Campanastan

Geography of Recession: USA Map Shows Monthly Unemployment Rates by County

2009-12-18T00:35:00-08:00

You can also view this as a larger image. Either way, not a pretty sight.

"And so Fannie Mae produces very strong results for investors when interest rates are high and when interest rates are low, in recession and during booms." -- Franklin Raines, former chair of Fannie Mae

Campanastan Wants a REAL Knowledge Center, Too!

2009-12-16T00:06:00-08:00

In early November 2009 my wife Mary Frances, a professional librarian and Campanastan's Minister of Information, and yours truly, President-for-Life, got an inside tour of the University of Nevada-Reno's Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. Our tour guide was Carol Parkhurst, Senior Director, University Libraries.

Why post about a library?

Two reasons:

1) this is not about a library - it's about a model for the evolution of libraries; and
2) Campanastan needs superior access to knowledge and a place to house and distribute the knowledge our citizens discover and appropriate from others.

[Disclosure notice: Carol Parkhurst and her husband, hydrogeologist extraordinaire Steve Wheatcraft, have been very good friends of your President-for-Life for close to 30 years. I take partial (50%) credit for introducing them to each other; I was the best man at their wedding and Steve fulfilled the same role at ours.]

Since the Minister of Information is the expert I asked her to write about the UNR KC. She could not refuse such a request.

In November we toured the University of Nevada-Reno Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. The tour guide was the person responsible for this remarkable entity—Carol Parkhurst, Senior Director, University Libraries. Both Carol and I have been in librarianship for a long time and have seen the naming fashions come and go. Often these trendy names for libraries (e.g., information center, learning center and knowledge center) are just attempts to attract non-library users. But the UNR KC has achieved something special in my mind—it is a true, physical and functioning knowledge center.

Besides being gorgeous—all its appointments tasteful, functional and coordinated—it is designed to integrate all the various information accessing technologies available to us today. Remember that books are a technology just as nettops are a technology—the key is to get the entire format product line to provide a whole, seamless experience in information access to the user. UNR KC does that. Books are very much in evidence, but they flow in the physical space to connect with computers and other media so that information may be discovered and extracted (or created). A multiple-story edifice with almost 300,000 square feet of usable space, it contains expertly-organized computer areas, media production services, social interaction areas of various types, clearly-marked, well-lighted bookshelves and supports these products and services with state-of-the-art (and more) backend processes.

The whole exceeds the parts, which should be a goal of libraries. Carol Parkhurst was able to bring prodigious attention to detail together with an overall vision to create this true knowledge center. Congratulations!

You get the picture. This is an extraordinary resource. What's incredulous is that more attention (as of early November 2009) has not been paid to this feat. I suspect it will eventually; the KC has been open just a little over a year.

Your President-for-Life especially liked the multi-story publication 'warehouse' at the back of the KC, where about 660,000 little-used documents are housed and retrieved remotely - all in about 10-15 minutes after a request is made.

Here are some videos of the UNR KC. Take a look at the slide show of the KC's construction.

Campanastan wants one of these.

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." -- Samuel Johnson

Language Laughs From Campanastan's Minister of Humor

2009-12-15T01:00:00-08:00

Campanastan's Minister of Humor Marty Ennis has earned a stay of execution by supplying her Fearless Leader with this material, which is several years old.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definiton.

Here are the winners:

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops
bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone unfortunately, shows
little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem
smarter when they come very quickly.

Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into
your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

And the pick of the literature:

Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

BCS Brouhaha: Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) Penalized for Unnecessary Stupidity

2009-12-14T07:43:06-08:00

If you are a sports fan you have no doubt heard of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), a 1998 creation of the major college football schools so that they can keep more of the lucrative post-season bowl revenue and claim to crown the national champion using a more logical system. Since its inception, the BCS has generated more controversy than before, as some decry the use of 'computers' to crown the putative national champ.

I sometimes think that the BCS was created simply to give sportswriters something to bitch about, as they rail against 'computers'. Of course, what these morons forget is that it was the humans who devised the algorithms the computers 'use' to select the top teams. Opponents of the BCS system contend that the only fair way to establish the champion is to institute a playoff system the way it's done in the lesser-known college football divisions.

But I'm not here to rail against sportswriters and I frankly don't care much about the arguments for or against the BCS system. It is simply a means to have the rich get richer and keep the 'have-nots' on the outside. A playoff system would simply make college football more like the NFL, except that it uses slave labor.

But is this so important that it merits the attention of Congress? Apparently, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), thinks so. Barton, a conservative Republican and Texas A&M Aggie who decries excessive government interference/regulation, introduced the College Football Playoff Act of 2009, which shall make it unlawful to "promote, market, or advertise" a postseason Division I football game as a national championship game unless it is "the final game of a single-elimination post-season playoff system" for which all Division I teams are, at the beginning of the season, equally eligible.

Barton invokes Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce as the basis for his bill. And, like all good conservative Republicans, he equated the BCS system to communism (see George Will's column).

Here's a tongue-in-cheek interview with Barton on HHR.

As far as I'm concerned, Congress has more important things on its plate.

From now on, when I see 'BCS', I will think 'Barton Conjures Stupidity.'

Thanks to George F. Will.

"Consumers, whether the millions who watched the game on TV or the lucky few who saw it in person, were being bamboozled." -- Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX)

"Sports journalism is to journalism as military intelligence is to intelligence." -- Shirley Povich, former sportswriter for the Washingon Post.

What's Up With Mormons? Latter Day Saints = Love Domesticated Sex!

2009-12-12T18:32:31-08:00

So what's up with the Mormons these days? Sister Leticia Farr getting a rise out of her muffins wearing outfits that would raise the dead? Joseph Smith would not tolerate this (though he might take her as a bride).

But at least Sister Farr is in the kitchen like a good Mormon girl, if in fact she really is.

And here are Epsiode 2: Prepare Your Muffins for Latter-Day Disasters; Episode 3: Righteously Theme Your Muffins; and Episode 4: Resurrect Your Muffins.

Here's the lowdown on how the Mormons are getting down and dirty. And see more (or less) at www.mormonsexposed.com.

What's next? Southern Baptist Babes?

"I'd like to warm Sister Farr's buns anytime!." -- B. Young

Tom Friedman: Dick Cheney, Global Warming, 100-Year Floods, and the One Percent Doctrine

2009-12-10T07:35:53-08:00

In the 8 December 2009 New York Times Tom Friedman presents a very good application of Dick Cheney's "one percent doctrine" to global warming.

You recall the one percent doctrine, right? Friedman gives a refresher:

In 2006, Ron Suskind published “The One Percent Doctrine,” a book about the U.S. war on terrorists after 9/11. The title was drawn from an assessment by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who, in the face of concerns that a Pakistani scientist was offering nuclear-weapons expertise to Al Qaeda, reportedly declared: “If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping Al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.” Cheney contended that the U.S. had to confront a very new type of threat: a “low-probability, high-impact event.”

As Friedman indicates, this is really the 'precautionary principle.' Reasonable, right?

But what I really like like about this article are the final three paragraphs:

When I see a problem that has even a 1 percent probability of occurring and is “irreversible” and potentially “catastrophic,” I buy insurance. That is what taking climate change seriously is all about.

If we prepare for climate change by building a clean-power economy, but climate change turns out to be a hoax, what would be the result? Well, during a transition period, we would have higher energy prices. But gradually we would be driving battery-powered electric cars and powering more and more of our homes and factories with wind, solar, nuclear and second-generation biofuels. We would be much less dependent on oil dictators who have drawn a bull’s-eye on our backs;[emboldening mine] our trade deficit would improve; the dollar would strengthen; and the air we breathe would be cleaner. In short, as a country, we would be stronger, more innovative and more energy independent.[emboldening mine]

But if we don’t prepare, and climate change turns out to be real, life on this planet could become a living hell. And that’s why I’m for doing the Cheney-thing on climate — preparing for 1 percent.

We take this same approach in floodplain zoning. A 100-year flood has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year, yet we restrict or proscribe building in the 100-year floodplain unless you purchase flood insurance. The 100-year flood is a low-probability, high-impact event.

I would like to see more people espouse this approach: mitigating global warming is ultimately good for the country, irrespective of the degree of certainty or magnitude of the warming phenomenon.

Heck, it's something Dick Cheney would do!

“According to the Precautionary Principle, it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events — such as climate change." -- Cass Sunstein, quoted in the article

'Tis the Season To Be....Anti-Gay? Uganda Forges Ahead

2009-12-09T07:20:51-08:00

How I love the holiday season! Despite the garish display of conspicuous consumption here in the USA, there are invariably numerous examples of people reaching out to help those less fortunate than themselves. Revives my faith in humanity.

So it was with great joy that I read a story in this morning's The Oregonian. Seems that Uganda is considering a very harsh anti-gay ordinance, one that would go beyond merely declaring homosexuality a crime, which it already is.

Even more interesting is the morsel that a former Oregonian, Scott Lively, had a hand in this legislative debacle. Lively addressed the Uganda parliament last March:

And remember that homosexuality is literally illegal in this country [Uganda]. Imagine how bad things would be if the criminal law were abandoned. By the way, the false accusation against me, now circulating in the US, is that I called on the Ugandan government to force homosexuals into therapy. What I actually said is that the law against homosexuality should be liberalized to give arrestees the choice of therapy instead of imprisonment, similar to the therapy option I chose after being arrested for drunk driving in 1985 (during which time I accepted the Lord and was healed and transformed into a Christian activist).

Sure love those Christians!

Here are the bill's major provisions:

Anyone convicted of a homosexual act faces life imprisonment
Active homosexual living with HIV and same-sex rapists would be executed
Anyone who "aids, abets, counsels, or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality" faces seven years in prison if convicted.
Landlords who rent rooms or homes to homosexuals face seven years in prison
Anyone with 'religious, political, economic or social authority" who fails to report anyone violating the act faces three years.

Here's a detailed AP story from the Fall River (MA) Herald News

Glad Uganda has its priorities straight. Having homosexuals running around the country is far worse than beating your wife or hacking your neighbor to death with a machete.

"Men will love each other as long as one is richer than the other." --- Ugandan proverb

'Going Rogue' Got It Right: Basketball Coach John Wooden, Native American Warrior

2009-12-06T07:55:40-08:00

Sarah Palin's Going Rogue has gotten more than a few things wrong. But one of the more unfair allegations is that the book incorrectly attributed this quote to UCLA basketball coaching legend John Wooden:

Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their lives.

Geoffrey Dunn at The Huffington Post (who provided the picture), along with others, claims that the original quote was made by Native American activist John Wooden Legs.

Dunn gives the entire quote:

Our land is everything to us. It is the only place in the world where Cheyennes talk the Cheyenne language to each other. It is the only place where Cheyennes remember the same things together. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their life. My people and the Sioux defeated General Custer at the Little Big Horn.

But is this really the egregious mistake some imply? Of course not!

Actually, Palin's not too far off the mark. Wooden hails from Indiana, which, of course, contains the word 'Indian'. He was also married in Indianapolis, which means 'City of Indians'. He coached high-school basketball in Kentucky, which is derived from an Indian word meaning 'he who throws many air balls.' Wooden also liked Indian motorcycles and, as an adolescent, chewed Red Man tobacco. His mother is one-quarter Indian, from the Wherethefugowee Nation. And don't forget the iconic stature of the wooden cigar-store Indian in American lore.

It's easy to see how Palin could have believed that Wooden was an Indian. Just an honest mistake, right? But not really - in fact, the evidence I've cited really corroborates Wooden's Indian heritage. So Going Rogue got it right!

Another instance of the mainstream media persecuting Sarah Palin!

"Never mistake activity for achievement." -- John Wooden (quoted in Dunn's article)

Jared Diamond's NYT Op-Ed: Will Big Business Save the Earth?

2009-12-05T19:51:58-08:00

Jared Diamond, author of the excellent Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse argues in today's New York Times that big buiness may save Earth (which, of course, does not need saving - life as we know it on Earth needs saving).

He begins:

There is a widespread view, particularly among environmentalists and liberals, that big businesses are environmentally destructive, greedy, evil and driven by short-term profits. I know — because I used to share that view.

But today I have more nuanced feelings. Over the years I’ve joined the boards of two environmental groups, the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International, serving alongside many business executives.

As part of my board work, I have been asked to assess the environments in oil fields, and have had frank discussions with oil company employees at all levels. I’ve also worked with executives of mining, retail, logging and financial services companies. I’ve discovered that while some businesses are indeed as destructive as many suspect, others are among the world’s strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability.

He focuses on three companies we all love to hate (as he says): Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and Chevron..

Diamond makes some good arguments. I certainly don't think of him as an apologist for big business.

He concludes:

My friends in the business world keep telling me that Washington can help on two fronts: by investing in green research, offering tax incentives and passing cap-and-trade legislation; and by setting and enforcing tough standards to ensure that companies with cheap, dirty standards don’t have a competitive advantage over those businesses protecting the environment. As for the rest of us, we should get over the misimpression that American business cares only about immediate profits, and we should reward companies that work to keep the planet healthy.

Give it a read.

"All human societies go through fads in which they temporarily either adopt practices of little use or else abandon practices of considerable use." -- Jared Diamond

Opposed to KSM's Trial in New York? Read This

2009-12-04T21:40:33-08:00

Leonard Pitts, Jr., syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, recently penned a column titled, We can still afford to act like America.

In it, he supports Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of 9/11, in a civilian courtroom in New York City. It's a decision that has elicted concerns about acquittal, increased risk of terrorist attacks, and increased martyrdom for KSM among his followers.

Pitts begins his column with Jon Stewart's quote (see below), then says:

And seriously now, who doesn't agree?

You'd have to be defective in your humanity not to. Mohammed plotted the greatest act of mass murder in American history. Who among us wouldn't like a piece of this guy?

Americans have always been ambivalent about the ability of our justice system to give bad people what they've got coming. That's why the action movie almost always ends with the bad guy shot, impaled or fed into a wood chipper: seeing him led away in handcuffs simply doesn't impart the same visceral sense of just deserts.

But you have to wonder: Are our emotional needs the most important consideration here?

It's worth remembering that even the architects of the greatest barbarism in history had their day in court. After burning away 11 million lives, the leaders of the Nazi regime found themselves facing not summary execution, but a trial before a military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

The analogy with Nuremberg is imperfect; it was a military court and held on foreign soil in a country we defeated. There was no risk of a retaliatory terrorist attack on the USA. Our security was not an issue.

But Attorney General Eric Holder' decision is the correct one. Sure, KSM and his cronies are thugs and responsible for the death of 3,000 people, one of whom was my younger sister. I think they're scum. A military court would almost certainly guarantee guilty verdicts.

Pitts concludes:

Periodically, we have shed the burden of bravery, reason, civilization, laws. Always, it happens in moments of national stress, moments of overwhelming confusion, anger or fear, moments that make us prey to demons of expedience and moral compromise. Moments when we wonder if we can still afford to act like America.

But we face a band of bloodthirsty hoodlums whose dearest wish is to make us just like them. So maybe the better question is this:

Can we afford not to?

No, we cannot afford not to.

Otherwise, we're just like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his despicable comrades.

"We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose." -- Bishop Desmond Tutu

"We [should] wrap him in bacon and deep fry him at a state fair while Lee Greenwood stabs him in the face.'' -- Jon Stewart of The Daily Show on confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Funny Feline Fotos - Part 3

2009-12-02T08:51:30-08:00

Great way to start December, with some additional funny kitty photos (see Part 1 and Part 2).

"Women and cats do as they dammed well please, and men and dogs had best learn to live with it." - Robert Heinlein

Limited-Edition New Mexico Barbies Now Available

2009-11-27T09:52:06-08:00



"South Valley Barbie"
This Barbie now comes with a stroller and two infant dolls. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now very difficult to find since the addition of the second infant.

"Santa Fe Barbie"
This princess Barbie is sold  by appointment only at the De Vargas Gallery. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and an adobe home. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

"Las Cruces Barbie"
The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic-jamming cell phone sold separately.

"Belen Barbie"
This recently-paroled bilingual Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills).

"Taos Barbie"
This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own turqoise and silver jewelry, Taos Pueblo paintings and ski club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper.

"Bloomfield Barbie"
This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR T-shirt and Tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud Light and a Hank Williams, Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a Confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

"T or C Barbie"
This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heel sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of The Bluewater Saloon. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter top. Also available with a mobile home.

"Placitas Barbie"
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Placitas Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

Happy Thanksgiving! Oprah Gives Away Free Men!

2009-11-26T09:05:25-08:00

CHICAGO—The season premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Show unleashed a surprise for viewers Monday, when host Winfrey presented her studio audience with an unexpected gift: eligible men.

"Everybody gets a man! Everybody gets a man!" said Winfrey, almost drowned out by cries of disbelief as 276 men, one for every member of the studio audience, filed onto the Oprah set.

Hoping to top last year's season-debut surprise, when members of the studio audience received free cars, Winfrey watched elated as the men knelt before their awestruck new mates and delivered gallant kisses and professions of undying affection.

"Signed, sealed, delivered... they're yours!" Winfrey said.

Hand-picked by Winfrey and her staff, the men range in age from 29 to 63 and were described by assistant producer Sally Heffernan-Ross as "great catches" with semi-professional to professional careers and stable personalities.

"Oprah showed it can happen: You can get that man of your dreams, or at least of your minimal expectations," Heffernan-Ross said.

The men, dressed in fresh chinos and polo shirts and bearing single red roses and gift baskets from Bath & Body Works, emerged moments after audience members were instructed to reach beneath their chairs, where they found inlaid boxes containing keys.

The keys, Winfrey explained, unlocked the doors to the men's individual domiciles.

"He's yours! He's completely yours!" Winfrey said to one speechless young woman who appeared stunned by what was going on around her. Assuring "no months of awkward dating" or "questions over who's going to make the first move," Winfrey said her man giveaway had totally eliminated the guesswork of romance.

The men Winfrey gave away are guaranteed to enjoy snuggling, to find the few extra pounds gained over time "cute," and to have read at least three books by the poet Maya Angelou.

"Oh, I love Maya," said one of the giveaway men, 32-year-old electrical engineer Doug Jefferson, who also enjoys warm, comfy sweaters. "I think she's very brave. Heck, I love poetry in general. Who doesn't?"

Winfrey had to reassure several of the more timid studio-audience members.

"Don't worry, ladies, they won't be going anywhere," Winfrey said. "Kiss him! Give his behind a little squeeze! It's okay—he's your man!"

As with 2004's Pontiac G6 giveaway, the man giveaway came as a complete surprise to audience members, many of whom said the men arrived just in time.

"I was beginning to think it was never, ever going to happen," said Karla Drozdowicz, 34, an unmarried bank teller from Superior, WI who won radio-sales executive Chris Iredell. "I'm totally thrilled to get Chris. He's not what I imagined from my romance stories, but I'll love him just the same."

Another audience member, Gwendolyn Havers, said her years of watching Oprah instead of dating had "finally paid off."

"My mom says my 'wallflower' personality keeps me from meeting men," Havers said. "Well, if I wasn't such an Oprah fan, I wouldn't have gotten tickets to her show, and I wouldn't have won [part-time assistant tech-support manager] Eric [Fitzgerald]."

Heffernan-Ross said the audience members were selected from a pool of "hundreds of thousands of single, lonely women" who had put in requests for show tickets.

"Unlike the selection process for the men, finding unattached women was very easy," Heffernan-Ross said. "All we had to do was stick our hands in a big barrel of letters, and voilá, our perfect audience."

Harpo Productions, Winfrey's production company, assured the winners that their prizes are guaranteed to "be into [them]" through 2010, and agreed to pay all local and state taxes relating to the men, as well. However, federal income tax and expenses such as meals, movie tickets, motel stays, teddy bears, plush slippers, and commitment rings will not be covered.

Audience member Karen Schoenegge, 38, who was awarded 41-year-old collections-department supervisor John Zimmerman, said several drawbacks have emerged since the show's taping.

"Well, as soon as we got back to the hotel, I found out that John doesn't give backrubs," Schoenegge said. "He's also weird about me walking in the bathroom to pee while he's in the shower. I mean, it's not like I'm looking at him. He needs to loosen up a little. But I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I really, really needed a new man."

The seven audience members who declined their men, saying that they were too insecure about their weight to feel confident in a romantic relationship, were instead treated to all-expenses-paid weekends at the Omni Hotel in downtown Chicago.

Today is Thanksgiving and I have much for which to be thankful. But I thought I'd be especially thankful for satire and good humor.

I dredged up this great satire by The Onion (for which I am grateful) from several years ago.

Enjoy, and don't eat too much!

"Watch Oprah sometime and look at the sad pathetic husbands in the audience. It makes you wonder how bad somebody is trying to get sex from their wife to actually agree to go to a live taping of Oprah." -- Unknown

Believe in a Supreme Being? Why You Can Embrace Evolution

2009-11-24T19:14:34-08:00

150 years ago today, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, considered by many the most important scientific treatise of all time.

The title was later shortened to The Origin of Species.

Read/listen to this story on NPR.

I am not a religious person but I do believe in a Supreme Being. I see no conflict between evolution and creation. I believe the 6 days of creation alluded to in the Bible are not to be taken literally, but meant to make a point.

In fact, I think evolution supports the concept of a Supreme Being. Why? Because it is a thoroughly ingenious way to propagate life. Any old supreme being can wave his/her arms and produce dinosuars on the spot. But to come up with a such a subtle means to create life, starting with a chemical soup and single-celled organisms to produce dinosaurs, whales, birds, reptiles, insects, apes, trees, flowers, sea scorpions, human, etc., is truly special. Now that's a Supreme Being!

In fact, I was pleased to learn of this quote from one of the leading clergymen of Darwin's day, who sent this repsonse when Darwin sent him a copy:

"It's just as noble a conception of God to think that he created animals and plants that then evolved, that were capable of self-development, as it is to think that God has to constantly create new forms and fill in the gaps that he's left in his own creation." --Rev. Charles Kingsley, a leading Church of England clergyman, commenting on Darwin's book

Extreme Sheepherding, Welsh-Style

2009-11-22T00:31:00-08:00

What happens when Welsh shepherds (The Baaaa-Studs) have too much time on their hands and access to modern technology? Find out below:

Real or fake?

Thanks to Marty Ennis.

"Sheep are not considered the most intelligent animals but British scientist say humans may have underestimated the woolly creatures. In fact, the British scientific community is even suggesting that the animals might even be "Irish-smart." -- Jon Stewart

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations

2009-11-21T07:22:04-08:00

I just finished a remarkable book (the title of this post) about an even more remarkable woman - Gertrude Bell (1868-1926). Georgina Howell's book is generally accepted as one of the best of the Bell biographies.

By any measure, Bell was extraordinary. Whatever she chose to do - designing gardens, Alpine mountaineering, writing, translating, exploring the Middle East, learning languages, etc. - she did it very well. At age 18 she became the first woman to achive a First in History at Oxford.

She was born into a wealthy English family. She used her family's money to finance her expeditions to the Middle East.

You would have expected someone like Bell to be an ardent feminist and supporter of women's suffrage. But she was opposed to the latter. Howell suggests that she was really a patrician, and was annoyed enough that lower-class men had been given granted the vote, so why compound the problem and grant lower-class women the vote as well?

She's been called many things, among them: Queen of the desert; Queen of Iraq; female Lawrence of Arabia. Modern day Iraq is largely the result of Bell. She had as much to do with fomenting the Arab Revolt of WWI as did T.E. Lawrence, albeit from behind the scenes.

She committed suicide in Baghdad, dismayed that the Iraq she helped create was unraveling. Wonder what she'd think of things now.

Whether you admire intrepid, intellligent and unconventional women, wish to learn more of recent Middle East history, or just savor a good biography, I recommend Howell's book.

"...the holy men sat in an atmosphere reeking of antiquity, so thick with the dust of ages that you can't see through it --nor can they." -- Gertrude Bell

"Why will promising young Englishmen marry such fools of women?" -- Gertrude Bell, to a young colleague and his bride at a luncheon in Baghdad

Obama to Send 40,000 Highly-Effective Peacekeepers to Afghanistan

2009-11-17T00:50:00-08:00

Chickensforpeace.org. Thanks to David Zetland at Aguanomics.

“Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.” -- Lyndon B. Johnson

Eyewitness Reliability: An Optical Illusion

2009-11-16T00:25:00-08:00

View this picture of Albert Einstein from about 10 feet away and see what happens. Thanks to Marty Ennis.

"The problem, of course, is that juries usually attach great weight to eyewitness identification while others involved in a trial and other disciplines have documented that such identification is often unreliable." -- Kansas Supreme Court

Happy Triskaidekaphobia Day!

2009-11-13T00:27:00-08:00

Have a great day!

"Luck has a peculiar habit of favoring those who don't depend on it" -- Unknown

Luis 'Lou Dobbs' Dominguez Deported from the USA

2009-11-12T00:18:00-08:00

Hot off the press from The Onion:

Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who has been living illegally in the United States under the name Lou Dobbs for 48 years.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents stormed the undocumented immigrant’s home in an evening raid just hours after the 64-year-old newscaster suddenly announced that he was resigning from CNN, and immediately placed him on an Aeromexico flight departing from Newark Liberty Airport.

!Lo siento mucho, amigos! - Luis Dominguez

The Inherent Athletic Superiority of Campanastan's Young Women

2009-11-11T00:50:00-08:00

This video amply demonstrates the inherent superiority of Campanastan's young women.

"If cheerleading got any easier, it would be called football. " ~ Unknown

The Quirky, Macabre Humor of British Columbians

2009-11-09T00:19:00-08:00

My colleague Ari Michelsen sent me this. It's a sign in an actual campground in British Columbia. Make sure you read the entire text (click on the picture to enlarge it).

Who would have imagined that this could have sprung from our frostback friends in the Great White North?

"It's going to be a great country when they finish unpacking it." -- Andrew H. Malcolm, referring to Canada

The 11/3 Project: Fight the Conspiracy Involving Glenn Beck's Internal Organs!

2009-11-07T00:07:00-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The 11/3 Project

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

"You know who else didn't answer medical questions? Hitler." -- Jon Stewart

Campanastan Hails the Champs!

2009-11-05T18:14:15-08:00

Campanastan's Ministry of Sports is breathing easier, now that the President-for-Life's favorite team, the New York Yankees, have won their 27th World Series.

Read this article about where the 2009 team ranks.

Pictured are Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera. This quartet has won five championships together.

After Game 6, a reporter mentioned the team’s unabashed spending to Cashman and said, “There are fans of other teams who go, ‘Well, they’re the only team that can do that,of course they won.’ How do you respond to that?”

The question was tough but fair, and Cashman gave a perfectly pinstriped response. “You can call us anything you want,” he said. “You also have to call us world champions.”

“Hating the New York Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers, and cheating on your income tax." -- Mike Royko

Fistula Repair: New Life for 21st Century Lepers

2009-11-04T00:15:00-08:00

New York Times columnist Nick Kristof's recent column deals with the 3 or 4 million iwomen n the world who suffer from obstetric fistulas. This is an injury sustained during childbirth, often in women whose pelvises are not fully grown. It leaves the women incontinent pariahs rejected by their husbands and communities.

This is a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown. She suffers obstructed labor, has no access to a C-section, and endures internal injuries that leave her incontinent — steadily trickling urine and sometimes feces through her vagina.

She stinks. She becomes a pariah. She is typically abandoned by her husband and forced to live by herself on the edge of her village. She is scorned, bewildered, humiliated and desolate, often feeling cursed by God.

Kristof then tells the story of USA physician Dr. Lewis Wall of Washington University in St. Louis, who has devoted his life to helping these women with life-transforming surgery. He founded the Worldwide Fistula Fund in 1995.

Dr. Wall is proposing to build a fistula hospital in Niger and is in the process of raising funds. It will be based on a similar successful fistula hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Want to help? Sure you do! Visit Kristof's blog or the aforementioned WWFF website.

Wall is also proposing a 12-year, $1.5B aid plan to be part of the USA's foreign aid operation. It would build 40 such fistula repair hospitals throughout the world.

I'd say this is something worth funding.

“In Liberia, I saw a woman who had developed a fistula 35 years earlier. It turned out to be a tiny injury; it took 20 minutes to repair it. For want of a 20-minute operation, this woman had lived in a pool of urine for 35 years.” -- Dr. Lewis Wall

Mathematics...Makes Sense To Me!

2009-11-02T00:34:00-08:00

I seem to remember a couple of courses like this. I suspect a few of my former students are saying the same thing.

There was a young man from Trinity,
Who solved the square root of infinity.
While counting the digits,
He was seized by the fidgets,
Dropped science, and took up divinity.
--Unknown

Lovable Losers Forever

2009-11-01T00:29:00-07:00

Scott Simon, unrepentant Cubs fan, interviewed Tom Ricketts, one of the new owners of the Chicago Cubs, on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday yesterday.

Ricketts, who sounds like a nice guy, bought the Cubbies with his siblings Pete, Laura, and Todd. They paid somethig like $900M for the team. I wish them all luck.

Unless you've been living in a cave somewhere, you're probably aware that the Cubs have not won a World Series for over 100 years. They've been one of the most inept baseball teams of all time.

But the fans keep coming back. They seem to revel in losing and the misery it brings. With fans like that, owners don't have to do much. The fans have low expectations, and the owners know they aren't going anywhere, such as to root for the hated White Sox (who won a World Series a few years ago). So they don't really endeavor to field a team worthy of the great city of Chicago and its faithful Cubs fans. Why should they?

Maybe the Ricketts family is different. But I doubt it.

Wait'll next year!

"Chicago Cubs fans are ninety percent scar tissue.” -- George F. Will

The Utter Depravity of Western Culture: Halloween Costumes

2009-10-31T00:05:00-07:00

Minister of Humor Marty Ennis provided these decadent Halloween costumes to demonstrate the utter depravity of Western culture. Such dress would never be tolerated in Campanastan!

And while you're trick-or-treating, have some cake!

Oh yeah - happy birthday, Nevada!

"From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" -- Scottish proverb

Supreme Court: No Nativity Scene in DC This Year

2009-10-29T00:20:00-07:00

This late-breaking news from Minster of Humor Marty Ennis:

There will be no Nativity Scene in Washington this year. The Supreme Court has ruled there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the US Capital this Christmas season. This isn't for any religious reason; they simply have been unable to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's Capital. The search for a Virgin continues. There was no problem finding enough asses, cows, and pigs to fill the stable.

The culture wars continue!

"When the year started, 'teabagging' was a phrase that referred to dangling one's testicles in someone else's face. And they managed to turn it into something gross and ridiculous." -- Bill Maher

A Visit to Snake Valley, Eastern Nevada

2009-10-28T09:21:01-07:00

Former student and longtime friend Michael Dale, along with lovely spouse Malynn and Roffie, el perro gigante (130 pounds!) sent me these exclusive photos from Snake Valley, the basin that straddles the NV-UT border and is the object of Las Vegas' hydraulic affections - a plan to pump groundwater from this valley and pipe it to Las Vegas is in the works.
Michael and Malynn went to Baker, NV, in Snake Valley, at the right-hand end of the purple line (U.S. Route 50) in the accompanying map. They visited Great Basin National Park, Nevada's only NP. Here is a map of the GBNP.

Michael and Malynn took these pictures knowing full well that I would want to post them so I have received their permission to do so.

Michael noted that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is not real popular in rural Nevada, and today's quote reflects a sign seen a number of times along U.S. Route 50, the so-called Loneliest Road in America (unless, of course, you're stuck on it during a NoVa traffic jam in Arlington or Fairfax Counties, VA).

Shown above is Wheeler Peak, just a shade over 13,000 feet. Michael, a native Virginian, tells me it was originallyJeff Davis Peak but was renamed Union Peak when Nevada joined the Union in the Civil War. The name was eventually changed to the present moniker after the Army surveyor, and Jeff Davis Peak was bestowed upon the third highest peak in the park.

Now for some pictures of pipes found around Baker and Snake Valley. I don't think captions are necessary.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) and its boss, Pat Mulroy, are not well-liked here. Duhhhh...

No, Roffie! Don't soil Pat's pipe!

Michael noted that there is much concern about Snake Valley becoming another Owens Lake, with the SNWA pumping desiccating the valley, producing huge dust storms.

A colleague of mine, who has no axe to grind, thinks that is unlikely since the playa lake in Snake Valley is not a discharging (wet, fed by groundwater) playa but a dry playa. So he is skeptical of claims that pumping will produce an Owens Valley scenario.

But let's figure this out before going ahead with the pipeline.

Interestingly enough, Michael noted the effects of agricultural diversions on Sevier Dry Lake in western Utah, which is a source of dust that periodically sweeps towards the Wasatch Front. They saw such a cloud rising from the desert floor. You don't hear much about this.

Harry's pipe.

Roffie was a good doggie and didn't mess up the pipe. I suspect the locals would not have minded if he had.

Finally this gorgeous shot looking east across Snake Valley with Utah and the Confusion Range in the background.

This is spectacular country! I've been away from it too long. Thanks, Michael and Malynn - and Roffie.

"Anybody Butt Harry Reid." -- typical political sign on Highway 50 in eastern Nevada

Most of the Stuff You Get for Halloween is Crap Anyway, Right?

2009-10-27T00:50:00-07:00

A costume to match the stuff you'll collect! Only $64.99 at costumecraze.com.

Thanks to Gayle Leonard at Thirsty in Suburbia.

Campanastan Honors the New York Yankees

2009-10-26T09:26:40-07:00

Campanastan's Minister of Sports has saved his job by ensuring that the New York Yankees will be going to the World Series!

But he still needs to ensure that the Yankees win the World Series to avoid a long, long stay in one of Campanastan's mountain 'resorts'.

Today is a national holiday! Free steroids and A-Roid T-shirts will be distributed to all youth athletes!

"Why do people sing 'Take Me Out to The Ballgame' when they're already there?" -- Alex Rodriguez

And While We're On the Topic of American Exceptionalism...

2009-10-25T12:50:31-07:00

From cartoonist R. J. Matson.

Give Andrew Bacevich's The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism  a read.

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Just roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."
--Rudyard Kipling

There's Pie in the Sky: Soupy Sales Dies

2009-10-23T07:47:14-07:00

Soupy Sales, the guy who got my classmates and me to rush home from Chaminade High School in the 1960s and plunk ourselves down in front of the TV at 4 PM to witness trademark pies-in-the-face, cheesy props, inane sketches with Pookie, Black Tooth, and White Fang, corny jokes, and pie fights with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Trini Lopez, Sammy Davis, Jr., and all the rest, has finally joined the big pie fight in the sky. He died yesterday of cancer in New York City at age 83.

Soupy Sales, born Milton Supman in North Carolina, was a legendary TV kiddie show host in Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City. By the time he got to NYC, the 'kiddie show' moniker was a stretch, as the show often contained double entendres and off-color comments. Of course, that's why we Catholic HS boys loved the show!

Here is a clip from one of his shows. It concludes with his dance, 'The Mouse'.

He also had another famous dance, "The Soupy Shuffle". Who needed The Twist?

Here is a video clip featuring talented sidekick Frank Nastasi.

Read a tribute I paid to him on the occasion of his 82nd birthday.

I can imagine the surprise St. Peter had for him at the Pearly Gates. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

R.I.P., Soupster!

Questioner: Use the word 'miniature' in a sentence.
Soupy: Do you fall asleep the miniature in bed?

I Get H1N1 and My Cat Shows His Concern

2009-10-22T00:50:00-07:00

I got the flu and my cat shows his concern. Can you feed me?

"Cats would eat us if they could." -- Mary Frances Campana