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Monday, April 17, 2017

A Déjà vu Moment in Mumbai

Some years ago in Mumbai, on a morning like today, I pined for elusive haladi patra (turmeric leaves) to celebrate Prathamashtami with enduri pitha. The much desired ingredient did not reach my hands in time, but the fall out of the failed search was an article I wrote then, which you may visit by clicking this link:
I had a very similar experience today morning. The Whatsapp chats were choc-a-bloc with wishes and greetings for Odia New Year, also known as Maha Vishuv Sankranti or Pana Sankranti or Chhatua Sankranti. The last two mentioned names have culinary association. The beverage Pana is a nice concoction of many tasty ingredients, the most important of them being bela (Hindi-Bel, Sanskrit-Bilwa, English-Wood Apple). For a pana worth its name, you can manage in the absence of any of these ingredients but for the bela pulp.
The other essential food preparation on the occasion is chhatua or sattu gruel. Chhatua is a flour consisting of a mixture of ground pulses and cereals, in which water, jaggery and condiments are mixed to prepare the yummy gruel, so popular with Odias. Both Pana and Chhatua have their symbolic significance for the celebrations of Maha Vishuv Sankranti, hence I started looking for them frantically this morning.
I consulted Google and scrutinised the maps to locate possible places to find these two items in Mumbai. At last I narrowed my search down to a vegetable market, and headed towards it. I scoured the whole market for the two items, but nowhere could I see any hope of finding them. Exasperated, I asked the last fruit seller I met, if he could tell me whereto find those items in Mumbai. "Dadar" was the prompt reply, and that was my Déjà vu moment.
Going by my previous experience, I didn't try Dadar and headed for home. Idea was to try shopping online . My search for bela drew a blank. But I was lucky to find chhatua (sattu) listed for home delivery. I promptly ordered that and felt happy to have at least one of the two items on the festive day.
My joys evaporated at the time of check out, as I was notified that the earliest time my item would be delivered was tomorrow morning, that is on the day following Maha Vishuv Sankranti.

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схема проезда

140490, Moscow region, Kolomna district, Korobcheevo village, Dropzone “Korobcheevo”

Sales department:

Getting here by own car

There is M5 Ural federal highway near by running to Chelybinsk. Exit Moscow along Volgogradsky avenue to the direction of Chelybinsk. Drive for approximately 113 km from Moscow Ring Road. Before the bridge over Oka river there is a sign “Kolomna, Selnikovo, Levino” with a gas station on the road side. Turn right and right again and go below the bridge thus making a left turn from the highway. In 300 meters there is the airfield gate. Please show your club card to the security. If you are here for the first time please show your passport. You can park your car on the secure parking lot.

Getting here by public transport

Option one: take an electric train from Kazansky railway station or Elektrozavodskaya, Perovo and Vykhino stations. Any train going to Golutvin station in Kolomna suits you. This is the last station on the line located in Kolomna town.

Option two: take bus from Vykhino to Golutvin bus station.

You can take taxi or bus #30 (Schurovo route) from Golutvin to the airfield.

Option three: take bus #333 to Beloomut route from Vykhino bus station. Please inform the driver that you need to get off at “Korobcheevo airfield” station.

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Peru women

ID: 172344

City: Lima
Age: 36
Birth Date: 4/6/1981
Zodiac: Aries, Rooster
Weight: 114lb, 52kg
Height: 5'0", 152cm
Eye Color: Black
Hair Color: Brown
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Religion: Christian (Catholic)
Smoker: No
Drinker: Socially
Education: High School
Company: Private
Job Title: Secretary
Sports: Gym, jogging
Hobbies: Cooking, reading, traveling
Languages: Spanish (native)

Self Description: I am an independent, hardworking, sociable and extroverted woman. I always try to adapt to any situation.

Comments: I would like to meet a gentleman who is family-oriented, respectful, sociable, kind, with good sense of humor, and can be a good companion for me.

My additional Photos Lima Peru Tour Photos Come see Teresa in Peru Write Me Now! Send flowers Call me Now!
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UGG Snow boots Now Only 26% OFF

Posted by - 30th January 2018

UGG selected 26% OFF Code: UGG26，Over 40 global free shipping The new style is very beautiful! UGG is an American footwear company and a division of Deckers Brands. UGG is a registered trademark in the United States and over 130 other countries for footwear, as well as bags, clothing, outerwear, home goods and other products.


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Space Bag - Space Saving Bags

What makes Space Bag watertight and airtight?
Three design features work together to create the airtight seal and maintain the vacuum in Space Bag.
  • The patented one-way air valve allows removal of air from Space Bag using any household vacuum cleaner hose.
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What are the advantages of vacuum-sealing?
The most common enemies of stored items are dirt, mildew, insects and water, along with oxidation and ultraviolet light. Oxidation causes discoloration and accelerates the spread of any stains present in fabric. Vacuum-sealing drastically reduces the effects of oxidation and retards growth of mildew. Most importantly, vacuum-sealing compresses many items and saves valuable storage space.

How long does the Space Bag vacuum seal last?
Approximately 12 months, after which the bag can be resealed.

What items cannot be stored in Space Bag?
Do not use Space Bag to store food items or items made of leather or fur. If you have questions regarding the effects of vacuum-storage on a specific item, check with the manufacturer. Precaution: Items filled with down and feathers can be vacuum-sealed, but compressing them more than about 50% may damage feathers and reduce their insulating ability.

What temperature range is safe for storing items in Space Bag Products?
Space Bag should be stored in areas where temperatures will not exceed 130 degrees F. or fall below 0 degrees F.

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Every six months, air out and restore loft by fluffing or tumbling in dryer set on "cool."

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There is a 1 year, unconditional, money back guarantee on Space Bag that the product will be completely free of manufacturing defects for a full year from the date of purchase. If not, simply let us know, and we'll gladly assist you with a prompt, courteous exchange.

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Volume can be reduced by up to 100% to double your storage space, depending on the items placed in the bag. Filled comforters and jackets will compress more than blankets and sweaters.

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Everyday household storage of "soft" items such as pillows, comforters, linens, sweaters, etc., is the most common use.

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You are here: Home > Long Term Rental

Last check: 2 days ago: Ok! Ok, available!
Phuket-Town s268
  • Condo. 9th floor. 66 sqm.
  • Completed: 2012
  • Bedrooms: 2
  • Bathrooms: 1
  • Aircons: 3
  • Pets: not allowed.
1 year contract: 16.000 THB per month
6 months contract: 18.000 THB per month

(about these layouts)

Bedrooms: 2

Master bedroom: king-size bed, wardrobe, aircon.

Bedroom 2: Queen-size bed, wardrobe, aircon.

Bathrooms: 1

Hot shower.

If you have more questions don't hesitate to call or mail me:

0819 680 309

Condo from 2014 in the heart of Phuket Town.

kitchenette: fridge, microwave.

Laundry shop downstairs.

Security and parking space.

Living room: sofa, aircon, TV, dining table.

View from the balcony.

Condominium with pool and fitness.

2 bedroom condo with 3 aircons in the middle of town nearby Metropole hotel.

Top of this page

You are here: Home > Long Term Rental

All our houses minimum 6 months rental.
2 months deposit.
"How much for electric? Water? Internet?" Read more about the standard rental conditions.


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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Slice of Lime & Da Count-Mad Alphabetizing Skillz

One of the things about my job that has driven me absolutely out of my mind since the first day there is the filing system. The other 2 girls I work with and the one who trained me to replace her also hated it. The 2 chiropractors seemed blissfully unaware of the shambles it was in mainly because they hand us stuff, tell us to file it, and it gets done...sort of. Alternately, they ask us for something and we find it...usually.
In truth, the things that are supposed to be filed get stacked up in a big box and frequently ignored because just as so many of you have electronic devices and appliances you fear, the other girls feared the filing cabinets because they were a vast black hole into which things were sucked never to appear again. The cabinets functioned as something a blind, illiterate thalidomide victim might have designed and maintained. They were color coded according to the method of payment each patient uses (5 different colors). Each color section was organized by something other than the English alphabet. Medicare patients maybe went according to Cyrillic. Let's order health insurance patients according to zodiac sign. Cash patients we'll file backwards. You get the idea. Ok, I am employing hyperbole, but let's have an actual example.
John Q. Patient first came as a new patient several years ago he was a car accident victim. When his car insurance coverage maxed out he switched to his health insurance coverage which only allows 12 visits per year so now he is a cash patient, but a couple months ago he reached Medicare age. That means when he comes in for a progress check and I have to pull his old records there are 4 different sets of filing drawers I need to look through because no one bothered to update the file in the cabinet or maybe they did after the first change but not the second or third ones. Who knows? It depends on how busy the office was those day years ago when the various changes in coverage occurred. It also depends on who may have been employed in our office at the various stages in John's life. Some of them kept order, some of them didn't. It's all a crap shoot. Oh, and I forgot to tell you. John Q. Patient lives with Jane M. Backache, who has kept her maiden name, and they have a mixture of yours, mine, and our kids with 3 different last names but we know they live together so in the filing cabinet we'll just stick them all together. I am not making this up.
You are all reasonably intelligent readers. Are you seeing the nightmare? Now throw one librarian wannabe (yours truly) into this office and tell her to catch up on the backlog of filing but that she has to keep the current system. Just for the sake of a little irony, introduce into the cast of characters, as a new patient, the dean of the library who strung her along for 4 months telling her she was in the running and she made it to the final 2 candidates but then when the final decision was made for the other person he couldn't be bothered to notify her and neither could HR. Hand to God, it happened. During my interview, the dean complained about the antiquated, behemoth card catalog in the children's department of the library. When he walked into the office I wanted to grab him by the lapels and drag him to the filing cabinets and show him what real disorder looked like as I shouted, "You at least have DEWEY and the ALPHABET! You have a team of cataloguers! Your card catalog is in ORDER! You condemned me to THIS!"
Ok, so that would have been bad. I refrained. I did tell the boss this system needs overhauling and I'm the girl to do it. She disagreed and said it just needed to be cleaned up. I countered that it could be cleaned up and in a couple months it will be a shambles again. She conceded. I said I'd come in when the office was closed to fix it because this isn't something that can be done during office hours and it should be done in one shot. I don't think she believed me.
On Tuesday I spent 5 hours bringing order from chaos. The beast has been mostly tamed (some purging needs to occur but I don't yet know what is safe to purge and what isn't). John Q. Patient and Mary Backache and their mixed brood may live in united bliss under one roof, but in this filing system the letters C-O come between them in one fully integrated colorblind filing world (what a model for world peace, eh?). It gives me great joy. One of the other girls in the office gleefully declared she had done her own filing in about 2 minutes that day. I found homes for most of the orphaned items that have been in the filing box at the front desk for at least 2 months. (The rest will require a descent into basement storage, aka, the 5th circle of filing hell.)
So this week, here's a picture of me with the tamed beast. No more need for chairs held at arm's length or whips or guns when approaching. (Sorry for the poor quality. All I had was my camera phone and the lighting wasn't good.) Also, Da Count is a day early and it is for the wonders of alphabetization by surname. What a sleekly, efficient joy that is.

Desmond Jones said...

You are amazing, my dear.

I move to put you in charge of world peace. . .

g-man said...

ABDEFUCKIT...In That order? hehehehe

S said...

Well lookit you in your work clothes!
That is so cool that you did that. It will make your job a lot easier.

Now you have to talk them into getting you those awesome open files that look like book shelves. There will be no more drawer opening and closing!

I know we shouldnt expect them to give you a bonus for this!

lime said...

desmond, lol. thanks for the vote. you wanna be my campaign manager?

gman, that was the old system, lol

susie, oooh the open files....oooh, that woudl be nice. because the beast, still requires a bit of wrestling to make it open sometimes.

Suldog said...

You, my dear, are the cat's ass.

(Now, would you file that under "A" or "C"?)

(The correct answer is "C". It's a compliment!)

(Heck of a sexy librarian you would have made, too, I might add.)

Craver Vii said...

Yikes!! I'd put an activator to my temple rather than try to reorganize the files. That is a good thing you've done for that office. If you ever get around this way, I'll buy you lunch if you can figure out what to do with my desk. ;-)

EmBee said...

That there job deserves not only a raise but full retirement benefits and 4 weeks vacation. You are truly a Goddess because for me, filing IS the 5th level of hell!

Jazz said...

Ooohhhhhhhhhhh... your description of the filing system had me in a cold sweat.

I'm quite anal about filing myself. It's hell do do if the system sucks and so easy if it's simple.

Fortress Guinness said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ananda girl said...

Yikes! What a nightmare. But...most people can't shelve a book worth a hoot either!

On the flip side, your dedication to order would make you an excellen librarian.

secret agent woman said...

Yay for you! I spent a summer once putting a Navy office's files in a computer spreadsheet and organizing them and found it an oddly satisfying job.

Fred said...

When I walk into my doctor's office, I usually see piles of yellow folders all around the reception area. It doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

lime said...

suldog, filing my response under "t" for thank you.

craver, now that's a deal!

embee, can you suggest that to my boss?

jazz, it made me very grumpy every time i had to deal with it prior to fixing it.

ananda, sigh..i'd like to think so. i similarly whipped the RIF program at my son's school (pop. 1300) into shape. book, inventory, student lists, all the record keeping and the quick layout of getting books on the tables (grouped by genre and reading level) and back in boxes so we knew what we had an what we needed to order. made me really happy to be able to connect all those kids with the books they actually wanted in the short period of time they gave me to do it (3 days). i want to be a librarian....sigh.

secret agent, i totally know what you mean.

fred, i can certainly understand that.

Jocelyn said...

Chaos tamed to order? Only a gifted mother/wife/thinker lady could do such a thing...on her own time, nonetheless.

Hilary said...

Good for you. I know that would drive me nuts too. I took a job a few years back where in retrospect, they just wanted someone to clean up their mess. The job lasted as long as the mess did. Be grateful that they resisted. And hopefully they're grateful that you persisted.

Mona said...

wow! I can imagine what it must be like with john & jane & their three different named children's files!

I can really empathize with the back breaking task, since I had to do the same with the college library shelves last month!


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Crushing Big Bass on Topwater Lures

This week, Craig and I head out for a day of topwater action. We ended catching a lot of fish on hollow bodied frogs. To get them out away from the thick cover we used 7’1″ and 7’2″ heavy action rods with 50lb power pro super slick braided line. The average fish was around 4lbs and we got to experience to great blow ups on our baits! The weather was front conditions with rain early followed by temperatures dropping about 10-15 degrees. This turned the fish on and made a great day on the water with my buddy Craig.

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29 thoughts on “Crushing Big Bass on Topwater Lures

  1. I used a topwater today earlier in the morning I had a 9 pound bass. When I was right against the shore and the bass cut my line. I think because I got stuck in the high grass in the water.

  2. Trying to learn about top water lures and appreciate this video. Question: I have reading that holding fish sideways like that damages their mouths and might hurt their future survival for throw backs. Have you heard about this? Thoughts? Also, how deep do you think the water was under that cover?

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Ashley Sanders, "Going Alt-ac: How to Begin"

Ashely Sanders Ph.D. suggests that graduate students interested in starting an alt-ac career search begin to build up profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Alternative PhD. She also points to MLA and AAA as helpful resources for launching a career outside of academia. She provides links to several different alt-ac career guide websites as well as national job postings in the United States and Canada. She also links to a guide for transforming a CV into a resume.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:45pm

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, "The Repurposed Ph.D.: Finding Life After Academia and Not Feeling Bad About It"

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow attends a 2013 New York meeting of Versatile Ph.D. members, gives short profiles of several of the members, and provides a general outline of "alt-ac," "post-ac," and faculty responses to the contemporary state of graduate education and tenure-track job markets.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:30pm

Marc Bousquet, "Moving the Goal Posts in Graduate Education"

Marc Bousquet Ph.D., Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory University, argues that the real problem is not providing institutional support for "alt-ac" employment, but restoring teaching intensive positions at colleges and universities across the United States to the tenure-stream.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:30pm

Elizabeth Segran, "What Can You Do With a Humanities PhD Anyway?"

Elizabeth Segran of The Atlantic cites data that finds over twenty percent of recent humanities Ph.D. graduates working in media, corporate, and government jobs. She also discusses recent initiatives within academia to track the professional trajectories of humanities Ph.D.s.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:30pm

Fatimah Williams Castro, "Quitting While Black"

Fatimah Williams Castro Ph.D., founder of Beyond the Tenure Track, points to some of the particular challenges that graduate students of color face in their decisions to leave the academy. She offers advice to students looking to make that change, as well as to the institutions that support them.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:15pm

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, "Freelance Academics as Public Intellectuals"

Katie Rose Guest Pryal Ph.D., columnist at Chronicle Vitae, makes a case for freelance, former, and/or non-tenure track academics as public intellectuals, and outlines a plan to tailor one's research and writing to engagement with the public.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:15pm

K. Sabeel Rahman, "Why City Governments Need Alt-ac PhDs"

K. Sabeel Rahman Ph.D., discusses how the academic skill set can translate into a very valuable resource for jobs in public policy and urban planning.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:15pm

Paul Hartley, "What I Look For When I Hire Alt-ac PhDs"

Paul Hartley Ph.D., head of human futures at Idea Couture, discusses the importance of "cultural fit" in the hiring process.

Thursday, January 14, 2016 - 5:15pm

Rebecca Shuman, “'Alt-Ac' to the Rescue?”

An interesting article that outlines the conversation around 'Alt-ac’ and contains links to recent symposia held on the subject. Also mentions an internship program that Penn State has started for their PhD candidates.

Monday, January 11, 2016 - 3:15pm

Brenda Betham and C. Shaun Longstreet, "Defining Terms" in the alt-ac world

As the title of this article from 2013 suggests, it is about defining terms and outlining the parameters of a field/movement that got its name, if not its start, in 2010 on twitter. Important to these authors is maintaining the title of “academic” and the “life of the mind” lifestyle as part of the careers that this movement looks for. Three years since this particular article was published, things continue to change, but this is an interesting and informational read.

Monday, January 11, 2016 - 3:00pm


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Monday, November 14, 2011

Take a seat

So I go all the way to Paris for a day and what do I want to talk about?...Chairs...

They’re not glamorous or especially stylish (although they are simple, perhaps even classic), but these green, metallic chairs in the Jardin des Tuileries left a lasting impression.

Not for their design but because these robust, portable chairs were so popular. They gave people the freedom to sit wherever they chose, in whatever configuration they chose with as many friends or family as they chose.

In three different styles, each with their own unique number, you could sit upright in a chair, with or without arms, or lounge in a more laidback seat and watch the world go by.

Light enough to move but heavy enough not to lug one home as a souvenir so instead, all I could do was carry home the idea for my next suitable project!

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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Little Moments

Taken at a wedding in France.  5 September, 2009

The Watercolorist,  3 May, 2009

Poof! 5 July, 2009

Smoke from the Bar B Que, 23 May, 2010

It would be thrilling to photograph the huge events. Photographs of erupting volcanoes, extreme weather, newsworthy moments and glorious views from mountaintops unfailingly catch my eye and elicit a "wow!" response. The images often make me wistful for a youth with the technology that is now available. But the truth is, my passion lies in the little moments that blur the boundaries and differences between us and unite us in our humanity. If I succeed, the photos are tiny reminders, sprinkled like a handful of dust, across the canvas of our common ground.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

On This Thanksgiving Weekend

A dear friend emailed this prayer/poem by Max Coots on this Thanksgiving weekend. I'd like to share it with you.

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people
For children who are our second planting
and though they grow like weeds
and the wind too soon blows them away,
May they forgive us our cultivation
and remember fondly where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:
For generous friends, with hearts as big as hubbards
and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,
keep reminding us we've had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb
and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants
and as elegant as a row of corn,
and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts
and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers
and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages,
as subtle as summer squash,
as persistent as parsley,
as delightful as dill,
as endless as zucchini,
and who, like parsnips,
can be counted on to see you throughout the winter;
For old friends,
nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils
and hold us, despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And finally, for those friends now gone,
like gardens past that have been harvested,
but who fed us in their times
that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.

Today's link from "You Must Remember This."

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Orono, Maine
Mainers love inflatable yard decorations! After today, all the turkeys will be replaced with Santas and reindeer!

Wherever you are and wherever you are going, safe travels. May your blessings be counted in the smiles and hugs from loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving from Maine.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Tonight's Sunset, 21 November, 2010 #4

Caught this gorgeous sunset in Gouldsboro, Maine on our way home from Lubec this evening!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Veiled ~ Random Memory #22 ~ Iran

Painting on glass ~ Iran

Random Memory #22 ~ Iran

When Peter and I compare our growing facility with Farsi, we can't help but notice our vocabularies reflect our separate lives in Iran. His is more practical and includes business terms, although he rarely indicates he has the ability. Not surprisingly, mine mirrors the world of women and, of course, the time I spend with Goli who has been my teacher and daily companion.

Goli always wears her chador when she is not in the house and, although she is comfortable in Peter's presence, she scurries downstairs to retrieve the veil if he arrives home unexpectedly. I do not think Amir insists as he is used to women at work in business clothes and I have only felt genuine affection and respect when we see one another. Rather, I think this is Goli's choice, an outward symbol of her faith. Curious, one day I ask her if a woman delivered Essie. "No", she says, "the doctor was a man and I wouldn't let him look at me...he punched me hard. I was unconscious." I am appalled, but Goli is clearly pleased at the memory.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Kitchen Nostalgia

Sauce 'n wine
Photo taken by my son, John, November 22, 2007.

Remember the bread machine craze in the eighties? In those days the ungainly baker was a permanent fixture on my kitchen counter. I experimented with dozens of grains and developed my own sourdough starter. A fresh loaf was always available for lunch and dinner...funny shaped loaves with the telltale hole in the bottom from the machine dough paddle. The fragrance of baking bread was wonderful and, before moving to Maine, I made sure to start a loaf whenever the realtors were expected to show up at our door with a prospective buyer. I stopped using my bread machine when our second child left for college and eventually tossed out my sourdough starter, unable to keep it going with a new life, a new town and a busy travel schedule. I still have my machine and it looks pretty clunky compared to the newer versions. The reason I hang on to this old kitchen friend is for the stuffing bread without which Thanksgiving would be impossible to imagine. Here's the recipe for those of you who still have one lurking in the back of your pantry and would like to give it a dust and put back into service for the Holidays.

From Richard W. Langer's  More Recipes for You Bread Machine Bakery

For large and small loaves:

small: 1 cup vegetable broth
large:  1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

small: 2 teaspoons olive oil
large:  1 tablespoon olive oil

small: 1 teaspoon molasses
large:  2 teaspoons molasses

small: 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
large:  3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

small: 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal (not instant)
large:  3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal

small: 1/2 cup cornmeal
large:  3/4 cup cornmeal

small: 2 tablespoons dried parsley
large:  3 tablespoons dried parsley

small: 1 tablespoon dried onion
large:  4 teaspoons dried onion

small: 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
large:  1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary

small: 1 teaspoon dried sage
large:  1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage

small: 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
large:  1 teaspoon dried thyme

small: 1/2 teaspoon pepper
large:  1 teaspoon pepper

small: 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
large:  1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

small: 1/2 teaspoon salt
large:  1 teaspoon salt

small: 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
large:  2 teaspoons active dry yeast

I bake several loaves ahead of time, cube the bread and keep it in the freezer until needed. Later, you can add all your other favorite ingredients.

Savory Thanksgiving wishes!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Autumn's Gifts ~ October & November

The colorful berries, above, were found clinging to a chain link fence in Bucksport, Maine in late October. The title describes these unexpected beauties perfectly.

November Lupine on Blue Hill Mountain which, somehow, survived strong winds and freezing temperatures.

Yarrow on Blue Hill Mountain with a backdrop of autumn foliage and a glimpse of Blue Hill Bay.

Today's link from "You Must Remember This."

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

October Magic Hour

Autumn's vivid colors are now a memory up here in Maine. The last glorious display of our leaves was stripped off the trees by the recent lashing rain and wind that left many without power for days. Peter and I closed the cottage a mere three weeks ago. Our drive home through the back roads and small towns was spectacular as the sun slowly dropped in the sky. We arrived in Bucksport just in time to capture the October magic hour.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Thumbnails are Like Male Birds

Tonight's Sunset, 10 July 2010

Contact and group photos are presented in thumbnail size on Flickr and natural selection favors the boldest and brightest. On a page of tiny images, vivid usually gets the click. It's human nature to respond to color, but many subtle and nuanced photographs are easily missed. Here are a few links to some of my favorites and several examples of my own.

Charleston 28, by JCBphoto, 10b pegueña ventana de los pensamientos, by xeniussonar, Friends Forever, by Emma Lynn B, Security Updates, by Catherine Forbes, Calm Before, by Lala Lands and Resting Branch, by Through~My~Eyes.

Snow curl
"Snow Curl" February 26, 2009

Proof of Summer
"Proof of Summer" March 22, 2009

"Remembrance" October 19, 2010

Today's link from "You Must Remember This."

Happy Birthday, dearest Emma!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Still Life Compositions ~ or where did that hour go?

I often see exquisite still life compositions on Flickr. The shot has been carefully planned in advance with tripod and camera settings exactly where they should be. Delicate light brushes the objects with precision and the colors look like treasure from an open casket of jewels. I always marvel at the composition and the wonderful depth of field. I'll confess my shots are often spur of the moment, instinctive...you could say hap hazard. I'm too lazy to go and find my tripod, but there is another reason to avoid delaying the shot. I blame it on Maine's gorgeous northern light and the angle that changes in the blink of an eye...just as our seasons do. I think, "quickly, get this!" and I shoot and shoot and shoot and a morning, afternoon, or twilight melts away.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

This Morning on Blue Hill Mountain

It was the perfect November morning for a walk on the mountain path...the last for a few days if one believes the weather forecast.  We were treated to the unusual sight of a helicopter in the meadow and work in progress on the cell tower situated on the top of Blue Hill mountain. I had brought my camera to record the November lupine, but more on that later!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Scare Tactics

You are never too old!
Please click on the images, they are much more fun viewed in the large size!

Even though Halloween has come and gone there is always time for terror!

These photos were shot at the Natural History Museum in Washington. Even with four adults rounding up three children like border collies, it was impossible to take the time to set up a clear shot in the museum's low light, especially without a tripod. So what to do? Have fun, don't take the photography seriously and let your imagination run wild. For me, the images are like impressions from life drawings, exercises that look like scribbles, but train the eye and hand.

Today's link from "You Must Remember This."

Don't forget to vote!

Older posts you might enjoy....


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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Birds of a Feather

Tri-colored Heron

Tri-colored Heron

The Tortuguero canals are my favorite in Costa Rica. The quiet waterways with arching thick vegetation, hidden wildlife and mirror reflections hold magic. One watches for rustling leaves and movement out of the corner of an eye...hoping to see one of the many creatures that lives here.

The following photos are just a few of the over 300 species of birds. Many were photographed with the dreaded flash which was useful against the dense foliage and the fact we were gliding through the canals by boat. For the most part, I was happy with the results, particularly the feather details.

Bare-throated Tiger Heron

A Bare-throated Tiger Heron preening on a palm frond.

Snowy Egret 02

Snowy Egret

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 01

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 02

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 03

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the three photos above put on quite a display for us, preening, strutting and flapping his wings!

Blue Heron

A watchful Blue Heron bides its time quietly at the water's edge.

Green Heron

Green Heron

Keel-billed Toucans 02

...and everyone's favorite, a comical pair of Keel-billed Toucans, high above, in a fruit laden tree.

Please click on the images to view in a larger size on Flickr. On Flickr, press L to see in light box.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Family ties ~ Tortuguero Village

The Soccer Ball

The foursome caught my attention, particularly the boy with the red soccer ball and his inscrutable expression. Behind the children there is a cluster of well fed, expensively equipped tourists (I do not exempt myself from that description!) One of my Flickr contacts observed that three of the children are barefoot. True, but I don't think they lacked shoes, rather, I think they shucked them off the way kids are prone to do.

Pretty Blue Dress

The houses are very modest, usually with a riotous tangle of wires in one corner connected to a nearby utility pole. Almost everyone has a rank overstuffed sofa on the front porch, or in the yard, curious because of the almost daily rainfall. Everyone has laundry (ostensibly drying) draped over anything horizontal. I marveled at the near futility of this chore and wondered how anything could dry in such thick humidity. Incredibly, given Costa Rica's climate, children were always neat and clean.

Tortuguero was one of the few places where we had time to walk about and explore a village, tiny as it is. The shops exist for visitors who come to see the nesting green sea turtles. Some village offerings are inexpensive handicrafts, vendors selling coconut water in the shell and a rambling bar by the canal selling very welcome ice cold beer

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived and families were gathered in a small park by the water. The interaction between parents and children made a deep impression and I thought of the isolation in many U.S. families from over extended lives with too little free time and the abundance of television, cell phones, pods, pads and internet that presumably connect us.

Family 01

There were colorful clusters of people everywhere and always an assortment of appealing dogs.

Family 04

Family 06

A young mother with large red earrings and a small infant on a bright blue bench.

Family 03

Family 10

This lovely woman grooming her daughter, framed by bamboo at the water's edge, is one of my favorite photos from our trip.

Family 08

Shadows deepened creating a silhouette of family ties in Tortuguero.

Friday, February 24, 2012

the Juggler and the Dog

There is a dreary overcast sky indicating weather on the way in Maine. As an antidote, I thought I'd post this light-hearted series I shot in Tortuguero Village, Costa Rica. I stumbled across the scene unexpectedly and there was no time to check camera settings.

The Juggler and the Dog

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tortuguero ~ Lots of Turtles

The Place of the Turtles 06

Tortuguero means lots of turtles and it is on this stretch of the Caribbean coast, in Costa Rica, that Green Sea Turtles come to nest. It was the wrong time of year so we didn't see the remarkable spectacle of the turtles emerging from the sea to lay their eggs. They return again and again to this place of crashing waves and riptides in spite of being harvested and threatened by logging activity in years past. The area became a national park in 1970. Although an eco-tourist destination, the shoreline is remote, there are no roads. The only access is by plane or boat. A short path from the beach brings one to Tortuguero Village with its population of roughly 500.

The Place of the Turtles 05

The Place of the Turtles 04

The Place of the Turtles 02

Sea foam and tropical haze from drenching humidity give the shoreline a unique atmosphere. One wonders if a velociraptor will come crashing through the dense growth at any moment, but there goes my overactive imagination again!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

First Impressions ~ Costa Rica

Poinsettia Splash

Tangled Growth

Doka Coffee Estate, located on the slopes of the Alajuela Poas Volcano. Costa Rica.

it wasn't hard to pack for Costa Rica. Light clothing, a waterproof poncho, bathing suit, walking shoes and a fleece for chilly mountain temperatures were all I needed. I agonized over my camera equipment and, especially, the desire to bring my new macro lens. In the end, I left it at home (thank you JCB for that advice!) It was a good decision. There was no time to change lenses on the rugged and uneven trails, my hands (and everything else!) were slick with perspiration and sunscreen. Even my glasses were opaque with grime at the end of the day.

I've never done much wildlife photography and the trip was a challenge. The sluggish reptiles were cooperative subjects, but the butterflies and birds were difficult to capture. My small point and shoot was handy and the Canon EFS 18-200 mm was perfect for almost every situation. The following shots are from our first few days and our introduction at INBioParque. There are more photos on my Flickr Stream and hundreds more to edit and post!

Butterfly Garden 02

Butterfly Garden 05

Can You See Me? 001

Sudden Flight

Caiman in the Grass

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello Blogger friends! We are home from Costa Rica! I have a memory card full of amazing wildlife I hope to share with you soon!

Wishing everyone a Valentine's Day full of sweet surprises.

Older posts you might enjoy....


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Hubble Finds New Dark Spot on Neptune

Hubble Finds New Dark Spot on Neptune

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Fast Facts
News release ID: STScI-1995-21
Release Date: Apr 19, 1995
Image Use: Copyright
About this image

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new great dark spot, located in the northern hemisphere of the planet Neptune. Because the planet's northern hemisphere is now tilted away from Earth, the new feature appears near the limb of the planet.

The spot is a near mirror-image to a similar southern hemisphere dark spot that was discovered in 1989 by the Voyager 2 probe. In 1994, Hubble showed that the southern dark spot had disappeared.

Like its predecessor, the new spot has high altitude clouds along its edge, caused by gasses that have been pushed to higher altitudes where they cool to form methane ice crystal clouds. The dark spot may be a zone of clear gas that is a window to a cloud deck lower in the atmosphere.

Planetary scientists don't know how long lived this new feature might be. Hubble's high resolution will allow astronomers to follow the spot's evolution and other unexpected changes in Neptune's dynamic atmosphere.

The image was taken on November 2, 1994 with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, when Neptune was 2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. Hubble can resolve features as small as 625 miles (1,000 kilometers) across in Neptune's cloud tops.

Astronomical, Hubble Telescope, Illustrations, Neptune, Planetary Atmospheres/Weather, Planets, Solar System

Credit: H. Hammel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and NASA


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Mars Approaching Earth

Mars Approaching Earth

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Fast Facts
News release ID: STScI-2003-22
Release Date: Aug 27, 2003
Image Use: Copyright
About this image

This image was taken within minutes of Mars' closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years, on Aug. 27, 2003. In this picture, the red planet is 34,647,420 miles (55,757,930 km) from Earth.

Astronomical, Hubble Telescope, Mars, Planets, Solar System

NASA, J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI).

Additional image processing and analysis support from: K. Noll and A. Lubenow (STScI); M. Hubbard (Cornell U.); R. Morris (NASA/JSC); P. James (U. Toledo); S. Lee (U. Colorado); and T. Clancy, B. Whitney and G. Videen (SSI); and Y. Shkuratov (Kharkov U.)


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We have spent several hours surfing the net looking for sites with information about Hughes Corn Flower glassware. We have tried almost every search engine and tried numerous combinations of keywords, yet we have found virtually no references at all.

This site hopefully will be a starting point for other collectors and then maybe we will all be able to help each other in exchanging information and referring each other to new sites.

The information on this site is as accurate as we know, but most of the information has come to us through word of mouth, so there are bound to be some mistakes. If you find any inaccurate information or have anything to add, please email me at brian@hughescornflower.com.

I am Brian Wing, and my wife is Marsha. We live in St. Catharines, Ontario, which is about 20 kilometres west of Niagara Falls. We have 6 kids (4 girls and 2 boys). Jeff, the oldest, lives in Miami with his wife Evelyn, son Ryan, and daughters Lillian (Lillie) and Lauren. Alisa lives and works in Toronto with her husband Jason. Graham and his wife Lisa live here in St. Catharines with their son Andrew and another one on the way. Julia is a hygienist for a local orthodonist and lives on her own. Andrea works full-time and still lives at home. Brianna is a high school student, still without a job.Marsha’s mother had a fair amount of Corn Flower and on her mother’s death, Marsha inherited a number of pieces. As a child, she had always loved it, and decided she wanted to expand the collection she now found herself with. Marsha was bitten by the “antique” bug. After a couple of years of taking me with her, the roles soon reversed, and I am now the one dragging her out to antique shows, sales, and shops.Whatever knowledge we have about Corn Flower, we have collected over the years from various dealers and collectors. Our collection consists of approximately 50 plates, 160 glasses, and 65 other pieces. We understand Hughes’ granddaughter still lives in central Ontario, and is interested in the collectibles of her grand father.

We also collect Royal Doulton figurines, blue Fire King bakeware, Iris Depression glass, and old enamelware. Most recently I have been collecting old canning jars. Marsha has also finished an old secretary desk/bookcase (well over 100 years old) that belonged to my great-grandfather. It went well and she is now pursuing other projects.

We used to think that Brianna seemed to be the only one that had caught the bug. She recognized authentic Corn Flower and was able to spot the imitations. As she has gotten older, she doesn’t really seem too interested. She does, however, have an extensive collection of over 800 antique clay and glass marbles. When my father (her grandfather) was around, he knew them all by name.

We don’t collect Corn Flower and the other items simply for the monetary value of them, we also like to think of the people who enjoyed and used the antiques we collect today.

Privacy Policy for HughesCornFlower.com

The privacy of our visitors to HughesCornFlower.com is important to us.

At HughesCornFlower.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit HughesCornFlower.com, and how we safeguard your information.  We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files.  The information in the log files include  your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site.  This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on HughesCornFlower.com to support our site.  Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed.  This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security.  However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites.  This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

One Response to “About”

  1. […] to a plastic container or generic cookie tin. For these homemade cookies I busted out my beautiful Hughes Corn Flower glassware pattern serving plate…a wedding gift to my grandparents, that was passed on to me […]

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Susan Kleiman, PhD, RN, CS, NPP

Appointments and Committee Memberships

Director of Graduate Studies, Lehman College of the City University of New York

Professor of Qualitative Research in CUNY Doctoral program in nursing

Member Policy and Budget Committee, Lehman College Nursing Department

Member, Lehman College Faculty Senate

Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Nurse Researcher Journal

Faculty Advisor, Sigma Theta Tau International, Delta Zeta Chapter

Lehman College representative to Trans Cultural Nursing Society

Co-project director for Supporting Families Through Education. Directing parenting and life skills education in collaboration with the Child Advocacy Center of Montifiore Medical Center. Federally funded grant begins October, 2006


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Monday, July 19, 2010

Humor U Diversity

People always comment on how diverse Humor U is. They ask us if we have quotas. The truth is we don't. We're just accidentally diverse. Humor U attracts all kinds of funny BYU students from very diverse backgrounds. By percentage, Humor U is the most diverse organization at BYU. We pride ourselves in having two black students, a Mexican, a Brazilian, a white guy w/ a Mexican name, an Asian, a Jew, and a Muslim. How does that help our writing? You wouldn't believe. Sometimes our writing meetings turn into the model UN. We don't go recruiting minorities, they just find us. I guess Caucasian people just aren't as funny, but we have plenty of them too.


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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Black Holes, White Holes, and Big Bangs

Physicists have suggested that our entire universe may be the other side of a black hole. Theories of this sort are highly speculative and subject to replacement by another theory in a short while; but the idea is that every black hole has a white hole and a whole universe on the other side. Let me try to explain. Black holes are mathematically predicted to occur in our universe and several potential ones have been identified in our universe, including one at the center of our galaxy. Black holes are usually caused by the collapse of a large star such that large amounts of mass are compressed into a small space resulting in a huge gravitational force. As more and more mass falls into the center of the black hole the gravitational force continues to increase to the point where it attracts everything around it including light. The entire black hole collapses into a single point of matter known as the singularity. At a certain point, close to the black hole, an event horizon forms. The event horizon is the point at which nothing escapes the gravity of the black hole and all mass and light is drawn in. Thus, the name black hole, they are dark because not even light escapes from them. They appear as a spherical orb of absolute darkness and are only detected by the gravitational lensing that they create as light passes between earth and a black hole. (See here for a more complete explanation of a black hole.)

So, if all of that mass, energy, and light is attracted into a black hole, where does it go? The latest theory is that on the other side of a black hole is a white hole. A white hole is a point, or singularity, from which immense amounts of light, mass, and energy spew. (See here for an explanation.) A singularity spewing massive amounts of light, mass, and energy sounds a lot like the Big Bang from which our universe sprang. Could it be that our entire universe is simply the other side of a very large black hole? That is what one of the latest theories suggests. In fact, it may be that on the other side of every black hole another universe exists that owes its beginning to a black hole, a white hole, and a Big Bang (see here for more).

I know, if you think about such things for too long it will either give you a headache or drive you insane trying to understand it all. Or, it could simply drive you to the point of believing that, behind it all, there must be a Creator God. As Sir Arthur Eddington once said, “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” It is as if God were showing how mighty he is when he built this universe (and perhaps a few more universes) or maybe he was just being incredibly creative. The more we learn about our known universe, the more we realize that it is ultimately incomprehensible to our limited minds. The greatest minds in science are continually stumped by the complexities. The immense scale makes it incredibly difficult to even observe black holes and other interesting objects. If we could get close and experiment with a black hole, perhaps we could learn more; but the closest one to us is the one at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 25,000 light years away. Could it be that God made ultimate reality frustratingly out of our reach? Did he purposely make it so difficult to understand that the universe will always contain a great measure of mystery? Might it be that we truly need to live by faith and not by sight?

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Illustration Friday - Music

There was a quiet room somewhere in the city
No matter what time of the day the quiet room was
Often full of people in a quiet state, however one rule
Was been apply in this particular special room people
Must wear a set of earphone that will provide them into
The sleep status, there are thousand upon thousand of
Music archive and each one can speak to every different soul
That came into this quiet room
searching for a nice little nap…

© By Hung Lin 2009

chrysallidis said...

the music of silence!
great drawing and concept. I also love the poem.

ArtSparker said...

What a strange crowd. I hope it is a sweet sleep.

Asja said...

beautiful tones and textures!

studio lolo said...

This has a nice moody feel!

Coreopsis said...

Interesting idea. I love the illustration. It's not exactly what I'd think of, but it has a wonderful atmosphere. I really like the style.

dthaase said...

cool line work

Shirley said...

Great illustration!

Rui Sousa said...

Fantastic one, really great work!


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Upper Michigan Minerals

If you find a broken link let me know.

The Upper Peninsula was part of a magma flow where Copper, Gold and Iron is found today. You can also find Thomsonite, Lake Superior Agates and Jasper.

 This is Thomsonite found along Lake Superior.

This is Copper and Malachite found at the Central Mine in the mine dump on HY 41.

This is Copper From the Central mine south of the Delaware Mine. They say that in about five more years this Mine Dump will be gone for ever because the county is crushing the tailings for road gravel. I will miss this pile for every time we go. We get a 5 quart pail full of Copper specimens.

Here is the picture of the Central Mine Dump.

Copper from the Delaware Mine

Copper from the Mass Mine

Copper from the Phoenix Mine

I have to check this out yet, it is from the upper MI area

This is Prehnite from the Lake Superior area

Click on the pictures below to see them bigger.

  Datolite from the Quincy Mines

Datolite from the Delaware Mine

                    This is Datolite from the Caladonia Mine

                    This is from Marquette Co, MI

                      These are some of the areas where we go looking for Lake Superior Agates

    This is Specular Hematite from the Champion  Mine in the UP

 I got these from Jim Adams of MI. These are from Lake Keslley MI a Diamond pipe area.


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Butler Hospital

Butler Hospital

group_ButlerContact Information

  Butler Hospital
345 Blackstone Boulevard
Providence, Rhode Island 02906

  (401) 455-6669

Site Coordinator

Site Investigator

Joseph Friedman, MD

Joseph Friedman is a neurologist and recognized expert in Parkinson’s disease and chief of Butler Hospital’s Movement Disorders Program. He received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his residency in neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York.

A professor and chief of the division of Movement Disorders in the Department of Neurology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and adjunct professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Friedman is a recognized researcher in the treatment and study of Parkinson’s and related movement disorders. He is an active member in the Parkinson and the Huntington Study Groups, and participates in multicenter trials sponsored by the NIH, Michael J. Fox Foundation, pharmaceutical companies, and single-center unfunded studies.

His most current research is studying fatigue and psychosis affecting people with Parkinson’s, as well as the genetic causes of the illness. He is also working collaboratively with Butler’s psychiatrists and psychologists on treatment and research addressing the behavioral aspects of movement disorders.

A fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Dr. Friedman serves on the editorial board of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders and is editor in chief of Medicine & Health, Rhode Island. He was a member of the National Institute of Health’s committees to define depression and psychosis in Parkinson’s and was chosen by the International Movement Disorders Society to help evaluate rating scales for fatigue and psychosis in the disease.

The author of the book Making the Connection Between Brain and Behavior: Coping With Parkinson’s Disease and co-author of the book Taking Charge: Good Medical Care for the Elderly and How to Get It, Dr. Friedman has also authored or co-authored over 400 papers, abstracts, and book chapters on a variety of topics related to movement disorders and has also made numerous professional presentations throughout the U.S. and around the world.


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Saturday, June 23, 2012

The CSU as a Malfunctioning Government Agency: A Conservative Analysis of a Public Problem

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill

One of Victor Hanson’s most persuasive arguments about why democracies have an advantage over despotisms in fighting wars is that democracies are much more likely to correct their own mistakes. You may start with McClellan, but eventually, you end up with Sherman and Grant. You may get caught napping at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines, but finally Patton roles into Germany and Lemay flattens Japan. You may start behind the Russians in rocket science, but eventually, you pass them and go to the moon. Why? Negative feedback. Democratic government is a hornet’s nest of complaint and experiment, and that’s a good thing.

Conservatives understand that the bigger government grows, the less chance “negative feedback” has of doing its job. The super-centralized state, like the Soviet Union or China, is tremendously destructive of its own resources because it is beyond the influence of any feedback mechanism: free speech or free market. These states produced the biggest economic mistakes and the worst ecological damage on the planet.

Big business often wants to behave badly, and gets away with it for a while. When it sees a competitive advantage, it will edge toward monopoly and crony capitalism, and then, aided and abetted by legislation, it becomes a de facto part of the government. Its point is to evade the market and avoid restraint. One of the most irresponsible forms of big business is the multinational corporation, which in its peripatetic global existence tries to place itself in the weakest regulatory regime possible.

What we want is a government just big enough to effectively regulate businesses and accomplish other legitimate government tasks. Businesses like to externalize their costs. It is one of the roles of effective modern government to reduce that externalization. A rational conservative acknowledges that government has an important role, but leans toward the private sector as being less dangerous and more productive to the health and welfare of the country. It is not easy to get businesses to act responsibly, but it is even harder to get big government to do it, and there is always a danger that any regulation will produce worse effects than the problem it is aimed at curing. The trick is striking a sane balance between government regulation and business. Somewhere around that balance point, both the market and the market place of ideas are very effective in curbing mistakes because they provide the necessary feedback, although as Churchill notes, Americans may have to try everything until they hit upon the right thing.

The truth of all this came home to me in a striking way at the end of May, when the governmental agency that I work for, California State University at Fresno, cut down 164 trees, many of them old and magnificent, all of them healthy, in a parking lot remodel. This was done with no announcement to faculty or community until after the cutting had begun, and then only in an obscure email, which said, as the trees were coming down, that cutting would begin the next day. Although there is a faculty senate, and several committees with faculty membership that should have been consulted, none were. Negative feedback was utterly disabled.

After the deed had been accomplished, the university started offering rationales. We needed more parking. (The enrollment, in the wake of the California budget crisis, is substantially shrinking.—I guess we can expect that to turn around when the state gets its spending under control.) The trees were old and diseased. (Not true according to biology and plant science professors who inspected the trees as they came down.) The trees were inadequately irrigated. (Not true. Their roots were in the water table. They needed no irrigation.) Parking lots with trees are unsafe. (Show us some crime statistics. Some studies say they are safer.)

Lack of consultation in violation of standing university rules and even state law has been a continuing source of frustration for the faculty at Fresno State, on a number of issues, and this year the complaints have been long and loud. My colleagues tend to see this style of governing as “corporate,” and have some justification for their characterization. CSU leadership in Long Beach has decided the system is threatened by competition from National, Phoenix, Kaplan Universities and the whole for-profit university venture, and they seem to be copy-catting much of what these organizations do, including their management style. But, however “corporate” our managers want to be, we really work for a government agency run by bureaucrats, and it is doing just the kinds of things that government agencies entrusted with resources do.

Roger Scruton admirably explains this in his thought-provoking new book, How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for Environmental Conservatism. Scruton cites the example of Ravenna Park, which I am familiar with as a former resident of Seattle. He relates a history very similar to the tree wastage at Fresno State:

 Even in a democratic society in which private property and the rule of law enforce a proper separation between the one who threatens harm and the one who prevents or punishes it, the evidence is that state bureaucracies become a danger to the environment as soon as they acquire the role of controlling rather than containing what is done. A nice illustration is provided by the story of Ravenna Park in Seattle. This was established in 1887 by Mr. and Mrs. William W. Beck, who bought several parcels of land on the outskirts of the city, in order to preserve and provide public access to the giant fir trees growing there—some 400 feet high and 20 feet in diameter. They built a pavilion for concerts and nature lectures, and charged a 25¢ entrance fee to the park, which would be visited by around 10,000 people per year. In 1911 the city, in response to conservationist pressure, bought the park under a compulsory purchase order for $135,663. Almost at once the giant trees began disappearing, cut down and sold by park employees, sometimes with a bureaucratic rubber stamp that condemned a particular tree as a ‘threat to public safety.’ By 1925 none of the trees remained. An effective private investment that had conserved an important environmental asset, and created a lively public interest in maintaining it, had been destroyed by public ownership in a matter of fourteen years. [My italics]

 In the next few months, we are going to hear an enormous cry from the California State University system about how it needs money. And truly, it will need money, as California is confronted by its out of control deficit. Yet, our university recently spent $4 million on a new swimming pool, $4 million on this parking lot remodel, and spent $1.8 million at the end of this year on a miscellany of proposals rather than putting the money where it belonged, at the beginning of the year, into classes. Chancellor Charles Reid’s salary climbed from $198,500 in 1998 to $421, 500 plus $30,000 from the CSU Foundation in 2010. Who could blame California taxpayers for wanting some reform before they reinvest? The CSU administration claims that taxpayers are breaking a social contract, but have they been good stewards of public resources? Let them prove that their spending habits are rational before engaging us in a lobbying effort.

  (Investigation Reveals Questionable Spending by CSU Chancellor's Office,CBS News, LA; May 12, 2012)

Notice how Chancellor Reed warms to the TV reporter's questions about catering bills! Bureaucrats do not like "negative feedback," and that is about the only way in which restaurant-surrounded Long Beach is isolated. They do not even like questions which might lead to negative feedback, as you can see from the well-fed Chancellor's reaction.

Private contributors to our university have to face a big problem, and Scruton defines it: “Public bodies are able to externalize their costs in a way that private bodies seldom manage, and this fact alone makes them unreliable trustees of our collective assets.” In cutting the trees for an unnecessary $4 million parking lot remodel, our university unplugged itself from all the feedback mechanisms that could have prevented it from making a big and wasteful error. It had those mechanisms, but management chose to ignore them. It has been doing that for a long time. It is, unfortunately, operating just like the kind of governmental agency that Scruton describes, and if I were a donor, of land or any other resource, that would worry me immensely. I’d think twice about donating anything with a tree on it.

Getting Ready for the Camino

Websites tell me that everyone tends to overpack for this trip:

I'm trying to do better than the above, but this is still a load:

The plan: walk the last 200 miles of the Camino de Compostela from Leon to Compostela with two buddies.

In January, I had the following plans:
1.     Learn some Spanish: this semester was not conducive to that, even though I bought all five levels of Rosetta Stone Spanish. Oh well. I’m taking a phrase book.
2.     Get in shape. (See above) We did get some bike riding in this week and an experimental walk with backpacks on from Riverpark to the Coke Hallowell house and back. That was about 10 miles in 3 hours, so we have an idea of the pace we can walk and how the backpacks ride. Raised one good blister before even starting, which allowed various moleskin experiments.
3.     Read some good books on the Camino (never got there: see above)
4.     Get patch and pin from Confraternity of Camino Compostela de Santiago and Credencial del Peregrine (thanks JT!)

What I’m taking (including what I’m wearing and with a few deletions):
1.     A 50 liter Alteo backpack with rain cover and Camino patch
2.     Sunhat with Camino pin
3.     Columbia Travel Vest (to give new meaning to the question, “What has it got in its pocketses?”)
4.     A walking pole (get in Spain)
5.     Guidebook: Brierley
6.     1 REI 1 liter Nalgene water bottle
7.     REI Travel Sack +55˚ F and a pillow case
8.     Big Agnes Insulated Air Core 20 x 72 x 2.5 (decided to leave it: heavy)
9.     Pack Towel
10. Long hiking pants that can convert into shorts
11. Hiking shorts x 2
12. Fast dry underwear x 4
13. Socks and sock liners x 4
14. 3 shirts, two long-sleeve with roll-up button and one short
15. Fast dry T-shirts x 2
16. Marmot Gore-Tex waterproof parka (decided to leave the pants)
17. Energy Zip Loc collection: Lance Armstrong Stingers, Hammar Gel, etc. (on second thought, leaving all this; heavy, bulky; will rely on ice cream stops)
18. Light fleece (in spring or fall, this would be important, but I'm not taking it on this trip)
19. An idiot passport / money / credit card holder (you hang it around your neck: for airport travel; otherwise, bottom of backpack)
20. One wallet that has belt loops (for in between the airports)
21. Sandals (hostel showers / walking around without boots; these are pretty heavy, actually; don’t know if this is wise.
22. Merrell hiking boots (over the ankle) with Herb Bauer fitted inserts (bad knee)
23. Black Diamond headlamp, in case we wind up walking after dark (unlikely)
24. Small flashlight
25. Bath / Toilet Bag in Zip Loc for airport security:
a.      Trek and Travel Body Wash
b.      Trek and Travel Laundry Wash
c.      Sport #50 sunscreen
d.     Body Glide Anti-Chafe
e.     Toothpaste
f.       Toothbrush
g.      Lip Balm
h.     TP
20 First Aid Stuff
a.      Standard small REI First Aid Kit
b.      Prescription drugs
c.       Ear plugs
d.      Aleve
e.      Advil
f.      Imodium
g.     Insect repellant (internet says that Spain does have mosquitos)
h.      An amazing assortment of blister stuff including moleskin, second skin, and lots more I don’t know much about
26. Money and Documents (All to be carried in wallet that attaches to belt)
a.      Passport
b.      One credit card
c.       One debit card
d.      Euros to be acquired in Spain and whatever I can scrape together from last year's trip to Lyon.
e.       As many dollars as needed for a long layover in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport
f.     Photocopy of credit cards, passport, driver’s license, one for me, one for Gail, at home; itinerary and copy for Gail.
27.  Personal Stuff
a.      Small binoculars (Cathedral watching)
b.      Point and shoot camera with extra battery
c.       Moleskin journal and pen
d.      iPhone and cord and international calling program to avoid bankruptcy
e.      Adapter for Spanish outlets (Radio Shack)
f.    Very small King James Bible

Weight of backpack without full water bottles: 20 lbs.
Weight of person carrying backpack: 230 lbs., unfortunately.

This guy's got a great list. I don't know how he got it all into a 40 liter back pack: List of Things to Pack for Camino

WikiHow has some good ideas:
How to Pack for El Camino De Santiago

What Not to Bring (Do I need that sleeping mat?)
Camino de Santiago: What Not to Bring

Bjorn Granberg--now here's a guy who seems to know what he's talking about:
Walking Camino: What you should pack and not

Ready to Go:

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Fr. Robert Barron: Three Videos on the Health and Human Services Contraception Mandate

Father Robert Barron has devoted three videos to addressing the Health and Human Services Mandate that Catholic Hospitals must provide, as part of insurance coverage, various means of contraception:

Father Barron comments on the HHS Contraception Mandate,
January 30, 2012. This is in response to Sibelius first version of contraception regulations.

The HHS Mandate: Anti-Catholic and Un-American, February 13, 2012

Why It's OK to Be Against Heresy: A Reply to Dowd and Sibelius, June 13, 2012

I'm going to use this page to collect opinion and information on this issue, adding as I find something useful.

From the Catholic point of view, this history began as a double-cross from the Obama administration. Catholic bishops had supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with the understanding that religious organizations would be exempt from having to provide contraceptive coverage for employees.

When interim regulations were published in the Federal Register on August 3, 2011, the promised exemptions were extremely narrow, applying principally to houses of worship and ministers, but not to religious hospitals, charities or schools.

On January 2012, Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sibelius (who is Catholic), instead of expanding the exemptions, closed them down, saying she would give religious organizations one year to comply with the mandate. This alarmed the Church, and Father Barron, in the first video, above.

David S. Addington succinctly explains the basis for a First Amendment challenge to the policy as originally announced:

The Obamacare statute and implementing regulations command some religious institutions to do what their religion commands them not to do.  To take one example, the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church commands that “human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” and the papal encyclical on human life that sets forth the Church’s beliefs regarding life prohibits “direct interruption of the generative process already begun,” “sterilization,” and “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation . . . .”
The Obamacare statute’s mandate to a Catholic institution to provide health insurance coverage for its employees that covers contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization clashes directly with the Church’s mandate based on religious belief that the institution not do so.  The authors of the Bill of Rights foresaw the emergence of such clashes and wisely provided in the First Amendment that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . .”
The HHS and the other departments recognized, in the preamble to the interim rules, that “the Departments seek to provide for a religious accommodation that respects the unique relationship between a house of worship and its employees in ministerial positions,” and provided a narrow religious exemption.  Such an exemption falls far short, however, of the protection the First Amendment contemplates; it covers houses of worship, but not, for example, religious hospitals or charities
See:  Obama's Contraception Mandate Tramples on Religious Liberty
Peggy Noonan, in response to the first iteration of the HHS contraception mandate predicted that Obama had awakened a "sleeping giant," i. e., the Catholic Church, and that it would cost him the election:  See A Battle the President Can't Win

Obama must have taken the political fallout that Noonan predicted seriously, because shortly after, on February 10, 2012, he announced a compromise:

President Obama Contraception Mandate Statement, February 10, 2012.
Father Barron clearly had reservations about this: see his second video, above.

Sebelius Explains White House's Contraception Compromise, Feb 10, 2012.

Shields and Brooks on Obama's Contraception and CPAC, Feb 10, 2012

Here are a few more views. I found the homemade video from Sister Sharon to cut through a lot of fog, and to probably state not only the Catholic position accurately but the emotional commitment as well. She may dismiss the health issue too easily, but I still think she's right: this is mainly about sex and a clash between classic liberal views and Catholic morality. The claim that the mandate is about health is severely undercut by that fact that there is nothing in Catholic moral teaching which prevents the taking of birth control drugs for the non-contraceptive purpose of treating medical problems. (See comments, below, for some back and forth on this point.)

Sister Sharon: Contraception Mandate Response (February 3, 2011, so before the "Contraception Compromise")

Archbishop Timothy Dolan talked to Charlie Rose about his surprise at the contraception mandate, February 9, 2012. For the fuller version of this interview, which is very interesting,

The latest important event in this history occurred two days ago (June 18, 2012), when the Catholic Health Organization, one of President Obama's major political allies in passing Obamacare, declared that it was uncomfortable with the compromise exemptions, since they did not apply to faith-based social service groups. See the Washington Post article, Catholic Health Association says Obama's contraception effort falls short

The foundational issue here is the boundary line between freedom of religion (which like all rights, is not absolute) and state regulation; these boundaries are always contested. To give two extreme examples of the state's right to limit religious practice: If your religion demanded human sacrifice, you would not be entitled to do that under the 1st Amendment. Or, what would be even worse in my neighborhood, if you wanted to hold a revival meeting in the public park at 2 a.m., you couldn't do it. The HHS contraceptive mandate poses a case that is much more interesting than either of those.

Resources added on June 22, 2012

Archbishop William Lori's homily at Mass inaugurating Fortnight of Freedom

Stacy Thomlinson: Legal Challenge to HHS Mandate

Sebelius' Speech to Georgetown Un. Public Policy Institute (Referred to by Fr.Barron, 3rd video above)

"Here Comes Nobody" by Maureen Dowd (Referred to by Fr. Barron, 3rd video, above)

Sunday, June 17, 2012

What Happens When a Fireworks Factory Catches Fire

Not as elegant as Gandalf's fireworks, but still, pretty spectacular:

Saturday, June 16, 2012

President Welty's Secret (Old) Stationery Stash Discovered

Exclusive to the Huron County Extract:

A source deep within the administration who we will designate as "Bullfrog" has revealed the location and astonishing size of President Welty's secret stash of old stationery. Well over a quarter of a million pages of old letterhead and hundredth anniversary letterhead are stored in a warehouse near the Fresno State campus postoffice. Here are the pictures provided by Bullfrog:

Two pallets of stationery, pre-paw vintage, about 1/4 million sheets, pictures above and below.

And more stationery:

Closeup of bottom pallet:

The Extract is unable to confirm Bullfrog's report of stealthy trips by fourth floor administrative assistants to this site, but he speculates that they sneak reams of paper on the infrequent occasions when their bosses need to communicate with adults (as opposed to Long Beach administrators, alumni, and Bulldog boosters, who get the paw-print logo).

Since faculty are not considered to be adults (see previous blogs on CSALT, promotion of the new logo, declarative consultation, consultation by osmosis, and non-consultation), they have been consigned to use the paw-print logo when they write letters of recommendation and cover letters to publishers.

Bullfrog: "Look for a black market to start in old letterhead once departmental supplies begin to run low and the faculty starts to panic as profs try to publish or get students into good graduate schools. What you are looking at here is a potential gold mine. It could go as high as $2 or $3 a sheet, maybe higher."

Huron County Extract: "Isn't the administration afraid the bigger, more powerful cartels trying to control the stationery market may retaliate once this paper comes onto the market?"

Bullfrog: "Nothing to fear from Mexico, here, but Bowater and International Paper can be dangerous. Besides, somebody's making money on the new stationery. They've got their cut."

Huron County Extract: "How would the average faculty member, ahem, go about acquiring some of this product?"

Bullfrog: "Get to know faculty members who seem to be on the periphery of the administration, but who are looking to make a move. Keep a sharp lookout for dealers when you're in parking lot D. There are still trees there for cover and no surveillance cameras. It's a natural location for paper transactions to take place and conveniently close to headquarters."

Huron County Extract: "Just one more question. You don't suppose that the new logo . . . was imposed on the faculty, just to . . . to . . ."

Bullfrog: "To create a clandestine market in a controlled substance? [chuckles] Reedeep."

Friday, June 15, 2012

Jon Stewart and Bloomberg's Soda Pop Ban in NYC

I like the libertarian side of Jon Stewart:

Stewart takes on Bloomberg's War on the Big Gulp

Stewart, Forced to Agree with Tucker Carlson on the Soda Pop Law

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Faculty for Shared Governance at CSU Fresno

The Faculty for Shared Governance at CSU Fresno now has its own web log:

Faculty for Shared Governance: CSU Fresno

and it has started with a fine entry by Sasan Fayazmanesh:

The Vision of the University as a Shop under "Analysis and Opinion," which eloquently sets forth the faculty's position in what has become a non-consulatative university.

There is also has a Facebook site:

Fresno State Faculty (Facebook)

This marks a new chapter in the faculty response to the CSUF administration's failure to consult with the faculty on many important issues. What is at stake, finally, is the quality of education that we can provide to our students. A top-down, non-consultative university organization will not only make policy blunders but demoralize its faculty as well. During the last academic year, we have seen this with the Budget Task Force, cohort hiring, the logo, and finally the destruction of 160 trees in the parking lots east of Peters.

The faculty is fighting for its rightful place in university governance, and the whole community--faculty, staff, students, the region--will be the beneficiary. This faculty effort crosses political and ideological boundary lines. I'm a Republican, more or less. I will certainly vote for Mitt Romney rather than Barack Obama. But Republican, Democrat, Catholic, atheist--none of this matters to issues of such fundamental concern. We are for the basic process required in a university which functions both rationally and morally: true consultation and the understanding that it is the faculty which is primarily responsible for curriculum and instruction. All Fresno State faculty should be in agreement on these issues.

I will continue to write about Fresno State issues, as the spirit moves me, but a site dedicated specifically to representing faculty interests is what we need at this point. I am relieved that a large and diverse faculty group now has its own blog, and I hope that there will be many contributions to it. The more voices the better.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Camp Curry

When we came into Camp Curry we were greeted by "Ma Curry" herself--and she never went out of character. Wish I had a picture of her. I asked her how long she'd been in Yosemite and she said since 1899. She had a difficult son, Foster, who liked to drink and was banished from Yosemite, so he started his own resort in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Camp Curry, the morning after the rain.

Camp Curry had good lookin' girls!

But it did not meet Fresno State Safety Standards: Trees all over the place, not much lighting, and no surveillance cameras. Gentlemen, Start your chainsaws!

These two don't realize they are entering a high crime area, some of whose residents engage in brazen acts of thievery:

In the evening, you're very close to Sentinel Bridge and a famous view of Half Dome. Best time to take a picture is close to sunset, and there were several photographers with fancy equipment. I got this with a fairly cheap Canon. Is that a picture of Charles de Gaulle on Half Dome?

Deer hang out between the Pizza Shack and the Lounge, which has enough WiFi capacity to run two computers at the same time, so you see a lot of people just staring into screens and waiting.

The Panorama Trail, from Glacier Pt. to Nevada Falls, and Down the Mist Trail

June 2, 2012. The start of the trip (8.5 miles altogether), from Glacier Pt.:

For my fellow outraged colleagues at Fresno State, a view of a very dangerous parking lot in Camp Curry from Glacier Point. Way too many trees for public safety:

Start of the trail from Glacier Point:

Upper Yosemite Falls:

Starting to circle around Half Dome; Nevada Falls on the right:

Stream from Illouette Falls:

Me, with sunscreen and a few too many pounds:

Now, getting to see some of Quarter Dome:

Looking way back across the Valley as we near Nevada Falls:

Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls:

Now we get to see more of Quarter Dome:

Coming down Nevada Falls: a tough trail if you have a bad knee:

At the bottom of Vernal Falls. It took us nearly seven hours. We were in no hurry:

Vacation in Yosemite

My wife, Gail, and I returned yesterday from four days at Camp Curry, Yosemite, which included a hike from Glacier Point to the top of Nevada Falls along the Mist Trail, and then down into the valley. (Boy, are we out of shape!) We spent the rest of the time happily hobbling around the Valley and enjoying Camp Curry. On the last day, we got a hard rain and a temperature drop at night into the high 30s. I buried myself in our tent cabin under four heavy blankets. These are pictures of Yosemite, taken with an iPhone, the morning before the rain and the morning after.

(Looking down the Valley from the Chapel / Sentinel Bridge Area. Those two little cumulus clouds are the first sign of rain. Soon, they got bigger and bigger.)

(Yosemite Falls)

(The clouds roll in over Half-Dome around 1 PM. I was wondering if anyone was still up there. The rain started within an hour.)

(Now I'm really glad not to be up there.)

(The morning after the rain, clouds drift across Glacier Point. Both the Glacier Point and Tioga Pass roads were closed this morning due to snow.)

(South of El Capitan, across the Valley, as the rainclouds blow off.)

(El Capitan)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Big FAQ about Parking Lots and Trees

The main argument put forward by Cynthia Matson for the removal of the trees in lots A, J, and UBC is set forth in the FAQs published today. See this link: FAQs on parking lot construction project
I quote the most important as follows:
What are the benefits of redesigning and reconstructing these lots and why were the trees removed?
Lots A and J are in the worst disrepair of any on campus. These lots have been on the “drawing boards” for several years, partially because of deteriorated asphalt surfacing, poor traffic and pedestrian circulation, inadequate drainage and poor tree conditions. In order to add the new stalls, these lots need to be totally reconfigured and regraded. The regrading will accommodate the storm drainage system to handle storm runoff and meet ADA requirements. According to our landscape architect, the existing trees could not be preserved due to the changes in elevations for regrading and the new configuration of stalls and circulation. Furthermore, the architect indicates, the existing trees in the lots were mostly planted in 4’x4’ tree wells that were constrictive. Throughout the years of compromised budgets, these trees were poorly maintained, as was their irrigation system. The poor conditions coupled with the extreme reflected heat from the parking lots compromised the vigor and longevity of these trees, further reducing the trees’ potential lifespan. The design team planned to replace these trees with 139 new trees planted from 24” boxes. The approach is to create a new tree canopy which will take about five years to develop.
The long term benefits of this parking project include greatly enhanced security with improved sightlines for cameras, improved locations for emergency phones, energy efficient lighting, more parking capacity and efficient traffic flow, sidewalk improvements, additional stalls for persons with disabilities, ride share and motorcycle/moped parking.
By planting the new trees from 24” boxes with proper planting techniques, adequate root space, deep root barriers and state-of-the-art irrigation, the new tree canopy will provide healthy tree growth for generations of future students until such time as parking structures can be built.
Well, it sounds good. Someday, we'll have an even better parking lot. But this FAQ ignores scores of important questions, and this is the big one:

Architects don't just throw plans at the people paying them and say, "Take it or leave it." They consult and plan with the people who buy their services. Here are some questions Ms. Matson: Who was the architect? What was he asked to do? Who asked him? Was more than one design considered? Was the architect told that the trees had value? Did anyone ask him to save any of the trees, to construct a design that used the trees or some of them? Can you name even one person on the faculty who saw the design? Why weren't the faculty on FACEL notified? Why wasn't the Executive Committee of the Senate notified? When was the decision to go ahead with the "remodel" finalized?

Matson's answer above, as set forth by Shirley Armbruster asserts:

"According to our landscape architect, the existing trees could not be preserved due to the changes in elevations for regrading and the new configuration of stalls and circulation. Furthermore, the architect indicates, the existing trees in the lots were mostly planted in 4’x4’ tree wells that were constrictive. Throughout the years of compromised budgets, these trees were poorly maintained, as was their irrigation system. The poor conditions coupled with the extreme reflected heat from the parking lots compromised the vigor and longevity of these trees, further reducing the trees’ potential lifespan."

Says who? Who was this architect and what were his qualifications to judge the health of the trees or their potential longevity? Was he more expert than John V. Constable of the Biology Dept. or John Bushoven of Plant Science, who inspected the trees as they came down and found them, with only two exceptions, not only to be healthy, but in many cases rooted so deeply that they did not need irrigation? Does the administration discount our own faculty  as experts? (That will be news to the Central Valley.)

We have tree experts on the faculty, civil engineers on the faculty--a wealth of expertise. Many of the claims in the above FAQ can now be contested only with difficulty: the evidence is gone to support any other positions--clearcut and bulldozed away.

These are all questions that adequate faculty consultation would have provided and answered before the trees were cut. This is not just about trees, but about destroying a community resource without community consultation. It was cut first, offer rationales second.

Let us reflect a moment on what this FAQ might mean for the remaining parking lots at Fresno State which have trees in them. How many of them have 4 x 4 tree wells? I suspect all of them, especially the older, more beautiful lots such as D. What exactly is the standard of safety and what are the plans for surveillance cameras in other lots? Are there plans to "remodel" the other lots?

I offer the following as commemorative photos of parking lots D and E, west of the Music Building, and Q, north of Barstow, which given administrative standards of consultation, notification, and of course, farsightedness, may be cut down before we even know it. Have architects already been employed?

(If you click on the photos below, they get bigger.)

Lot D:

Lot D looking across to Lot E:

Looking more directly into Lot E:

Lot Q, north of Barstow, which is much like the recently logged lots east of Peters:

Here are some other Big FAQs for Vice President for Administration / CFO Matson:


text:
Excessive Humidity is Not Good For Pets

General topics about all things heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration.

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Excessive Humidity is Not Good For Pets

Post by Cassieyu » Tue Sep 27, 2016 3:56 am

Humid and rainy weather is depressing, pet is no exception. If the air is humid and hot, all kinds of bacteria thrive, especially the fungi in pets are more active. Various skin diseases caused by fungi collectively known as fungal skin disease. those diseases are zoonotic infectious diseases, the families with pets should be careful of this.
So maybe prepare a dehumidifier in home is a good choice.
If think so, puaide1 at *

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