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Short essays and thoughts on items of popular interest such as politics, economics, current events,sports, and just about anything else that catches our attention.
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Saturday, December 06, 2003
Refdesk Thoughts of the Day: If more of us valued food and cheer and song ... "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien Level with your child ... "Level with your child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child." - Mary MacCracken When we seek to discover ... "When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." - William Arthur Ward Do not fear greatness ... "Do not fear greatness. Some men are born with greatness, some men achieve greatness, and some men have greatness thrust upon them." - William Shakespeare Throw your dreams into space ... "Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." - Anais Nin Today's Refdesk Links of the Day are: The Writer's Almanac The Writer's Almanac, a daily program of poetry and history hosted by Garrison Keillor, can be heard each day on public radio stations throughout the country. Each day's program is about five minutes long—check your local radio listings for the station and time in your area. An entire year of almanac entries is available. Conversion Calculator This conversion calculator from InfoPlease provides helpful information in many categories including: Length/Distance, Area, Volume, Weight/Mass, Cooking and Time. Digital History This site enhances history teaching and research through primary sources, an online textbook, extensive reference resources, and interactive materials. This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston. The materials on this site include a U.S. history textbook, over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history. The Evolution of the Conservation Movement The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress. The collection consists of 62 books and pamphlets, 140 Federal statutes and Congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record, 360 Presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, 2 historic manuscripts, and 2 motion pictures. Power Reporting: Resources for Journalists This site provides thousands of free research tools for journalists including: search tools, government links, people finders, company and non-profit links, a tutorial on Web searching and much more. BEER! BEER! BEER! (From Eugene, our Suffolk correspondent.) "An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk in order to spend time with his friends." Ernest Hemingway ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." Henny Youngman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." Stephen Wright ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!" Brian O'Rourke ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Benjamin Franklin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BEER: HELPING UGLY PEOPLE HAVE SEX SINCE 3000 B.C.!!! "Genesis" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true, than be selfish and worry about my liver." Jack Handy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I once mixed water with whiskey and had a very bad hangover. Now I've given up drinking water. Unknown ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Well ya see, Norm, it's like this...A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In his way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers." Cliff explaining some important facts about drinking to Norm on "Cheers". Quote of the Week: (From Veteran's Advantage.) The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. - John F. Kennedy Perspicacity! A woman was shopping at her local supermarket where she selected: a half-gallon of 2% milk, a carton of eggs, a quart of orange juice, a head of romaine lettuce, a 2 lb. can of coffee, and a 1 lb. package of bacon. As she was unloading her items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind her watched as she placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up her purchases, the drunk calmly stated, "You must be single." The woman was a bit startled by this proclamation, but she was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since she was indeed single. She looked at her six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about her selections that could have tipped off the drunk to her marital status. Curiosity getting the better of her, she said "Well, you know what, you're absolutely correct. But how on earth did you know that?" The drunk replied, "Cause you're ugly." (Editor's Note: Any comments about the above joke should be addressed to Mal, our Left Coast correspondent.) Virus Alert Message (Courtesy of Pamela, our Bay Ridge correspondent.) The main purpose of the virus\worm described below is to steal your personal and credit card information. Note: As a good rule you should never open attachments from unknown individuals. Mimail Virus Description If you get an e-mail message warning you that your PayPal account is about to expire, don't open it. If you open it, don't double-click the attachment. If you double-click the attachment, don't complete the form asking for your credit card information. And if you do fill in the form, call your credit card company immediately. And don't blame PayPal. The problem is an e-mail virus, Mimail.I, first spotted on November 13. Most viruses are sick jokes; this one's out to steal your money. How It Works Mimail (pronounced "my mail") arrives in an e-mail that appears to be from PayPal. In very convincing language, it states that your account will expire soon unless you resubmit your credit card information. "We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause," the text politely reads. The letter even appears concerned about your privacy: "Please do not send your personal information through e-mail, as it will not be as secure." Instead, it asks that you run the attached program. That's where you enter your valuable information, which it then sends to four different e-mail addresses. It also scours your hard drive for new e-mail addresses to send the same bogus message. These messages, like the one you got, are "spoofed" to appear as if they came from PayPal. (Editor's Note: The battle continues. This morning we received an e-mail from "Visa International" informing us that our Visa card was suspended due to security concerns. We were then to go to a website they sent us to reactivate our account. The problem was that this same message was sent to four different e-mails we use. An impossibility since only one account is registered with Visa. Also, yesterday we received a message purportedly form the security department of our ISP saying we were sending out e-mails infected with a virus. We were then to go to a website that would help us. Another impossibility since we run a virus scan two times a week and update our virus definitions three times a week. When we checked with our ISP, the message was another "spoof" Be careful out on the information superhighway. |