer quality, then it would be tricky. I think that most people want to have quality time--alert and somewhat pain free. It just makes the story sadder to know there was no hope. Monday, September 4, 2006 -- Afternoon I didn't believe this story when I heard it today. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, was killed in a freak accident off of Queensland's Batt Reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef). The crew was there to film a show on deadly ocean creatures when Irwin wound up approaching a sting ray from on top and getting stabbed with the tail under the rib cage and into the heart. They tried CPR, but it was actually too late, and Irwin was declared dead by the paramedics. They were actually filming at the time and they reviewed the tape of the incident. It seems that the sting ray must have felt threatened because of the location of the cameraman and Irwin and just lashed out with his tail. Irwin was only 44 years old. It's just shocking that someone who did so many dangerous things would wind up dying because of an accident like this. It was just a freakish coincidence that Irwin was just in the wrong position. Sting rays are poisonous, but it wasn't the poison that did the damage, but the tail acting like a knife and stabbing Irwin's heart. Irwin's wife was on a nature walk elsewhere in Australia, but returned home with their two kids, daughter Bindi, 8, and son Bob, 3. Sunday, September 3, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Bob O'Connor is now lying in state in the City/County building today. The local television stations have been making periodic breaks throughout the day to show footage of area when Bob's casket is. The weather has been adding to the somber mood with overcast skies and chilly weather. What I am not happy about is that Luke Ravenstahl received a letter from the City Law department saying that Ravenstahl can complete Bob's full term. That is over three years. The problem that I have with it is that even though Ravenstahl is an elected official and was elected to his post on the City Council, I didn't vote for him to be mayor. I think that the fair move would be to allow Ravenstahl to be mayor until the next general election in 2007. That would give the Democrats and the Republicians time to gather resources and candidates for the race. Others are already planning on contending this statement because the language in the city charter is vague and can be interpreted several ways. Saturday, September 2, 2006 -- Evening Funeral arrangements for Bob O'Connor have been announced. There will be visitation at the City-County Building in Pittsburgh starting at noon tomorrow and running through (including night hours) Monday at 10 pm. After that, the family will have visitations at a funeral home in Shadyside on Tuesday and Wednesday. A burial mass will be held on Thursday at 11 am at St. Paul's Cathedral in Oakland. The mass will be given by Archbishop Donald Wuerl. As a memorial to Bob here in Squirrel Hill, ribbons are being placed on trees and light posts on Forbes and MUrray Avenues. Friday, September 1, 2006 -- Evening Very sad news this evening. Bob O'Connor died this evening at 8:55. Ever since he went into the hospital on July 6 for flu-like symptoms, he has been on everyone's thoughts and prayers. It's just hard to image at this point that Bob won't be walking down the street, a huge smile on his face, always ready to say hello or say a few words. My sympathies go out ot his wife, children, family, and numerous friends. Friday, September 1, 2006 -- Early Morning More information came out about Bob O'Connor last night. It appears that he was on life support earlier in the week, but that he has now been removed from it. According to the doctors instead of it being a day by day situation, it is now an hour by hour. I would imagine that he won't make it through the day and that really saddens me. I remember all the time that I've seen him on the streets here, always smiling and happy. After he won the Democratic primary last year, he held a party right here in Schenley Park. As my boyfriend and I were driving home by work, there was Bob--a picnic going on in the park, standing by the roadside with a sign that said "thank you", beaming and waving at all the people who passed. I guess that's the thing that we should remember about him. That he was happy and that he actually achieved his dream. Thursday, August 31, 2006 -- Evening Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor is not doing well at all and was given the Sacraments of the Sick today. That used to be known as the Last Rites and was given to people who were near death. Everyone in the news media is in agreement that we are basically on a death watch right now. I feel really sorry for Bob. He was truly a nice guy, and a fellow Squirrel Hill resident. In fact, he lives just a two minute walk from my apartment. You could always see him walking the streets and getting coffee at the local coffee shops, and he frequented them all. He was always approachable and friendly, and even answered some of my boyfriend's questions about the political scene a few years ago. While he was running for Mayor, I saw him on the street in a powder blue jogging suit, straightening out one of his campaign signs. As he said, he needed to keep on eye on them to make sure they were still properly placed. A nice, good guy, and a real shame that he is so ill and had such a short term as Mayor. As so many people in Pittsburgh, I am going to mourn the loss of a kind soul. Tuesday, August 29, 2006 -- Morning Pittsburgh Mayor, Bob O'Connor, has suffered another setback in his bout against brain cancer. This is the saddest story because O'Connor has wanted to be Mayor for years. He has run before, only to lose in the primary to someone else, and now he had his big chance. He was in office for only abit over six months, when he went to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. He was probably thinking that it was something minor--get some drugs, maybe one day enforced rest in the hospital--and then it turns out that he has primary central nervous system T-cell lymphoma, which is really rare, and usually deadly. Supposedly, they were going to start treatment and then send him home, but he hasn't been home since the beginning of July. Then they found out that the chemotherapy drugs weren't working and the tumors were spreading. Last week, they put a shunt into his brain to drain excessive fluid, and then started radiation therapy. Late yesterday, his condition was downgraded from stable to serious. He has an infection from the shunt, and it was replaced late yesterday afternoon with another that has been treated with antiobiotics. He is also being given medication for seizures. Now they had to test for the seizures and aren't commenting on O'Connor's level of consciousness which leads me to believe that he is not conscious. The other news that is unsettling is that the seizures might not be caused by the infection, but from a worsening of the cancer. Poor Bob's travails have really made me think about life. The guy has wanted this job for so long, and after having it for such a short period has such problems. The only thing that is good is that he did make it to his dream. Imagine what it would be like to never realize your dream--to live life without making the attempt or succeeding. At least he had a few months. I'm hoping that he has many more, but it is not sounding good at all, and I'm preparing for the worst. Tuesday, August 22, 2006 -- Afternoon Poor Alcor! The polar bear from the Erie Zoo died after his surgery last night. Dr. Dean Richardson had set the broken bones in the animal's leg, and Alcor was on his way back to his home zoo and waking from anesthesia when he died. An autopsy (necropsy in animals) is planned for Alcor to determine the cause of his death. Monday, August 21, 2006 -- Evening Dr. Dean Richardson has begun the operation on the Alcor, the polar bear from the Erie Zoo. The surgery began around 11 am this morning, and was still going on at 5 pm. There hasn't been a news release yet, but Alcor fractured his right ulna in two places and shattered his radius. If anyone could help Alcor, it is Richardson. Friday, August 18, 2006 -- Evening Barbaro's surgeon gets around! Dr. Dean Richardson will be operating on an eight year old polar bear from the Erie zoo. Alcor was playing with his brother, Mizar, on August 11, when it was noticed that Alcor was not putting weight on his right front foot. It appears that somehow during the play, Alcor fractured his leg. After reviewing x-rays, the first opinion of the vets was that Alcor would have to be euthanized because there was no way to secure the break since it was very near the paw. It was also thought that Alcor couldn't get around on three legs like a dog because of his weight (750 pounds). Dr. Richardson was called in on the case, and he believes that he can help the animal. There is no word on when the operation will happen or what will have after the surgery. I'll keep my eyes open for more information. Thursday, June 22, 2006 -- Evening The reports on global warming just irritate the heck out of me! The latest report is that scientists have confirmed that the Earth is the warmest that it has been in 400 years--and here comes the kicker that makes me question the science of the report--that it might "possibly" be the warmest in 2000 years. Okay, that 600 year difference ain't just nothing. Yes, it's a blip on the map of the Earth's existence, but considering the fact that official recordings of weather are only a fairly recent phenonenon (only since the late 1800s) and that even then recordings can vary according to the record taker, I'm not sure that the researchers have accurate data. The even bigger annoyance is that the researchers are "positive" that the cause of the warming is the human race. So, how is it that they are so sure that it's not a more natural event. Do we really believe that we can "fix" the problem? The best part of it all is the change in temperature over the past 100 years. I can hear you now--it must be 20 degrees. Well, it is a change of 1 degree over 100 years. The thing that annoys me about global warming is that it is not something that is scientific. It is a political movement. How will we "fix" the problem? By politicians implementing laws and regulations that will put money into their pockets. There are scientists would could just as easily disprove global warming as there are scientists who will prove it. We only hear though of the side that the media supports. Would you want to put the global climate into the hands of politicians who have mucked up everything else? Not me! Saturday, June 17, 2006 -- Morning The US soccer team is going to play Italy later this afternoon. The Italian coach, Marcello Lippi said that he isn't going to underestimate the USA team because to do so might be over confident. He doesn't think that the competition from the US will be overly difficult. I think that the USA team was hugely overrated this year. So far today, Portugal has defeated Iran with a score of 2-0. Cristiano Ronaldo, a real hunk, scored a beautiful penalty kick goal for Portugal in the 80th minute. It almost looked like he scored another goal during stoppage time, but he was offside. The whistle blew seconds later and the game was over. Thursday, June 8, 2006 -- Evening The Schenley Plaza in Oakland officially opened today. The park has been semi-open for a few weeks. Today, all of the food places were open. There are four of them--a hot dog stand, Bagel Factory, Asian food, and pizza place. Events through the weekend included free carousel rides, the Zany Umbrella Circus, and different music acts. During lunch today, I wandered around the park and rode the carousel. It is actually a very nice environment, and it will be a nice addition to Oakland. How relaxing to sit in a park, eat some food, and listen to music. The only problem with the park is the lack of shady places. These pictures give a feel for the atmosphere of the celebration. Wednesday, May 31, 2006 -- Evening Prince Albert of Monaco is going to admit to fathering yet another child out of wedlock. This time it is a 14 year old girl whose mother was a California waitress on vacation in Monaco. Personally I find this amazing. So the future prince of the realm is going around having sex with waitresses, air flight attendants, and gosh knows who else, casually, without any protection (since he is fathering children). You would think that in this day and age, Albert would have better sense. You would also think that he could at least pick someone other than a waitress--someone at his own social level. On top of all this, for years, folks have thought that the Prince was gay because he never has dated anyone for any length of time. That is pretty amazing for the leader of a country who is 48 years old. Especially amazing is that royalty need to have legitimate offspring to ensure their existence. This is especially true in Monaco because if there aren't any heirs to the throne, the country will revert to French rule. Fortunately for Albert and the people of Monaco, legitimate heirs extends to Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie, and Caroline's son, Andrea Casiraghi is officially Albert's heir. Tuesday, May 30, 2006 -- Afternoon I have been into sudoku since last July when I was laid up for ten weeks recovering from foot surgery. I don't have as much time for it now as I did then, but I still do a puzzle a day. The craze for Sudoku keeps on growing, and there is going to be Sudoku Tournament at San Francisco's Exploratorium this coming Saturday and Sunday (June 3-4). The tournament is being called the First North American Sudoku Tournament. I know that at this point I can still do medium level puzzles, and if I had kept at my level of doing several a day as I did last summer, I would probably be able to easily do the hard ones. It's amazing how work gets in the way of pleasure. Friday, May 12, 2006 -- Evening Speaking of arrogance, Netflix is the master of arrogance. the company had a class action suit levied against them because they said that you could get an unlimited number of dvd rentals in a month. However, that really wasn't the case. Netflix had ways to slow down delivery if you were getting too many DVDs a month. Now they have made modifications to their policies saying that it may take some time to get things to you. So what is the resolution? Well, if you are a subscriber, you can get a free month of service. There's a catch though. If you opt to take the free month, you are dropped from the service after that month and have to sign up again. Scammers still scamming, obviously. The other option is to upgrade to get more DVDs for one month. For this offer, Netlix was going to charge you the higher rate of the upgrade after a month. So it was like you just upped your subscription and really didn't get anything for it. Now because of an uproar, you can take a free upgrade for a month and after said month will return to your earlier subscription level. Monday, May 8, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Now this is a real shocker to me! Pittsburgh was picked as one of the smartest places to live. The judgement was made based on economics, health care, educational options, housing, and cultural and leisure activities. Surprisingly, Pittsburgh ranked ninth in the listing that was created by Kiplinger's. The listing of the top ten in order is: Nashville, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Kansas City, Asheville (NC), Ithaca (NY), Pittsburgh, and Iowa City. Saturday, May 6, 2006 -- Late Morning Cesar Millan is being sued by the producer of 8 Simple Rules who claims that his dog was hurt by treatment at Cesar's clinic. Flody Suarez is claiming that a choke chain was put on the dog and it was made to exercise to exhaustion on a treadmill. Umm. Yeah, that's usually what Cesar does to dog's who goes to his clinic. Well, Suarez is claiming that the dog had to be hospitalized and will not be able to eat properly again because of the choke color. Suarez is suing for more than $25,000 for hospital bills and accuses Cesar of "breach of contract, fraud, animal cruelty and intentional infliction of emotional distress." The reason five year old Labrador was there was because he was afraid of other dogs and people. Cesar, himself, was not dealing with the dog, but other workers in his clinic. It sounds like a way for Suarez to get attention for himself, and to make a big deal out of a dog not being spoiled. After all, Cesar always puts the dogs on treadmills to wear them out so they can behave and be more responsive to acting in a submissive way. I think that folks tend to believe that their dogs are people, and really don't like anything done to the dog that isn't in accordance with that belief. Friday, April 28, 2006 -- Afternoon If someone asked you who had the better attendance over the past year, the Steelers or the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, what would you say? If you said the Library, you would be right. The biggest shocker in the news to me was that 70% of people between the ages of 13 and 36 have library cards. Visitors to the library totalled 1.6 million over the past year. The reason for the library's popularity is the extensive music cd collection, DVDs and free Internet access. At the Squirrel Hill Library, there are computers in the children's room that kids can use to play video games. I go to the Squirrel Hill Library at least once a week, sometimes more often to get books or cds that I have reserved, the place is always busy. The computers are usually all in use, and lots of people are browsing the shelves. The library also has programs for its users, such as yoga, finance and reading clubs. If you haven't been to your local library, or the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, make a point to do so this weekend. Friday, April 21, 2006 -- Evening Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth! Today was her 80th birthday, and yes it was her real birthday. The Queen of the British Empire celebrates two birthdays in a year. The first is on the real date and the other is in June and is the Trooping the Color. The reason for the split is because if a monarch has a birthday in winter time, it might not be possible to have a parade due to inclement weather. The Queen seems to be going strong for someone who is 80 years old. Of course, hardy old age runs in her family. Her mother lived to 101, and Queen Victoria lived to 81 which is amazing for the 19th century. Here's hoping to many more birthdays for the Queen. Sunday, April 16, 2006 -- Evening Monaco's Prince Albert has become the first head of state who has made it to the North Pole while he was currently in office. Supposedly the mission's goal was to highlight global warming. I don't know how the Prince treking to the North Pole proves anything about global warming. Not only that, but I don't believe that it has any scientific merit in showing the causes of global warming or the possible solution. For some reason, the politicos would like us to believe that scientists have a strong understanding of the causes and cures of global warming. I doubt that they do. Just think of it, the meteorologists can't even predict what the weather will be like in a week let alone make changes to it. In fact, as of yesterday, they were calling for sunny skies today. Meanwhile it was very overcast and chilly today with sprinkles of rain. The point is that even if the climate is warming, I highly doubt that scientists really understand it. This is particular piece of "science" is too highly politically motivated to allow for unbiased decisions. Friday, April 14, 2006 -- Afternoon Google has launched a calendar service. I checked it out late last night, and I have to admit that I am impressed. You have the option to load a variety of calendars (Jewish, US, and UK holidays are examples of the offerings). You can also share your calendar with other or view others calendars. Calendar items from Outlook can be imported also. So far it is an interesting concept. I don't think that folks need to work as much about Microsoft taking over the world as they should worry about Google. The only difference is that Microsoft tried to take over the world by cutting off the air supply of others. Google does it but just releasing items that folks want that actually work. I have become a fan of South Park in recent weeks. First there was the incident with Isaac Hayes being a hypocrit and quitting the show because it mocked Scientology. It was okay with Hayes if the South Park guys mocked every other religion, but when it came to Hayes own, then the line was overstepped. Bull donkies! Anyway, over the past two weeks, Matt Stone and Trey Parker came up with episodes titled Cartoon Wars. The theme of the shows were to show the stupidity of folks who won't show cartoons of Muhammad because of Islam uprising and terrorist acts. The two parter mocks the Islamic radicals who are affronted by the cartoon, and by the public that will allow themselves to be bullied and bury their heads in the sand. Cartoon Network would not allow Stone and Parker to show a cartoon image of Muhammad. However, images of Jesus pooping on George Bush and the American flag were obviously perfectly acceptable. When will folks pull their heads out of the sand over this issue? Monday, April 10, 2006 -- Afternoon Disney is doing what everyone else should be doing. They are going to offer some of their ABC shows free on the Internet for a two month trial period. They are offering their popular shows, such as Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Alias the day after the shows are broadcast on the network. The BBC did something similar earlier this year. They found that folks tended to watch the shows at a later time in the evening than previous viewship records showed. Tuesday, April 4, 2006 -- Morning In case you didn't know it, the stress of the workplace can cause headaches and other illness. A group of British researchers did a study and found that physical illness could be linked to a "working environment characterised by poor psychosocial conditions." Folks were thinking that the cause of their runny noses, coughs, headaches, and tiredness were related to poor air circulation or other conditions in the building in which they work. The researchers said that the building itself was usually a minimal cause of problems. Now the question is what to do when you are stressed out at work, or just not feeling well. Finding a new job may be the cure, or at the very least, use some sick time and don't worry about the work that will be there waiting for you when you go back to work. A doctor at the University of Pittsburgh says that attending church can help you to live longer. The claim is that although regular exercise can add three to five years to your life and taking an anti-statin (like Zocor) can add 2.1 to 3.7 years to your life, regularly going to church can help you live 1.8 to 3.1 years longer. I think that the point they are missing is that you have to actually believe and have faith. You just can't be an athetist going to church and reap the same benefits. Besides, there may be more to it than going to church. Church-goers may be less likely to smoke or drink and might not let the stress of life get to them because of the belief in an afterlife. I can just see people going to a house of worship, not because of belief, but because they want to live long. Poppy cock! Monday, April 3, 2006 -- Evening This week is National Library Week. I am a huge fan of libraries, and go to my local library, the Carnegie Library at least once a week. Where else can you find books, magazines, movies, and music that you can borrow? Not only that, but my local library has a slew of classes for users, such as yoga, finances, and arts/crafts. I never mind my tax dollars going to the library because it is open to everyone, rich and poor. The Carnegie has an audio book program too. Saturday, April 1, 2006 -- Evening Tonight at 2 am (actually April 2nd), it will be time to change our clocks ahead an hour for the start of Daylight Savings Time (DST). That means that we lose an hour. I always like the fall when we gain an hour. This past August, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which will change the dates on which we move to DST. Instead of staring on the first Sunday in April, it will move to the second Sunday in March. The end will move from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November. Tuesday, March 28, 2006 -- Afternoon I have only been able to observe from a distance, but there is filming going on in Oakland today. The show being filmed is a television pilot that is being called Smith for now. It is causing abit of a traffic jam, but nothing major. Today was election day in Israel, and polls have just closed. According to the exit polls, the new party that was formed by Ariel Sharon, Kadima, appears to have gathered the most votes. Usually, the Israelis are active voters with about 80% of the population turning out to vote. However, this election appears to have run into voter apathy, and the turn out was much lower than expected. Exit polls have Kadima taking 29-32 seats, Labor taking 20-22, and Likud only getting 11-12. What this will mean for the future of Binyamin Netanyahu is not certain. Friday, March 10, 2006 -- Evening The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has successfully gotten into orbit around Mars this evening. The orbiter is now in an elliptical orbit around Mars. The technicians at NASA were getting nervous because there was radio silence as the orbiter went behind the planet shortly before they received confirmation that all was well. The MRO is going to look at Mars surface and atmosphere in more detail than any previous Martian mission. I have become a big Matisyahu fan, and have been watching some videos of him performing on AOL Music Sessions. Matisyahu is a 26 year old Hasidic Jew (of the Lubavitch variety) who sings reggae music. The themes of the song come from religious and biblical sources. Each week, AOL Music Sessions features a different artist. Friday, March 10, 2006 -- Late Afternoon The University of Pittsburgh renamed one of its biomedical buildings after Dr. Thomas Starzl today. The first Biomedical Science Tower sits in the upper campus region (that means that it is on the hilltop where Trees and the Petersen Event Center are). Dr. Starzl found out about the honor today at a luncheon to celebrate his 80th birthday. Wednesday, March 1, 2006 -- Early Evening Queen Elizabeth is going to turn 80 years old on April 21, and in honor of the occasion, a website has been setup to commemorate the event. Officially, the Queen will celebrate her birthday with Trooping the Colour which takes place on June 17 of this year. The official birthday is always in mid June in order to have the best weather for a parade and outdoor events. You can also send a birthday greeting to the Queen. A study has been done by CMU that shows that the use of cell phones during a flight can be risky. It seems that the story is that the frequency at which the cell phones communicate could interfer with GPS systems on a plane and cause a crash. Although there is no instance of this happen so far, the CMU guys say it is only a matter of time. The Verizon Airphones that are available on planes uses a different frequency and shouldn't be a problem. Not only do the CMU guys claim that cell phones are a problem, but that also believe that laptops and hand held gaming devines might also cause problems. All the research is based on data from a 2003 study that documented the emissions of electronic devices when used during a flight. I'm not sure how much I buy this one. I would love to have the Mythbusters check this one out. Right now, you aren't allowed to make cell phone calls during a flight, but it appears that one to four cell phone calls are made on each flight in the northeastern US. That's why I find this study abit hard to swallow. If folks are using their phones, laptops, and Gameboys now, why hasn't there been a crash? Answer that question for me CMU guys. Monday, February 27, 2006 -- Evening When I heard of this contest, I thought of Paul, a friend of mine. He has this obsession with rating bathrooms. He has alot of criteria, like cleanliness, spaciousness, how busy it is, and location. Paul is a weirdo, however, and will go a distance to go to the bathroom of his choice. Well, it is now time for the fifth annual America's Best Restroom Award. I don't know if Paul has been to any of the locations listed, but I can see him taking a plane trip to try them out. Dan Brown is being sued for theft of an idea from two authors who wrote a non-fiction book making the claim that Mary Magdalen gave birth to Jesus' child. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are claiming that Brown stole their idea and research about the Magdalen story which was published in 1982 in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Alot of the ideas that were espoused in the book did wind up in Brown's book, but can a person copyright an idea. I can understand the alligation if Brown took Baigent and Leigh's research and claimed it as his own. Instead, Brown says that he came up with the idea somewhat on his own when he came across the book. Brown even acknowledges Baigent and Leigh's book in the The DaVinci Code. Come on! Brown wrote a work of fiction. In fact, Baigent and Leigh should be getting down on their knees and thanking Brown. Why? Brown writes an exciting and compelling mystery thriller. Say what you want about the literary value and ideas, but you have to admit that the story is a thrill ride. Because people were so caught up with the story and wanted to read more about it, they went and bought (or read) Baigent and Leigh's book. This is just a ploy on Baigent and Leigh to take advantage of Brown's success and to get some bucks out of the book sales in England and ticket sales for the movie. Saturday, February 25, 2006 -- Late Evening One of the Pennsylvania state representatives wants to know why the Petersen Event Center went so far over budget. The implication from Joe Petrarca is that Pitt underestimated so the sate would sucked into committing more dollars than initially intended. The original assessment was $35 million, but the arena wound up costing $119 million with $66 million of that coming from taxpayer dollars. Originally, the state was only supposed to contribute $13 million. Petrarca hopes to investigate if the cost was deliberately underestimated by Pitt to secure more tax payer dollars. The size of the arena was increased from 230,000 square feet to 400,000 square feet, and somehow Pitt got the state to agree to pay more than the original $13 million. What makes this even more offensive to Petrarca and to every tax payer in the state is that the University is now going to the state and asking for a 10% increase on the amount allocated to it this year. The powers that be want to waste even more money, and that is the only thing that I have ever seen Pitt excel at--wasting money and effort. The additional smack in the face is that $6.2 million is needed to fix the roof of the arena because it was so shoddily built. It's a real shame to the student of the University because the tuition hikes come every year. I have no plans to contribute money to the University as an alumni because of the way the current administration wastes money. Sunday, February 19, 2006 -- Early Afternoon I played PowerBall yesterday because the amount was so high. When it gets to $365 million, you have to play. After all, even if the odds are against winning, wouldn't it be wonderful to have enough money so you can determine your own future instead of having to do a job to put food on the table? Obviously, I didn't win, but someone from Lincoln, Nebraska did. Wednesday, February 15, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Rufus, the bull terrier, won the Westminster Dog Show yesterday. According to the experts, Rufus had the perfect egg shaped head for his breed. Rufus is a cutie. Sunday, February 12, 2006 -- Late Morning More information on the discovery of the intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The archaeologists involved think that the five mummies that were enclosed in the tomb are possibly royal or noble mummies that were moved into the tomb to protect them from tomb robbers. The BBC link contains video and pictures of the tomb. Friday, February 10, 2006 -- Evening For the first time since King Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922, a new intact tomb has been found in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb contains five unopened sarcophagi and are dated to the 18th Dynasty (around 3000 years ago). Thursday, February 9, 2006 -- Late Afternoon The city of Pittsburgh is limiting the amount of time that city workers can spend web surfing. All workers will have 30 minutes a day in which they can surf the web. The time is broken into three chunks that are 10 minutes in length. Opponents are saying that the limitation might have an impact on work activities because there are times when it might take 30 minutes to complete a flight reservation for work purposes. The city is paying tons of money for Internet usage and is hoping to cut the amount of bandwidth that is used. The rationale is that cutting the bandwidth will lower the overall cost. I don't know what I would do if my Internet usage was limited to 30 minutes a day. Personally, if you get your work done, I don't care if you browse the Internet or stream music or news. Productive workers aren't necessarily the ones that are chained to a desk with a list of restrictions. In fact, that tends to develop a disgruntled worker. Wednesday, February 8, 2006 -- Early Afternoon A dog by any other name would be called Ralph Fiennes. It seems that he has been cheating on his partner, Francesca Annis. The couple has been together for 11 years and are now splitting. In the past, it seemed that they had a great love story. The couple met while performing in Hamlet. She played his mother, since she is around 18 years old than him. They were both attached to others at the time and broke up with them to be with each other. It seemed that they had alot of love for each other, but I guess that was just the public face. I guess that what it comes down to is once a cheater, always a cheater. Sunday, February 5, 2006 -- Late Evening Super Bowl Sunday! What I will do is give the hightlights of some of the moments of the game and of the few commercials that I saw. I wound up missing most of the commercials because of talk or fast forwarding. However, there are sites that have all of the Super Bowl commercials. Of the few that I did see, I liked Ameriquest commercial that was set in the hospital. The doctor used the electric heart paddles that are used on people suffering from a heart attach to kill a fly. As he is looking at the dead fly that is now lying on the patient's chest, the doctor says "that killed him". Meanwhile the guy's wife and little daughter walk into the room to hear it. It was the funniest. The other commerical that I liked was for Budweiser titled the Streaker. This one had a sheared sheep that broke into the football game between the Budweiser Clydesdales. My third favorite was shown in the third quarter and was for Careerbuilder. The guy is talking to someone on the phone and is explaining that he is having problems because he works with a bunch of monkeys (as monkeys cavot all around him). On the other end of the phone is a girl who says she understands because she works with a bunch of jackasses (as donkeys go walk around her). So those were the three funniest of the few that I saw. Also before I go over the game, let me comment on the musical entertainment. The Motown tribute was interesting with some good musical bits in it. The national anthem was a different story. Aaron Neville, of the big black mole on his forehead, started singing first. All I have to say is that he would have failed an American Idol audition. Aretha Franklin came after him and did a better job. The half time show was the Rolling Stones. They did a very nice job. It was surprising that they are as old as they are. Mick Jagger does not look like a 62 year old man was he swiveled his hips, pranced and sang like someone half his age. There were no garment malfunctions this year. I don't think you would want to see Aretha Franklin's hefty, naked breast. Thursday, February 2, 2006 -- Morning After being dragged from his hutch, Punxsutawney Phil supposedly saw his shadow. That means six more weeks of winter. I think the whole thing is a bunch of bull-donkies. It seems that Phil has been seeing his shadow since 1999. Obviously he would with all those klieg lights around him! Personally, I don't think we will have six more weeks of winter because our winter has been so mild already. It feels as if spring is already here. Of course, I haven't seen a robin yet. So maybe Phil is right. Thursday, January 26, 2006 -- Morning Hamas has won the majority of support in the Palestinian elections that took place yesterday. This has caused some consternation in the international arena because Hamas has publicly called for the annihilation of Israel, and make it part of the party's political platform. I think that part of the picture that people are missing is that there are only two differences between Hamas and the Fatah party. Fatah tends to have a more elderly leadership and Hamas is more open about wanting the annihilation of Israel. Both are groups stained by terrorists, and both are unwilling to accept the continued existence of Israel. Wednesday, January 25, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Some surprising news, Disney purchased Pixar yesterday for $7.4 billion. The deal will also put Steve Jobs on the Board of Directors for Disney. What will happen to Disney feature animation with this move? Some of the rumors are that the division will be swallowed up by Pixar. This news is surprising because earlier Pixar was talking of breaking away from Disney and going out on its own. Monday, January 23, 2006 -- Afternoon It seems that Sirius Radio may be getting someone to act in the role of censor for Howard Stern. I have to admit that this move is beyond my understanding. Everyone knows what you get when you tune into Stern. If you don't want to listen to some talk about or simulate sex acts on the radio, then don't tune into Stern. I heard one news commentator say that if you were in the car with your children, you couldn't listen to the Stern show without filth reaching the ears of the young'uns. Why are you putting the Stern show on if you have children in the car? Tune to Disney radio or some other program. It really irritates me no end that all programs have to be acceptable for children. That's what the knob or scan button is for--switching the channel to something that you like and find acceptable. Hiring Stern to make him act non-Sternish is like marrying Joe Schmoe and expecting him to be Brad Pitt. Saturday, January 22, 2006 -- Evening The whale in the Thames died during a rescue attempt today. They located the whale and managed to get him on a whale mattress and then onto a barge. The goal was to take the whale out to deep water and release him. However, there were concerns that even if they did that, the whale might be disoriented and unable to survive in deep water. If that were the case, the rescue team was considering euthaniasia options. However, while on the transport barge, the whale went into convulsions and died. It's a sad end to a story that caught the attention of so many. The whale rescue was even been shown live on the news stations here in the US. Friday, January 20, 2006 -- Late Evening A northern bottle-nosed whale was sighted swimming in the Thames today. It's not something that one expects to see in a river, especially a whale that is a deep ocean whale. Concerns abound that the whale is going to die in the river and not find his way out to the ocean. Divers are looking for him now to confirm where he is and if he is headed back to the ocean. Friday, January 6, 2006 -- Evening The Mayor of Pittsburgh, Bob O'Connor, has made a bet with the Mayor of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory. Depending on who wins the playoff game this Sunday between the Steelers and the Bengals, the losing city's mayor will go to the winning city for a tour of the city. Ariel Sharon had a turn for the worse today. While getting a catscan this morning, it was found that the bleeding was still happening in his brain. Another operation, this time a five hour operation, was performed on Sharon, and the bleeding was staunched. Sharon is now showing significant improvement in his vital signs. The doctors believe that Sharon has suffered neurological damage. It is just not sure at this point how bad that damage is or if Sharon will even recover. Meanwhile, religious lunatic, Pat Robinson, said that Sharon was struck down by the hand of God. Why? Because God is mad at Sharon for arbitrarily cutting up the Holy Land into pieces and giving away God's land. According to Robinson: "He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the (European Union), the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" Makes me want to ask Mr. Lunatic Robinson if the whole of this planet isn't "God's Land" and we are all in trouble for making arbitrary state/country lines and claiming to own the land. Obviously Robinson loves the old Testament smote 'em down God and not the New Testament benevolent God. Funny, I thought Robinson was a Christian. Perhaps he is, but his viewpoints aren't very Christian in character. Maybe God should smote down Mr. Robinson for misrepresenting him in public. Wednesday, January 4, 2006 -- Evening Lynn Swann, former wide receiver for the Steelers, has formally announced that he will be running for Governor of Pennsylvania. Swann will be campaigning for the Republican nomination in the primary which will be held on May 16. The question is whether people will vote for Swann because he is a former Steeler or for his political viewpoints. So far, I'm not very clear on where Swann stands on the issues. It appears that he has a plan to cut taxes in the state, but it's not clear where he will cut the money in the budget. I want more information before I make a decision, and so far, there isn't much there besides celebrity. Check out Swann's campaign website. Ariel Sharon has suffered a massive stroke today, and the latest news is not looking good. Right now, he is on a respirator, and has needed a lengthy operation to drain blood from his brain. The prognosis is that he will not fully recover, and it is already mentioned that he is paralyzed from the waist down. Ehud Olmert is taking over the duties of Prime Minister. A few weeks ago, Sharon had a minor stroke which did no damage, but doctors determined that he needed a heart operation to prevent further strokes. That operation was not scheduled until tomorrow, and unfortunately, Sharon didn't make it that long. My best wishes are with Sharon and his family. The question now is what will happen with future withdrawals from settlements? Sunday, January 1, 2006 -- Late Morning Happy New Year to everyone! The year has gone by so quickly. Usually around this time, people look back at the high and low points of the past year. At the Daily Bongo, the highlight of the past year has to be the Pittsburgh Penguins getting the number one draft pick and selecting Sidney Crosby. Why is this such a big deal? Because without Crosby, there might not be the intensity of interest in hockey which could mean the difference between keeping the team in the city or losing it. Also, Crosby is going to be one of the legends of hockey, and he is here in Pittsburgh. As for the low point of the year, I would have to say that it is the attention that the media pays to death, destruction and human suffering. For example, during the flooding of New Orleans, you would see film of newscasters showing video of folks who didn't have water, food, or were trapped. Did they help? Of course not, because the story was to play up the bad, not to do something to alleviate the problem. The news has gotten out of hand with non-stop glorification of suffering. Do we really need 24 hours of coverage of Katrina when nothing new was being added to the story? Give me breaking news, give me the story, and then move on if you have nothing new to add. The BBC has a list of 100 things we didn't know a year ago. My favorite is number 8: "Devout Orthodox Jews are three times as likely to jaywalk as other people, according to an Israeli survey reported in the New Scientist. The researchers say it's possibly because religious people have less fear of death." Of the answer could be that religious people have less willingness to follow stupid laws. Monday, December 26, 2005 -- Evening Chinese restaurants are very popular at Christmas time. On Christmas Eve, my boyfriend and I went to a local Thai place, Bangkok Balcony, because the food there is excellent, and as can be expected, it was one of the few places open. It seems that alot of Asians also don't celebrate Christmas, and probably see a good opportunity to take advantage of providing an eating place for folks who want to eat out on a Christian holiday. One of the biggest groups of diners are Jewish. One thing that I hadn't thought about is that Jewish people tend to go to Chinese restaurants because it is always possible to find kosher food by sticking to the vegetarian options. This January 1, a leap second is going to be added to the atomic clock. The reason is that the Earth has been slowing down, and in order for the atomic clocks to be accurate and in accordance with astronomical time, a second has to be added periodically. The atomic clock clicks off a second based on an atom of cesium 133 going through 9,192,631,770 cycles. The thing is that the Earth is slowing down. An astronomical second defined as 1/86,400th of a "mean solar day," the average time between two consecutive noons. This time is getting longer astronomically, so in order to keep the atomic clock in line, leap seconds are periodically added. Sometimes I wonder about what drives as humans to keep track of time so closely. Does it really matter if it is 9:45 or 9:46? When it's daylight, so daylight things. When it is nighttime, turn on the lights. We get so caught up in being exact that we forget how to live and enjoy life. Sunday, December 25, 2005 -- Evening An interesting story from Israel. Subliminal ads have been legalized for use on television shows. Two stations, the Music Channel and Israel Plus (a Russian language channel) are cleared for the usage, and they have to announce both before and after the program that subliminal advertising has been used. So how does the subliminal advertising work? The program just uses the product somehow in the show, and doesn't have to disclose which product was placed for subliminal purposes. It's akin to the jury on American Idol drinking from obvious Coke glasses, or Doug Heffernan eating Cheetos on King of Queens. I think that subliminal advertising is the wave of the future. Since people can now record shows on their DVRs and fast forward past commercials, the way for advertisers to get around it is to place products in the show. Now, I'm not sure how this would work for syndication because the product might not be available years later. Would I eat Cheetos because Doug Heffernan eats them? Not likely, but I did notice that he ate the crunchy Cheetos which are my personal favorite. Yesterday I got the latest Enya CD called Amarantine. This is the first CD that Enya has released in five years. It's a typical Enya CD, and I enjoyed listening to it. There is something soothing about Enya's music, and this CD didn't disappoint. Some of the reviews on Amazon comment that this CD isn't very different from her other CDs, but that misses the point. Usually when a person likes an artist, they want to get more of the same. When you hear Enya's name, you know what to expect, and I don't see the problem with that. If you don't like the music then don't listen to it. Wednesday, December 21, 2005 -- Morning The Pennsylvanian courts ruled yesterday that intelligent design will not be taught in the biology classes. The federal judge ruled in favor of the parents who brought the suit and who wanted Darwanian evolution taught in biology. Of course, this ruling probably won't stop the ID folks who want the credit for human life to go to a God. Personally I have a problem with the ID folks. So they don't think that human life can evolve from microbial beginnings, BUT they believe in the existence of this being that can create human life from nothing. When you ask them who was the creator then of this being who creates life, well, then you just have to have faith. Pshaw! Let's just leave out a step and put our faith in the fact that life can arise from just the right conditions and chemicals and eventually evolve into intelligent life. Let's put creation myths where they belong, in a classroom that teaches the myths and legends of all religions and peoples, past and present, on the planet. Saturday, December 17, 2005 -- Morning There are a group of Jews for Christmas who are trying to call attention to the fact that preventing the majority of people from acknowledging their religion isn't right. Lately, it has become unacceptable for people to wish each other Merry Christmas, and this has been disturbing alot of people. Being an atheist with a Jewish boyfriend, I don't celebrate Christmas, but I don't understand why some people are supposedly offended by the singing of Christmas carols and people wishing each other Merry Christmas. I can understand that the country should not force religion on others, but it should also not force people to not deny their religion. By saying you can't wish others Merry Christmas, have a Christmas party, or sing Christmas carols, you are saying that the 85% of this country's population has to deny or hide their religious beliefs. The first amendment of the US Constitution states; "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Note that there shall be no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Sing the Christmas carols, wish a Merry Christmas. After all, that does fall under your rights to free exercise of your religion and freedom of speech. Don't let the few who fear religion staunch the rights of those who wish to celebrate and embrace their religion. As Jackie Mason said at the Jews for Christmas rally in New York, it's okay to say Happy Hannuka, but obscene to say Merry Christmas. He wants all religions to be able to express their religion, and encourages us all to say Merry Christmas to others. I know that I am planning to do so. Tuesday, December 13, 2005 -- Afternoon One of my favorite eating places for as long as I can remember has been McDonald's. Their fries are the best, and I love the Big Mac and even the regular hamburger with the single pickle strategically placed in the corner of the patty. Nowadays, my favorite lunch plan is to go to Mickey D's, and get a burger, small fries, yogurt parfait and apple dippers. I have deluded myself into thinking that this constitutes a healthy lunch. I may have even more reason to frequent McDonald's even more. It seems that McDonald's is thinking of replacing the toys in the Happy Meal with a portable media player that will have Disney movies, songs and other media type stuff. The idea is that you get your portable device and then when you go to McDonald's and make a purchase, you can download a clip. It might take five trips to McDonald's to get a complete movie. The downloads can be done via wireless which McDonald's has been putting in its restaurants since 2003. Wednesday, December 7, 2005 -- Evening University of Pittsburgh trustees gave Chancellor Nordenberg a 3 percent raise. So how much does the Chancellor actually make? Well, there are the perks such as free housing, car, travel, and other things, but his base salary is now $427,500. Supposedly there has been unprecedented campus growth, but I really haven't noticed anything personally in my ten years in the Oakland area. Maybe they mean that the Chancellor has brought in alot of money by fundraising and selling alumni information to credit card companies. Yeah, that has to be it. Tuesday, December 6, 2005 -- Morning The girls who were leading the girlcott against Abercrombie & Fitch have met with executives of the store about offensive sayings on the company's t-shirts. Company representatives told the girls that they use focus groups to evaluate the clothing before it is made available to the public, and the girls who looked at the "offensive" shirts found them to be humorous. After all, what isn't humorous about someone with a larger chest wearing slogans like "Who Needs Brains When You Have These?" The girls made other remarks to the company representatives about a lack of diversity in the company because I suppose no black representatives were there from the company. The company directed them to their web site's diversity link. Wednesday, November 23, 2005 -- Afternoon The Israeli election has been set for March 28. The biggest news has been that someone from the Labor party Haim Ramon has joined the new party that Ariel Sharon formed called "National Responsibility". The election for the head of Likud will happen on Dec. 19. Binyamin Netanyahu will be competing for the lead of Likud. Monday, November 21, 2005 -- Evening Ariel Sharon has resigned from the Likud party, and has asked the Israeli president to call an early election. This is quite a shock for the Israeli government and press. Sharon is going to form his own party, and it is rumored that Shimon Peres might join the party that Sharon forms. People are also thinking that Binyamin Netanyahu will lead Likud and go against Sharon in the election for prime minister. Monday, November 14, 2005 -- Afternoon It's amazing how much the Chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh makes in a year. Nation wide, yes you hear me right, Mark Nordenberg ranks 11th in compensation. For 2003-2004, his compensation totalled $571,305. This did not include the car that he was given by the University or the housing, because he is provided with a residence. I am also assuming that the extras that go with both items such as insurance, food and supplies is also not covered, or the cost of the salary of the chauffeur who drives the Chancellor around town. This is absolutely ridiculous for a public school of Pitt's calaber. No wonder tuitition rates are so high. If you have to pay out this much money, you have to bring it in somehow. Wednesday, November 9, 2005 -- Early Afternoon In local news, Bob O'Connor won the Pittsburgh Mayoral race. It's not like this was a surprise because the city is predominately filled with Democrats, and the Republician entry, Joe Weinroth, was campaigning by stealth and was doing everything to stay below the radar. I have to admit that O'Connor is a personable chap, and comes from the Squirrel Hill area of town (and just lives a few blocks from me). I'm hoping that he will help the city instead of hurting it. An archaeologist from Pittsburgh discovered a complete alphabet on a tablet that dates to the 10th century B.C. in Israel this past summer. This is evident that the culture at that time might have been more sophisticated and that there were attempts to teach the language in a written form to others. The rationale is that the tablet has the alphabet on it, and could be used in a teaching situation. Some scholars disagree that the tablet is in Hebrew and claim that it is Phoenician or a mix of Phoenician and Hebrew. Saturday, November 5, 2005 -- Late afternoon The group responsible for the "girlcott" of Abercrombie & Fitch were some local teenage girls with the group Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers. It seems that a group of 20 were responsible for getting Abercrombie & Fitch to remove shirts with slogans such as "Who Needs Brains When You Have These" from the store's catalog. Now the group will be meeting with reprensentatives of the store to come up with slogans for shirts that will be empowering for girls. I guess that I must be the only person who has issues with this boycott. I'm sorry, but if a saying on a shirt disenfranchizes a person, that person has a problem. If someone thinks that things will change for women, or that girls will somehow have better images of themselves if they wear shirts that say something like "Girls are Smart", that person or group doesn't really have a grip of reality or where the real problem lies. Where is the problem? The problem lies in the fact that women (and girls) are more willing to protest over silly issues such as humorous slogans on shirts, but not willing to protest over sexual discrimination in the workplace. An example is the University of Pittsburgh's communication and rhetoric program. In April of 2004, there were reports of a hostile workplace environment in the department because of male professors having sex with female students and preferential treatment given to male members of the department. Of course, the University denies that there is a problem, but recently the last two women faculty members of the department resigned. Yes, you did hear me right. The last two women left because of problems of discrimination in the department. Of course, it is still denied that there is discrimination in the department. I'm sure that if women and girls wear shirts with empowering statements on them, everything will just be fine in the world. Let's address issues like that instead of real problems such as sexual discrimination in the workplace and penalizing of women who report the issue. Perhaps the Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers should look at some of the harder issues that really do affect the female population as opposed to shirt slogans. After all, girl power shirts have been available for awhile now, and that obviously is not helping out women where it really matters. Friday, November 4, 2005 -- Evening Abercrombie & Fitch gave into pressure to drop shirts with sayings that got under the skin of some women's groups. The store understands that some women are offended by the shirts, so they are pulling them from the stores and won't be selling them. I think that it is sad that the company gave into pressure from women's groups that had no sense of humor. I would have thought that the story about the "girlcott" would have caused more women who have brains and humor to actually purchase the shirts. Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have joined together to come up with a plan to develop and distribute voice, data, video and wireless services across America. One of the things that the group is talking about is to enable you to program your DVR from your cell phone. So if you are stuck in traffic and know that you will be missing a show that you really want to see and forget to record, you can just dial in and do it. Also, you might be able to watch video from your cell phone. I can understand the interest in doing these sorts of things, and know that there have been times when I might really want to do something like this. AT the same time, you have to wonder if we are becoming too connected. When do we get away, and just take a walk in the park and enjoy the scenery? Tuesday, November 1, 2005 -- Morning Prince Charles and Camilla are coming to the United States for a week long visit. The visit will start in New York City and include a trip to Ground Zero today. Tomorrow they will head to Washington, then New Orleans, then Marin County, and end in San Francisco. Each day will be a new city. One group that will be following Charles and Camilla around is PETA. They have issues with the Royal Guard wearing bearskin hats, and think that fake fur should be used instead. Personally, I think that PETA should spend it's time on more important things, but it is their time and money to waste. Saturday, October 29, 2005 -- Morning Of course, everyone who follows news knows that Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped from the map. He made the comment a few days ago, and is still standing by the comment and has support by his government. The comments were made a conference titled "The World without Zionism". What I think is ironic about this is that Ahmadinejad is just verbalizing what is a common theme in the Arab nations. Some people are disillusioned enough to think that the Arabian nations will accept the existence of Israel as long as Israel makes enough concessions to placate the Palestinians. I don't think so, and I think that Ahmadinejad's comments show that. Some local women's groups here in Pittsburgh want to boycott--excuse me "girlcott"--Abercrombie & Fitch. Why? Because they believe that some of the t-shirts being sold at the store are offensive and demeaning to women. I think that these women need to get an injection of humor and get over themselves. After all, who does see the humor in a shirt worn by a buxom blonde saying "Who needs brains when you have these?" The protest is supposed to be tomorrow (Sunday) at 4 pm. I think that the women picked a stupid time for their protest. Hmm...Sunday afternoon...no people in the downtown area (where the store is located). It makes alot of sense to have your protest when no one will see you. So, not only are these women humorless, they also aren't too bright. Personally, I wish that I had the boobage to wear the shirt in question. Maybe I should start a competing protest at the same time. I'll wear the shirt and protest the stupidity of changing words like boycott because you are trying to expose sexism. Friday, October 28, 2005 -- Evening Speaking of the Pens, Tom Murphy, the Mayor of Pittsburgh, is claiming that a fix is in the works for the allocation of the slots license here in Pittsburgh. It seems that the awarding of slots in the city might be a purely political thing and might depend heavily on who can grease the pockets of the folks in the Gaming Control Board. Murphy isn't willing to name names, and he has chastized the local media for not doing any hard core investigative work on the issue. Supposedly the company that is favored in this business is the owner of Station Square, Forest City Enterprises. We'll have to see if anything else comes from this. Monday, October 24, 2005 -- Afternoon I am always surprised by opinon polls. For example, CBS did a survey in which they asked people their views on evolution. 51% did not think that evolution was the answer. They believed that God created man in his present form. An additional 30% thought that humans evolved under the guiding hand of God. Only 15% believed in evolution without any supernatural support. I am not a supporter or believer in Intelligent Design. However, you have to wonder why there is so much opposition to Intelligent Design if 81% of those surveyed believe in the concept to some degree. Another question is whether those surveyed are an accurate representation of the views that are held by the majority of Americans. The survey was done with 808 random people, but I wonder how random. It seems that liberals were more likely to believe in evolution (36%) with non-church goers (25%) and those with a college degree (24%). Personally I believe in evolution because I see the scientific proof for it. For example, all of the different breeds came about because of selective breeding and evolution. Some might say that using this example gives credance to the notion of an intelligent designer with man taking that role with dogs. However, I would say that man's involvement just made the process happen more quickly and gave it a particular outcome by preferring some results over others. Friday, October 21, 2005 -- Morning Prince William is going to join Prince Harry at Sandhurst. William passed the exams for officer training and will start attending Sandhurst in June. Every male in the royal family goes into the military for abit because it's the thing that they do. It's not like there are other options open to them (such as business), and this also gives them the opportunity to say that they served their country. Tuesday, October 18, 2005 -- Morning What I don't understand is how can someone claim that Intelligent Design has nothing to do with religion? Michael Behe, who is a biochemist, says that "Creationism is a religious idea; intelligent design is not. "It is a science." So what is the scientific method that is used to prove it. How can we show that evolution isn't possible, but this supreme being is? And who is the intelligence in the design? It's obviously some God who has control over the entire planet. Of course, it has nothing to do with religion. I think that the Intelligent Design people say it often enough, they think that people will believe them. Behe claims that just because something is designed there isn't any additional knowledge about the designer. I would disagree with that, and say that there is the additional knowledge of the existance of some sort of supernatural being that is capable of creating life from nothing. I have an easier time accepting evolution and that life will arise from certain matter and favorable conditions than in accepting a supernatural being. Wednesday, October 12, 2005 -- Afternoon Something of interest to Pittsburgh Panthers fans is that Rod Rutherford, who played for Pitt a couple of seasons ago, signed as up for the Steelers practice squad. Rutherford really hasn't made it in the NFL. A new study out says that it's not how hard you exercise, but how much you exercise. It seems that benefits are found if you walk a brisk 12 miles every week, and the more you do the better the results. People think that you have to really be gunho to get any benefits from exercise and the actuality of it is that all you need is a regular regime that you stick to. Walking two miles a day every day will take around a half an hour and will give you fourteen miles in a week. The other thing that I thought was interesting in the article was the claim that people gain three to four pounds every year so being active is a good way to maintain healthy body weight. I know that I put on a few pounds since I had my foot surgery, and I am hoping that as soon as I can start walking as much as I used to that I will get rid of those pounds. We shall see. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. This is the day that Jews are supposed to ask for forgiveness for all of their sins to God. The day before Yom Kippur, meaning today, Jews are supposed to ask for forgiveness for broken promises that were made to others because those aren't things that God can forgive. Tomorrow those of the Jewish faith are not supposed to do anything, no eating, drinking, working, washing, or wearing leather shoes. Monday, October 10, 2005 -- Afternoon An Israeli-American, Robert J. Aumann, and American, Thomas Schelling are going to share the Nobel Prize in Economics based on their work with game theory. When I first heard about game theory a few years ago, I used to think that it was just a theory on how games were played. But a very nice man and friend, Hector Correa, explained to me that game theory was basically a way of decerning the odds that would lead two combating forces to a particular outcome. Now the combating forces don't have to be in physical combat. They just have to be people, groups or situations that are conflicting in some way. It is a very interesting aspect of economics and political science. God is out to wreck divine retribution on Madonna according to some rabbis. Is it because of her book about sex from a few years back? Nope. It's because she has a song on her new album that is supposed to be about Issac Ben Solomon Luria. The song is called Isaac, and the reason God is going to be pissed with Madonna is because she is trying to cash in on Luria's name and reputation. I think that there are other things that Madonna has done that will be more offensive to God, but you believe what you want to believe. Saturday, October 8, 2005 -- Late evening This bit of news from earlier in the week, Sun and Google have joined forces to combat Microsoft. Google's plan is to allow folks to access office productivity tools like a word processing and spreadsheet software from the Google Toolbar. The product that will be used is Sun's OpenOffice which has been a freeware package available for some time. This is an open declaration of war against Microsoft, and we should all benefit if the end product becomes better. Friday, October 7, 2005 -- Early Morning Are stereotypes valid? Scientists are known to research everything, and this was a topic that they took on as it pertains to race stereotypes. The findings are that the stereotypes aren't true, and may be due more to national values that may find some basis in the historical past for the country. In the intelligent design trial in Dover, a witness testified that a textbook for students originally had the word creationism in it, and the word was later changed to intelligent design. What really gets to me about this piece of testimony, and the fact that everyone is making a big deal about it is that it is obvious that creationism is intelligent design. Both basically follow the premise that a God is responsible for the existence of life on this planet. come on. This shouldn't even be a matter of debate. After all, what is the intelligence in the design? Tuesday, October 4, 2005 -- Mid Afternoon Would you like to be happy in life, but feel that you just aren't? Well, it may be a genetic thing. It seems that some people are just happy, and whatever happens to them in their life, they return to the same level of happiness as they had before the event. So a person who is paralyzed in an accident will return to the almost the same level of happiness that he/she had before the accident. The same thing happens with a lottery winner. That person may have a high for a year, but after that he/she will return to the earlier level of happiness. So how would you describe yourself? Are you a happy person? I think that I am. I usually find happiness in alot of the daily things that I do, and I try to make certain to do those things that I enjoy. After all, life is far to short to just put up and shut up. Personally, I believe that one of the components that leads to my happiness is that I love myself. I would rather be me than anyone else in the world. So what is happiness? Psychologists believe that it is more than just an emotional response. It is also the level of satisfaction that a person feels with his life. Right now, I am not happy with my job, but I realize that it is only a small portion of life, and that it is something that it not permanent. I make the best of it and plot and scheme to get something that I really enjoy. I am looking for that dream job, and I know that eventually I will find it. Monday, October 3, 2005 -- Late afternoon Ai Ai, the chimp from China, is trying to kick her smoking habit. It seems that the chimp started smoking after she got stressed out from her first mate's death in 1989, followed by a second mate's death in 1997 and her daughter being sent to another zoo in the same year. So Ai Ai has been smoking for 16 years, and the zoo thought it was time to stop when her health began to deteoriate. So now they are playing peppy music for her, and giving her sweet treats and fried food on top of her usual diet. Ai Ai seems to be content for now although she did cry for cigarettes at the beginning. Now the question on everyone's mind is how does a chimp in a zoo get a smoking habit? Someone would have had to given her the cigarettes because she obviously wasn't going to the Chinese version of 7-11 to get them. Microsoft is finally doing what Word Perfect did years ago. You will be able to save to pdf in the next version of Office which is known as Office 12. This will be great news for folks who know Word and Powerpoint and want to create PDF documents. It might not be great news for Adobe which might see a decline in sales for Adobe Acrobat. The only reason I used it was to get the pdf printer for Word. This evening is Erev Rosh Hashanah which is the evening of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the first month, Tishrei, of the Jewish year. In the Jewish faith, it is believed to mark the day that God created Man. The holiday is celebrated with the blowing of the Shofar and by eating specific foods. One of the main things to eat is apple dipped in honey or honey cake. In countries other than Israel, the holiday is celebrated over two days to make sure that you are celebrating on the right day. So we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah tomorrow and Wednesday this year. Monday, October 3, 2005 -- Afternoon Yahoo! is going into competition with Google over digitizing library material. Yahoo!'s plan is to allow those who own the copyright to materials that will be scanned, the option to opt-in if they want. Google was just scanning the materials and letting copyrights be damned. Yahoo! is working in cooperation with the Open Content Alliance and plans to digitize 18,000 books of American literature and various other items from national and European archives. The materials will be available on the Open Content Alliance web site. Wednesday, September 28, 2005 -- Afternoon The Dover trial has started up, and we have gotten testimony from teachers who were told by the school board that someone should stand up for Jesus and have the biology classes teach evolution and Intelligent Design on a 50-50 basis. The teachers said that they were forced to watch videos that said that Darwin's theory was full of holes. It seems that the prosecutor is trying to show that the school board has a history of talking about God and creationism. Tuesday, September 27, 2005 -- Afternoon Bo Bice and his wife had a baby on Saturday. It is a boy named Aiden. No other details have been released. Congratulations Bo. This week is Banned Book Week. It's one of my favorite weeks because I think that I should be the person who decides what I, or my children if I had them, read. Here's the list of the 100 most frequently challenged books. Some of my favorite books are on the list, like Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, Huck Finn, Of Mice and Men, and A Wrinkle in Time. It's fine and dandy for someone to decide that they don't want to read the books or don't want their children to read them. Let me make up my own mind about what is permissible. Most of the time it is just that some folks are trying to suppress ideas. This is not just a conservative thing. Liberals are just as apt to want to ban a book or a thought that doesn't agree with their agenda. Sunday, September 25, 2005 -- Early afternoon One item which I have not been able to comment on to the length that I would love is the topic of Intelligent Design. According to the propopents of this "theory", it is not creationism. It's claim is that evolution has holes in it. For example, not every link is found in the evolution of animals and humans. Therefore, according to the ID folks, that means that there is a problem with evolution. Their claim is that there is no way that things could have evolved from single cell creatures to the complex human without the hand of an overseeing being. What we are talking about here is God. The ID folks don't want to come right out and say that because they know that there is a problem with preaching religion in public schools. The problem is that they believe that this notion of intelligent design is scientific and that it should be included in classes that teach science. Not only that, they want the children to be taught that the evolution is a theory with holes in it and only intelligent design is complete. I am really offended that someone would want to have a pseudoscience presented in a scientific format. I hope to have some time to comment on this topic more fully, and have been planning a comments page on it. I just haven't had time since I started the writing class and went back to work. However, I am going to make the time because there is a case planned here in Pennsylvania that is going to court in Harrisburg tomorrow. The Dover school district wants to include intelligent design in the science classroom, and of course, folks are fighting that. I know that the question that I have for any person who does not believe that it is possible for an eye to evolve is how does this superpowerful, magically being exist? Did this being just pop up out of nothing or does it have a creator too? I find the evolution of the eye to be alot more believeable than a God that just is. I will have more in the coming days and will keep an eye on this trial. Thursday, September 15, 2005 -- Morning We have been hearing lots of stories about the flooding in New Orleans. Usually the finger of blame is pointed at the federal government as being responsible for all that has happened. According to the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor, it is all Bush's fault for not giving money to the city to shore up the levees. You would think that the city didn't have money. So they shouldn't have had the funds to pay the New Orleans Saints $186.5 million to stay in the city. Hmm. Makes sense to me. Let's pay millions of dollars to keep our football team in the city, but screw the levees. That's the federal government's problem. If they don't give us the money, we just blame them when the levees break. That's what happened. Can you imagine that? $186.5 million to keep a football team in your city. This deal was made in 2001 and the state of Louisiana paid out $12 million in 2002 and $13 million in 2003 and then struggled to make payments in 2004 and 2005. The team is still owed $130 million, but since the city and state are probably not going to be able to pay the team, it will probably be looking elsewhere for a home. I just can't believe that the state decided to sell out its people for a team. Meanwhile the whole NFL gave $1 million to the victims of Katrina. Boy, talk about deep pockets, eh? The team gets over $50 million over the past few years, and the whole of the NFL can only come up with $1 million. If I were the people of New orleans, I would stop blasting Bush, and turn my fury on my state and city representatives who turned their backs on my needs, and didn't care about my safety. The only thing that is nice to finally hear is that the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, is finally taking responsibility for the fiasco. The thing is that the mayor and governor did not have a plan, or at least didn't implement anything if they did. According to Michael Brown, the former FEMA head, Blanco was "incapable of organizing a coherent state effort". The issue of the levees should be addressed before rebuilding begins because it would be stupid to just duplicate the situation again. Unfortunately for Louisiana and New Orleans, its local representatives might be useless in that respect. Tuesday, September 13, 2005 -- Morning It seems that 40 elderly people were found dead in a hospital in New Orleans. The part of the story that disturbs me is that the deaths are being attributed to the Hurricane even though one administrator said that some of the deaths had occured before the Hurricane, and that the bodies were being held until they could be claimed by relatives. Another administrator said that "some" of the deaths may have been due to the Hurricane. Doesn't matter. The whole number is attributed to Katrina. Why? Because it works for the agenda of boosting the death count. It's moves like this that makes me really question the agenda of the media and government officials. I wonder how many people are so gullible to just swallow whole the stories that they are feed by the media. I would imagine that some people want to believe what they are told because it fits in with their preconceived prejudices. The death toll (counting all of this 40) is now at 280 for the state of Louisiana, which is a far mark from the minimum of 10,000 that the state initially claimed. Monday, September 12, 2005 -- Evening In Gaza today, Mahmoud Abbas showed he didn't have alot of control over the Palestinian population when the people flooded into the areas recently vacated by the Israelis. Synogagues were set on fire and the Egyptian/Gaza border was stormed by Palestinians on both sides of the border. Egyptian soldiers had to fire on the crowds to control the masses at one point and one person wound up dead. We will have to see how things progress. Right now, news reporters were talking to Palestinians who said that this was a victory for terrorism. As one person sais, Sharon said that areas of Gaza were as important as Tel Aviv. If the Palestinians now have Gaza, have much longer before they have Tel Aviv? According to the guy interviewed on television, it won't be long as long as the terrorism increases. My boyfriend was saying that Sharon did the right thing because now it will show that Abbas doesn't have control over his people. Personally, I don't think that will happen. I'm not sure why folks are so blatantly against anything that Israel does, especially when Israel is held to a totally different standard than any other country in the world. For example, a Palestinian terrorist blows up a bus of civilians, and we are told that we should understand the feelings of the terrorist and how oppressed he was. Israel targets a terrorist leader and kills him, and evil Israel. We must condemn the nation. Do you see a problem here? I sure do. You really have to wonder if this double standard is the result of a unspoken anti-Semitism. I'm sure that the folks that mouth these views would say they have nothing against Jewish people. All I have to say is actions speak louder than words. Monday, September 12, 2005 -- Late Morning In what I consider a bizarre story, Prince Albert of Monaco is saying that he was tricked into fatherhood. His claim is that the woman, Nicole Coste, set him up. No real details are given on how this happened, but I do have to wonder about it. Is his claim that he was drugged and then wasn't fully aware of his actions when he had sex with her? It's the only thing that I can think of. I would hope that he isn't claiming that she told him she couldn't get pregnant. No man should be that stupid to believe any woman who says that unless he has proof. The thing that I have found hardest to believe in this whole affair is that Albert actually had sex with a woman. There were many rumors that he was gay. After all, not many men make it to 47 without ever having a serious girlfriend. Albert claims that he has had difficulty finding women because the women are scared away at the thought of trying to fill the shoes of Princess Grace (Albert's mother and former film actress Grace Kelly), and Albert has been frightened of the responsibility of finding that perfect someone. Now he says he's just too busy to go bride hunting. I'm sure that Caroline is breathing a sigh of relief because that means that she or her son, Andrea, will then become ruler of Monaco when Albert dies. Sunday, September 11, 2005 -- Early Evening So far, the actual number of deaths in Louisiana is much lower than the original amounts that political flacks and the vulturous media were claiming. Right now the number for the state is 154 dead. That's a good deal off the 10,000 that were originally blared by the media and the mayor of New Orleans. I think that in this situation, there was a rush to judgement and finger pointing that was unparalleled. Some people really hate Bush and are extremely quick to blame him for all the woes that exist on the planet. Cloudy day in your neighborhood? Must be Bush's fault. Yes, things did not go smoothly with the evacuation and the levees were not maintained in such a way to miminize the type of problem that we saw in New Orleans. Is that Bush's fault? No. I would find more fault with the local authorities than with Bush. The most irritating thing is that the media plays up points because it is in the media's best interests to do so. It raises ratings for them to show suffering and it is within their political agenda to quickly place blame without taking a full accounting of the situation and the response. More people could have been evacuated from the city IF looters were running rampant in the first few days of the Hurricane. I call that a people issue because the lootings were of food for starving children, but of clothes, electronics, jewelry and other unedibles by people who are the lowest common denominator--base criminals who prey on others misfortune. Some people find fault with Bush replying "what were the problems?" to Nancy Pelosi when she said there problems with the evacuation. I noticed that her reply was that Bush was oblivious. I noticed that she didn't clearly detail and outline the failings and how they could have been better handled. It's not in Ms. Pelosi's political agenda. I would have no respect for a president who instantly just said things were totally bad when there may have been reasons and conditions outside of the federal government's control. Also, there may have been things that went right. You'll notice that the problem area was mostly New Orleans, and that things went more smoothly in other areas. All I say is that at this time we should first make sure that things are being fixed, then do a careful audit of what did go wrong and why. Let's drop the political agendas and actually care about doing what is right and what will make future situations better. Don't fall into the trap of buying hook, line and sinker political propoganda that is spewed by those who have something to gain from getting the public to buy a certain lie. Personally, I would doubt most of the things that the mayor of New Orleans has to say because he is so quick to foist blame on others without taking a modicum of reponsibility himself. Friday, September 9, 2005 -- Evening Google has hired Vint Cerf who was the founding father of ARPANET which was the precursor of the Internet. Thursday, September 8, 2005 -- Morning There is still a controversy over the cause of death of Yasser Arafat. From the information that has been released, it is still not clear what brought about the stroke that lead to his death. The rumors that the PA has been propogating is that Arafat died from AIDS or poison that was administered by the Israelis. I'm not sure how they surmised that happened, but there you have it. Of course, the agenda of the PA is to foster hatred for the Israelis since the unspoken goal (unspoken to the foreign media, but blatant with local media) is the removal of Israel. There is a call for Arafat's medical records to be released, but it will be used for whatever agenda the PA has. Even if the information is not conclusive, they will say that is conclusive of their suspicions. In the hopes of limiting piracy, Harry Potter books are going to be available as downloads from iTunes. All six books will be available in audio format. JK Rowling made the decision after hearing that books were available in audio format from E-Bay. This will be good news for all of us. The sliding scale of youth has moved to encompass all of us who are under 49 years of age! Basically this means that the amount of time that you are considered middle aged is shrinking because old age still starts at 65. The information was obtained from a survey were people were supposed to say what is considered young and what is old. I think that with the way things have changed with our society, people are more active until later periods in life, and that helps them both look and feel younger than in the past. When you look at pictures of folks in their 30s from the early 19th century you would think they were much older. Before you know it, youth will be extended to 60, and old age won't begin until 75. Friday, September 2, 2005 -- Evening I have another pet peeve from the recent events with the flooding of New Orleans. This one is the use of the word refugee in describing the people who are evacuating New Orleans. In fact, I just saw a caption on a photo on FOXNews that describes a person physically still in New Orleans as a refugee. When I think of refugee, I think of someone who has left their country for political reasons or because they were frightened for their safety. I think of these people as evacuees--like the children in Britain who were evacuated from London for a few years for their own safety. In fact, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agrees with the definition. I think that part of the problem with the situation is the media. They go into these areas to record the event, but do nothing to help the people. They knew folks didn't have supplies, but I didn't see any of them trying to do anything about it. Also, I didn't see the media folks helping anyone out of the water. They would be there waiting to question the person, but I seldom if ever saw a finger lifted to aide anyone. The only person that I saw doing anything was Geraldo Rivera who went up in some helicopters and helped in getting people out. Anyway, getting back to my pet peeve, lets call the people evacuees. I know the goal of the media is to create imagines in people's minds and that refugee is a politically charged word, but it really annoys me because it is not being used appropriately. The other thing that is annoying me is the number of complaints saying that the federal government didn't react quickly enough. I would say that whenever the federal government does anything, it is done at a snail's pace, and obviously it is going to take a few days to coordinate troups and supplies because they just don't casually have such things ready at hand. If anything, I would place more of the blame on the city government for never anticipating a problem when they should have, and the state government for not having some supplies close at hand. The problem here though is that the city was under sea level and was built in such a way to doom it. You can't say, I built my house on the beach on low tide, and when high tide came in, it got flooded. Now we have to get the people out of there, but then we have to decide what was wrong (and there was plenty) and not duplicate it. Maybe they won't build low price housing right beside the levees that will leave the poorest people who will be unable to leave the first victims if something goes wrong. Maybe the city will plan a better way to evacuate when the next hurricane comes. In this case, it wasn't a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN, and the officials in New Orleans were asleep at the wheel, living in a complacent fairy tale thinking it wouldn't happen to them. Friday, September 2, 2005 -- Afternoon An interesting artifact was found at the Temple Mount recently. The artifact is a cross shaped bronze pendant with a hammer, nails, and pincers on one side, and on the other, a sun, an altar, and the Holy Grail on a crown of thorns. Some are saying that the artifact is linked to the Da Vinci Code. The only comment that I have to make about that is that the Da Vinci Code is fiction, regardless of how much folks would like it not to be. Thursday, September 1, 2005 -- Afternoon I have to admit that I have a pet peeve. What is it? It's how the newscasters and others are referring to the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. First we have the mayor of Biloxi referring to the event as "our tsunami. Okay. Both events do have something to do with water flooding an area. The only difference would be that at least with a hurricane, people get enough advance notice so they can evacuate the area, and take fate in their own hands if they choose to stay. Then we have the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, likening the devastation to Hiroshima. "I can only imagine this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," Barbour gibbered. Considering that Hiroshima's devastation was caused by man, and everyone near the area was either killed instantly or wound up suffering severe burns and cancer, I can see where someone might consider the damage done by a hurricane the same as that from dropping a nuke on a city. Others, including the President, compare the hurricane to the attacks on 9/11. Similarity? Buildings destroyed, people dead. Using that analogy the residental apartment fire is "9/11". This is really getting on my nerves. I don't mean to diminish what has happened in New Orleans or Biloxi. The devastation is g