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August 31, 2005
Portfolio Update
Well given the events of the past weekend there are no surprises really in my totals.
This Weeks Actual Percentage: +4.748%
Last Weeks Actual Percentage: +5.292%
Best weekly percentage: +7.437%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity for This Week: 10.8%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity Last Week: 11.4%
Current Asset Allocation:
51.97% Stock
47.81% Bond
00.22% Savings
Posted by ManDrake at 5:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hybrid Highlander!!
Posted by Daffodil at 7:49 AM | Comments (5)
August 30, 2005
Must...Wear...New...Clothes...
Today I picked up a few fall things for Alexis. I got her a fall themed poncho, a pair of pants that have Halloweeny things on them and a Halloweeny shirt. She found them laying in front of the laundry room and insisted on putting them on. I kid you not. 90+ degrees outside and Alexis is wearing long pants and a poncho. I got her a little jean jacket the other day at Target and she insists on wearing it whenever we go out of the house. The kid's got issues! But, I digress. I'll try and get a picture of the jean jacket another day, but today I give you Miss Alexis Grace in all her Fall glory.
Posted by Daffodil at 3:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
It's Here! It's Here! It's Here!!
My hybrid Highlander is here! When Jamison arrived at work this morning there was a message on his voicemail informing him that the Highlander was here. Why they didn't call us here at home I will never know. Jamison was home sick yesterday so we didn't have a clue until this morning. But besides that it's here! We are going this evening as soon as Jamison gets home from work to pick it up. I just got finished cleaning out/up my car and it's ready to go/trade in. Did I mention it's here?!??!? I'm so excited!!!!! :o)
Posted by Daffodil at 1:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Help Out If You Can
Posted by Dianne at 8:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 29, 2005
Speaking of Hurricanes
Dreading a Replay of the 1938 HurricaneTHE national commission that studied the terror attacks of Sept. 11 concluded that the lapses in preventing or responding to the attacks stemmed from a collective failure to imagine that such a catastrophe could happen.
Emergency officials and meteorologists fear a similar failure of imagination on Long Island about major hurricanes.
Conditions are right this year for one or more especially severe storms to lash the Island, they say. But it's been a long time - 67 years - since the last Big One, and officials worry that Long Islanders accustomed to the glancing blows of minor storms have little grasp of just how devastating a major hurricane could be.
"The only people who really have any idea are those who lived through the 1938 storm," said Michael E. Wyllie, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Upton, referring to the unnamed hurricane that laid waste to eastern Long Island that year. "And you are talking about people who are into their 70's to even remember it."
The 1938 hurricane killed more than 50 people on Long Island, even though it struck the sparsely populated East End on Sept. 21, long after the crowds of summer visitors were gone. It killed hundreds more in Rhode Island as it roared northward, flooding that state's cities. Over all, the storm took 600 lives and did about $308 million in damage to insured property, the equivalent of $4.1 billion today, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group.
Scientists and officials using newly refined computer models say that a repeat of that storm today would be many times as destructive, because so much valuable real estate has since been developed on or near the shore, directly in harm's way.
Timely evacuation of threatened areas, impossible in 1938 because there was almost no warning of the storm's approach, could prevent most loss of life in a repeat. But officials cite this danger: many people may think they can ride out a major hurricane as easily as they have the tamer storms the Island has seen lately.
It's been two decades since the last significant hurricane hit Long Island, and that one was Gloria, a Category 1 storm, the lowest rung on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with sustained winds of no more than 95 miles an hour. That fast-moving 1985 storm, remembered mostly for tree damage and lengthy power failures, gave little hint of the worst that can be expected from a Category 3 hurricane like the 1938 storm, Mr. Wyllie said.
If ever there was a year for big hurricanes to strike Long Island, 2005 would seem to be it. High water temperatures in the Atlantic, weak atmospheric wind-shear conditions and the storm-steering influence of the seasonal weather phenomenon known as the Bermuda High all seem to be providing a window for a fearsome storm to charge up the East Coast. The season peaks in September.
If the 1938 hurricane, the strongest to strike Long Island in the last century, were to hit today, emergency officials say that Suffolk County alone would suffer more than $24 billion in losses. Nassau's losses would be smaller because the track of the storm would be well to the east, but it, too, might suffer damage in the hundreds of millions or more. The county has not calculated a dollar estimate.
Officials are more circumspect about projecting human casualties. The toll would depend on whether people heeded evacuation orders, they say. Those who did not would be on their own as winds and waters rose and police and emergency crews hunkered down to ride out the hurricane.
"The cavalry will not be coming over the hill," said Thomas O'Hara, an ambulance services consultant in Suffolk's Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services. "So when we tell you to go, it's time to go."
The most prudent residents, Mr. O'Hara said, will bypass public shelters and clear out of Long Island entirely. "Get in the car and go visit Aunt Tillie in Highland Falls," he said. "The last place you want to end up is isolated and alone, and the second-last place is in a public shelter, because I assure you, you will not get a mint on your pillow."
A few years ago I read an article in a textbook about the dangers of a hurricane blowing into the NYC metro area. As far as these things go, one is well past due. (And they are overdue for an earthquake too, but that's a topic for another time.) Apparently some people out on Long Island are taking this threat seriously.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tropical Depression 13
This little guy will be named Lee. Right now he looks like he's headed toward us, but who knows where it will end up.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Sociology of Ecology
There are few more interesting things for a sociologist to do than to go into an alien social structure and watch the interactions between groups. Saturday was a perfect such occasion for me to do just that. I tend to get an environmentalist world view quite regularly at home so it was exciting for me to hear some of the other ideas running around. It became readily apparent within seconds of getting there that the entire system was filled with conflicts. I'm going to breakdown the interest groups as I saw them.
First there were the environmentalists. Much like Dianne their primary goals are to protect the environment itself. The second major groups were the eco-engineers. They seemed to be more interested in field testing their new technologies, while the environment seemed to be a more unintended result of their cool work. Third there were the Pragmatic environmentalists who will help, but they see it more as a cost benefit analysis formula. The next group appears to be the profiteers. They are the eco-engineers that could care less about the environment except in the ways they can exploit other people's concerns about it to make a buck. They seemed willing to destroy the environment to get paid to restore it. Luckily there was only one of the latter there and everyone seemed to be angry about it, but evidently environmentalism makes strange bedfellows.
One of the most hilarious things said at the event of course was the comment by one of the eco-engineers that this was not a political event. Yeah right!!! Most Republicans and pretty much all Neo-cons hate every aspect of the environment. In fact they work daily to destroy, undermine and damage the environment through action or omission. After the eco-engineer got done with his comedy routine about it not being political, the real work began. I'm always amazed and amused how these things work. There are ultimately three classes of people in every population of people. The over-prepared, the adequately prepared and the clueless and disorganized. I received a list of supplies that we would need to bring with us. So we collected them together the night before. Then I thought through the entire work process that they would be doing and asked other people that had been involved with such events and I created a revised list with additional supplies that I might need depending on the situation we found. I'd rather bring too much and not get to use it all than to bring too little and be useless. The overly prepared are easy to see. They have everything they need at their finger tips. The adequately prepared bring what they were told as they are able. Not everyone has tools for a lot of projects hanging around the house. Dianne does so much gardening so we have just about anything you would need for anything like that, but a lot of people live in apartments don't have need of any of this stuff. As long as they come to work, all this is forgivable. The worst of all and in the real world these people are the vast majority are the clueless and disorganized. I attribute most of this to laziness. These are the kind of people that don't wear the right kind of clothes to work in, they don't bring any tools at all, they don't have much desire to put in much effort. They pretty much take up space and slow projects down.
All in all it was a good and productive day. The work got done within the time required. More people showed up to do their part than I was expecting. As always it could be done better. This sure seems like the perfect kind of project for prison work crews to be doing everyday if they were really super serious about saving the environment. I think I'm going to see if I can convince Dianne that we need to suggest that they fulfill at least part of their man power requirements especially during the week with prison labor. I think it would be a great set of skills for prisoners to develop for the future. They should be training them full time on such technologies and techniques so that they are more educated about the place they live and maybe become more connected to the community and the environment.
Posted by ManDrake at 8:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The President meets with Cindy Sheehan
No not Commander in Chief Crackhead, the better one...President Bartlett. It's sad that our country is in such bad shape that we have to depend on actors to give us the illusion that our government actually has some interest in America. It's only an illusion, because the real President is so out of it he could care less if the entire country was destroyed just as long as he can get the kickbacks to his campaign contributors in to the next budget bill.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Republicans demote honest military procurement officer in reprisal for Halliburton issues.
There is so much other news I'm sure the Republicans are going to be moving the next couple of days to sneak in as many of these reprisals while the nation is focused on our brothers and sisters in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi today. You get so used to this level of corruption and dishonesty that when they are using a natural disaster to cover it up, it just leaves you feeling dirty as an American. Republicans are probably praying for a high body count so they can make more moves against the American people while they are distracted. We've got to get these monsters out of office as soon as physically possible.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in Louisanna
Well it appears that it has made landfall in the Delta. The eye wall should be to New Orleans in about 2 hours. There are wide spread power outages. Hopefully Katrina won't be able to draw more power from the heat of the sun as it rises. I've picked this picture hoping people will be able to comprehend the scope of this storm.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 6:40 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 28, 2005
Mississippi and Lousianna recieved disaster declarations.
Ok, folks. If you've had some sort of brain malfunction and weren't taking this storm seriously, now you should. The Republicans who live their entire lives with their heads in the sand have declared states disaster areas BEFORE this storm has hit. I can not emphasize enough how bad this storm is looking. The damage swath has expanded three times as wide as it was when it went across Florida the first time. This storm is already at the strength of Camille and it's not even close to land yet. Evacuations are now mandatory in New Orleans. They are expecting 20 to 25 feet storm surges there. This storm is going to set new records in the worst ways. The feeder bands are already hitting southern Louisiana. The storm won't get there until tomorrow just give you an idea of the scope of the area that is going to be negatively effected.
Update: The Weather Channel just started reporting that the winds have increased to 184 mph.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Shoreline Workshop and Planting with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Yesterday Jamison and I went to a Shoreline Workshop and Planting Workshop done by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and several other sponsers. I received and email earlier in the week and asked Jamison if he'd go with me. It went like this:
Our annual workshop and planting for landowners and communities to learn Bay-Friendly techniques (such as using native vegetation and bio-engineering) for shoreline protection.Interested volunteers are needed for CBF's annual Living Shoreline Workshop and Planting event on Saturday, August 27, beginning at 9 a.m. We will be installing and planting up biologs with trees, shrubs, grasses and wetland plants. The permit process, design issues and native plant selection will also be covered.
Surprisingly he said yes right off the bat so I talked to Amber and arranged for her to baby-sit so we could go as a friend of mine said and "hang out with the tree huggers". Little did she know how much that used to irritate me, given that I don't think someone who is concerned about our planet should be ridiculed, but then I decided tree hugger was a cool moniker and even though initially people intended it as a slight, it's actually a very cool way of explaining how much you love nature. I'm proud to be a tree hugger, but again that's neither here nor there.
We set off yesterday morning around 8 and headed to the Back Creek Nature Park in Annapolis. We arrived a little before 9 and after we signed in we were immediately immersed in helping getting the plantings going. Our first task was to carry flats of water grass to the edge of the lagoon so that they were where they needed to be to be planted. We each took one flat to the water's edge and then we were assigned the duty of planting trees, shrubs and plants. We started out with a large magnolia tree to plant and let me tell you he was a bugger! But after we got the kinks worked out the next one was a breeze!
The next tree we planted was also a magnolia. It was taller than me! He was easier to plant as I mentioned above because we got the kinks out with the first one, and a landscaper who was also volunteering showed us the trick to get big root bound plants out of their pots. With her trick the rest of the plants were a breeze to remove from their pots!
After we got the second tree planted things went downhill from there for me. I started planting marsh grasses, mallow plants and black eyed Susans, while Jamison tackled some shrubs in the same area. The dirt was compacted by the water and was very claylike. It was a bit difficult to shovel, but not impossible. Even with gloves I managed to get the nastiest, largest blister that ended up being more wound like that I think I've ever had. Seriously folks, it's ugly! I would take a picture and post it, but I don't want the collective internet community to gag so I'll spare you. I got our first aid kit out of Jamison's trunk and cleaned the wound, slathered on some antibiotic cream and covered it with a gauze pad before I put my gloves back on and got back to work.
With the wound there was no way I was going to be shoveling anything anymore so Jamison and I devised a system where he would dig the hole, I would take the plants or shrubs out of the pots and put them in the hole, he'd fill in the hole and I'd take the pots and markers to the recycling area. Yes, yes he had a bit more physical labor, but it was working. We work pretty good together, what can I say, but it became apparent that I was making my hand worse so after we got the plants planted in our area and they had the workshop portion of the day we ended up heading home earlier than we had intended.
This event was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to participate in similar events again! The diversity of people who showed up to help was astounding! (Jamison has a blog post brewing in his head something along the lines of the "Sociology of Ecologists" that should prove to be interesting, but I digress.) Anyway, it was nice to see everyone working together as a team, even though there were a few minor ideal clashes that were relatively quiet, everyone managed to work through any issues and get done what needed to be done. It's amazing the little things that can restore some of your faith in humanity.
I really wish I had batteries for my camera, because it was amazing the transformation that took place around the lagoon while we were there! Hopefully the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will post some pictures on their website. I'll post a link here if they do. Also check out their section on Bay-Friendly Landscaping. It covers a lot of the things we were doing at the lagoon on Saturday and gives an idea of how you can get started on your own property.
Overall the whole day was fascinating! To be able to see some of the Best Managment Practice principles I've read about for the past few years in action was phenomenal and it was also good experience. Jamison was teasing me about finding "my people" and though he was being silly, he was right! I felt very at home amongst the aquatic biologists and the ecologists.
All in all it was a fun day, wounded hand not withstanding. The Back Creek Nature Park is beautiful and the environmental education program they are setting up is a very good program. I can't wait to take Alexis over there to check things out. I told Jamison the minute we got there that Alexis would have loved that place! If you ever get a chance check it out. And if you ever get a chance volunteer for a workshop/planting with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation or something similar in your area. You'll learn a lot and have fun in the process.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Rumble of Harleys in Chattanooga
It was funny to read about the Harley's in Chattanooga. I've been trying to get closer to the folks in the 2006 battleground states. Of course one of those happens to be Tennessee. Given the rampant and blatant corruption that is the hallmark of the Republican party these days, and Tennessee being home to some the most radical of the godless Neo-cons on the planet, I want to do what I can to help them. I've been chatting with the Democrats down in Hamilton County, and I have to say they've restored my faith in at least part of the state. They are smart, well-informed, and dedicated the same goals as me...saving our country from the forces of evil.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Anti-Gay Church Protests at GI Funerals
People ask me all the time why I rage against the right wing religious fanatics all the time. First of all I truly believe that they are false teachers foretold about in the bible. Their continuous message of hate and intolerance under the guise of Christianity pretty much confirms that. Secondly I find most of them to be deplorable human beings. They are so devoid of what makes a person decent that they are the closest thing to unredeemable souls on the planet, right down there with child molesters and serial killers. Of course all of this is regularly reinforced by actions like this about once a week. What kind of person runs a protest at a funeral? Worse than that, why would you do it at a soldier's funeral? It's one thing to protest at Bush's ranch the Circle L, but it's another thing all together to protest at the funeral of one of the brave soldiers that he sent off to die for personal gain. What's even worse is the lame reason these morons of disrespecting the soldiers, because America tolerates homosexuality??? What does that have to do with Iraq exactly?? It's also equally unsurprising for me that this is happening in Tennessee with my experiences and negative opinion of the radicals that live there.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:58 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Hurricane Katrina Upgraded to Category 5
This monster is scary folks. For those of you that live on the Gulf Coast it's time to get serious about your evacuation plans. This is the time when America's lack of mass transit systems really hurts us. They should be running free trains out of New Orleans right now to Texas as quickly as they can. For those of you that live hundreds of miles in-land it's probably best you're not so overly confident ether. They are saying this thing is still going to be at hurricane strength almost 300 or 400 miles in-land. So basically draw a line from the bottom line of Arkansas across Mississippi and Alabama. If you're below that line you need to be seriously concerned about serious wind damage. Everyone in the path needs to be worried about flooding and tornadoes. Hurricanes have so much associated rain with them they can give you a year's worth a rain in a matter of hours and disturb the upper atmosphere so much that they can actually rain down tornadoes under perfect conditions. For those of you that don't know much about your states, Jackson, MS and Tuscaloosa, AL straddle this line. Everything south of them and you need to be aware up to the minute of what's going on with the hurricane. This also might be a good time for everyone to say a prayer for those that live in New Orleans since they are so far below sea level that a direct hit would probably wash away a portion of their city.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
In Home Thermal Systems are the future.
I was catching up on my surfing this morning and over on Treehugger.com they had an interesting new refrigerator. Basically it attempted to solve the problem of waste heat given off by your refrigerator while it's in the process of cooling. For those of you that aren't aware the heat from inside your refrigerator is actually being taken and vented out the back of the refrigerator into your home. In the winter time it sort of helps you, but in the summer time you basically end up cooling the same air twice. Once inside your refrigerator and a second time inside your house. It's a tragic loop, but that's how things tend to be. So a creative soul from Seoul decided to move the heat out of part of the refrigerator to the top of the unit so you could use it as a heating pad. Nice idea. Much better than having someone turn on a toaster oven or worse a real oven to heat something up. For me it's time for us to start working on a home thermal system instead. Of course you'd have a hot and cold system running some sort of efficient temperature carrying fluid through it. Of course these should be wrapped in insulation, actually most of our hot water pipes should probably be wrapped in insulation, but that's an entirely different rant about efficiency. I think Aerogels are going to be the key to making a system like this effective. They are moving along quite nicely right now. Very light and uber effective at containing temperature. You can actually already by them for wrapping pipes. Of course in a perfect world you could use them in your walls and in all your appliances. I mean a refrigerator's size will either decrease or available space inside will increase by a respectable amount since the insulation capacity per inch of Aerogel makes the stuff that they are using now look like a joke. Probably giving you about an inch or so more space everywhere you see a heavily insulated surface in your refrigerator today. We waste a lot of energy in our homes because we end up doing the same work twice. For example when you turn on your oven the oven uses electricity to heat up, which makes your heat pump work harder to keep your house cool, when the reality of the situation should be that the heat pump's excess heat should be going straight into your oven. And when your done with your oven there should be a way to move that heat to something like your dryer or your hot water heater to have it used again without having it dumped into your house for your heat pump to transfer it out again. So I say the future is that you will have a communication network, water network, sewage network, thermal network, heat and cooling network and an electric network in your home of the future.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 6:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2005
Experts Warn Republican Deficit May Threaten Economy
It's so funny how Republicans can't seem to figure that out. They want thousands of separate ideological wars across the world to support their violent right wing worldview, but they think that they shouldn't have to pay for it. Spend more, pay less. I mean how retarded do you have to be to really believe that's going to work!! Mismanagement is the hallmark of a Republican administration and the reason why we shouldn't have them in office.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:58 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Hybrid Batteries That Won't Explode
You read a headline like this and your first instinct is could I be about to explode. Of course this is America so it's never as dramatic as they make it out to be. Basically we have a new American battery manufacturer that is trying to "create" demand for their product by "creating" a problem with "existing" technology. The problem of course that they are solving doesn't exist except in batteries used with personal upgrades to your car. No manufacture is putting Lithium Ion batteries in their cars yet. I know it's a common upgrade in the PHEV upgraded cars. I'm curious to see a standard conversion that only involves stepping up to Lithium Ion instead of the extra batteries that should give you a triple the available charge. I'd like to know what the numbers would show for that upgrade.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 26, 2005
9 out of 10 Back Right to Protest Iraq War
And folks that allows you to separate the Neo-cons from the rest of America. I personally think the notion of pulling out the troops and allowing Iraq to become a fundamentalist breeding ground is unacceptable, but at the same time I would never think to keep people from saying we should do just that. The war has been mismanaged and the future of America has been put in measurable danger by the Republicans. Problem One: Getting rid of the worthless Republicans at every level of the government. Problem Two: Getting out of this quagmire in Iraq in a way that leaves America better off in the long run. Problem Three: Making sure that it never happens again. If the immediate withdrawal people can handle problem one and help us get some people in office to handle problem two, so be it. If the protestors don't keep you up at night and you find yourself with the label of Republican ask yourself why you're allowing your vote to support people that want to take away a fundamental constitutional rights away from Americans.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2005
Well Surprise, Surprise...If it Isn't Fox News
LA HABRA, Calif.A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection.
After the report ran on Fox News on Aug. 7, people have shouted profanities at Randy and Ronnell Vorick and spray-painted "terrorist" (spelling it "terrist") on their property.
"I'm scared to go to work and leave my kids home. I call them every 30 minutes to make sure they're OK," Randy Vorick said.
John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor who appears on the Fox News segment "Inside Scoop with John Loftus," gave out the house address during the broadcast.
He said the home belonged to Iyad Hilal, whose group, Loftus said, has ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London. But Hilal moved out of the house about three years ago.
Police have patrolled their house since the day after the broadcast and now have a squad car across the street. Police Capt. John Rees said the department was "giving special attention to the family to make sure they're safe."
The couple sought a public apology and correction.
"John Loftus has been reprimanded for his careless error, and we sincerely apologize to the family," said Fox spokeswoman Irena Brigante.
I think it's highly amusing (in a sad tragic sort of way) that CBS makes one error about one memo in a group of other memos that were substantiated that said the same thing and everyone gets all up in arms about one little error and Dan Rather ends up being forced out of the network, but Fox News puts out erroneous reports DAILY and no one thinks anything of it. And this story is just typical of their disregard for others. I really feel for these poor people.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 8:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ariz. Prof Spends Year As an Undergrad
PHOENIXAs a professor at Northern Arizona University, Cathy Small was baffled by undergraduates. They seemed less engaged, less likely to do assigned reading and more likely to ask questions like "Do you want it double-spaced?"
So she decided to study them as anthropologists research any foreign culture — she lived among them.
After moving into a dorm, eating cafeteria food and struggling with a five-course schedule, the 50-something Small said she empathized with students who struggle to balance chaotic class and work schedules.
"I'm trying to get really to what student culture is doing and tailor my teaching," said Small, who wrote a book on her research under the pseudonym Rebekah Nathan called "My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student."
Small took a sabbatical and spent the 2002-2003 school year conducting her research. With approval from the university's research board, she used her high school transcript to get admitted and moved into a dorm — though she did forgo the roommate experience by getting a single room.
She told students what she was doing if they asked, but found that most of them didn't, perhaps assuming she was just one of those who return to school at an older age.
Small spent the first semester taking classes outside her field of expertise, trying to immerse herself in student life. She didn't go to her Flagstaff home and didn't contact regular friends, trying to experience the loneliness and other travails of freshman life.
During her second semester, she did more formal interviews and focused on the research, which she published without identifying students or the university, although it eventually was outed by the media.
Small said she found that students downplayed publicly the effort they put into assigned reading or papers, but when interviewed, many said they were interested in their course work.
Her surveys also found that only about a third of what students were talking and thinking about outside of class was based on their course work.
That finding has led Small to change her coursework to better connect to the real world and to skip reading assignments that don't have a direct purpose.
Part of the trick to college life, she learned from good students, was being able to quickly decipher what work needed to be done and what could be skipped. Those management skills helped students balance classes, part-time work and involvement in volunteer or professional groups, Small said.
She found some of the coursework tough and had to seek tutoring for a class far outside her field of study. "It was a hectic life," she said.
Small also said she found current undergraduates faced more pressure to pick a major that readily translated into a job that could pay off student loans.
Travis Shumake, student body president and a senior at NAU's School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, said he sees that all the time — students choosing his program because it provides the "fastest results at the highest income."
Small said her generation wasn't as career-oriented in college.
"It was an era of anti-materialism. It was kind of nerdy then to talk about careers," she said. "Now, different things are nerdy."
Wow! I think this is a brilliant idea! I know in my own experience with some professors is that they have no idea what it is like to actually be a student. They've either forgotten or they simply do not care. Also when you take into consideration what I like to call the "my class is the most important and only thing in your life" syndrome and huge problems can occur. Perhaps something like this should be required of all those who teach every 5-10 years so they don't forget what being a student is like.
Story found via Yahoo! News.
Posted by Daffodil at 11:32 AM | Comments (4)
Paparazzi
This is really getting out of hand! I mean as far as I'm concerned the paparazzi played a key role in the death of Princess Diana, on an episode of "Newlyweds" I watched in horror as they chased Jessica home, they actually hit Lindsey Lohan and now the Scarlett Johansson incident. It's ridiculous! All in the name of photographs for some smut rag (and I include People Magazine and things of that nature in this group along with the tabloids.) If people wouldn't buy this trash and pour over it as if it was the God's honest truth about celebrities then there wouldn't be a market for this type of dangerous behavior by these scavenger photographers. I've said it before and I'll say it again...celebrities are just people. Stop putting them up on a pedestal already! It's one thing to enjoy someone's work, it's another thing all together to buy into this tripe making this type of behavior a profitable endeavor.
Read more about Scarlett Johansson's misfortunes here.
Posted by Daffodil at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Slide!
Posted by Daffodil at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Banana Pepper
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Swing!
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Morning Sun
Posted by Daffodil at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
Buckingham Palace goes geo-thermal
Now this is an advertisement for geo-thermal systems!! Pretty cool that the Queen of England knows more about green heating and cooling technology than most people in our country. Evidently she did a test run with the system in a new art gallery in the Palace and decided to expand the system. The article isn't clear if it's going to be the sole system for the Palace, but that's not really that important. The system will end up paying for itself in the standard 3 to 7 year range. Hopefully when I build Dianne a house I can put one of these systems in for the heating and cooling, they are just so cool!
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 6:49 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Republican dismantle CAFE standards
I read this yesterday and I got so mad I couldn't blog about it. I was reminded about it earlier today and I decided to force myself to write something about it. Basically here's what happened...the CAFE standards involved a slow and steady progression of gas mileage increases over the next 5 years. So what Bush and his evil cronies have done is require no further improvement in those mileage requirements until 2010. Well that's if the auto companies want to "participate". On top of that the old system required the average fuel economy from a company to reach the minimum CAFE standard, so that auto makers would have to produce fuel economic models to offset their poor performing gas guzzlers. But the new rules exempt them from that requirement. So they can make all the gas guzzlers and they are only required to improve that categories fuel performance by .4 miles per gallon over the next 5 years, again if they choose to. Now I'm sure you can find a hundred worthless Republican scumbags to tell you why this is a brilliant idea to effectively eliminate mileage standards, but hey who cares there is an infinite supply of oil controlled by their terrorist buddies in the Middle East.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:13 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
South Florida Under Hurricane Watch
For all you kids in Southern Florida it's time to get your head down. I didn't think Katrina was going to become a Hurricane, but the latest data says it's going to make the Hurricane mark before it hits land on Friday morning. Hopefully it won't build up enough strength in that time, but given the temperatures of the ocean I don't think the NHC is wrong on this one.
Everyone on the Gulf Coast needs to start think about a hit by next Tuesday, and it will be a Hurricane again.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Big Brother is Watching Your Emissions!
I was reading this article over on treehugger.com and I love the idea. I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated by seeing some older model car leaving a trail of pollution as they travel down the road. For those of us that do our part and pay extra trying to make up the differences for our less willing or able citizens it's a double smack in the face. Now if this system ends up being as effective as they claim it will be, it will definitely redefine state programs everywhere. I can only hope that we could get something like this in Maryland sometime soon. Our air quality is dropping faster and faster every year. It's time for a serious solution to the problem. We need to find the guilty parties and get them compliant.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 23, 2005
Watching Elmo Upside Down
Apparently the only way to watch Elmo is upside down. Who would've thought. And I'm not quite sure why I even try to have a sofa cover with a toddler. Alexis insists on taking it off EVERY DAY!! Oh well.
Posted by Daffodil at 8:35 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Apartment Furnished With FedEx Boxes
TEMPE, Ariz.An Arizona man is proving that FedEx makes some pretty strong boxes -- he's sleeping on them, sitting on them and eating on them.
Jose Avila decided to get creative one day and started making furniture out of FedEx boxes.
He now has an entire apartment full of the furniture: a bed, a couch with hidden storage, a kitchen table and a computer desk.
However, when he put his idea on the Internet, FedEx claimed trademark infringement.
"I'm not selling furniture or trying to make a profit," Avila said. He said he's just trying to show people that it's OK to be creative when they're in a bind.
Avila said he will fight the shipping giant, if he has to, for the right to have his furniture.
For the time being, FedEx is refusing to deliver any more packages to Avila's apartment.
Avila said he's checking out UPS now, to see what "Brown" can do for him.
FedEx needs to get a grip! I hope UPS adopts this kid and his ideas and he converts to their boxes. Free advertising my friend. FedEx getting all up in arms about this kid, who is not trying to sell anything or make any money off his ideas, is completely ridiculous! Corporate America is just stupid. I bet if he was white and his hair wasn't pink it would be a whole different story.
Read more and see the pictures here.
Posted by Daffodil at 4:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More Starbucks
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Starbucks Strawberry Cream
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Morning Cutie
Posted by Daffodil at 3:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
On Raspberries and Cilantro
So I'm looking for a new recipe to try tonight for dinner and I'm surfing through Cooking Light's site to see if I can find some yummy eats and let me tell you they have WAY too many recipes that have either raspberries or cilantro in them. Mark my words raspberries and cilantro are the sun dried tomatoes of the 2000's. Remember back in the late 1990's when sun dried tomatoes were in EVERYTHING! They were the chic thing in cooking and it got old fast! Don't get me wrong, I actually like sun dried tomatoes and I actually detest raspberries and cilantro, but even a good thing can get old. So remember you heard it here first. The overkill of these two ingredients will come back to bite the cooking world squarely in the...well you get the picture! Next!
Posted by Daffodil at 2:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Academic libraries empty stacks for online centers
I'm so excited about the changes that are happening to the way information is shared in the modern age. I know some people will miss the good old days, but the notion of being able to access a library book from your dorm room and never having to worry about a book being checked out is absolutely thrilling to me. To be able to search hundreds of books automatically for key phrases would have saved me days of skimming them manually to do the same thing. Now when they start giving you e-textbooks in the form of a podcast I will be set!! Nothing I hated more than reading a textbook. I would have much rather just have it playing in the background. I think that this will lead to a better education for people who have different learning styles. Knowledge is power folks. We need to get more of it to more people. Hell I'm impatiently waiting on getting movies of my classes and taking my tests online from where ever I am. It's time for us to move forward into the future. Decrease costs and increase the productivity of the college experience. If people want to spend 12 hours a day watching their classes and taking classes then let them finish in a year and half. If new information comes out why not update the books, tests and classes on the fly. If we know something new then inform the students immediately! Even former students, give them a update of information notion. Classes shouldn't be taken and forgotten about. A reminder from time to time to keep people thinking about what they've learned is critical.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 11:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The Princeton Review's top party schools
1. University of Wisconsin-Madison
2. Ohio University-Athens
3. Lehigh University
4. University of California-Santa Barbara
5. State University of New York at Albany
6. Indiana University-Bloomington
7. University of Mississippi
8. University of Iowa
9. University of Massachusetts-Amherst
10. Loyola University New Orleans
11. Tulane University
12. University of Georgia
13. Penn State University
14. West Virginia University
15. The University of Texas-Austin
16. University of Tennessee-Knoxville
17. University of New Hampshire
18. University of Florida
19. Louisiana State University
20. University of Maryland-College Park
I see the SEC is well represented again! ;o)
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 10:36 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Godless Neo-Christians order assassination of Chavez
This is where I have trouble. In my bible it's pretty clear that you don't order hits on people. And preachers sure as hell don't order hits on people. I've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again...These people are pure evil!!! But as I've also said before, this is how Republican policy is made. It's on the religious programs. Then it migrates to Ring Wing Media outlets. Then low level Bush Administration people talk about it. Then Cheney starts complaining about it and finally you've got Commander in Chief Crackhead up there making outlandish claims about WMD's and ordering in the troops. This is how the Republicans run things. This is the kind of world they live in. It's God's will to kill everyone that annoys them. These are the same kinds of people that order cross burnings and killing of minorities in the name of God. This is the embodiment of the Republican party's ideology folks. They've become so brazen now they don't care if they order someone's death on national television. The notion of morality is so alien to a Republican they lack the ability to process it.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 10:08 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
Chicago Tour Showcases Garbage
CHICAGOSmelly sludge sewage fields and landfills aren't the usual stuff of tours in a city that likes to show off its architecture and lakefront parks.
But people are paying $7 to see some of Chicago's less desirable spots on a "Down in the Dumps" tour of more than a dozen garbage sites including a waste water treatment plant, recycling center and landfills.
The nearly three-hour bus tour of the far South Side — where landfills rise up like rolling hills — is a chance for residents, environmentalists and visitors to learn more about what happens to garbage once it leaves their trash cans.
"We see it, we smell and we wanted to know what all this is," said Bill Serckie, who took the tour on a recent weekend with his wife, Patty.
The couple has lived for 18 years near the garbage-filled landfills that dot the area along Interstate 94 near the Illinois-Indiana border, but like many of the 30 other tour-goers had never driven down the potholed back roads to see them up close.
"The tour makes you want to be more involved in the community and know what's going on," Serckie said.
You'd be amazed how many people don't know or care where the trash goes once it leaves their house. It's really selfish if you think about it, but then again that pretty much sums up our culture. This is an interesting project and it would be a very valuable learning tools for children to understand how their actions affect the overall environment and the world around them.
Read more here.
Posted by Daffodil at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Still Not Taking a Nap
Posted by Daffodil at 8:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
New Play Camera
As I mentioned a few weeks ago I've been wanting a new camera. While I am still figuring out exactly what I want and saving for the bigger purchase I needed a smaller camera that I could tote around with me, a play camera if you will. This necessity became even more needed when I realized that Joesf and Hana would be accompanying my parents up for my graduation party. We plan on going into DC a couple of days while they are here and when I go into DC I don't like to carry a purse or a bag or anything I have to lug around and keep up with. I just stick some cash in my pocket, along with my keys, credit card and drivers license and I'm set to go. The Sony Mavica is much too large to toss into your pocket and go so I knew I needed a smaller one for our adventures. So for my fun camera I still wanted at least 5 megapixels, with a compact body that I could slip in my pocket. I finally decided on the Kodak EasyShare CX7530 and it arrived today and I have to say I really like it so far. I also got a gig memory card to go in the camera too. The shutter speed is MUCH faster than the Mavica. I can catch Alexis' expression before it disappears. I think this will work quite well until I decide what kind of SLR I want.
Posted by Daffodil at 7:09 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Bush approval rating slumps to 36%
What I find amazing about this is that nothing has changed since Bush was re-elected, but suddenly the brain-dead supportors in the Republicans party have suddenly clued into the fact that the Neo-cons are worthless animals. Hello!!! We've been saying that for years. We weren't being unpatriotic or overly political, we were just pointing out the facts. Not subjective generated "facts" that are used by the Neo-cons, but easily confirmable things that you could have seen if you'd bothered to look. Now the economy is pretty much been crushed by Bush's mismanagement on a global scale. Gas prices are fine the Republicans told you. We need to give your hard earned tax dollars to the wealthy oil company executives so they will be motivated to lower your prices in the next couple of years and you jumped right on board with that. More corporate welfare you screamed!! The wealthy aren't wealthy enough until they've bled this country dry!! And for years I've been screaming back at you that the only winners will be their campaign contributors and not you fools that voted for them. Now it's pretty clear that's what happening and you fools are acting all surprised! I don't get paid to try and tell the truth. I'm trying to save my kid's future from your ignorance and stupidity. Stop hating America and start helping us save it from the godless Neo-con animals in Washington.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Garofalo to Guest Star on 'The West Wing'
Now this should be interesting. I'm not sure what to do with West Wing lately. Dianne and I both have discussed writing up a blog post about the last three episodes of last season and it's one of those things that you start thinking about and you're left beyond words. For those of you that haven't been following the last season, you have the corrupt Washington Democrats trying to cheat the lone voice of change which is represented by Matt Santos verses the very non-Republican Alan Alda talking about America and values in ways that I've not seen a Republican care about in my lifetime. He's not a violent religious fanatic which is the norm of the Republican party today. He's a fiscal conservative. I mean he's talking wild notions so alien to real Republicans that if you were to suggest a balanced budget they would think it was some sort of Satanic ritual to be legislated against immediately to protect their violent godless Neo-Christian constituents. Anyway the West Wing appears to be trying to rehabilitate the vile Republican image for the American public. Which leaves you with a sickly violated feeling when you watch it. I'm not sure where they are going with all this right wing propaganda, but I'm hoping now that the underdog Democrat has succeeded and received the nomination that the show will start reflecting the reality of the political parties in this country. A decent Republican is rarer than chicken teeth, it's just not realistic!!!
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:35 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Pretending to Nap
Posted by Daffodil at 5:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hug
Posted by Daffodil at 5:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bush approval rating slumps to 36%
What I find amazing about this is that nothing has changed since Bush was re-elected, but suddenly the brain-dead supportors in the Republicans party have suddenly clued into the fact that the Neo-cons are worthless animals. Hello!!! We've been saying that for years. We weren't being unpatriotic or overly political, we were just pointing out the facts. Not subjective generated "facts" that are used by the Neo-cons, but easily confirmable things that you could have seen if you'd bothered to look. Now the economy is pretty much been crushed by Bush's mismanagement on a global scale. Gas prices are fine the Republicans told you. We need to give your hard earned tax dollars to the wealthy oil company executives so they will be motivated to lower your prices in the next couple of years. And you jumped right on board with that. More corporate welfare you screamed!! The wealthy aren't wealthy enough until they've bled this country dry!! And for years I've been screaming back at you that the only winners will be their campaign contributors and not you fools that voted for them. Now it's pretty clear that's what is happening and you fools are acting all surprised! I don't get paid to try and tell the truth. I'm trying to save my kid's future from your ignorance and stupidity. Stop hating America and start helping us save it from the godless Neo-con animals in Washington.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Who Says the Internet Isn't Good For Anything?
I found the print I was talking about. It's entitled Birds on a Beach, Evening!
Posted by Daffodil at 3:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Forensic astronomers date famous photograph
PARIS (AFP)US astronomers said they had pinpointed the moment and location when one of the most famous landscape pictures in photographic history was taken.
"Autumn Moon, the High Sierra from Glacier Point," taken by Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park, is a thrilling view of the American West, featuring a waxing Moon rising over dark, ice-tinged peaks.
But precisely when Adams took the iconic black-and-white picture has never been clear, and dates for it range from the mid to the late 1940s.
A team led by Donald Olson, a professor of physics and astronomy at Southwest Texas State University, claim that the mystery can be resolved.
Using lunar tables, topographic maps, weather records and astronomical software, backed by a scouting trip to Glacier Point itself, the researchers believe that Adams pressed the shutter on September 15, 1948 at 7:03 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
Their discovery is reported on the website of the US astronomical magazine Sky et Telescope (skyandtelescope.com), which publishes the paper in full in its October issue.
The breakthrough came when Olson stumbled across a colour version of "Autumn Moon" that was published in the July 1954 issue of Fortune magazine but had escaped the attentions of Ansel Adams experts.
By comparing the colour version with the black-and-white one, Olson was able to determine that Adams set up his tripod just off the Yosemite Park trail, below a geology hut. They believe their calculations are accurate to within 10 feet (three metres).
Adams took the colour picture -- part of a batch commissioned by Eastman Kodak to test new colour sheet film -- at 7:01 p.m., according to their calculations.
That gave him about two and a half minutes to change the film holder and adjust the settings on his camera and take the black-and-white photo.
Olson has previously determined when Van Gogh painted "Evening Landscape with Rising Moon" in Provence and "The White House at Night," painted at Auvers-sur-Oise, northwest of Paris.
Those who wish to get a real-life glimpse of "Autumn Moon" are in luck this year. On September 15, the Moon will be in almost exactly the same position as when it was seen by Adams.
I LOVE Ansel Adams' work. There is one of his shots that I saw briefly of a tidal pool that I've been trying to find for years, but that is neither here nor there. This is an interesting supposition about a beautiful picture.
Posted by Daffodil at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My Grandfather
Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen? I just want to squish his cheeks!
Posted by Daffodil at 3:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gas prices bring on new ways to cut corners
It's amazing to me how the Republicans really believed they could raise gas prices indefinitely and that American's wouldn't notice. I know I have a heart attack when I fill up my hybrid and have to pay a whole 25 bucks every couple of weeks. I can't imagine what people who are driving those monster SUV's are doing when they fill up. Well I guess after this article we know. They are not going places anymore. They aren't going on vacation anymore. They aren't doing much of anything but sitting at home and leaving only when they are forced to all while cussing the Republicans for being so stupid for getting us into this mess with their greed. Over at Can't Keep Quiet, she had a great cartoon that sums up the Republican's foreign policy.
Definitely makes you wonder about the kind of worthless people that think it's a good idea to support these animals. (Terrorists and the Republicans, it's hard to tell them apart from where I sit).
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Connecticut Sues 'No Child Behind' Law
It's about freaking time! This is probably one of the poorest and most ineffective education legislation every proposed. Let's be honest folks, the Texas law that it was based on bankrupted the state educatio