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My mom has been adding pictures to my grandmother's blog, Vera's Corner, and it's looking very nice. My grandmother wrote out all the blog entries by hand, mailed them to my mom, my mom typed them in and posted them, and then my aunt printed out the blog and took it to my grandmother to see.
She was very proud of being an author. She had some great stories to tell!
We told our 5 year old last night that he is going to have a baby brother or sister ... He was very pensive the whole time and thought about it quite a bit.
We asked what he thought about having a baby brother or sister.
"Brother!!"
We told him it wasn't a choice, so he decided it must be a girl since all his baby cousins are girls.
He asked the following questions:
It was very cute and a much more thoughtful conversation than I was expecting.
We watched "Inside Man" last Friday on opening day. The movie had a lot of big name actors like Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster combined with an unusual twist. (I would say unique but it's not unique.) The movie was well done and a change from the usual shoot 'em up actions. I'd recommend it for a relaxing evening.
If, like me, you are a bit skeptical that your cell phone, or even more unbelievable, your iPod might cause a problem on an airplane, IEEE has an article that attempts to explain the danger and point to specific annecdotes where electronic usage might have caused navigation problems, IEEE Spectrum: Unsafe At Any Airspeed?. While I'll continue to turn my cell phone off, I still maintain that if my iPod is causing problems with the airplane's electronics than we have much bigger problems with airplane electronics. I hope they are more robust than that.
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Since I just recently blogged about atheists, this article in the Rice Sallyport caught my eye: Natural Scientists Are Less Likely to Believe in God than Are Social Scientists. According to this study, 38% of natural scientists and 31% of social scientists do not believe in God. All those surveyed worked at universities, as far as I could tell from the article. What I found more interesting than the difference between natural scientists and social scientists, was just how high the number of atheist scientists was. It didn't surprise me that they were atheist but the number of atheist scientists is surprisingly higher than the average population. Just for the record, I cannot remember any professor I've ever had saying they were an atheist or even talking about religion. |
It looks like Americans would rather you believe in a god or gods they don't believe in than have you believe in no god at all. Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study : News Releases: UMNnews: U of M..
From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.
Since we don't do such a good job with religious and racial diversity now, I can't imagine what would happen if the 3% of America that is atheist grows or becomes more publicly visible.
This also seems strange to me since so many Americans do not go to church or actively participate in a religion. I can't imagine that an athesist lives a life that's very different than a non practicing Christian. I doubt they even that they have widely different values.
My cousin's kids say the cutest things: Things My Kids Say: If I was pretend.... Would you rather be pretend or would you rather the imaginary characters came to life? Personally, when I read a book or watch a movie, the worlds are as at least as exciting as the characters (I suppose that's why I like science fiction!) so I'd rather "be pretend!"
Frank and I set up a Netflix and Post Office experiment to check out our mail service. I've always maintained that the mail service in our little town is terrible and now we are one step closer to proving it. (As if all the missing post cards I've sent wasn't enough.)
We mailed three Netflix movies back in the same day.
Netflix got CD #3 a full day earlier than the two mailed from our home town. (The Broomfield DVD arrived 3/21 at 9:30. The other two arrived at Netflix 3/22 at 8:30am.)
Netflix service note: it looks like they process all of their in coming DVDs in the morning and send out emails at between 8:30 and 9:30am. I got notices for all three at 8:30am in the morning. (Two just a day later than the third even though we mailed them all the same day.)
Obviously, without lots of further experiments, it's hard to tell if the problem is with our mail service, Netflix or the Post Office but in the future we will return all of our movies in Broomfield on our way to work.
Ever wonder why your dog destroys the house while you are gone? Bonnie Beaver says in this article, CNN.com - U.S. is a nation of 360 million -- pets - Mar 13, 2006:
Dogs, if we look at the wolf model, would normally spend 20 hours a day with members of their pack. Now we are their pack, and we leave for 10, 12 hours a day and now the dog is alone. And we wonder why they get destructive and develop separation anxiety.
We leave our two dogs home together and one of them still has problems, a major case of separation anxiety. We have to leave Chase in the bedroom (where he spends the day sleeping on the bed) or he'll urinate and defecate in every room in the house. I don't think Chase is being malicious - I think he's just that stressed out. One theory that Julie Yamane gave me is that there's too much space and not enough rules about what to do when you are home alone. Since Chase is never more than two feet away from me when I'm home, I can believe that having the whole house to himself might be a bit scary. Julie recommended enclosing him in the bedroom when we leave him in the house and it's worked great for avoiding his seperation anxiety. And great for saving our carpets!
Are you looking to get your dog or your friend's dog a Christmas present? If you are buying a present for another person's dog, especially someone who just got a dog, there's a lot of things that person might need for their dog, like:
Personally, I think the best presents for dogs are:
or compressed raw hide chews or tug ropesOur dogs love all of those. Remember, dogs love all food
If you are as anxious for the Google Calendar as I am, you might enjoy these screen shots of the Google Calendar, TechCrunch � Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar, allegedly leaked by a Yahoo employee who was a beta tester.
I am looking forward to a calendar that allows me to easily share my schedule and invite people that don't use Outlook to events that I plan.
This post on the FREAKONOMICS BLOG, pointed me to a really cool site, Zillow.com. Type in any address or zip code and it will show you the house on a satellite picture along with the house's estimated value. In addition you can search for recent comparable sales - sales of recent houses with similar specifications in the same neighborhood along with their sale price!
You have got to try this website out - find out your home's value. Realtors are going to have to work hard to show their value!
Two notes:
What do you carry with you ... to work? to the store? to a friend's house? I bet you carry more around now than you did 10 years ago.
On any work day, I carry a briefcase with my laptop, notebook and odds and ends like business cards, vitamins, pens, etc as well as a water bottle and a plastic bag with my lunch in it. (They don't fit in the briefcase - I've been shopping for a bigger one.) If I have class that day, I have a bookbag I also carry that has a change of clothes as well as my books ... oh and don't forget the snacks and the novel.
This Washington Post article, Burdens of the Modern Beast, talks about how we are all carrying a lot more around with us. It doesn't really theorize as to why although through quotes it alludes to the fact that we are all insecure and worried and all of our stuff is our security blanket.
I think we carry lots around with us for two reasons. One, we are too busy. I don't have time to come home for lunch or go out to lunch, so I carry lunch. I certainly don't have time to come home between work and school so the change of clothes and the bookbag have to come with me. Two, we are consumers. Can you imagine going 3-4 hours without a bottle of water, a soda or a Starbucks coffee??
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