- April 1 : International Tatting Day
- " 2 : Children's Book Day
- " 3 : Tweed Day
- " 4 : National Walk to Work Day
- " 5 : Go for Broke Day
- " 6 : Plan Your Epitaph Day
- " 7 : No Housework Day
- " 8 : Draw a Picture of a Bird Day
- " 9 : Winston Churchill Day
- " 10 : Golfer's Day
- " 11 : Barbershop Quartet Day
- " 12 : Big Wind Day
- " 13 : Scrabble Day
- " 14 : Ex Spouse Day
- " 15 : Rubber Eraser Day
- " 16 : National Stress Awareness Day
- " 17 : National Cheeseball Day
- " 18 : International Juggler's Day
- " 19 : National Garlic Day
- " 20 : Look Alike Day
- " 21 : Kindergarten Day
- " 22 : National Jelly Bean Day
- " 23 : Lover's Day
- " 24 : Take Your Daughter to Work
- " 25 : World Penguin Day
- " 26 : National Pretzel Day
- " 27 : National Prime Rib Day
- " 28 : International Astronomy Day
- " 29 : National Shrimp Scampi Day
- " 30 : National Honesty Day
Thursday, March 27, 2014
The Month of April
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (March 21, 2014)
Ice Breakthrough
Greenland's last remaining stable portion of ice sheet has now lost its grip due to climate change and is stable no longer, according to researchers. Once thought to be immune to the effects of global warming, the Zachariae glacier began shrinking rapidly in 2003 and has since lost more than 10 billion tons of ice per year, retreating by more than 12 miles. Three years of exceptionally warm weather just after the turn of the 21st century broke the blockage that had kept the river of ice in place, according to a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Greenland's ice cap has become a yardstick for global ocean rise because if it melted entirely, global sea levels would rise by about 23 feet.
Fearsome Flashes
Ultraviolet (UV) flashes regularly given off by high-voltage transmission lines and their pylons could be scaring wildlife as well as disrupting migrations and other animal activities, researchers warn. It's long been observed that many creatures for some reason steer clear of power lines, even though the cables don't pose serious physical barriers. But by using UV-sensitive cameras aboard a helicopter, researchers from University College London captured seemingly magical balls of light bursting to life briefly along the power lines. While UV light is invisible to humans, dozens of mammals have been found to be able to see it, including cattle, cats, dogs, rats, bats and hedgehogs. The scientists say the flashes, or coronas, would appear far brighter to many animals than they do in UV-sensitive camera images. The flashes are caused by electricity ionizing around the cables and towers. They are a major cause of power loss during transmission over long distances, experts say.
Meteorite Rush
Residents of the South Korean city of Jinju have been scouring the surrounding hills and rice paddies in search of meteorites since a fireball shattered overhead earlier this month. The country's science institute confirmed that two rocks found in the area were "ordinary chondrite" meteorites of high iron composition. That sent off a rush of treasure hunters, looking for stones that can be sold to collectors for tens of thousands of dollars each. The stones are believed to have come from the same chunk of space debris that exploded while entering Earth's atmosphere on March 9. The government says it will designate any meteorites found as cultural assets to stop them from being taken out of the country. The meteorites from Jinju are the first to be discovered on the Korean peninsula since one was found during the Japan occupation 71 years ago.
Dolphin Ice Tragedy
Canadian fisheries officials say about 40 white-beaked dolphins died after becoming trapped in jagged pack ice off the coast of Newfoundland. The marine mammals struggled for days to stay alive in shallow water with no easy way to escape from ice that was hugging the shores of Cape Ray. Footage taken by a resident and posted online shows the water tinted red with blood as the dolphins tried to get free. White-beaked dolphins, which can weigh up to 660 pounds, are typically among the first marine mammals to arrive in the waters around Newfoundland as spring approaches, according to Wayne Ledwell of the region's nonprofit group Whale Release and Strandings. He says his records show more than 400 whales, dolphins and porpoises have been reported trapped in the ice around Newfoundland since the 1970s.
Cyclone Lusi
Drought-weary farmers across northern New Zealand were disappointed by the meager rainfall brought by remnants of Cyclone Lusi.
* Tropical storm-force Cyclone Mike brought gales and locally heavy rain to parts of the Cook Islands.
Earthquakes
A sharp temblor centered beneath northwestern Peru damaged a church and sent residents fleeing their homes.
* Earth movements were also felt in northern Chile, eastern Taiwan, southern Japan's Kyushu Island, south-central Kansas and across the Los Angeles Basin.
Chimp Trust
Despite being hunted by humans for their meat, blasted solo into space and used extensively for medical research, chimpanzees appear to trust people more than they do baboons and members of their own species that they don't know. But researchers from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center say that's only the case if the primate has had positive experiences with humans in the past. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, lead author Matthew Campbell says the animals are not "hardwired" to trust humans in the wild, but learn to do so by studying human gestures as they bond and form empathetic connections with people. Campbell adds that the chimps still think that kind and caring humans are different from them, but "an OK kind of different."
Greenland's last remaining stable portion of ice sheet has now lost its grip due to climate change and is stable no longer, according to researchers. Once thought to be immune to the effects of global warming, the Zachariae glacier began shrinking rapidly in 2003 and has since lost more than 10 billion tons of ice per year, retreating by more than 12 miles. Three years of exceptionally warm weather just after the turn of the 21st century broke the blockage that had kept the river of ice in place, according to a report published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Greenland's ice cap has become a yardstick for global ocean rise because if it melted entirely, global sea levels would rise by about 23 feet.
Fearsome Flashes
Ultraviolet (UV) flashes regularly given off by high-voltage transmission lines and their pylons could be scaring wildlife as well as disrupting migrations and other animal activities, researchers warn. It's long been observed that many creatures for some reason steer clear of power lines, even though the cables don't pose serious physical barriers. But by using UV-sensitive cameras aboard a helicopter, researchers from University College London captured seemingly magical balls of light bursting to life briefly along the power lines. While UV light is invisible to humans, dozens of mammals have been found to be able to see it, including cattle, cats, dogs, rats, bats and hedgehogs. The scientists say the flashes, or coronas, would appear far brighter to many animals than they do in UV-sensitive camera images. The flashes are caused by electricity ionizing around the cables and towers. They are a major cause of power loss during transmission over long distances, experts say.
Meteorite Rush
Residents of the South Korean city of Jinju have been scouring the surrounding hills and rice paddies in search of meteorites since a fireball shattered overhead earlier this month. The country's science institute confirmed that two rocks found in the area were "ordinary chondrite" meteorites of high iron composition. That sent off a rush of treasure hunters, looking for stones that can be sold to collectors for tens of thousands of dollars each. The stones are believed to have come from the same chunk of space debris that exploded while entering Earth's atmosphere on March 9. The government says it will designate any meteorites found as cultural assets to stop them from being taken out of the country. The meteorites from Jinju are the first to be discovered on the Korean peninsula since one was found during the Japan occupation 71 years ago.
Dolphin Ice Tragedy
Canadian fisheries officials say about 40 white-beaked dolphins died after becoming trapped in jagged pack ice off the coast of Newfoundland. The marine mammals struggled for days to stay alive in shallow water with no easy way to escape from ice that was hugging the shores of Cape Ray. Footage taken by a resident and posted online shows the water tinted red with blood as the dolphins tried to get free. White-beaked dolphins, which can weigh up to 660 pounds, are typically among the first marine mammals to arrive in the waters around Newfoundland as spring approaches, according to Wayne Ledwell of the region's nonprofit group Whale Release and Strandings. He says his records show more than 400 whales, dolphins and porpoises have been reported trapped in the ice around Newfoundland since the 1970s.
Cyclone Lusi
Drought-weary farmers across northern New Zealand were disappointed by the meager rainfall brought by remnants of Cyclone Lusi.
* Tropical storm-force Cyclone Mike brought gales and locally heavy rain to parts of the Cook Islands.
Earthquakes
A sharp temblor centered beneath northwestern Peru damaged a church and sent residents fleeing their homes.
* Earth movements were also felt in northern Chile, eastern Taiwan, southern Japan's Kyushu Island, south-central Kansas and across the Los Angeles Basin.
Chimp Trust
Despite being hunted by humans for their meat, blasted solo into space and used extensively for medical research, chimpanzees appear to trust people more than they do baboons and members of their own species that they don't know. But researchers from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center say that's only the case if the primate has had positive experiences with humans in the past. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, lead author Matthew Campbell says the animals are not "hardwired" to trust humans in the wild, but learn to do so by studying human gestures as they bond and form empathetic connections with people. Campbell adds that the chimps still think that kind and caring humans are different from them, but "an OK kind of different."
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Baseball season used to be, well, more grounded
Daylight Saving Time is upon us and spring looms. It's clear that baseball season is right around the corner and, as I have since I was a very little kid, I'm looking forward to it but with modest optimism. I've got to be honest ----- it's just not the same anymore.
Okay, so the pundits are telling us that the Phillies will be, well, awful. In fact, some say they are the worst team in baseball this year (at least the worst one that doesn't play in Houston). I find that hard to believe ----- how they can call a team with more than a few really good players (Cliff Lee, the slowly recovering Cole Hamels Dom Brown, Chase Utley, A J. Burnett, Carlos Ruiz) awful, is beyond me. I guess I'm simply not as smart as the sportswriters. Worse yet, unlike them, I have to pay my way into the park.
This past winter, my wife and I reupped for our Phillies partial game plan. We've done that pretty much since the late '70s. (Yes, I was there for game six of the 1980 World Series when the Phillies, finally, won a world's championship.) We like going to the park, enjoying the night out and, like spring, hope abounds.
As a boy growing up in Glenside, we had two Philadelphia teams to root for. Connie Mack's A's in the American League and Bob Carpenter's Phillies in the National. For a while, in the late '40s, the A's actually seemed to be poised to make one more run at the flag for their elderly owner-manager. In 1948, they were in the thick of the pennant race all the way until Labor Day ------ the Indians finally won it.
And while this was going on, the Phillies jettisoned racist manager Ben Chapman and brought in college man Eddie Sawyer to guide their young and talented team toward better days. Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Del Ennis, Granny Hamner, Dick Sisler, Puddin' Head Jones, Andy Seminick ----- this was a team to get excited about.
But in Philadelphia, you were a fan of whatever team your father supported, and in our case that was the Athletics. In fact, research showed that Republicans supported the A's, Democrats backed the Phillies. And in the late '40s, early '50s (odd as it may seem today) there was a Republican (Bernard Samuel) in the mayor's office at City Hall.
So when the 1950 season rolled around, the sports pundits (the ancestors of today's deep thinkers) picked the A's to win the American League (it was Mr. Mack's 50th year as skipper) and the Phils to finish somewhere around third or fourth place.
As it turned out, the A's were dreadful ----- they lost over 100 games ------ and the Phillies won the pennant when Dick Sisler parked one in the left field seats at Brooklyn's Ebbetts Field for the pennant on the last day of the season.
I was conflicted at first. I wanted to root for the A's. I wanted to get all their Bowman baseball cards. Bobby Shantz was a favorite, ditto Ferris Fain, Sam Chapman, Eddie Joost. And I did. But I found myself gravitating toward getting all the Phillies cards I could find, too. In fact I decided that outfielder Del Ennis was my favorite Phillie and that meant his card would be hard to find, and it was.
That summer, when I was just 9, was amazing. The Phillies (really pretty dreadful for most of my life) were the talk of the town. Their new red pinstriped uniforms were cool and the red cap with the script "P" in white on it was a "must-have" for all the kids.
The players of that day were our idols, but they still seemed accessible. Many of them lived in the neighborhoods throughout the city. Ennis was from Olney, lived locally. Schantz was from Pottstown, settled in Ambler. Robin Roberts lived in Meadowbrook.
Today the players live, isolated from the fans, in penthouses or gated mansions. In the '50s, many ball players worked in the winter as school teachers, mail carriers, salesmen, just to make ends meet. The great Jimmie Foxx sold paint, even drove a truck to pay his bills. Today the players (even the subs) cash checks in the seven figures.
Ballplayers got injured when we were kids, but they weren't out of action long. Why? Well there were only 16 big league teams and lots of guys in the high minors ready to take their jobs. Today's players sign contracts and think nothing of taking off the whole season to nurse a boo-boo. Of course they get paid in full. Their agents see to that. In my boyhood, players signed one-year contracts based on what they did the last season. Now, they sign multi-year deals based on what they may do at some point in the future.
The game, in those days, seemed more human. The players were guys you could root for ---- guys you liked. Today, not so much. Rooting for today's young millionaires is kind of like rooting for Microsoft. It's there, but it's not something I can feel warm and fuzzy about.
But when the first pitch is tossed, I'll be watching their every move and living and dying with the locals. A part of me will revert to my boyhood. That's the way I'll continue to be forever young and always a baseball fan.
Okay, so the pundits are telling us that the Phillies will be, well, awful. In fact, some say they are the worst team in baseball this year (at least the worst one that doesn't play in Houston). I find that hard to believe ----- how they can call a team with more than a few really good players (Cliff Lee, the slowly recovering Cole Hamels Dom Brown, Chase Utley, A J. Burnett, Carlos Ruiz) awful, is beyond me. I guess I'm simply not as smart as the sportswriters. Worse yet, unlike them, I have to pay my way into the park.
This past winter, my wife and I reupped for our Phillies partial game plan. We've done that pretty much since the late '70s. (Yes, I was there for game six of the 1980 World Series when the Phillies, finally, won a world's championship.) We like going to the park, enjoying the night out and, like spring, hope abounds.
As a boy growing up in Glenside, we had two Philadelphia teams to root for. Connie Mack's A's in the American League and Bob Carpenter's Phillies in the National. For a while, in the late '40s, the A's actually seemed to be poised to make one more run at the flag for their elderly owner-manager. In 1948, they were in the thick of the pennant race all the way until Labor Day ------ the Indians finally won it.
And while this was going on, the Phillies jettisoned racist manager Ben Chapman and brought in college man Eddie Sawyer to guide their young and talented team toward better days. Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Del Ennis, Granny Hamner, Dick Sisler, Puddin' Head Jones, Andy Seminick ----- this was a team to get excited about.
But in Philadelphia, you were a fan of whatever team your father supported, and in our case that was the Athletics. In fact, research showed that Republicans supported the A's, Democrats backed the Phillies. And in the late '40s, early '50s (odd as it may seem today) there was a Republican (Bernard Samuel) in the mayor's office at City Hall.
So when the 1950 season rolled around, the sports pundits (the ancestors of today's deep thinkers) picked the A's to win the American League (it was Mr. Mack's 50th year as skipper) and the Phils to finish somewhere around third or fourth place.
As it turned out, the A's were dreadful ----- they lost over 100 games ------ and the Phillies won the pennant when Dick Sisler parked one in the left field seats at Brooklyn's Ebbetts Field for the pennant on the last day of the season.
I was conflicted at first. I wanted to root for the A's. I wanted to get all their Bowman baseball cards. Bobby Shantz was a favorite, ditto Ferris Fain, Sam Chapman, Eddie Joost. And I did. But I found myself gravitating toward getting all the Phillies cards I could find, too. In fact I decided that outfielder Del Ennis was my favorite Phillie and that meant his card would be hard to find, and it was.
That summer, when I was just 9, was amazing. The Phillies (really pretty dreadful for most of my life) were the talk of the town. Their new red pinstriped uniforms were cool and the red cap with the script "P" in white on it was a "must-have" for all the kids.
The players of that day were our idols, but they still seemed accessible. Many of them lived in the neighborhoods throughout the city. Ennis was from Olney, lived locally. Schantz was from Pottstown, settled in Ambler. Robin Roberts lived in Meadowbrook.
Today the players live, isolated from the fans, in penthouses or gated mansions. In the '50s, many ball players worked in the winter as school teachers, mail carriers, salesmen, just to make ends meet. The great Jimmie Foxx sold paint, even drove a truck to pay his bills. Today the players (even the subs) cash checks in the seven figures.
Ballplayers got injured when we were kids, but they weren't out of action long. Why? Well there were only 16 big league teams and lots of guys in the high minors ready to take their jobs. Today's players sign contracts and think nothing of taking off the whole season to nurse a boo-boo. Of course they get paid in full. Their agents see to that. In my boyhood, players signed one-year contracts based on what they did the last season. Now, they sign multi-year deals based on what they may do at some point in the future.
The game, in those days, seemed more human. The players were guys you could root for ---- guys you liked. Today, not so much. Rooting for today's young millionaires is kind of like rooting for Microsoft. It's there, but it's not something I can feel warm and fuzzy about.
But when the first pitch is tossed, I'll be watching their every move and living and dying with the locals. A part of me will revert to my boyhood. That's the way I'll continue to be forever young and always a baseball fan.
Another one joins brat pack
My brother had had enough of my parents, who he viewed as reincarnations of Stalin and Lenin. The rules and restrictions had pushed him over the edge. One can understand how being repeatedly reminded to lift the toilet seat puts a wrench in an 8-year-old's day.
So, on an early summer evening, my brother stood at our front door holding his Batman suitcase, wearing a scowl beneath his Buster Brown haircut, and announced he was leaving home.
"Where ya going?" my father asked, barely able to contain his laughter.
"I'm running away," my brother said defiantly. "You boss me around too much."
"I see," my father said. "Well, come back and visit us every so often, OK?"
With that, my parents waved him goodbye, and we began to eat supper. No more than a minute later, the screen door opened and our wannabe runaway reappeared.
"Hey, you're back," my father said. "Did you miss the bus or is your bike tire flat?"
My brother bowed his head, dropped his suitcase, dragged himself toward the dinner table and mumbled, "I got hungry."
After wolfing down his first forkful of food, he looked at my parents and warned boldly, "But I'm leaving right after I'm done eating!"
My little brother was only 8; he didn't know any better. But when you're 18, you should.
Rachel Canning should know better. The 18-year-old New Jersey high school senior is suing her parents, claiming she was forced to leave home in October after being verbally and physically abused. Her parents refute the charges, stating she chose to move out because she didn't want to follow the house rules. An investigation by a state child protection agency into the teen's allegations of emotional abuse concluded her claims were unfounded.
Canning eventually moved in with her best friend, whose father, an attorney, represents her in the court case against her parents. Her lawsuit, filed in February, requests her parents pay the remaining tuition for her last semester at her private high school, pay her living and transportation expenses, and commit to paying her college tuition and the $13,000 in legal fees she accrued. Essentially, she's seeking a court's official declaration that she is non-emancipated, meaning her parents would be required to support her financially even though she's 18 and living out of the home.
Rachel Canning is attractive, popular, a cheerleader and a n honor student.
Another thing she appears to be is a spoiled brat riddled with a false sense of entitlement:
Rules? Hey, I'm 18, and rules don't apply to me. I'm 18 and everybody likes me, so don't tell me what to do. Curfew? Hey, I'm 18; I can come and go as I please. You don't like my boyfriend? Hey, I'm 18; I can date whomever I like. And why isn't my laundry done, and why isn't dinner on the table? Hurry it up; I have a date tonight.
I'm certain Canning's parents played a major role in their daughter's disposition. They gave her a car and sent her to private school. They stroked her until their stroking molded her into a brat hoping to sue their parental pants off.
Despite the lawsuit, Rachel moved back home last week. Why? No one's saying. Maybe she realized following a few basic rules isn't so bad. Like some 8-year-old many years ago, maybe she just got hungry.
Or maybe, just maybe, she never realized life on her own wouldn't be the picnic she thought it would.
Most brats don't.
So, on an early summer evening, my brother stood at our front door holding his Batman suitcase, wearing a scowl beneath his Buster Brown haircut, and announced he was leaving home.
"Where ya going?" my father asked, barely able to contain his laughter.
"I'm running away," my brother said defiantly. "You boss me around too much."
"I see," my father said. "Well, come back and visit us every so often, OK?"
With that, my parents waved him goodbye, and we began to eat supper. No more than a minute later, the screen door opened and our wannabe runaway reappeared.
"Hey, you're back," my father said. "Did you miss the bus or is your bike tire flat?"
My brother bowed his head, dropped his suitcase, dragged himself toward the dinner table and mumbled, "I got hungry."
After wolfing down his first forkful of food, he looked at my parents and warned boldly, "But I'm leaving right after I'm done eating!"
My little brother was only 8; he didn't know any better. But when you're 18, you should.
Rachel Canning should know better. The 18-year-old New Jersey high school senior is suing her parents, claiming she was forced to leave home in October after being verbally and physically abused. Her parents refute the charges, stating she chose to move out because she didn't want to follow the house rules. An investigation by a state child protection agency into the teen's allegations of emotional abuse concluded her claims were unfounded.
Canning eventually moved in with her best friend, whose father, an attorney, represents her in the court case against her parents. Her lawsuit, filed in February, requests her parents pay the remaining tuition for her last semester at her private high school, pay her living and transportation expenses, and commit to paying her college tuition and the $13,000 in legal fees she accrued. Essentially, she's seeking a court's official declaration that she is non-emancipated, meaning her parents would be required to support her financially even though she's 18 and living out of the home.
Rachel Canning is attractive, popular, a cheerleader and a n honor student.
Another thing she appears to be is a spoiled brat riddled with a false sense of entitlement:
Rules? Hey, I'm 18, and rules don't apply to me. I'm 18 and everybody likes me, so don't tell me what to do. Curfew? Hey, I'm 18; I can come and go as I please. You don't like my boyfriend? Hey, I'm 18; I can date whomever I like. And why isn't my laundry done, and why isn't dinner on the table? Hurry it up; I have a date tonight.
I'm certain Canning's parents played a major role in their daughter's disposition. They gave her a car and sent her to private school. They stroked her until their stroking molded her into a brat hoping to sue their parental pants off.
Despite the lawsuit, Rachel moved back home last week. Why? No one's saying. Maybe she realized following a few basic rules isn't so bad. Like some 8-year-old many years ago, maybe she just got hungry.
Or maybe, just maybe, she never realized life on her own wouldn't be the picnic she thought it would.
Most brats don't.
Give my grandparents a hand
The cookbook and the Good Book.
They were the only texts in my favorite summer school classroom. The aroma of simmering homemade spaghetti sauce wafted throughout the room like intoxicating nectar. A gallon of homemade wine sat on a counter not far from the Bible; they were kindred spirits. Homemade bread browned in the oven as if sprawled on a sun baked beach on the Riviera.
And front and center stood my Sicilian-born grandparents would tend to me during the summer when my parents went to work. As my 8-year-old legs dangled from a chair at the table in their kitchen, I learned Italian. Not the warm language of romance that centuries of poets have used to launch a thousand ships and link a lifetime of lovers. Instead, these were interesting and expressive hand gestures that left no room for misinterpretation. They were silent hand movements, and flicks, pokes and spins of fingers with which my grandparents created conversation masterpieces on a canvas of air.
Years before I understood that a trucker giving me the middle finger for cutting him off in traffic didn't signify the Teamsters were No.1, I learned a different type of sign language in that kitchen. I took three years of Spanish in high school but can barely count to 12.
But somebody turning his palm to his throat, scraping his fingers across the bottom of his chinand angrily flicking them toward someone ----- it was a gesture in my neighborhood as common as tomato gardens and Virgin Mary statues ------ can only mean "non mi frega" or "I don't give a damn!"
I recall a time when my grandmother stood at her kitchen sink, motioned for my grandfather and pointed to a leaky faucet. The grand old man in long pants, a long-sleeved shirt and suspenders on a 90-degree day peeked into the sink. He looked at my grandma, put his hands together as if praying and moved them up and down in a chopping motion. The meaning: "What do you expect me to do?" or "Che cosa vuoi che io faccia?"
Another time, my grandparents were discussing in Italian a rumored tryst between a single woman in the neighborhood and a family priest, whose car spent too much time in her driveway. My grandmother refused to believe the whispers. My grandfather smirked knowingly, placed two index fingers together and repeatedly poked them toward the ground. "Sono d'accordo," he whispered, meaning "Something's going on with them."
A few years later, that priest left the church and married the neighbor. All the signs my perceptive grandfather saw with his eyes and related with his hands were spot on.
And I watched it all in that wonderful classroom, never wanting dismissal to arrive.
Today's kids learn and create bastardized words and terms in the street and at school, a trend that's changed the face of teen conversation in person and on mobile devices ----- all of it a confusing, unnecessary plastic surgery of the lexicon. But back then, in my favorite classroom, I sopped up a rich language that remains unchanged and continues speaking to me today.
If I'm having a conversation without being able to use my hands to punctuate my thoughts, I feel tongue-tied. Somewhere in an Italian medical journal, there must be a diagram connecting the hands to the mouth as surely as the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone.
My constant hand gestures sometimes annoy people. To them I say, hey, it's what I know. I can't stop. Che cosa vuoi che io faccia?
They were the only texts in my favorite summer school classroom. The aroma of simmering homemade spaghetti sauce wafted throughout the room like intoxicating nectar. A gallon of homemade wine sat on a counter not far from the Bible; they were kindred spirits. Homemade bread browned in the oven as if sprawled on a sun baked beach on the Riviera.
And front and center stood my Sicilian-born grandparents would tend to me during the summer when my parents went to work. As my 8-year-old legs dangled from a chair at the table in their kitchen, I learned Italian. Not the warm language of romance that centuries of poets have used to launch a thousand ships and link a lifetime of lovers. Instead, these were interesting and expressive hand gestures that left no room for misinterpretation. They were silent hand movements, and flicks, pokes and spins of fingers with which my grandparents created conversation masterpieces on a canvas of air.
Years before I understood that a trucker giving me the middle finger for cutting him off in traffic didn't signify the Teamsters were No.1, I learned a different type of sign language in that kitchen. I took three years of Spanish in high school but can barely count to 12.
But somebody turning his palm to his throat, scraping his fingers across the bottom of his chinand angrily flicking them toward someone ----- it was a gesture in my neighborhood as common as tomato gardens and Virgin Mary statues ------ can only mean "non mi frega" or "I don't give a damn!"
I recall a time when my grandmother stood at her kitchen sink, motioned for my grandfather and pointed to a leaky faucet. The grand old man in long pants, a long-sleeved shirt and suspenders on a 90-degree day peeked into the sink. He looked at my grandma, put his hands together as if praying and moved them up and down in a chopping motion. The meaning: "What do you expect me to do?" or "Che cosa vuoi che io faccia?"
Another time, my grandparents were discussing in Italian a rumored tryst between a single woman in the neighborhood and a family priest, whose car spent too much time in her driveway. My grandmother refused to believe the whispers. My grandfather smirked knowingly, placed two index fingers together and repeatedly poked them toward the ground. "Sono d'accordo," he whispered, meaning "Something's going on with them."
A few years later, that priest left the church and married the neighbor. All the signs my perceptive grandfather saw with his eyes and related with his hands were spot on.
And I watched it all in that wonderful classroom, never wanting dismissal to arrive.
Today's kids learn and create bastardized words and terms in the street and at school, a trend that's changed the face of teen conversation in person and on mobile devices ----- all of it a confusing, unnecessary plastic surgery of the lexicon. But back then, in my favorite classroom, I sopped up a rich language that remains unchanged and continues speaking to me today.
If I'm having a conversation without being able to use my hands to punctuate my thoughts, I feel tongue-tied. Somewhere in an Italian medical journal, there must be a diagram connecting the hands to the mouth as surely as the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone.
My constant hand gestures sometimes annoy people. To them I say, hey, it's what I know. I can't stop. Che cosa vuoi che io faccia?
A squirrel can drive you nuts
I suppose that if Husband and I were more evolved, our biggest worry this week would be the national debt ceiling.
It isn't.
My worry is Husband's mental health. His is a pair of squirrels who've spent the last week decimating what was to be a bountiful harvest of Jonathan apples from two dwarf trees in the backyard.
Husband planted them at least five years ago, and before this summer, the trees failed to produce much of anything. Maybe it was the soil, we speculated. Maybe not enough sun. The trees looked healthy enough, but they were all leaf, no fruit.
Which is why last fall, I laid down the law. If those trees didn't bring forth at least one pie full of apples in 2011 they were coming down and going to the mulch pile.
"No apples, no more prime space in the yard," I said. Husband agreed. Fair's fair. We'd grow something else.
It was as though God or the trees were listening.
This year, there are an astounding number of apples on both trees.
Or rather there WERE an astounding number.
Turns out squirrels have a thing for apples. Two, in particular, have been taking turns stealing the unripened little green orbs right off the branches. They boldly sit beneath the tree in plain sight to eat them.
"Deeeeelicious," one said.
"Double deeelicious," answered the other, tossing a core.
I've watched them just yank fruit from lower, inside branches of the tree. To get hold of the apples dangling from higher branches and branches too thin to actually hold them, the thieving rodents shake the tree.
They just climb into it, make a lot of commotion -------- sometimes it looks like the tree is vibrating ------- and the apples fall like they would after hurricane winds.
Husband is beside himself. A normally quiet, temperate man, happy to share whatever is his, he's taken to jumping up from the breakfast table and running out into the yard to scare away the animals as they approach his trees.
Dog, who should be the one in the family protecting the yard from varmints, has abdicated the responsibility to Husband. I think because it's such a hoot to watch the man in action.
"Some! You can have some apples. Not every single damned apple," he scolded.
The squirrels didn't look sorry.
Yesterday morning , Husband, tying his tie, looked out the big kitchen window to find the squirrels knocking their walnut-sized brains out to loosen another load of unripened apples. He ran out of the sliding glass door, grabbed the garden hose and charged the vibrating tree.
His finger on the nozzle trigger he aimed the water cannon at the squirrels.
The rodents, who I assumed were snickering as I was, held their position in the tree. What's a little water pressure when there's this much fun to be had?
"Get a load of this guy," one called to the other.
"He's hilarious," answered his friend.
"They're drunk on apples," lamented Husband as he returned to the kitchen and plopped onto a chair to finish breakfast. "They're like marauding pirates drunk on rum. Ruthless. Remorseless."
He stared forlornly at the squirrels still at work in his tree, mumbling about lead pellets. Then he wondered out loud what's so great about organic gardening. He didn't use any chemicals to keep pests away from the tree. Just pruned carefully and kept the areas below the trees clean of debris so they'd stay healthy.
He was saying that if Ortho has a chemical to rid the planet of squirrels, he'd order a barrel of it for our backyard. And he'd double the concentration to be sure they were deader than dead.
This as he buttered his toast.
I reminded him that we love animals and respect the planet. He wasn't listening.
He says he's going to build a tree stand. He'll lay in wait, maybe dressed in camouflage and wielding a billy club. Those pirates won't know what happened to them.
I'm starting to feel sorry for the squirrels.
It isn't.
My worry is Husband's mental health. His is a pair of squirrels who've spent the last week decimating what was to be a bountiful harvest of Jonathan apples from two dwarf trees in the backyard.
Husband planted them at least five years ago, and before this summer, the trees failed to produce much of anything. Maybe it was the soil, we speculated. Maybe not enough sun. The trees looked healthy enough, but they were all leaf, no fruit.
Which is why last fall, I laid down the law. If those trees didn't bring forth at least one pie full of apples in 2011 they were coming down and going to the mulch pile.
"No apples, no more prime space in the yard," I said. Husband agreed. Fair's fair. We'd grow something else.
It was as though God or the trees were listening.
This year, there are an astounding number of apples on both trees.
Or rather there WERE an astounding number.
Turns out squirrels have a thing for apples. Two, in particular, have been taking turns stealing the unripened little green orbs right off the branches. They boldly sit beneath the tree in plain sight to eat them.
"Deeeeelicious," one said.
"Double deeelicious," answered the other, tossing a core.
I've watched them just yank fruit from lower, inside branches of the tree. To get hold of the apples dangling from higher branches and branches too thin to actually hold them, the thieving rodents shake the tree.
They just climb into it, make a lot of commotion -------- sometimes it looks like the tree is vibrating ------- and the apples fall like they would after hurricane winds.
Husband is beside himself. A normally quiet, temperate man, happy to share whatever is his, he's taken to jumping up from the breakfast table and running out into the yard to scare away the animals as they approach his trees.
Dog, who should be the one in the family protecting the yard from varmints, has abdicated the responsibility to Husband. I think because it's such a hoot to watch the man in action.
"Some! You can have some apples. Not every single damned apple," he scolded.
The squirrels didn't look sorry.
Yesterday morning , Husband, tying his tie, looked out the big kitchen window to find the squirrels knocking their walnut-sized brains out to loosen another load of unripened apples. He ran out of the sliding glass door, grabbed the garden hose and charged the vibrating tree.
His finger on the nozzle trigger he aimed the water cannon at the squirrels.
The rodents, who I assumed were snickering as I was, held their position in the tree. What's a little water pressure when there's this much fun to be had?
"Get a load of this guy," one called to the other.
"He's hilarious," answered his friend.
"They're drunk on apples," lamented Husband as he returned to the kitchen and plopped onto a chair to finish breakfast. "They're like marauding pirates drunk on rum. Ruthless. Remorseless."
He stared forlornly at the squirrels still at work in his tree, mumbling about lead pellets. Then he wondered out loud what's so great about organic gardening. He didn't use any chemicals to keep pests away from the tree. Just pruned carefully and kept the areas below the trees clean of debris so they'd stay healthy.
He was saying that if Ortho has a chemical to rid the planet of squirrels, he'd order a barrel of it for our backyard. And he'd double the concentration to be sure they were deader than dead.
This as he buttered his toast.
I reminded him that we love animals and respect the planet. He wasn't listening.
He says he's going to build a tree stand. He'll lay in wait, maybe dressed in camouflage and wielding a billy club. Those pirates won't know what happened to them.
I'm starting to feel sorry for the squirrels.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Doing nothing gets things done
By Michaela Finley
How many times have you caught your teenager on the phone, lying half off the bed, going on Tumblr or zoning out with mouth open, when he or she was supposedly studying? And how many times have you told your teenager, "You need to focus so you can get your work done"?
I am one of those teenagers. I fully admit to stopping homework just to look at Tumblr for the fifth time. I am one of those teenagers who zone out with their mouth wide open. My mother is also one of those parents who stares over the rims of her glasses with a "Uh-huh, sure, Michaela" as I tell her "I am just taking a short break, and yes I know the more breaks I take the later and more tired I will get."
Now, my mom is going once again "Uh-huh, sure, Michaela" as I declare I have stumbled upon the key to successful studying. The key to studying with focus is to study with little focus. Yes. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a study that flips the old theory about the nature of attention on its head. The study demonstrates that long or short diversions, like falling asleep for an hour, or getting a five-minute snack, can dramatically improve one's ability to focus on a task for prolonged periods of time. By taking a break, you are essentially using your time more effectively and more productively. You can get things done by doing nothing.
I am so relieved.
It may sound like a teenager's pipe dream but, really, it makes sense. Taking small or long pauses is a way to break things down into manageable chunks so you don't get overwhelmed. So avoiding a total freak-out and making tasks more manageable is really beneficial.
By deciding, "I will do five math problems and then go get a drink, and then I will do five more math problems," big homework tasks become manageable. On the same note, if I organize my work and plan the breaks by saying, "I will read this chapter, then take a 10-minute break, then do history," it gives me a sense of accomplishment and control, which as teenagers we feel we never get.
Now, as a parent, you may feel you just lost the war on effective studying because now your child thinks he or she can get away with watching a movie, doing an assignment, then going on Facebook for an hour, playing the "I'm-actually-being-really-productive-even-thought-it's-three-in-the-morning-and-I'm-falling-asleep card." Do not worry. I'm not saying taking more breaks than actual studying is more productive. I'm just saying zoning out like a moron, or checking Tumblr for the fifth time, isn't actually that bad. In fact, small distractions are helpful.
It's also an opportunity for teenagers to take short breaks to do something beneficial to refresh themselves, like eating carrots and hummus, going for a walk, laughing with a friend or even talking to you, instead of being holed up in a room becoming a study zombie.
So next time, before you decide to remind your teenagers they are not being efficient because they are checking their phone or laughing about a video on You Tube, remember: Doing nothing can actually get things done.
How many times have you caught your teenager on the phone, lying half off the bed, going on Tumblr or zoning out with mouth open, when he or she was supposedly studying? And how many times have you told your teenager, "You need to focus so you can get your work done"?
I am one of those teenagers. I fully admit to stopping homework just to look at Tumblr for the fifth time. I am one of those teenagers who zone out with their mouth wide open. My mother is also one of those parents who stares over the rims of her glasses with a "Uh-huh, sure, Michaela" as I tell her "I am just taking a short break, and yes I know the more breaks I take the later and more tired I will get."
Now, my mom is going once again "Uh-huh, sure, Michaela" as I declare I have stumbled upon the key to successful studying. The key to studying with focus is to study with little focus. Yes. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a study that flips the old theory about the nature of attention on its head. The study demonstrates that long or short diversions, like falling asleep for an hour, or getting a five-minute snack, can dramatically improve one's ability to focus on a task for prolonged periods of time. By taking a break, you are essentially using your time more effectively and more productively. You can get things done by doing nothing.
I am so relieved.
It may sound like a teenager's pipe dream but, really, it makes sense. Taking small or long pauses is a way to break things down into manageable chunks so you don't get overwhelmed. So avoiding a total freak-out and making tasks more manageable is really beneficial.
By deciding, "I will do five math problems and then go get a drink, and then I will do five more math problems," big homework tasks become manageable. On the same note, if I organize my work and plan the breaks by saying, "I will read this chapter, then take a 10-minute break, then do history," it gives me a sense of accomplishment and control, which as teenagers we feel we never get.
Now, as a parent, you may feel you just lost the war on effective studying because now your child thinks he or she can get away with watching a movie, doing an assignment, then going on Facebook for an hour, playing the "I'm-actually-being-really-productive-even-thought-it's-three-in-the-morning-and-I'm-falling-asleep card." Do not worry. I'm not saying taking more breaks than actual studying is more productive. I'm just saying zoning out like a moron, or checking Tumblr for the fifth time, isn't actually that bad. In fact, small distractions are helpful.
It's also an opportunity for teenagers to take short breaks to do something beneficial to refresh themselves, like eating carrots and hummus, going for a walk, laughing with a friend or even talking to you, instead of being holed up in a room becoming a study zombie.
So next time, before you decide to remind your teenagers they are not being efficient because they are checking their phone or laughing about a video on You Tube, remember: Doing nothing can actually get things done.
F. Y. I.
Creating a Character
The Muppets' Rizzo the Rat was inspired by Dustin Hoffman's performance in "Midnight Cowboy."
Duck Duck .......Dog
Because they were bred to help haul nets for fishermen and rescue the drowning, Newfoundlands have a water-resistant coat and webbed feet.
Still on the Books
In Hawaii, it is a crime to use imitation milk in a milkshake without warning.
Celebrate This
Today, March 25th, is Pecan Day.
State Stats
Kansas is known as the "Sunflower State," with 11 different species recorded there.
Quotable
by J.R.R. Tolkien, English author and poet (1892-1973)
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
The Muppets' Rizzo the Rat was inspired by Dustin Hoffman's performance in "Midnight Cowboy."
Duck Duck .......Dog
Because they were bred to help haul nets for fishermen and rescue the drowning, Newfoundlands have a water-resistant coat and webbed feet.
Still on the Books
In Hawaii, it is a crime to use imitation milk in a milkshake without warning.
Celebrate This
Today, March 25th, is Pecan Day.
State Stats
Kansas is known as the "Sunflower State," with 11 different species recorded there.
Quotable
by J.R.R. Tolkien, English author and poet (1892-1973)
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
F. Y. I.
Still on the Books
In Dyersburg, Tenn., it is illegal for a woman to call a man for a date.
Quotable
by Franz Kafka, German language writer (2883-1924)
"There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction."
To the Point
Emma Stone convinced her parents to let her take up acting by showing them a Power Point presentation.
Light Show
The first days of spring and autumn are the only times of year you can stand at the equator and see the sun pass directly overhead.
Lore of Old
Because eggs were once symbols of fertility, farmers would scatter broken eggs into their fields in the hopes of an abundant crop.
Bearable Substitute
When British poet Lord Byron was prohibited from having a dog at Trinity College, he got himself a bear, which he kept until he graduated.
In Dyersburg, Tenn., it is illegal for a woman to call a man for a date.
Quotable
by Franz Kafka, German language writer (2883-1924)
"There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction."
To the Point
Emma Stone convinced her parents to let her take up acting by showing them a Power Point presentation.
Light Show
The first days of spring and autumn are the only times of year you can stand at the equator and see the sun pass directly overhead.
Lore of Old
Because eggs were once symbols of fertility, farmers would scatter broken eggs into their fields in the hopes of an abundant crop.
Bearable Substitute
When British poet Lord Byron was prohibited from having a dog at Trinity College, he got himself a bear, which he kept until he graduated.
History proves '1' can be the deadliest number
This is the way Simon Kuper began his Financial Times piece on what happened in Sarajevo 100 years ago this coming June 28, the beginning of World War I. The article is about many things ------ the city of Sarajevo, the doomed archduke and his morganatic bride, Sophie, virtually shunned at court on account of her low rank ------- but most of all Princip, the Serb nationalist, who started the conflagration with a mere pistol. There were many causes of that war ----- an entire bookshelf's worth in my office alone -------- but the fact remains that if Princip had hesitated, if he had missed, if he had not wandered to seek a sandwich at Moritz Schiller's delicatessen when Franz Ferdinand's driver had taken the wrong turn, the Great War might not have happened.
And neither would have the swift collapse of four empires, the arbitrary creation of the modern Middle East, Germany's hyperinflation, the rise of fascism, Hitler and, of course, World War II, the Holocaust, Soviet expansionism, the Cold War and so much more. The very first domino was toppled by a single man, a tubercular who was to die before the war he started had ended. The lone assassin had changed history.
He had struck before and many times since. He killed Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley, John F. Kennedy and his younger brother Robert, Yitzhak Rabin (and the chance for an Arab-Israeli peace), Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. One man, one weapon, and history pivoted.
This is why the study of Vladinir Putin is so important. Russian grievance is somewhat the same. But another leader may not have fanned either one. A non-Putin, in fact, may not have felt either emotion so intensely. Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and now the prime minister, probably would not have seized Crimea. Nothing about him suggests otherwise. He is no Putin.
But Putin is. The tautology has become plain. The reformer has become the uber nationalist and expansionist. He has an edge to him, a menace. He plays a losing hand, buthe plays it well because while he is weak, his opponents are weaker. They vacillate. They dillydally. They fear confrontation. In fact, they abhor it. Putin knows what he wants. He will takes what the West allows.
We hear now from observers of Putin, people who knew him over the years. We search for clues to his character, his ticks, his weaknesses. The accounts are not encouraging. We learn he can lie. We learn he can be inscrutable. We find nothing about heavy drinking, rampant womanizing, excesses, addictions, vile bigotries. He is a good student. Strobe Talbot, a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration, wrote in The Washington Post about meeting Putin in Moscow: "For no reason other than to show he had read my KGB dossier, he dropped the names of two Russian poets I had studied in college." Impressive. I have heard similar stories about Putin. George Smiley is in the Kremlin now.
In 1943, the philosopher Sidney Hook published his "The Hero in History." Hook was a former communist moving at warp speed toward what we now would call neoconservatism. His book was a riposte to determinism; Nikita Khrushchev embodied it in 1956 when he told Western ambassadors in Moscow, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side." (The American version of this is "the wrong side of history" formulation ------ as if history has a purpose or a conscience.) Hook knew better. Men are not merely swept away by movements; they create movements. Heroes matter. Great men matter. So do evil ones.
The 20th century settled the question of whether one man can alter history. Of course he can. Hitler did. Stalin did. Churchill put steel in Britain's backbone, and Roosevelt saved the snarling American free enterprise system by house-breaking it. Gavrilo Princip had his moment, too. On a day almost 100 years ago, he got off two shots, swiftly killing two people and, before the century had ended, probably 100 million more.
And neither would have the swift collapse of four empires, the arbitrary creation of the modern Middle East, Germany's hyperinflation, the rise of fascism, Hitler and, of course, World War II, the Holocaust, Soviet expansionism, the Cold War and so much more. The very first domino was toppled by a single man, a tubercular who was to die before the war he started had ended. The lone assassin had changed history.
He had struck before and many times since. He killed Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley, John F. Kennedy and his younger brother Robert, Yitzhak Rabin (and the chance for an Arab-Israeli peace), Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi. One man, one weapon, and history pivoted.
This is why the study of Vladinir Putin is so important. Russian grievance is somewhat the same. But another leader may not have fanned either one. A non-Putin, in fact, may not have felt either emotion so intensely. Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and now the prime minister, probably would not have seized Crimea. Nothing about him suggests otherwise. He is no Putin.
But Putin is. The tautology has become plain. The reformer has become the uber nationalist and expansionist. He has an edge to him, a menace. He plays a losing hand, buthe plays it well because while he is weak, his opponents are weaker. They vacillate. They dillydally. They fear confrontation. In fact, they abhor it. Putin knows what he wants. He will takes what the West allows.
We hear now from observers of Putin, people who knew him over the years. We search for clues to his character, his ticks, his weaknesses. The accounts are not encouraging. We learn he can lie. We learn he can be inscrutable. We find nothing about heavy drinking, rampant womanizing, excesses, addictions, vile bigotries. He is a good student. Strobe Talbot, a deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration, wrote in The Washington Post about meeting Putin in Moscow: "For no reason other than to show he had read my KGB dossier, he dropped the names of two Russian poets I had studied in college." Impressive. I have heard similar stories about Putin. George Smiley is in the Kremlin now.
In 1943, the philosopher Sidney Hook published his "The Hero in History." Hook was a former communist moving at warp speed toward what we now would call neoconservatism. His book was a riposte to determinism; Nikita Khrushchev embodied it in 1956 when he told Western ambassadors in Moscow, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side." (The American version of this is "the wrong side of history" formulation ------ as if history has a purpose or a conscience.) Hook knew better. Men are not merely swept away by movements; they create movements. Heroes matter. Great men matter. So do evil ones.
The 20th century settled the question of whether one man can alter history. Of course he can. Hitler did. Stalin did. Churchill put steel in Britain's backbone, and Roosevelt saved the snarling American free enterprise system by house-breaking it. Gavrilo Princip had his moment, too. On a day almost 100 years ago, he got off two shots, swiftly killing two people and, before the century had ended, probably 100 million more.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (March 14, 2014)
New Ozone Threats
Four mysterious and previously unidentified man-made compounds have been found that can destroy Earth's upper-atmosphere ozone, possibly preventing the ozone hole from healing. The production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases came under restriction worldwide in the mid-1980s after the compounds were found to be creating the hole above Antarctica. A total global ban on production came into force in 2010. But researchers say the four newly discovered chemicals, also powerful greenhouse gases, may be leaking from insecticide production and from solvents used in cleaning electronic components. Scientists now caution that many others probably exists. "They might well add up to dangerous levels, especially if we keep finding more," said Johannes Laube at the University of East Anglia. Since the ozone-killing chemicals take decades to break down in the atmosphere, their impact on climate and the ozone hole is long-lasting.
Smog Drones
Outbreaks of smog around Beijing have become so acute that officials are testing a new, more efficient type of drone to be used to spray smog-clearing chemicals, primarily around airports. The South China Morning Post reports that drones equipped with parasails can carry about 1,500 pounds of the unspecified smog-busting compounds, which are said to have the capacity to cleanse the air in a 3-mile radius. The vehicles will reportedly spray chemicals that "freeze pollutants," causing them to fall to the ground. But environmental advocates warn that such a process would simply coat the city's surfaces with still-toxic pollutants. They add that the government is tackling the symptom rather than the root cause of pollution.
Great White Voyager
A great white shark, tagged off Jacksonville, Fla., appears to be headed for British coastal waters in an epic trans-Atlantic journey researcheers say is the first ever observed in the species. The satellite tracked fish, named Lydia, was observed crossing the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is roughly the midway point between North America and Europe. "No white sharks have crossed from west to east or east to west," said Dr. Gregory Skomal, senior fisheries biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. Lydia has zigzagged approximately 20,000 miles across the western Atlantic since being tagged last March. One scientist monitoring her movements with the Ocearch project speculates that the fish is pregnant. "If I had to guess, I would guess that Lydia.......has been out in the open ocean, gestating her babies and that this spring she will lead us to where those baby white sharks are born ------ the nursery," Chris Fischer told the BBC.
Earthquakes
Parts of southern Oregon and northwestern California were jolted for 20 seconds by a quake centered 50 miles offshore.
* Fracking operations were halted along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border after tremors struck the typically quake-free area.
* Earth movements were also felt in south-central Alaska, coastal Los Angeles and from the Flordia Keys to northern Cuba.
Russian Eruption
Far East Russia's Karymsky volcano spewed ash high above the Kamchatka Peninsula. The volcano has been among the most active in the region since 1996.
Tropical Cyclones
At least three people were killed when Cyclone Lusi lashed the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, causing buildings to collapse. Lusi then took aim on northern New Zealand late in the week as a weakening tropical storm. The region was set to receive drought-breaking rains along with widespread severe conditions.
* Tropical Storm Gillian drenched parts of northeastern Australia's Cape York Peninsula as it churned the Gulf of Carpentaria.
* Tropical Storm Hadi developed briefly over Queensland's Great Barrier Reef without threatening the mainland.
Long-Haul Salmon
California's severe drought has wildlife officials considering whether to move millions of hatchery-raised Chinook salmon by tanker trucks to the ocean. The unusual move would be necessary because the Sacramento River and its tributaries have become too shallow and warm for the fish to migrate safely on their own. The fish are typically released down the water ways from the Coleman National Fish Hatchery near Red Bluff in April and May. But low water levels this year could have depleted the food supplies needed during the trip and make the salmon far too vulnerable to predators. The Sacramento Bee reports that fall-run Chinook salmon from the Sacramento River and its tributaries compose the bulk of the wild-caught salmon available in California markets and restaurants. Unless the rest of March proves unusually wet, trucking the fish to the Pacific may be the only way to preserve the run.
Four mysterious and previously unidentified man-made compounds have been found that can destroy Earth's upper-atmosphere ozone, possibly preventing the ozone hole from healing. The production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases came under restriction worldwide in the mid-1980s after the compounds were found to be creating the hole above Antarctica. A total global ban on production came into force in 2010. But researchers say the four newly discovered chemicals, also powerful greenhouse gases, may be leaking from insecticide production and from solvents used in cleaning electronic components. Scientists now caution that many others probably exists. "They might well add up to dangerous levels, especially if we keep finding more," said Johannes Laube at the University of East Anglia. Since the ozone-killing chemicals take decades to break down in the atmosphere, their impact on climate and the ozone hole is long-lasting.
Smog Drones
Outbreaks of smog around Beijing have become so acute that officials are testing a new, more efficient type of drone to be used to spray smog-clearing chemicals, primarily around airports. The South China Morning Post reports that drones equipped with parasails can carry about 1,500 pounds of the unspecified smog-busting compounds, which are said to have the capacity to cleanse the air in a 3-mile radius. The vehicles will reportedly spray chemicals that "freeze pollutants," causing them to fall to the ground. But environmental advocates warn that such a process would simply coat the city's surfaces with still-toxic pollutants. They add that the government is tackling the symptom rather than the root cause of pollution.
Great White Voyager
A great white shark, tagged off Jacksonville, Fla., appears to be headed for British coastal waters in an epic trans-Atlantic journey researcheers say is the first ever observed in the species. The satellite tracked fish, named Lydia, was observed crossing the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is roughly the midway point between North America and Europe. "No white sharks have crossed from west to east or east to west," said Dr. Gregory Skomal, senior fisheries biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries. Lydia has zigzagged approximately 20,000 miles across the western Atlantic since being tagged last March. One scientist monitoring her movements with the Ocearch project speculates that the fish is pregnant. "If I had to guess, I would guess that Lydia.......has been out in the open ocean, gestating her babies and that this spring she will lead us to where those baby white sharks are born ------ the nursery," Chris Fischer told the BBC.
Earthquakes
Parts of southern Oregon and northwestern California were jolted for 20 seconds by a quake centered 50 miles offshore.
* Fracking operations were halted along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border after tremors struck the typically quake-free area.
* Earth movements were also felt in south-central Alaska, coastal Los Angeles and from the Flordia Keys to northern Cuba.
Russian Eruption
Far East Russia's Karymsky volcano spewed ash high above the Kamchatka Peninsula. The volcano has been among the most active in the region since 1996.
Tropical Cyclones
At least three people were killed when Cyclone Lusi lashed the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, causing buildings to collapse. Lusi then took aim on northern New Zealand late in the week as a weakening tropical storm. The region was set to receive drought-breaking rains along with widespread severe conditions.
* Tropical Storm Gillian drenched parts of northeastern Australia's Cape York Peninsula as it churned the Gulf of Carpentaria.
* Tropical Storm Hadi developed briefly over Queensland's Great Barrier Reef without threatening the mainland.
Long-Haul Salmon
California's severe drought has wildlife officials considering whether to move millions of hatchery-raised Chinook salmon by tanker trucks to the ocean. The unusual move would be necessary because the Sacramento River and its tributaries have become too shallow and warm for the fish to migrate safely on their own. The fish are typically released down the water ways from the Coleman National Fish Hatchery near Red Bluff in April and May. But low water levels this year could have depleted the food supplies needed during the trip and make the salmon far too vulnerable to predators. The Sacramento Bee reports that fall-run Chinook salmon from the Sacramento River and its tributaries compose the bulk of the wild-caught salmon available in California markets and restaurants. Unless the rest of March proves unusually wet, trucking the fish to the Pacific may be the only way to preserve the run.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Having a senior moment?
That can be good news!
A colleague was about 20 minutes late for a team meeting. "Oh, my gosh!" she said with a smile, "So sorry. It must be a senior moment. I knew we were having this meeting, but......" She trailed off. I think she expected that this frequently offered excuse would wipe out her gaffe and make our frustration in waiting for her vanish. Who could argue with her, with an explanation we are all supposed to understand and accept?
My frustration did not vanish. I almost groaned out loud at every middle-age person's favorite excuse for being overly busy. "Senior moment" is turning out to be my pet peeve.
I most certainly argued with my colleague's excuse. I disputed ------- nicely, I hope ----- that chalking up her late arrival to a bad joke about aging and memory isn't OK. Being late is inconsiderate and using the excuse of "senior moment" is not remotely acceptable in our aging society.
Professing belief in the stereotype that being older is equal to a faulty or diminished memory is wrong. And it is wrong for two reasons. It's wrong because it's factually incorrect : Normal aging does not erode your memory. And the second is perceptual: "Senior moment" pokes fun by twisting the truth of what it is to be older.
Myth : Memory loss will occur as you get older.
Saying "senior moment" to explain an error in memory is incorrect. Neither memory loss nor other decline in mental function is a normal part of aging. Anyone who says something else is misinformed.
The phrase "memory problems" typically describes conditions like Alzheimer's disease and other diagnoses of dementia. It is true these diseases are more common the older you get but they are not normal. Anyone who notices memory loss or similar problems needs medical help ------ and the earlier the better.
Early diagnosis of conditions like Alzheimer's disease ------ the most common type of dementia ------- makes a difference because it offers more treatment options, be that drugs and /or behavioral treatment. Want to know more about treatment options for dementia? Check out the Alzheimer's Association website: www.alz.org.
Myth : A faulty memory is common among older people.
Most folks understand that dementias -----Alzheimer's and other diagnoses ----- are diseases. Many maintain getting older means memory changes are guaranteed. Some recent research changed the notion that that idea is true.
Here's what experts told us was normal in aging. As you get older, cognitive processing time ------- the time needed to think -------- increases and ability to retrieve information from memory like people's names declines. So older people were understood to need more time to think and remember. That decline was viewed as a loss of function.
This issue of needing more time to think and not remembering names is probably familiar to most of us. My mom, who is 81, said it just today.
Mom : "I just find I need to concentrate to think more than I used to. And I can't remember people's names at all."
Me : "You never remembered people's names well."
Mom : "Well, that's true enough. But I am not about to start."
Me : "I'm not surprised ! And it turns out that you likely need to concentrate more because you know too much."
Mom : "What do you mean?"
Listen up, Mom, and everyone else over about age 60. You've got the science of information processing on your side now. New 2014 research targets your everyday problem of needing more time and focus. A group in Germany completed a very complex study ----- all in English ----- reported in a paper : "The Myth of Cognitive: Non-Linear Dynamics of Life Long Learning." Here's the link to the original paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12078/abstract.
The research results strongly suggest the basic reason healthy older people take more time to think is because they have more accumulated knowledge. They need more time to go through it all and retrieve what they need.
There you are: A reason to celebrate ----- good news in aging and memory. My long-time hunch that seemingly slower mental processes in older people might be because they know so much more is probably true. In a way, the research points up that we make assumptions about how long it should take peopole to think. When we see older, we think slower. We don't usually think smarter or more knowledgeable. The myth of cognitive decline, of memory problems being part of normal aging is really sort of a subtle discrimination.
A colleague was about 20 minutes late for a team meeting. "Oh, my gosh!" she said with a smile, "So sorry. It must be a senior moment. I knew we were having this meeting, but......" She trailed off. I think she expected that this frequently offered excuse would wipe out her gaffe and make our frustration in waiting for her vanish. Who could argue with her, with an explanation we are all supposed to understand and accept?
My frustration did not vanish. I almost groaned out loud at every middle-age person's favorite excuse for being overly busy. "Senior moment" is turning out to be my pet peeve.
I most certainly argued with my colleague's excuse. I disputed ------- nicely, I hope ----- that chalking up her late arrival to a bad joke about aging and memory isn't OK. Being late is inconsiderate and using the excuse of "senior moment" is not remotely acceptable in our aging society.
Professing belief in the stereotype that being older is equal to a faulty or diminished memory is wrong. And it is wrong for two reasons. It's wrong because it's factually incorrect : Normal aging does not erode your memory. And the second is perceptual: "Senior moment" pokes fun by twisting the truth of what it is to be older.
Myth : Memory loss will occur as you get older.
Saying "senior moment" to explain an error in memory is incorrect. Neither memory loss nor other decline in mental function is a normal part of aging. Anyone who says something else is misinformed.
The phrase "memory problems" typically describes conditions like Alzheimer's disease and other diagnoses of dementia. It is true these diseases are more common the older you get but they are not normal. Anyone who notices memory loss or similar problems needs medical help ------ and the earlier the better.
Early diagnosis of conditions like Alzheimer's disease ------ the most common type of dementia ------- makes a difference because it offers more treatment options, be that drugs and /or behavioral treatment. Want to know more about treatment options for dementia? Check out the Alzheimer's Association website: www.alz.org.
Myth : A faulty memory is common among older people.
Most folks understand that dementias -----Alzheimer's and other diagnoses ----- are diseases. Many maintain getting older means memory changes are guaranteed. Some recent research changed the notion that that idea is true.
Here's what experts told us was normal in aging. As you get older, cognitive processing time ------- the time needed to think -------- increases and ability to retrieve information from memory like people's names declines. So older people were understood to need more time to think and remember. That decline was viewed as a loss of function.
This issue of needing more time to think and not remembering names is probably familiar to most of us. My mom, who is 81, said it just today.
Mom : "I just find I need to concentrate to think more than I used to. And I can't remember people's names at all."
Me : "You never remembered people's names well."
Mom : "Well, that's true enough. But I am not about to start."
Me : "I'm not surprised ! And it turns out that you likely need to concentrate more because you know too much."
Mom : "What do you mean?"
Listen up, Mom, and everyone else over about age 60. You've got the science of information processing on your side now. New 2014 research targets your everyday problem of needing more time and focus. A group in Germany completed a very complex study ----- all in English ----- reported in a paper : "The Myth of Cognitive: Non-Linear Dynamics of Life Long Learning." Here's the link to the original paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tops.12078/abstract.
The research results strongly suggest the basic reason healthy older people take more time to think is because they have more accumulated knowledge. They need more time to go through it all and retrieve what they need.
There you are: A reason to celebrate ----- good news in aging and memory. My long-time hunch that seemingly slower mental processes in older people might be because they know so much more is probably true. In a way, the research points up that we make assumptions about how long it should take peopole to think. When we see older, we think slower. We don't usually think smarter or more knowledgeable. The myth of cognitive decline, of memory problems being part of normal aging is really sort of a subtle discrimination.
Man, talk about being obsolete
If men are obsolete, then I have a question: What are all those urinals doing in restrooms?
Well, boys, that's it, we're done. Punch your time cards, grab some underwear, and head for the hills. Women, at least according to feminist author Hanna Rosin, can go it alone from now on.
Rosin essentially swept men out the door in a Time magazine piece last week: "Men Are Obsolete: Five Reasons We Are Definitely Witnessing the End of Men." Her reasons include: Men are failing in the workplace, men as the household breadwinners are vanishing, men are failing in the working and middle class, men have lost their monopoly on violence and aggression and ----- now get this ----- men, like women, are obsessed with their body hair.
To support her contention, Rosin, as expected, ignored the good men among us, those who love our wives, provide for our families, are involved with our children, volunteer our time in our communities and don't fixate on our hair as we once did. Instead, she leaned into the bottom of the man barrel and scraped up Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, the crack-smoking cartoon character who's hardly the poster boy of men, and anointed him as "a shining example of modern manhood."
"How do I know men are finished?" Rosin wrote. "I'll read you a quote (from Ford) that says it all: 'Yes, there have been times when I've been in a drunken stupor.'"
Rosin claims men are obsolete. This is the type of nonsense we've come to expect from the author, who tripped all over her tongue following the death of beloved Bucks County children's author Jan Berenstain in February 2012. A critic of the Berenstain Bears series of books, Rosin's reaction to the woman's death was "good riddance."
Good riddance? Speaking of drunken stupor, how could she write such a mean-spirited comment after the death of a woman who, with her husband, Stan, delighted millions of children with their books. And man, did Rosin ever catch hell from readers for that. She later apologized for her insensitive remark, but the bell had been rung. In her cobweb-draped soul, good taste and manners are what are obsolete.
"Literally obsolete?" the 43-year-old married mother of three continued about men. "Of course not, and if we had to prove that, we could never win. For one thing, we haven't figured out a way to harvest sperm without them being, you know, alive.
"But in order to win this debate, we have to prove that men, quote unquote, as we've historically come to define them ---- entitled to power, destined for leadership, arrogant, confused by anything that isn't them ----- are obsolete."
Rosin reduces men to little more than Secretariat servicing fillies in the barn. To her, we're basically typewriters and phone books, rotary phones and Edsels. Fellas, the world has basically passed us by. We're bell-bottom jeans in a Jeggings world.
While Rosin has her share of supporters, there are detractors. Self-described dissident feminist Camille Paglia, a university professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, rescues men from the dung pile on which Rosin deposits them. She points out men overwhelmingly drive the world by building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, building homes, bulldozing land for housing development, welding steel beams for office buildings, installing plate glass widows on skyscrapers and more.
"Indeed, men, are absolutely indispensable right now," Paglia wrote, "invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible.
The irony here is unmistakable: A feminist like Rosin labels men as obsolete, but does so using technology created by men ---- the computer, hand-held electronic devices, the Internet, social media all aspects of everyday life built, maintained and improved upon by men, not just old men, but young men who tap the delete key on Rosin's assertions.
Men are not obsolete as much as they've simply, and rightfully so, made room for women in the world. But there are women like Rosin, who after taking their place on the couch beside men, giddily write on the edge of the cushions.
Rosin may create a firestorm with her views on men intense enough to spark her home to blaze.
The question is, would she have the audacity to phone those obsolete firefighters who stand at those urinals to put it out?
Well, boys, that's it, we're done. Punch your time cards, grab some underwear, and head for the hills. Women, at least according to feminist author Hanna Rosin, can go it alone from now on.
Rosin essentially swept men out the door in a Time magazine piece last week: "Men Are Obsolete: Five Reasons We Are Definitely Witnessing the End of Men." Her reasons include: Men are failing in the workplace, men as the household breadwinners are vanishing, men are failing in the working and middle class, men have lost their monopoly on violence and aggression and ----- now get this ----- men, like women, are obsessed with their body hair.
To support her contention, Rosin, as expected, ignored the good men among us, those who love our wives, provide for our families, are involved with our children, volunteer our time in our communities and don't fixate on our hair as we once did. Instead, she leaned into the bottom of the man barrel and scraped up Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, the crack-smoking cartoon character who's hardly the poster boy of men, and anointed him as "a shining example of modern manhood."
"How do I know men are finished?" Rosin wrote. "I'll read you a quote (from Ford) that says it all: 'Yes, there have been times when I've been in a drunken stupor.'"
Rosin claims men are obsolete. This is the type of nonsense we've come to expect from the author, who tripped all over her tongue following the death of beloved Bucks County children's author Jan Berenstain in February 2012. A critic of the Berenstain Bears series of books, Rosin's reaction to the woman's death was "good riddance."
Good riddance? Speaking of drunken stupor, how could she write such a mean-spirited comment after the death of a woman who, with her husband, Stan, delighted millions of children with their books. And man, did Rosin ever catch hell from readers for that. She later apologized for her insensitive remark, but the bell had been rung. In her cobweb-draped soul, good taste and manners are what are obsolete.
"Literally obsolete?" the 43-year-old married mother of three continued about men. "Of course not, and if we had to prove that, we could never win. For one thing, we haven't figured out a way to harvest sperm without them being, you know, alive.
"But in order to win this debate, we have to prove that men, quote unquote, as we've historically come to define them ---- entitled to power, destined for leadership, arrogant, confused by anything that isn't them ----- are obsolete."
Rosin reduces men to little more than Secretariat servicing fillies in the barn. To her, we're basically typewriters and phone books, rotary phones and Edsels. Fellas, the world has basically passed us by. We're bell-bottom jeans in a Jeggings world.
While Rosin has her share of supporters, there are detractors. Self-described dissident feminist Camille Paglia, a university professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, rescues men from the dung pile on which Rosin deposits them. She points out men overwhelmingly drive the world by building roads, pouring concrete, laying bricks, building homes, bulldozing land for housing development, welding steel beams for office buildings, installing plate glass widows on skyscrapers and more.
"Indeed, men, are absolutely indispensable right now," Paglia wrote, "invisible as it is to most feminists, who seem blind to the infrastructure that makes their own work lives possible.
The irony here is unmistakable: A feminist like Rosin labels men as obsolete, but does so using technology created by men ---- the computer, hand-held electronic devices, the Internet, social media all aspects of everyday life built, maintained and improved upon by men, not just old men, but young men who tap the delete key on Rosin's assertions.
Men are not obsolete as much as they've simply, and rightfully so, made room for women in the world. But there are women like Rosin, who after taking their place on the couch beside men, giddily write on the edge of the cushions.
Rosin may create a firestorm with her views on men intense enough to spark her home to blaze.
The question is, would she have the audacity to phone those obsolete firefighters who stand at those urinals to put it out?
Monday, March 17, 2014
America is a house divided
Standing in line at Wawa, the young woman in front of me illustrated how America is a house divided.
She placed four bottles of Pepsi and two bottles of brightly colored sugar-water "energy" drinks on the counter. I estimated a half-pound of refined sugar would be consumed by whoever drank the stuff. I guess some people are ignoring Michelle Obama's lectures about drinking water, not soda.
The young woman pulled out a plastic card with a "Families First" logo on it. "Families First" is code for federal food stamps, as administered by New Jersey's Department of Human Services' Division of Family Development.
The woman paid for the sugar water and then removed two $20 bills from her purse and purchased several packs of cigarettes.
Now, this is not unusual. Ask any Wawa clerk. It is not the first time I saw this. A month ago, a young man did the same thing at a Wawa in Fairless Hills, Pa. He bought two chickens wrap sandwiches with a food stamp debit card, and then paid cash for four packs of Marlboros. As he stood waiting for his buddy to do the same, he took out a cigarette and stood with the thing dangling unlit from his mouth. Class.
In a better country, both would be forced to choose: food or smokes. But in the American culture promoted by the government, both are able to indulge their low-brow decadence.
But it is what happened when the woman purchased the junk food with other people's money that is interesting.
It was the lunch rush at Wawa, and the place was busy. It was filled with men in jeans and work boots who had pulled into the parking lot in trucks, who have to get back to work.
The man behind me watched as the woman paid for her stuff with the "Families First" card, and then purchased the cigarettes. As she walked away, he said, "Our tax money at work." To which the man behind him said, "That's so wrong."
But so common. Ask any Wawa clerk.
That kind of below-the-radar ground-level resentment is growing. The resentment will be stoked with news stories such as one in paper, in which the Federal Communications Commission reported that there are more than 2 million cases of fraud and abuse with "Obama phones," free mobile phones intended for poor people given away by the federal government.
My guess is progressive enablers are unaware. The country is not knitting together with progressivism's bossy vision of a society in which they call the shots, from who gets food stamps to who gets to pay for them.
We are dividing into tribes. Working people vs. "Families First." Married moms vs. "single moms." Child-friendly families vs. "child-free" families. Green vs. growth. City vs. suburban vs. rural. Rich vs. middle class vs. working class vs. poor.
The fraying is documented in a Pew Research Center study this year that showed how Americans say they want their congressional representative to do what's in the best interests of the country. But when a congressional representative actually does that at the expense of local interests, they are voted out of office. So, they will do nothing to fix the country's problems. This is why the $17 trillion in national debt we will leave our children and grandchildren will soon hit $20 trillion.
Half the people are dependent on government, and the other half is paying for it.
We increasingly separate ourselves into communities where everyone around us thinks as we do; shares the same values, educational and income levels; and are hostile to those who aren't like us. Same with the entertainment and news we consume. It's an echo chamber, and we like it.
Eventually, half the country will say enough, and their reticence about what they think of the public dole and the people on it will vanish, and it will turn ugly. The cold culture war turns hot. It will be self-govenance and personal liberty vs. authoritarianism and dependency.
America is a house deeply divided, and it won't stand. Some kind of war brews.
She placed four bottles of Pepsi and two bottles of brightly colored sugar-water "energy" drinks on the counter. I estimated a half-pound of refined sugar would be consumed by whoever drank the stuff. I guess some people are ignoring Michelle Obama's lectures about drinking water, not soda.
The young woman pulled out a plastic card with a "Families First" logo on it. "Families First" is code for federal food stamps, as administered by New Jersey's Department of Human Services' Division of Family Development.
The woman paid for the sugar water and then removed two $20 bills from her purse and purchased several packs of cigarettes.
Now, this is not unusual. Ask any Wawa clerk. It is not the first time I saw this. A month ago, a young man did the same thing at a Wawa in Fairless Hills, Pa. He bought two chickens wrap sandwiches with a food stamp debit card, and then paid cash for four packs of Marlboros. As he stood waiting for his buddy to do the same, he took out a cigarette and stood with the thing dangling unlit from his mouth. Class.
In a better country, both would be forced to choose: food or smokes. But in the American culture promoted by the government, both are able to indulge their low-brow decadence.
But it is what happened when the woman purchased the junk food with other people's money that is interesting.
It was the lunch rush at Wawa, and the place was busy. It was filled with men in jeans and work boots who had pulled into the parking lot in trucks, who have to get back to work.
The man behind me watched as the woman paid for her stuff with the "Families First" card, and then purchased the cigarettes. As she walked away, he said, "Our tax money at work." To which the man behind him said, "That's so wrong."
But so common. Ask any Wawa clerk.
That kind of below-the-radar ground-level resentment is growing. The resentment will be stoked with news stories such as one in paper, in which the Federal Communications Commission reported that there are more than 2 million cases of fraud and abuse with "Obama phones," free mobile phones intended for poor people given away by the federal government.
My guess is progressive enablers are unaware. The country is not knitting together with progressivism's bossy vision of a society in which they call the shots, from who gets food stamps to who gets to pay for them.
We are dividing into tribes. Working people vs. "Families First." Married moms vs. "single moms." Child-friendly families vs. "child-free" families. Green vs. growth. City vs. suburban vs. rural. Rich vs. middle class vs. working class vs. poor.
The fraying is documented in a Pew Research Center study this year that showed how Americans say they want their congressional representative to do what's in the best interests of the country. But when a congressional representative actually does that at the expense of local interests, they are voted out of office. So, they will do nothing to fix the country's problems. This is why the $17 trillion in national debt we will leave our children and grandchildren will soon hit $20 trillion.
Half the people are dependent on government, and the other half is paying for it.
We increasingly separate ourselves into communities where everyone around us thinks as we do; shares the same values, educational and income levels; and are hostile to those who aren't like us. Same with the entertainment and news we consume. It's an echo chamber, and we like it.
Eventually, half the country will say enough, and their reticence about what they think of the public dole and the people on it will vanish, and it will turn ugly. The cold culture war turns hot. It will be self-govenance and personal liberty vs. authoritarianism and dependency.
America is a house deeply divided, and it won't stand. Some kind of war brews.
Knock out teen violence
When I was a young teenager way back when ------ this was sometime after widespread use of the Conestoga wagon and before the iPad ----- my friends and I would occasionally get into mischief.
We'd ring a neighbor's front door bell, hide behind a parked car or around the corner and watch the homeowner's confusion as they peeked out the door wondering who rang the bell. During Halloween, we'd walk the neighborhood and rub bars of soap on car windows. (We discontinued this practice when one of our less-savvy friends nearly got a beating after soaping the window of a parked car with the driver possessing butcher's forearms still inside.)
Sometimes, we'd phone a pizzeria and order multiple trays to be delivered to a particular address. Then we'd hide and watch as the resident and the delivery man argued it out on the front porch. This was the type of mild hi-jinx in which kids could engage before the advent of caller ID. All of it was harmless fun.
But today, what some teenagers are doing throughout America and under the guise of fun is anything but.
By now, you've surely heard about what's commonly referred to as Knockout, a sick, senseless act in which teens randomly sucker-punch strangers with the intention of knocking them unconscious with one punch. The teens are engaging in a warped competition to see who can be the first of the group to knock a person out cold.
Some media outlets have referred to the violent act as the "Knockout Game". But when an unsuspecting man or woman, perhaps some who are elderly or infirm, is punched in the face by a teenager, a game it is not.
It's hard for a rational person to fathom how someone walks up to another, balls up a fist, reaches back from the hip and punches someone with the intent of rendering them unconscious for no reason other than self-satisfaction.
The experts believe they know why.
"We know from brain studies that the part of a young person's brain that gets fired up through excitement and thrill-seeking actually develops and fires up more quickly than the other part of the brain," wrote Jeffrey Butts, who specializes in youth criminal justice at John Jay College in New York City. "The other part of the brain, which controls judgment and discretion, comes along a few years later.
"(Knockout) victims are someone who the young people consider to be an 'other'. That could be a racial difference, it could just be a class difference. It's not about toughness. It's about proving their manhood to their friends. But what they end up doing is proving that they're still children."
Is Knockout an epidemic, as some have suggested? Is it a trend? A national problem? Or as others have suggested, it just may be a microscopic percentage of mindless teens acting out as teens have done since time began.
Some call this random act of assault by other names. Some call it Point' Em Out, Knock' Em Out or Knock' Em and Drop' Em. Whatever it's called, it's nothing new. As far back as the 1980s, it was called One-Hitter Quitter, as in "one hit and the person quits being conscious." In Europe in the 2000s, it was called Happy Slapping. Whatever it's called, it brings to mind "A Clockwork Orange," the 1971 motion picture about a violent gang of teenagers in futuristic Great Britain. Whatever it's called, it can't stop soon enough.
My advice to those misguided teens: Go ring a door bell.
We'd ring a neighbor's front door bell, hide behind a parked car or around the corner and watch the homeowner's confusion as they peeked out the door wondering who rang the bell. During Halloween, we'd walk the neighborhood and rub bars of soap on car windows. (We discontinued this practice when one of our less-savvy friends nearly got a beating after soaping the window of a parked car with the driver possessing butcher's forearms still inside.)
Sometimes, we'd phone a pizzeria and order multiple trays to be delivered to a particular address. Then we'd hide and watch as the resident and the delivery man argued it out on the front porch. This was the type of mild hi-jinx in which kids could engage before the advent of caller ID. All of it was harmless fun.
But today, what some teenagers are doing throughout America and under the guise of fun is anything but.
By now, you've surely heard about what's commonly referred to as Knockout, a sick, senseless act in which teens randomly sucker-punch strangers with the intention of knocking them unconscious with one punch. The teens are engaging in a warped competition to see who can be the first of the group to knock a person out cold.
Some media outlets have referred to the violent act as the "Knockout Game". But when an unsuspecting man or woman, perhaps some who are elderly or infirm, is punched in the face by a teenager, a game it is not.
It's hard for a rational person to fathom how someone walks up to another, balls up a fist, reaches back from the hip and punches someone with the intent of rendering them unconscious for no reason other than self-satisfaction.
The experts believe they know why.
"We know from brain studies that the part of a young person's brain that gets fired up through excitement and thrill-seeking actually develops and fires up more quickly than the other part of the brain," wrote Jeffrey Butts, who specializes in youth criminal justice at John Jay College in New York City. "The other part of the brain, which controls judgment and discretion, comes along a few years later.
"(Knockout) victims are someone who the young people consider to be an 'other'. That could be a racial difference, it could just be a class difference. It's not about toughness. It's about proving their manhood to their friends. But what they end up doing is proving that they're still children."
Is Knockout an epidemic, as some have suggested? Is it a trend? A national problem? Or as others have suggested, it just may be a microscopic percentage of mindless teens acting out as teens have done since time began.
Some call this random act of assault by other names. Some call it Point' Em Out, Knock' Em Out or Knock' Em and Drop' Em. Whatever it's called, it's nothing new. As far back as the 1980s, it was called One-Hitter Quitter, as in "one hit and the person quits being conscious." In Europe in the 2000s, it was called Happy Slapping. Whatever it's called, it brings to mind "A Clockwork Orange," the 1971 motion picture about a violent gang of teenagers in futuristic Great Britain. Whatever it's called, it can't stop soon enough.
My advice to those misguided teens: Go ring a door bell.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Eliot Ness' credentials are untouchable
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can't seem to catch a break .......... even when it comes to naming a headquarters building.
The much-maligned (by gun nuts) Justice Department agency has plans to formally attach the name of its most illustrious alumnus ------ Eliot Ness of "Untouchables" fame -----to its relatively new, architecturally interesting nerve center here. But the bureau has run into protest from a couple of politicians from Chicago.
For those of you too young to be familiar with the Ness story, that's where Prohibition-era gangsters held sway under the beady eyes of the most infamous of American crime lords, Alfonse Capone, until Ness and his boys helped bring him to the bar of justice on income tax charges. There have been arguments ever since over the role Ness and his men, portrayed in a best-selling book, popular TV series and motion picture, actually played in the entire affair.
But two things seem abundantly clear. Without the backing of Chicago and Illinois politicians (where governors to this day seem to have trouble staying out of jail), Capone and his counterparts during the years of vicious squabbling over illegal liquor turf couldn't have thrived. Second, there seems to be about as much evidence that Ness did have a significant part in bringing down Scarface Al as there is that he didn't.
Actually, Ness went on to a distinguished law enforcement career, proving he was more than just a figment of Hollywood's imagination. And is it Ness' fault that some author attached the aura of incorruptibility to his name in reviewing a period when almost all the other characters in this bloody Shakespearean drama were just the opposite, including those of the protesters, two aldermen?
Those who will make the ultimate decision about whether to honor Ness and his intrepid band with a nod to their prowess, real or imagined, should consider that to do otherwise would be to acknowledge that the only winner in this latest revision of history was Capone, who in the long run and with the aid of syphilis beat the system and died in luxury in Florida. Do we really want to enshrine the designer of such legendary events as the St. Valentine's Day massacre by letting him win in the last analysis?
Besides, thereis considerable precedent when it comes to attaching dubious distraction in these public-naming exercises. Take the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover building, for instance. While Hoover was the iconic director of the national police force, his publicized personal achievements were often embellished.
In fact, it is not incorrect to say that the scourge of bank robbers and communists and a whole lot of others who disagreed with him had feet of clay all the way up to his waist. Ask anyone who served in Congress and lived in mortal fear of him while he held forth. Remember those secret files and dossiers he allegedly kept on half of Washington? Just because they were never found doesn't mean they didn't exist.
It is also accurate to say that ATF agents, including many of the old ones from the days when the agency was in the Treasury Department and went belly to belly with truly bad guys, have spilled as much of their own blood in defense of the law as any federal enforcement group. In the process, these are guys who have endured less recognition and more malignant attacks than any similar force in U.S. history. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that my son was one of those, and never a day went by when I wasn't concerned about his welfare.
So whether Eliot Ness totally deserves the accolade proposed begs the question as to who cares. He was not just made up of whole cloth as my grandmother used to say, but a real live person who obviously did a job tainted only slightly by myth, as is often the case in the retelling of events. So back off, Chicago, unless you feel comfortable with leading a cheer for the bad guys.
This is an agency that needs a day in the sun, an escape from the hovering menace of gun-slinging lobbyists and politicians whose predecessors allowed the Capones of the world to operate with Tommy gun efficiency. Everybody needs a hero.
The much-maligned (by gun nuts) Justice Department agency has plans to formally attach the name of its most illustrious alumnus ------ Eliot Ness of "Untouchables" fame -----to its relatively new, architecturally interesting nerve center here. But the bureau has run into protest from a couple of politicians from Chicago.
For those of you too young to be familiar with the Ness story, that's where Prohibition-era gangsters held sway under the beady eyes of the most infamous of American crime lords, Alfonse Capone, until Ness and his boys helped bring him to the bar of justice on income tax charges. There have been arguments ever since over the role Ness and his men, portrayed in a best-selling book, popular TV series and motion picture, actually played in the entire affair.
But two things seem abundantly clear. Without the backing of Chicago and Illinois politicians (where governors to this day seem to have trouble staying out of jail), Capone and his counterparts during the years of vicious squabbling over illegal liquor turf couldn't have thrived. Second, there seems to be about as much evidence that Ness did have a significant part in bringing down Scarface Al as there is that he didn't.
Actually, Ness went on to a distinguished law enforcement career, proving he was more than just a figment of Hollywood's imagination. And is it Ness' fault that some author attached the aura of incorruptibility to his name in reviewing a period when almost all the other characters in this bloody Shakespearean drama were just the opposite, including those of the protesters, two aldermen?
Those who will make the ultimate decision about whether to honor Ness and his intrepid band with a nod to their prowess, real or imagined, should consider that to do otherwise would be to acknowledge that the only winner in this latest revision of history was Capone, who in the long run and with the aid of syphilis beat the system and died in luxury in Florida. Do we really want to enshrine the designer of such legendary events as the St. Valentine's Day massacre by letting him win in the last analysis?
Besides, thereis considerable precedent when it comes to attaching dubious distraction in these public-naming exercises. Take the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover building, for instance. While Hoover was the iconic director of the national police force, his publicized personal achievements were often embellished.
In fact, it is not incorrect to say that the scourge of bank robbers and communists and a whole lot of others who disagreed with him had feet of clay all the way up to his waist. Ask anyone who served in Congress and lived in mortal fear of him while he held forth. Remember those secret files and dossiers he allegedly kept on half of Washington? Just because they were never found doesn't mean they didn't exist.
It is also accurate to say that ATF agents, including many of the old ones from the days when the agency was in the Treasury Department and went belly to belly with truly bad guys, have spilled as much of their own blood in defense of the law as any federal enforcement group. In the process, these are guys who have endured less recognition and more malignant attacks than any similar force in U.S. history. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that my son was one of those, and never a day went by when I wasn't concerned about his welfare.
So whether Eliot Ness totally deserves the accolade proposed begs the question as to who cares. He was not just made up of whole cloth as my grandmother used to say, but a real live person who obviously did a job tainted only slightly by myth, as is often the case in the retelling of events. So back off, Chicago, unless you feel comfortable with leading a cheer for the bad guys.
This is an agency that needs a day in the sun, an escape from the hovering menace of gun-slinging lobbyists and politicians whose predecessors allowed the Capones of the world to operate with Tommy gun efficiency. Everybody needs a hero.
In the know about Ireland and St. Patrick's Day?
So how much do you know about Ireland and St. Patrick's Day?
See how many answers on this quiz you can get right without looking them up first.
1. When it's not St. Patrick's Day, how many Americans claim Irish ancestry?
a) 11 million
b) 21 million
c) 41 million
2. What is Ireland's official state language?
a) English
b) Irish
c) Gaelic
3. St. Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland in which century?
a) Fifth
b) Sixth
c) Seventh
4. The nation of Northern Ireland was formed by what?
a) The Good Friday Agreement.
b) The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.
c) The Sunningdale Agreement of 1972.
5. What is the significance of March 17 to St. Patrick?
a) It's the date he was born
b) It's the date he defied the Druid High King of Ireland by lighting a fire on the top of a hill.
c) It's the date he died
6. What is Ireland's official national anthem?
a) "Soldier's Song"
b) "Erin Go Bragh"
c) "Danny Boy"
7. What are the colors of Ireland's flag?
a) Green, yellow and orange
b) Green, white and orange
c) Green, white and red
8. St. Patrick is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. It's true that there are no snakes that are native to Ireland, but there is one reptile species that does live there. What is it?
a) Lizards
b) Crocodiles
c) Turtles
9. Dublin's official national St. Patrick's Day Festival was established in what year?
a) 1916
b) 1995
c) 1895
10. What is Ireland's national symbol?
a) A Shamrock
b) A beer mug
c) A harp
11. Irish architect James Hoban designed which important American landmark?
a) The Smithsonian Museum
b) The White House
c) The Washington Monument
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Answers : 1. c ; 2. b ; 3. a ; 4. b ; 5. c ; 6. a ; 7. b ; 8. a ; 9. b ; 10. c ; 11. b
source : www.irishamericanmuseumdc.org
http://web.dfa.ie
www.embassyofireland.org
www.stpatricksfestival.ie
Follow Brian Bingaman on Twitter@brianbingaman
See how many answers on this quiz you can get right without looking them up first.
1. When it's not St. Patrick's Day, how many Americans claim Irish ancestry?
a) 11 million
b) 21 million
c) 41 million
2. What is Ireland's official state language?
a) English
b) Irish
c) Gaelic
3. St. Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland in which century?
a) Fifth
b) Sixth
c) Seventh
4. The nation of Northern Ireland was formed by what?
a) The Good Friday Agreement.
b) The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.
c) The Sunningdale Agreement of 1972.
5. What is the significance of March 17 to St. Patrick?
a) It's the date he was born
b) It's the date he defied the Druid High King of Ireland by lighting a fire on the top of a hill.
c) It's the date he died
6. What is Ireland's official national anthem?
a) "Soldier's Song"
b) "Erin Go Bragh"
c) "Danny Boy"
7. What are the colors of Ireland's flag?
a) Green, yellow and orange
b) Green, white and orange
c) Green, white and red
8. St. Patrick is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. It's true that there are no snakes that are native to Ireland, but there is one reptile species that does live there. What is it?
a) Lizards
b) Crocodiles
c) Turtles
9. Dublin's official national St. Patrick's Day Festival was established in what year?
a) 1916
b) 1995
c) 1895
10. What is Ireland's national symbol?
a) A Shamrock
b) A beer mug
c) A harp
11. Irish architect James Hoban designed which important American landmark?
a) The Smithsonian Museum
b) The White House
c) The Washington Monument
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. c ; 2. b ; 3. a ; 4. b ; 5. c ; 6. a ; 7. b ; 8. a ; 9. b ; 10. c ; 11. b
source : www.irishamericanmuseumdc.org
http://web.dfa.ie
www.embassyofireland.org
www.stpatricksfestival.ie
Follow Brian Bingaman on Twitter@brianbingaman
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (March 7, 2014)
Bugs vs. Cold
Sub-freezing temperatures for weeks on end this winter across the northern U.S. and southern Canada are leaving insect experts hoping the chill will kill off some invasive species. Backyard gardeners in the region can also hope for fewer pests this coming summer. "Given that temps have gotten really cold, and not for one night but for a lot of people to hope for insect mortality," Deborah McCullough, a professor of entomology and forestry at Michigan State University in East Lansing, told Capital News Service. The relatively mild winters of the past two decades have allowed some pests to spread northward, like the destructive emerald ash borer and the hemlock wooly adelgid. But experts warn that not all bugs fall victim to winters like this. The emerald ash borer can survive by burrowing beneath the insulating bark of its favorite tree and feeding on the moisture and nutrients inside.
Eruption
Guatemala's Pacaya volcano spewed ash and lava with such force that officials began considering the evacuation of about 3,000 nearby residents. The volcano created a fountain of lava that rose about 2,600 feet above the summit crater. A much taller plume of ash was visible from many parts of the country.
Earthquakes
A strong temblor centered just off the coast of western Nicaragua was felt from El Salvador and Honduras southward to Costa Rica.
* Earth movements were also felt in Okinawa, Trinidad, south-central Alaska, interior parts of the Los Angeles Basin and central Oklahoma.
Nuclear Shield
Researchers are designing a spacecraft equipped with a nuclear bomb that could blast apart an approaching asteroid less than a week before it brought Armageddon to Earth. The Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle would first bore a crater on the threatening space debris before the nuclear bomb is placed in it. Scientists say that would increase the destructive power of the blast by a factor of 20 and leave only a tiny amount of remaining debris to strike Earth. A presentation on the proposed asteroid buster was given last month at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts meeting at Stanford University. Bong Wie, of Iowa State University, told the gathering that the project would need to be coupled with the proposed Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, which could give days or even months of advance warning.
Cold War Habits
Deer are still staying on their respective sides of the former Iron Curtain 25 years after the electrifield border fences were removed at the end of the Cold War. The animals were fitted with radio collars along theborder of Germany's Bavaria region and the now Czech Republic during a six-year study. "Deer on the Czech side of the Bohemian Forest wander no farther than where barbed wire used to mark the restricted area along the national border," said Czech zoologist Pavel Sustr, who headed the study. Only a handful of deer were found to be wandering a short distance across the border. It's believed that female deer pass on territorial boundaries to their young from generation to generation. Sustr says he thinks the Iron Curtain mentality will eventually disappear, and more deer will start to wander freely between the two countries.
Tropical Cyclones
Tonga was skirted by the second tropical cyclone to strike the South Pacific island nation in less than two months. The center of tropical storm-force Cyclone Kofi passed just o the south of the archipelago, with the storm's outer bands bringing gales and locally heavy downpours to some islands. In early January, Category -5 Cyclone Ian ravaged Tonga with 150 mph winds.
* Tropical Storm Faxai formed over northern Micronesia, then passed well to the east of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Snake Eats Croc
An epic deathmatch near a Queensland mining town pitted an olive python against a crocodile, eventually leaving the snake fat, happy and victorious. Travis Corlis and his wife, Tiffany, photographed the wrestling match in which the 10-foot python and smaller crocodile first began to grapple in Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa. Corlis said the battle went on for several hours, with the snake eventually pulling the crocodile to the lakeshore. "We were sort of thinking that the snake had bitten off a little more than it could chew," Tiffany told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. But the croc eventually "sort of gave in" and was then swallowed whole by the python, Tiffany added: "When you actually looked at the snake, you could ........see the crocodile's ridges, legs and everything inside its belly." A recent drought was said to have caused the lake's level to drop, making the crocs in the water more visible. But residents say they had never before heard of such a reptilian life-and-death battle.
Sub-freezing temperatures for weeks on end this winter across the northern U.S. and southern Canada are leaving insect experts hoping the chill will kill off some invasive species. Backyard gardeners in the region can also hope for fewer pests this coming summer. "Given that temps have gotten really cold, and not for one night but for a lot of people to hope for insect mortality," Deborah McCullough, a professor of entomology and forestry at Michigan State University in East Lansing, told Capital News Service. The relatively mild winters of the past two decades have allowed some pests to spread northward, like the destructive emerald ash borer and the hemlock wooly adelgid. But experts warn that not all bugs fall victim to winters like this. The emerald ash borer can survive by burrowing beneath the insulating bark of its favorite tree and feeding on the moisture and nutrients inside.
Eruption
Guatemala's Pacaya volcano spewed ash and lava with such force that officials began considering the evacuation of about 3,000 nearby residents. The volcano created a fountain of lava that rose about 2,600 feet above the summit crater. A much taller plume of ash was visible from many parts of the country.
Earthquakes
A strong temblor centered just off the coast of western Nicaragua was felt from El Salvador and Honduras southward to Costa Rica.
* Earth movements were also felt in Okinawa, Trinidad, south-central Alaska, interior parts of the Los Angeles Basin and central Oklahoma.
Nuclear Shield
Researchers are designing a spacecraft equipped with a nuclear bomb that could blast apart an approaching asteroid less than a week before it brought Armageddon to Earth. The Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle would first bore a crater on the threatening space debris before the nuclear bomb is placed in it. Scientists say that would increase the destructive power of the blast by a factor of 20 and leave only a tiny amount of remaining debris to strike Earth. A presentation on the proposed asteroid buster was given last month at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts meeting at Stanford University. Bong Wie, of Iowa State University, told the gathering that the project would need to be coupled with the proposed Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, which could give days or even months of advance warning.
Cold War Habits
Deer are still staying on their respective sides of the former Iron Curtain 25 years after the electrifield border fences were removed at the end of the Cold War. The animals were fitted with radio collars along theborder of Germany's Bavaria region and the now Czech Republic during a six-year study. "Deer on the Czech side of the Bohemian Forest wander no farther than where barbed wire used to mark the restricted area along the national border," said Czech zoologist Pavel Sustr, who headed the study. Only a handful of deer were found to be wandering a short distance across the border. It's believed that female deer pass on territorial boundaries to their young from generation to generation. Sustr says he thinks the Iron Curtain mentality will eventually disappear, and more deer will start to wander freely between the two countries.
Tropical Cyclones
Tonga was skirted by the second tropical cyclone to strike the South Pacific island nation in less than two months. The center of tropical storm-force Cyclone Kofi passed just o the south of the archipelago, with the storm's outer bands bringing gales and locally heavy downpours to some islands. In early January, Category -5 Cyclone Ian ravaged Tonga with 150 mph winds.
* Tropical Storm Faxai formed over northern Micronesia, then passed well to the east of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Snake Eats Croc
An epic deathmatch near a Queensland mining town pitted an olive python against a crocodile, eventually leaving the snake fat, happy and victorious. Travis Corlis and his wife, Tiffany, photographed the wrestling match in which the 10-foot python and smaller crocodile first began to grapple in Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa. Corlis said the battle went on for several hours, with the snake eventually pulling the crocodile to the lakeshore. "We were sort of thinking that the snake had bitten off a little more than it could chew," Tiffany told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. But the croc eventually "sort of gave in" and was then swallowed whole by the python, Tiffany added: "When you actually looked at the snake, you could ........see the crocodile's ridges, legs and everything inside its belly." A recent drought was said to have caused the lake's level to drop, making the crocs in the water more visible. But residents say they had never before heard of such a reptilian life-and-death battle.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Question and Answer
Who goes to Purgatory after death?
Sincere repentance includes a desire to repair the damage done by our sins.
That may or may not be complete before we die. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (1030). The Church calls this final purification, "Purgatory," since this is our last chance to be purged of our sins.
There is suffering during this purification because the souls in Purgatory long to be with God, but there is also joy. Purgatory is a sure stepping stone to Heaven.
What is important is that we recognize Jesus' power over our eternity. When the world ends at the Final Judgement, there will be only two possibilities: Heaven or Hell. We who celebrate Jesus' Resurrection look forward to sharing in that victory, and we pray that our loved ones may do the same.
Sincere repentance includes a desire to repair the damage done by our sins.
That may or may not be complete before we die. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (1030). The Church calls this final purification, "Purgatory," since this is our last chance to be purged of our sins.
There is suffering during this purification because the souls in Purgatory long to be with God, but there is also joy. Purgatory is a sure stepping stone to Heaven.
What is important is that we recognize Jesus' power over our eternity. When the world ends at the Final Judgement, there will be only two possibilities: Heaven or Hell. We who celebrate Jesus' Resurrection look forward to sharing in that victory, and we pray that our loved ones may do the same.
Feasts and Celebrations
March 3 - St. Katharine Drexel (1955).
A Philadelphia heiress, St. Katharine Drexel gave up her fortune to become a nun. She established 50 missions for Native Americans in 16 states and founded Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university for African-Americans in the U.S.
March 4 - St. Casimir (1483).
Born a prince of Poland, St. Casimir was endowed with a very strong conscience by a great teacher, John Dlugosz. When his father sent him to take over Hungary, fifteen-year-old Casimir assessed the odds against winning the war and turned back out of concern for his troops. He resolved never to be involved in war again.
March 5 - Ash Wednesday.
To mark the first day of Lent, ashes from the burnt palms of the previous Passion Sunday are blessed and placed on foreheads as a sign of penance.
March 19 - St. Joseph (first century).
Husband to the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph is a model of fatherhood and a protector of families.
A Philadelphia heiress, St. Katharine Drexel gave up her fortune to become a nun. She established 50 missions for Native Americans in 16 states and founded Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university for African-Americans in the U.S.
March 4 - St. Casimir (1483).
Born a prince of Poland, St. Casimir was endowed with a very strong conscience by a great teacher, John Dlugosz. When his father sent him to take over Hungary, fifteen-year-old Casimir assessed the odds against winning the war and turned back out of concern for his troops. He resolved never to be involved in war again.
March 5 - Ash Wednesday.
To mark the first day of Lent, ashes from the burnt palms of the previous Passion Sunday are blessed and placed on foreheads as a sign of penance.
March 19 - St. Joseph (first century).
Husband to the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph is a model of fatherhood and a protector of families.
From Scripture
John 9:1 -41
A blind man sees the truth
God's power is so great that he can take ordinary materials like dirt and water and perform miracles. A blind man came to Jesus made a paste out of clay and saliva and spread it on the man's eyes. Then he encouraged the man to wash to cleanse the dirt from his eyes so he could see. Sometimes God makes us uncomfortable before revealing his truth to us.
This miracle sent the Pharisees into a tizzy and this is how we can tell that they were false shepherds. Seekers of the truth ask questions sincerely, with a willingness to find God. The Pharisees were so anxious to hold on to their positions that they made silly conclusions such as, if this man were from God he wouldn't heal on the Sabbath. In fact, they led people away from Jesus ---- a very serious error.
The man believed in Jesus because he saw the truth and believed in it. When we seek God sincerely with a willingness to obey him, he will always lead us to the truth.
A blind man sees the truth
God's power is so great that he can take ordinary materials like dirt and water and perform miracles. A blind man came to Jesus made a paste out of clay and saliva and spread it on the man's eyes. Then he encouraged the man to wash to cleanse the dirt from his eyes so he could see. Sometimes God makes us uncomfortable before revealing his truth to us.
This miracle sent the Pharisees into a tizzy and this is how we can tell that they were false shepherds. Seekers of the truth ask questions sincerely, with a willingness to find God. The Pharisees were so anxious to hold on to their positions that they made silly conclusions such as, if this man were from God he wouldn't heal on the Sabbath. In fact, they led people away from Jesus ---- a very serious error.
The man believed in Jesus because he saw the truth and believed in it. When we seek God sincerely with a willingness to obey him, he will always lead us to the truth.
The Eucharistic Dance
The celebration of Mass is not confined to our minds, hearts, and voices, but is meant to involve our bodies as well. Like a joyful dance, each posture is significant and has meaning.
Standing. Standing is a sign of respect, so we stand when the celebrant ------ representing Christ ------ enters and leaves. We also stand for the Gospel, and the bishops of our country decided to have us stand when receiving the Eucharist.
Kneeling. From the early days of the Church , kneeling has been a gesture of penance but more recently has come to show adoration. Thus we kneel for the Eucharistic prayer.
Sitting. We sit for the pre-Gospel readings and the homily in a posture of listening and meditation.
Bowing. In our culture a bow usually expresses reverence and honor, and the bishops have decided that we are to bow before we receive Communion.
Note : for more information ask your parish priest or refer to Postures and Gestures at Mass, available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, (202) 542-3000, www.usccb.org.
Standing. Standing is a sign of respect, so we stand when the celebrant ------ representing Christ ------ enters and leaves. We also stand for the Gospel, and the bishops of our country decided to have us stand when receiving the Eucharist.
Kneeling. From the early days of the Church , kneeling has been a gesture of penance but more recently has come to show adoration. Thus we kneel for the Eucharistic prayer.
Sitting. We sit for the pre-Gospel readings and the homily in a posture of listening and meditation.
Bowing. In our culture a bow usually expresses reverence and honor, and the bishops have decided that we are to bow before we receive Communion.
Note : for more information ask your parish priest or refer to Postures and Gestures at Mass, available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, (202) 542-3000, www.usccb.org.
How do we define "neighbor"?
Why Do Catholics Do That?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that our neighbor is someone whose origins we know and who deserves particular attention. This includes our relatives since they share our origins. Fellow citizens share residence in our country. Anyone who is baptized is a fellow child of our mother the Church and shares our spiritual origin. And every person is another child of God.
By all these definitions, we are responsible for looking after anyone who needs our help or care.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that our neighbor is someone whose origins we know and who deserves particular attention. This includes our relatives since they share our origins. Fellow citizens share residence in our country. Anyone who is baptized is a fellow child of our mother the Church and shares our spiritual origin. And every person is another child of God.
By all these definitions, we are responsible for looking after anyone who needs our help or care.
Plunge into the desert during Lent
Humans are doers. When faced with a problem, we want to make a list, clean it up, or put on a fresh coat of paint. But during Lent, it's not enough to give up a favorite food or drink and call it a season. That's little more than a thin coat of paint. Lent is when we can do battle with sin in our lives, eliminate it, and greet Easter as creatures born anew.
Do battle daily.
Determination to avoid sin and embrace virtue is a war that requires daily battle. Start in Lent by committing to new prayer habits for morning, afternoon, and evening prayer. Stay faithful and you will be rewarded by God's grace to begin to live differently.
Escape distractions.
God often sent his prophets into the desert to prepare for important tasks he chose for them. Consider Lent your trip to the desert. There are minimal distractions in the desert ------- no electronics, no fancy food, no daily concerns. Just you and God. Create a Lenten desert by removing as many distractions as are practical during the season.
Take the long view.
Life can be difficult and painful but it won't last forever. Life in Heaven will. Eliminate whatever you may have chosen to make this life bearable if it distracts from your goal of Heaven.
Do battle daily.
Determination to avoid sin and embrace virtue is a war that requires daily battle. Start in Lent by committing to new prayer habits for morning, afternoon, and evening prayer. Stay faithful and you will be rewarded by God's grace to begin to live differently.
Escape distractions.
God often sent his prophets into the desert to prepare for important tasks he chose for them. Consider Lent your trip to the desert. There are minimal distractions in the desert ------- no electronics, no fancy food, no daily concerns. Just you and God. Create a Lenten desert by removing as many distractions as are practical during the season.
Take the long view.
Life can be difficult and painful but it won't last forever. Life in Heaven will. Eliminate whatever you may have chosen to make this life bearable if it distracts from your goal of Heaven.
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