CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: Let’s Go To The Ice Cream Parlor!
GREAT PICTURE of Michigan’s Common Snapping Turtle.
CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING #130: Homesick Campers' Edition: This week's installment at Dewey's Treehouse. The homeschooling blogosphere is fairly impressive.
OKAY, THAT'S EXCESSIVE: Gas hits $5.49 gallon in Michigan
VERY SAD: Birth of triplets bittersweet for dad
Tina Hagenbuch was admitted in December to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo and doctors performed a C-section. Tina lost consciousness after the arrival of the first baby, a boy named Teegan. Then the other two babies, both girls - Trinity and Rowan - arrived.
But something went wrong and Tina died a half hour later.
SO I'M IN ARIZONA for a couple of days. Went running today in shorts and a light T-shirt.
What's the weather like in Michigan?
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS?
Erich and Connie Hahne have created Michigan Mittens. Maps are sewn into the palms — the Lower Peninsula on the right mitten, the Upper Peninsula on the left.
Red dots show major cities; a yellow star indicates Lansing, the state capital. A pair sells for $20 on the married couple's Web site.
The whole point-to-your-hand-as-a-map thing has always amused me. Now it goes multimedia.
Here's the site to order your Michigan Mittens.
TENNESSEE POLICE SHOOT MAN SUSPECTED OF KILLING MICHIGAN RESIDENT: The man police believe shot and killed Stacey Sherman of Applegate in Knoxville was killed Sunday night. More at GunPundit.
CoHS #104: Last Carnival of Homeschooling in 2007
CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: This week at The Common Room.
THE 102ND CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: The Many Hats of Homeschool Edition.
UMMM, I'll PASS: Man receives 96 percent APR loan offer
In GR:
The unsecured loans available are relatively small - $1,000 to a maximum of $3,000. But at 96 percent APR, that $3,000 loan with 24 monthly payments of $284.93 comes out to a payback of $6,838.32.
The offer was from an out-of-state lender. Michigan lenders are limited to a maximum APR of about 13% for unsecured loans.
OINK: Feral pigs spreading out into Michigan's suburbs, parks
FAILING GRADE: Michigan schools report card: Not good
Fewer high schools in Michigan made adequate progress toward meeting requirements of federal No Child Left Behind laws, the state reported Friday.
In the last school year, 489 high schools didn't made adequate progress, up from 399 in 2005-06. Fifteen of the schools have been closed by their local districts.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan said the results weren't surprising because the state raised the standards to graduate from high school.
"We are seeing a momentary lag as we prepare for greater success down the road," he said in a news release. "The reforms we've put into place need time to work."
Let's hope that's the case. In any event, this merely reinforces my belief in homeschooling. Michigan is a great state to homeschool in.
Speaking of which, this week saw the 100th Carnival of Homeschooling. Check it out.
THINGS WE COULDN'T SAY: Last night I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Diet Eman, a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War 2. She currently lives in Grand Rapids and spoke to a packed room at the Homeschool Building in Wyoming.
It was quite something to hear about her experiences and exploits following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. She helped hide Dutch Jews, she aided downed Allied pilots, she helped steal ID papers and ration cards for those in hiding, and she basically lived on the run until captured and imprisoned in 1944. Her fiance was killed. Canadian troops finally liberated the area in 1945.
She credits her Christian faith and God's will for her success and survival. I believe that the things she did and the close calls she managed to escape were not mere coincidence or good fortune.
She refused an honorarium for speaking because of her strong support for homeschooling.
I bought a copy of her book Things We Couldn't Say and it looks good. It was published by Eerdmans in Grand Rapids. Mrs. Eman was signing books, and I had her make it out to my wife who has read a number of WW2-era stories to our kids, including at least one on the Dutch Resistance. I'll probably have some excerpts and additional comments once I get a chance to read it.
To hear her stories from her mouth in person was quite an experience. She told us that any of us would do the same thing in the same position, and I would like to believe it. But to hear her speak of what she did, I wonder.
INCIDENT AT THE PINEDALE SHOPPING MALL:
HOMESCHOOL BUZZ: Carnival of Homeschooling: Thanksgiving Week 2007.
And you don't have to be a homeschooler to find these carnivals interesting. Lots of good informational stuff. Careful...you might learn something.
SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA WONDER: Michigan boy, 13, charged with drunken driving
A police officer checking on a truck that got stuck in the mud at a city park was startled to find a 13-year-old boy behind the wheel.
The boy's father, who was sitting in the passenger seat, told police he had had too much to drink and let his son drive. The boy had been drinking, too, police said.
"(The boy) even said he didn't want to drive because he was too drunk," McLellan told The Flint Journal for a story published Thursday.
AT NERD FAMILY: Homeschooling Carnival: I am Thankful Edition.
It's the 98th installment of the link-rich weekly carnival. Michigan is a great homeschooling state, and the homeschooling community has a lot offer, both in our state and across the nation. Check it out.
LOCAL POWER: Wyoming shop to help power military
Coffman Electric Equipment Company is part of the Advanced Mobile MicroGrid Power System project:
"When you get in a foreign country, if they have poor power quality, you can take any voltage, any frequency, put it into our package and get computer-grade output power," Dick Coffman, president of Coffman Electric, said.
"It's not a power source; it's a power conversion device," he said.
The $1.4 million prototype is called an Electronic Power Control and Conditioning system.
It can accept DC voltages from 24 to 600 volts, or alternating electric current at 50, 60 or 400 herz.
"We can take all these power feeds simultaneously and combine them, then come out with data-center-grade power. To our knowledge, this has never been done before," Coffman said.
Preliminary tests are scheduled for next month and production could begin within two years.
96th CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: Yearbook Edition at Sprittibee.
Cpl. David Ulch a resident of Lincoln Park, Michigan, and squad leader for Company K keeps watches closely as one of his Marines heaves a grenade over a protective wall at the Udairi Range Complex Sept. 14, 2007. Ulch and the Marines and sailors of Companies K are currently deployed as the Ground Combat Element for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit led by Col. Doug Stilwell. Photo by: Sgt. Ezekiel R. Kitandwe
Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment is currently training in Kuwait. See: Expeditionary Leathernecks kick up Kuwaiti dust
DRY NO MORE: After 104-year alcohol ban, conservative Michigan town grants pizzeria its 1st liquor license.
If anything warrants breaking the four month hold on MichiBlogger, it's this:
For the first time in more than a century, beer and wine by the glass will go on sale in a small, conservative city in Michigan with the granting of a liquor license to a pizzeria.
"We could be serving in six to eight weeks," Vitale's Pizza co-owner Ryan Snyder told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday.
Zeeland is a 6,000-member community with a conservative Dutch heritage, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Grand Rapids. In November, voters approved an end to the 104-year-old alcohol sales ban, 1,425 to 1,385. Turnout was 73 percent.
KRAPPY KAMERA PERSON TOTALLY CAUGHT IN THE ACT: Six Degrees from the Ypsilanti Farm Bureau. And the pic isn't even all that krappy.
CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING #69: Bee Edition at Sprittibee. Another great entry.
TOYOTA PASSES GENERAL MOTORS: Japanese carmaker ends GM's 76-year reign as No. 1 seller.
Toyota pulled ahead, though GM posted record first-quarter sales of 2.26 million vehicles globally, up 3 percent from the previous year. Toyota's sales rose 9 percent, to 2.35 million.
"The news isn't what we wanted to hear, but it's not going to distract us from the business at hand," GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. "We need to continue to strengthen our business in North America and our financial position."
Honestly, if anyone is shocked by this they haven't been paying attention for the past decade or more. That's too bad, and I sure hope that GM and the Big Three can turn it around. But I ain't really holding my breath on that.
LIFE IMITATING ART?
Douglas Adams:
Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.
University of Michigan:
Chimps more evolved than humans.
(via Our Michigan)
MICHIGAN IS A GREAT STATE TO HOMESCHOOL IN, so be sure to check out the Carnival of Homeschooling Tax Edition at Why Homeschool.
GOT THIS IN MY INBOX TODAY:
Get your Diploma fast and aesy today!
Within 4-6 weeks!
No Study Rqeuired!
100% Verifiable!These are real, genuine degrees that include Bachelors, Masters, MBA and Doctorate Degrees. They are uflly verifiable and certified transcripts are also available.
I hope they aren't using program graduates to write the emails...
GHOST OF CHRISTMAS FUTURE: There was a mosquito in our basement just now. I squashed him, but there's no doubt many more. I can't believe it, particularly give the last week's weather.
WANNA BE IN THE MOVIES? This could be your chance: 500 extras needed in Michigan
Shooting for a new Will Ferrell sports comedy begins in Michigan later this month.
Crews plan location shots in the last week of April and the first week of May for "Semi-Pro," which stars Ferrell as a player, coach and owner of a Flint, Mich.-based team in the 1970s American Basketball Association who is trying to get into the NBA.
The filmmakers are looking to hire 500 extras, said Wendy Washbrook, extras casting director for the Michigan locations. "Just normal people who want to come and work with us and dress in 1970s costumes, or wear a wig and sideburns."
Murdoc recommends growing real side-burns and dressing for the part. It might get you a bit of face time instead of being just part of the crowd.
Applicants may send a photograph and contact information to: Wendy Washbrook/Extras Casting, "Semi-Pro," c/o L.A. Center Studios, 1201 W. 5th St., Suite M310, Los Angeles, CA 90017
THE LATEST CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: The Poetry of Homeschooling
MARK 16:5-6:
On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them "Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He was been raised; he is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him."
Gustav Dore's 'The Angel at the Sepulcher' from The Dore Gallery of Bible Illustrations, available free at Project Gutenberg.
Happy Easter to all.
Busy today, but wanted to make sure to remember:
Image from the 1959 Ben-Hur.
HOWLING AT THE MOON? Wolves remain elusive in lower Michigan:
Michigan wildlife officials said they are convinced there are gray wolves in the Lower Peninsula even though no one has spotted a pack.
Wildlife biologists with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources have been looking into reports of wolf sightings in Lower Michigan for three years without turning up evidence of a pack.
A BLUSTERY MORNING...AND SOME SNOW. I'm no fan of hot weather, but I'd just as soon get on with spring at this point.
Looks like the beavers are preparing to do a bit of spring construction. My wife took this yesterday near Hungerford Lake in Manistee National Forest.
THE LATEST CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING IS UP, this week at Alasandra. This carnival is a great resource and is worth your time if you have kids, even if you don't homeschool.
THIS SEEMS BIZARRE: Man Gets $122,400 for Cat Bite
An ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran from Flushing, Mich., was awarded $122,400 by a jury after his sister’s cat bit him on the hand.
Tom Pabst, an attorney for Michael Sabo, said the jury ordered his client’s sister’s insurance company to pay the sum after Sabo was bitten on the hand by the Siamese cat while delivering a barbecue grill to her home, the Flint (Mich.) Journal reported Monday.
Also see the Detroit Free Press for more details.
Save the Wild UP is challenging you to make a video that shows why Michigan must protect its rivers, lakes and streams. We’ll all vote on the best and the winners will receive all kinds of prizes, including $2500 in cash for the Grand Prize winner. And maybe somewhere in here, we might find a legacy to pass along to our children that makes them happy and healthy.
Murdoc doesn't normally go overboard on environmental issues, but this sounds like it could be productive and maybe even rational. Check it out if interested.
Via Dave's Blog.
UPDATE: Their promo image link really seems to hose things up. So I made my own. They aren't going to get much support if they can't get their drop-in links to work...
UPDATE 2: The problem was with the curly quotes. I figured out how to make the link work and sent a message on. Hopefully they get it straightened out soon.
Iceboat vs. Chevy on Lake St. Clair in the 1930s:
MARUCHAN RAMEN NOODLES ARE 7 FOR A DOLLAR AT FAMILY FARE. I just bought work lunch until late April for less than $3.50.
I've found that crushing the dry noodles, adding hot water, microwaving for 40 seconds, and letting it sit for 3-4 minutes gets me the best results. I use only half of the flavor (salt) packet.
This stuff makes instant oatmeal (another favorite work lunch of mine) look expensive.
From my "Worst Case Scenario"-a-day calendar:
I think they use this one every February 14th. Hilarious.
IT'S SNOWING AGAIN and it looks like today will be the warmest day of the week with more snow to come. December, of course, was warmer than normal. But by the time all is said and done we always seem to be pretty close to hitting the averages.
PRETTY COOL:
Click it for a better look.
From Chris Yates. You can order a print if you want.
THIS HAS GOT TO BE THE LAZIEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT: Kids who sleep more weigh less, researchers say. Yes, the study was about children aged 3-12, but I'm willing to give it a try.
Continue reading "Lose weight while sleeping" »
THIS WEEK'S CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING: Celebrating New Life. This week at About.com.
IT'S NOT WISE TO UPSET A WOOKIE: Chewbacca Arrested in Hollywood!
No, it doesn't have anything to do with Michigan. But don't tell me it isn't worth posting.
GOT THIS HOAX EMAIL THIS MORNING:
Heads Up, In February, Michigan will launch a 30-day speeding ticket frenzy
The state estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime.
There will be 50 state troopers on duty 24/7 patrolling the following highways.
I-75 North and South
I-94 From Ann Arbor to Port Huron
Entire length of I-96 & I-696
I-275 North and South
M-10 Lodge FwyNow, 5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket, and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Crown Victoria cruisers and they are bringing all their part timers on full time.
* Wear your seat belt,
* nothing hanging from the rear view mirror, take those beads off!
* do the speed limit - use cruise control if you have it,
* no cracks in your windshield,
* and use your turn signals!
The State has to make up for the billion dollar deficit! Be aware!
I thought I had seen this one last year, and what do you know, but I had.
Of course, the fact that this email is a hoax doesn't mean that you won't be pulled over for speeding...
THIS STORY OF A SEARCH FOR A MATCHING BONE MARROW DONOR IN NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS A WEST MICHIGAN CONNECTION: ‘Help Giovanni’ site shut down: Complaint derails bone marrow effort.
Michael Guglielmo's infant son Giovanni suffers from a very serious immune disorder and Mr. Guglielmo is doing everything he can to raise money and to get more people signed up as potential bone marrow donors. He built a web site called helpgiovanniguglielmo.org with photos, information, and requests for financial donations to help the family care for Giovanni and visit him in the Boston Children's Hospital. He printed up fliers for local businesses to display, but when some didn't post them, he began calling for boycotts and listed those businesses on a Non Giovanni Supporters page on the web site.
It's at that point that Robert Dewey of Wyoming, Michigan became involved. He was alerted to the effort, but declined to donate:
Dewey, a 39-year-old Web designer who says he has been a foster parent for a decade, said he first heard about Giovanni’s Web site from a friend and e-mailed the infant’s father, telling him he felt bad for Giovanni but would not be donating either his bone marrow or his money to the infant.
Dewey said he questioned how the child’s family was using monetary donations and objected to a part of the Web site in which the father listed businesses that refused to post fliers in their windows about his son’s search for a bone marrow donor.
“I’m not insensitive to this family’s plight, but they’ve played fast and loose with this Web site,� Dewey said. “(Guglielmo) knew that if you use it to harass people, that’s a violation of Microsoft’s terms.�
The two exchanged several heated e-mails and phone calls, and Guglielmo included Dewey’s address and phone number on his Web site and encouraged readers to “let him know how you feel.�
Dewey complained to Microsoft, and by last Friday, the site was down.
Now, for what it's worth, the site appears to be back up, with the "non supporters" page still active.
As Jay Tea at Wizbang writes:
There's a fine line between asking for charity and demanding it. Between emotional blackmail and outright extortion.
It's unclear what possessed Dewey to take action, and it's unclear exactly how things went down. At least three stories in the Boston Herald on this have been written by Marie Szaniszlo, and all three are very obviously slanted against anything and anyone who isn't dropping everything to find bone marrow for baby Giovanni. In addition to the story linked at the beginning of this post, she has also written Baby Giovanni fights for life: Family pleads for life-saving bone marrow donor and Clogged phones leave sick baby’s saviors hanging.
While I certainly hope that the marrow search is successful, isn't it a bit much to try to punish people because they won't donate and help? Maybe his intent is to drum up controversy in order to increase public awareness of his family's plight, but it certainly makes him look bad.
More from the article on the boycotts:
"We'd happily work his website at zero cost but would not participate in something that trashes other businesses," Dewey said. "It's intimidating to be told if you don't give me what I want, I'm going to boycott you. He should be out there trying to find donors, not creating boycotts."
After several emails, Guglielmo posted Dewey's name, company and phone number on his website as a non-supporter, and Dewey said he will ask Microsoft to take down the site because it uses his copyrighted company name and misrepresents his position.
"I hope I wake up to your energy being focused on your son and not your battles and boycotts, but if not I will absolutely go to Microsoft and file the complaint," Dewey wrote in an e-mail forwarded to the Monitor.
Guglielmo responded to Dewey by e-mail: "If you want to be responsible for shutting down Giovanni's site . . . then by all means go after my kid. He is the one you will hurt. . . . Let me reiterate: I need bone marrow to save my kid's life and I'm going to do what I need to get it."
I think everyone will agree that most parents would do whatever they needed to do in a situation like this. But I really have trouble believing that spending time and energy promoting a boycott and little personal retaliation games like this is really helping.
For what it's worth, no one can directly donate bone marrow to baby Giovanni. Potential donors must register and be listed in the National Bone Marrow Program database. I've been registered, and I encourage others to do the same. But I won't blacklist you and publish your personal contact info if you decline.
MONTROSE TOWNSHIP, Mich. Scientists say fossils that a mid-Michigan family found on their property are the remains of a Mastodon.
The Sizemore family of Genesee County's Montrose Township was digging a bike trail days before Christmas when they found the remains.
IT SNOWED A BIT THIS AFTERNOON while visiting mother-in-law. Just a bit.
NEXT WEEK I'LL BE HEADING DOWN TO ORLANDO FOR THE 2007 SHOT SHOW, the nation's largest outdoor and shooting sports trade show. The show is for the trade only and not open to the public, but I'm wondering if any readers will be attending. If so and you'd like to chat a bit, drop me a line.
I'll be attending as a member of the media, covering the show for Murdoc Online and Shooting Sports Retailer magazine.
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. And hate...to suffering.
For example, here is some suffering:
No reward is worth this,
THE LATEST CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING IS UP: The One Week Short of a Year Carnival of Homeschooling. Lots-O-Links.
WHEW: Ford: No way we'll make four-door Mustang. Mentioned, with dread, here.
THIS SPRING THE OLD BLUE LICENSE PLATE WAS VOTED INTO RETIREMENT. Kyla King points out
New plates available after New Year's Day.
Here are the Secretary of State's Renewal Instructions for blue plate owners.
My wife is particularly fond of her blue plate and is unhappy that she won't get to keep the registration number.
Make your own license plate images (for any state) here.
ABOUT A MONTH AGO I LINKED TO A LIST OF "10 Things I Wish I Had Never Believed" by Steve Olson. One of the entries concerned public education.
Though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says in his recent "How the Public School System Crushes Souls", I must say that I agree with a lot it.
Two things I'd like to point out, though, are that:
Though there are no doubt many exceptions, I truly think that it is the education systems, not the educators themselves, that are the cause of most of the valid problems in today's public education. I know a fair number of educators. I would gladly have them teach my kids. But I would be hesitant to put my kids in the system where that teaching would need to take place.
If you're interested in education, go read "How the Public School System Crushes Souls". There are some good comments in the comments section, too. From both sides of the argument.
FORD IS CONSIDERING A FOUR-DOOR MUSTANG WAGON. That, my friends, is what's called "stupid". Or, as a co-worker said, "Looks like Ford is letting [Matt] Millen try his hand in running some of the auto programs, too..."
Ahh. The love affair with Lions GM Matt Millen goes on.
DAVE'S BLOG HAS BECOME A DAILY READ FOR MURDOC. It deals mostly with environmental issues in Michigan and the surrounding area. Good stuff.
Today, he points out Minnesota's renewable energy plan. Go read.
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN: Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 50. If you homeschool, and Michigan is a GREAT place to homeschool, be sure to check out the weekly Carnival.
WE'RE RUNNING A BIT BEHIND OUR FAMILY'S NORMAL HOLIDAY SCHEDULE THIS YEAR, and my wife and kids were just getting around to decorating the Christmas tree last night. But an old holiday tradition refused to die: Virtually all of our strings of lights failed to, well, light.
It happens without fail. Despite the fact that they all worked at the end of last year and were all carefully coiled and stored, only two strings worked right off the bat. A third one was finally resuscitated after much effort (and foul language?), but the rest are dead dead dead.
The amount spent on the strings seems to make no difference. Cheap ones are as likely to work (or not work) as more expensive ones.
Should all lights just be thrown out at the end of the season and new ones purchased for next time? That seems terribly wasteful to Murdoc. But most of them get thrown out for failing to work anyway.
THE LATEST CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING, this week at Corn and Oil, is up. Click away!
I KNEW IT: Sitting up straight isn't good posture, study says
"THE PETROLEUM AGE IS COMING TO AN END" says Bruce Dale, the associate director of MSU's Office of Bio-based Technologies. He claims that the study which proves ethanol fuel takes more energy to make than it produces, is bunk:
Ethanol requires 29 percent more fossil energy to produce than the fuel it produces, according to the study by David Pimental, a Cornell University professor of agriculture and ecology, and Tad Patzek, a University of California-Berkeley professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Dale contends the study is off-base because it measured energy used and produced with British Thermal Units (BTUs).
A BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree. It takes 143 BTUs to melt a pound of ice.
"It's an irrelevant measurement," he said. "We cannot add up different forms of energy on a straight BTU basis any more than we can add up different (monetary) currencies on a straight equivalency basis.
"It's a dumb idea, and it's surprising that it's lasted this long."
Whether or not the study is well-founded, the future for ethanol fuel appears to be in "biomass". According to the US Dept. of Energy:
Advanced Bioethanol Technology allows fuel ethanol to be made from cellulosic (plant fiber) biomass, such as agricultural forestry residues, industrial waste, material in municipal solid waste, trees, and grasses.
Once the technology and infrastructure matures, biomass ethanol should cost about half as much to make as that based on corn. So even if the "net negative energy" study is accurate, the new sources of mass will make ethanol viable.
Another option would be to perform more of the ethanol production with electricity-based equipment and power the electric equipment with energy from nuclear power plants. In that case, even if ethanol is a "net negative energy" product, the "lost" energy would come from near-infinite atomics and the portable energy of ethanol would be able to replace the portable energy of petroleum.
The real problem is the "portable" part of portable energy. Electric cars work just fine. Except that electric power isn't portable enough because batteries are so big and heavy and don't last very long. Batteries cannot power large aircraft at all. So more portable energy is needed, and fuel in the form of gasoline or ethanol can meet those needs. Spending "extra" nuclear power to create sufficient energy to power things needing portable fuel would be worth it if there was no other way.
For what it's worth, besides nuclear power for electricity, Murdoc is a fan of oil shale/sands. Colorado and Canada are sitting on a ton of the stuff.
HERE'S A LOCAL EFFORT TO HELP OUT MILITARY WOMEN DEPLOYED TO IRAQ: Careboxes for Female Soldiers. The small group meets twice a month at Allendale Wesleyan Church and plans to send small packages of goodies to female US soldiers in Iraq. They're looking for some more names. Details at Murdoc Online.
CHECK OUT THE COMMON ROOM for this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. Lots of good stuff.
DIG MICHIGAN IS ROUNDING UP A SOURCE OF GREAT HOLIDAY GIFTS FROM MICHIGAN. Check it out or make your own recommendation.
"THE PINEDALE SHOPPING MALL HAS JUST BEEN BOMBED WITH LIVE TURKEYS!"
This is a classic:
WKRP in Cinncinati was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I guess I better see if it's still running somewhere so I can TiVo it. Good stuff.
Clip via Rocket Jones and Off Wing Opinion. Cross-posted to Murdoc Online.
LAST NIGHT I NOTED THAT INTERNET SHOPPING MIGHT TAKE A BITE OUT OF 'BLACK FRIDAY' CROWDS. Today's GR Press has: Cyber shoppers skip chaos which includes:
Twenty percent of shoppers expect to buy holiday gifts online Monday and more than a quarter of those will do that on the job, according to Deloitte & Touche's annual holiday survey.
Still, it won't be the busiest cyber shopping day.
The heaviest online buying occurs closer to Christmas, based on last year's track record.
Twenty percent of online merchants reported Monday, Dec. 12, as their busiest sales day of the 2005 season.
If the trend holds, then the biggest online shopping day of 2006 should be Dec. 11. That week marks the deadline for many cyber merchants' offers of free shipping and guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.
Murdoc, for one, much prefers shopping online to a trip to the mall. I mean, are you kidding?
Still, my wife has been out most of the day as Black Friday draws bargain hunters in droves.
HOPE THAT EVERYONE HAD A GREAT THANKSGIVING. My family and I spent the day with my wife's family and we ate ourselves fat. I guess we'll have to exercise a bit extra tomorrow.
I don't know if fighting the crowds at the stores and malls counts, though. I'm wondering if we'll be hearing alarmist stories about business being down a bit. One thing to keep in mind is that online shopping is likely to be up a great deal. Traditional measures are going to have to be updated in this new age of information superhighways and folks who work from home using computers and the internet.
UPDATE: And is it just me, or should headlines like these be outlawed?
I mean, that's just pathetic. Especially for Michiganders who are suffering through another disappointing NFL season and just watched Joey Harrington win a third consecutive game for the first time in his career.
"Skinned"? Give me a break on the cliches, okay?
Money quote:
"I stood on the sidelines at the end of the third quarter there, and I looked across, and I saw guys were hanging their heads, and I saw people start walking out of the stadium," Harrington said. "At that moment, I thought to myself, `I'm glad I don't have to go through this anymore.' "
I always thought Harrington should have been a good QB and couldn't really figure out why he wasn't. Suspicions that it wasn't his fault seem to be gaining a lot of credibility.
For what it's worth, I also think John Kitna should be a good QB. But he sure doesn't look it these days.
THIS WEEK'S CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING is up at Tami's Blog.
THIS IS WEIRD: Saturday evening after OSU defeated the Michigan Wolverines 42-39, the Ohio Lottery's Pic Four results were 4-2-3-9.
"IF IT SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it usually is." Fake lottery check ruse is scamming West Michigan residents.
JUST POSTED: Carnival of Homeschooling #46 ~ Autumn Blessings. Dozens of links for the homeschool-minded. Good stuff.
Plainly put, the Citizenrē Corporation pays for, installs, owns and operates the solar installation. You don’t have to worry about maintaining the equipment or any of the other concerns that come with making an investment into solar power. All you are required to do is pay for the electricity generated from these panels, at a fixed rate that is at or below your current electricity price, for up to twenty-five years.
This seems to be a decent model. I'd love to hear if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing.
CHEMISTRY STUDENTS AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY get a crack at uncovering the formula for invisible ink used during the Cold War by the Stasi, East Germany's secret police. MSU chemists led by Kristie Macrakis recently solved the puzzle.
A Spy Lab has since been set up on MSU's campus. There, chemistry students work out the Stasi formula for themselves as counter-intelligence agents trying to thwart a terrorist attack. While manipulating the chemical reaction is the students' main focus, the popularity of the program is helped by the extra history lesson they get about communist Germany, Macrakis said.
THERE'S NO SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE who need these stickers on their vehicle: I Park Like An Idiot. With photos.
STEVE OLSON LISTS 10 Things I Wish I Had Never Believed.
DEAN ESMAY, a Michigan blogger, pretty much doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, and he invokes Ayn Rand for an example:
I am a well-known critic of Ayn Rand, but I do love a line from one of her books (loosely paraphrased):
"So what do you think of me?"
"I don't think of you at all."
That pretty much sums it up, but I prefer an exchange from the film Casablanca:
Ugarte: You despise me, don't you?
Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would.
While I'm not overly concerned about what critics may think, I want to be sure to point out that I don't give them much thought whatever their opinion might be. And that I might be disposed to despise them if I did.
Sort of a good catch-all.
Whipped up by Murdoc using the Motivational Poster Maker. Share.
THE LATEST CARNIVAL OF HOMESCHOOLING is up at SpunkyHomeSchool. This Library Edition of the weekly round-up contains links to dozens of great posts and articles.
JUST GOT THE 'JASON STALLINGS' message forwarded to me again. It goes like this:
MICHIGAN STATE POLICE WARNING
State police warning for online: Please read this "very carefully"..then send it out to all the people online that you know. Something like this is nothing to be taken casually; this is something you DO want to pay attention to.
If a person with the screen-name of Rockhard abs or goes by his name Jason Stallings contacts you, do not reply. DO NOT talk to this person; do not answer any of his instant messages or e-mail. Whoever this person may be, he is a suspect for murder in the death of 3 women (so far) contacted through the Internet. He is a suspect in a shooting and is known for raping and beating young women. He is located in the MID-MICHIGAN area. Please send this to all the women on your buddy list and ask them to pass this on, as well. This screen-name was seen on Yahoo and AOL so far. This is not a joke! Please send this to men too...just in case! Send to everyone you know! Ladies, this is serious.
It is a hoax according to Snopes. It's apparently an old message from 2000 with the name changed.
EMBEDDED YOUTUBE PLAYERS built the easy way using the handy code on the YouTube are actually invalid HTML. If you care about building valid web pages, try this solution. Worked great for the Patrick Stewart video player below.
Also, MichiBlogger uses the Amputator plugin for Movable Type to properly encode ampersands (the '&' symbol). Ampersands are quite common in URLs. If you build web pages, you should build valid web pages. (Just don't check my pages at Murdoc Online...)
BUCKETHEAD at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy has a rundown of potential state slogans for Michigan. They're generally unflattering.
UPDATE: I should point out that this is just the latest entry in a long series of posts by Buckethead in which he roundly slanders every state in the Union, not a one-off slam on Michigan. For instance, he called Indiana the "The New Jersey of the Midwest". It's difficult to work out if that's actually a slam at Indiana or at New Jersey.
I THINK HE PROBABLY FAILED his driver's test:
The teen, whose name was not released, drove the 2004 black Jeep Cherokee above speed limits, hit four cars and rolled over before going airborne and crashing into another car, which was pushed through the window of a rug store.
Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of people drive like this on a daily basis...
CLADOPHORA IS GREEN AND SLIMY: Great Lakes threatened by return of slimy algae
This form of algae faded from the Great Lakes about four decades ago but is making a comeback, according to experts.
"The nightmare may be poised to repeat itself," the Michigan Environmental Council said in a statement accompanying a report released Wednesday.
Algae blooms have been on the rise since the mid-1990s in parts of all the Great Lakes except Lake Superior, whose icy waters aren't as hospitable to the slimy aquatic plants.
The problems in the 60s were caused by high levels of phosphorus, and measures to cut down in the 70s are credited with solving them. But phosphorus is still around and apparently levels are rising. And I just pointed out that levels in Lake Macatawa were down a few weeks ago.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Feds are helping fund a scenic heritage route along a 170-mile stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline between New Buffalo and Ludington. What are we going to have? Spring Algae Tours?
THIS IS CRAZY: Teen flies to Mideast for MySpace rendezvous.
"Mideast", in this case, means Tel Aviv, Israel.
She's from Michigan.
"EVERYBODY SHOULD SPEND SOME TIME IN HELL while they can enjoy it":
The tiny town of Hell, Michigan got worldwide attention, Tuesday, as reporters and visitors poured in. Tuesday, June 6, 2006 is also known as 666, the mark of the beast.
This is better than the ever-popular "hell freezes over" jokes, I guess. But this might be pushing things a bit:
At 6:06 p.m. a few couples planned to get married in Hell.
The most recent Carnival of Homeschooling, a great weekly collection of links for those homeschooling or interested in homeschooling, is up at The Common Room.
NOT AS BAD AS THE 'BLOW UPS' IN IRAQI ROADS:
Road repair crews were out again today patching "blow ups" on southbound U.S. 131 caused when pavement buckled from the heat.
TELL ME THIS ISN'T WEIRD: On Mother's Day, a story ran in the Flint Journal about the headstone of a woman who died in 1929 that turned up in the yard of an abandoned house.
The rectangular marble headstone is etched with two flowers and reads "Mother Nora Little 1894-1929" but does not have the name of a cemetery.
A couple of weeks' searching turned up nothing about Nora Little's resting place or the reason for her tombstone being dumped on someones lawn. Luckily, the right reader noticed the story:
Although the identities of those who moved the marker and their reasons remain unknown, all will be well when the tombstone is restored to its proper place. Right?[Carl] Schopieray immediately recognized the name of Nora Little on the marker.
"That's my mother," he said.
Schopieray wondered how his mother's tombstone made the 70-mile journey from a Standish cemetery to an abandoned house on Poplar Street in Flint.
Wrong.
Schopieray's mother's tombstone isn't missing. It's right where it's supposed to be. The tombstone that was dumped is apparently a duplicate.
Creepy? Or what? (via Shawn Smith)
The weekly Homeschool Carnival is up.
THE MICHIGAN SENATE voted 36-1 in favor of eliminating the state's blue license plates on two bills Tuesday. The bills have already passed the House, which means the next stop is the Governor's office.
New plates would be given to motorists when they renew their vehicle registration.
Make your own license plate images (for any state) here.
