Terrorists Kidnapp a Hero: Militants are holding the Mother Teresa of Somalia hostage, and as a result, dozens of children have already died. Eliza Griswold talks to Dr. Hawa Abdi from the home where she is being held captive.
This story has it all – subjugation of women, religious extremism, needless deaths of innocents, and one bad-ass female doctor. For pete’s sake! If you need your daily dose of indignation, I highly recommend this article.
Dr. Abdi is awesome: She’s a 60 year-old Somali gynecologist who built up a one-room clinic into a 400-bed hospital, she shelters refugees on the hospital grounds, and she gives everything she has to feeding the hungry and to obtain staff and medicine from international aid groups. And now she’s back-sassing the militant extremists who are holding her and her staff under house arrest.
Dang it, and my sister’s state of Arizona was soooo in the lead for embarrassing the nation.
This piece is from last week, and it doesn’t appear to be getting a lot of press, so I guess that’s good. I mean who wants to be remembered for saying this:
“And father, we repent that we have not used godly wisdom when we have elected officials into elected positions in our state and nation, father, and that it has opened the door, that Minnesota holds the responsibility for placing the first Muslim in Congress, and, for that God, we repent.”
For those of you not familiar, the female Dinkus from Minnesota is refering to Keith Ellison, the DFL-MN congressman from my district.
MinnesotaIndependent.com seems to be the primary reporting source for this story. Again, good, I guess. But maybe a little more publicity would be nice…just enough so that the female Dinkus who said this can be identified and embarrassed so she is never taken seriously in the future. According to the article the woman has not been identified to date. The Muslim Public Affairs Council rebuked the speech, calling it appalling.
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To balance out the Dinkusness coming from MN, I found out (via Minnesota Independent, again) about a group called Marry Me Minnesota, which is helping three couples from MN challenge the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. From the Marry Me Minnesota website:
Today, May 11, 2010, three Minnesota same-sex couples are filing suit in Hennepin County District Court, charging the State of Minnesota with violating the couples’ constitutional right to marry. The five charges brought by the group include violations of the plaintiffs’ right to due process, equal protection of the laws, freedom of conscience, freedom of association and a charge that the State’s 1997 DOMA law, which prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, was passed in violation of the “single subject” rule of the Minnesota Constitution and should be thrown out. A child of one of the couples is also a named plaintiff in the case.
Dang it, and my sister’s state of Arizona was soooo in the lead for embarrassing the nation.
This piece is from last week, and it doesn’t appear to be getting a lot of press, so I guess that’s good. I mean who wants to be remembered for saying this:
“And father, we repent that we have not used godly wisdom when we have elected officials into elected positions in our state and nation, father, and that it has opened the door, that Minnesota holds the responsibility for placing the first Muslim in Congress, and, for that God, we repent.”
For those of you not familiar, the female Dinkus from Minnesota is refering to Keith Ellison, the DFL-MN congressman from my district.
MinnesotaIndependent.com seems to be the primary reporting source for this story. Again, good, I guess. But maybe a little more publicity would be nice…just enough so that the female Dinkus who said this can be identified and embarrassed so she is never taken seriously in the future. According to the article the woman has not been identified to date. The Muslim Public Affairs Council rebuked the speech, calling it appalling.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To balance out the Dinkusness coming from MN, I found out (via Minnesota Independent, again) about a group called Marry Me Minnesota, which is helping three couples from MN challenge the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. From the Marry Me Minnesota website:
Today, May 11, 2010, three Minnesota same-sex couples are filing suit in Hennepin County District Court, charging the State of Minnesota with violating the couples’ constitutional right to marry. The five charges brought by the group include violations of the plaintiffs’ right to due process, equal protection of the laws, freedom of conscience, freedom of association and a charge that the State’s 1997 DOMA law, which prohibits the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, was passed in violation of the “single subject” rule of the Minnesota Constitution and should be thrown out. A child of one of the couples is also a named plaintiff in the case.
I’ve had a chance to play with my camera on the HTC Incredible, and I have to say – I’ve been pretty impressed with it. The autofocus feature is great. Below is a pair of pictures I took at work. I focused the first pic in the foreground, and the second pic in the background. All I did was touch the area of the screen where I wanted the camera to focus, and it did the rest.
Pretty amazing for a point-and-click camera.
I’ve had awesome, crisp photos in daylight settings, and I’ve been able to use the white balance to correct for incandescent and fluorescent indoor settings.
I like all of the options for setting the on-screen review period, the resolution and ISO settings. This camera has every option (and then some) that my traditional compact camera has.
I also like the digital slider bars that control contrast/sharpness/saturation, brightness and the zoom, although I did find the zoom to be a little restrictive, i.e., I want to zoom more than the settings allow.
Downsides to the HTC Incredible camera:
The laser roller button took a little getting used to, especially learning how to snap a photo without shaking the phone and ruining the picture.
No macro mode 🙁 But, the camera does do a good job with maintaining the focus for close-up pictures.
I’m a bit worried about the unprotected glass lens. Glass doesn’t scratch as easily as say, plastic, but still I wonder how long it will be before I manage to scuff the lens. Photo source
I don’t have any photography training, so excuse my mealy-mouth description of this – the pictures are sometimes too…saturated? The colors are a bit unbelievable, sometimes, in some situations.
The flash is very, very bright, and I haven’t yet figured out if there is a way to modulate the brightness. Below, in the indoor low-light picture of my tomato plant, everything is washed out and blue. I also haven’t been able to make good use of the flash in outdoor, shade situations. And fugedaboutit with shiny/reflective surfaces – I washed out every glossy-cover book that I tried to shoot with flash, from every angle. But I’m guessing that some fiddling around with different light/dark photos will help me hone my skill with this not-quite user-friendly flash.
I found a nice review of the HTC phone at Mobility Digest that includes a lot of screen shots.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomato Plant Update
We had a cold snap this past week in Minneapolis – well, not a snap so much as the temperature has plummeted and hasn’t come back up yet. I went out one morning and found my poor tomato plant bent over at the base – the main stem had weakened in the cold. I brought my three planters back inside and commandeered a corner in one of the apartment stairwells. I bolstered the tomato plant stem by resting the top of the plant against the wall and waited to see what would happen. It did bounce back, and is actually flowering, but I’m getting worried about the lack of direct sunlight. Ugh – cold, rainy, cloudy weather. Enough, already!
I found a great column in the NYTimes via Skepchick called What Every Girl Should Know. The article was written by Gail Collins and it outlines a few of the outrageous ways women used to try to prevent pregnancy. It includes a snippet from The Pill, sung by Loretta Lynn, and a few stories about Margaret Sanger and the melodramatic villan-esque Anthony Comstock.
And speaking of Loretta Lynn: Woman sang herself a song with The Pill!
Loretta Lynn: The Pill lyrics (source) – 1975 You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I’d be your wife
You’d show me the world
But all I’ve seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I’m tearin’ down your brooder house
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
All these years I’ve stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year thats gone by
Another babys come
There’s a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You’ve set this chicken your last time
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
This old maternity dress I’ve got
Is goin’ in the garbage
The clothes I’m wearin’ from now on
Won’t take up so much yardage
Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills
Yeah I’m makin’ up for all those years
Since I’ve got the pill
I’m tired of all your crowin’
How you and your hens play
While holdin’ a couple in my arms
Another’s on the way
This chicken’s done tore up her nest
And I’m ready to make a deal
And ya can’t afford to turn it down
‘Cause you know I’ve got the pill
This incubator is overused
Because you’ve kept it filled
The feelin’ good comes easy now
Since I’ve got the pill
It’s gettin’ dark it’s roostin’ time
Tonight’s too good to be real
Oh but daddy don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
Oh daddy don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
I’ve had a chance to play with my camera on the HTC Incredible, and I have to say – I’ve been pretty impressed with it. The autofocus feature is great. Below is a pair of pictures I took at work. I focused the first pic in the foreground, and the second pic in the background. All I did was touch the area of the screen where I wanted the camera to focus, and it did the rest.
Pretty amazing for a point-and-click camera.
I’ve had awesome, crisp photos in daylight settings, and I’ve been able to use the white balance to correct for incandescent and fluorescent indoor settings.
I like all of the options for setting the on-screen review period, the resolution and ISO settings. This camera has every option (and then some) that my traditional compact camera has.
I also like the digital slider bars that control contrast/sharpness/saturation, brightness and the zoom, although I did find the zoom to be a little restrictive, i.e., I want to zoom more than the settings allow.
Downsides to the HTC Incredible camera:
The laser roller button took a little getting used to, especially learning how to snap a photo without shaking the phone and ruining the picture.
No macro mode 🙁 But, the camera does do a good job with maintaining the focus for close-up pictures.
I’m a bit worried about the unprotected glass lens. Glass doesn’t scratch as easily as say, plastic, but still I wonder how long it will be before I manage to scuff the lens. Photo source
I don’t have any photography training, so excuse my mealy-mouth description of this – the pictures are sometimes too…saturated? The colors are a bit unbelievable, sometimes, in some situations.
The flash is very, very bright, and I haven’t yet figured out if there is a way to modulate the brightness. Below, in the indoor low-light picture of my tomato plant, everything is washed out and blue. I also haven’t been able to make good use of the flash in outdoor, shade situations. And fugedaboutit with shiny/reflective surfaces – I washed out every glossy-cover book that I tried to shoot with flash, from every angle. But I’m guessing that some fiddling around with different light/dark photos will help me hone my skill with this not-quite user-friendly flash.
I found a nice review of the HTC phone at Mobility Digest that includes a lot of screen shots.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomato Plant Update
We had a cold snap this past week in Minneapolis – well, not a snap so much as the temperature has plummeted and hasn’t come back up yet. I went out one morning and found my poor tomato plant bent over at the base – the main stem had weakened in the cold. I brought my three planters back inside and commandeered a corner in one of the apartment stairwells. I bolstered the tomato plant stem by resting the top of the plant against the wall and waited to see what would happen. It did bounce back, and is actually flowering, but I’m getting worried about the lack of direct sunlight. Ugh – cold, rainy, cloudy weather. Enough, already!
I found a great column in the NYTimes via Skepchick called What Every Girl Should Know. The article was written by Gail Collins and it outlines a few of the outrageous ways women used to try to prevent pregnancy. It includes a snippet from The Pill, sung by Loretta Lynn, and a few stories about Margaret Sanger and the melodramatic villan-esque Anthony Comstock.
And speaking of Loretta Lynn: Woman sang herself a song with The Pill!
Loretta Lynn: The Pill lyrics (source) – 1975 You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I’d be your wife
You’d show me the world
But all I’ve seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I’m tearin’ down your brooder house
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
All these years I’ve stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year thats gone by
Another babys come
There’s a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You’ve set this chicken your last time
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
This old maternity dress I’ve got
Is goin’ in the garbage
The clothes I’m wearin’ from now on
Won’t take up so much yardage
Miniskirts, hot pants and a few little fancy frills
Yeah I’m makin’ up for all those years
Since I’ve got the pill
I’m tired of all your crowin’
How you and your hens play
While holdin’ a couple in my arms
Another’s on the way
This chicken’s done tore up her nest
And I’m ready to make a deal
And ya can’t afford to turn it down
‘Cause you know I’ve got the pill
This incubator is overused
Because you’ve kept it filled
The feelin’ good comes easy now
Since I’ve got the pill
It’s gettin’ dark it’s roostin’ time
Tonight’s too good to be real
Oh but daddy don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
Oh daddy don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
My birthday weekend was pretty awesome. I went on a roadtrip on Saturday, and spent Sunday with the Hubby, friends and family.
Saturday: Road Adventures and A House Party
Ashley and I hung out on Saturday. We decided to go on a road trip down to the SPAM Museum in Austin, MN. We left Robbinsdale at about 10pm and fueled up with Carribou and snacks for the drive. Austin is located in South Central MN, about 1.75 hr from the Twin Cities.
I was a little suprised to see that the Spam Museum was actually very well done and a fun place to visit. It’s brand new (it opened in 2003), and there are all sorts of games and interactive displays to mess around with. Who knew Spam could be so interesting? The museum is truly a marketing wonder. I am a little ticked at the TV display showing the Monty Python clip featuring Spam. I’ve been humming it all weekend.
The SPAM Museum had a lot of the historical advertisements displayed, including this old-timey politically incorrect ad for Hormel Chili: “Made for Americans! It’s not too hot!. I can’t tell if they’re talking about the chili or the Caucasian “Senorita”.
And I almost lost it in the gift shop. I couldn’t help but notice that this little piggy likes his Spam a bit too much. I mean, seriously? Talk about a fatal attraction.
We were only in the Spam Museum for about an 1.5 hr, so Ashley and I decided to continue our road trip. We took the scenic route east through Preston, Lanesboro, Rushford and then up to my old stomping grounds of Winona before heading back up the Mississippi to Minneapolis. Ashley hadn’t been in this part of Minnesota before and I was delighted to see her excitement at the bluffs, the Root River, the woody hills and the Mississippi River. We stopped at Garvin Heights, a scenic overlook above Winona, which was nostalgic for me and pretty amazing for her.
Saturday night the Hubby and I went to a party at our friends’ house and hung out with a bunch of people who we don’t get to see that often, so that was an excellent treat. Speaking of treats: One of the hosts made Beef Wellington…soooo good…
Sunday: Shopping, Shopping, Eating, Swimming, More Eating
On Sunday morning we went to the Minneapolis Farmers Market. Now, you may have read my post from the last time I visited. April 24th was the “preview weekend” that didn’t start until 9am, but I didn’t know that so I showed up at 7am and the place looked like this:
Well, on Sunday May 8th we didn’t show up until 11am and…well, this is why I usually try to hit the Farmer’s Market at 7am:
The Market was wonderfully, insanely packed! I mean it was really, really packed, but the people watching was stupendous. All of the street musicians and performance artists were out. All of the vendor tents were up. There were flowers everywhere you looked, and tons and tons of veggies, meats, cheeses, spices. It was fabulous. What a difference a few weeks and a few hours makes!
After the Farmers Market, the Hubby and I headed over to this little Flea Market which we heard about from a friend who was vending there. It’s not a permanent thing – it was really more of a community garage sale, but with more eclectic items for sale. I found a metal coin bank – you know one of these guys (photo source):
Mine is older than at least late 1950’s because Pakistan isn’t on the map yet – it’s still a part of India. Africa contains these gems: French West Africa, Gold Coast, Belgian Congo, North and SouthRhodesia, Bechuana Land and Tanganyika. In the Middle East and Asia, Russia starts at Poland and Romania, and you can find the countries of Arabia, Manchuria, Tibet, Siam, and Netherland Indies.
The Hubby’s found this Fire Extinguisher for $10. It’s probably worth that in the copper or brass of which it’s made, and we found a similar extinguisher in Stillwater going for $95. He’s going to try to incorporate it into his steampunk or diesel punk costume that he’s working on for CONvergence.
After that we celebrated Mother’s Day with the Hubby Momma and my birthday with his family at QCumbers in Edina (a slightly upscale Old Country Buffet). I got some sweeeet birthday swag! Then we headed over to the YMCA for a little swimming and the hot tub, and finally we hit Tiger Sushi 2 in Minneapolis that evening to celebrate my birthday with some friends. A day of shopping, eating and swimming (and more eating!) – what’s not to love?
There’s nothing like a nice relaxing Friday evening with my friend the Internet. I can catch up on some of my favorite blogs and websites, follow links deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole that is Wikipedia, make new YouTube favorites (thanks to Cafe Witteveen for bringing this one to my attention):
But I do have the new Droid – Verizon’s HTC Incredible! Photo source.
And it is…it really is!
Back it up a minute…I decided not to go for the iPhone when I signed up for SCUBA lessons – the magic debit card only goes so far before it starts giggling hysterically at me. But I really, really wanted a smartphone for the 3G access. I want GPS, instant internet access and all of that computer-in-your-pocket technology.
So I did a little digging, and I found out that with my Verizon 2-year renewal contract plus an employer discount I was able to get a Droid Incredible for HALF of what I would have spent on an iPhone of equal memory. Score – SCUBA and a smartphone!
On to the awesomeness that is the Incredible.
Now, I just received it in the mail yesterday, so I’ve only started playing around with it. But it has the smooth movement of an iPhone – the scrolling screens fly by. I’ve got pinch, drag and swipe capabilities. The Incredible’s 8-megapixel camera blows iPhone’s 3MP camera out of the water. And maybe the biggest benefit of the Incredible is that I can stay on Verizon’s network instead of switching to AT&T.
The Android Market has a lot of similarities to iTunes App Store, but iTunes is for superior for number and variety of apps. That’s okay for me because I still have my iPod Touch which I can use to download must-haves from iTunes. I’ll keep my iPod and treat it as my primary music storage – look, now I have 32GB of storage across two devices (which is good, because I’ve already exceeded the 16GB limit on the iPod).
So far I’ve downloaded GeoBeagle (for geocaching), Google Earth, ColorNote (notepad), Color Flash (a superior version of the iTunes flashlight, IMHO), Urban Spoon, WordPress, and Calvin and Hobbes. Good times!
Melanie Booth over at Prattlenog was recently featured on Freshly Pressed for a post she wrote called Verb: To Blog. She explored the reasons why she believes she blogs and then asked this of her readers:
“What are your thoughts about “to blog?” Please share!”
So we did. I loved reading the answers from her 60+ commenters. Some people seem to have similar motivations as me for blogging, but others were quite unexpected. One commenter’s blog is devoted to her clothing line, one guy uses his blog to “help readers to solve their dilemmas”, someone uses their blog as a study guide for his/her course work, one woman is posting an online book. There were a couple of people who wrote non-English language blogs. I googled “Why Blog?” and came up with 424,000,000 search results.
I found an interesting article called Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated. It contains a very nice summary of Technorati’s 2009 The State of the Blogosphere, which was given at the 2009 Blogworld Expo (from this article I learned that are things called “Technorati”, “State of the Blogosphere” and “Blogworld Expo”. Who knew? Go to the article for all of the accompanying links). One of the graphs I liked was the “Please tell us the reasons why you blog”, shown below.
Go here for methodology, and here for the original graph.
So yeah, yeah, yeah…there are a gazillion and one reasons why people blog – personal, professional, selfish, selfless…it’s all good. Blog if you want to, don’t if you don’t. This question of “why blog” is critical to bloggers and those who use blogs, but it’s also exhaustively studied.
A more interesting question, in my opinion, started bumping around in my brain when one of Prattlenog’s commenters said that blogging is selfish because only 3% of bloggers comment on other people’s blogs. I started wondering:
Why and when do people comment on other blogs?
*Usually, I comment mostly when I feel that I have some knowledge, experience or opinion that can add to and continue the conversation. Social interaction, pure and simple. It’s fun to engage in intelligent debate and to share ideas with like-minded individuals.
*But I also blog to let authors know that I’m there. It is a thrill to receive comments from people, especially from new readers or from readers who don’t normally comment. Knowing how I feel when I get comments encourages me to comment on other blogs.
*Reader participation questions like Melanie’s (prattlenog) are another reason to comment. The author is asking What is your opinion? What do you think? Why do you do this? Okey-doke. I’m game.
*Lastly, and most self-servingly, making a particularly pithy or intelligent comment can actually draw new readership. Well-written comments at someone else’s blog are a form of advertisement, a sort of “if you like what you read here, zip on over to my blog for more!” Thus continues the social interaction, but now I’m the originator of new discussions.
Fun!
So if any of y’all 15 or so readers care to chime in, why do you comment on blogs – not necessarily on mine, but in general? Have I covered the main reasons or are there others?*
*Note the clever comment fishing with the “Reader Participation Question” as outlined in bullet 3 above!
Yeah for Kindergarden! Who doesn’t love kindergarden????
8am – Play Time!
9am – Snack Time!
10am – Sing the Bananaphone Song!
10:30am – Learn the Colors!
11am – Lunch Time!
11:30am – Play Time!
12:30pm – Nap time!
1:30pm – Gun Safety Class!
2:00pm – Play Time!
2:30pm – Snack Time
3:00pm – Go home with Mommy(ies) and/or Daddy(ies)!
Hey wait…what’s that at 1:30pm?
Virginia lawmakers have tasked the Virginia Board of Education to draft a firearm safety education class for elementary students.
I think it’s a great idea.
As long as we have guns all over the place, we might as well teach children to respect the damn things and to not be afraid of them. We teach kids to not play with fire, not walk alone after dark, not hang around swimming pools without adult supervision, we might as well teach them not to look down the wrong end of Daddy and Mommy’s hunting rifles and/or pistols. Gun safety, I’m all for. I don’t know if teaching kids how to shoot guns should be under the educational system’s purview; I think I’d have to go with the family’s wishes – maybe it would be an extracurricular club or an elective class? The VA board of education hasn’t yet released any details about whether they would offer training in the use or maintenance of guns.
