Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Thursday, May 14, 1914. The Life of General Villa
New Horse Market, Omaha, Nebraska, May 14, 1914.
The Life of General Villa was released as a film by D. W. Griffith. Villa was played by Villa.
Last prior edition:
Tuesday, May 12, 1914. A Marian Apparition.
Monday, May 12, 2014
No More Bromine: Coke, Pepsi Drop Controversial Ingredient : The Salt : NPR
No More Bromine: Coke, Pepsi Drop Controversial Ingredient : The Salt : NPR
In the "really. . . there was nothing else to worry about department. . . ."
In the "really. . . there was nothing else to worry about department. . . ."
Removes 99% of Makeup . . .
Heard on a television advertisement as I walked out to head to work this morning.
Here's a thought. Dispense entirely with makeup. That removes 100% of makeup.
A cranky opinion I know, but I'm operating on very little sleep today and cranky as a result. But makeup is largely a fraud on women.
Women do not need makeup. It's a huge industry that promotes the idea that people look better by not really looking natural, which is absurd. Indeed, at its most absurd, it promotes the idea that by using it you look natural, when obviously you look the most natural by not wearing it.
Nobody really looks better than they do in a state of nature by wearing makeup.
Here's a thought. Dispense entirely with makeup. That removes 100% of makeup.
A cranky opinion I know, but I'm operating on very little sleep today and cranky as a result. But makeup is largely a fraud on women.
Women do not need makeup. It's a huge industry that promotes the idea that people look better by not really looking natural, which is absurd. Indeed, at its most absurd, it promotes the idea that by using it you look natural, when obviously you look the most natural by not wearing it.
Nobody really looks better than they do in a state of nature by wearing makeup.
Tuesday, May 12, 1914. A Marian Apparition.
There will be a war. Russia will become a godless country. Ukraine, as a nation, will suffer terribly for eighty years – and will have to live through the world wars, but will be free afterwards.
Reported words of the Virgin Mary at Hrushiv, Ukraine, on this day in 1914.
On this day in 1914 twenty people reported the commencement of an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the Ukrainian village of Hrushiv.
Fatima is by far the most famous of the widely accepted Marian apparitions of the 20th Century, although there are others. There would be a lengthy series of them at the same site in 1987.
Showing that moronic destruction of art is not a new thing, Suffragist Gertrude Mary Angsell damaged a portrait of the Duke of Welling by Hubert von Herkomer while it was displayed at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens was opened in Jacksonville, Florida. A red deer fawn as the first exhibit
Last prior edition:
Monday, May 11, 1914. The Honored Dead.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Summer has been cancelled.
Is anyone else enjoying an ongoing winter in their part of the globe this year?
It's snowing again here right now. And I don't mean barely, I mean its really coming down. Probably snow all day.
Snowed last week a couple of times too. Flew to Denver one day it was really coming down here to find that it had snowed slightly in Denver as well.
Not really that unusual for this region, but snow every week is a bit unusual. With all the reservoirs full for the first time in decades we might be in for flooding.
And of course, I just brought my lawnmower in to try to deal with the lawn yesterday, and didn't get to the back yard. We went to see a showing of Doctor Zhivago, which is touring in a restored version (highly recommended). So about 1/3d of the back yard is done and now it's snowing. It was almost like a hay crop as it was. I may have to invest in a couple of sheep.
Again, this is actually normal weather here, albeit not for the past few years. But it's a normal and wet spring, for sure. And a snowy one.
It's snowing again here right now. And I don't mean barely, I mean its really coming down. Probably snow all day.
Snowed last week a couple of times too. Flew to Denver one day it was really coming down here to find that it had snowed slightly in Denver as well.
Not really that unusual for this region, but snow every week is a bit unusual. With all the reservoirs full for the first time in decades we might be in for flooding.
And of course, I just brought my lawnmower in to try to deal with the lawn yesterday, and didn't get to the back yard. We went to see a showing of Doctor Zhivago, which is touring in a restored version (highly recommended). So about 1/3d of the back yard is done and now it's snowing. It was almost like a hay crop as it was. I may have to invest in a couple of sheep.
Again, this is actually normal weather here, albeit not for the past few years. But it's a normal and wet spring, for sure. And a snowy one.
Poll: Prestigious Colleges Won't Make You Happier In Life Or Work : The Two-Way : NPR
Poll: Prestigious Colleges Won't Make You Happier In Life Or Work : The Two-Way : NPR
Interesting findings (and timely for this time of year).
I wish that the Presidents would learn that going to an Ivy League law school doesn't necessarily mean you'd make a better Federal appellate judge. In recent years, that's all we seem to be getting at the Supreme Court level, which is frankly a worrisome thing. Of course, it's also the case that in recent years our Presidents have tended to all come of Ivy League schools as well.
Interesting findings (and timely for this time of year).
I wish that the Presidents would learn that going to an Ivy League law school doesn't necessarily mean you'd make a better Federal appellate judge. In recent years, that's all we seem to be getting at the Supreme Court level, which is frankly a worrisome thing. Of course, it's also the case that in recent years our Presidents have tended to all come of Ivy League schools as well.
Listen To These Lovely Cats. No, Actually, Don't : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR
Listen To These Lovely Cats. No, Actually, Don't : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR
They do sound truly awful, the few times I've actually heard their smaller cousins, the Bobcat.
They do sound truly awful, the few times I've actually heard their smaller cousins, the Bobcat.
Monday, May 11, 1914. The Honored Dead.
A national tribute was held in New York City for servicemen killed in the Battle of Veracruz.
Last prior edition:
Sunday, May 10, 1914. Mother's Day.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Sunday, May 10, 1914. Mother's Day.
It was the first official Mother's Day, the proclamation having been issued yesterday.
The U.S. Navy brought back the bodies of service men who had died over a snit over how the Mexican government was to apologize for a mistake.
The French Radical Party won a plurality of votes for the French Assembly. In spite of their name, they are a center left French republican party.
Shipwrecked Karluck captain Robert Bartlett left Intuit guide Kataktovik in Emma Town, Siberia and traveled with a Russian escort to Emma Harbor in his ongoing effort to seek a rescue for the Canadian Arctic Expedition survivors on Wrangel Island.
Last prior edition:
Saturday, May 9, 1914. A Mothers Day Proclamation.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Why did the bond issue fail?
I can't ever recall a school bond issue failing here before, like the one that did yesterday, and it was only last year that the voters approved a Casper College bond. So what happened? A lot of bond supporters are asking that now.
Natrona County High School.
It's always hard to answer a question like that, of course, but what I'm hearing right now from various people is the following:
1. The School Board chairman noted that County Assessor's tax notice came out just a couple of days prior to the election, and it noted what the additional tax would be for each recipient. It amounted to $22.00 per $100,000. He feels the bond was winning up until that point.
$22.00/100,000 doesn't seem like a lot for what we were receiving, but to some people it is viewed as such. I heard one well off person complaining that we were still paying on the college bond, even though that person is a millionaire. So people can react to a think like that.
2. Based on comments that appear where the public can comment, there's a fair degree of Tea Party thought in the county right now, and as part of that there seems to be a general opposition to taxes and even pretty much to any governmental entity, school boards included. That surprises me for this county, and perhaps its not as many as it appears, but there are clearly some folks who viewed this in that fashion. One of the main opponents of the bond posted information to a page that represents itself as a Tea Party organ, so there was at least a little of that.
Tied into that, Tea Party folks are still very fired up by the events surrounding Cindy Hill, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Hill has been a lightening rod of one kind or another. She generally came out of the Tea Party element of the GOP and has very distinct views. Her administration of the department was highly controversial which lead to a legislative effort that limited her powers, although most in favor of the act that did that noting that the department was long overdue for reform. She subsequently sued and the Wyoming Supreme Court overturned the law that limited her authority. All of this has lead her supporters to actually support censure of certain legislators and the Governor, although the action against the Governor recently failed. Hill is running for Governor.
That wouldn't seem to have any relationship to the bond, and in real terms it does not, but some of her supporters do not quite see it that way for some reason. They also generally oppose Common Core, although quite a few people outside their ranks also do, which also doesn't have any direct connection but which some of them see as linked.
Added in even further, a legislative committee, late term, went in and actually modified the state science standards to eliminate curriculum dealing with global warming, on the basis that they apparently thought it to be propaganda against the state's largest industry. School boards and the department of education have been going back and looking at what they can do in regards to teaching the science. This also has nothing to do with the bond, but it puts education topics in the news at a bad time.
3. Some folks oppose taxes in general. One fellow I know just will not vote for a tax, that's his policy. Additionally, the City of Casper has been in the news recently due to accusations that its .01 optional tax hasn't been used wisely, which makes people mad about taxes in general.
A troubling aspect of this is that if we tend to always oppose taxes, eventually it seems to be the case that the local option to tax or not slowly evaporates. This happened in regard to the courthouse here, which failed in bond elections twice. Eventually the state undertook the cost. That made other counties upset, but the bigger story there is that mineral revenues are declining at the same time that the state is funding more and local entities less, which means that sooner or later the taxes will be there, but the local say may well be done.
4. Some folks strongly opposed a single item in the bond.
Everyone seemed to support safety upgrades, although obviously not enough to vote for the bond in slightly over half of the instances noted. But in post voting comments, it's interesting to note that some people were strongly opposed to the CAPS facility while supporting the pools, and vice versa.
I think there was a fair degree of misunderstanding in both instances. CAPS is being built. That's just the way it is, so voting against the bond is a protest vote at best. Folks who voted against CAPS while favoring the pools torpedoed the pools, but are getting CAPS anyhow.
Having said that, the one thing in this that I somewhat understand is people who were opposed to the CAPS facility and resented it. This came about because of a worthwhile concern of a different sitting school board which rightly noted that technical training needed to be upgraded at the schools, and that there was inadequate school space. The thought at that time was that a new high school should be added.
That thought was right. The county has four high schools, with one being a small alternative education school with very little in the way of extra facilities. One is in Midwest, a town on the edge of the county, that serves every grade in that town. The two big schools are NCHS and KWHS. They're definitely overburdened in handling as many students as they do. A third school would have made real sense.
Instead, the then sitting board determined not to do that, and for a really aggravating reason. Adding a new school would have dropped the county's high school athletics down a class. That is, Natrona County's kids would have been competing in some lower class, 3A I think.
Well, who cares?
It would have only lasted for a couple of years, but apparently that's a big deal to people for some reason. Indeed, it's such a big deal that Campbell County has for years operated under the fiction that it has one high school with two "campuses", which is of course absurd. But that way it has unified teams that can compete in 4A. I don't really care about that, but it is aggravating to realize that KWHS and NCHS were deprived of technical facilities so that we could stay 4A.
So, following Campbell County's lead in a fashion, we decided to have one high grade technical facility, CAPS, and to build a new building for Roosevelt, the alternative school. We are doing that, but that did built a lot of resentment with people including, as I've learned as we proceeded along on this, a lot of teachers. I'm sure a majority of teachers voted for the bond, but not all of them did, and CAPS is largely the reason why.
The irony, as noted, is that we're getting CAPS no matter what. It's not the way I'd have gone about it, but it's what's occurring, so fully equipping it is a must.
And it'll apparently happen as the one thing that the district has already indicated is that it will start saving money over time to equip it. So, the folks who voted against CAPS didn't really achieve their goal, but they did accidentally help keep NC from having a pool. That appears to be a permanent done deal.
Opposition to the pool I don't understand. It seems its regarded as "nice" but an extravagance, by quite a few people. By the same token, there's never been any opposition to keeping the NC football field and stadium, which were once slated to be taken out. That sparked a real protest movement. A big football field is nice, but it serves the same purpose as a pool. And in this county, swimming instruction is required. Now that is going to be difficult to achieve.
NCHS football player at KW stadium, Oil Bowl 1980. Soon thereafter it was proposed that the NC Stadium be torn down.
For years and years I always said "I don't have anything against football" when topics like this came up, but I'm afraid that's slowly changing for me, and that's all the more reason I find this aggravating. Now, I do agree a field is necessary, but not just for football. But I do continue to be amazed by the way that football so dominates the outside discussion of high school athletics. I don't oppose the game, but I've gotten to where I do now worry about the head injury impacts that are becoming increasingly associated with the game. I work on too many matters where people have sustained a traumatic brain injury not to take that very seriously. It worries me that we seemingly sort of ignore that at this level, with potential long term devastating effect. At some point, and probably some point soon, it'll be addressed, I'm sure. I note that there's no longer high school boxing like their was when I was in high school, which was also thought perfectly harmless at the time. Football won't disappear, I'm sure, but it's probable that the game and equipment will be modified.
I do wish, however, that people who find a pool extravagant would appreciate that it teaches something that's life saving at best and a lifetime activity always. Now that's impaired and the need for the pool was every bit as great as the need for a field.
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