Sunday, December 31, 2006
2006 Year in Review
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Friday, December 29, 2006
Lucille Speeter, 91, had a keen sense of fashion, style
She also was a Vietnam War opponent and founding member of Women Against Military Madness.
By Dan Wascoe, Star Tribune
Last update: December 28, 2006 – 9:15 PM
Even from her teenage years, Lucille Speeter conveyed a sense of style.
Soon after graduating from Minneapolis Central High School with no formal art training, she sketched ads and designs for Schlampp's, a well-known furrier. She once won a contest in San Francisco that sought ideas for decorating on a budget.
As recently as this year, she designed and served as general contractor for the conversion of a three-season porch to a year-round room, said Bob Speeter, one of her six children. She seldom went anywhere without coiffed hair and high heels, he added.
Speeter of Minneapolis died Tuesday at age 91 after complications from surgery after a fall. Behind her fashion sense was a firm commitment to peace and justice issues, said her daughter Cheryl Speeter Margoles. Her mother's early opposition to the Vietnam War led her and husband, Robert, to Paris in 1971 to meet with delegations from other countries about ending the war.
She was a founding member of Women Against Military Madness in the early 1980s, participating in protests and writing letters to newspapers and political figures, her daughters said. Her son Greg absorbed those sensibilities, and today is executive director of the National Priorities Project, based in Northampton, Mass. It seeks to use the federal budget to address social and economic justice.
Margoles said one of her mother's victories came when she won over her husband, a former FBI agent, on the Vietnam issue. But she did not possess a rabble-rousing personality, Margoles said. "She was quiet-spoken, very diplomatic, personally conservative and persistent," Margoles said. "She just felt this injustice."
Son Bob said those values played out among her children. She never played favorites, he said, and, "We never argue."
While she gave up her designing job to help raise her family, her artistic skills continued to play out at home, Margoles said. "She loved sketching and drawing rooms and furniture," she said. Daughter Patrice Beddor said her mother sometimes covered barrels with elegant fabric to create fashionable end tables. She also used to stay up late working on her children's art projects and costumes. "We won many awards throughout grade school" because of those efforts, she said.
The survivors include: Robert, her husband of 65 years; sons Richard of Orono, Bob of Minnetonka and Greg of Hatfield, Mass.; daughters LuAnne of Edina, Patrice Beddor of Dexter, Mich., and Cheryl Margoles of St. Louis Park, and 14 grandchildren.
Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 1 Lourdes Place, Minneapolis.
Dan Wascoe • 612-673-4436 • dwascoe@startribune.com
By Dan Wascoe, Star Tribune
Last update: December 28, 2006 – 9:15 PM
Even from her teenage years, Lucille Speeter conveyed a sense of style.
Soon after graduating from Minneapolis Central High School with no formal art training, she sketched ads and designs for Schlampp's, a well-known furrier. She once won a contest in San Francisco that sought ideas for decorating on a budget.
As recently as this year, she designed and served as general contractor for the conversion of a three-season porch to a year-round room, said Bob Speeter, one of her six children. She seldom went anywhere without coiffed hair and high heels, he added.
Speeter of Minneapolis died Tuesday at age 91 after complications from surgery after a fall. Behind her fashion sense was a firm commitment to peace and justice issues, said her daughter Cheryl Speeter Margoles. Her mother's early opposition to the Vietnam War led her and husband, Robert, to Paris in 1971 to meet with delegations from other countries about ending the war.
She was a founding member of Women Against Military Madness in the early 1980s, participating in protests and writing letters to newspapers and political figures, her daughters said. Her son Greg absorbed those sensibilities, and today is executive director of the National Priorities Project, based in Northampton, Mass. It seeks to use the federal budget to address social and economic justice.
Margoles said one of her mother's victories came when she won over her husband, a former FBI agent, on the Vietnam issue. But she did not possess a rabble-rousing personality, Margoles said. "She was quiet-spoken, very diplomatic, personally conservative and persistent," Margoles said. "She just felt this injustice."
Son Bob said those values played out among her children. She never played favorites, he said, and, "We never argue."
While she gave up her designing job to help raise her family, her artistic skills continued to play out at home, Margoles said. "She loved sketching and drawing rooms and furniture," she said. Daughter Patrice Beddor said her mother sometimes covered barrels with elegant fabric to create fashionable end tables. She also used to stay up late working on her children's art projects and costumes. "We won many awards throughout grade school" because of those efforts, she said.
The survivors include: Robert, her husband of 65 years; sons Richard of Orono, Bob of Minnetonka and Greg of Hatfield, Mass.; daughters LuAnne of Edina, Patrice Beddor of Dexter, Mich., and Cheryl Margoles of St. Louis Park, and 14 grandchildren.
Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 1 Lourdes Place, Minneapolis.
Dan Wascoe • 612-673-4436 • dwascoe@startribune.com
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Jessica's Grandmother (Nonnie)
Lucille Magnhilde (Rekdahl) Speeter
Age 91, of Minneapolis. Preceded in death by her parents, Harold and Florence Rekdahl, and brother, Wallace Rekdahl. Survived by devoted husband of 65 years, Robert L. Speeter; children, Greg (Betsy) of Hatfield, Mass., Richard (Karen) of Orono, Cheryl S. (Alan) Margoles of St. Louis Park, Patrice S. (Brian) Beddor of Dexter, Mich., LuAnne of Edina, and Robert M. (Shanlee) of Minnetonka; brother Donald Rekdahl of St. Louis Park; and grandchildren, Barbara Speeter, Amy (Robert) Barnett, Abigail (Eric) Bielski, Lisa Speeter, Sarah Margoles, Daniel Margoles, Mark Speeter, Robert Beddor, Michelle Margoles, Jessica Belden, Meicyn Zierke, Olivia Speeter, Noah Speeter and Kysten Zierke. Having been an accomplished commercial artist and designer for Schlampp's Furriers, Lucille brought her artistic sensibilities into virtually every facet of her life. She was a dedicated worker for peace and justice, a founding mother of Women Against Military Madness, and volunteer for many charitable and religious organizations, including St. John the Evangelist and Our Lady of Lourdes churches. Lucille devoted herself to raising her family with fairness, intelligence and deep love, and will live on as an inspiration to us all. Mass of Christian Burial 10 AM Friday at The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, 1 Lourdes Place, Mpls. MN. 55414. Interment St Mary's Cemetery. Visitation Thursday 5-8 PM with 7 PM rosary at Gearty-Delmore Park Chapel, 3960 Wooddale Ave S., St Louis Park and Friday at church one hour prior to mass. Memorials preferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Church, or National Priorities Project, 17 New South Street., Northampton, MA, 01060. Gearty-Delmore 952-926-1615
Star Tribune Actual Article
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas 2006
Jana-- I found some pictures of Ava (she's in the background on most of them. She was teething and kind of hard to catch on camera.) Also, check out the huge beaver throw on my sisters couch. You can click on the pictures for a larger view.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Jordes,
I’m two weeks into my new gig as an Industrial Broker at Colliers International. Finally got my dream job and am having a great time learning the ropes. There was a little clipping from Finance & Commerce about my hire and there is a pending advertisement in the Business Journal. Fancy. Look forward to seeing you all on Christmas or whenever it is we see each other.
Happy Holidays,
Jeffrey Pearson
Colliers Turley Martin Tucker
200 South Sixth Street, Suite 1400
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Phone: (612) 347-9394
Fax: (612) 347-9389
E-mail: jpearson@ctmt.com
_________________________________________
Industrial broker joins Colliers Turley Martin Tucker
By , F&C Staff Report
December 21, 2006
The Twin Cities office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker has hired... Jeffrey Pearson as a junior industrial broker. He will join the industrial team of Josh Huempfner and Duane Poppe.
Pearson has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in real estate and urban land economics and in marketing. He previously assisted industrial and mortgage brokers in the research department of NAI Welsh.
Prior to that position, he spent two years with the Peace Corps in the Kyrgyz Republic, where he worked with a national snow leopard reserve, local schools and community organizations.
St. Louis-based Colliers Turley Martin Tucker handles more than $4 billion in annual real estate transactions and manages more than 140 million square feet of industrial, office, multi-family and retail space.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Educators, Parents Eager for an Edge Opt for IB Classes In Grade Schools
By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006; Page A01
Hunting for the best education for her three young children, Traci Pietra fretted about low test scores at her Arlington neighborhood school. Then the principal told her about Randolph Elementary's affiliation with one of the most prestigious and rapidly growing brands in education: IB.
International Baccalaureate is best known for... a high school diploma program geared to the university-bound academic elite. But Pietra and her husband, Peter, were sold on the lesser-known elementary version of IB. Both were attracted to the IB emphasis on global understanding, Pietra said, and added: "He was like, 'Our kids are going to an Ivy League school, and we need an education that's going to get them on the right track.' "
The Primary Years Programme, designed by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, is becoming a hit in the United States with the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary set. It's now in 72 U.S. schools, up from six in 2000. Driving the growth is a desire among education officials to ramp up the rigor, the earlier the better.
The program seeks to mold students, from preschool age on, into "transdisciplinary" and bilingual scholars who can deliver a major academic project by fifth grade and then move into deeper studies in secondary schools and beyond. (IB middle schools also exist.) Critics wonder whether it's all a bit much for a student demographic that still receives scratch-and-sniff stickers on written work.
"We initially hear from parents that they're a little worried about the amount of work," said Sandra Coyle, a regional marketing and communications manager for the IB organization. "But they do realize the way it expands their children's minds and teaches them how to learn and how it helps them to manage their schedules. We like to say that IB prepares kids for success in college but also for success in life."
So far, Randolph Elementary and the private Washington International and Rock Creek International schools in the District are the only ones in the region with authorized IB primary programs. But efforts to join them are underway in several local school systems. Prince William County is training staff for an IB rollout in eight elementary schools. Plans are made for five such schools in the District and three in Anne Arundel County. And an IB elementary awaits authorization in Montgomery County.
For some schools with a sizable number of students from low-income families, IB's cachet helps lure -- and retain -- children whose parents are better off. At Ellis Elementary School, one of the chosen few in Prince William to get the IB program, transfer requests are trickling in. "We've already fielded a few phone calls, and most of them were from higher socioeconomic areas," Principal Jewell Moore said. At her school, 40 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged.
IB elementary classes differ from the ordinary in several ways. Subjects as varied as economics and nonfiction writing can be taught in a single IB class. When students begin learning new material, they are asked to think of numerous questions that get posted on the chalkboard under a title such as "What we want to find out," giving classes an investigative feel.
"In the past, when students asked questions, they just mimicked mine," said Randolph science teacher Judith Kendall. "With IB, they have to think about what they know and what they really don't know."
Teachers at IB schools, who receive special training, say the elementary program will help ensure that students will be able to compete globally and learn from an early age about the importance of other cultures. They also say that the programs can help students pass standardized state exams, especially in the many elementary schools serving low-income areas that face the threat of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law if test scores fall short.
A Washington Post review of nearly all authorized IB public elementary schools in the country found that three-fourths made adequate yearly progress under the federal law, based on the last academic year's test results. Further, more than two-thirds of the IB schools designated for federal Title I anti-poverty funding made adequate yearly progress.
The IB primary program uses an approach that teaches students several disciplines in classes organized by six units: "Who we are," "Where we are in place and time," "How we express ourselves," "How the world works," "How we organize ourselves" and "Sharing the planet." Unlike the high school diploma program, there are no year-end exams, but fifth-graders complete a culminating "exhibition" that can be a performance, a community service project or another endeavor in which portfolios are turned in periodically. Students also must study a foreign language.
School systems that sign on -- and pay to the tune of nearly $10,000 for each of their schools to apply for the IB organization's authorization -- are not hesitant about embedding the branding into their subculture. At Randolph, for instance, students every morning sing a very multisyllabic anthem that begins like this: "I am a star, a Randolph star. I am a curious and inquiring International Baccalaureate student."
Students buy into the program eagerly. "It looks good on your primary records, and then they will probably put you on another level to get you smarter," said Asia Winkler, 10, a Randolph fifth-grader.
At Randolph, which finally met academic standards this year after test scores rose, IB dominates the school's mind-set. With world maps on the walls and several clocks set to various international time zones, the school is festooned with IB ornamentation. Essays interpret the meaning of being an IB student, and flashcards feature IB Learner Profile words -- risk-taking, communicative, well-balanced, inquiring and so on -- that students must incorporate into their behavior.
Fifth-graders are even anointed by their classmates to be members of the IB Council, which works with school staff to help select their graduating exhibition project.
One recent day, in a science class studying "How the world works," third-grade teacher Judith Kendall urged her students to ask questions on a broad level.
"Let's review the questions that inquirers like to use," Kendall said during a lesson on motion. "Let's read them together: What is it like? How does it work? Why is it the way it is? How is it connected to other things?"
Afterward, one student asked: What else makes things move or stop?
"I had the same kind of question. Is there any other kind of force?" asked Nieve Schimley, 9.
So what's in store for these kids when they get to a high school IB program? When they have to take college-level classes in science, math and a foreign language? When they have to sit for a battery of oral and written tests that can last three weeks? When they have to write a 4,000-word research paper, on, say, cortisol levels in mood-disorder subjects?
"What I'd say to a 10-year-old," said Sebastien Davis-Vangelder, 17, a senior in the IB program at Fairfax County's George C. Marshall High School, "is that it's not going to get any easier."
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006; Page A01
Hunting for the best education for her three young children, Traci Pietra fretted about low test scores at her Arlington neighborhood school. Then the principal told her about Randolph Elementary's affiliation with one of the most prestigious and rapidly growing brands in education: IB.
International Baccalaureate is best known for... a high school diploma program geared to the university-bound academic elite. But Pietra and her husband, Peter, were sold on the lesser-known elementary version of IB. Both were attracted to the IB emphasis on global understanding, Pietra said, and added: "He was like, 'Our kids are going to an Ivy League school, and we need an education that's going to get them on the right track.' "
The Primary Years Programme, designed by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, is becoming a hit in the United States with the Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary set. It's now in 72 U.S. schools, up from six in 2000. Driving the growth is a desire among education officials to ramp up the rigor, the earlier the better.
The program seeks to mold students, from preschool age on, into "transdisciplinary" and bilingual scholars who can deliver a major academic project by fifth grade and then move into deeper studies in secondary schools and beyond. (IB middle schools also exist.) Critics wonder whether it's all a bit much for a student demographic that still receives scratch-and-sniff stickers on written work.
"We initially hear from parents that they're a little worried about the amount of work," said Sandra Coyle, a regional marketing and communications manager for the IB organization. "But they do realize the way it expands their children's minds and teaches them how to learn and how it helps them to manage their schedules. We like to say that IB prepares kids for success in college but also for success in life."
So far, Randolph Elementary and the private Washington International and Rock Creek International schools in the District are the only ones in the region with authorized IB primary programs. But efforts to join them are underway in several local school systems. Prince William County is training staff for an IB rollout in eight elementary schools. Plans are made for five such schools in the District and three in Anne Arundel County. And an IB elementary awaits authorization in Montgomery County.
For some schools with a sizable number of students from low-income families, IB's cachet helps lure -- and retain -- children whose parents are better off. At Ellis Elementary School, one of the chosen few in Prince William to get the IB program, transfer requests are trickling in. "We've already fielded a few phone calls, and most of them were from higher socioeconomic areas," Principal Jewell Moore said. At her school, 40 percent of students are considered economically disadvantaged.
IB elementary classes differ from the ordinary in several ways. Subjects as varied as economics and nonfiction writing can be taught in a single IB class. When students begin learning new material, they are asked to think of numerous questions that get posted on the chalkboard under a title such as "What we want to find out," giving classes an investigative feel.
"In the past, when students asked questions, they just mimicked mine," said Randolph science teacher Judith Kendall. "With IB, they have to think about what they know and what they really don't know."
Teachers at IB schools, who receive special training, say the elementary program will help ensure that students will be able to compete globally and learn from an early age about the importance of other cultures. They also say that the programs can help students pass standardized state exams, especially in the many elementary schools serving low-income areas that face the threat of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law if test scores fall short.
A Washington Post review of nearly all authorized IB public elementary schools in the country found that three-fourths made adequate yearly progress under the federal law, based on the last academic year's test results. Further, more than two-thirds of the IB schools designated for federal Title I anti-poverty funding made adequate yearly progress.
The IB primary program uses an approach that teaches students several disciplines in classes organized by six units: "Who we are," "Where we are in place and time," "How we express ourselves," "How the world works," "How we organize ourselves" and "Sharing the planet." Unlike the high school diploma program, there are no year-end exams, but fifth-graders complete a culminating "exhibition" that can be a performance, a community service project or another endeavor in which portfolios are turned in periodically. Students also must study a foreign language.
School systems that sign on -- and pay to the tune of nearly $10,000 for each of their schools to apply for the IB organization's authorization -- are not hesitant about embedding the branding into their subculture. At Randolph, for instance, students every morning sing a very multisyllabic anthem that begins like this: "I am a star, a Randolph star. I am a curious and inquiring International Baccalaureate student."
Students buy into the program eagerly. "It looks good on your primary records, and then they will probably put you on another level to get you smarter," said Asia Winkler, 10, a Randolph fifth-grader.
At Randolph, which finally met academic standards this year after test scores rose, IB dominates the school's mind-set. With world maps on the walls and several clocks set to various international time zones, the school is festooned with IB ornamentation. Essays interpret the meaning of being an IB student, and flashcards feature IB Learner Profile words -- risk-taking, communicative, well-balanced, inquiring and so on -- that students must incorporate into their behavior.
Fifth-graders are even anointed by their classmates to be members of the IB Council, which works with school staff to help select their graduating exhibition project.
One recent day, in a science class studying "How the world works," third-grade teacher Judith Kendall urged her students to ask questions on a broad level.
"Let's review the questions that inquirers like to use," Kendall said during a lesson on motion. "Let's read them together: What is it like? How does it work? Why is it the way it is? How is it connected to other things?"
Afterward, one student asked: What else makes things move or stop?
"I had the same kind of question. Is there any other kind of force?" asked Nieve Schimley, 9.
So what's in store for these kids when they get to a high school IB program? When they have to take college-level classes in science, math and a foreign language? When they have to sit for a battery of oral and written tests that can last three weeks? When they have to write a 4,000-word research paper, on, say, cortisol levels in mood-disorder subjects?
"What I'd say to a 10-year-old," said Sebastien Davis-Vangelder, 17, a senior in the IB program at Fairfax County's George C. Marshall High School, "is that it's not going to get any easier."
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
2 effective Methods for bathing a CAT
First Method
1. Thoroughly clean the toilet.
2. Add the required amount of shampoo to the toilet water, and have both lids lifted.
3. Obtain the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
4. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids (you may need to stand on the lid so that he cannot escape).
CAUTION: Do not get any part of your body too close to the edge, as his paws will be reaching out for any
purchase they can find.
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a 'power wash and rinse' which I have found to be quite effective.
6. Have someone open the door to the outside and ensure that there are no people between the toilet and the outside door.
7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.
8. The now-clean cat will rocket out of the toilet, and run outside where he will dry himself.
________________________________________________________________________________
Second Method
1. Know that although the kitty cat has... the advantage of quickness and lack of concern for human life, you have the advantage of strength. Capitalize on that advantage by selecting the battlefield. Don't try to bathe him in an open area where he can force you to chase him. Pick a very small bathroom. If your bathroom is more than four feet square, we recommend that you get in the tub with the cat and close the sliding-glass doors as if you were about to take a shower. (A simple shower curtain will not do. A berserk cat can shred a three-ply rubber shower curtain quicker than a politician can shift positions.)
2. Know that a cat has claws and will not hesitate to remove all the skin from your body. Your advantage here is that you are smart and know how to dress to protect yourself. We recommend canvas overalls tucked into high-top construction boots, a pair of steel-mesh gloves, an army helmet, a hockey face-mask, and a long-sleeved flak jacket.
3. Use the element of surprise. Pick up your cat nonchalantly, as if to simply carry him to his supper dish. (Cats will not usually notice your strange attire. They have little or no interest in fashion as a rule.)
4. Once you are inside the bathroom, speed is essential to survival. In a single liquid motion, shut the bathroom door, step into the tub enclosure, slide the glass door shut, dip the cat in the water and squirt him with shampoo. You have now begun one of the wildest 45 seconds of your life.
5. Cats have no handles. Add the fact that he now has soapy fur, and the problem is radically compounded. Do not expect to hold on to him for more than two or three seconds at a time. When you have him, however, you must remember to give him another squirt of shampoo and rub like crazy. He'll then spring free and fall back into the water, thereby rinsing himself off. (The national record for cats is three latherings, so don't expect too much.)
6. Next, the cat must be dried. Novice cat bathers always assume this part will be the most difficult, for humans generally are worn out at this point and the cat is just getting really determined. In fact, the drying is simple compared with what you have just been through. That's because by now the cat is semi-permanently affixed to your right leg.
7. You simply pop the drain plug with your foot, reach for your towel and wait. (Occasionally, however, the cat will end up clinging to the top of your army helmet. If this happens, the best thing you can do is to shake him loose and to encourage him toward your leg.) After all the water is drained from the tub, it is a simple matter to just reach down and dry the cat.
In a few days the cat will relax enough to be removed from your leg. He will usually have nothing to say for about three weeks and will spend a lot of time sitting with his back to you. He might even become psychoceramic and develop the fixed stare of a plaster figurine.
You will be tempted to assume he is angry. This isn't usually the case. As a rule he is simply plotting ways to get through your defenses and injure you for life the next time you decide to give him a bath. But at least now he smells a lot better.
1. Thoroughly clean the toilet.
2. Add the required amount of shampoo to the toilet water, and have both lids lifted.
3. Obtain the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
4. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids (you may need to stand on the lid so that he cannot escape).
CAUTION: Do not get any part of your body too close to the edge, as his paws will be reaching out for any
purchase they can find.
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a 'power wash and rinse' which I have found to be quite effective.
6. Have someone open the door to the outside and ensure that there are no people between the toilet and the outside door.
7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.
8. The now-clean cat will rocket out of the toilet, and run outside where he will dry himself.
________________________________________________________________________________
Second Method
1. Know that although the kitty cat has... the advantage of quickness and lack of concern for human life, you have the advantage of strength. Capitalize on that advantage by selecting the battlefield. Don't try to bathe him in an open area where he can force you to chase him. Pick a very small bathroom. If your bathroom is more than four feet square, we recommend that you get in the tub with the cat and close the sliding-glass doors as if you were about to take a shower. (A simple shower curtain will not do. A berserk cat can shred a three-ply rubber shower curtain quicker than a politician can shift positions.)
2. Know that a cat has claws and will not hesitate to remove all the skin from your body. Your advantage here is that you are smart and know how to dress to protect yourself. We recommend canvas overalls tucked into high-top construction boots, a pair of steel-mesh gloves, an army helmet, a hockey face-mask, and a long-sleeved flak jacket.
3. Use the element of surprise. Pick up your cat nonchalantly, as if to simply carry him to his supper dish. (Cats will not usually notice your strange attire. They have little or no interest in fashion as a rule.)
4. Once you are inside the bathroom, speed is essential to survival. In a single liquid motion, shut the bathroom door, step into the tub enclosure, slide the glass door shut, dip the cat in the water and squirt him with shampoo. You have now begun one of the wildest 45 seconds of your life.
5. Cats have no handles. Add the fact that he now has soapy fur, and the problem is radically compounded. Do not expect to hold on to him for more than two or three seconds at a time. When you have him, however, you must remember to give him another squirt of shampoo and rub like crazy. He'll then spring free and fall back into the water, thereby rinsing himself off. (The national record for cats is three latherings, so don't expect too much.)
6. Next, the cat must be dried. Novice cat bathers always assume this part will be the most difficult, for humans generally are worn out at this point and the cat is just getting really determined. In fact, the drying is simple compared with what you have just been through. That's because by now the cat is semi-permanently affixed to your right leg.
7. You simply pop the drain plug with your foot, reach for your towel and wait. (Occasionally, however, the cat will end up clinging to the top of your army helmet. If this happens, the best thing you can do is to shake him loose and to encourage him toward your leg.) After all the water is drained from the tub, it is a simple matter to just reach down and dry the cat.
In a few days the cat will relax enough to be removed from your leg. He will usually have nothing to say for about three weeks and will spend a lot of time sitting with his back to you. He might even become psychoceramic and develop the fixed stare of a plaster figurine.
You will be tempted to assume he is angry. This isn't usually the case. As a rule he is simply plotting ways to get through your defenses and injure you for life the next time you decide to give him a bath. But at least now he smells a lot better.
Kyrgyzstan Cabinet resigns office
Mr Kulov (left) has tendered
his resignation to President Bakiyev
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has accepted the resignation of his Cabinet, amid a continuing stand-off between him and parliament.
Prime Minister Felix Kulov, who tendered the resignation, said it should allow parliamentary elections due in 2010 to be held sooner.
The move follows continued wrangling between the government and legislature, despite a deal on a new constitution.
Mr Kulov's deputy says the two... bodies are no longer able to work together.
Kyrgyzstan witnessed major protests in November which prompted Mr Bakiyev to agree to a new constitution that saw him giving up some powers.
Difficulties
Mr Kulov said he had tendered his resignation to speed up the transition to a new parliament and government.
"By our move we are trying to speed up new parliamentary elections. This is a way out of a crisis and a way to intensify the democratic process," he told reporters.
The new constitution was signed on 9 November by President Bakiyev, following a week of protests in the capital Bishkek.
Thousands of opposition supporters set up tents in the main square and refused to leave until President Bakiyev resigned or brought in constitutional reform.
They accused the president of reneging on his promise to introduce reforms when he overthrew Askar Akayev in the so-called Tulip Revolution in 2005.
The new constitution allows parliament, not the president, to form a government.
However, under November's deal, it was agreed that the current government should remain in place until 2010.
But if the government resigns and parliament cannot approve its successor, new elections have to be called.
Mr Kulov and his ally Mr Bakiyev may be hoping they can win the elections and work with a less hostile legislature.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Fun Facts to Know and Tell
1. The name Lego came from two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". It also means "I put together" in Latin.
2. You're 10 times more likely to be bitten by a human than a rat.
3. The hotter it is, the more difficult it is for planes to take off. Air passengers in Nevada, where temperatures have reached 120F, have been told they can't fly.
4. Giant squid eat each other - especially during sex.
5. A single "mother" spud from southern Peru gave rise to all the varieties of potato eaten today, scientists have learned.
6. You are 176 times more likely to be murdered than to win the Lottery.
7. Musical instrument shops, in the U.K., must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognizable riff before they buy, thereby making a "public performance".
2. You're 10 times more likely to be bitten by a human than a rat.
3. The hotter it is, the more difficult it is for planes to take off. Air passengers in Nevada, where temperatures have reached 120F, have been told they can't fly.
4. Giant squid eat each other - especially during sex.
5. A single "mother" spud from southern Peru gave rise to all the varieties of potato eaten today, scientists have learned.
6. You are 176 times more likely to be murdered than to win the Lottery.
7. Musical instrument shops, in the U.K., must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognizable riff before they buy, thereby making a "public performance".
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Christmas Eve Itinerary
Christmas
2006
Sorry everyone for the late invitations, finals kept me busy this time of year.
At 2:00 p.m. Our family will be gathering at the Johnson’s home in Andover. For lively conversations and appetizers. Can’t wait to see everyone and catch up. We miss you all so much and are VERY excited!!!!
At 3:30 p.m. The nieces and nephews will begin to prepare our themed Christmas dinner. This year we will be creating a seafood feast. Here is the menu for Christmas Eve.
It is called New Orleans Seafood Platter.
It consists of a Tilapia seasoned with a Cajun New Orleans blend. Topped with succulent sautéed shrimp and drizzled with a creamy alfredo sauce. All laid upon a bed of fluffy rice pilaf. Served with fresh steamed broccoli and some warm delicious garlic bread.
Around 4-ish We will all engage in our traditional Christmas feast.
After Clean-up We would like to continue our tradition by our annual Christmas light tour around the neighborhood.
As we all retreat back to the Johnson’s lovely home, we will set up the desert trays and fabulous Christmas Cookies for all to enjoy!! While the other nieces and nephews will pass out the gifts into our traditional Christmas circle.
Then…
Presents! Presents! Presents! Presents!
If you would like to bring anything for Christmas this year: appetizer trays, deserts, and cookies will be enjoyed and appreciated!!!
But as far as everything else goes..
The nieces and nephews got it this year!!
It is our turn to treat you! For all the wonderful Christmas’s you have given to us over the years. We love and appreciate the strong family traditions and love that our family has endured over our lifetimes. We hope we can do it justice.. Hope to see everyone there. Hope you all are as excited as us.
If you have any questions contact Kelly at 573-429-8110.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My dear friends,
Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting any gainshare and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes.
You'll most likely agree that it's a splendid idea, and should you wish to do the same, I've included the instructions below:
How to make bedroom slippers out of maxi pads: You need four maxi pads to make a pair. Two of them get laid out flat, for the foot part. The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top.
Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part. Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, silk flowers (this is most aesthetically appealing), etc.
These slippers are:
* Soft and Hygienic
* Non-slip grip strips on the soles
* Built in deodorant feature keeps feet smelling fresh
* No more bending over to mop up spills
* Disposable and biodegradable
* Environmentally safe
* Three convenient sizes: Regular, Light and Get out the Sand Bags.
I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the
nifty slippers for yourself.... Awaiting your response. It's crucial
that I get the right size for each one of you!
Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting any gainshare and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes.
You'll most likely agree that it's a splendid idea, and should you wish to do the same, I've included the instructions below:
How to make bedroom slippers out of maxi pads: You need four maxi pads to make a pair. Two of them get laid out flat, for the foot part. The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top.
Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part. Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, silk flowers (this is most aesthetically appealing), etc.
These slippers are:
* Soft and Hygienic
* Non-slip grip strips on the soles
* Built in deodorant feature keeps feet smelling fresh
* No more bending over to mop up spills
* Disposable and biodegradable
* Environmentally safe
* Three convenient sizes: Regular, Light and Get out the Sand Bags.
I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the
nifty slippers for yourself.... Awaiting your response. It's crucial
that I get the right size for each one of you!
Actor Peter Boyle dead at 71
By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES -
Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.
Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from... multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.
A Christian Brothers monk who turned to acting, Boyle gained notice playing an angry workingman in the Vietnam-era hit "Joe." But he overcome typecasting when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in
Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films.
The movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."
It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.
"He's just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs," he said of the character in a 2001 interview. "It's a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made."
When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star
Ray Romano's Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition — and he was not happy.
"He came in all hot and angry," recalled the show's creator, Phil Rosenthal, "and I hired him because I was afraid of him."
But Rosenthal also noted: "I knew right away that he had a comic presence."
Boyle first came to the public's attention more than a quarter century before. "Joe" was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era's emerging hippie youth culture.
Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as
Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," and shed it entirely in "Young Frankenstein."
The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.
He went on to appear in dozens of films and to star in "Joe Bash," an acclaimed but short-lived 1986 "dramedy" in which he played a lonely beat cop. He won an Emmy in 1996 for his guest-starring role in an episode of "The X Files," and he was nominated for "Everybody Loves Raymond" and for the 1977 TV film "Tail Gunner Joe," in which he played Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
In the 1976 film "Taxi Driver," he was the cabbie-philosopher Wizard, who counseled Robert DeNiro's violent Travis Bickle.
Other notable films included "T.R. Baskin," "F.I.S.T.," "Johnny Dangerously," "Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8" (as activist David Dellinger), "The Dream Team," "The Santa Claus," "The Santa Claus 2," "While You Were Sleeping" (in a charming turn as Sandra Bullock's future father-in-law) and "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed."
Educated in Roman Catholic schools in Philadelphia, Boyle would spend three years in a monastery before abandoning his studies there. He later described the experience as similar to "living in the Middle Ages."
He explained his decision to leave in 1991: "I felt the call for awhile; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh."
He traveled to New York to study with Uta Hagen, supporting himself for five years with various jobs, including postal worker, waiter, maitre d' and office temp. Finally, he was cast in a road company version of "The Odd Couple." When the play reached Chicago he quit to study with that city's famed improvisational troupe Second City.
Upon returning to New York, he began to land roles in TV commercials, off-Broadway plays and finally films.
Through Alterman, a friend of
Yoko Ono, the actor became close friends with John Lennon.
"We were both seekers after a truth, looking for a quick way to enlightenment," Boyle once said of Lennon, who was best man at his wedding.
In 1990, Boyle suffered a stroke and couldn't talk for six months. In 1999, he had a heart attack on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond." He soon regained his health, however, and returned to the series.
Despite his work in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and other Hollywood productions, Boyle made New York City his home. He and his wife had two daughters, Lucy and Amy.
LOS ANGELES -
Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.
Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from... multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.
A Christian Brothers monk who turned to acting, Boyle gained notice playing an angry workingman in the Vietnam-era hit "Joe." But he overcome typecasting when he took on the role of the hulking, lab-created monster in
Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films.
The movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."
It showed another side of the Emmy-winning actor, one that would be exploited in countless other films and perhaps best in "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played incorrigible paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.
"He's just obnoxious in a nice way, just for laughs," he said of the character in a 2001 interview. "It's a very sweet experience having this happen at a time when you basically go back over your life and see every mistake you ever made."
When Boyle tried out for the role opposite series star
Ray Romano's Ray Barone, however, he was kept waiting for his audition — and he was not happy.
"He came in all hot and angry," recalled the show's creator, Phil Rosenthal, "and I hired him because I was afraid of him."
But Rosenthal also noted: "I knew right away that he had a comic presence."
Boyle first came to the public's attention more than a quarter century before. "Joe" was a sleeper hit in which he portrayed the title role, an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the era's emerging hippie youth culture.
Although critically acclaimed, he faced being categorized as someone who played tough, angry types. He broke free of that to some degree as
Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate," and shed it entirely in "Young Frankenstein."
The latter film also led to the actor meeting his wife, Loraine Alterman, who visited the set as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. Boyle, still in his monster makeup, quickly asked her for a date.
He went on to appear in dozens of films and to star in "Joe Bash," an acclaimed but short-lived 1986 "dramedy" in which he played a lonely beat cop. He won an Emmy in 1996 for his guest-starring role in an episode of "The X Files," and he was nominated for "Everybody Loves Raymond" and for the 1977 TV film "Tail Gunner Joe," in which he played Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
In the 1976 film "Taxi Driver," he was the cabbie-philosopher Wizard, who counseled Robert DeNiro's violent Travis Bickle.
Other notable films included "T.R. Baskin," "F.I.S.T.," "Johnny Dangerously," "Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8" (as activist David Dellinger), "The Dream Team," "The Santa Claus," "The Santa Claus 2," "While You Were Sleeping" (in a charming turn as Sandra Bullock's future father-in-law) and "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed."
Educated in Roman Catholic schools in Philadelphia, Boyle would spend three years in a monastery before abandoning his studies there. He later described the experience as similar to "living in the Middle Ages."
He explained his decision to leave in 1991: "I felt the call for awhile; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh."
He traveled to New York to study with Uta Hagen, supporting himself for five years with various jobs, including postal worker, waiter, maitre d' and office temp. Finally, he was cast in a road company version of "The Odd Couple." When the play reached Chicago he quit to study with that city's famed improvisational troupe Second City.
Upon returning to New York, he began to land roles in TV commercials, off-Broadway plays and finally films.
Through Alterman, a friend of
Yoko Ono, the actor became close friends with John Lennon.
"We were both seekers after a truth, looking for a quick way to enlightenment," Boyle once said of Lennon, who was best man at his wedding.
In 1990, Boyle suffered a stroke and couldn't talk for six months. In 1999, he had a heart attack on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond." He soon regained his health, however, and returned to the series.
Despite his work in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and other Hollywood productions, Boyle made New York City his home. He and his wife had two daughters, Lucy and Amy.
Monday, December 11, 2006
What Happens To Your Body If You Drink A Coke Right Now?
Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? It’s because it gets you high. They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago. You know why? It was redundant.
* In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately... vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
* 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
* 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dialate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
* 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
* >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
* >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
* >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.
Technorati Tags: coke, effects, pharmacology, soda, caffeine, sugar
*FYI: The Coke itself is not the enemy, here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid. Things which are found in almost all soda.
Prince to play at the Super Bowl
Breaking News
Pop star Prince has been lined up to perform during the halftime show at the Super Bowl next February, in Miami.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Norovirus illness hitting more Minnesotans
The number of outbreaks is double what was reported in 2005, and the holidays are the worst time of year for flu-like infections.
Donna Halvorsen
Last update: December 07, 2006 – 11:27 PM
It's called the winter vomiting bug and it's notorious for sickening thousands of cruise-ship passengers.
Now, the norovirus is hitting Minnesota hard. The bug, which lasts about 48 hours, used to be called the Norwalk virus and it has caused 45 outbreaks and made hundreds of people sick in Minnesota this year. That is twice as many outbreaks as last year.
Because of recent outbreaks, the state Health Department has... alerted restaurants and other food-service establishments to take extra precautions to avoid infecting diners, especially during the holidays' catered events and in-home dinner parties.
The virus is so common "that every food-service establishment will almost certainly be confronted with illness in one or more employees in the next few weeks or months," the Health Department said.
Each year in the United States, 23 million norovirus infections result in an estimated 50,000 hospitalizations and 310 deaths, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Symptoms: Vomiting and/or diarrhea, stomach cramping, low-grade fever or chills, headache and muscle aches. Symptoms appear a day or two after ingesting the virus but as soon as 12 hours.
How long will it last: A day or two for most people, up to a week with milder symptoms.
How it's spread: By contact with food or drink by servers who have the virus on their hands. The virus comes from contact with fecal matter. It's spread when food workers inadequately wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
Where can transmission occur: Anywhere food is served, including cruise ships, restaurants, buffets, cafeterias, schools, day-care centers, home parties.
Why are there more outbreaks this year? Perhaps more people are reporting the illness because of well-publicized food-poisoning outbreaks.
Restaurant and other food establishments alert: The alert asks businesses to "aggressively" ask employees if they are or have been ill. Send sick workers home until they have been symptom-free for 72 hours. Be aware that what looks like the flu may be a norovirus infection. Minimize bare-hand contact with food. Require thorough hand washing. Sanitize food surfaces and equipment touched by an ill employee. Make sure dishwashers are cleaning dishes adequately. Report employee illness to the Minnesota Department of Health: 1-877-FOOD-ILL or 1-877-366-3455.
How to avoid the virus: Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before preparing food and eating. Wash and/or peel fruits and vegetables before eating. Avoid preparing food for others when you have symptoms and for at least three days after you recover. Use household bleach to immediately clean surfaces after a person has been sick.
For more information: Go to www.health.state.mn.us, click on Norovirus Alert under Hot Topics, then click on Norovirus Fact Sheet. Source: Minnesota Department of Health
Donna Halvorsen
Last update: December 07, 2006 – 11:27 PM
It's called the winter vomiting bug and it's notorious for sickening thousands of cruise-ship passengers.
Now, the norovirus is hitting Minnesota hard. The bug, which lasts about 48 hours, used to be called the Norwalk virus and it has caused 45 outbreaks and made hundreds of people sick in Minnesota this year. That is twice as many outbreaks as last year.
Because of recent outbreaks, the state Health Department has... alerted restaurants and other food-service establishments to take extra precautions to avoid infecting diners, especially during the holidays' catered events and in-home dinner parties.
The virus is so common "that every food-service establishment will almost certainly be confronted with illness in one or more employees in the next few weeks or months," the Health Department said.
Each year in the United States, 23 million norovirus infections result in an estimated 50,000 hospitalizations and 310 deaths, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Symptoms: Vomiting and/or diarrhea, stomach cramping, low-grade fever or chills, headache and muscle aches. Symptoms appear a day or two after ingesting the virus but as soon as 12 hours.
How long will it last: A day or two for most people, up to a week with milder symptoms.
How it's spread: By contact with food or drink by servers who have the virus on their hands. The virus comes from contact with fecal matter. It's spread when food workers inadequately wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
Where can transmission occur: Anywhere food is served, including cruise ships, restaurants, buffets, cafeterias, schools, day-care centers, home parties.
Why are there more outbreaks this year? Perhaps more people are reporting the illness because of well-publicized food-poisoning outbreaks.
Restaurant and other food establishments alert: The alert asks businesses to "aggressively" ask employees if they are or have been ill. Send sick workers home until they have been symptom-free for 72 hours. Be aware that what looks like the flu may be a norovirus infection. Minimize bare-hand contact with food. Require thorough hand washing. Sanitize food surfaces and equipment touched by an ill employee. Make sure dishwashers are cleaning dishes adequately. Report employee illness to the Minnesota Department of Health: 1-877-FOOD-ILL or 1-877-366-3455.
How to avoid the virus: Wash hands after using the bathroom or changing diapers and before preparing food and eating. Wash and/or peel fruits and vegetables before eating. Avoid preparing food for others when you have symptoms and for at least three days after you recover. Use household bleach to immediately clean surfaces after a person has been sick.
For more information: Go to www.health.state.mn.us, click on Norovirus Alert under Hot Topics, then click on Norovirus Fact Sheet. Source: Minnesota Department of Health
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Lets all do our part for World Peace!
Lets all do our part for World Peace!
They are not talking about Whirled Peas people!
Sara
GlobalOrgasm.org
Global's Blog
December 22nd 2006
The Event
WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone
you know.
WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.
WHEN?
Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd,
at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.
WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of... the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!
GlobalOrgasm.org Mission Statement
The mission of the Global Orgasm is to effect change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy. Now that there are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti- submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW! Read more about the fleet buildup here.
The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high- energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.
The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.
Global Orgasm is an experiment open to everyone in the world.
We hope the results will register on the worldwide monitor system of the Global Consciousness Project.
This is the First Annual Solstice Synchronized Global Orgasm for Peace, leading up to the December Solstice of 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ends with a new beginning.
Girl saves grandmother's life
To a fifth grade teacher like Mr. Keil, proud parents are nothing new. But, if he could test Brenna Croal's mother, she'd be off the charts.
"I can't even put it into words. Every day she makes me proud for some other reason," said Diane Nelson.
Brenna Croal is a good student, she's won many awards. She even works the safety patrol at Hoover Elementary School.
This past summer, Brenna earned... a spot at the Legionville Saftey Patrol Camp in Brainerd. At the time no one could have known just how important that camp would become.
"The response time on the rescue squad was quick but she was quicker," says Brenna's grandmother Judy Nelson.
Two days after Thanksgiving Brenna's grandma choked on a piece of bread at dinner. Brenna put her camp training into action and did the Heimlich maneuver. "I was pretty nervous but confident it would work," said Brenna.
It certainly did. "She was right there to help me," said Grandma Nelson. Ten years ago, as she held her newest grandchild, Nelson could never have imagined this future, but not for the reasons you might think.
Brenna's mother says her little girl was born with a three pound cyst on her neck. It was a birth defect that nearly killed Brenna.
The irony has not been lost on her family. "She was so much very possibly not going to be with us and now she's saving my mom's life," said Diane. "She's just the sweetest most wonderful little girl."
For a mom who says she can't find the words to describe her pride, the message seems loud and clear.
(Copyright 2006 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In
We have to start now--let Microsoft know you will not stand for this impending blackmail--get OpenOffice now and start saving your documents in open document format (click on OpenOffice link in sidebar)
BAB
Technology called "Information Rights Management," combined with copyright law and Windows Vista, give Microsoft the tools to hold users' data hostage in Office, says Cory Doctorow.
By Cory Doctorow
InformationWeek
Dec 5, 2006 08:19 PM
What if you could rig it so that competing with your flagship product was against the law? Under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, breaking an anti-copying system is illegal, even if you're breaking it for a legal reason. For example, it's against the law to compete head-on with the iPod by making a device that plays... Apple's proprietary music, or by making an iPod add-on that plays your own proprietary music. Nice deal for Apple.
Microsoft gets the same deal, courtesy of something called "Information Rights Management," a use-restriction system for Office files, such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets.
We've had access control for documents for years, through traditional cryptography. Using PGP or a similar product, you can encrypt your files so that only people who have the keys can read them.
But Information Rights Management (IRM), first introduced in Office 2003, goes further -- it doesn't just control who can open the document, it also controls what they can do with it afterwards. Crypto is like an ATM that only lets you get money after you authenticate yourself with your card and PIN. IRM is like some kind of nefarious goon hired by the bank to follow you around after you get your money out, controlling how you spend it.
With IRM, an Office user can specify whether her documents can be printed, saved, edited, forwarded -- she can even revoke access to the documents after sending them out, blocking leaks after they occur. Documents travel with XML expressions explaining how they can and can't be used.
Now, if anyone was allowed to make a document reader, it would be simple to make a reader that ignores the rules. This is a perennial problem for Adobe's password-restricted PDFs -- the only thing that distinguishes them from normal PDFs is a bit that says, "I am a restricted PDF." Just make a PDF reader that ignores the bit and you've defeated the "security." It's about as secure as one of those bogus "Confidentiality notices" that your mail-server pastes in at the bottom of every email you send.
There are plenty of readers for Microsoft's Office formats these days. Apple makes at least two -- Pages and TextEditor. Google and RIM both have Office readers they use to convert Office documents to other formats. And there's also free readers like OpenOffice.org, which are open source and so can be modified by anyone with the interest to write or commission new code for them.
But now that the format is well understood, Microsoft needs another way to ensure that it only hands keys out to readers that can be trusted to follow the rules that accompany them. Pages or OpenOffice.org can request a set of document keys just as readily as Office can. Microsoft can try to create secret handshakes to make sure it only gives out the keys to authorized parties, but just as the document format can be cracked, so can the handshaking.
IRM has an answer. Unlike a crippled PDF, a restricted Word file is encrypted. Only authorized readers will get the keys. This technology will return Office users to the days before the file format had been reverse-engineered by competing products like WordPerfect, where reading an Office file meant licensing the file-format from Microsoft.
If anyone makes a client that listens to its owner instead of Microsoft, then the system collapses. No-print, no-forward, revoke and other flags for the document can simply be ignored. Once Microsoft sends a decryption key to an untrusted party, all bets are off -- Microsoft loses its lock-in and you lose any notional security benefits from IRM.
This has been a purely theoretical problem until recently -- but the advent of Vista and Trusted Computing should put it front-and-square on your radar.
Microsoft has an industrial-strength answer to the problem of figuring out whether a remote client is authorized to request keys. Trusted Computing. For years now, most PC manufacturers have been shipping machines with an inactive "Trusted Computing Module" on the motherboard. These modules can be used to sign the BIOS, bootloader, operating system, and application, producing an "attestation" about the precise configuration of a PC. If your PC doesn't pass muster -- because you're running a third-party document reader, or a modified OS, or an OS inside a virtual machine -- then you don't get any keys.
What this means is that Apple can make Pages, Google can make its Doc-converter, and OpenOffice.org can make its interoperable products, but none of these will be able to get the keys necessary to read "protected" documents unless they're on the white-list of "trusted" clients.
What's more, adding crypto to the mix takes us into another realm: the realm of copyright law. The same copyright law that prohibits competing head on with Apple also prohibits competing head-on with IRM. EDI and other middleware companies built their fortunes on writing software that unlocks your data from Vendor A's format so you can use it with Vendor B's product. But once Vendor A's data-store is encrypted, you run afoul of the law merely by figuring out how to read it without permission.
Vista is the first operating system to begin to use the features of the Trusted Computing Module, though for now, Microsoft is eschewing the use of "Remote Attestation" where software is verified over a network (they've made no promise about doing this forever, of course). No company has spent more time and money on preventing its competitors from reading its documents: remember the fight at the Massachusetts state-house over the proposal to require that government documents be kept in open file-formats?
The deck is stacked against open file formats. Risk-averse enterprises love the idea of revocable documents -- HIPPA compliance, for example, is made infinitely simpler if any health record that leaks out of the hospital can simply have its "read privileges" revoked. This won't keep patients safer. As Don Marti says, "Bill Gates pitch[ed] DRM using the example of an HIV test result, which is literally one bit of information. If you hired someone untrustworthy enough to leak that but unable to remember it, you don't need DRM, you need to fix your hiring process." But it will go a long way towards satisfying picky compliance officers. Look for mail-server advertising that implies that unless you buy some fancy product that auto-converts plain Office documents to "revocable" ones, you're being negligent.
No one ever opts for "less security." Naive users will pull the "security" slider in Office all the way over the right. It's an attractive nuisance, begging to be abused.
The Trusted Computing Module has sat silently on the motherboard for years now. Adding Vista and IRM to it is takes it from egg to larva, and turning on remote attestation in a year or two, once everyone is on next-generation Office, will bring the larva to adulthood, complete with venomous stinger.
Cory Doctorow is co-editor of the Boing Boing blog, as well as a journalist, Internet activist, and science-fiction writer.
BAB
Technology called "Information Rights Management," combined with copyright law and Windows Vista, give Microsoft the tools to hold users' data hostage in Office, says Cory Doctorow.
By Cory Doctorow
InformationWeek
Dec 5, 2006 08:19 PM
What if you could rig it so that competing with your flagship product was against the law? Under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, breaking an anti-copying system is illegal, even if you're breaking it for a legal reason. For example, it's against the law to compete head-on with the iPod by making a device that plays... Apple's proprietary music, or by making an iPod add-on that plays your own proprietary music. Nice deal for Apple.
Microsoft gets the same deal, courtesy of something called "Information Rights Management," a use-restriction system for Office files, such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets.
We've had access control for documents for years, through traditional cryptography. Using PGP or a similar product, you can encrypt your files so that only people who have the keys can read them.
But Information Rights Management (IRM), first introduced in Office 2003, goes further -- it doesn't just control who can open the document, it also controls what they can do with it afterwards. Crypto is like an ATM that only lets you get money after you authenticate yourself with your card and PIN. IRM is like some kind of nefarious goon hired by the bank to follow you around after you get your money out, controlling how you spend it.
With IRM, an Office user can specify whether her documents can be printed, saved, edited, forwarded -- she can even revoke access to the documents after sending them out, blocking leaks after they occur. Documents travel with XML expressions explaining how they can and can't be used.
Now, if anyone was allowed to make a document reader, it would be simple to make a reader that ignores the rules. This is a perennial problem for Adobe's password-restricted PDFs -- the only thing that distinguishes them from normal PDFs is a bit that says, "I am a restricted PDF." Just make a PDF reader that ignores the bit and you've defeated the "security." It's about as secure as one of those bogus "Confidentiality notices" that your mail-server pastes in at the bottom of every email you send.
There are plenty of readers for Microsoft's Office formats these days. Apple makes at least two -- Pages and TextEditor. Google and RIM both have Office readers they use to convert Office documents to other formats. And there's also free readers like OpenOffice.org, which are open source and so can be modified by anyone with the interest to write or commission new code for them.
But now that the format is well understood, Microsoft needs another way to ensure that it only hands keys out to readers that can be trusted to follow the rules that accompany them. Pages or OpenOffice.org can request a set of document keys just as readily as Office can. Microsoft can try to create secret handshakes to make sure it only gives out the keys to authorized parties, but just as the document format can be cracked, so can the handshaking.
IRM has an answer. Unlike a crippled PDF, a restricted Word file is encrypted. Only authorized readers will get the keys. This technology will return Office users to the days before the file format had been reverse-engineered by competing products like WordPerfect, where reading an Office file meant licensing the file-format from Microsoft.
If anyone makes a client that listens to its owner instead of Microsoft, then the system collapses. No-print, no-forward, revoke and other flags for the document can simply be ignored. Once Microsoft sends a decryption key to an untrusted party, all bets are off -- Microsoft loses its lock-in and you lose any notional security benefits from IRM.
This has been a purely theoretical problem until recently -- but the advent of Vista and Trusted Computing should put it front-and-square on your radar.
Microsoft has an industrial-strength answer to the problem of figuring out whether a remote client is authorized to request keys. Trusted Computing. For years now, most PC manufacturers have been shipping machines with an inactive "Trusted Computing Module" on the motherboard. These modules can be used to sign the BIOS, bootloader, operating system, and application, producing an "attestation" about the precise configuration of a PC. If your PC doesn't pass muster -- because you're running a third-party document reader, or a modified OS, or an OS inside a virtual machine -- then you don't get any keys.
What this means is that Apple can make Pages, Google can make its Doc-converter, and OpenOffice.org can make its interoperable products, but none of these will be able to get the keys necessary to read "protected" documents unless they're on the white-list of "trusted" clients.
What's more, adding crypto to the mix takes us into another realm: the realm of copyright law. The same copyright law that prohibits competing head on with Apple also prohibits competing head-on with IRM. EDI and other middleware companies built their fortunes on writing software that unlocks your data from Vendor A's format so you can use it with Vendor B's product. But once Vendor A's data-store is encrypted, you run afoul of the law merely by figuring out how to read it without permission.
Vista is the first operating system to begin to use the features of the Trusted Computing Module, though for now, Microsoft is eschewing the use of "Remote Attestation" where software is verified over a network (they've made no promise about doing this forever, of course). No company has spent more time and money on preventing its competitors from reading its documents: remember the fight at the Massachusetts state-house over the proposal to require that government documents be kept in open file-formats?
The deck is stacked against open file formats. Risk-averse enterprises love the idea of revocable documents -- HIPPA compliance, for example, is made infinitely simpler if any health record that leaks out of the hospital can simply have its "read privileges" revoked. This won't keep patients safer. As Don Marti says, "Bill Gates pitch[ed] DRM using the example of an HIV test result, which is literally one bit of information. If you hired someone untrustworthy enough to leak that but unable to remember it, you don't need DRM, you need to fix your hiring process." But it will go a long way towards satisfying picky compliance officers. Look for mail-server advertising that implies that unless you buy some fancy product that auto-converts plain Office documents to "revocable" ones, you're being negligent.
No one ever opts for "less security." Naive users will pull the "security" slider in Office all the way over the right. It's an attractive nuisance, begging to be abused.
The Trusted Computing Module has sat silently on the motherboard for years now. Adding Vista and IRM to it is takes it from egg to larva, and turning on remote attestation in a year or two, once everyone is on next-generation Office, will bring the larva to adulthood, complete with venomous stinger.
Cory Doctorow is co-editor of the Boing Boing blog, as well as a journalist, Internet activist, and science-fiction writer.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Woman Under Fire After In-Flight Flatulence
I just love that headline
BAB
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- What do you do if you pass embarrassing gas on an airplane? One woman found out what not to do.
A Nashville International Airport spokeswoman said an American Airlines plane bound for Texas had to make an emergency landing Monday morning in Nashville after matches were lit in flight.
The pilot said the concern was... what passengers said they smelled inside the aircraft and that he did not feel it was safe to continue on.
"About 6:30 this morning, an American Airlines pilot called the FAA tower reporting that passengers were smelling fumes like matches being struck within the cabin," said airport spokeswoman Lynne Lowrance.
The 99 passengers and five crew members were taken inside the terminal after landing so the plane could be checked out.
"They did find evidence of where matches had been struck in an individual's seating area. That individual is being questioned by the FBI at this time," Lowrance said.
A woman passenger told investigators that she lit matches to mask gas that she emitted.
"You can take up to eight books of safety matches, the paper matches, onto the aircraft," Lowrance said.
Just before noon authorities said the passengers re-boarded the plane and continued on to Texas.
The female passenger was released without being charged, but was not allowed back on the American Airlines flight.
BAB
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- What do you do if you pass embarrassing gas on an airplane? One woman found out what not to do.
A Nashville International Airport spokeswoman said an American Airlines plane bound for Texas had to make an emergency landing Monday morning in Nashville after matches were lit in flight.
The pilot said the concern was... what passengers said they smelled inside the aircraft and that he did not feel it was safe to continue on.
"About 6:30 this morning, an American Airlines pilot called the FAA tower reporting that passengers were smelling fumes like matches being struck within the cabin," said airport spokeswoman Lynne Lowrance.
The 99 passengers and five crew members were taken inside the terminal after landing so the plane could be checked out.
"They did find evidence of where matches had been struck in an individual's seating area. That individual is being questioned by the FBI at this time," Lowrance said.
A woman passenger told investigators that she lit matches to mask gas that she emitted.
"You can take up to eight books of safety matches, the paper matches, onto the aircraft," Lowrance said.
Just before noon authorities said the passengers re-boarded the plane and continued on to Texas.
The female passenger was released without being charged, but was not allowed back on the American Airlines flight.
Andy Rooney: Racist commentary is a hoax
NEW YORK (AP) -- Andy Rooney has never been shy about his opinions, but now he's being bedeviled by somebody else's words being circulated under his name.
Rooney said on Tuesday that a racist commentary falsely... attributed to him is circulating over the Internet and through e-mails. The "60 Minutes" essayist wants anyone who might have seen it to know he had nothing to do with it.
"I suppose it's not important, but I hate the fact that people think I've been writing these things," he told The Associated Press. "That's hurtful to me."
The missive, which Rooney said had been passed along to him via e-mail several times, is a list of several anti-minority statements. One of the printable ones: "I have the right not to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird or tick me off."
Because he's well known and has a clearly identifiable style, Rooney has been the victim of other such hoaxes in the past. Another commentary falsely circulated under his name praises the virtues of women over age 30.
"Someone on the street yesterday said 'I read your piece about older women,' " Rooney said. "All I ever say is 'I didn't write it and I'm trying to sue the guy who did.' "
Rooney said he tracked down a Colorado address of someone who supposedly wrote the missive about older women. When in the state recently, he said he went to the address, only to find it was a post office box.
"I don't know what I would have done," said Rooney, who turns 88 next month. "Nothing physical."
Rooney is a frequent victim of statements falsely attributed to him and spread widely across the Net, along with George Carlin and Bill Gates, said Barbara Mikkelson, who runs snopes.com, a Web site devoted to tracking down urban myths and other scams.
Rooney is "almost a special case because he's widely regarded as a commentator who comments on the human condition," she said. "That's possibly why all these polemics get stuffed in his mouth.
"The only defense you have is to as publicly as possible say 'it wasn't me,' " she said, "and that will never slow it down completely."
The CBS News commentator said he recognized there's a danger in giving attention to whoever is doing these things.
"My tendency, from having been a newsman for so many years, is if all the truth about everything came out, things are better."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Friday, December 01, 2006
Jan's Aunt Mickey
Minnette Nelson "Mickey"
Nelson, Minnette Age 95 Born & raised in St. Paul Passed away peacefully 11/28/06. Preceded in death by husband, Leslie; sisters, Anne Hoska, Bertene Johnson, Gladys "Sis" O'Roarke; brothers, Dan Denissen and Pete Denisson. Survived by children, Gayle Lopez and Judy (Tony) Christensen; grandchildren, Annette Lopez, Holly (Greg) Rome and Ryan (Emily) Christensen; great-grandsons, Alex and Jacob Rome; brother, Al Denisson; sister-in-law, Marian Nelson; many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews; other relatives and friends. Mickey was a 1929 graduate of Mechanic Arts H.S. Retired from Webb Publishing Co. Visitation Sun. 12/3, 6-8 PM at WULFF FUNERAL HOME, 1485 White Bear Ave. Funeral service Mon. 12/4 at 11AM at ARLINGTON HILLS LUTHERAN CHURCH, 1115 Greenbrier Ave., with add'l visitation 1 hr prior to service at church. Interment Roselawn. Wulff Funeral Home (651) 776-1555
Published in the Pioneer Press on 12/1/2006.
Click here for actual article or to sign guestbook
Nelson, Minnette Age 95 Born & raised in St. Paul Passed away peacefully 11/28/06. Preceded in death by husband, Leslie; sisters, Anne Hoska, Bertene Johnson, Gladys "Sis" O'Roarke; brothers, Dan Denissen and Pete Denisson. Survived by children, Gayle Lopez and Judy (Tony) Christensen; grandchildren, Annette Lopez, Holly (Greg) Rome and Ryan (Emily) Christensen; great-grandsons, Alex and Jacob Rome; brother, Al Denisson; sister-in-law, Marian Nelson; many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews; other relatives and friends. Mickey was a 1929 graduate of Mechanic Arts H.S. Retired from Webb Publishing Co. Visitation Sun. 12/3, 6-8 PM at WULFF FUNERAL HOME, 1485 White Bear Ave. Funeral service Mon. 12/4 at 11AM at ARLINGTON HILLS LUTHERAN CHURCH, 1115 Greenbrier Ave., with add'l visitation 1 hr prior to service at church. Interment Roselawn. Wulff Funeral Home (651) 776-1555
Published in the Pioneer Press on 12/1/2006.
Click here for actual article or to sign guestbook
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Bush Nuts--Are George W. Bush lovers certifiable?
November 23, 2006
By Andy Bromage
A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.
Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on... a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.
“Yes it was a legitimate study but these data were mined after the fact,” Rakfeldt says. “You can ask new questions of the data. I haven’t looked at” Lohse’s conclusions regarding Bush, Rakfeldt says.
“That doesn’t make it illegitimate, it just wasn’t part of the original project.”
For his part, Lohse is a self-described “Reagan revolution fanatic” but said that W. is just “beyond the pale.” ●
abromage@newhavenadvocate.com
By Andy Bromage
A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.
Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on... a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.
“Yes it was a legitimate study but these data were mined after the fact,” Rakfeldt says. “You can ask new questions of the data. I haven’t looked at” Lohse’s conclusions regarding Bush, Rakfeldt says.
“That doesn’t make it illegitimate, it just wasn’t part of the original project.”
For his part, Lohse is a self-described “Reagan revolution fanatic” but said that W. is just “beyond the pale.” ●
abromage@newhavenadvocate.com
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
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