Music interlude of the day

Enya now is on YouTube...

Stop the bedsheet wars!

get a measuring sheet.
Your email of the day from Col Updraft

High lead in Washington DC

major coverup by local officials, who assured people everything was fine, folks, just move along...

History links for weekend reading

Coffee, and the Viennese cafe...LINK

It didn't start with Starbucks; they merely revived an old tradition...
------------------

Princess Alice made the Bush girls look like Texan Baptists...
a cautionary guide for the Obama's girls.
--------------------
History of Rome podcast...
what's past is prologue...
------------------------

A lot of people once blamed the fall of Rome on lead poisoning from pipes.
Is past prologue?
No wonder Congress is crazy...
---------------------

Armchair General has voted the battle of Salamis as the most important battle of all times...
The battle of Saratoga came in second...and ironically few American kids know enough about history to heard of this battle...
----------------------------
The real hero of the Battle of Saratoga was Benedict Arnold...
and many of his descendents served honorably in the British military

Imagining the ten dimensions

Watch Imagining the ten dimensions in How to Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

(headsup DRB)

Gift item of the day

Ergonomic crochet hooks.

However, PlanetJune says the ball doesn't fit her hand very well...

To me it looks like the hook is too far away from my palm, but then I don't use them.

My larger crochet hooks have a thickened handle the size of a toothbrush to help grip them; alas they are too small for my hand. So I ended up covering the handles with duct tape to fit.


I wonder if the handles similar to that used for arthritic/stroke patients on silverware would work better?

like this one on the right,

or like this one...

yes, it's HelloKitty silverware.


----------------


of course, if you are a cheapskate, just try this:

Remember those ugly foam hair rollers mom used to wear? Well, go dig them out of the attic or pick up a pack for a couple of bucks at a department store. Slide off the foam tubes, they make great cushy grips. Slide them on pens, pencils, forks, spoons, any small object that is hard to hold. They work wonderfully. -Tina

Lolo and his brother

From dad's family

Some scans of old photos.

Lolo and his brother Epifanio, who was chief of Police.

Heartwarming story of the day

photo and story from Shropshire Star:

She fell into a coma and doctors warned her husband and their families that she could wake up at any moment or stay in a coma forever.

Despite tapes being played of their new baby’s crying, their daughter Ella shouting “wake up mummy” and a bedside vigil from Mr Ray, the 34-year-old remain-ed motionless and silent.

But two weeks after falling into the coma, the couple say a miracle happened.

Mr Ray, an IT consultant at Capgemini, bent over his wife and made an emotional plea: “Emma, if you can hear me, please just give me a kiss.”

And this wife turned her head and gave her husband a kiss...

Photo shows Emma today. She remains with handicaps, but is alive and at home.

LOL post of the day

more animals

Invention of the day

an umbrella to stroll down the street with the one you love.

your email of the day from Col Updraft

Headlines below the fold

Gay doc who headed Bush's HIV program was sacked
He wasn't politically correct enough.
Rant at BNN.

---------------------
Obama to the rescue!
he'll solve Zimbabwe's problems via the UN....
didn't work before, but hey, he's the messiah, isn't he?
---------------------

latest food scares:
Peanut butter plant was in terrible shape
-----------------------

Ahmadinejad Is a Jew...
go figure....

-------------------
Art before safety...
Artists nixed evacuation so two died...
-------------------
World band c/0 C0rruption in the Philippines?
It took them long enough...investigation started in 2003...and includes South Korean and Chinese firms...

The "we're all gonna die" post of the day

The Chinese have melamine in eggs and milk, and we have ebola Reston in our pigs.

But the US has salmonella in the peanut butter, and mercury not only in the fish but in the high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient which is in lots of stuff.


List HERE...watch out for quaker oatmeal to go and Hershey's chocolate syrup. (but their strawberry and their carmel syrups are okay)
-----------------

But why worry, when we're all going to die from the Hadron formed black hole...the scientists redid their math and found a problem...

the coldest place I've worked is in nothern Minnesota, but my brother says it's five degrees and expecting snow in the Berkshires.

0photo is Webcam of shaker village

why I'm glad I don't live in Massachusetts anymore.

Did you eat the Haggis?

EpiLog reminds us that January 25th was the traditional day to celebrate Robert Burn's birthday with a supper of Haggis, whiskey, and poetry reading.

Haggis is..."a sheep's heart, liver, and lungs, mince them with oatmeal, onion, pepper, spices, and salt, and boil them - traditionally in the sheep's stomach..."



Of course, as OMGSoySauceBlog reminds us:



the most terrifying food in the whole world...

Mystery of the day:

Who really killed the Red Baron?

Professor Bob's podcast discusses the question.

Insomnia download of the day

If you fall asleep during sermons, and was the only person bored with the Obama inaugural speech, go to link...it's speeches from the UK House of Lords.

It contains speeches on such stirring subjects as:
Speech on the Corn Laws, 1846, by 1st Duke of Welligton
2 - Speech on the French purchase of Corsica, 1770, by 1st Earl of Chatham
and
3 - Speech on the American War of Independence, 1777, by 1st Earl of Chatham

The Most extreme places on Earth

webecoist has photos

Attention Conspiracy Theorists:

The evil government is covering up the real cause of that airline crash.
Alqaeda has recruited in the Canadian geese immigrant community in NYC...

Yes, a joke from SenseofEventsblog...

so we know who is really to blame:

Headlines below the fold

Terrorist stronghold captured at last.
After 70,000 dead and 25 years of terror, the SriLankan army has captured the last stronghold of the Tamil tigers.

---------------------
Were reports of civilian deaths in Gaza exaggerated?
You mean Hamas and their surrogates in the media might be lying?
-----------------

Coffee is good for you?!
Yup. Drinking coffee lowers your risk of dementia.

----------------
Virus Alert!

----------------------------------
40 bombs found in the US embassy compound in Manila...
no, not terrorism...they were left over from the battle for Manila back in 1945...

---------------------------
and finally: Global warming alert.
... it's snowing in the UAE....

Advice from Larry the Cable Guy

1. A day without sunshine is like... night.
2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.
3. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.
6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
7. OK, so what's the speed of dark?
8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap.
9. Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.
10. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
11. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
12. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.
13. How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand.
14. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
15. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos.

Your email of the day from Col Updraft

Craft item of the day

ChineseLearner.com has a downloadable pattern for you to cross stitch your very own Ox motif.

ZIP of PDF HERE

Happy New Year

Happy Chinese New Year...it's the year of the Earth Ox.

So expect to hear a lot of bull from the politicians this year...

Actually, ALL CHINA says:The Ox is the sign of prosperity in the Chinese Zodiac. The Ox in Chinese Astrology is not a bull. Solid and hard working, this powerful sign of Ox is a born leader. Being dependable, calm and modest, Oxen possess the ability to achieve great things in life.

The Cambodian astrologers say it foretells hard work and endurance of hardships for people this year.

The illustration above comes from Global Gourmet, who has some traditional recipes at their site.

Stuff below the fold

Starbucks and Oprah are pushing five hours of "community service" each year for everyone.

No, Church ladies bringing casseroles to elderly neighbors doesn't count.

-------------------
Weird headlines of the day take one:
Temps well below freezing across Minn., Wis.
Uh, why yes. And it will stay that way until about May15th...

------------------------
Weird headline of the day take two, the top headline in today's Manila Bulletin:
Iraq wants ban on RP workers lifted

Yup. Guess that means the war is now officially over.
-----------------



and science headline of the day comes from China:
Pterosaur Fossil With 10 Inch Wingspan Discovered
-------------------




And the final weird headline of the day:
Nigerian police hold 'magic' goat over attempted car theft

Gift item of the day

Taking ordinary items and making us see beauty.
KariHerer at Etsy

Headsup Designsponge

Podcast of the day

Lecture about Sherman Alexie for ipods..

He has a website HERE.

The "we're all gonna die" post of the day

Yup...those Pigs in Bulacan do have the Ebola Reston virus.

And one person in contact with pigs has antibodies to the virus.
Luckily, human contacts in the past who were in contact with this Ebola strain never got sick.

If you really want to worry, worry about the latest Lassa Fever patient in London.

Sigh

Within a few days, not only will doctors/nurses/Pharmacists no longer have job protection when their employers insiste they cooperate with abortion/assisted suicide on the job, but the USAID will now use tax payers money to pay for abortion as part of family planning, fund population control organizations that pressure governments to change their abortion laws, and fund NGO's that cooperate with China's One Child Policy, that includes forced abortions for illegal pregnancies.


Way to go, Barry...


Headsup Canterbury Tales

Chagall windows at Tudeley

Photo from ExtremeKnittingRedhead Blog, who writes about a visit to the chapel at Tudeley.

She writes:
Sarah d’Avigdor Goldsmid was drowned, off the coast in Rye, when only 21 years old and her parents commissioned the window in the East in her memory. This first window was installed in 1967 and the remaining windows were commissioned gradually over the years up until Chagall's death in 1985. The symbolism of 'Death and Resurrection' is used throughout - in the lower half you can see Sarah lying dead in the sea with grieving figures looking on and higher up you see a ladder leading to heaven...

AudioBook of the day

MariaLectrix has an audiobook version of the Battle of the Aleutian Islands, from a book co authored by Dashell Hammet(!)

Gift item of the day

I thought they were fish, but apparantly they are birds of paradise salt and pepper shakers.




via randomgoodstuffblog

Headlines below the fold

Murtha wants to house the Gitmo guys in his district...the problem? The only Federal prison in his district is a "country club" low security prison for white collar criminals like Mayor Barry...
----------------

But it also sounds like the feds are closing in on some of Murtha's pork barrel projects:


----------------------

Zimbabwe's entire health system has been failing for awhile...
---------------
This year's "wonder vitamin: Vitamin D......
If I'm sceptical, it's because earlier crazes were about the wonders of Vitamin C, the various B vitamins, and then "anti oxidants"...

-------------------------
Get out now!
Some people remember Kristalnacht...

---------------------
There has been an unreported cyberwar going on for awhile: Think Diehard 4.0 but with political, not monetary, hackers behind the war.

---------------------
First came the "crop circles", now comes Yarnbombing...

The phenomenon, called Yarnbombing, is thought to have originated in the US but knitters are now beginning to cover British streets in woollen 'tags'.

Quite often dozens of balls of coloured wool are used to make huge sleeves or cosies which are then stitched onto a fixed object, sometimes done under the cover of darkness.

Michelle is classy, but her husband is dissing the military

Blackfive notes:

Our new CINC attended quite a few gatherings last night, but as This Ain't Hell reports, the Salute To Heroes Inaugural Ball was not one of them. For the first time in 56 years, a newly-inaugurated president has not attended the ball begun by President Eisenhower. 14 presidents later, a snub.

Guess he's too busy doing other stuff...

Michelle vs the Fashion Police

Reporter snidely writes:

The color of Michelle Obama's ensemble during the inauguration ceremonies seemed to change all day Tuesday, leaving observers wondering what to call the shade. Was it golden? Was it Granny Smith apple green? Was it just plain yellow?...

The color confusion threw some fashion editors for a loop...some
described Obama's day ensemble as "lemon yellow," according to executive editor Nicole Phelps. Early in the day, Glamour called it "golden yellow." (The AP initially called it gold and later yellow, noting that the color sometimes had a pale greenish cast.)

-----------
Gee, I don't remember Laura Bush getting this much flack about her dress...

ha ha ha ha

Photo from TwinCities Daily Photo Blog...

Today's writer's almanac poem:

Snow
by Debra Nystrom

—for Brad

Fifteen below and wind at sixty...
white nonsense scattering at the windshield
like bits of wreckage hypnotizing
till some kind of sleep comes on...
if the gusting doesn't die down soon
the cold will finish all of it.


"Snow" by Debra Nystrom, from Torn Sky. © Sarabande Books, 2003.


here it's 80F and sunny...
Thank God I don't live in Northern Minnesota anymore...

Family news

I'm trying to take dead links off my blog...The two groups I had on the side used to post "latest post" but stopped awhile back, so I'm trying to update the links in an easier fashion...

Alas, when I did it yesterday, it looked fine on Firefox, but later when I checked on IE, the blog was all messed up...

Let me know if you have problems...

Stuff you can use

Willard Wigan's mini Obama sculpture: Photo: NEWSTEAM INTERNATIONAL

-------------------------

Webecoist has the 7 craziest cats on the internet

and if you want to toilet train your cats, the link is HERE

---------------------------
Sometimes one just longs for Mexican food, but unless we go to Manila, it's just not available here.
...but we can buy Doritos at the local grocery store.

Recipe for Tortilla soup using doritos...

Recipe for vegetarian Tortilla soup...

LINK is a recipe for gluten free tortillas...

----------------------
Microbots to the rescue!

---------------------------

and (for Republicans): the gift item of the day:
A USB stress ball...

Signs that the Apocolypse is nigh

Large fireball appears over northern Europe:

--------------

Chance or Purpose?

Here's Cardinal Schoenborn explaining why Catholics stay out of the "intelligent design" debate, and are smart enough to separate evolution as science from materialism as philosophy.(posted for watching later when the internet stops going off and on)

via CspanBookTv

Headlines below the fold

Al Qaeda, the Plague, and killer Prairie dogs
...my essay at BNN
-------------------
Kidnapping do gooders to stop the military...yup, that'll do it, especially since one of the do gooders is Italian...and the Italians are especially good at paying ransom...never mind all the Pinoys who will be killed with bombs paid for with the same ransom money.

--------------
Everyone but the kitchen God is being prayed to at the Obama inaugural...
but where are the Catholics?
heh...even Time magazine noticed it...
---------------

Predatory Squirt

actually, it's a predatory sea squirt...other deep sea weird stuff at link

Puppies' First Bath

 

Musical interlude for today

Here in the Philippines it's a frigid 75 degrees, but I did spend a couple years working at an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota, so here's to all of you not lucky enough to have married a Pinoy:




(Headsup InTheAgoraBlog)

Headlines below the fold

"It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence," ...
says the Dalai Lama

So what would Jesus do? If I remember correctly, he protected poor people from being cheated by temple sharks by whipping them on the tuckus...

=====o=================
Freakonomics says:
Peter Thompson’s research found that there had been more than 150 million commercial flights since 1970 without a single water landing. How rude of Chesley Sullenberger to make Peter Thompson start counting over from zero after saving 155 lives in a water landing yesterday.

----------------------
There actually was a spy named Smiley....more HERE.

------------------------------------
There is an "information gap" on birth control pills....
no kidding...
on the other hand, women in the past figured the small risk was better than six kids...
but now with minilaporotomy sterilization, that might not be true...

-------------------

What DNA can tell you

DNA studies show our ancestors weren't exactly blue nose puritans...

craft item of the day

is your chihuahua cold? Autumn blossom knit blogs has a pattern for a small dog sweater.


or knit a beret....

patern at sweetsassafras blog

chicken pun of the day

in honor of Ricardo Montalban just died after a long honorable life...

landing in the Hudson for fear of killing those on the ground if he missed an airport...

but were the birds there because of "wetlands" legislation? or are golf courses to blame? or were they migrating?

my brother's lake always had Canadian geese ...they tend to be huge, and travel in a huge V while migrating....
----------------------
The Boston Herald points out the heroism wasn't just that of the pilot:

If you believe the worst about Americans, you’d expect Thursday’s crash to create a mob of greedy, selfish jerks clawing away for the first shot at an exit. Instead, passengers reported that it took just a single cry of “Women and children first!” and total strangers facing possible drowning stepped aside to let mothers and their infants pass.

And after the crash, the first responders weren’t government rescue workers, but nearby passenger ferries. One ferry worker, Cosmo Mezzina, confessed to reporters afterward that he didn’t even know what the call “man overboard” meant. But he and his co-workers headed straight to the sinking airplane.

No waiting for approval from an attorney or checking the “rope-to-rescuers” ratio in the regulations. Just Americans helping others in need...

(viaInstapundit)

Who's there?

the hats are designed by Robin, a textile artist.

who came and who stayed home

Gene expression blog notes that you can almost trace where your home village in Europe is by your DNA...

they also discuss genetic maps of Eastern Asia and Korea...the genetics show southern influence, perhaps brought in when rice farmers migrated and married local gals...

Photos

The scary thing about this photo is that it shows how only a quick rescue by the local ferries/boats saved the passengers from hypothermia...

photo essay on the plane that crashed into the Hudson HERE...(Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)
----------------
And NYCity isn't the only place that's cold:


Tehran Photo blog shows a snowy day in Tehran...





WebEcoist has photos of strange earth formations...


-------------------
of course, some folks like snow...

Stuff you can use

Wowio has on line Slaughterhouse Five and Brave New World
----------------

Next time you think Medicine in 2009 is bad, just listen to professor Bob's podcast about civil war medicine...
or download and read Dr. Samual Gross' manual on war surgery...

-----------------
Is Mugabe's regieme collapsing?
I suspect that ZanuPF or the military will take over soon, making a new dicatorship that leaves the opposition MDC out in the cold...
---------------
and forget Starbucks:

at KrispyKremeUK you can get your own Barry O' coffee...

it's a Latte, of course...

Cat photo of the day (take two)

Your email of the day from Tia Maria

Cat news of the day

One of the cats came in during the night and settled on our bed, covered with slimy black stuff....she probably fell into a drainage ditch..

So at 4 AM I had to give her a bath...

This isn't her, but it's on the subject of cat baths:

more animals

Gift Item of the day

got some old flat soccer balls floating around your house?

Well, just recycle them into a handbag...(hint: Turn it inside out for the "rib" effect).

or buy one for only $148...

Headlines below the fold

Jet crash in NYC....reports that all were saved.

GF posts photo of rescue taken by a ferry passenger's cellphone and twittered...
----------------------------
Reuters says Lack of fame aids Geithner over US tax mistake: a better argument is that the tax code is just too dang difficult...so let's give him a pass to run the US Treasury...
One blog says sarcastically: Tell that to Joe the plummer. (headups Instapundit)

----------------------------
It's official: Sadness is good for you.

----------------------
1001 rules for my unborn son blog ...
old fashioned advice for new fathers says the UKtelgraph

---------------------------
Low oil prices might make it bad for oil producing governments..(read Iran...who is having an election soon)

here, the lower prices are good...but the price of rice is going up in the palenke...good news for us (we sell gourmet brown rice) but not for the poor.
------------------

and headline of the day:
Fish poop helps balance ocean's acid levels

Puzzle of the day

Zen masters ask one to meditate on the sound of one hand clapping....

But what is the sound of Jello wobbling?



Improbable research reports...

The sound of a jelly [known as "Jello" in some parts of the world] wobbling has been recorded for the first time ever in a soundproof chamber at UCL.

And of course, you can find it on YOUTUBE:

Economics 101

The (left leaning) HNN has a long interview about the economy and globalism HERE.

And the (right leaning) the Corner atNR links to the Bailout game...

No, don't ask me...I'm a doctor not an economist.

Headlines below the fold

Worried about Melamine in chinese milk so you're switching to soy ?
Bad choice.
and forget about that "organic chicken"....
---------------

The heroic Brits 4, Taliban 0....
------------------
Flash floods in the Visayas displace 200thousand...nope, no headlines, just another disaster in the Philippines...

FAMILY NEWS

we went to Ayesha's party at McDonalds last night...no photos...

Chano was in Cabanatuan giving a presentation to a business group.

Doy and family go back to the UK Saturday.
Lolo is well.

God's Cake

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong: she's failing algebra; her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely, Mom, I love your cake.' 'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers. 'Yuck,' says her daughter. 'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!' 'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?'

'Mom, those are all yucky!' To which the mother replies: 'Yes, all those

things seem bad by themselves. But when they are put together

in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go

through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts

these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to

trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

your email of the day from TiaMaria

Cute photo of the day

Engineer Hamid sends photo of kids with some of his chickens....he teaches and supervises a large breeding farm in Iran...I believe the kids are the Afghan kids who stay with his father's family...

Cucumbers take two

turn up speakers and drive your co workers crazy....

A Victorian Tea party

TeaAtTrianonBlog discusses afternoon tea...

If you wish to have a real afternoon tea party, check LINK

includes recipes...and yes, they do eat cucumber sandwiches...
Although my type of cucumber sandwich would be this one, that includes avocados.

In Africa, we used avocado instead of butter for morning tea, and we baked our own bread, since the nearest bakery was 50 miles away down dirt roads.
But for some reason, we couldn't grow avocadoes in our area, but when I visited our out clinic, sister would always pick a few huge ones from the smaller trees to send back.

In exchange, we would send grapefruit to them: for some reason, we could grow grapefruit trees.

Here in the Philippines, afternoon snack is called marienda, and the usual food is either pancit noodles or spaghetti with sweet tomato sauce, cheddar cheese, and sliced hot dogs...usually served with soft drinks.

Weird links of the day

Spiky hair photo of the day

from cute overload...


-------------------
BEER CAN ART.

---------------------
and for photography fans, a redvelvet Nikon camera...

The recipe for red velvet cake is HERE...

When Toys get censored

Heh.

Barbies is Jewish. Who wudda thot?

GatewayPundit says
IRNA reported:

Religious leader in holy Qom Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said on Sunday that trading and keeping of Israeli-made goods including the Barbie dolls, are forbidden.

Does this mean that Israel and Iran are trading partners?

FYI: The photo is a Tunisian Barbie, not Iranian...but of course, once she is home with her husband, she'll look sexy again...the point is modesty with strangers is a virtue.

Family news

Slow on posting because we were fixing the network.

Barbie's daughter is having a birthday party today, at McDonalds, which should be fun for the kids...

It's cold out right now...we even have to wear a light jacket to jog...

Family news

Ruby's dog Puffy is back (a small Scottie)...someone found him and took him home, but the dog wouldn't eat, so when they saw the ad on the local cable TV station they returned him..

Science headlines below the fold

Happy Birthday, SpiritRover....
Five happy years of reporting from Mars...
Video HERE...
------------
Do you know all those biometric machines that check for your fingerprints?
Well, one ordinary Korean lady who just wanted to work in Japan fooled them by using clear tape containing the fingerprint of someone else.

-------------------


Aussie scientists have found a bacteria that shortens the life of the mosquitos that carry Dengue fever...apparently Dengue is spread only by really old mosquitoes...
Thank Bill Gates for this if it works.

------------------
Earthquake alerts in Japan go to TV, Radio, cellphones, and computers...
headsaup DigitalWorldTokyo

of course, this is nothing new:
in Oklahoma, we had TV and radio, emergency sirens, and weather radios; and the weather channel has a service to send you an email and cellphone alert if bad weather is nearby...

And here in the Philippines, you can be alerted on your cellphone for typhoons, school disruptions, and traffic jams in Manila...

-------------------
What we really need is for the cellphone/email alert to really let us know that it is important...maybe they need one of these:

your very own Yodel button..

Partisan headlines below the fold

Partisan rant. Feel free to skip.
----------------

This sentence says a lot about how the press and other media reported on Bush:

If you asked Americans to list President Bush's foreign policy and national security accomplishments, you'd likely get some laughs - surely some snarky comments.
the article goes on to list some things you might not see mentioned by Keith Oberman...

-----------------------
But even MSNBC admits millions of Africans are alive today because of Bush...

-----------------------------
the waisteline police are coming to get you...

-----------------------
Is Hamas staging attacks so that retaliation will hit civilians for propaganda purposes?...link..and this news organization admitted they never checked an inflammatory video before releasing it...link...

--------------------
Such one sided reporting isn't limited to Israel: As I mentioned HERE, the International Herald Tribune has an article lamenting the 2000 Muslim families fleeing the Philippine military chasing terrorists, yet downplays the half million Christian families displaced by these same terrorists a couple weeks before.

----------------------------
Calvin's predestination is reborn:
Blaming our sins on our genes...
savagemindsBlog notes the argument has major scientific problems...
-------------------

What is it with Salmonella and peanut butter? Another disease caught by the local MN Dept of health not the CDC..
------------------------
Latest Philippine scandal: Big shot drug pushers get freed...some suspect bribes might have helped.
No, really?

------------------
and the really big news of the day:
Cadbury DairyMilk bars contain...milk.
And Cadbury DairyMilk Whole Nut bar contain...nuts.
so they are adding a warning label...

It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's: SUPERIBEX!

Ubuntu geek reports superibex Ubuntu is now on line: for iso, check LINK

my problem is that the newer versions lack the cd driver for Dell laptops...the DVD works fine, but I can't listen to my CD's on the computer now.

Happy vacation

things might be going to hell in a handbasket in Zimbabwe, but that doesn't stop Mugabe and his wife from taking a vacation in Malaysia...she took $92,000 in USdollars out of the bank to go shopping...

Sounds like his wife is taking lessons from Imelda...

The diet of dating

dilbertblog has an essay noting that your amount of self control corresponds to your blood sugar level.

His conclusion is that guys might want to date women on a diet, and comments:

And you thought science wasn't good for anything.

Eat Feed in Season

Eat Feed in Season has several podcasts...

if you eat in season, the food is fresh.
Of course, if you live in Northern Minnesota, you might prefer to have a California orange or Mexican tomato once in awhile.

Their blog links to this recipe, for rustic winter stew...it is pork with sauerkraut, and indeed sauerkraut is a "in season" food for winter.
For a side dish, try Rutabagas...
What, no Lutefisk recipes?
How to microwave Lutefisk....(they forgot step four:throw out after tasting)

------------------

Here we tend to eat from the Palenke, which means local food (rice, veggies, and meat or fish).

The photo is of our gourmet brown rice...which we eat at every meal...even breakfast (usually yesterday's rice is stir fried to heat it for breakfast).


About the only "seasonal" food is the fruit which we have for desert...right now, it's bananas...we have five trees in our yard...most tend to be smaller and straighter than US bananas, some sweeter, some have more texture...Lolo knows the names but I tend to forget the local names.

Tolkien podcasts

Oxford University has courses on line, and in December started a course on Tolkien.

You can find it on iTunesU, or if you prefer RSS feed, they also have an RSS feed.

-----------------------
thanks for the "headsup" from Ben-Peter Terpstra's article on the 30 most politically incorrect heroes in film, from Dirty Harry, to Frodo, to N!xau....

Books and lectures on line

LearnOutLoud has links to sample lectures from The Teaching Company.
Includes two lectures on the real history behind the DaVinci Code...

-----------------------------
This Day in History...Chinese history, that is...

today he remembers Wen Tianxiang, a diplomat who was brave enough to say no to the Mongols...
---------------------------
Boorstein's American experience can be read on line at WOWIO...

--------------------
The novelist Alexander McCall Smith is writing his book Courduroy Mansions every day on line....

Craft item of the day (take two)

Sukigirl blog is making her very own Amigurumi Cartman and Kenny

(Patterns for these and other arigurmi figures at LaFeeCrochet at Etsy).

(headsupGeekcraftsblog)

Craft item of the day

there are lots of patterns for cloth, crochet or knit handbags, but the real problem is that if you want to use them, stuff tends to fall out. So you have to line them: And lining them is a problem unless you want them simple flat bags that won't expand.

Futuregirl uses her origami skills to show you how to line a bag so that it can expand into a sack when you fill it with all your junk (and we women carry everything, and I mean everything, in our handbags).

Gift item of the day

a DISHBUNNY...

(headsup CasaPinka)

Musical interlude for today

(headsup from the anchoress...posted in memory of Father Neuhaus)

Headlines below the fold

Father Neuhaus has died... he is most famous for coining the phrase "the Naked Square", ...links to his writing HERE.
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More Muslim attacks on Christian villages in the Southern Philippines... Christians have been told to stop or at least tone down their local fiestas, so as not to "inflame Muslim Militants"...
StrategyPage reports the obvious: If these villagers will start fighting back it will be ugly...
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One reason I got my papers yesterday is that today is the procession of the Black Nazarene, which essentially stops traffic in Quiapo for several hours...
this year, the image will have a GPS system on board, so the cops can keep a better eye on things.

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UN docs investigating Ebola reston in local pigs...so far, no reports of dead people...

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Is that ACORN fraud the tip of the iceburg, ask some ex members thrown out for blowing the whistle?

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Dr. Gupta for Surgeon General? Yes, because he is good at explaining things...
India is proud of the son of Indian Immigrants.
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Where is that noise coming from?
(via Drudge).

Family News

I got my residency permit okayed yesterday in Manila...

It was a long day.

When we got home at 8pm, we couldn't find Christina's small white Scottie Puffy...he came down to eat at 5 (since Joy wasn't there to feed him upstairs) and the last anyone saw him was some neighbors saw someone carrying a white dog down the street at 7pm...

Small dogs are valuable as pets, so he will probably be sold to someone who wants a cute pet....this is the second small housepet dog we've had stolen....

No one steals the guard dogs...they tend to bite strangers.

family news

traveling to Manila to try to get my immigration papers for next year.

last time, they required Lolo to prove I'm married to a Filipino, so he's coming too.

The two doctors

 

Three Kings Fiesta party