C Twiggs Run

Below are a couple of links suggested by Cindy Maulsby.
She writes, "When I was a very young student I took a speech class in which one of the assignments was to write our eulogy. As I looked at my two young sons it was a very profound experience that really changed the way I viewed experiences most importantly the way I chose to respond at times of very difficult decision making."

Thanks, Cindy. Hopefully others will enjoy these links and perhaps find something in them they can use in their writing this term.

http://www.science-spirit.org/article_detail.php?article_id=535
http://www.staugcatholic.org/feature1.shtml

That our weather should be a political issue continues to amaze me, yet here we are in an election year, and sure enough, fingers are being pointed in all directions. Once upon a time one party would claim that the other party was "destroying our country" and it meant economically or socially. Today it doesn't stop there.

Stephanie Bartsch submitted the first link for our consideration. For fun I added the second.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080320-AP-warming-spr.html
http://newsbusters.org/node/11369

Thanks to Randy Morell for this link to a story on the correlation between election day and traffic deaths. It certainly makes early voting more attractive!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/30/election-day-traffic.html

It's hard to believe it was 12 years ago that grandmothers were beating the snot out of each other to pay $30 for a ridiculous doll with red fur.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122358820508520573.html

Well, not exactly a spy, but Mohammed Motlag was certainly risking life, limb, and more while working as an interpreter for the British army in Basra. How is that grateful nation thanking him? Click the link to find out:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4916838.ece

Only 25% of girls in the U.S. aged 13 to 17 have received Gardasil, the vaccine against cervical cancer. Americans are taking more ownership of their health care decisions, and while personal responsibility is a wonderful thing, the result is sometimes tragic when stubborn or ignorant patients listen more to celebrity babble and online gossip than their well-educated, highly trained, compassionate yet objective doctors. This is not to say 100% of girls should be getting this vaccine. After all, I'm not a doctor and would never claim to give medical advice, but for the sake of all that is holy, listen carefully to your doctor when you decide what risks to take with your health - and your children's health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/health/10vaccine.html?ref=us

I hear the pentagon is very interested in these :-)

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1849241,00.html

I've been having a hard time finding the few minutes needed to put together a podcast, so today I decided to sneak in some camera time between meetings. Sometimes one must do what one must do.

Download file

Vitalina Chizh sent in the article linked below shedding light on one potential cause of the mortgage industry collapse. See my September 6th posting, "Mortgage Bail-out Bad News."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9c0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Kayla Daughtry asked that I link to the following NYT article on gay marriage. The article is dated 2004, which makes me think that it was a much bigger issue in the last election cycle than it has been this time around. Then again, I probably paid more attention to the debates, etc. last time around too.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1D9153DF93BA25751C0A9629C8B63

Another old NYT article submitted by Kayla has us remembering Hurricane Carter's release from prison:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0D9133DF932A35750C0A96E948260

Thanks to Cindy Maulsby for the link below.
She comments, "Who says our little guys aren’t watching, learning and making a difference?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/nyregion/10green.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Another Maulsby contribution - she writes, "As part of the United Nations’ International Year of Sanitation, October 15 has been declared the first Global Handwashing Day."

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/global-health-gap-merits-of-washing-hands/?scp=1&sq=hand%20washing%20day&st=cse

Multiple Choice:
Cindy has (a) a great knack for finding good links, (b) a desire to populate the blog with interesting articles she can use for her research paper, or (c) a mission to cure her insomnia by surfing the internet.

Whatever the answer, I am grateful for the links. Enjoy this colorful submission:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1730759_1731383_1731363-3,00.html

Another great link from Cindy.
She writes, "A biological disorder like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes, just to name a few, serious mental illness affects 1in 5 families in America."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/washington/06mental.html

Now this story is just creepy. I know we all count words when it comes to writing papers, etc., but I've never heard of going to the extreme this guy has achieved.

Thanks again to this week's blog MVP, Cindy Maulsby, for her contribution -

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/14prof.html?_r=2&ref=science&oref=slogi&oref=slogin

Sometimes driving in the car is where I do my best thinking, so this week I decided to think out loud and turn on my Flip Video to capture the moment. The result is a little bit rambling and a shows more of the inside of my nose than I might have preferred, but that sometimes is the cost of being candid. As I mention in the video, I don't get very many comments about the blog in general or about the podcast specifically. I created the video and audio portions mainly to give my online students an opportunity to see my face, hear my voice, and for better or worse, learn who I am as a person - the class materials don't really lend themselves to a personal connection, and the discussion boards only slightly more so.

Download file

Focusing on some of the sadder consequences of our current economy, Jennifer Cloud submitted the following link as the starting point on a paper about welfare.

One line from the second paragraph demonstrates why The Washington Post is so highly regarded: "people with low incomes have . . . low wages."

Now that's investigative reporting!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/AR2008101702532.html

This submission from Randy Morell made me wonder if perhaps HE is Big Brother. By coincidence (maybe) this is the very topic we discussed at South Campus' Socrates Cafe. If anyone reading can make it to South Campus on November 4th from 12:30 to 1:30, we'll have free pizza and sodas at the next Socrates Cafe.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2042

The short article linked below serves to remind us how our small corner of the world is not immune to big city problems.

http://news.jacksonville.com/justin/2008/10/28/organized-gang-busted-in-flagler/

Thanks to Randy Morell for the comment below and the link!

"First it was the HD and Blu-Ray wars, Sony and Blue-Ray pulled that one off. Now it is the defeat of Blu-Ray. After all the hype of the new DVD technology, 1080P and capabilities even Blu-Ray can't survive the recession and is heading to become another dead technology."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=365&tag=nl.e550