Judas and FriendHi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, Congress last week decided that 145,000 unemployed Americans a day is not too much to sacrifice to the economic recovery and the domino effect this is going to have will be felt from the banks of the Potomac to the shores of the Columbia as other options continue to expire for these people.
It is difficult for me to conceive of a national government which is capable of turning its back on so many. That President Obama feels the same way and the fact that the wishes of America’s national chief executive were not respected in this regards strongly suggests that those who feel that all the problems of a nation and all the solutions are the prime, if not sole responsibility, of the president of the United States might really want to rethink that perspective.
What do we do then with a Congress which respects neither the concerns of its constituency or the advice, counsel and leadership of its “CEO”? I don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m going to survive this and I’m going to remember who voted for HR 4213 and who did not.
And I’m going to do more than simply not vote for those who sold us out. I’m going to actively campaign against them. I’m a small spud in the stew but I’ve run a couple of political campaigns and mine were both successful. There are lots of “little guys,” honest, hard-working Americans, just like me.
It’s a long time between now and November and when 145,000 voters a day are being told by the people they elected that they don’t matter, we are definitely going to see some changes before the end of the year.
And if there’s a place in the Hereafter for those who betrayed us, I hope to God it’s not the same place I’m going. If I meet a politician in the next life, I’ll know I didn’t make it to Heaven after all.
IN OTHER NEWS
After years of putting up with South Park style jokes about Canada and patronizing remarks by ignorant Americans about how much the Maple Leaf owes the Eagle, etc., I am always delighted to report that Canada has one of the best economies in the world. When the international community’s top economists meet this weekend for the G20 Toronto Recovery and New Beginnings Summit, what our northern neighbor has done to mitigate the damage to its fiscal health and to effect a more rapid recovery will be discussed in depth. Yep, for more on this one, go here.
For any of us who love pedal transportation, this story entitled Cargo Bikes: Human-Powered Pickup Trucks was an absolute romp. The photos reminded me a lot of the pedal and chain driven conveyances I saw and rode in when I was in the Navy in Hong Kong, Bangkok, the Philippines and Japan. I know from friends they’re popular in China too. I haven’t seen any in Seattle yet but I’m betting they haven’t really caught on in San Francisco either. But bicycle engineering is becoming a major profession now so as that creativity is applied, I’m sure we’ll see a time when most of us can pedal comfortably up either Queen Anne and Telegraph hills, respectively. Yep, for more on this one.
If you’re in the mood to be inspired by “ordinary people” doing extraordinary things, this one about a Canadian nurse and her engineer husband living high in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru bringing medical care, treatment and health education to a small village in some of the most spectacular country in the world. What I also truly love about this story is the writing.
“The road to Chaypa rises out of southern Peru's Sacred Valley under blue eucalyptus trees, following one of the countless rock-bottomed streams descended from glaciers whose meltwater will ultimately reach the Atlantic by way of the Amazon River. The air, at just over 3,000 metres above sea level, starts out thin and gets thinner as the gravel trail ascends. Switching back over Incan terraces 600 years old and more, a succession of villages roll by whose circumstances deteriorate with the altitude. By the time Chaypa's 60 stone houses appear, spread like oxygen molecules across several square kilometres of sun-baked mountainside, the lush valley bottom just an hour's drive distant seems a world away. Gone are the corn fields and billowing trees; at nearly 5,000 metres, the only things that grow are potatoes.”
The journalist’s name is Arno Kopecky and he writes for the British Columbia-based general interest ezine The Tyee.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
This is another of those attitude is all exercises and I liked the title of it right off, Recession-Proof Your Mood: 5 Simple Steps. It’s like a diet where you still get to eat stuff you really enjoy, just not quite as much of it. We enjoyed this and found it very practical as well.
CROSSING OVER
TO A COP WITH HEART
This week’s Crossing Over is dedicated to a good cop with heart. Thank God and our seven flags, we all know at least one like him, so this particular man of the badge will stand for at least several, then, eh?
This particular good co with heart, was Northern California stock. He looked like a cross between Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum and he had a streak of the devil in him, with that red hair and those incredibly amiable green eyes. He grew up hard in a hard part of the state, during the Depression, the son of a school teacher and an absent father. Born in Berkeley, he was raised by her and by several uncles in Redding, Montgomery Creek and Burney Falls. His mother graduated from the University of California and his uncle, Edwin Smythe, was a Stanford University graduate. This future cop helped support his family by gutting chickens at the A&P.
This is Siskiyou Mountain California, older than the Sierras, and three times as tough. Given his passionate nature, it was a good thing he had those old mountains. He was at his best when he was among them. And yes, they were honored some, by his society.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was among hundreds of Northern Californians, who answered the call of God and Country. ONe of them, his best friend and first cousin, US Army Air Corps Major Stanley Smythe, was a bombardier whose B-29 was destroyed by a kamikaze over Tinian. My father never saw combat, per se, but he served as a radio gunner in torpedo bombers and flying Catalinas, protecting the American Coast as the line of defense no one got through.
He went on to help build the Shasta Dam, north of Redding and marry a real nice lady who met him when he essentially got busted up carousing on a Saturday night in a bar. She was a candy striper in the hospital he stayed for a couple of weeks.
He and his first great love were, in so many ways, polar opposites. I think that’s probably why they loved each other as passionately as they did and as uncertainly at times.
He went on to help bring into this world a daughter who became a stellar Junior Olympics swimmer, an accomplished accordionist and later, a statistician for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. She gave him two beautiful grandchildren. He also fathered a son who went on to make a career in regional journalism.
He joined the California Highway Patrol in the early Fifties and was in the midst of the hell that broke loose in the world and his state in the Sixties. He organized and led a special enforcement squad that saw combat in the Watts Riots and in the wars against outlaw motorcycle gangs. There are witnesses to how he once stood up to Sonny Barger, president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, when they tried calling on him at home. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or a gun. All he did was quietly explain what was going to happen if they kept on and waited while they digested that news. They left and never came back. And the word went out that this was a cop with heart.
When his first wife and he grew apart, he discovered new love with a woman who worked with him as a dispatcher. In her, he found something he could not find at home in a “civilian” and that was relief from the hell he was going through. He went on to raise a second family and bury an adopted daughter and a second wife.
He continued to serve his community both as a volunteer investigator and crimes report writer for the county sheriff’s department and met a wonderful woman who understand who he was, the sacrifices he’d made and who neither idolized him nor judged him. She stayed with him when cancer attacked his brain and kept his soul alive, shining and marching, to the very end.
He was a charismatic man, this Northern California cop, an incredibly powerful and engaging one, and a dynamically caring one. He was also, as the least and the greatest among us are, a very human man, a man secretly more haunted by his failures than he was proud of his accomplishments.
I think I understand something about this man who died last week, this good cop. His name was Merritt Vaughn Miller. He was my father.
ON THE CANCER FRONT
Okay, a quick question. Do you like lemons? Cool, me too, especially in iced tea, and very especially in salmon filets and shrimp cocktails. Well, turns out that melanoma, or “skin cancer” as it’s better known, hates lemons as much as I will walk across the street and down the block to avoid an eggplant. For more on this and other tips on reducing your personal risks in these regards, yep, please go here.
RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
FREE STUFF FROM THE NET
Whether we like it or not, the information network is making this, in some ways, a smaller planet. For those of you who enjoy being map enhanced and learning more, through puzzles, quizzes, etc., this is cool. You can do this one in answer to a tough question about a potential international market. You can just have fun with it. So yep, if that turns you on, check it out here.
HEALTH NEWS
I’m reminded particularly of Alzheimer’s this week because my father asked that contributions to his memorial be made in these regards. That having been said, there is now more reason than ever to believe we’re winning against this one. Sometimes knowing there is an end in sight makes all the difference so yep, check it out here.
SEATTLE SCENES
If you’re planning to visit Seattle in the near future, you might want to check these sites out first.
SUMMER GUIDE
Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.
Part of Seattle had to be rebuilt because the tides made toilets, which we didn’t have when our pioneering antecedents first got here, back up. The Pioneer Square Underground Tour tells most of us all we know about what lies underneath Seattle our fair city. It's a touristy exploration of the city's oldest basements, a jokey excursion through an urban underbelly filled with commentary about the foibles, and drinking habits of the city's lusty pioneers. It's the closest many of us come to seeing firsthand the archaeology of the city. Yep, for more on this one:
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
CRITTER STUFF
We’re delighted to report that according to the Cascadia Wildlife Scorecard, which tracks five indicator species, four of these are making comebacks and one is at least holding its own. The “critters” involved as it were are gray wolves in Idaho and Montana; the Selkirk herd of mountain caribou; Oregon's greater sage-grouse; the southern resident orcas of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia; and the chinook salmon that return in the spring and summer to the Columbia River. If you care about these guys, you’re going to want to bookmark this site.
Yep, the bears in the ‘hood are getting restless again. For a video on the latest, yep, please go here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We’ve also found something you might want to bookmark. It’s the BBC’s wildlife finder and it’s a real handy way of getting more information about the fauna we feature in this column. MS(R)M Check it out here.
It is difficult for me to conceive of a national government which is capable of turning its back on so many. That President Obama feels the same way and the fact that the wishes of America’s national chief executive were not respected in this regards strongly suggests that those who feel that all the problems of a nation and all the solutions are the prime, if not sole responsibility, of the president of the United States might really want to rethink that perspective.
What do we do then with a Congress which respects neither the concerns of its constituency or the advice, counsel and leadership of its “CEO”? I don’t know what you’re going to do. I’m going to survive this and I’m going to remember who voted for HR 4213 and who did not.
And I’m going to do more than simply not vote for those who sold us out. I’m going to actively campaign against them. I’m a small spud in the stew but I’ve run a couple of political campaigns and mine were both successful. There are lots of “little guys,” honest, hard-working Americans, just like me.
It’s a long time between now and November and when 145,000 voters a day are being told by the people they elected that they don’t matter, we are definitely going to see some changes before the end of the year.
And if there’s a place in the Hereafter for those who betrayed us, I hope to God it’s not the same place I’m going. If I meet a politician in the next life, I’ll know I didn’t make it to Heaven after all.
IN OTHER NEWS
After years of putting up with South Park style jokes about Canada and patronizing remarks by ignorant Americans about how much the Maple Leaf owes the Eagle, etc., I am always delighted to report that Canada has one of the best economies in the world. When the international community’s top economists meet this weekend for the G20 Toronto Recovery and New Beginnings Summit, what our northern neighbor has done to mitigate the damage to its fiscal health and to effect a more rapid recovery will be discussed in depth. Yep, for more on this one, go here.
For any of us who love pedal transportation, this story entitled Cargo Bikes: Human-Powered Pickup Trucks was an absolute romp. The photos reminded me a lot of the pedal and chain driven conveyances I saw and rode in when I was in the Navy in Hong Kong, Bangkok, the Philippines and Japan. I know from friends they’re popular in China too. I haven’t seen any in Seattle yet but I’m betting they haven’t really caught on in San Francisco either. But bicycle engineering is becoming a major profession now so as that creativity is applied, I’m sure we’ll see a time when most of us can pedal comfortably up either Queen Anne and Telegraph hills, respectively. Yep, for more on this one.
If you’re in the mood to be inspired by “ordinary people” doing extraordinary things, this one about a Canadian nurse and her engineer husband living high in the Andes Mountains of southern Peru bringing medical care, treatment and health education to a small village in some of the most spectacular country in the world. What I also truly love about this story is the writing.
“The road to Chaypa rises out of southern Peru's Sacred Valley under blue eucalyptus trees, following one of the countless rock-bottomed streams descended from glaciers whose meltwater will ultimately reach the Atlantic by way of the Amazon River. The air, at just over 3,000 metres above sea level, starts out thin and gets thinner as the gravel trail ascends. Switching back over Incan terraces 600 years old and more, a succession of villages roll by whose circumstances deteriorate with the altitude. By the time Chaypa's 60 stone houses appear, spread like oxygen molecules across several square kilometres of sun-baked mountainside, the lush valley bottom just an hour's drive distant seems a world away. Gone are the corn fields and billowing trees; at nearly 5,000 metres, the only things that grow are potatoes.”
The journalist’s name is Arno Kopecky and he writes for the British Columbia-based general interest ezine The Tyee.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
This is another of those attitude is all exercises and I liked the title of it right off, Recession-Proof Your Mood: 5 Simple Steps. It’s like a diet where you still get to eat stuff you really enjoy, just not quite as much of it. We enjoyed this and found it very practical as well.
CROSSING OVER
TO A COP WITH HEART
This week’s Crossing Over is dedicated to a good cop with heart. Thank God and our seven flags, we all know at least one like him, so this particular man of the badge will stand for at least several, then, eh?
This particular good co with heart, was Northern California stock. He looked like a cross between Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum and he had a streak of the devil in him, with that red hair and those incredibly amiable green eyes. He grew up hard in a hard part of the state, during the Depression, the son of a school teacher and an absent father. Born in Berkeley, he was raised by her and by several uncles in Redding, Montgomery Creek and Burney Falls. His mother graduated from the University of California and his uncle, Edwin Smythe, was a Stanford University graduate. This future cop helped support his family by gutting chickens at the A&P.
This is Siskiyou Mountain California, older than the Sierras, and three times as tough. Given his passionate nature, it was a good thing he had those old mountains. He was at his best when he was among them. And yes, they were honored some, by his society.
When Pearl Harbor was bombed, he was among hundreds of Northern Californians, who answered the call of God and Country. ONe of them, his best friend and first cousin, US Army Air Corps Major Stanley Smythe, was a bombardier whose B-29 was destroyed by a kamikaze over Tinian. My father never saw combat, per se, but he served as a radio gunner in torpedo bombers and flying Catalinas, protecting the American Coast as the line of defense no one got through.
He went on to help build the Shasta Dam, north of Redding and marry a real nice lady who met him when he essentially got busted up carousing on a Saturday night in a bar. She was a candy striper in the hospital he stayed for a couple of weeks.
He and his first great love were, in so many ways, polar opposites. I think that’s probably why they loved each other as passionately as they did and as uncertainly at times.
He went on to help bring into this world a daughter who became a stellar Junior Olympics swimmer, an accomplished accordionist and later, a statistician for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. She gave him two beautiful grandchildren. He also fathered a son who went on to make a career in regional journalism.
He joined the California Highway Patrol in the early Fifties and was in the midst of the hell that broke loose in the world and his state in the Sixties. He organized and led a special enforcement squad that saw combat in the Watts Riots and in the wars against outlaw motorcycle gangs. There are witnesses to how he once stood up to Sonny Barger, president of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, when they tried calling on him at home. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or a gun. All he did was quietly explain what was going to happen if they kept on and waited while they digested that news. They left and never came back. And the word went out that this was a cop with heart.
When his first wife and he grew apart, he discovered new love with a woman who worked with him as a dispatcher. In her, he found something he could not find at home in a “civilian” and that was relief from the hell he was going through. He went on to raise a second family and bury an adopted daughter and a second wife.
He continued to serve his community both as a volunteer investigator and crimes report writer for the county sheriff’s department and met a wonderful woman who understand who he was, the sacrifices he’d made and who neither idolized him nor judged him. She stayed with him when cancer attacked his brain and kept his soul alive, shining and marching, to the very end.
He was a charismatic man, this Northern California cop, an incredibly powerful and engaging one, and a dynamically caring one. He was also, as the least and the greatest among us are, a very human man, a man secretly more haunted by his failures than he was proud of his accomplishments.
I think I understand something about this man who died last week, this good cop. His name was Merritt Vaughn Miller. He was my father.
ON THE CANCER FRONT
Okay, a quick question. Do you like lemons? Cool, me too, especially in iced tea, and very especially in salmon filets and shrimp cocktails. Well, turns out that melanoma, or “skin cancer” as it’s better known, hates lemons as much as I will walk across the street and down the block to avoid an eggplant. For more on this and other tips on reducing your personal risks in these regards, yep, please go here.
RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
FREE STUFF FROM THE NET
Whether we like it or not, the information network is making this, in some ways, a smaller planet. For those of you who enjoy being map enhanced and learning more, through puzzles, quizzes, etc., this is cool. You can do this one in answer to a tough question about a potential international market. You can just have fun with it. So yep, if that turns you on, check it out here.
HEALTH NEWS
I’m reminded particularly of Alzheimer’s this week because my father asked that contributions to his memorial be made in these regards. That having been said, there is now more reason than ever to believe we’re winning against this one. Sometimes knowing there is an end in sight makes all the difference so yep, check it out here.
SEATTLE SCENES
If you’re planning to visit Seattle in the near future, you might want to check these sites out first.
SUMMER GUIDE
Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.
Part of Seattle had to be rebuilt because the tides made toilets, which we didn’t have when our pioneering antecedents first got here, back up. The Pioneer Square Underground Tour tells most of us all we know about what lies underneath Seattle our fair city. It's a touristy exploration of the city's oldest basements, a jokey excursion through an urban underbelly filled with commentary about the foibles, and drinking habits of the city's lusty pioneers. It's the closest many of us come to seeing firsthand the archaeology of the city. Yep, for more on this one:
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
CRITTER STUFF
We’re delighted to report that according to the Cascadia Wildlife Scorecard, which tracks five indicator species, four of these are making comebacks and one is at least holding its own. The “critters” involved as it were are gray wolves in Idaho and Montana; the Selkirk herd of mountain caribou; Oregon's greater sage-grouse; the southern resident orcas of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia; and the chinook salmon that return in the spring and summer to the Columbia River. If you care about these guys, you’re going to want to bookmark this site.
Yep, the bears in the ‘hood are getting restless again. For a video on the latest, yep, please go here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We’ve also found something you might want to bookmark. It’s the BBC’s wildlife finder and it’s a real handy way of getting more information about the fauna we feature in this column. MS(R)M Check it out here.
YOU GUYS (STILL OCCASIONALLY) THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP
I seriously do not think it got much weirder this past week than seeing America’s commanding general in Afghanistan get fired for giving an interview critical of the President and present administration to Rollingstone magazine and then getting fired as a result.
It’s bothered me since Vietnam that while the history of warfare is studied at all American military colleges, apparently what happened when General Douglas MacArthur did essentially the same thing to President Harry Truman, didn’t make a lasting impression.
Maybe it’s just me but when someone violates a ‘law’ as old as “A General Does Not Criticize the President in Public, Especially In the Middle of A War,” I wonder how much else they’ve ignored, including the recent history of a nation and a people who defeated Russia when it was still the Soviet Union.
With all due respect to all the brass hats involved in this one, if we had wanted our country to be in charge of a general, we would have made George Washington king.
I’m sorry but this is one of those instances when about the time I think I’ve seen it all, I read about this and I’m going, “What was he thinking?” Siobhan said it best after reading this in the Irish Times and echoing the sentiments of Mark Twain when she suggested that if I’d start betting on the stupidity of some people instead of their redemption there’d be a lot more tinkle in the sugar can.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless. And we’ll see you next week.
Rusty
NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS
RESOURCES
Maker Culture: Taking Things Into Our Own Hands - For 12 weeks in the fall of 2009, 45 online journalism students at Ryerson University and the University of Western Ontario worked together to document the evolving Maker Culture community.
Maker Culture? That's coders, fabricators, foodies, artists, educators, activists, citizen and even scientists grabbing the Do-It-Yourself ethic with both hands and changing our world in the process.
These are people who aren't just making things, they're making a point of sharing what they've learned, what they've made, and why. Often, for free.
Makers are responding directly, locally to globalization, commercialization, copyright and central command and control.
This is the introduction to a fascinating series on how to become more self-reliant, live a lot more economically and enjoy the company of others doing the same. If you’re looking for ideas, inspiration and resources to get through hard times or just to simplify you life, we highly recommend this one.
PC World – This is the best source we’ve found yet for totally free, useful, reliable and secure (no viruses) downloads ranging from games through utilities and with a nice selection of screen savers, etc. What I particularly appreciate about it is how easy the site is to navigate. They also have a daily letter featuring two “daily downloads.”
Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.
Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.
Stalking Resource Center division of the National Center for Victims of Crime – Internet harassment, stalking and abuse in general is now against the law. If you’re being victimized or if you know of someone who is, this is an excellent resource.
FUN STUFF
If you share my passion for American History, you’re going to love AmericanWest.com This is historical society stuff that is also extremely interesting to read. So yep, just in case you didn’t get it the first time, check it out here.
Houston At Night and other totally cool images are available at the Earth Observatory, along with an incredible array of other outer space images. This is one of NASA’s more engaging websites and it’s here, as well, that you can subscribe to their online newsletter. Whether you’re an aerospace/astronomy buff or simply enjoy stargazing, this is an excellent site.
Ever been told you look like someone famous? Ever not been told that but would like to have been? Find a photo of yourself, go to this site, MyHeritage.com, upload it and get a gallery of celebrities you resemble, to one degree or another. Yep, it’s a total waste of time and an unabashed indulgence of ego. Probably two reasons why I totally loved it, even though a couple of my own pix didn’t turn up any results. It’s fun to play with so enjoy.
If you’re into a real interesting and visual escape, we certainly recommend The Art In LA website. It’s a virtual art gallery created by a real gentle, occasionally obnoxious but totally good-hearted soul with standards as fine as those of any engineer I’ve ever met. It’s also a good place for healthy meditation. If you’re lucky, you might just run into the artist herself. Her name is Colleen and she’s a trip, trust me. Yep, she was born under the fourth flag on our masthead.
HEALTH
Ten foods that really do help prevent cancer.
Grub you libido will love.
If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.
Ever get so stressed you feel like you’re really jammed up against it? Take a deep breath and check out you’re surroundings is the advice of Dr. Roberta Lee in her book The Superstress Solution. We have and what I’ve generally found is that the outside reflects the inside. If I’m real busy, jackets get tossed over chairs, used coffee cups appear magically on window ledges and desk top clutter takes on a total biosphere all its own. Perhaps not surprising, dealing with the outside can really help you relax. And although we don’t recommend you try this at home, if you wait long enough, it can be also be real good exercise. This is a mental health must so check it out here. We’re reading Dr. Lee’s book now and we bought it here.
Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.
Take this test to see how your memory compares with the average.
Click here for fun games to improve your memory.
There’s a new book out now which could make a dramatic difference in the way toward the way women experience the passing of years. Despite major industries involved ~ cosmetic, fitness, elective surgery, to name three ~ the idea that women become less attractive as they grow older has also very likely contributed to more anxiety, high blood pressure, depression, etc. than any other single factor in a woman’s life except cancer and childbearing.
We also suspect that it has probably cost men just as much, if not more, than it has cost women, even in a nation historically known for its tolerance of a double standard. The book is entitled Face It: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change. Read about it here and if you decide you’d like to purchase it online, you can buy it here. I especially recommend this to men. It’s time our gender took more responsibility for this.
RESOURCES
Maker Culture: Taking Things Into Our Own Hands - For 12 weeks in the fall of 2009, 45 online journalism students at Ryerson University and the University of Western Ontario worked together to document the evolving Maker Culture community.
Maker Culture? That's coders, fabricators, foodies, artists, educators, activists, citizen and even scientists grabbing the Do-It-Yourself ethic with both hands and changing our world in the process.
These are people who aren't just making things, they're making a point of sharing what they've learned, what they've made, and why. Often, for free.
Makers are responding directly, locally to globalization, commercialization, copyright and central command and control.
This is the introduction to a fascinating series on how to become more self-reliant, live a lot more economically and enjoy the company of others doing the same. If you’re looking for ideas, inspiration and resources to get through hard times or just to simplify you life, we highly recommend this one.
PC World – This is the best source we’ve found yet for totally free, useful, reliable and secure (no viruses) downloads ranging from games through utilities and with a nice selection of screen savers, etc. What I particularly appreciate about it is how easy the site is to navigate. They also have a daily letter featuring two “daily downloads.”
Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.
Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.
Stalking Resource Center division of the National Center for Victims of Crime – Internet harassment, stalking and abuse in general is now against the law. If you’re being victimized or if you know of someone who is, this is an excellent resource.
FUN STUFF
If you share my passion for American History, you’re going to love AmericanWest.com This is historical society stuff that is also extremely interesting to read. So yep, just in case you didn’t get it the first time, check it out here.
Houston At Night and other totally cool images are available at the Earth Observatory, along with an incredible array of other outer space images. This is one of NASA’s more engaging websites and it’s here, as well, that you can subscribe to their online newsletter. Whether you’re an aerospace/astronomy buff or simply enjoy stargazing, this is an excellent site.
Ever been told you look like someone famous? Ever not been told that but would like to have been? Find a photo of yourself, go to this site, MyHeritage.com, upload it and get a gallery of celebrities you resemble, to one degree or another. Yep, it’s a total waste of time and an unabashed indulgence of ego. Probably two reasons why I totally loved it, even though a couple of my own pix didn’t turn up any results. It’s fun to play with so enjoy.
If you’re into a real interesting and visual escape, we certainly recommend The Art In LA website. It’s a virtual art gallery created by a real gentle, occasionally obnoxious but totally good-hearted soul with standards as fine as those of any engineer I’ve ever met. It’s also a good place for healthy meditation. If you’re lucky, you might just run into the artist herself. Her name is Colleen and she’s a trip, trust me. Yep, she was born under the fourth flag on our masthead.
HEALTH
Ten foods that really do help prevent cancer.
Grub you libido will love.
If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.
Ever get so stressed you feel like you’re really jammed up against it? Take a deep breath and check out you’re surroundings is the advice of Dr. Roberta Lee in her book The Superstress Solution. We have and what I’ve generally found is that the outside reflects the inside. If I’m real busy, jackets get tossed over chairs, used coffee cups appear magically on window ledges and desk top clutter takes on a total biosphere all its own. Perhaps not surprising, dealing with the outside can really help you relax. And although we don’t recommend you try this at home, if you wait long enough, it can be also be real good exercise. This is a mental health must so check it out here. We’re reading Dr. Lee’s book now and we bought it here.
Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.
Take this test to see how your memory compares with the average.
Click here for fun games to improve your memory.
There’s a new book out now which could make a dramatic difference in the way toward the way women experience the passing of years. Despite major industries involved ~ cosmetic, fitness, elective surgery, to name three ~ the idea that women become less attractive as they grow older has also very likely contributed to more anxiety, high blood pressure, depression, etc. than any other single factor in a woman’s life except cancer and childbearing.
We also suspect that it has probably cost men just as much, if not more, than it has cost women, even in a nation historically known for its tolerance of a double standard. The book is entitled Face It: What Women Really Feel as Their Looks Change. Read about it here and if you decide you’d like to purchase it online, you can buy it here. I especially recommend this to men. It’s time our gender took more responsibility for this.
FOR YOUR SHOPPING CONVENIENCE
And for a truly unique shopping experience, drop by and browse THE NORTHSTAR GENERAL STORE.
Press Releases, Product Reviews, Promotional Copy, Digital Photography, Online Research and Investigation, Ghost Writing, Special Projects. Seattle-based and wired into the International Community. For more information, email to minstrel312@aol.com or go here -> Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist.
GOOD “READS”
Books
If you’d like to read something which combines the best elements of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and a neo-eco Mickey Spillane detective thriller, you’ll love this one.
“In the brave new world of the Internet, FedEx and an international taste for the exotic, wildlife poachers steal everything from elk horns to geoducks, the world's largest clam. In the waters of Puget Sound in Washington state, state wildlife agents stalk these thieves on land and at sea. In "Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature's Bounty," Seattle Times environmental reporter Craig Welch joins these detectives on the trail of one of the region's most notorious geoduck thieves.”
Welch, a Seattle Times environmental reporter is a compelling writer and this excerpt from the book would be worth the experience even if we were not also fascinated by the subject. If, after reading this extract, you’d like to buy the book, you’ll find it for sale here.
News
BBC – Best source of international news.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (multi-media), the Toronto Globe & Mail and the Vancouver Sun -- outstanding sources for Canadian national, provincial, and world news.
KING 5 News – Best source of video news of Seattle and the Greater Puget Sound.
New York Times – Best source of American news.
Reuters – Best source of an international perspective on American headlines.
Seattle Times – Best source for news of the city and the Puget Sound. Its reportage is unbiased but their columns and other opinion pieces do reflect the predominant values of the Pacific Northwest.
Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – Best source of Pacific Northwest regional news. Delivered daily by email, it covers Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.
Entertainment
BBC Knowledge Magazine – designed to give the American magazine National Geographic the proverbial run for its money,
TomatoMan Times -- For those who love good writing, there are fewer finer contemporary craftsmen out there now than professionally known as Tomatoman Mike. He’s as Northern Californian as John Steinbeck is, albeit with a dash of Sam Clemmons, Bret Harte and Robert W. Service in him. He’s a romp to read, trust me.
U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.
Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.
See you next week, eh?
