Edakation is Importunt

Reel importunt!Jon Karry told us so -

You know, education--if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

Yeah! U tell um Jon! Doughn't be like this hoser head!

Prince Harry is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran, defence sources have disclosed.

The third in line to the throne will join the Army's 1st Mechanised Brigade, which will be deployed to Basra in May 2007.

Christmas in Virginia

Late December here in Virginia has been unusually mild. While the family back in Denver get slammed with another major snow storm tonight, we had temperatures in the upper 50's. I spent a fair amount of time yesterday working in the yard.

Here's a shot Winnie took of me Christmas Eve over on the Riverwalk in Yorktown. That's right, no jacket, just a cotton sweater.

Welfare Stud

I am alternately appalled by this story, and impressed with the man's, ummmm, vigor.

Serge Régnier (as some readers may remember) is a 47-year old Belgian with three wives and thirty children. In 1986 Régnier married Christine Wuest (who is now 38). They have fifteen children, between 19 years and 11 months old. A couple of years later, Christine’s homeless sister Karine Wuest (now 35 years old) came to live with the couple. Soon she fell in love with Serge. Christine consented in her husband taking her sister as a second wife. Serge and Karine have six children, between 10 years and 10 months old.

All that time, Serge had been meeting his former girlfriend Judith De Leenheer (now 38 years old). When Judith’s marriage broke up – which was not altogether surprising since all her children were Serge’s rather than her husband’s – Serge asked his two wives whether they would mind taking her in. They did not mind. Serge and Judith have nine children, between 18 years and 10 months old. They all live together in Serge’s house in Marcinelle, a town in Wallonia, the French-speaking South of Belgium.

How can he afford this? Silly boy! He's disabled and the women are on welfare.

On one hand, I'm appalled at the cost this is passing to society, but on the other at least he has done his bit to prop up the non-Muslim population there. You could argue that his kids will pay back every penny in their 'earning years', but as the article makes clear, this area of Belgium has "several families that had been on the dole for three generations and did not have a single relative who was officially employed."

Engagement

Michael and Winifred Ryan, PhD of Gloucester Point, Virginia are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Erin Lee Ryan, to Mark David Lacy, PhD, son of David and Penelope Lacy of Worthing, Sussex, England.

Erin is a 2002 graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Astronomy. She is currently a PhD student in Astronomy at the University of Minnesota, and resides in Minneapolis. Mark is employed by the Spitzer Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, and resides in Pasadena, California.

No wedding date has been announced.

Kudos

Today I got a framed certificate from Keane commemorating my recent "K-PIN" award. This was my third such award, so I got the certificate.

The award was based on the appreciation letter my VDOT boss recently submitted. Apparently he's not ready to "fire my ass" just yet.

I also got a $100 gift certificate. It looks like I owe Scott a lunch.

Professor Ryan

So, Dr. Winnie will soon be an "Adjunct Professor" at Thomas Nelson Community College where she will start by offering "Principles of Sociology". She'd like to see what other courses they'd be interested in having her present. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this over time.

When the Going Gets Tough...

...the French get going. Even cowering in Kabul is too much for them.

France is to withdraw its 200-strong special forces from Afghanistan, all of its ground troops engaged in the U.S anti-terror operation there, authorities announced Sunday.
France has balked at sending its 1,100-strong NATO contingent outside the relatively safe Afghan capital, Kabul.

Santapalooza

Last night Winnie and I attended the Santapalooza concert at the Norva Theater. On the bill were Leigh Nash (formerly of Sixpence None the Richer), Sister Hazel, and Barenaked Ladies.

All of it was great. I would have appreciated hearing more from Leigh Nash (her set was only about 5 songs). I have "all two" SPNTR albums, and really enjoy them. I went down and bought her new album (and got her Christmas album, gratis), but missed getting it signed. Rats!

Sister Hazel was quite the deal with the guys playing so hard that guitar strings popped. I'll probably be shopping around for their stuff too.

The Barenaked Ladies were awesome. I wouldn't have thought these guys, who are all around 40 now, could show that much energy on stage. They didn't play everything I might have hoped for, but if they had they would have been up there a long time. "The Old Apartment", "One Week", "It's All Been Done", "Alcohol", "Call and Answer", "Brian Wilson" were all in the set, and in their three encores they finished off with "If I Had A $1,000,000." There were more, but I don't remember them all.

The Norva is kind of an odd theater. Their website notes that there is some seating, but the best view is standing. Wrong. The only view is standing. The seating is all clustered around the three full service bars in the place. We weren't drinking, probably to their financial detrement. I'm sure they make a lot that way.

As we entered, the ground floor was really crowded already. I suggested we check out the upstairs. We did, and eventually found us a place off to the side where we had a really good, unobstructed view. It was kind of hard on us old farts (no chairs, etc.) but most of the rest of the crowd was of a "similar" age. Most of them were getting really well lubricated though.

By the time BNL were a couple of songs into their set, the bouncers decided we weren't looking too dangerous, and let Winnie and I right up to the rail, where we really lean over and watch. Didn't figure we'd throw any beer bottles or anything. These photos are absolutely indicative of the sort of spot we had. It was great.

The trip home was 'something' too. There was some sort of major accident on the Interstate, which they entirely closed. We were left driving around a part of Norfolk or Virginia Beach, where we had no idea where we were. Eventually we made it back to the Interstate in an open section. Then, when we're almost home we got stopped again. This time right at the foot of the Coleman Bridge, only a mile from home. Sobriety checkpoint. Hmmm, maybe it was fortunate we weren't drinking after all.

Political Patronage

This state runs on it.

Governor Kaine just proposed his new budget to the General Assembly. Included was $305M for a few new construction projects for VDOT. The list included building a bypass around the small western town of Hillsville. Intrigued, I looked it up. The project is $24M to build a 3 mile long bypass around the town. The population is about 3000.

The traffic they are looking to reroute is on US 58. With the town only being a couple miles of I-77, about 15000 vehicles per day travel on US 58 between the town and the Interstate. Only around 5000 come out of town on the other side on US 58. We can safely guess that, for at least a while, that traffic won't change much.

Is this cost effective? How does it help the town? Will the economy of the town improve when cars no longer pass through it?

I live on a suburban street, and VDOT has measured the traffic on my street at 2900 vehicles per day. I wonder if we could get them to invest $12M to reroute some of this traffic?

I can only assume that this is a sop thrown to the rural areas to get their support. Otherwise such a project just doesn't make sense.

Power Lines

No, silly, not that other blog. You know, lines carrying electricity. Apparently building these for the benefit of people in cities will destroy all that is holy about rural Virginia.

Power line opponents were sensitive Monday to the perception that a few well-heeled gentleman farmers concerned about the views from their estates are blocking progress and jeopardizing electricity for the region.

"This is not about a few wealthy landowners' self-interest," (actor Robert) Duvall said at the news conference. "This is about corporate vandalism."

Martha Toomey of Orlean said the power lines would hurt a region that has eschewed residential growth and sought to build an economy based on agriculture and tourism.

"We're not sitting out here making daisies. This is about business," Toomey said.

Having recently driven through those areas, I'm skeptical to any proclamations about farming. Robert Duvall may indeed have a farm, but most of the 'farmers' living in Fauquier are raising horses, not growing soybeans. Rich people with their toys.

You know, some other areas of the country have found that tourism can be a part of their local economy even when it's not rural. Take the above photo. The little, out-of-place house in the middle originally sat on 32 acres all by itself in the middle of rural Manhattan. Now it's near W 141st St in NYC.

That house belonged to Alexander Hamilton, patriot, war hero, and first Treasury Secretary. Sounds historic to me. Maybe they ought to restore it by tearing down all those other cluttery buildings around it, huh?


Heaven forbid, what would they think today about this second picture. See the peninsula in the upper left corner? That's Jamestown. You know, Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. Pretty historic stuff!

See the peninsula in the lower right? The one with the little straight canals? That's the Surry Nuclear Power Station. Could they even think about building that, today, only 4 miles from the first permanent English settlement on the continent?

Well, at least while Duvall and his cronies are burning horse poops for warmth, I'll have a nice electric supply.

Now, That's a Heavy Sleeper

I've slept through some things in my life (or at least pretended to), but this one takes the prize.

Dustin Noffsinger is lucky he hasn't been banished to the couch for all eternity. The last time he fell asleep there, his wife gave birth to their son in the bathtub, and he slept right through it.

On the night of Nov. 28, Noffsinger and his wife, Rhonda Richardson, went to bed in their Rifle home. Rhonda slept upstairs by herself because she wasn't feeling well.

Then early Wednesday, the 22-year-old Richardson started having contractions. Because her baby wasn't due until Christmas Eve, she called her midwife and was told to take her medicine, relax and take a hot bath. So she did.

A few minutes later, Richardson had an urge to push, and she could see the baby coming out. "I started screaming for my husband when I saw his head," Richardson recalled. "But no reaction. I could hear him snoring."

She screamed again but no luck. Noffsinger was crashed out, having stayed up with his wife for the past few days.

The baby came out but was still inside his amniotic sac, so Richardson used her fingernails to breach it.

At that point, finally awakened by his wife's screams, Noffsinger, 30, raced upstairs. "I woke up, and she had Dorian (the baby) in her arms, and I said, 'What the heck is going on?"' he said.

They called 911, and an ambulance took Richardson to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs. On Sunday, baby and mother were allowed to go home.

Keep the U.N. Out of Our Beeswax

The U.N. is dreadfully worried that the Internet causes users to need to create user IDs and passwords, which they will inevitably re-use elsewhere. Their proposed solution is that we do reuse them, but that a better job be done coordinating this. (Great, so one gets hacked, they all get hacked).

The number of passwords and logins web users need makes it inevitable they will re-use phrases, warned the International Telecommunications Union.

Re-using these identifiers puts people at serious risk of falling victim to identity theft, said the ITU report.

It called on regulators and businesses to find better ways for people to identify themselves to websites.

Why am I suspicious of their motives? Hey, Kofi! Mind your own business!

Stuck on an Airplane

Normally, I prefer to sit next to women on an airplane as opposed to, say, some big beefy guy.

Well, maybe not this woman.

Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning.

American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers reported smelling struck matches, said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority.

The plane landed safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport authority responded to the emergency, Lowrance said.

The passengers and five crew members were brought off the plane, together with all the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs found spent matches.

The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said. The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition.

The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane.

"American has banned her for a long time," Lowrance said.

She was not charged but could have been. While it is legal to bring as many as four books of paper safety matches onto an aircraft, it is illegal to strike a match in an airplane, Lowrance said.

Good Day / Bad Day

This was one of those days at work that had it's ups and downs.

On the good side, I found out that my company has given me a commendation. These go to around 10 people per month, out of a workforce of around 10,000. This is the third time I've received one. Pretty cool. I assume they'll be mentioning this at my service anniversary dinner on Thursday.

On the down side, while checking my current vacation balance with the HR folks, I found out that I earned one week more of vacation this year than I had thought. (I thought the increased rate didn't kick in until next year.) Why is that bad? Because our vacation is use-or-lose every year, and my customer doesn't want me to take off 2 1/2 weeks in December. (I was planning to take 1 1/2 weeks anyway.)

So, unless the company gives special dispensation to allow this "commended" employee to roll it over into next year, I'm going to lose a week of sorely needed vacation.

Argh!

Property Assessment - Revisited

A few weeks ago I wrote about our surprisingly successful effort to get our property reappraisal reconsidered. The Equalization Board is still at it, working on last year's appraisals, STILL.

As Gloucester's Board of Equalization nears the end of its work to rectify mistakes made to recent real estate assessments, the owners of nearly 400 properties are already seeking Circuit Court relief, said an at-large county supervisor.

The statement by Michelle Ressler was made during an informational meeting attended by about 30 people Monday night. She said 398 county properties are the subject of Circuit Court appeals contesting property appraisals by Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal that were reviewed by the board of equalization.

County attorney Bill Stuck said Circuit Court appeals could be filed for three years after the board concludes its work in December.

In Blue Ridge's 2006 appraisals, countywide property values increased by about 80 percent on average and as much as 400 percent in some cases. The appraisals have been the subject of repeated complaints since early this year.

The equalization board has until Dec. 31 to complete the reviews intended to fix discrepancies in property values.

Ressler said more than 7,300 Blue Ridge assessments have been scheduled for review since March. So far, those reviews have reduced countywide private property assessments by $36 million, while increasing commercial property assessments by $99 million, she said.

George Woodhouse, chairman of the Board of Equalization, said the board would also review 528 commercial properties where functional problems that weren't addressed - such as limited access - caused property values to be unduly increased. Those properties will see value reductions by 30 percent or more, he said.

Once the board is finished, the Gloucester Board of Supervisors will have to decide how to handle court challenges.

Stuck, the county attorney, said Gloucester could not ask the court for a blanket nullification of the reassessments. Instead, each appeal to the Circuit Court must be heard individually, he said, answering a resident's question about whether a class action lawsuit was feasible.

Ressler said the county has hired a property assessor and will no longer use an outside contractor for the work. County officials have also decided to reduce the span between assessments from every four years to every two years, she said.

Limits on Acceptable Christmas Wreaths - UPDATED

Today we have this charming story out of Colorado.

In a town in scenic southwestern Colorado homeowners are battling over whether a Christmas wreath that includes a peace sign is an anti-Iraq war protest or even a promotion of Satan.

"We have had three or four complaints. Some people have kids in Iraq and they are sensitive," said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He also said some believe it is a symbol of Satan.

Jeff Heitz, of the association board, sent a letter to Lisa Jensen saying: "Loma Linda residents are offended by the peace sign displayed on the front of your house. ... This Board will not allow any signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive...."

The subdivision's convenants say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee.

When Kearns ordered the association's architectural control committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath removed, they refused. Jack Lilly, chairman of the group, said it decided it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Lilly also said he had received no complaints from homeowners. Kearns fired all five members of the committee.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," said Kearns in a telephone interview Sunday. Earlier another homeowner had complied when required to take down a peace sign that was made of a pie plate held up by two skis.

Jensen, a past president of the association in the subdivision of 200 homes 270 miles southwest of Denver, said: "I honestly wasn't thinking of the Iraq war. Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing. I am not going to take it down until after Christmas. Now that it has come to this I feel I can't get bullied. What if they don't like my Santa Claus."

Kearns said the association will fine Jensen $25 a day for every day it remains up. She calculates that will cost her about $1,000, although she doubts they will be able to make her pay.

Kearns, meanwhile, also said he was concerned about the pagan symbolism of the peace sign. "It's also an anti-Christ sign. That's how it started," he told the Durango Herald.

Let's start with the last part. First, the pagan symbolism thing, is a load of you-know-what. Some will try to tell you otherwise, but unless you are willing to concede Richard Nixon and Winston Churchill as Satanists, I think you better let it rest.

Second, I suppose in the wild and wacky world of Home Owners Associations and the courts, someone might rule that an offensive pagan religious display may be banned. However, at this point, out of consistency, Mr. Kearns will be telling everyone to take down their lights and Santas. If you ban one religious display, you've got to ban them all.

"Oh, it's only those pagans we're trying to stop." Really? Where do you draw the line at pagan (i.e. non-Christian)? Does that allow you to prevent someone from displaying a menorah on their lawn? What about if the local Morman family (and there are plenty in Colorado) wants to put up a lighted Rudolph? There are certainly some who don't consider the LDS church as Christian. To them, it's a crazy cult.

Third, crazy as our culture is, I suppose they can ban it based on the concept that it is "political". However, the First Amendment says

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So, if the wreath is carrying a religious message or a political one (petition for redress), the first amendment explicitly protects it. Thus, the proper stance for Ms. Jensen is to tell Mr. Kearns to F- Off! Signs, billboards, and advertising are supposedly banned without approval of the HOA, and those aren't political speech, and so enjoy lesser Constitutional protection. Fine. But by Mr. Kearns own statement, he believes the matter is political, so he's damned himself here.

(By the way, does this mean everyone would be OK with this if she hung the wreath in her car window? Then, it's not attached to the 'architecture'. How about, if she gets one of those old-fashioned 'colored light-wheel' things you would use with an aluminum Christmas tree, and just projects a peace symbol on her own house?)

Fourth, did you notice in the article that the whole matter went through the proper channels and when Mr. Kearns didn't get the response he wanted from the architectural review board he fired them en masse? Wow! Quite a democratic process they've got going there when the president of the HOA can just fire anyone that doesn't agree with him.

UPDATE - Well the HOA has backed down and apologized for the misunderstanding. The two silly HOA doofuses (doofi?) that ordered the wreath's removal have now changed to unlisted phone numbers. The "complainer" has been publicly identified, and no doubt will be changing his phone number soon, too.

And that five-member architectural review board that heard, but rejected, the original complaint? The board turns out to include two Vietnam and one Korean War vet. Apparently someone understands what freedon is about.

Home Science Experiment

As Jamie would say on MythBusters, "now that's what I'm talking about!" I definitely think this kid is destined for something great, based on this science fair project. Hopefully that's some thing great and "good".

On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.

In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build -- a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion -- when atoms are combined to create energy -- is "kind of like the holy grail of physics," he said.

In fact, on http://www.fusor.net/, the Stoney Creek senior is ranked as the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion. So, how does he do it? Pointing to the steel chamber where all the magic happens, Thiago said on Friday that this piece of the puzzle serves as a vacuum. The air is sucked out and into a filter.

Then, deuterium gas -- a form of hydrogen -- is injected into the vacuum. About 40,000 volts of electricity are charged into the chamber from a piece of equipment taken from an old mammogram machine. As the machine runs, the atoms in the chamber are attracted to the center and soon -- ta da -- nuclear fusion.

Can You Say "Ouch?"

Feel fortunate that the on-line version of the paper doesn't include photos. The original print article did.

Q: How was severe constipation treated in early 17th-century Virginia?

A: One method called for using a foot-long iron tool called a "spatula mundani."

"Mundani" derives from the word "mundify," which means "to make clean," says a Web site run by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

The tool's spoon end was used for the actual medical procedure. The spatula end was probably used for stirring or applying ointments.

Archaeologists found a spatula mundani at Jamestown. Records say it was shipped there with other medical tools in 1609.

The Yorktown Pub's in Trouble

I've written several entries in which I mentioned the Yorktown Pub, most recently on 19 October. Now it seems that they are in some trouble.

A popular watering hole is under state scrutiny following several reports of over-serving alcohol to patrons, one of whom has been tied to the death of a Hampton man in a September boat crash.

Agents with the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control are investigating whether the Yorktown Pub has violated state liquor laws in several cases of dangerously excessive drinking over the past three months.

The investigation stems from the boat crash that killed 27-year-old Casey Marks of Hampton, said ABC spokeswoman Beth Straeten. Marks and two Poquoson men had been drinking at the pub before they boarded a Boston whaler on Sept. 12 and crashed full-speed into a pier along the Yorktown waterfront...

An ABC investigator is also looking into two cases from October in which pub patrons were so drunk that they had to be hospitalized. On Oct. 20, a York County sheriff's deputy came across a group of sailors crowded around an unconscious man near the Yorktown Pub. Witnesses said the man had been drinking at the pub and was heavily inebriated, according to a search warrant for the man's medical records and toxicology tests.

I'm a bit surprised at this. Most of their patrons tend to be middle-class middle-age old farts, like me. Hardly the type you'd think would get that plastered in public. Note the reference to the 20th? I'm guessing the "group of sialors" are the same we were in the pub with that night.

The Bottom Drops Out on Starbucks...

I've been waiting for this. Even here, in quasi-rural Virginia the density of Starbucks has now exceeded that of McDonalds. There is one spot, around our nearest mall, where there are now at least 7 Starbucks inside a 2 mile diameter circle. Our local grocery chain, Farm Fresh, is putting a Starbucks kiosk in all their new and renovated stores.

Despite all the openings, it's down the tubes time. (Guys, this is called "market saturation". You might want to look the term up.) -

Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit slipped 5 percent, but only because of changes in accounting rules. Despite solid revenue growth and a record number of new store openings, the results sent the stock sinking in after-hours trading.

Uh-huh. Those pesky accounting rules are doing it again.

Revenue for the quarter was $2 billion, up 20 percent from $1.66 billion in the same period last year...Starbucks opened 2,199 new store stores in fiscal 2006, setting a company record and boosting its worldwide store count to 12,440.

So you have 21% more stores than a year ago, and your sales revenue, not accounting for inflation, has increased by 20% in the same period. The Consumer Price Index is up 1.3% over a year ago, so their adjusted revenue growth is more like 19%. It would be interesting to look at their quarterly filings and see what same-store-sales have done over last year. I suspect they are way down.

Still, you gotta love this quote. -

Some analysts voiced concerns about increased payroll costs, which the company attributed to staffing more stores with assistant managers. Chairman Howard Schultz said it was part of a strategy to make sure the company has enough trained managers to keep its steadily growing number of stores running smoothly.

Should I be amused that not all stores had assistant managers before? I mean, what happens when the manager isn't there? Who's in charge? On the other hand, given the penchant for fast food places to make assistant managers out of anyone who lasts 6 months, this makes a sort of twisted sense. We'll give these guys there own stores to manage!

Though I'd also note that the first stores were big, spacious and full of comfy chairs, and then the new stores were smaller with cafe tables, then tiny with a drive-through window, and now a kiosk in my grocery store. Coming next, a guy with a cart on the street. Damn, too late, they're already here. Gosh, what a privilege to be the "Manager" of one of those.