Photogrammetry is the technique of using laser photography to record minuscule data from sites where hand drawings and regular photography could never capture.  Together with remote sensing, aerial archeology, and laser surveying, our observation of architectural structures and historical artifacts has greatly evolved into a capability of reconstructing an object to the finest detail, never before seen , for study.

Organized by CIPA, the Comite International de la Photogrammétrie Architecturale, in 1995, a group has been established under the heading of Working Group 5, “Photogrammetry and Archaeology.” The goal of the group is to make archaeologists and photogrammetrists aware of technology that’ll greatly improve analysis and conservation of historical artifacts and structures, while also broadening the understanding of the current limitations.  According to the Photogrammetry and Archaeology website, the goals are:

• To identify trends in photogrammetric developments that have application in archaeology.
• To document current applications of photogrammetry in archaeology.
• To promote the use of appropriate photogrammetric procedures in archaeology.
• To spread this information to organizations and individuals through an active program of liaison between CIPA and these organizations.

Ted Kennedy was responsible for successful and historical legislation on such issues as health care, voting rights, minimum wage and education.  I know that despite differences in the party system, Ted Kennedy will be missed and honored, as his brothers had been, for his timeless service to the American legislation.

As a personal example, I chose the wrong coverage from my employer one year.  We changed carriers and I thought I was signing up for coverage equal to the coverage I had under the previous carrier, but I wasn’t.  What a shock to discover that one of my medications was going to cost me $182 each month due to that mistake.  (More than $500 was already being deducted for my health insurance!)  I went to my private care physician and told him I could no longer afford medication, although I knew I needed it.  He and I put our heads together and came up with a list of generic options which offered the same benefits at much less cost.  The bottom line is that all of my medications now cost a total of about $35 a month, and neither my doctor or I notice any difference in their effectiveness; I take advantage of the programs offered by most pharmacies to order off their list for $5.00 a month.  These prescriptions are not even billed to my insurance carrier now!  Without my mistake, my insurance company would be billed for hundreds of dollars of prescriptions each month for which there are much less expensive generics available.  Both my doctor and I were overcharging my health insurance because we had no reason to search for a less expensive option.  I shudder to think of the thousands of other options out there that are simply not being explored which could cut health care costs without cutting back on care.

Instead of screaming at town hall meetings and believing all the hipe coming out of the pocketbooks of health insurance companies, examine the proposals and make rational decisions!  Realize that some of your personal healthcare costs and probably be slashed without any loss of quality of care — and produce a savings of thousands each year.  Multiply that savings by the millions of people in this country who are insured and already picking up the bills for the uninsured.  I’m astounded!  Are you?

Most districts in Texas pray at an alter called “TAKS scores”.  Teachers are whipped like teams of oxen to make sure their students pass “The Test”.  Everything that happens in that classroom until spr ing (March for some, April for others) revolves around “The Test.”    Several benchmark tests are administered between the opening day of school and the test date; results are analyzed and placed on statistical graphs, and teachers work ten to twelve hours a day to compile these reports for administrators — never mind preparing to teach their content areas and revise lessons to include the results of those benchmarks.  Why then should it be a surprise that students are dropping out at record levels?  (Teachers are also dropping out of the profession because they care about students but feel helpless and frustrated by administrators who demand everything be according to The Test.)  To teachers, it is no surprise.  To administrators, it is because teachers don’t build relationships with their students.

I recently left the profession because I was referred to as being a dinosaur.  This dinosaur had only two students fail The Test during 2008-09, a passing rate of 93% which was better than most of the teachers in my department and the district average.  Later, statements were made that I did not build relationships with my students, but no one ever asked my students and parents what they felt, or asked to see the data from a voluntarily administered anonymous evaluation to those students asking that very question, among others, or asked how many emails I receive from former students who proudly tell where they have gone and thank me for “being there”.  Exhausted, frustrated, and plain angry at the lack of support from administrators for teachers like me, I left the profession after twenty-two years.  I will soon enter another career, but it won’t be in a classroom.

So, an inexperienced teacher will be hired to fill my position, but s/he will play games with the students to teach knowledge level information, use projects to reinforce that rote memorization, and teach, teach, teach to only those skills to be tested — if s/he has the miraculous skill of being able to manage to teach in a classroom where students feel free to refuse to work, to call each other and the teacher profane names, and to show up for class less than 90% of the time as required by Texas law.  Even veteran teachers struggle with those issues, but, we have a depth of experience that allows us to have many tools in the box we can employ; rookie teachers have very limited tools in their box.     In time these rookies may become wonderful teachers, but your student is in the class this year — not five years from now when teacher skills have been developed, tested, and honed.

Many minority and low-income students are interested in going to work because that is what their families need and value.  They have absolutely no interest and see no value in The Test, so they don’t work, act out, and stay away from the classroom.  Teachers who advocate for a dual track state-of-the-art academic and vocational educational system are called racists and told they are non-supportive of school mission statements.  The actual truth is that at least 80% of all academic programs are designed to meet the needs of 30% of the students — those who are college bound.

Where are the programs that allow ninth and tenth graders to be “helpers” with increasing responsibilities as plumbers, electricians, body repair persons, beauticians, lab technicians, nurses?  These “helpers” can be lured to stay in school with the knowledge and encouragement that when they are eleventh graders, with attendance, grades, and no discipline problems, they will become “real” vocational craftspeople as twelfth graders who, upon graduation, will become certified, registered, or journey workers ready to earn good wages for themselves and their families.  Their math, English, reading, and other academic content should be based on materials from these vocational paths to keep students interested in the “boring stuff”.  I doubt any of them will read Shakespeare or conjugate verbs in their later lives, so why teach those to vocational track students?   Show them how to read their textbooks and technical manuals instead.   Why not teach social studies by tying it to the history of the chosen vocation and community expectations?  Why not teach science that is related to home improvement and the chosen vocation?

These vocational programs should not become dumping grounds as they have often been used in the past.  They should have stringent admission requirements like passing grades, 95% attendance, and clean discipline records.  The equipment and techniques taught should be state-of-the-art.  A drafting person trained with a ruler and pencil has no place in a career where CAD is the operating standard.  Office skills taught on Microsoft Word 2000 have no relationship to the 2009 Microsoft Word edition.  Auto mechanics should have the latest computer diagnostic equipment on which to work as students.

Yikes!  It’s time to return to classrooms all over the country.  It’s time to worry about what is not being taught in classrooms.

Now, for some reason, I like using Penne noodles in my salad.  I use good cup to make fair quantity.  You can try your salad with elbow macaroni, or maybe try the colorful garden twirls, if you perfer.  Doesn’t really matter.  Bring the noodles to boil as you prepare other parts of your salad.

Mix up a Mexican sauce with the following ingredients:

2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 1/2 Tsp. paprika
1 Tsp. onion powder
3/4 Tsp. garlic powder
1 Dash red pepper

For the salad ingredients I use:

1 lb. hamburger, browned
2 whole New Mexico Green Chili Peppers, braised and peeled
2-3 slices of an onion – chopped
1/4 cup water
1 cup corn
1 cup peas
1 can 16 oz. black beans – very important
about a cup of cherry tomatoes – cut into quarters
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Ranch DressingNotice:  I don’t use salt when I cook, you might – so I would suggest no more than a 1/2 tsp. if you feel you really need it.

Brown the hamburger in a skillet.  Add the chopped onions, peppers and a quarter cup of water once the hamburger is browned – you don’t want softened onions and pepper by over cooking them since it’s a cold salad, but you do want the onions and peppers to mix with the sauce.  Add the sauce ingredients and mix well on a low heat.

While that’s cooking, rinse in hot water the black beans, peas, and corn and let drain.  I use the frozen peas and corn only because it’s easier and I don’t like the taste of the canned corn or peas.  Fresh is ultimately better, but you know.  Leave the mix in the strainer until your ready to drain the penne noodles.

When the noodles are done, pour them over the vegetables in the strainer.  This will thaw any remaining frozen vegetable (if you used frozen).  Add mixture to a large bowl with the cherry tomatoes (I use a storage container here so I can put the lid on and mix up the ingredients by shaking).

Finally I add Ranch Dressing to the mix – about a quarter cup, if you need to measure it.  Stir and shake if you’ve got a container with a lid.  Set the combined ingredients in the fridge for about two hours, or until thoroughly chilled.  Makes about 4-6 one cup servings.  Enjoy.

Lung failure.  That was my experience in 2006.  After 35 years as a smoker and managing to cover every gambit of smoking habits from cigarettes, to cigars, and pipes, I finally did myself in.  In 2006 I collapsed with a 10% capacity in both lungs.  I couldn’t breath and had to be taken to the hospital where I was put on oxygen and spent the next two weeks trying to survive.

Now, I had halfheartedly tried several methods to quit smoking in my years of abuse; the patch, medication, acupuncture,  hypnosis, support groups, motivational therapy, trips to the hospital for a real look at cancer victims.  Hell, my father even died from smoking, but that wasn’t an eye opener for me.  I’ve always been a hard person to convince when I was doing something wrong with my life and body.  It took two arrests for DWI before I realized I had a drinking problem.  I quit drinking after the second arrest found me sitting in jail wondering where the person was who had been in the car with me; that was an hallucination.  So fixing bad habits meant that I had to be put on the spot in a life challenging moment of decision.

Smoking cessation is not an easy thing to confront.  Smoking so pleasant.  It’s relaxing.  It’s socializing.  It’s what you do when you’re having a drink.  It’s even what you do when you’re attending AA meetings – go figure!  But in reality every day you try to convince yourself that you can quit anytime you want, there’s nothing really wrong with you.  Truth is, you just don’t have the courage to see it through.

Yes, I mean courage.  The fear was that I’d miss smoking so much that I’d dwindle away into obscurity for not keeping up with my habits.  I would no longer be the sociable and upwardly mobile guy with the cigar after dinner.  I couldn’t go out on the patio at a party, laughing and mingling with the other smokers.  Taking breaks at work to have a cigarette with others would have to stop; how could I network then?  And having that pipe while I was sailing – looking so robust and adventuresome – would have go away; no more attracting the ladies with my pipe at the helm.

I didn’t think it was fear.  I thought it was simply the desire to smoke.  I knew I could quit.  I could quit anytime I really wanted to.  Hell, you know, I quit several times.  I just enjoyed smoking and I really didn’t want to quit.  All the stop-smoking programs were just to convince others that I was willing to try, when, in fact, I was scared that I’d lose my friend and really had no intention of quitting.

Then, I was taken to the hospital and the respiratory therapist told me I had a very small oxygen content in my blood.  And the pulmonologist advised me from the other side of the oxygen mask, that if I smoked one more cigarette, he wouldn’t see me again.  So, I had to come to the realization that I had nearly died from a habit I had told myself I really enjoyed.  Confronting the issue of death and not being able to breath was all too real.  I had to accept that I was addicted to smoking and I had to quit.

That moment was all too clear.  There was no other choice, quit or die!  I chose to quit.  I quit.  Simple as that.  It didn’t take any medication, no hypnosis, no patches, nor anything to support me while I went though cessation.  Later I found that this was something I really could have done any time in my life.

I recognize now that the cessation devices are only a crutch; a way of saying I can’t succeed on my own, so give me a tool to help me and that I can put my faith in.  Fact is, you don’t really need the crutch.  It’s called resolution.  You get humble and look closely at yourself and make that decision – do I smoke or die?  All the programs in the world won’t help you unless you make that one choice in your life – quit smoking.  Simple as that.  Once you’ve made the choice it’s a no-brainer and it was really quit easy.  I accepted that I would no longer go down to sidewalk for a smoke-break.  Sort of like quitting drinking – I’d no longer be the life of the party at the local bar.  But then in that respect, I could be the life of the party!

Now I suffer from COPD.  What a loss.  The sailing has become arduous.  Working outside on my building projects is almost impossible.  I make do with my morning Advair treatment and occasional doses of my inhaler when I’m in need.  I’m fortunate that I don’t have to wear an oxygen mask throughout the day, though I did have to wear one when I first left the hospital – sort of a final reinforcement I think.  My wife is scared anytime I come down with a cough and cold – I could relapse and end up back in the hospital.  I tell myself that I’m okay and getting healthier every day, and I really am.  But the damage is now done.  Only two years before, on another stop smoking binge, I could easily scale two flights of stairs without losing a breath.  Now I can’t walk to the mailbox without losing my breath.  It’s so real.

The fact is, if you want to quit, take a good hard look at yourself.  Recognize that smoking is not the pleasant pass-time you might think it is.  Really examine your breathing habits.  Do you cough frequently?  Do you get short of breath easily.  How does your food taste? What does it taste and smell like when you kiss another smoker – a damp ashtray?  Then, when you quit lying to yourself get humble.

About then, I saw a television commercial where the mother was waiting for her child to board a school bus for the first time.  A pang of fear swelled up, again, as I thought of child abductions, school house shootings, or playground sexual assaults; how can parents endure the threats facing their children in today’s world?  When I was younger, I’d go off on my own without giving much thought of the dangers involved;  make my plans, gather my gear, make sure I was well outfitted, and go – even if by myself.  Now we’ve become a society of fear and loathing for anything that might put us in unreasonable jeopardy.

While I realize there has been an overall increase in crime in general, our awareness of these crimes have increased in recent years predominantly because of the media and the Internet.  Hardly an event can pass without the news channels exploiting the fear and anxiety of the senseless crimes; movies depict extremely violent acts because, that’s entertainment; video games are becoming more and more hostile and marketed to young teens and children without consideration of their innocence.  We’ve been led down a path of social hysteria due, in large part, to media sensationalism.  Violence sells.  That’s what we’re really facing.  What is marketable?  The media further compounds our fears by emphasizing the threat of death from prescription drugs, the inevitable cancer from mother’s breast milk, and brain damage from watching too much TV, oh and let’s not forget carpal tunnel syndrome from too much Internet porn.  We’re becoming a society that embraces apprehension rather than optimism.

Perhaps what is really needed is to take a step back and look at our society .  Should we really dread walking outside for fear the rain might contain acid, or should we embrace it and let it lighten our spirits.  My wife, Cara, of Choctaw decent, is a glorious exception to the prevailing fears that encompass our society; she, resolutely, fears nothing.  She takes her action without giving consideration to global events.  She’ll face off a person who throws trash on the street until the person relinquishes and tosses the trash back into their car.  Before she retired as a school teacher, she would routinely stand up to gangster wannabes demanding they adhere to the rules or suffer the consequences.  It was her look at me when I frowned about our vacation choices that made me wake up to the realization that I had allowed myself to be drowned in the stigma of irrational fear.