Sportsmanship Isn't Dead

A remarkable story out of the Pacific Northwest of college sports being played as they should be.

Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. She hit a home run to take the lead vs. Central Washington, then tore her ACL rounding the bases. If a player on her team touched her the play would result in an out. Then her opponent said 'Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?'

Not Having A Bad Day After All

Col. Bud Day, is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. His wife happens to be Doris Day but that is a different story and a different Doris.

Col. Day had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

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A for Creativity - F for Inappropriate

A Michigan senior searching for a novel way to attract the attention of his desired prom date enlisted the help of his fellow lacrosse team mates. The players displayed the question, "Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No?" on their posteriors while mooning Huron senior Carolyn Campbell at a game.

Good news she accepted bad news the players were suspended from school for a day, assigned community activity and suspended for an untold number of games.

It was refreshing to see that the students and their parents recognized that maybe it wasn't the best idea and gracefully accepted the punishment with a minimum of grumbling and threatening of legal action. More

Just Following Orders

A professor of classical archeology at the University of Michigan had child services take his 7 year old son taken away after the child was spotted drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade at a baseball game. The professor more likely to be digging up ancient sites then watching TV and keeping up with current liquor marketing was totally unaware of the contents and was just trying to keep the kid away from soda.

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.

"I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it," Ratte of Ann Arbor told me sheepishly last week. "And it's certainly not what I expected when I ordered a lemonade for my 7-year-old."

The sympathetic cop who interviewed Ratte and his son at the hospital said she was convinced what happened had been an accident, but that her supervisor was insisting the matter be referred to Child Protective Services.

And Ratte thought the two child protection workers who came to take Leo away seemed more annoyed with the police than with him. "This is so unnecessary," one told Ratte before driving away with his son.

But there was really nothing any of them could do, they all said. They were just adhering to protocol, following orders. More

Great Dylanesque Riff on Barry

This Is Really Bad News

No way rehabilitated Orangutans fishing with spears can end up good.

Old School Comics

People say cartoons are violent now.

Japanese Mud Pies

At elementary schools, kindergartens, and preschools all across Japan, kids are losing themselves making hikaru dorodango, or balls of mud that shine. Behind this boom is Professor Fumio Kayo of the Kyoto University of Education. Kayo is a psychologist who researches children's play, and he first came across these glistening dorodango at a nursery school in Kyoto two years ago. He was impressed and devised a method of making dorodango that could be followed even by children. Once Kayo teaches children how to make these mud balls, they become absorbed in forming a sphere, and they put all their energy into polishing the ball until it sparkles. The dorodango soon becomes the child's greatest treasure. Kayo sees in this phenomenon the essence of children's play, and he has written academic papers on the subject. The mud balls could also offer fresh insights into how play aids children's growth.

In the field of developmental psychology up to now, play that developed children's imagination and creativity, such as role playing and drawing, was deemed important. But Professor Kayo is searching for whether developmental psychology has overlooked something very important: the experimentation children undertake in everyday activities like eating, getting dressed, and sleeping. He feels that making shiny mud balls is a good way of searching for the essence of children's play. Kayo believes that the answers lie within the hearts of children, and he continues to visit the preschool once a week. More

Elite Korean Schools

It is 10:30 p.m. and students at the elite Daewon prep school here are cramming in a study hall that ends a 15-hour school day. A window is propped open so the evening chill can keep them awake. One teenager studies standing upright at his desk to keep from dozing.

Kim Hyun-kyung, who has accumulated nearly perfect scores on her SATs, is multitasking to prepare for physics, chemistry and history exams.

“I can’t let myself waste even a second,” said Ms. Kim, who dreams of attending Harvard, Yale or another brand-name American college. And she has a good shot. This spring, as in previous years, all but a few of the 133 graduates from Daewon Foreign Language High School who applied to selective American universities won admission.

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Corn In The News

Forty-two pages of posters from the Great War

Did Fred Flintstone Eat At KY Fried T-Rex?

Seems that dinosaurs were more gizzards than lizards.

Protein retrieved from a 68 millon-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex bone closely resembles the main protein in chicken and ostrich bones and is only distantly related to lizards', strengthening the popular idea that birds, and not reptiles, are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. More

Great Civics Lesson

Hope all the future leaders of this country are paying attention to this primary season. The Republicans will nominate someone who nobody in the party really likes but has paid his dues. While once again the Democrats are fascinated by the the bright shiny new object.

In order to keep the decision out of the hands of rich white men in smoked filled rooms, the dems came up with an elaborate nominating system. Now the states have either primaries or caucuses except of course for Texas which has both. Instead of a winner take all system they use a proportional rewards so that every vote counts.

The mastermind behind the Democrat nominating process.

Every vote counts excepts for certain states, that made the rich white men in other states mad, where no vote counts. In caucus states every vote doesn't count either in those states it is more of a matter of which candidates has the most supporters with no lives and nothing else to do besides hang around a school gymnasium all night.

At the end of this year long process all of these selected delegates will meet in Denver where no one will have enough votes to win, so the final decisions will be left to rich white men in smoked filled rooms. Now it has been discovered who came up with and persuaded the Democrats to go this route. A political genius by the name of Rarl Kove.

Africa's Newest Scourge

As if malaria,Aids,Ebola weren't bad enough now Africa is in the midst of an epedemic of P.T.P. Penis Threat Panic is spreading in the Congo.

You do have to love the 21st century when a man can use a cell phone to call a radio talk show to discuss how riding in a cab with a man wearing a gold ring or shaking hands with an infidel can make one's pride and joy a wee-wee or totally disappear.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Letter From School That Could Be True

Turned out to be a senior prank.

I Could Use A New Rug

Be careful feeding the birds :

A large black bear paid an unexpected visit to a Rockland Township neighborhood Monday night and feasted on bird seed in a resident’s backyard before lumbering back into the woods, residents said. Article

School Dress Codes Aren't So Bad

An Australian Catholic school principal defends his students after articles on the 21 "sex, booze and drug" club appeared in area papers. The club was limited to the top 21 attractive and popular girls in school who wear their number on their wrist. Appears to be a Lifetime movie in the making with this article apparently written by number 22.

On the other side of the coin an article on the Big Love group in Texas on how these women strive to be unattractive to other men and to help eliminate jealously among the other women.

Subsidizing Misery

The results of political pandering to a population with a feel good education vs an education that enables people to think through a problem, recognize the potential effects and make rational judgments.

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Sometimes, bad economic policies create small annoyances. Sometimes, they lead to catastrophes. For years, the U.S. has heavily subsidized the production of corn-based ethanol.

The global impact of that policy is beginning to lean toward the latter category. A new World Bank report states that ``almost all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 (the period when grain prices rose sharply) went for biofuels production in the U.S.''

On April 12, NBC Nightly News broadcast an interview with a Haitian man eating ``hard discs made of butter, water, salt, and dirt.'' The man explained through an interpreter, ``If we don't eat this, we'll die because we don't have anything else.''

Educated Get Richer

There has been a great deal written about the increase in wealth disparity. In 1980, the top 0.01 percent of the population had 0.87 percent of total income in 2005 it was 3.89%. This is the largest gap since 1916. This data came from reported income tax which could be dependent on the existing tax policy of the time when it was filed. Large marginal rates would cause the wealthy to hide or postpone income lesser rates makes it less desirable to do so. Still looking at other numbers those trends do exist.

Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there aint nobody wants to come down here no more
Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back
My Hometown - Bruce SprinteenSPRINGSTEEN. My humble apologies to the Boss.

A recent study concludes the trend has been consistent regardless of what party has been in power. It increased under Reagan and during the 8 years of the Clinton administration. The study conclusion “the sharp rise in inequality was largely due to an educational slowdown.”

Since 1900 the change in technology has increasingly called for an increase in the educational levels of the workforce. In recent years technology has kept up it pace but education levels has slowdown causing the demand to outstrip the supply of workers available to take advantage of the new opportunities.

The cohort of workers born in 1950 had an average of 4.67 more years of schooling than the cohort born in 1900, representing an increase of 0.93 year in each decade. By contrast, the cohort born in 1975 had only 0.74 more years of schooling than that born in 1950, an increase of only 0.30 year a decade.
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In 1980, each year of college raised a person’s wage by 7.6 percent. In 2005, each year of college yielded an additional 12.9 percent. The rate of return from each year of graduate school has risen even more — from 7.3 to 14.2 percent.
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A top education is no guarantee of great riches, but it often helps. Maybe educational levels are like Willie Wonka’s chocolate bars. A few of them come with golden tickets that give you opportunities almost beyond imagination. But even if you aren’t lucky enough to get a golden ticket, you can still enjoy the chocolate, which by itself is well worth the price.

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Newest Children Books

If you are worried about scaring the kids after a tuck or an enhancement do not fear. A plastic surgeon has just written a children book to help relieve those anxieties.

Mom explains she's going to have operations on her nose and tummy and may have to take it easy for a week or so. The girl asks if the operations will hurt, and mom replies, "Maybe a little," warning she'll look different after the bandages come off.

The girl asks: "Why are you going to look different?"

Mom responds: "Not just different, my dear — prettier!"
- From My Beautiful Mommy

The sequel My Metro-Sexual Dad is due out next summer.

A Game Of Intense Aggression

One McLean, VA elementary school has banned tagged because of its aggressive nature. The newest ban joins dodge ball, touch football and tug-of-war in the list of unacceptable actives. Heaven help the kids that play cowboy and Indians or cops and robbers. Guess they could still play Audit where one kid is the IRS agent and another a harried taxpayer.

If you need a good laugh today watch the video where Senator Harry Reid explains how we have a voluntary tax system.



Happy April 15th everyone.

Remarkable American

The last World War I veteran and a prisoner of war at Los Banos internment camp in World War II is 107 and still does 50 sit ups a day and lifts weights 3 times a week. Frank Buckles retired at 101 from being the keynote speakers at Remembering America's Heroes Living History Day program.

So understandably he is still hesitant to take up the offer of interment at Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery is now reserved for those killed in action or winners of the Medal of Honor. Ross Perot was instrumental in interceding with the White House to make an exception in his honor. Mr. Buckles lives with his daughter on their farm in West Virginia. More

And Now The Happiest Careers

1. Clergy
Job Description: Conduct religious worship and perform spiritual functions associated with beliefs and practices of religious faith or denomination.
Very happy: 67.2%
Median salary*: $44,102

2. Firefighters
Job Description: Control and extinguish fires, protect life and property and conduct rescue efforts.
Very happy: 57.2%
Median salary: $45,553

3. Transportation, Ticket, and Reservation Agents, such as Travel Agents
Job Description: Travel agents plan and sell transportation and accommodations for travel agency customers.
Very happy: 56.5%
Median hourly rate (travel agents): $14.23

4. Architects
Job Description: Plan and design structures, such as private residences, office buildings, theaters, factories and other structural property.
Very happy: 53.5%
Median salary: $54,079

5. Special Education Teachers
Job Description: Teach school subjects to educationally and physically handicapped students.
Very happy: 52.6%
Median salary (preschool, kindergarten or elementary school): $41,344
Median salary (secondary school): $43,060

6. Actors and Directors
Job Description: Actors play parts in stage, television, radio, video or motion picture productions for entertainment, information or instruction.
Very happy: 51.0%
Salary varies greatly

7. Science Technicians
Job Description: Use principles and theories of science and mathematics to solve problems in research and development, and to help invent and improve products and processes.
Very happy: 51.0%
Median salary (research scientists): $72,435

8. Miscellaneous Mechanical and Repairing Occupations
Job Description: Automotive service technicians and mechanics diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul automotive vehicles.
Very happy: 53.6%**
Median hourly rate (mechanics/auto tune up): $15.26

9. Industrial engineers
Job Description: Design, develop, test, and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes.
Very happy: 48.4%
Median salary: $61,729

10. Airline Pilots and Navigators
Job Description: Airline pilots, co-pilots, and flight engineers pilot and navigate the flight of multi-engine aircraft in regularly scheduled service for transport of passengers and cargo.
Very happy: 49.1%
Median hourly rate (airline pilots, copilots, or flight engineers): $63

Source: Where America's Happiest People Find Work.

Current Starting Salaries

For all those seniors that are looking to find a major. Money is not everything but it sure does help pay the bills.

Bad Memories of High School

If you had problems in high school you are not alone. Those memories are stuff that white people like similar to the idea of soccer.

MP3 Players More Than Just Music

If you already have ever song ever made on your MP3 player and are bored with the selection try downloading a book from the library. Great for trips, exercising , mowing the yard (yes that time si fast approaching) and other activities where the brain could use a distraction.

Here is a list of supported devices The overhyped, overrated and overpriced i-phone and i-pod are among the NON-SUPPORTED devices.

1. Obtain a library card Looks like you actually have to leave the computer go out into the Big Room and interface with other carbon based units for this one but it is only a one time deal
   
2. Download the free software to your computer. Mac owners need to get a real computer.
3. Select a book and follow the directions to checkout and download which opens up the software.
   
4. Once the book is downloaded connect your player and click the transfer button on the previously downloaded software.

A little confusing at first but it gets easier. The downloading takes a little while depending on your connection but the transfer to your device is like greased lightening.

For upcoming events at our local library check out the online calendar of events.

Disregard Reading Eagle Headline

Full day kindergarten will cost nowhere near $200,000 and even if it did the 3.5 mill increase is off by a factor of 10. Each mill increase in taxes results in $577,723 increase to the school district. So 3.5 mills would bring in over $2 million not $200,000. Either Mr. Heffner misspoke or the reporter misheard.

Doesn't matter because the $200,000 figure is at worst case twice as large as the real amount. There is an estimated ONE TIME cost of $40,000 to fully equip existing and new classrooms. and 2 new teachers at around $60,000 each for salary and benefits.

One time cost do not result in a tax increase those expenses come out of the reserve fund.

For the past four years Brandywine has received block grants from the state that can be used for specific purposes. One is reduced early classroom sizes and another is full day kindergarten. The district has used the money in the past for reduced class sizes. With a lower enrollment class will remain small and these funds can be used to offset full day kindergarten.

Even if those funds do not materialize in the future full day kindergarten would only result in a tax increase of 0.2 mills or approximately $20.00 for the average home owner not the reported $350.

Art Club Fashion Show

The art club 13th annual fashion show this year with a Dr. Suess theme. The runways of Paris and New York have nothing on Brandywine.

Precocious Pervert

A pastor says that his 6-year-old son was given a disciplinary referral for making suggestive comments about a teacher, and now he is afraid the boy is being made out to be a "sexual pervert."

The Pinkneys said that Malory was given a referral because a teacher filed a complaint about remarks she said that Malory had made about her to another kindergarten teacher. The parents said the principal told them that the offensive remarks included saying the teacher was "a hottie," asking if teachers “sleep together,” and saying that a classmate of his liked looking at the teacher's "butt." More

The Store People Love To Hate

For all the criticism Wally World receives some credit is due. Wal-Mart was there after Katrina along with other big box stores like Home Depot while the federal, state and local governments were still arguing about who was in charge. They just used individual initiative to do what needed to be done.

As the storm approached, [Wal-Mart] CEO Lee Scott provided a guiding edict to his senior staff and told them to pass it down to regional, district, and store managers:

“A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level. Make the best decision that you can with the information that’s available to you at the time, and, above all, do the right thing.”

In several cases, store managers allowed either emergency personnel or local residents to take store supplies as needed. They did not feel the need to get pre-approval from supervisors to do so. A Kenner, Louisiana employee used a forklift to knock open a warehouse door to get water for a local retirement home. In Marrero, Louisiana employees allowed local police officers to use the store as a headquarters and a sleeping place as many had lost their homes. In Waveland, Mississippi assistant manager Jessica Lewis, who was unable to reach her superiors to get permission, decided to run a bulldozer through her store to collect basics that were not water-damaged, which she then piled in the parking lot and gave away to residents.
She also broke into the store’s locked pharmacy to supply critical drugs to a local hospital.

A great report from George Mason University and plan for future disasters.

1. For relief and recovery efforts and ensure that its role [the private sector] is officially recognized as part of disaster protocols.

2. Decentralize government relief to local governments and non-governmental organizations and provide that relief in the form of cash or broadly defined vouchers.

3. Move the Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).Publish Post

4. Reform “Good Samaritan” laws so that private-sector actors are clearly protected when they make good faith efforts to help.

Who Needs Competition?

Factoids from a recent study. America has one of the lowest percentages of high school students in non-governmental run private education 9% in Europe the average is 18%. Looking at some of our major competitors percentages of students studying in private schools.

Britain-75 percent
Korea-49 percent
Japan-31 percent
France-30 percent
Spain-22 percent
Australia-21 percent
USA-9 percent
Germany-8 percent
Italy-5 percent

Average scores from international math tests:

Korea-547
Japan-523
Australia-520
Germany-504
France-496
Britain-495
Spain-480
USA-474
Italy-462

Do We Need Full Day Kindergarten?

Despite all the great programs the kindergarten teachers have come up with there are cheaper ways to manage day care and keep track of the younguns. We just need to practice good old American ingenuity.



Other examples of out of the box low cost alternatives to every day problems.

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Time To Stop Popular Elections

As this campaign season drags on ensuring that every candidate has been thoroughly slimed, USA Today has finally said enough is enough with popular elections. Let people who actually have an active brain cell choose our leaders instead of letting the "laggards, professional nose-piercers and porn movie gaffers" have an equal say.

Ever have someone comment on your job who has absolutely no experience whatsoever at it? It's quite annoying. Now imagine millions of similarly unknowledgeable rubes constantly heckling you, but now they actually have a say on how you do things and could have you fired for disagreeing with them. If you can begin to fathom how unfair — downright mean — that would feel, then you'll have some understanding for the plight of the politician at the hands of voters.
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Even worse are the "undecided voters" — a social science term for "psychopaths." You show us someone who spends months watching the psychological torture of two innocent politicians pitted against each other and still claims to be "undecided," and we'll show you the face of Satan himself. They obviously live for nothing but to see the suffering of their betters and know cruelty foreign to even the most depraved serial killers and DJs specializing in Scandinavian industrial club music.
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.They say they hate negative campaigns while their blood lust is conspicuous. They're basically violent schizophrenics. Is it any wonder some politicians are driven to prostitutes just to experience some basic humanity? Given the constant sniping of the American public, is it any wonder that Hillary Clinton thinks she was under sniper fire?
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So, should we do away with elections? Not necessarily, but if voters are the problem, it surely doesn't follow that they should be part of the solution. Democratic politicians are leading the way by putting their fates in the hands of the only people truly qualified to make the important decisions: politicians. There's a reason they're called "super delegates," after all. Like Nietzsche's übermenchen, these superior beings are really the ones we've been waiting for. Why rely on some slob who slid off a barstool long enough to vote in a caucus when you can have the delegates from the planet Krypton decide everything?

Leave politics to the politicians; a civilized society has no place for voters.