OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

After the signing, South Africa's intelligence minister scolded a journalist who raised questions about Zimbabwe's record on human rights.

Details of the deal were not released but Zimbabwe's secret police is accused of torturing opposition activists.

South Africa is a key player in attempts to negotiate an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis.

President Thabo Mbeki has been criticised at home and abroad for not putting more pressure on President Robert Mugabe's government to end abuses.

Zimbabwe prayers

"This week's historic meeting further consolidates a long-standing socio-political and economic relationship between our two countries," South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said at the signing of the agreement in Cape Town on Thursday.

President Mbeki (r) has been criticised for taking a stronger line with President Mugabe (l)

After the signing, a journalist asked Mr Kasrils how South Africa, with a "good human rights track record", could sign agreements with Zimbabwe, which had a "poor human rights record".

Mr Kasrils apologised to his Zimbabwean counterpart, Didymus Mutasa, for the question.

"We have very strong ties with our neighbour and we are indebted to our neighbour for achieving freedom and liberty," Mr Kasrils said.

Mr Mutasa suggested praying for the journalist.

"Lord forgive him for he does not know what he is saying," Mr Mutasa said.

Cardinal Arinze has a podcast?

Podcasts are the future....and lots of subjects...now if I can only get broadband!

White phosphorus take two

If you don't believe the marines, try reading FM 8-9, which is on line at the Virtual Naval Hospital..

814. Red and White Phosphorus.

a. At ordinary temperatures, white phosphorus (WP) is a solid which can be handled safely under water. When dry, it burns fiercely in air, producing a dense white smoke. Fragments of melted particles of the burning substance may become embedded in the skin of persons close to a bursting projectile, producing burns which are multiple, deep and variable in size. The fragments continue to burn unless oxygen is excluded by flooding or smothering.

b. WP may be used to produce a hot dense white smoke composed of particles of phosphorus pentoxide which are converted by moist air to droplets of phosphoric acid. The smoke irritates the eyes and nose in moderate concentrations. Field concentrations of the smoke are usually harmless although they may cause temporary irritation to the eyes, nose or throat. The respirator provides adequate protection against white phosphorus smoke. ...

The article then goes on to discuss treatment... hint: Altho phosphorus will burn a deep hole into skin, it tends to be small...and stop burning if you irrigate it...but you have to watch when you take it out...it can reignite. In other words, small and painful, not lethal...

White Phosphorus

Blackfive (the Paratrooper of Love) has a somewhat profane explanation of what white phosphorus is, and how it is used....

3) If it is used for killing people, it's some pretty nasty stuff. It burns straight through anything it touches, and once lit, it's nearly immpossible to extinguish. In that sense, it's indiscriminate, making it more similar to a chemical weapon like Napalm than to conventional weapons.

Anything that kills people qualifies as pretty nasty stuff. Traumatic amputation of a limb, or disembowelment by a high explosive (HE) or chunk of shrapnel would make it quite nasty in my mind and certainly indiscriminate as I am aware of no guided shrapnel. Since our WP rounds are not designed or useful as chemical weapons, the burst and initial explosion rapidly vaporizes into a cloud of irritating, but non-fatal smoke....

read the whole thing...and part two above

Gee, and I thought I was Xena....or Eowyn...

You scored as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist/adventurer with an unquenchable love for danger and excitement. He travels the globe in search of historical relics. He loves travel, excitement, and a good archaeological discovery. He hates Nazis and snakes, perhaps to the same degree. He always brings along his trusty whip and fedora. He's tough, cool, and dedicated. He relies on both brains and brawn to get him out of trouble and into it. Batman, the Dark Knight 83% Indiana Jones 83% James Bond, Agent 007 71% Captain Jack Sparrow 71% Maximus 67% El Zorro 67% Lara Croft 58% The Terminator 54% Neo, the "One" 54% The Amazing Spider-Man 54% William Wallace 46% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

What if they gave a demonstration and the press didn't notice?

The Arab street finally rises up, and the press ignores it...

a ten second sound bite on CNNI, versys ten minutes to American "torture" (although they did recast a special on North Korea)...

The BEEB is not much better...I searched for "demonstrations" and got the one on november 11th, not yesterday...

the BBC DID mention it, however, it this article:but the headline is Zaquari defends Jordanian attack
An audio message purportedly from the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says the Jordan bombings were not meant to hit a Muslim wedding. ...

The 9 November blasts killed 54 people, and caused widespread public outrage.

At least 100,000 people marched through Amman on Friday in the latest mass show of anger at the suicide attacks.

"Zarqawi, you coward, what brought you here?" shouted the marchers.

The Beeb's headlines are of more carnage in Bagdad....

Again, innocent civilians praying at a mosque were killed...but no outrage here, folks, just body counts (breathless side bar "bloodiest attacks this year") and ending with emphasis on Bush...

Even the mullahs in Iran are mad about that one, if we believe the Chinese papers.... they criticize the coalition for not providing enough security (Hmmm...maybe they want more troops? not a pullout)...sorry, lost the link for that one...) But the outrage of the mullahs isnot news, you see, any more than the arrest of a couple dissadents in Tehran is news...

Luckily, in these days of the internet, we can search Aljazeera, which DID cover the demonstrations...

LINK

And they report that although the city of Amman sponsored the rally, people came from all over...

And they provided this interesting comment:

Palestinians from Jordan's 13 refugee camps also took part in the protest.

Several important Palestinans were killed in the hotel bombings, you see...

AlZaquari claimed he was after "American spies", but the only US citizens killed were Jordanian born citizens, i.e. the producer of the "Haloween" films and his daughter...
People unlikely to be spies...

oh, and a P.S....
The poll on the sidebar is about who should control the internet...right now the US is winning....

Who should govern the internet?

US-backed pvt body as at present :
31%
Pvt global body without US control :
24%
The UN :
20%
Universal Postal Union-like body :
25%

Number of pollers : 9031

.........................................

Making a snowman?

Don't forget to add this to your frontyard snowman display...

I want it that way

Video link heads up from the tone deaf neocons at the Corner

Marmite alert

Now it comes in potato chips....


AGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

Narnia soundtract

it needs quicktime...

alas, my phone line is so slow I can't listen...

Religion update take six

Do you want Fries with that?

(heads up from AngryTwins BLogspot)

Accompanied by music LINK

Gather Us In (to the cookout)
Gather us in, the beef and the chicken.
Gather us in, the pork and the lamb.
Make us to be a barbecued banquet,
Washed down with beer from a keg or a can.

(and that will be three Hail Mary's penance for me)

ah...no snow here

 

How to prevent bird flu

The Dilbert newsletter is up, and Dogbert answers a question on bird flu:

Dear Dogbert, How can I avoid getting bird flu? Eric

Dear Error, Your best bet is to avoid intimate physical contact with anything that has feathers. And that means your Dukes of Hazard pillow case has got to go.
Sincerely, Dogbert

Now I remember why I love the Philippines....

Lileks reports it's snowing in Minnesota....

My Brother reports it's snowing in the Berkshires...

Dr. C. reports that there is a drought and ice storms in Oklahoma...

Here, we only worry about typhoons, floods, dengue fever, typhoid, dysentary and terrorism...

Narnia links

lots of preemptive strikes on Narnia...hmmm....might just be a good movie...
LINK TWO

LINK THREE

Heaven post take four

Catholic stuff take three

Then I'll shut up on religious posts for awhile.

Ignatius press has publised books on CSLEWIS and Tolkien...

Anti Catholic bingo

It's an inside joke...
Catholics are asked a question with a bible verse out of context, and when we try to use subtle reasoning with several bible verses, quotes from church fathers, 1968 years of tradition, and using logical rational thinking (albeit based on a primary premise, i.e. that God exists, which can not be logically affirmed or denied), we lose the battle.

Back on line

Well, after ten days of no telephone, we are back on line.
And I see there is only political spinning in the US papers...Gloria is in Korea being Miss Congeniality...hello garci tapes still not answered.
We had a small "regional conference" here for my stepson's religious group...consisting of three families listening to some affluent preachers teaching...well, I don't know what they were preaching, because after taking Benadryl for a terrible cough, they didn't make sense...something about surrender (Translation: Wives obey your husbands) and how God will make you successful if you follow certain rules (and buy our book and take our seminars)....
It was enough to make me an athiest...but then one of the wives kept asking whether or not I would go to heaven...it seems I didn't say the magic words right, so am going to hell...and she said if I did, I would find peace and be assured of salvation.... I almost replied that if I wanted peace I'd take a valium, thank you, and that my duty was to work and pray and not to worry about pie in the sky when I die...
Guess I'll be stuck in Catholic purgatory for a long time...luckily, although in my stepson's heaven "there is no beer" (as the old song goes), in Catholic purgatory the bars are open 24 hours a day....

on vacation

Actually, I'm not on vacation, but our internet line and telephone line is down...hopefully it will be fixed next week...

wheew! I passed

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Keeping notes in medicine

Will computerized voice transcribers replace dictation and secretaries?

If so, it's bad news for all the typists in Makati, who now transcribe for US doctors...

Family update

Lolo and I are down sick with a chest cold.
Our son is busy building and arranging the castle for a conference.
Ruby is back in school.
And yesterday was another harvest day...alas, it's been raining so we hope the rice will dry okay...

C.S.Lewis and Pagan myths

It's a long essay, and I will have to read and think about it before commenting ...

Teenager in a 53 year old body

"I have no complaints about my personal life," she says in her stately Georgetown home, where the decor ranges from a pink jukebox to an expensively restored Hungarian portrait of a partially disrobed woman. "I get asked out. I don't know how much more I'd get asked out if guys weren't scared of me..."

...says Dowd, women expect male suitors to pay, are obsessed with looks, sport "plastic breasts," and "appointments with dermatologists are the new status symbols. It's hard to find women to talk about books and politics. They all want to talk about skin."

Hmmm. make you wonder where she is living...

Maybe she should volunteer for the cleanup in Biloxi...might give her something else to do with her time...

"...Watching students act with compassion energizes Mayes. “I love this,” he said. “When you give of your time, money and energy for charity, it makes you a different person. This is one of the best experiences you can get in college; learning to give instead of take. They will never be the same, I’m sure.”

outrages of the day

LINK
"....Media outlets throughout the world have reported Jimmy Massey's claims of war crimes, frequently without ever seeking to verify them....But none of the AP reporters ever called Ravi Nessman, an Associated Press reporter who was embedded with Massey's unit. ....Jack Stokes, a spokesman for the AP, said he didn't know why the reporters didn't talk to Nessman, nor could he explain why the AP ran stories without seeking a response from the Marine Corps. The organization also refused to allow Nessman to be interviewed for this story....

"That Massey wasn't telling the truth should have become obvious the more he told his stories, said Phillip Dixon, former managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer ...."He couldn't keep his story straight," said Dixon.....

Smith said that, unfortunately, that is the nature of the newspaper business."You could take any day's newspaper and probably pick out a half dozen or more stories that ought to be subjected to a more rigorous truth test," ....

Your happy story of the day

A Nicasio man and his cocker spaniel puppy were reunited yesterday in a hospital room at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael just days after she saved his life after a car crash.

check link for the rest of the story...

Katrina update

"....Because of its proximity to New Orleans, Houston harbored the largest share of evacuees fleeing the Aug. 29 storm and the devastating flood that followed — an estimated 150,000 people. Not quite a month later, Hurricane Rita brought another, though much smaller, round of storm-ravaged people this way. Now, the city's response to the disasters has been so generous that a third wave of evacuees — those who had landed in other Texas cities — may be en route as well..."

Hmmm....imagine that. Those Texans took in 150 thousand people, and got little publicity....

Guess it was easier to report the urban legends than to praise those who actually helped...

Military uses for silly string

(also from boingboing)

The demise of a great medical journal

it's bad enough that the BMj is now into trivia (medical journals often print humerous trivia) but when it is picked up by Boing Boing, who points out that the author didn't even bother to google for references, it shows how behind the times the journal is...you see, Houdini's book about this is on line...

Botox for facial pain?

Trigeminal neuralgia is a terrible thing...often those who had it in the past became drug addicts or even killed themselves...
In more recent years anti convulsant medicines helped...
So if botox works, it will be a godsend to these people...
And I wonder if it would help with other neurological pain problems....

R.C. Gorman

One of my favorite artists, Navajo artist RC Gorman, has died...

LINK2

he will be in our prayers

Mississippi says thanks y'all

The folks at the Clarian Ledger have this editorial:

Thanks, y'all

If we listed all of the groups and individuals who have stepped up to bring aid and comfort to Mississippi during these difficult weeks after Hurricane Katrina, it would likely fill the newspaper pages...

While much of the news coverage has been on the failures of government agencies to adequately respond, not enough has been on the individuals and groups who have responded and done it with efficiency and care.

Church groups and volunteer groups from across the nation have responded and continue to do so. One of the common weekend activities in the state now is not a football outing, but a volunteer trip to the Coast with a church or civic group. Everything from cleaning up lots and homes to providing food, health care and legal assistance has been invaluable....

The state is posting signs along roadways to thank military personnel, federal and state relief workers and the thousands of volunteers who have given their time and efforts to help. A simple "Thanks, y'all" will never be able to fully express the gratitude felt, but thanks, y'all. ...

The SunHerald has a collection of "before and after" photos HERE

and an article on recovery rebuilding plans HERE
and various articles:
LINK

Of course, rebuilding is not as sexy as stories of rape and murder...even though those stories turn out to be urban legends...LINK LINK
And the reports of euthanasia in NOLA hospitals is being investigated, but the quick disappearance of the story (most of the links I found were from mid October) makes one suspect that this is an "urban legend" too...(I suspect most cases were merely docs triaging cases to be evacuated, and then sedating the dying patients who were left behind...to relieve their suffering in the severe heat...which is not the same as killing them...there is a fine line between treating the dying and killing them that is often ignored or blurred by people either from ignorance or deliberately to promote euthansia, but that's another story)..

The VAST RIGHT WING KNITTING CHAT

It's amazing the stuff one finds on JimRob's site...this chat discusses knitting and needlework...

That old VCR is NOT useless

it will make a great cat feeder....
Assuming you can figure out how to take the VCR apart and assemble it...and
Assuming, of course, you can figure out how to program the XXXX thing...

Terrorist missing in the Philippines?

"...A possibly very important terrorist has gone missing . Again. Tyrone "Dawud" Santos has allegedly been "with" the mastermind of the 2002 Bali Bombing: Dulmatin, with a $10 million price tag on his head. Probably also involved in last months Bali-II bombing as well..."

Summary: The bad guy got out on bail and absconded...
There is no strong anti terrorism law here, because Filippinos love to have peaceful demonstrations and suspect Gloria would use such laws on her enemies...

(headsup from Philippine political junkie)

Bird flu update

China, Japan and Viet nam have outbreaks, but none so far here in the Philippines...

With the Dengue fever, Red Tide, and an outbreak of Typhoid, the real worry is: If countries can't control easily eliminated disease vectors (i.e. cover open sewers, spray mosquitoes, supply clean water), what makes people think that rural China, Indonesia or the Philippines can find and eliminate Bird flu?

Children of light, children of darkness...

Niehbur's famous book was published in 1944, and reminded Christian leaders that evil did exist, and pretending it did not exist would only lead to it's triumph...

A similar critique is found in today's Wall street Journal, showing church leaders who promote pacifism while ignoring the reality of evil...

there are true pacifists, but alas too many who claim to be pacifists have never confronted evil.

I once had a conversation on line with a Pastor who was a radical pacifist, who said he would not kill even to defend his own life...
Ah, I wrote back, I agree...but when I was in Zimbabwe, the guerillas attacked a Protestant mission run by a pacifistic British church...they did not simply kill those there, they tied up the men and abused the women (including the 13 year old daughter) first before killing them...
He wrote back and said he would not kill even to defend his daughter...

My own reaction was different.
When I came back to the US, I learned to shoot a gun.

It's a Bird, it's a plane, it's a....

Flying Fugo...

Video HERE

ER NURSE RAP

from GruntDoc

SOB....The world's smallest violin

20th century castles

Google books

soon every book known to mankind will be on line...zzzzz

Desperate Housewives

after a long day of boiling diapers with boric acid, don't forget to drink one of these...

Gout medicine and the Flu

(heads up from MedPundit)
In the days when Penicillin was hard to get and very expensive, doctors gave it with Probenecid, a medicine that increases uric acid secretion in the Kidneys to prevent gout...
Even twenty years ago we gave a dose of it with Penicillin to treat Gonorrhea...
But now one doctor suggests that it is a way to decrease the dosage of Tamiflu in event of a birdflu epidemic...
Since Tamiflu is expensive and not enough for a major epidemic, giving it with the cheaper Probenecid would enable docs to treat more people at less cost...

Sounds good to me.

And I am ashamed that Congress in the US is playing politics with the Federal Government's flu program...they criticized it BEFORE they had a chance of fully reading it and getting second opinions if it was good or bad...especially since most people working as government bureaucrats are apolitical...and often Democrats, like I am...

Pipe v. Crab

The physics of bras...

(via Instapundit)

Newsweek on Narnia

Alas, they discuss the usual trivial question about it's Christian themes....(duh)...not about if it will be an entertaining movie that people (or children) will like...

Quint at Ain't it cool news thought it was good, but his review is old...if Disney were smart, they'd push their film there with the scifi/slasher film geeks...but since the Geeks just gave Disney's Chicken little a bad review, one suspects that unlike Peter Jackson, they are not pushing their film with the geeks who hated Veggie tales...

Yoda rap

From the corner

Camp Katrina moving

The guys at Camp Katrina are back home, and will change their blog to reporting good stuff that the NG and other military units are doing...that don't get much publicity in the press...(I know that because I was NG for 12 years)...

I'll change my link as soon as they change their address..

Haloween cat bowling

From the cat-hating neocons at the Corner...

Greenpeace hit a reef

Only Greenpeace would assume that Philippine maps are accurate...duh...

Tolkien links

CS Lewis and Tolkiens' conversation about myths and Christianity is one reason Lewis decided to become a Christian...Tolkien later wrote a poem summarizing his argument...and later, in his famous lecture on Beowulf, Tolkien recited part of that poem...

The heart of man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact,
man, sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seeds of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.

But I didn't realize that the poem was much longer than what he quoted, and Quenta Narwean blog has the entire poem at the above link...the part he did not quote in his lecture concerns his aim in writing:

I would that I might with the minstrels sing
and stir the unseen with a throbbing string.
....
I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.

And in another post, QN has THIS LINK to a pdf file of the poem Crist...
""Lo ! Thou Splendor of the dayspring, fairest of angels sent to men upon earth..."

This is a translation of

Éala Éarendel Engla Beorhtast
Ofer Middangeard Monnum Sended

A closer rendering would be

"Hail, Earendel, brightest of angels
Over Middle-earth sent to men..."

These lines intrigued the young Tolkien, who developed the character and story of Eärendil from this slender hint. This was one of the earliest seeds of the entire Legendarium..."

praying at great grandmother's grave...

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All Saints day take three

Well, we have been to the cemetary and back already...
It is like a fiesta. Everyone brings flowers and candles, and then sits and prays and eats...
If you forget anything, there are plenty of vendors selling stuff...coca cola, green coconut drink, various crackers, rolls, pastries, etc. I didn't see any barbecue, but I suspect that is there too...

The police made the roads one way, and were cheerfully directing traffic...
You see, this is not a day of mourning, but a day to remember the dead...who are still with us.

This is a Catholic idea, that the dead are part of the "communion of saints" and watch us and protect us from heaven, and when we pray for their souls, they also pray for us. They are not really dead, but still involved with us and our families.

But also this is an Asian idea (Chinese also go to cemetaries and have family picnics)...

The Protestants don't celebrate it...probably because they see it as a "pagan" idea, which it is...Protestants alas are not only puritans but influenced by scientific, utilitarian Americans : What's the use of spending such money? They are dead...period...move on, folks, nothing happening here...

Ah, but culturally it reminds people that we are not alone, not individuals, but part of a large story, and those before us and those after us are also part of that story...and it is good, for one day a year, to remember those whose story is now finished but who care for those of us still here on earth...

The idea is universal, but not to be discarded because it is "pagan"...after all, all men are made in God's image, and have his ideas in our hearts and minds, so that a poet, a musician--or a simple peasant who lays flowers on the grave of an ancestor-- is merely echoing the idea that God placed there...

(The above photo was taken last August...)

Carnival of the recipes is up...

NOLA NG heroes

Unlike Sean Penn, who brought his publicist and a photographer and got splashed all over Rolling stone magazine, the real heroes were ignored.
This local news story may or may not get publicity (if it does, it is because someone posted it on Lucianne.com, not because CNNI was looking for everyday heroes)...
After the storm, a small group acted on instinct rather than orders. Through four hectic days and helpless nights, filled with unanswered screams of the stranded, they pulled people from rooftops and attics and guarded the remaining firearms and equipment in the flooded armory, with the help of a pit bull -- "Katrina" -- they retrieved from the floodwaters that first day. ...

With more than 40 people in four small craft, the soldiers made their third foray into Katrina's winds, by then at their most vicious. Even more debris whipped around them and into their faces as they made their way to Building 35 on higher ground. After the storm passed, the small armada began ferrying soldiers to the Mississippi River levee, where Blackhawk choppers evacuated them to the Superdome and other refuges. ...

The dog's rescue was the first of what the soldiers recalled as about 75 to 100 -- the rest all people -- they would perform during the following days.
"She hasn't left my side" after he fished her from the flood, Venable said of Katrina. "She's in my backyard in Slidell as we speak."
Cries for help
The day after the storm, the soldiers awoke at 5:30 a.m., untied their boats and set out into St. Bernard and the 9th Ward. Venable made his first trip with Faust, down Delery Street just inside the Orleans Parish line. It seemed every other house had someone waving or hollering for help.
At another house, they saw an old man on his roof in nothing but his briefs. He pointed them to the duplex next door. They could hear screams from a family trapped inside.
They had no tools to break open the roof, so they used the boat anchor -- twice. The first time they broke through the wrong side of the duplex.
On their second try, they found five women and girls from three different generations, two of them small children. "God bless you," one of the women said.
At another house, Venable and Faust rammed a locked door with their boat to break it down, freeing an old couple, Pete and Bertha. The couple had lived there 60 years. Pete said he'd never been on a boat, much less a helicopter...
"I told you we should have left!" the woman told her husband, who laughed off her scorn.
In one of their first rescues, Anderson, Black and Mula coordinated with a Coast Guard helicopter that picked up five people in a rescue basket tethered to the aircraft. The human cargo was then dropped into the boat and proceeded to devour all the Gummy Bears on board.
That Tuesday, the soldiers continued to drop people at the levee, still unaware that the St. Claude Avenue Bridge had become the main hub of the rescue operation.
Black recalled the moment he first approached the bridge, another one of those moments when the scope of the disaster became more disturbingly clear.
"There had to be a 1,000 people there," he said. ...

Dave Barry hurricane blogs from Miami

They have no electricity, which does not paticularly bother them, as they often had none in Cuba. They borrowed a generator, which they used to power the stereo, because at a Latin party, music takes precedence over refrigeration.

Second DB Link on no electricity LINK

Hmmm...brown outs, no petrol... but having a fiesta and lots of fun...

Gee, sounds like he lives in the Philippines!

We are the champions!????

It shouldn't happen to a goat

On Oct. 21, someone got inside a security fence at the frat house and spray-painted the goat.

Then early Sunday, the fraternity reported Sharon missing. She turned up unharmed a day later inside fencing at an animal hospital.


No arrests were made in the theft. But the fraternity learned it's also a city ordinance violation to keep barnyard animals inside city limits.

The fraternity has a week to find a new home for the goat, which roams freely on Sigma Chi's two-acre plot, and is allowed indoors.

which jackolantern are you?

discover your jack-o-lantern face @ quiz me

lolo enjoying himself

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Princess Ruby and her cake

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Birthday girls

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Archimedes Death Ray: film at 11...

We tend to get American programs 6 to 12 months after they air in the US...

Last week, the Mythbusters busted the Archimedes death ray story...

But now, MIT students proved it can work...film link available...

All Saints day take two

I posted photos when we cleaned the graves in August on the anniversaries...If I get a chance, I'll post more photos...
Wikipedia has a summary of the festival in different countries...
Alas, my stepson is Protestant and not into these things...
And HERE is a link to the precautions against terrorism...

Personally, the real dangers are the usual: car wrecks, dengue fever, food poisoning, and diarrhea...

All saints day

In the USA they celebrate Haloween, but most people don't know that this holiday is part of the All saints day celebration: The spirits come out the day before, the saints are celebrated on Nov 1 and the dead on Nov. 2 (all Soul's day)...
Here in the Philippines, it is another holiday season (0ur town square put the christmas lights up last week)...and everyone takes off to go home to visit the graves of their loved ones.

But security is up...

Philippine mine disaster

Actually, only a dozen killed...at first the news was fifty dead, but many had left the mine and were found alive...

Prayer alert for the famlies...

it also hints at both corruption and success in this country: gold rush, followed by illegal mines, followed by government helping cooperatives of local miners--but the accident occured in one of the few private mines...hmmm...

The sad thing is this: The government has said the country has $1 trillion worth of unexplored mining reserves, enough to pay off the country's public sector debt of $95 billion many times over.

Haloween party decoration to knit

STICK THIS ON YOUR DOOR AND YOU WILL REALLY SCARE PEOPLE...

(from the Corner)

New Orleans concert

I usually avoid MSN but they have some great jazz to listen to at the link...

Historical events as reported on Fox news...

The trolley is off the tracks...

St.Peggy warns us that the collapse of our institutions is a real possibility....

I'd say she was paranoid, except for her 1998 column that predicted 9-11...

...as 9-11 showed, reality tends to destroy the hype on the trivia and petty politics that consumes much of our elites...but until our leaders and our press and our intellectuals are willing and able to include reality in their vision, I suspect St. Peggy might be right...

"I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours." ...Not all of course. There are a lot of people--I know them and so do you--trying to do work that helps, that will turn it around, that can make it better, that can save lives. They're trying to keep the boat afloat. Or, I should say, get the trolley back on the tracks.
.....I suspect those in the latter group privately, in a place so private they don't even express it to themselves, wonder if they'll go down with the ship..."

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

Just to add a short p.s.

The difference between the US and the Philippines is that HERE, no body really trusts the government.

In the US, if someone robs you, you call the cops...here, you get out your (illegal) gun and chase him away, or sic your pit bulls at him...if you are rich, you call the guards (the rich live in gated communities...we aren't rich so we live downtown, and have two pitbulls, but no guns... )

The first line of help is the extended family and the second line is the churches...

Culturally, Philippinos trust the family...and then pseudo family (friends, the local "rich" who they owe allegience, and the churches)...

Americans stress individuals, not family, and their "backup" is the federal government...and alas, history shows governments are not God and they come and go...

Pumpkin, pumpkins, pumpkins

Carve your own for Haloween...

(heads up from the nasty neocons at the corner)

Manolo says:

Manolo says, the horror that is the Moscow fashion week, it continues…

No designing clothes while chugging the Vodka....

Dilbert has a blog

He also has an essay on his newsletter about if you want to start a blog...LINK

He says:
The blogger's philosophy goes something like this:

Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.

Yup...sounds like me...

Bird Flu and globalization

Steyn links globalization, SARS, and Islamofascism in one column...

Or you can read Thomas Friedman's book The Olive tree and the Lexus, for a similar take...

But, of course, in some way both are wrong...Ghengis Kahn was the original perveyor of both terrorism, terroristic conquest, genocide AND the Black death...

Ho Ho Ho (sob)

The voice of the Green Giant has died...

Hurricane Aniken?

The weathermen (and weather women) have run out of names for hurricanes, so the new Atlantic storm is called Alpha...

Ah, but the cheerful cleanup crew of Camp Katrina suggests that they use these names instead....and to sign a petition to make it official...

Dear Spengler

Dear Spengler,
I have done my best to emulate Yasser Arafat, and all I get for my troubles is a lousy cave in western Pakistan. As the chief executive officer of a global conspiracy to restore the Islamic caliphate, I have had to kill a few thousand people here and there, but Arafat has killed far more people than I have.
He is treated like a head of state, while I am hunted like a criminal. Where did I go wrong?
Worried In Waziristan
Dear Worried,Your error is obvious. Arafat only kills Jews.
Spengler

The acid tongued Spengler is the pen name for a writer in the Asia Times...

He is no friend of America, or Europe, for that matter...but his mock letter seemed to explain perfectly several things about CNNI's news in the last 48 hours.

It has been a day for good news.

The Iraqis have a new constitution, partly because enough Sunnis backed it to pass it...The news must be true...it's on the news ticker...except for the commentary about how this means (we are reminded for the 28th time) civil war...

And of course, a car bomb in front of a hotel for journalists. Nope, not the Sunnis, but Al Qada...got the headlines...journalists had great shots of it...if it bleeds, it leads...

And then great shots of the anti war protests...but if you look carefully, it shows closeups of only a few people protesting... not great masses...

The only "balance" is they noted parallel to the mass casulaties in the battle of the bulge...

How about a parallel to the millions killed or imprisoned or fled when the left allowed terrorists to take over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia...nah, they don't count, they are Asians...it's about rich yuppies remembering their youthful triumph in the anti war movement...

Of course, the UN report on Syria assasinating Hariri got a little notice, again without context of the cedar revolution in Lebanon. And the little problem that Alquada is importing more powerful IED's from Iran has gotten only a mention when discussing Britain's troops last week...

But THIS got no press (although with the brownouts and the telephone lines out for the last four days, I haven't been in touch with all the news)...(alternative link HERE, requires registration)

Israel should be 'wiped off the map': Iran president

...Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday entitled 'The World without Zionism'. ...

Ahmadinejad, a veteran of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after scoring a landslide win in a June presidential election.

His tone represents a major change from that of former president Mohammad Khatami, whose favoured topic was "dialogue among civilisations" and who led an effort to improve Iran's relations with the West.
But Ahmadinejad instead spoke of an "historic war".
"It dates backs hundreds of years. Sometimes Islam has advanced. Sometimes nobody was winning. Unfortunately over the past 300 years, the world of Islam has been in retreat," he lamented.
"One hundred years ago the last trench of Islam fell, when the oppressors went towards the creation the Zionist regime. It is using it as a fort to spread its aims in the heart of the Islamic world."

Yup...maybe the cowboy was right...it is one of the Axis of evil, and thanks to European dipolmacy, they will soon have nukes...and if the Europeans look at the map, the retreat he is discussing doesn't mean Waco Texas, it means the battle of Vienna...you know, Austria?

Jan Sobieski, call your office...your coffee and croissants have arrived...

New Narnia trailer on line

Maybe because they use the same music as the first FOTR trailer, this one makes me think it won't be as good as expected...oh well, there is still THIS version...

Bird flu Alert in the UK

Why does this remind me of Monty Python?

MAD!

Action figure Museum

Don't say we Okies are culturally impaired...

Link from Okiedokie...

New supergerm? or new outbreak of old disease?

This article makes it sound like it will come to the US thanks to the Iraq war...(a backhanded way of bashing the war according to the MSM agenda?)

But this LINK suggests that it is mainly a danger to those with poor immune systems...and has been present in 1-2% of ICU infections for a long time....

The report on the Iraq outbreak is HERE...

There have been over 100 case, but no American soldiers have died of it so far.

Most of the cases come from contaminated limb wounds...

The sources of the A. baumannii that led to the infections described in this report are under investigation. During the Vietnam War, A. baumannii was reported to be the most common gram-negative bacillus recovered from traumatic injuries to extremities, and more recent reports have identified A. baumannii infections in patients who suffered traumatic injuries, suggesting environmental contamination of wounds as a potential source

In other words, an old pathogen...just a new problem, or rather an old problem that has returned, partly due to the fact that the wounded no longer die of strep cellulitis or gas gangrene or shock.....

EMEDICINE has a nice report HERE....
Internationally: Acinetobacter is a common colonizer of patients in the intensive care setting. Acinetobacter colonization is particularly common in patients who are intubated and in those who have multiple intravenous lines or monitoring devices, surgical drains, or indwelling urinary catheters. Acinetobacter infections are rare and occur almost exclusively in hospitalized patients

The main problem seems to be that it is resistant to most antibiotics...and mainly dangerous if there is an outbreak among the elderly, HIV patients etc...

Of course you don't have to go to Iraq to get infected HERE is a pdf about endocarditis in the Manila heart hospital...2 cases were acetobacter....or THIS, where 60% of eye wash solution was contaminated..or HERE, where it caused 4 of 81 cases of meningitis in infants...

I suspect the reports in Manila hospitals are due to the high level of medicine rather than a high level of infection....

Brazil reports footand mouth disease

a couple years ago, FMD decimated the European farm industry, and when you came in from one of those countries to Manila, you had to walk thru disinfectant.

Well, it has now hit Brazil, which sells meat to the USA..

Interestingly enough, FMD can be used in bioterror: The Germans used it against the USA in WWI...(scroll way down or search for 1915)...

However, this outbreak seems to be related to the European one...

As for us, we are still waiting for bird flu..

However, with all the dengue fever, diarrhea, and red tide, who worries?

Ah, but will Tom Cruise star in part II?

I had read in an Andrew Greeley column that Ann Rice had come back to the Catholic church, but now it seems she is writing a novel on Jesus as a child, with future novels planned....

Who woulda thought?

Oh well, it will drive the fundamentalists crazy, and will horrify the anti religious types...

Calling Tom Cruise....calling Tom Cruise...

PANDAS!!!

(from those nutty right wingers at the corner)...

Sucking up to Mugabe

"....Robert Mugabe was on typically outrageous form last week. Invited by the United Nations on a jolly to attend the 60th anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the Zimbabwean president laid into his old foes. George Bush and Tony Blair, he said, were “the two unholy men of our millennium”, responsible for war, pollution and, since the event was to mark World Food Day, hunger. Quite what the UN was doing inviting this corrupt and vile man to attend the event is beyond comprehension. For him to use the occasion to blame others for creating hunger is beyond parody.

"Posing as a tourist, our reporter Christina Lamb has just visited Zimbabwe and has seen the effects of Mr Mugabe’s policies on his own people at first hand. Thousands and thousands of Zimbabweans are living like animals in the midst of rubble in southern Harare, foraging among rubbish for food or forced to prostitute themselves. They are the victims of their president’s urban beautification programme, which the UN itself estimates has left 700,000 homeless or destitute. Kofi Annan himself said that Operation Murambatsvina — “drive out the filth” — had done a “catastrophic injustice” to many of Zimbabwe’s poorest citizens “through indiscriminate actions, carried out with disquieting indifference to human suffering”. This again begs the question of why the UN keeps sucking up to this tyrant...."

The article that is referred to can be found HERE....and more information can be found on Makaipa blog...

M.E.G.O.

MEGO is short for "My Eyes Glaze Over"...where a story or a lecture is sooooo boring that you fall asleeeeep...(like Ben Stein's lecture in Ferris Bueller)...

But while the MSM and many bloggers are busy discussing if releasing the name of a retired CIA operative (while ignoring the CIA leaks against Bush) is a crime, or about Bush appointing a cronie to the Supreme court, a much larger but more boring story is being ignored...

Summary: Lots of bribery by Sadam Hussein...lots of money laundering which may have gone to terrorists, lots of people at the UN who got rich, and lots of money going to people in certain anti war European countries, including France and Luxenburg...

YAWN...sounds like normal shenanigans in Manila...Gloria, call your office, your "Hello Garci" CD is on sale on EBAY.....

Beware of roaming Gnomes

Guess after they were liberated from Europe and decided to move to upstate NewYork...

Nanocar, anyone? and other good news from the net.

Good News: nanocars...
go to the link...alas, blogger won't post the photo...the article also reports on transparant aluminum...(which, as Trekkies know, was a major subplot in STARTREK 4)...

Other good news: Mel Gibson gave money to Mexican charities to help those homeless from the hurricanes...LINK

When Yoda was a baby

(heads up from Boingboing)

IHT on Gloria's ban on demonstrations

And two powerful Religious groups say: Get your act together, the economy is tanking...LINK

The Manila bulletin reported that although Manila bans demonstrations, that in nearby Makati, the police are actually helpful to those wanting to demonstrate.....

And there is a real danger that terrorists (either Alquada or the local NPA) will infiltrate the demonstrations and make them violent...so when these farmers held a demonstration, they detected and removed these infiltrators LINK

As for us, aside from an ElShaddai rally, the town is busy getting in the rice harvest....you can barely drive or park, because people dry the rice on the concrete....(I'll try to post a photo later)...the bad news is that our gormet rice had a lousy yield due to weeds...oh well...

Classic cookbooks on line

Also from Books on line: Michigan State University Library is posting classic cookbooks on line...

Bon Appetit!

McGuffey readers on line

Books on line has lots of stuff...and this week, they posted links to the old McGuffey readers...

They also have Lang's books of fairy tales and retelling of myths.

Well, it's not Harry Potter, but for those who like Harry, I suggest you download them for your kids.

I'm not an architect, but I play one in the movies

Babies for sale....girls half price

SHANGHAI - Police are investigating advertisements offering babies for sale on a Chinese website owned by internet auction house eBay. The ads, which appeared on the eBay EachNet site on October 16, promised babies under 100 days old from the impoverished province of Henan at prices of 28,000 yuan ($5000) for boys and 13,000 yuan for girls, the China Daily reported. More than 50 people looked at the baby auction but no "purchases" were made before it was removed. The sale of children and women is a problem in China, where rules on family planning allow couples to just have one child, at least in cities.

The attack of the Swedish Zombie worms

(viaDaveBarry...who is preparing for another hurricane LINK)

A heartwarming new comedy

I've seen this floating around the internet, and it is hilareous...the link is to the LATIMES site (reg required)...

One of the most popular pass-it-on Internet gags of the moment is a movie trailer that re-imagines the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film "The Shining" as a dramedy in the mold of, say, "About a Boy." Only original footage and dialogue from the film is used, but with soaring music and deft editing, it makes the movie seem more lump-in-your-throat than ax-in-your-head.

The faux trailer has created a stir for its creator, Robert Ryang, an editing assistant in Manhattan who works on television commercials. He crafted the trailer for a contest by the Assn. of Independent Creative Editors, but a few weeks ago it went pinging across the Internet. (To see Ryang's trailer, go to calendarlive.com/shining.)

His inspiration? "These really formulaic movies where you have someone — a wacky girlfriend or a neighbor or, like, a dog or something — come into the damaged life of someone and everything miraculously gets better."....

Memphis Belle

Robert Hanson, the last surviving crewmember of the Memphis Belle, has died...

He won a baseball scholarship to university, but chose instead to go out to work, and in the summer of 1941 enlisted in the US Army. Determined not to become an infantryman, after the attack on Pearl Harbor he volunteered for radio training and transferred to the Air Force.

After returning home in 1943, he spent the remainder of the war as a radio instructor. When peace came, he found work as the district manager of, first, a food company and then a sweets manufacturer at Spokane, Washington...

A family man, with a high sense of ethics and a fondness for laughter, Hanson enjoyed golf and square dancing in retirement. To the end, he liked to finish telephone conversations with the wartime Morse Code sign-off: dit, dit, dit, dah, dit, dah. He died on October 1.

He married, in 1942, Irene Payton, who survives him with a son and a daughter. Another daughter predeceased him.