NOTE TO SELF: A FAMILY IS A FAMILY IS A FAMILY...SOME PEOPLE SEE SUBVERSIVE PLOTS EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY IN LOUDON
Given the fact that this is a place where there is reading matter covering a wide variety of subjects, one parent whose sensitivities were obviously jarred by the prospect of gay penguin parenting, has managed to get a book pulled from the library shelves. Some people see subversive plots at every turn, even within the pages of a children's book.
A children's book about two male penguins that hatch and parent a chick was pulled from library shelves in Loudoun County elementary schools this month after a parent complained that it promoted a gay agenda.
The decision by Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III led many parents and gay rights advocates to rush to the penguins' defence. Many say that the school system should not have allowed one complaint to limit children's literary choices. Some are calling for an overhaul of the book review policy. Besides, many say, what could be wrong with a book about penguins?
"The book is based on a true story . . . of what happens in the animal kingdom," said David Weintraub, director of Equality Loudoun, a gay rights organization. "It's about the joy of being part of a family. These penguins love each other. They take care of each other. The book, "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, draws on the real-life story of Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in New York. It also appears to make a point about tolerance of alternative families.
As the book says, Roy and Silo were "a little bit different" than the boy and girl penguins who noticed each other and became couples. "Wherever Roy went, Silo went too." After they tried to hatch an egg-shaped rock together, a zookeeper gave them a fertilized egg to nurture. Experts say male chinstraps typically share incubation duties with females.The 2005 book, written with simple words and colorful pictures and dedicated "to penguin lovers everywhere," topped the American Library Association's list of banned or challenged books in 2006. Parents challenged the book in Shiloh, Ill., and Charlotte. Administrators in Charlotte initially yanked the book but later restored it, according to news reports.
Read the whole story here:
http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/news/2008/feb/16/tango/
Extra Information regarding penguins found on the Sea World site: http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Penguins/hatching.html:
"Care of the chicks
1 . Chicks require attentive parents for survival. Both parents feed the chick regurgitated food. Adults recognize and feed only their own chicks. Parents are able to identify their young by their chick's distinctive call (Marchant, 1990; Simpson, 1976).
2. Male emperor penguins exhibit a feature unique among penguins. If the chick hatches before the female returns, the male, despite his fasting, is able to produce and secrete a curdlike substance from his esophagus to feed the chick (Marchant, 1990; del Hoyo, et al., 1992) allowing for survival and growth for up to two weeks (Pr6vost and Vilter, 1963-1 Stonehouse, 1975).
Monday, February 18, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
AND A CHILD SHALL SHOW THE WAY
NOTE TO SELF: ONE GENERATION PLANTS THE TREES; ANOTHER GETS THE SHADE
Seems at times that there is a plethora of negative reports and stories focusing on errant youth. It's therefore refreshing to come across a "feel good" story that gives one hope for the future of mankind. It's the kind of story that makes you smile.
Young Jack Davis, aged 11, was perturbed upon learning that Florida restos throw out food due to legal restraints should anyone eating the food become ill or develop food poisoning, since he felt it could be recycled and given to homeless people. He had visited a homeless shelter on school field trips and worried about people going hungry.
Jack's idea was to pass a law that would give restaurant owners' some protection from lawsuits. He got his dad to float the idea to some Florida legislators.
It now seems certain that Jack's idea will become a law.
"If you take away the reason restaurants will not give food -- they will," he said. "And it's kind of it's a win-win situation 'cause the restaurants get to do something good."
When Jack's bill started gaining momentum, he was suddenly big news in Miami.
"When I go to school, people were chanting my name because they saw me on the cover of the Miami Herald," Jack said. "Over the whole day, they were asking me what does the law say. And in some of my classes they clapped as I walked in. If you think there's a problem in the world," he said, "you don't wait for other people to fix it. You have to try to fix it yourself."
Amen to that!
See a photo of Jack here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=4123327&page=1
Seems at times that there is a plethora of negative reports and stories focusing on errant youth. It's therefore refreshing to come across a "feel good" story that gives one hope for the future of mankind. It's the kind of story that makes you smile.
Young Jack Davis, aged 11, was perturbed upon learning that Florida restos throw out food due to legal restraints should anyone eating the food become ill or develop food poisoning, since he felt it could be recycled and given to homeless people. He had visited a homeless shelter on school field trips and worried about people going hungry.
Jack's idea was to pass a law that would give restaurant owners' some protection from lawsuits. He got his dad to float the idea to some Florida legislators.
It now seems certain that Jack's idea will become a law.
"If you take away the reason restaurants will not give food -- they will," he said. "And it's kind of it's a win-win situation 'cause the restaurants get to do something good."
When Jack's bill started gaining momentum, he was suddenly big news in Miami.
"When I go to school, people were chanting my name because they saw me on the cover of the Miami Herald," Jack said. "Over the whole day, they were asking me what does the law say. And in some of my classes they clapped as I walked in. If you think there's a problem in the world," he said, "you don't wait for other people to fix it. You have to try to fix it yourself."
Amen to that!
See a photo of Jack here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=4123327&page=1
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Ho-hum...patience is the key word for live MusselCam
NOTE TO SELF: MUSSELS ARE NOT THE MOST VISUAL MULLOSKS
One thing for sure is that anybody hoping for some exciting viewing on MusselCam will be disappointed, but then that's the way Mother Nature works. Unbelievable as it may seem MusselCam located in Prince Edward Island, Canada, was named amongst the top 25 most interesting webcams in the world. Hey - now that's an accomplishment!
That lone blue mussel is the only one of two Canadian entries to crack EarthCam's list. A webcam tracking the lighthouse at scenic Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia
(www.peggyscovewebcam.ca/live) is also on the webcam network's list of favourites.
For the uninitiated and according to Wikipedia, "the common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats."
Visually they aren't anything to look at being round and...round.
The message on the web page says it all: "mussels grow very, very slowly. Please check back often."
Garner Quain, the co-owner of Flex Mussels, which has locations in Charlottetown and Summerside, was surprised to hear his camera made the list.
"I didn't ever think that it would make any kind of Top 10 list, other than the fact that it's so, kind of, notoriously boring," said Quain."There's a few other ones on the internet that are sort of old favourites that have kind of always been running, so it was really kind of an homage to those, so to be included among them is a nice little honour."
Quain said MusselCam gets more than 1,000 hits a day.
Anyway, if you've got a lot of time - and patience - drop by the musselcam site here:
http://www.flexmussels.com/musselcam.html
Let us know if anything exciting happens. Yawn...
One thing for sure is that anybody hoping for some exciting viewing on MusselCam will be disappointed, but then that's the way Mother Nature works. Unbelievable as it may seem MusselCam located in Prince Edward Island, Canada, was named amongst the top 25 most interesting webcams in the world. Hey - now that's an accomplishment!
That lone blue mussel is the only one of two Canadian entries to crack EarthCam's list. A webcam tracking the lighthouse at scenic Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia
(www.peggyscovewebcam.ca/live) is also on the webcam network's list of favourites.
For the uninitiated and according to Wikipedia, "the common name mussel is used for members of several different families of clams or bivalve molluscs, from both saltwater and freshwater habitats."
Visually they aren't anything to look at being round and...round.
The message on the web page says it all: "mussels grow very, very slowly. Please check back often."
Garner Quain, the co-owner of Flex Mussels, which has locations in Charlottetown and Summerside, was surprised to hear his camera made the list.
"I didn't ever think that it would make any kind of Top 10 list, other than the fact that it's so, kind of, notoriously boring," said Quain."There's a few other ones on the internet that are sort of old favourites that have kind of always been running, so it was really kind of an homage to those, so to be included among them is a nice little honour."
Quain said MusselCam gets more than 1,000 hits a day.
Anyway, if you've got a lot of time - and patience - drop by the musselcam site here:
http://www.flexmussels.com/musselcam.html
Let us know if anything exciting happens. Yawn...
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
SCHOOL RELEASES 2008 LIST OF USELESS WORDS
NOTE TO SELF: AS A *WORDSMITH*, *IT IS WHAT IT IS* USING CERTAIN WORDS OR PHRASES
Go figure that someone would create a list subscribing that certain words and phrases are useless. We're talking words that most of us have used over time and now they're - Lake Superior State University - suggests that we find others.
In all there are 19 words or phrases that appear in its List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations. This year's list derives from more than 2,000 nominations received through the university's website, www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, education, technology, advertising, politics, sports and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. The list is released on New Year's Day.
Here is the 2008 list:
PERFECT STORM
WEBINAR
WATERBOARDING
ORGANIC
*WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING
AUTHOR/AUTHORED
POST 9/11
SURGE
GIVE BACK
BLACK FRIDAY
BLANK
BACK IN THE DAY
RANDOM
SWEET
DECIMATE
EMOTIONAL
POP
*IT IS WHAT IT IS
UNDER THE BUS
If you surf on to the university's site here: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php there's a list of who nominated the words i.e. ordinary people who claim they have a pet peeve against one of the above-mentioned words/phrases, and the reasons or rationale behind their distaste for them.
Looking them over can't say that any of them particularly upset me. For me the mere concept of accepting words nominated by...anybody for no good reason, is ludicrous and a reason not to take this seriously. Strikes me that the university is using their annual listing as a ploy to attract potential students.
Go figure that someone would create a list subscribing that certain words and phrases are useless. We're talking words that most of us have used over time and now they're - Lake Superior State University - suggests that we find others.
In all there are 19 words or phrases that appear in its List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations. This year's list derives from more than 2,000 nominations received through the university's website, www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, education, technology, advertising, politics, sports and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. The list is released on New Year's Day.
Here is the 2008 list:
PERFECT STORM
WEBINAR
WATERBOARDING
ORGANIC
*WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING
AUTHOR/AUTHORED
POST 9/11
SURGE
GIVE BACK
BLACK FRIDAY
BLANK
BACK IN THE DAY
RANDOM
SWEET
DECIMATE
EMOTIONAL
POP
*IT IS WHAT IT IS
UNDER THE BUS
If you surf on to the university's site here: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php there's a list of who nominated the words i.e. ordinary people who claim they have a pet peeve against one of the above-mentioned words/phrases, and the reasons or rationale behind their distaste for them.
Looking them over can't say that any of them particularly upset me. For me the mere concept of accepting words nominated by...anybody for no good reason, is ludicrous and a reason not to take this seriously. Strikes me that the university is using their annual listing as a ploy to attract potential students.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
GIFT CARD - THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING ALL YEAR
NOTE TO SELF: USE GIFT CARD
There used to be a time when store clerks and shoppers dreaded the day after Christmas in anticipation of the post-holiday return madness. The endless line-ups to bring back items that were the wrong size, bad color selection, vile scent or mis-guessed sizes appear to be on the wane with the growing popularity of gift cards.
Surveys according to America's Research Group, which polls shoppers for retailers, indicate that significantly fewer shoppers would be returning gifts this year. Ten years ago, the group found, 38 percent of consumers said they had an unwanted gift to return after Christmas. Five years ago, that number was 33 percent; this year, it is 14 percent.
The National Retail Federation surveyed shoppers and found that 64.3 percent didn’t return anything last holiday season, up from 62.4 percent in 2005.
When you think about it a gift card makes a lot of sense since it allows the recipient a good span of time to reflect upon what they really want or need. However, the trick is to remember that you received one and to check on the expiry date. Also, you can't re-gift a gift card!
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/business/27returns.html
What gifts did you return this year?
There used to be a time when store clerks and shoppers dreaded the day after Christmas in anticipation of the post-holiday return madness. The endless line-ups to bring back items that were the wrong size, bad color selection, vile scent or mis-guessed sizes appear to be on the wane with the growing popularity of gift cards.
Surveys according to America's Research Group, which polls shoppers for retailers, indicate that significantly fewer shoppers would be returning gifts this year. Ten years ago, the group found, 38 percent of consumers said they had an unwanted gift to return after Christmas. Five years ago, that number was 33 percent; this year, it is 14 percent.
The National Retail Federation surveyed shoppers and found that 64.3 percent didn’t return anything last holiday season, up from 62.4 percent in 2005.
When you think about it a gift card makes a lot of sense since it allows the recipient a good span of time to reflect upon what they really want or need. However, the trick is to remember that you received one and to check on the expiry date. Also, you can't re-gift a gift card!
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/business/27returns.html
What gifts did you return this year?
Sunday, December 23, 2007
SCHOOL BANS HOODED SWEATSHIRT
NOTE TO SELF: EDUCATORS SHOULD STICK TO...EDUCATION
Here we go again. There used to be a time when schools and educators relegated themselves to expanding student's knowledge. It appears that they're also getting involved in fashion choices.
School officials at Lincoln Middle School in Meridien, Conn. have banned hooded sweatshirts, citing that they violate the dress code policy. While the district's Board of Education dress code policy does not specifically ban this piece of clothing, it does now allow head gear, which presumably includes sweat shirt hoods.
"The hooded sweaters, and some of the hooded shirts that are out, all those are excluded. If you're in the stores shopping, that's all there is -- everything is hooded," said parent Cheryl Tomassetti.
School officials said they decided to ban the shirts after some students were spotted wearing hoods over their heads in school hallways and classrooms. Officials said that hoods are sometimes used by students hiding headphones.
Makes a person wonder how far the arm of educators should extend, especially when it comes to the choice of clothing. If it was for safety purposes officials would be justified but headphones?
The ban will go into effect after winter break.
Here we go again. There used to be a time when schools and educators relegated themselves to expanding student's knowledge. It appears that they're also getting involved in fashion choices.
School officials at Lincoln Middle School in Meridien, Conn. have banned hooded sweatshirts, citing that they violate the dress code policy. While the district's Board of Education dress code policy does not specifically ban this piece of clothing, it does now allow head gear, which presumably includes sweat shirt hoods.
"The hooded sweaters, and some of the hooded shirts that are out, all those are excluded. If you're in the stores shopping, that's all there is -- everything is hooded," said parent Cheryl Tomassetti.
School officials said they decided to ban the shirts after some students were spotted wearing hoods over their heads in school hallways and classrooms. Officials said that hoods are sometimes used by students hiding headphones.
Makes a person wonder how far the arm of educators should extend, especially when it comes to the choice of clothing. If it was for safety purposes officials would be justified but headphones?
The ban will go into effect after winter break.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
BAH HUMBUG - CHRISTMAS TREES BANNED IN CHINESE CITY
NOTE TO SELF: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS, ANYWAY?
Speaking of un-Christmas-like actions... The spirit of the holiday appears to be lacking in the city of Zhuhai, a city of 1.3 million people located in southern China, where deputy-mayor, Chen Ying has banned Christmas trees. Included in the ban are no trees allowed in shopping malls, restaurants, malls, grocery stores and other entertainment venues since the feeling is that they post a fire hazard. No Christmas trees and no "flammable decorations" either and those that do fall into this category had to be removed "immediately."
So...like...what type of decorations are deemed "flammable" and which are "non-flammable" one wonders? Is there some type of Christmas tree and decoration police that go around checking out flame-a-bility?
"Those that fail to rectify the situation will be subject to legal measures like suspension or closure," Mr Chen said.
I mean - imagine having a knock on the door, opening them to the Christmas cops and having your Christmas tree AND decorations judged whether they can stay or have to be taken down. It's just so...un-Christmas like!
The crackdown on Christmas trees was part of a three-month campaign to boost fire-prevention standards that started this week in Zhuhai, directly across from the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.
The Zhuhai ban came on the same day that President Hu Jintao "reached out" to religious believers in China where commercial Christmas trappings have become increasingly ostentatious in recent years.
The manager of a Zhuhai karaoke bar ordered a Christmas tree last week and was not happy with the new regulation.
"I paid 3,000 yuan (about $400), so who can I sue for damages now?" he said.
Bah...humbug!
Speaking of un-Christmas-like actions... The spirit of the holiday appears to be lacking in the city of Zhuhai, a city of 1.3 million people located in southern China, where deputy-mayor, Chen Ying has banned Christmas trees. Included in the ban are no trees allowed in shopping malls, restaurants, malls, grocery stores and other entertainment venues since the feeling is that they post a fire hazard. No Christmas trees and no "flammable decorations" either and those that do fall into this category had to be removed "immediately."
So...like...what type of decorations are deemed "flammable" and which are "non-flammable" one wonders? Is there some type of Christmas tree and decoration police that go around checking out flame-a-bility?
"Those that fail to rectify the situation will be subject to legal measures like suspension or closure," Mr Chen said.
I mean - imagine having a knock on the door, opening them to the Christmas cops and having your Christmas tree AND decorations judged whether they can stay or have to be taken down. It's just so...un-Christmas like!
The crackdown on Christmas trees was part of a three-month campaign to boost fire-prevention standards that started this week in Zhuhai, directly across from the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.
The Zhuhai ban came on the same day that President Hu Jintao "reached out" to religious believers in China where commercial Christmas trappings have become increasingly ostentatious in recent years.
The manager of a Zhuhai karaoke bar ordered a Christmas tree last week and was not happy with the new regulation.
"I paid 3,000 yuan (about $400), so who can I sue for damages now?" he said.
Bah...humbug!
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