Now Maybe He Can Find A Decent Job

Brian May, the guitarist and founding member of the legendary rock band Queen, earned his PhD in astronomy last year from Imperial College London. His PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud has just been co-published by Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd.

May began his research of the Zodiacal Light, the misty diffuse cone of light seen in the West after sunset and the East before sunrise. in 1970 and took a 30 year break.

Early Christmas Shopping

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling, available for pre-order now. This book of fairy tales was written to supplement the Harry Potter series and will be published in two new editions on December 4, 2008.

For Muggles there is the Standard Edition features all five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a new introduction by J.K. Rowling, illustrations reproduced from the original handcrafted book, and commentary on each of the tales by Professor Albus Dumbledore.


True WITS (wizards in training) need the luxuriously packaged Collector's Edition (available exclusively at Amazon) designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original. It is housed in its own case, an exact replica as the one found in the Hogwarts library. The Collector's Edition includes a reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition. Opening the cover of the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling's signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon.

Net proceeds from this Collector's Edition and the Standard Edition support of the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J K Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children.

One Size Fits All

For students who break the Gonzales High School dress code a new fashion statement must be worn for the day, a navy blue jump suit.

This could have unintended repercussions at the Texas school as one student said "I talked to some of my friends about it and they said they are not going to obey the dress code just so they can wear the jumpsuit".

That situation could easily be rectified if the uniform came with a shovel and a ditch with their dirt in it. Would also help to have this guy as an assistant principal.

Attention District Township Residents

On Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 7:00 PM, there will be another hearing concerning the Ziegenfuss Procedural challenge at the District Township Building. We would like to see as many residents as possible in attendance to show support for defeating her proposal to build an 85-unit modular home park on Treichler Road. In this economy, can any of us afford to see our taxes go up further to pay for the additional burden on the township and school district that this proposal will create?

We continue to need your support to maintain this fight. We want to continue legal representation of our interests, but it requires financial support from everyone, however big or small, to defeat this proposal. Please consider donating to the "District Township Neighborhood Association" and mail checks to John Burger, 8 Fairhill Drive, Alburtis, PA 18011.

Apple's Newest Product

Building on the success of products like iPod, iTunes and IPhone an aging Steve Jobs announced today Apple's newest product the iWhat. The product is aimed at the maturing baby boomers who listened to Pink Floyd once too often.

NYT Fails Basic Math

The New York Times recently reported that SAT math scores for girls were equal to the scores received by boys. The pounced on Larry Summers former head of Harvard for being wrong in questioning women’s “intrinsic aptitude” for math and science.

All well and good but what was reported is not what he said. He said that, while the averages may be the same, girls’ scores are clumped in the middle and there were more male scores at the extremes. The study actually vindicated Dr. Summers because while the average male and female score the same, males exceed and fail at a greater degree. There are more males working in math and sciences not because of a sexist plot but because colleges and scientific research organizations hire people from the extreme right side of the curve where their are more males.

Boys still trail girls in reading but that doesn't generate any interest or headlines.

No Problems In The Poconos

Looking for a carefree existence then move to Stroudsburg. They have no concerns other than a shortage of choices of frozen potatoes. And people say the post on here are dumb. From the Pocono Record

Editor, the Record:

I would like to know why none of our local grocery stores in Stroudsburg carry my favorite frozen potatoes. When I asked about them, I was told at the store they could not get them.

Only one local store carries this item. I had to go out of town for an appointment and stopped at a supermarket in Wind Gap and was able to get this product.

Why do people here have to shop out of town to get things they want?

If the stores want you to shop locally, then they should carry items people want. This doesn't include the family-owned stores.

WALDRON H. SMITH

Stroudsburg

I like 'em french fried taters

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things."

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an international sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47 years old.

This amazing lecture can be seen at LastLecture.com.

Electrons Don't Care If You Like Them

A study done on professors shows that there are four fields which still defy political correctness. They were finance, management information, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. With management information (computer geeks) showing a true meritocracy where 72% of the survey were classified as politically incorrect. The closest competitor was mechanical engineering at 50% politically incorrect.

Unsurprisingly the top five political correct fields were Psychology, Sociology,English,History and Elementary Education.

Not ALl Bad News

Some prices have actually fallen over the past 10 years.
Most of these items are either luxury or infrequently purchased.

If You Want To Be A Dad

Then put down that soy burger and pick up a double bacon cheese burger.

A study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, found 41 million fewer sperm per millilitre of semen after just one portion every two days.

The "normal" sperm concentration for a man is between 80 and 120 million per millilitre, and the average of men who ate on average a portion of soy-based food every other day was 41 million fewer.

The authors said plant oestrogens in foods such as tofu, soy mince or milk may interfere with hormonal signals.

Never mind forget about the double bacon cheese burger. Seems being chubby can also damage sperm. Also if painting is on the Honey Do List then scratch it off paint chemicals have a bad effect.

Interview With Brandywine New Superintendent

An article in his current paper about Dr. Handler departure for Brandywine. The BOCES mentioned is similar to Pennsylvania's BCIU.

Cat Cam

Using a Cat Cam discover the day in the life of a cat in a photo tour.

This SIte Is Read Everywhere

Just last week someone here suggested starting a church to avoid taxes. A Chicago area man, allegedly trying to avoid $80,000 in taxes, has done just that. He was certified over the internet put a cross on the side of his mansion and called it a church for an invalid wife. The Lake Bluff city administrators are not amused by the Armenian Church of Lake Bluff

Meanwhile, Lake Bluff officials notified Michael that if he is running a church, he'll need to pay more than $115,000 in fines for failing to get the village's permission, setting up a possible court battle.

"It's a honkin' house," said Shields Township Assessor Teresia Yakes, who recently appraised the Michael mansion.

Brains On The Line

Not football season yet but never too early to think about it.

NFL teams have begun to use a Wonderlic test while scouting, which consists of 50 questions to be completed in 12 minutes. Many of the questions are multiple choice, but the time is certainly a factor when completing the tests. A score of 10 is considered “literate”, while 20 is said to coincide with average intelligence (an IQ of 100, though now we’re comparing one somewhat arbitrary numerically scored intelligence test with another).

In another interesting twist, the test is also administered to players the day of the NFL combine—which means they first spend the day running, jumping, benching, interviewing, and lots of other -ings, before they sit down and take an intelligence test. It’s a bit like a medical student running a half marathon before taking the boards.

In general, says Wonderlic, "The closer you are to the ball, the higher your score."

Some teams consider the test results critical. Others say they dismiss the results, except for players who score at the extremes. What's an extreme? Well, former Bengals punter and Harvard grad Pat McInally scored a perfect 50 -- the only NFL player known to do so -- while at least one player, it is rumored, scored a 1.

Charlie Wonderlic Jr., president of Wonderlic Inc., says, "A score of 10 is literacy, that's about all we can say." If that's the case, more than a few pros are being delivered the Books-on-Tape version of the playbook. But players scoring too high are also suspect.

If a player is smart, his potential to be a smartass increases exponentially.

Average Score By Position:
Offensive tackles: 26
Centers: 25
Quarterbacks: 24
Guards: 23
Tight Ends: 22
Safeties: 19
Middle linebackers: 19
Cornerbacks: 18
Wide receivers: 17
Fullbacks: 17
Halfbacks: 16

The average scores in other professions look like this:
Chemist: 31
Programmer: 29
Newswriter: 26
Sales: 24
Bank teller: 22
Clerical Worker: 21
Security Guard: 17
Warehouse: 15

A Bad Day At Work

Is when your Dad, Mom and husband rob the pizza restaurant where you are working. To his credit the husband didn't know they were going to rob her place of employment. He thought they were going out to rob a store. Not exactly the Dillinger gang the trio was arrested withing 15 minutes.

This Weekend

A 100 of things to do this weekend for FREE. Most aren't that exciting but they are FREE. Really need a list of 100 fun things to do that can make money.

Equal Time

New poll shows Obama supporters are more supportive than McCain backers. Big surprise with McCain supporters creating sites like Get Drunk and Vote 4 McCain around.

Typical Comment:

I don’t think “Get Drunk and Vote for McCain” is going to be sufficient. I think a slogan of “Shoot heroin, snort coke, eat shrooms and vote for McCain while hallucinating that you’re voting for Daffy Duck” should just about do it.

On second thought, maybe you should get drunk, too.

Great hints for McCain on using the interweb and better answers for viagra questions.

New Voting Precincts In School District

Pending court approval Rockland will have an additional voting location:

1st Precinct, township building, 41 Deysher Road
2nd Precinct, New Jerusalem United Church of Christ, 33 Lyons Road

Swimming Pool Wars

Every summer people activity with the Topton pool extol the virtues of the local pool, announcing planned activities encouraging everyone to attend. Always has to be at least one grutz that tries to run down their efforts and tries to switch people to the Kutztown pool.

For those of you that have never visited the Kutztown pool at great expense the management of this site hired agents to infiltrate the Kutztown pool and bring back pictures of their facility.

What they found will shock and amaze you.
While they do have a large pool looks like it could be filled with a lot of recycled water. All and all the Topton pool is still the best bet for most people.

The math doesn't work

Canada is now flirting with a ten month waiting period for maternity beds.

A year or two ago a woman with quadruplets had to be flown to Great Falls, Montana to have her babies because that was the nearest place she could find a neonatal intensive care unit for them. It wasn’t just that there was none available in Alberta, there was none available anywhere in the whole of Canada. As Mark Steyn sarcastically put it, you can hardly expect an industrialized, G-8 nation of thirty million to have the sort of medical facilities of a city of 50,000 in the backwoods of Montana.

Happy Cost of Government Day

Working people must toil on average 197 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumes 53.9 percent of national income.

So after today the government trust you to spend your money as you see fit please don't disappoint them by wasting it.

Science Will Be Title Nined

Since Title IX has worked so well for college sports, lets apply it to science.

Failed Marketing Research

An Ohio woman who attended school board meetings advocating student drug testing was found with a large quantity of heroin in her car after a routine traffic stop. She has been indicted on heroin trafficking and possession. She said her appearances were just a scam to deflect attention from her activities. Sounds like a cheap way to obtain marketing information on the potential size of the business or find out who stole her stash. Article

So are the Taxpayers Group actually behind higher taxes for some nefarious purpose? Could they be backed by some Florida retirement community recruiting new business? Maybe they are the puppets of Del Boca Vista Phase IV?

Welcome To Dr. Handler

A native of Levittown, Handler has been superintendent of the Board of Cooperative Education Services, or BOCES, of Sullivan County, N.Y., for 10 years, and interim superintendent of the Orange-Ulster School District in Sullivan County for 15 months.

The BOCES is roughly equivalent to the Berks County Intermediate Unit, but with the added responsibility of running all vocational education in the county.

Handler, who will assume his new duties Aug. 18, said the challenges facing Pennsylvania school districts are similar if not identical to the issues in New York. "How do you provide the best possible program to children and manage costs so as not to cripple the taxpayers?" he said.

Article

Not Exactly An Indian Jones Adventure

Scientist search for old bones on Florida's west coast. Initial reports suggest that they will be very successful.

Don't Need Another Daddy

The President comes in for a lot of grief deserved and undeserved but this response at today's press conference is priceless

When asked by another numb skull reporter why he hasn't initiated programs on energy conservation His paraphrased response was:

"The American people are smart enough to figure it out. They know the price of gas.
They're already driving less and seeking smaller cars. I don't need to tell them; they can balance their checkbook."

If Your WIfe Is Feeding You A Lot Of Fish

Its not for your health you are just being trained

Money Magazine Top 10 Best Places To Live

Had to read it twice thought they had to be talking about the worst places. Somebody going to be disappointed Parkland School Dist. wasn't mentioned.

1. Plymouth, Minn- I am sure it is a nice place if you are a polar bear. So what if it has 8 lakes they are frozen 10 months of the year.
2. Fort Collins, CO - Been there a nasty place way too dry but not dry enough to be a decent desert. Ate up with the ugly.
   
3. Napierville, IL - To close to Chicago (see No 1 COLD AND WINDY) and it is in an "I" state
4. Irvine, CA - Now that has to be a joke just outside LA three-bedroom, two-bath house still runs about $700,000. At least its not Minn cold.
   
5. Franklin Twp, NJ - Didn't the authors see the part about it being in northern NJ.
6. Norman, OK - NJ isn't the worst place you could find yourself that would be OK. There is a reason homes are affordable, who would want one.
   
7. Round Rock, TX - Once a bedroom community of Austin now home of Dell Computers. Great place combines the cold of Minn and the heat of the sun. The only thing more obnoxious than a Texan is some hippie over educated Texan.
8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD - They screwed up this place could be livable outside Baltimore.
9. Overland Park, KS - Never understood Dorothy having to return to Kansas.
10. Fisher Ind- Spent a year one weekend there another great reason to avoid "I" states.
    

what if I love my country the way it is?

"[W]e are going to grow our foreign service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy," said Obama. "We cannot to continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we have set. We have got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."



"Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it."
- Senator Barack Obama


"when fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts." - George Carlin

Dogs Have Masters

Cats have staff.

Hard to train a good staff these days forcing some felines to suffer the indignity of drinking from a bowl. Those days are now over. Inventions like these are why they keep us around.



If you like to do electronic tinkering they also have a kit.

Too Bad It Is A Rare Quality

John Podhoretz on the life and death of Tony Snow.

Tony was a fascinating type. He was, literally, the opposite of a paranoid. He was a “pro-noid.” He assumed people liked him. It is a rare quality for any person. It is almost unheard-of in Washington. Tony lived a wonderful life in large measure because he believed the universe was on his side, and it was. Until it wasn’t.

Parents and schools could really use a manual on how to instill in more people that it is fine to disagree and stand up for your beliefs but you don't have to be disagreeable to do so.

New Menu Needed for Kindergarteners

According to the British National Children Bureau future Klan members can be recognized early by their choice in food. By adding my ethnic dishes to the lunch menu these children that say "Yuk" can be helped at an early age.

The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.

The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age.

Anti Fourth Of July Speech

when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service. We'll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. - Senator Obama from his July 4th speech

Europe had mandated volunteerism for hundreds of years. France, citizens were required to perform public service building and repairing roads and other public projects for hundreds and thousands of hours a year. Even had a name for it SERFDOM. It was ended in France by the French Revolution, inspired by the American Revolution against modest taxes without representation. The 4th of July celebrates the hard won rights for a person to live their life without unnecessary interference by the state. This country, more than most, has always been blessed with people giving up their time and money to build a better community. These enterprises have been successful because it was work from the heart not a mandated government program. This proposed program of your country telling you to do for your country is a far cry fromh President Kennedy quote of asking what you can do for your country.

Happy Fourth Of July

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

A Kinder Gentler Davy Crockett

David Crockett created a political career along with TV and movie deals out of killing a bear with his bare hands. This Florida conservation officer jumped in the ocean and saved one from drowning. That ups the ante on being a badass.

Two Contradicting Reports

In a pole of countries with the happiest people Denmark came in at #1, USA was #16.

Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday. Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.

Doesn't really jive with Denmark having one of tghe highest sucide rates in the world or the fact that the U.S.A. leads in the use of Cocaine. Guess you can't buy happiness.

Next Year's Fall Fashion

Fashions from the latest headlines can now be purchased online Great way to avoid the crowds when purchasing clothing for next fall.

Happy Birthday Modern Biology

Couldn't improve on the Fark.com introduction :

150 years ago today, Charles Robert Darwin presented his theory explaining why fuel thieves carry Zippo lighters, drunks retrieve their hats from bear enclosures and Texans get out of bed in the morning