IFTTT- Neat

It is always fun to discover a new and useful application.
Today's recommendation is if this then that  or IFTTT.  It is a fine way to create auto liking within the world wide web.  For example, with it this Make Good Mondays post will automatically be sent to my Evernote notebooks for archiving.
Check it out.

[Post date: 07/22/12 ]


My Other Blogs: My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

For “Foodies”– you might not be aware that . . .

There is progress but big challenges remain as we “Foodies” work to keep ourselves fed.  Natural food sources are often in short supply.  The people who grow our food sometimes need help to stay in business, particularly as they compete with the large industrial farmers and growers.  In much of the world water and energy are in such short supply that people go hungry.  Sometimes people even go hungry on purpose.  Meanwhile we Americans continue to waste food.  Following are a few pertinent news items you may find interesting.


Salmon runs are being restored.  In the wilderness of Washington state's Olympic National Park, hydraulic hammers chip away at the Glines Canyon Dam in the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history.  According to a recent Reuters article,

. . . slowly removing the once-imposing 210-foot-tall (64-metre) structure, whose construction in 1927 on the Elwha River blocked one of the world's most prolific salmon runs.
Nine miles downstream, workers last month removed the 108-foot-tall (33-metre) Elwha Dam, built in 1913, allowing the river channel there to flow freely for the first time in nearly a century.
The two dams . . . blocked migratory routes of salmon and steelhead trout to some 70 miles of tributary habitat, in the process robbing Native Americans of income by halting a treaty-guaranteed reservation fishery.
. . . Supporters of the dam's destruction say the benefits to the environment of tearing it down outweigh the loss of its aging power-generating station.
The removal of the two dams - ordered by a 1992 law signed by then-President George H.W. Bush - is aimed at restoring the natural habitat of more than 300,000 salmon.

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided much needed help to local food producers. In February, the USDA awarded $40 million in grants to boost local farm/food projects. Reuters reported that,

Recipients included Living Water Farms, a 3-year old family company located in Strawn, Illinois, two hours south of Chicago, which produces hydroponic greens for restaurants and grocers; Agriberry, a family-owned berry and fresh fruit operation near Mechanicsville, Virginia; and Green Mountain Organic Creamery of North Ferrisburgh, Vt., which markets certified organic, bottled pasteurized milk, butter, ice cream and other dairy products.

In 30 years the world will have to support 9 billion people. Last week scientists from 15 countries were calling for a better political response to the provision of water and energy to meet the challenge of feeding all those people in the future. According to a May 10 Reuters article,

For the first time, the scientists argue that looming shortages in water and energy supplies should be treated as a single issue.
"Major stresses on availability of energy and water are already being felt in many countries and regions and more are foreseeable," the joint statement said.
. . . "Without considering water and energy together, inefficiencies will occur, increasing shortages of both," the statement warns. Politicians should pursue policies that integrate the two and emphasize the need for conservation, efficiency and cooperation across national borders.

Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike are making a difference. To quote Al Jazeera,

An agreement that would end the hunger strike of some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has been reached in Cairo, pending approval by a strikers' committee, a senior Palestinian official told Al Jazeera.
. . . Israel's prisons service says that 1,550 Palestinian prisoners are currently refusing food. Palestinian activists however say that as many as 2,500 of the 4,600 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are currently on hunger strike.
The inmates launched their hunger strike on April 17 to demand improved conditions in Israeli custody. They have also challenged Israel's policy of administrative detention.

In the meantime we Americans are wasting far too much food.  In “Wasted Food No More,” David Biello reports for Scientific American that methane is a big contributor to an over abundance of greenhouse gasses. But we also know that it can also be utilized as a source of power. To quote,

Massachusetts may ban big institutions from discarding food in the trash in a bid to cut down on the methane from landfills. . . And Americans are . . . , wasting some 222 million metric tons of food a year. That's a quarter of our food.

For Foodies in the classic sense of the word, here’s a great website to visit:  Not Your Ordinary Recipes.  Enjoy!

Redirecting

• Follow me at Twitter.
• Read my newspapers, Keep Up With the Day, Speaking Up, Earth and Space Happenings, and Mind Matters Daily.
• Visit my blog, South by Southwest.

Simplify your life this holiday season - Start with some basics.

It is now November. Haiti is in the middle of a hurricane today.  Let us hope that their rainbow comes soon.  

For us here in the United States the elections are over.  For Republicans it is the rainbow.  For me as a Democrat I guess the storm is over.

And, for all of us, the Next Big Thing will be Thanksgiving.

The Family Circle Magazine published some helpful ideas for learning to simplify your life, saying that "it can be easier than you think."

Four general simplification processes are key:

1. Conquer the clutter around the house.  Coming into the season of giving, start by giving away items you no longer need.  The author suggests that you start small with short periods of this activity, enlist the support of friends when you get stuck and give yourself a deadline and a reward for finishing. 
2. Overcome your work overload.  Unless you practice stress management*, you could be on the way to burnout.  Perfectionism, over-achiever tendencies and inadequate time management leave us exhausted and vulnerable to illness.  The author suggests focusing on what bugs you at work and at home, fixing what you can and letting go of the rest.  Delegation can improve your situation and so can a healthy support network.
3. Free yourself from mental clutter.  Remembering to think positively, giving yourself credit where it is due and writing things down can be helpful, says the author.
4. Learn how to say "no." Some of us were conditioned to please others.  We do not want to appear to be selfish, we automatically say "yes" to demands or requests.  Here are some tactics the author suggests: Learn to say, "Let me get back to you."  Or become less available.  We all have had to learn how to express our own needs.  But it takes application and practice.

*Things you can do to handle stress:  Talk it out.  Work it off.  Watch what you eat.  Don't depend on drugs or alcohol.  Get plenty of rest.  Take a break.  Do something for others.  Make a change.   Accept the things you can't change.  Don't try to be perfect.  Be a good problem solver.

Next in this series: "Simplify your life this holiday season - You are what you eat."

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Going paperless

(Illustration: Free Images)

Relying on having access to only digital archival information necessitates adopting a very different mindset for me.  I have been used to having the information I need stored in my file cabinets.  Yes, I have more than one, even though I am retired.  Or it is in a set of office sorting trays, or a cardboard file box, or even in a stack. There are several advantages for me to go digital. Plagued by procrastination, I seem to be much more motivated to keep my digital files cleaned out and organized so that my computer runs faster.  I also love the magic of the "search" box.  I prefer typing and editing on a computer keyboard (using ScribeFire in the Firefox browser), to composing on paper.  I do not know how I got along before I discovered cloud computing on Evernote.  My computer is even preferable for simple notes and scribbles, signified by my reliance on a nifty little application called Note Mania.  Therefore, the trick for me has been to have fun and useful tools - applications - that work better for me than the old way of writing.  But writing is not the only thing associated with retaining information.  Reading is equally important.

Giving up the local newspaper means we will not have the paper delivered to our front porch every morning.  We will not read today's headlines, articles of local interest, wedding announcements, or obituaries.  The files I am going through these days include lots of old newspaper clippings  associated with my history.  And I cannot throw some of them away.  They had value then and they have value now. How could we discard the obituaries of our forebearers?  The reason is emotional attachment, which is the core driver of hoarding, by the way.  As with preferring hardback books to reading lengthy pieces online, I still prefer reading the paper form of our local news organ.  But we cannot afford it any more.  So I get all my news from television or online like everyone else.  And I will have to figure out something else to use for mailing packing material, for protecting the floor when we paint the walls, for training the puppy or for lining the birdcage.  There are definitely some ways we cannot go paperless.  More importantly, I am fully aware that news organization reporters (predominantly print journalism) are responsible for gathering and publishing the original news items to which we bloggers so casually link.

Trashing old paper files signifies literally not being able to get your hands on a piece of information you thought important enough to save at some time in the past.  My question is always, "What if I need (or want) this in the future. I am a keeper of information, not someone who would qualify as a hoarder, though some might disagree.  And I love to read from original materials.  It is that emotional attachment thing again.  What can compare, for example, to the original halting letters and spacing of my granddaughter's first grade penmanship blue book?  She is now well into her 20's and long past blue books.  What could be more precious than a mushy yellowed 1955 telegram from my boyfriend, now my husband of 54 years?  You can begin to see my problem.  But I am making progress.  I now know that I neither need nor want 1986 United Way training handouts on how to be a manager.  I have no regrets at being retired from that kind of activity.  And those old handouts would not tell me how to manage our Corgi dog who wants to run the household.  They are now dog-eared and faded copies that should go into the recycling bin.  Recycling, by the way, has helped me more easily make trash.  Stuff is not "wasted," another of my mental barriers to going paperless.

Forgoing extra copies implies the risk of losing the original document. The rule is that if the documentation is easily available elsewhere, do not keep the original or even a copy. I must remind myself that not every piece of paper is a valuable document.  Throwing the extras away gains valuable storage space for those essential originals the IRS wants us to keep for a time, or those identity documents that mark for your heirs your passage through this life. Yes, I am at the legacy stage of life, age 73.  I have provided my fair share of original recipes for those family or local club cookbooks.  My old scribbled pencil copy can go away.  The cookbooks are now all digitized, even if they show up in spiral notebook or paperback form.  I can always order another one, such as the Junior League club cookbooks that I collected as travel souvenirs for many years.

Getting off mailing lists indicates that I could miss out on potentially important information from outside sources.  It also means accumulating less paper to throw away.  Remember the advent of the lists offering to help remove your name from junk mail lists bought and sold for the purpose.  I did that but the effort must be maintained.  Rarely is it now that merchandise is not available online.  I do still enjoy beautiful slick catalogs.  However, they are rarely free. The thrill associated with the arrival of the Sears or "Monkey Ward" catalog goes back to living in the country in Wyoming as a child and looking forward to the free Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog coming in the mail in November. These days the mailing lists from which I remove myself are those unending press releases that all proliffic bloggers receive.  Even when I am trying to live paperless, I still get junk Email I must handle/delete.  Spam filters do not work when mailers acquire your name legitimately.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Learn something new today --

Today's post at Make Good Mondays focuses of a few handy new things I have recently learned.  You might want to try out a few of them to make your online experience richer and more effective.  These are ideas, applications or tactics that I have tried and found useful during the past month.

Mozy - Online Backup, Data Backup and Remote Backup Solutions.  For just under $5 per month, you can back up all the information you would hate to lose from your computer.  Once the initial backup is complete (which could take many hours), you can adjust the settings to back up only what has changed at the same time every day, or you can set it to back up info a certain number of times each day.  By purchasing one year of service, I got one month free.  I found the application to be easy to implement and it appears to be a solid company.

HootSuite -  People who use this social network Twitter often find the original website lacking in functionality. I first tried TweetDeck, but I like HootSuite better. An excellent Twitter platform, it calls itself "professional," and it is free.  The features I like best are the tabs, that organize my entire set of Twitter lists (streams) into specific categories.  For example, my "Daily Scan" tab displays these streams: Mentions, Direct Messages (inbox), my Web-Friends (a private list), Media-Darlings, Bloggers-&-Blogs lists, and my Facebook feed.  A second tab displays my lists entitled, Newspapers-&-magazines, Television-newsletters, Writers-&-Reporters, Earth-&-Space Folks, Civil-libertarians/good-causes, Officials-&-Government, and Texas-Twitterers.  A third tab "Other Lists," displays a couple of lists to which I subscribe, and my own lists called, Check-out-occasionally, Good-advice, and Utilities.  The last tab is "Collections," and shows my own Sent-tweets, Favorites, Direct-messages (outbox), my ReTweets, Featured-Tweeps and Unseen-followers (another private list).  Thus all who follow me, and all those I follow get put on a list at some point.  No one gets lost and I only have to read the tweets that are most important to me.  I can find what I occasionally need or want and ignore posts that are of lesser interest.

Additional References: Links regarding the general subject of education from my regular contributor, Jon#:

1. "US college degrees: Still the best among world's top universities?#," is from Yahoo! News (6/2/10).
2. California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum#," is from The Raw Story (5/30/10). Measure ensures Texas standards don't 'creep into our textbooks,' senator tells Raw Story.
3. "Today's College Students Lack Empathy#," is from Yahoo! News (5/28/10).
   

(date of post: 7/10/10)

by Carol Gee

Author of:
Southwest Postings, a political blog

Make Good Mondays, a personal blog

Member of Twitter, a social network

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Making this a good Monday

Welcome to my redesigned website, using the new Posterous options. 

For now, I imported all the posts from my old Blogger page.  I changed the template colors and added an explanation of my reason for posting.  You may see some further changes, if I feel a bit more creative on down the way. I may add some "pages," for example.

As of now I am, indeed feeling this is a good Monday.  How 'bout you?

 

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Making good weekends, when there's not a perceivable weekend

Week by week -- Back when I worked five days a week for pay, there was an observable weekend.  I thought of it as two days off.  But it never was that, really.  I merely was not required to show up on time at my workplace for two days at the end, or beginning, of every week. 

Work or play -- I worked at home.  And it was a real work day.  Like so many others, I felt I had to catch up on the weekends, or get a leg up on the next week - again, depending on how one sees it.  On Sunday there was an occasional bit of a letup on my internal "should-do and ought-to" messages.

All the same -- by now I have been retired for 8 years.  And I lost my weekends, or now the week is one long weekend, depending on how it feels.  And I do not work nearly as hard.  Nor do I have as much money.  But I do have a very welcome amount of free time.  It is a good thing I am OK with that idea or I would be beset with guilt.

As it turns out --  how I spent my time during the week or on the weekend  was always my free choice.  I merely had to be willing to accept the consequences of my decisions, just as I do now. 

Make good choices -- People who make the best weekends for themselves are mindful of the actual range of their choices, not the conventional wisdom.  Do not wait until you retire to become wise.  Start now while you have lots of time ahead of you.

[Post date: 5/16/10]

Technorati tags: weekends time management retirement

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Killer Apps - Pros and Cons

People who have computers and spend time surfing the web develop a favorite set of applications to which we happily turn.  Today's post is about some of my old favorites among "killer apps," applications that run well, effectively do what we need to do, are beautifully designed and that are user friendly.  For me it also means they are all free. . . as well as mostly "bug free."  If you subscribe to the C Net newsletter, I have found that whatever apps they recommend are safe to download.

Browser - Mozilla Firefox***** features a stable and robust platform, with tons of add-ons for easy customization. I have added a bookmarks toolbar, as well as the other standards.

Email - My ATT.NET**** is powered by Yahoo! I have separate addresses for: 1) friends and family,  2) general web contacts,   and 3) social network contacts.   I also use Gmail** for regular newsletters and saved articles.

Pictures on the web - Yahoo! hosts my Flickr pics**** my web albums are hosted by Google's Picasa***.

Search - Google***** just cannot be beaten.  A healthy percentage of my readers find my blog posts as a result of Google searches.

Social Media -  FaceBook**** connects me to personal friends and family, as well as web friends.  HootSuite**** organizes the lists of people and sources I follow on Twitter***** for quick and easy news headline gathering, status updates,  or well-written views.  Any included links will get me to the full story. 


Group blogs - RedGage*** pays money for all kinds of content from contributors, , but it can be a bit "clunky" at times.  The blog TPM Cafe***** attracts some of the brightest and most interesting thinkers on the web to its fascinating posts and comment threads.

Blogging hosts -  Blogger**** is my primary blogging "home" where I post regularly to South by Southwest (political), and Making Good Mondays (personal/creative).  Posterous***** and Amplify*** are quicker and easier to use, and they "broadcast" to any of my other sites I wish to specify#.

Aggregator - Bloglines**** is my favorite gatherer of feeds from a wide variety of websites.  I sort them into categories for reading or saving.  It is also very quick and easy to mail articles to my Gmail address for use in blogs, or just to read later.  I have used it for many years, and am thus habituated to it.

Organizers - Digsby**** loads when I first boot up, having collected all my IMs and unread Emails for scanning, reading, deleting, etc.  Evernote***** is a wonderful and powerful host site for my notebook collections of info to keep from my hard drive, archived blogposts, my daily journal, to-do lists, etc.  And Note Mania** is a great little organizer and sticky-note app that I just recently discovered.  Be careful of the RSS feed tool, however, as it might just shower you with little link notes.

Utilities -WinUtilities**** is an excellent maintenance tool for my computer, though its defragmenter is pretty slow.

DSL Modem - ATandT  Motorola**** is reasonably priced, easily installed, and with good support service.




#My Other Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: technology internet blogging

March is Women's History Month -- Honors to Women of Courage

International Women of Courage Awards were presented on International Womens Day, Wednesday, March 10.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama honored a number of outstanding women for their courage in standing for women's rights around the world.  To quote from Secretary Clinton's remarks at the event:

I am particularly delighted to welcome back to the State Department our First Lady, Michelle Obama. (Applause.) This is the second time that Michelle Obama and I have celebrated the International Women of Courage Awards together. It’s a tradition I really like because she is doing so much for women and girls not only in our own country, but around the world. She inspires them. She challenges them. She exemplifies for them the kind of strength, warmth, and grace that so many of us see in her and aspire to for our own daughters. She has made the health and empowerment of young people, particularly young women, a centerpiece of her leadership. And she and I agree on many things, but one that we particularly agree on is that every child should have the chance to fulfill his or her God-given potential. And I just have to thank her for the mentoring programs that she created at the White House, for the special project that she is doing now to tackle childhood obesity, and to really setting the standard for what we want to see in our own country and around the world as well.
And I want to thank and recognize – I want to also recognize Melanne Verveer. (Applause.) Melanne is our country’s first Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, and it’s no accident that that would happen in the Obama Administration, where we would have someone of her experience and expertise promoting the political, economic, and social empowerment of women. As Melanne often reminds us, the world is full of remarkable women whose work goes unnoticed or undervalued. And today, we celebrate some particular women, but they really stand in for millions of other women who are serving their communities and making our world a better and safer place for all.
********** [Each honoree was presented with her award between the following segments]
What we’re going to do now is actually present the honorees. I will read the awards citations and then Mrs. Obama and I will present them with their International Women of Courage Award. I’d like to note that we’re going to start with two women from Afghanistan, so let me start with Shukria Asil – (applause) – as one of four female members of the Baghlan Provincial Council. Ms. Asil has been instrumental in promoting government responsiveness to the needs of Afghan women. She is being honored for pioneering efforts to promote opportunity, justice, and education for women and girls; serving as a voice for diverse members of Afghan society; and at great personal risk, increasing the accountability and responsiveness of the government to the needs of women and girls in Afghanistan. Thank you so much, Ms. Asil. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: I woke up to the voice of this next honoree because she was interviewed on public radio, NPR, this morning. And Colonel Shafiqa Quraishi of Afghanistan is the Director of Gender, Human, and Child rights within the Ministry of the Interior. She began her career in the Afghan National Police. She has been at the forefront of integrating women into the government and police force. And she is being honored for her visionary leadership in breaking down barriers to the professional advancement of Afghan women, promoting unity and gender equality, humanitarian activism, and initiating programs to strengthen the Afghan National Police. Congratulations, Colonel. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: You heard Mrs. Obama speaking of this next honoree, Sonia Pierre of the Dominican Republic. She was born on Dominican soil to Haitian parents. She is the founder and leader of the Movement for Dominican Women of Haitian Descent, an NGO dedicated to fighting for the rights of vulnerable communities in her country. She is being honored for advancing the cause of social justice, confronting exploitation and discrimination, defending the dignity of persons of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, and helping marginalized communities develop their own voices for their own future. Congratulations, Sonia. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Ann Njogu of Kenya is the co-convener of the Civil Society Congress – (cheers and applause) – a leader in constitutional reform and head of the Center for Rights, Education, and Awareness. She has been an activist seeking social transformation and working for reform in her native country. She is being honored for progressive leadership in the fight against corruption, the push for gender equality in Kenya, the battle for constitutional reform, and for bravely mobilizing Kenyan civil society to secure the passage of landmark legislation against sexual offenses. (Applause and cheers.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Dr. Lee Ae-ran of South Korea was born in North Korea. She was a witness to tyranny at a very early age. She defected to South Korea and transformed her life, where she has been a force for promoting human rights of the North Korean refugee community. She is being honored for spearheading initiatives to improve the lives and education of the North Korean refugee community in South Korea, elevating the empowerment of women, and raising awareness of the dire human rights situation in North Korea. Congratulations, Dr. Lee. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Jansila Majeed of Sri Lanka is a women who lived as an internally displaced person for almost 20 years. She became one of the few women activists working on behalf of the displaced Muslim and Tamil civilians and is the managing trustee of the Community Trust Fund in Puttalam Province. She’s being honored for her dedicated grassroots activism and minority community leadership on behalf of women and girls, their empowerment, peace building, relief work, the resettlement of internally displaced persons, and a commitment to bringing society together. Congratulations.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Sister Marie Claude Naddaf is the Mother Superior of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. She has been a beacon of hope for women and girls who have nowhere else to turn. She is a pioneer in working for social services for women in Syria. She is being honored for her steadfast dedication to ending the suffering of women and girls who are victims of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking. She launched Syria’s first shelter and emergency hotline for women. Thank you so much, Sister. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: And the final honoree who could be with us today is Jestina Mukoko of Zimbabwe. Jestina is the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project and a longtime leader in the human rights and activist community in her country. She is being honored for her relentless activism for justice and defense of human rights, for bringing attention to widespread violence against women in Zimbabwe, and for pursuing her case to the supreme court, resulting in a victory that has offered hope to her fellow citizens. Congratulations. (Applause and cheers.)

Reference:
Here are some very interesting facts, pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau about the state of womanhood… It comes from Women's History Month, a blog post by Lijit.com (3/5/10).
[Post date: 3/11/10]

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.
Technorati tags: women State Department International Women of Courage Awards Women's History Month

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

New Breeds at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show - Photo Essays - TIME - StumbleUpon

Time's wonderful little 9-photo essay is a delight for several reasons. The photography is exquisite, the narrative is interesting, and the dogs are fascinating. Take a look as you might find your new favorite among them. http://amplify.com/u/1wze

Posted via web from Southwest Postings

This and that for your linking pleasure --

Image via Wikipedia

"Texas shouldn’t sit out education race#," is from The Fort Worth Star Telegram (1/22/10).

"Bedford photographer's cool shot receives hot reviews on National Geographic site#," is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1/22/10).

"Edwards admits he fathered videographer's child#," is from Yahoo! News (1/21/10). Jon's message "The rethugs will try to capitalize on this event, but they should remember those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!"

"If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online~," is from The New York Times (1/20/10).

"FCC says you can't use that wireless mic any more~," is from Signs of the Times (1/19/10).

"Filmmaker: Movie about balloon dad could clear him#," is from Yahoo! News (1/17/10).

"A Bad First Draft#," is from The Weekly Standard at Yahoo! News (1/4/10).  Regards the past decade.

Hat Tip Key: Regular contributors of links to leads are Betmo*, Diane~ and Jon#.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Related articles by Zemanta:

• No Child Left Unpolluted In Texas: School Absence Rates Linked To Air Quality

Posted via email from Behind These Links

Handy-Dandy: "Del.icio.us" Tips and Links

Del-icio-us+tips+links.doc (20 KB)
View this on posterous

A blog post for use by the novice and an experienced hand alike.

Posted via web from Make Good Mondays

SPACE.com -- White House Panel's Human Spaceflight Report Due Soon

"What's really at stake in the short-term is Ares I, and all of this push for commercial crew I would think is viewed as an alternative to a government-run program like Ares I," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert professor emeritus at the George Washington University here. "Long-term, it's whether in fact there is going to be a meaningful space exploration program beyond the International Space Station."

The Ares I is based on the space shuttle's giant solid rocket motors built by Alliant Techsystems of Edina, Minn. Alliant Techsystems is the lead contractor on Ares I.

Sources in the administration and on Capitol Hill say it remains to be seen when or how the White House responds to the report. But sources both within the administration and close to it say an increase along the lines suggested by the Augustine panel is being weighed. Such an increase would add almost $1 billion to the space exploration budget in 2011, ramping up to about $3 billion annually by 2014.

"I think the $3 billion figure has been widely misunderstood," Logsdon said. "The actual proposal from the Augustine committee is a gradual increase to that level over four years through 2014, with only a little less than $1 billion proposed for next year."

Congressional sources say lawmakers are anxiously awaiting the administration's response to the Augustine panel's final report, though some question whether Congress would support the flexible path exploration option.

Augustine was pressed during a September congressional hearing to offer a compelling reason to abandon NASA's current exploration program rather than fund it at a higher level, for example.

However, the Augustine panel indicated during public meetings held over the summer that in order to keep Constellation on track for a first flight of Ares 1-Orion by 2015 and a return to the moon by 2020, NASA would need a total of $50 billion above current projections over the next decade.

"If you really want to do Constellation and keep it on the current schedule, or close to it, that's what you're looking at," one administration official said.

via space.com

The excerpt above republishes the conclusion of the story. The introduction lays out the panel's recommendations around several options for next steps for Congress and the Obama administration, based on its finding that NASA is currently underfunded to carry out its stated mission. . . by about a billion dollars a year in the coming years. Among the options the panel seems to lean toward "the flexible path" idea. It posits that, rather than a return to the moon or Mars in the immediate future, the US space program should start to explore the nearby areas of space as a way on gaining the learning and technology to eventually get to Mars. The panel did not recommend any one option, but a series of plans that could be carried out with about $3 billion in additional funding. Without adequate monies, the panel concluded that the US space program will not be able to leave low earth orbit any time soon.

Finally, here is the Augustine Committee/NASA press release on the subject.

Posted via web from Southwest Postings

They admired it so much . . .

What draws us to those who write or post online? What is it about the things we read that make us want to read words again from that writer?

So terrific they were re-tweeted -- A RT [re-tweet] is a compliment to the original author. The examples from Twitter that follow illustrate what it may have been about the original poster's words that merited posting it again, so others could also share it.

**********

Experiences with which we identify: Haven't we all done something dumb like this, regret it and vow not to repeat the mistake. Ron is willing to forgive himself, however, as the last sentence makes clear.

"RT @Ron: Note to self: Never become a professional rock landscaper. Muscles threatening divorce. Buy chocolates & apology card. | !!!," is from Alex Goodall (10/16/09).

**********

Ironic lament: Karen Tumulty has posted in the past about the threatened demise of newspapers. She picks up on the clever words of Wee Laura and The Onion, filled with irony that shows her concern.

"RT @WeeLaura RT @TheOnion Report: Majority Of Newspapers Now Purchased By Kidnappers To Prove Date http://ow.ly/15UTcC," is from Karen Tumulty (10/14/09).

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Inspiring wisdom does not grow old: British professor of history, Alex Goodall often does RTs of Pierre Paperon's work. These quotes are profound and timeless.

"RT @PierrePaperon: Anais Nin: 'Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.' + 'People living deeply have no fear of death.'," is from Alex Goodall (10/4/09).

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Maybe the best writing on the subject: The New Yorker article by Lizza is an excellent essay on the story of Summers and his rise to prominence in the current administration. It is also a wonderful history/analysis of what happened during the economic crisis.

"DC's buzzing about the article by the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza on Larry Summers and the Obama economic experience.http://j.mp/2RA4WR," is from Marc Ambinder (10/4/09).

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Wonderfully snarky smackdowns: This double RT is worth reposting. Another reason for its excellence is the juxtaposition of two current hot button topics.

"RT @chrislhayes: RT @Atrios early stages of potential flu epidemic prbly excllnt time to make sre illegal immigrants dn't hve #healthcare," is from The Nation Magazine (9/10/09).

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A clever editorial with focus on injustice: Yglesias is a writer who often posts similarly effective ideas. Evidently he wants to credit his peers for this piece of wonderfully pungent humor.

"RT @glenngreenwald: RT @markosm Michael Vick should have tortured people instead of dogs so Americans could forgive him and look forward," is from Matt Yglesias (8/19/09).

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Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: news writing blogging twitter

NASA and Space - a Roundup

Pictured: Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator

Today's post is a collection of my favorite tweets from those I follow at Twitter.

"Politifact updates two Obama space promises as "kept" and "in-the-works" - http://bit.ly/DSSLA & http://bit.ly/2DinS," is from Florida Space Report (10/6/09).

"NASA and Russian Space Agency Administrators Meet http://bit.ly/5czIs http://bit.ly/sivZ8," is from waybis (10/5/09).

"Strapped NASA might need global space partners http://j.mp/50TYe http://bit.ly/1465qC via," is from waybis (10/3/09).

"Panel’s report threatens NASA’s mission: A report suggesting NASA’s space travel goals are too ambitious is jeop.. http://bit.ly/325hF3," is from The Hill (9/10/09).

"The full Final Report is still being prepared and will be released when complete," is from the NASA HSF [Augustine] Committee (9/9/09).

"See the NEW Hubble images online now: www.nasa.gov/hubble," is from NASA (9/9/09).

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Nobel Committee recognizes President Obama -- Peace Prize

(Image by Wordle.net)

Reference: The Nobel Committee announced that President Barack Obama is their selection for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. To quote in full:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

Oslo, October 9, 2009

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Mount Rushmore - I did not know you well.

I never got to see Mount Rushmore. But I know I would have loved it. In place of a visit, today I'll do a little post.

According to Wikipedia:

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941), located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (left to right): George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865).^[1] The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km²)^[2] and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level.^[3] It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately two million people annually.^[4]

Leadership is not always recognized during the person's lifetime. The leaders depicted at Mount Rushmore achieved their popularity only after the lessons of history were learned and their achievements came into more realistic perspective.

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Part of the Metroplex

Image via Wikipedia

The picture to the left is of the Dallas skyline. Dallas is a lovely and vibrant city, but it is not my home town. We who live in Fort Worth, "where the West begins," are a little sensitive about such things.

Fort Worth is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. It is located in Tarrant County.

The Dallas Cowboy's new stadium is not in Dallas (or Fort Worth, for that matter). It is in the mid-cities city of Arlington. Unfortunately too many people, not familiar with the facts, simply say Dallas for short.

So today's post is just so you'll understand.

See "Behind the Links." for further info on this subject.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

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Geek or no?

"Killer Apps" available on my computer seem to be multiplying exponentially. Is my use of the phrase "killer apps" now outdated? If so what is the correct new one? When I find an application that seems safe and interesting I will sometimes download it, only to remove it shortly thereafter. Does this disqualify my "geekdom?"

Here are a few applications that have proven to be keepers. Posterous is a web hosting site that is unusually fascinating. People simply post via Emails. And a great feature is their distribution service to my other websites and my social networking sites. Their Posterous Bookmarklet is a dynamite tool, an amazingly quick and fun way to post on single subjects. TweetDeck is one way to keep up with Twitter and Facebook. It is powerful, freestanding and easy to use. Digsby is a way to keep up with Twitter, FaceBook and several Email accounts, all at the same time. It takes a lot of memory and can get clunky pretty easily, ho. But it is a fantastic way to keep up with tweets. It also will handle Instant Messaging, which I do not do. Does that disqualify me as a real geek?

My time on the computer also seems to be increasing. I have been spending a lot of time deleting unnecessary stuff from my hard drive and on my websites. It makes me crazy when my computer hangs up or gets what I call clunky. I am writing and posting at more locations . . . more but not necessarily more effectively, I fear. And I am feeling more tired. All this surely qualifies as a geek thing.

References: Mozilla Firefox is my standard browser, though Google Chrome is much faster and simpler. I use Google and Yahoo! for Email. I maintain blogs at Blogger and Word Press. Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites. I earn money by posting at RedGage. I use AVG AntiVirus Free 8.5 and Malwarebytes AntiMalware, also free. LastPass is an online password manager and form filler that saves me a lot of time and provides more security.

Technorati tags: computer internet blogging applications