Nice and sunny, hot and humid in the am.. about to rain in the pm.. 10 am AARP board mtg; 11:30 NARFE picnic in Woodbine, Maryland. Beautiful location at the Detweilers.
The Carroll County Times was very thin today.. it seems to be getting thinner every day since its takeover by the Baltimore Sun. But I need to see local news.. so I need to keep subscribing.
01. Stormy Weather
The storms of the day before yesterday are still causing problems. Lots of downed lines, and of course, the sad story of a 12 year old boy who was killed by a falling tree.
Elaine and I are still trying to dry out from our soaking in yesterday's storm. The weather report warns that we may get another storm sometime today.
02. Candidate money
The newspaper reports that Republican candidate for Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, will avail himself of the $2.6 million of public campaign financing for his run in November. This will deplete the fund. I have no knowledge as to how this money is allocated, nor where it comes from... I'll have to do my homework.
03. Bye Bye IC3.
When Jimmie Carter was President, an Earth satellite was launched, named IC3. Its job was to send important data back to Earth, which it did; but then it stopped data transmission. However, it was still circling. For some time now, a group of "nerds" has been trying to "wake up" the data transmission, but they failed. In their attempt, they had tried to interact with "old" technology, but technology has changed a lot since then and new stuff did not work in communicating with the old stuff.
04. Chew on that, buddy!
An NPR reporter reminded us today that we eat a lot of cellulose in our food. Companies add it to give "body" to their products. It is ground up wood! Scientists say that it doesn't hurt us and we should worry about the salt and sugar in products instead of worrying about how much cellulose we consume. (I wonder.)
05. Night, Night, Mama
The Mother Jones magazine people tell us that by 2015, the number of mobile devices will exceed the number of people on earth, and if they are used as they are today, 50% of the users will be checking their email while they are in bed.
A year ago, I had 900 "junk" email messages that I had not looked at. Over the year, I have gotten rid of all of them, and not just by deleting them. Concentrating on "junk" has allowed me to garner 900 "inbox" email messages that I need to look at. I think I need to work out an email action plan.
Well, at least I don't check my email when I'm in bed.
06. Save Gas says Mama
Mother Jones magazine also lists some tips from Wayne Gerdes on how to save on gas. He gets 59 MPH in an old Honda Civic.
a. Don't break so often. Coast when you can. (Like I did when I was courting my late wife who lived a few hills away from me... I would coast downhill with the key off and start up again to get to the top of the hills.. even though gas was only 16 cents a gallon then)
b. Don't speed. (You know that us old dudes never speed.)
c. Keep your tires inflated.
d. Try not to idle. Turn off the motor if you have to wait for something.
07. Sad Modern Family Story
Gordon Wilder lost his son, Ramon, in a burglary and robbery. Last week, police pinned the murder on his son, Brandon. Brandon is charged with killing his brother for clothes, cellphone and a rental car! To read the whole story, one gets very depressed about the disintegration of this family.
08. Recycling?
a. Heintz uses 2 million pounds of tomatoes a year to make ketchup.
b. The Ford Escape dashboard is made out of 10 pounds of recycled bluejeans, shirts and sweaters.
c. Ford is looking into turning dandelion pulp into some kind of rubber.
09. Common Core
The NEA is holding their convention shortly and they will be talking about the Common Core Agenda which was developed in a bipartisan air of cooperation and is meeting opposition all over the United States. Maybe they can resolve some of the problems people find with it. However, no matter what is done, I believe that the Tea Party will still raise hell about any attempts to mandate standards for students, even though such students aren't leaving High School with anything approaching knowledge these days... in my humble opinion.
10. What was that thing called?
During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a long horn was used to blow loud and obnoxious sounds during the games. I bought one of those to use as a funnel.. it worked great. However, I can't remember the name. Maybe I'll think of it during one of my dreams.
11. Shock Jocks?
The Baltimore Sun mentioned that "Sirius XM Shock Jock" Anthony Cumia was fired because of insensitive talk. I never heard him, but I think he had a large following.
The only Shock Jock I know of is Howard Stern. I heard one of his shows a few years ago.. at least 5 minutes of it and shut it off in disgust. However, I have now seen him on America's Got Talent and he seems to be kind of normal there.. and I also have detected a little empathy with some people doing auditions. Good.
12. Tattoo Go Away!
After our youths mature, some of them start to understand how stupid it was of them to get ugly tattoos slathered all over their bodies. Now, Dr. John Pescetti, a graduate of Hopkins Medical school has gone into the Tattoo Removal Business. But its only a part-time business.. one evening a month for the past 11 years. John estimates that he has removed up to 1,200 tattoos, all for free if the patients, ages 15 to 25, perform community service, and "keep clean." It's a time consuming painful process, but worth it to those youths who want to get a decent job and whose tattoos are holding them back.
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