Month: October 2007

A Work of Heart

And a work of art, too.

Our oldest granddaughter Juli turned five last week.

Our middle daughter Dora saw a cake photo in a magazine. So on Friday she used the photo, her own imagination, a bunch of ingredients, and at least two hours of her life.

The result:

[Juli's cake by Aunt Dora]

[Juli's cake by Aunt Dora]

A very good job, I dare say, especially for one who has taken no lessons to do such stuff.

PS: A bunch of us ate a bunch of it last night.

As usual, clicking the image will take you to one twice the size.

Licking the cake didn’t have the same effect. Well, I assume it wouldn’t have. I didn’t actually try it.

Attention, BiMart

I saw these two signs in the Woodburn BiMart (the Oregon Woodburn, that is).

Sign in Men's Restroom in BiMart in Woodburn, Oregon

That sign in the men’s restroom has good advice about paper towels and doors. Very good advice, in fact. Essential, I would say.

Alas, that bathroom no longer offers paper towels.

But the sign is still there. 😀

Since the sign says they care and to let them know if anything needs attention, I’m letting them know.

And while I’m at it, I’ll let them know about this:

Another sign in Woodburn's BiMart

I’m sure the next time they made a sign like that they used sandals, not sandles.

Oh, a post script to BiMart in Woodburn: Please send a rescue expedition to the men’s restroom. The rescue team should take lots of towels with them. So the guys trapped in there can open the door to get out. Thank you.

October 12

On this day….

539 — Army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon — that was B.C.

1492 — Columbus, mixed up about where he was, shows up in the Bahamas

1609 — Children’s rhyme Three Blind Mice published in London

1692 — Massachusetts Bay discontinues witch trials

1792 — Columbus Day is first celebrated

1892 — Pledge of Allegiance first recited in public schools

1915 — Theodore Roosevelt criticizes US citizens who identify themselves with dual nationalities

1973 — Nixon nominates Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President

1987 — Oscar Arias (President, Costa Rica) wins Nobel Peace Prize

1992 — Microwave Observing Project begins (seeking alien life)

1999 — Born: the proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world

2000 — USS Cole bombed

2002 — Nearly 200 tourists murdered by Islamist terrorist bombs in Bali

2006 — Law passed in France makes denying the Armenian Genocide a crime

2007 — Former US VP Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Oh, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran might have special plans for today.

OnSt…op

The folks at InfoPackets alerted me (and thousands more, of course) to this:

GM On Board with Radical OnStar Plan

In the world of computer technology, measures that put the brakes on a user without his or her permission are often tossed into the hated spyware heap. However, when it happens to a car thief, it’s hard not to be a supporter.

Confused? Granted, the idea is a strange one. For years OnStar has been offering drivers directions, help in emergencies, and saving them embarassment after keys are locked in a vehicle. However, its latest idea, to gradually decrease the speed of a stolen vehicle, is getting some very positive reviews from everyone but the thieves themselves.

OnStar calls the initiative Stolen Vehicle Slowdown (simple enough), and it works by transmitting a signal from the company’s Detroit headquarters to a car’s powertrain system. That signal tells the vehicle to reduce its flow of gasoline, ever so slowly (and carefully), cutting the speed of a thief’s new ride. Any police in pursuit will obviously have a much easier time apprehending the suspect.

[…]

Just in case you’re wondering, OnStar promises the service will only be used on stolen vehicles. “Safeguards will be in place to ensure that the correct vehicle is slowed down.”

That’s reassuring.

To the closing line, “Not really!”

So OnStar, which often leads to OnStart, will implement something that could go by OnStop.

I like the benign implementations of the OnStar technologies.

I don’t like the misuse and abuse waiting to happen.

My Vote Didn’t Count

Come to think of it, though, my vote wasn’t solicited.

Lynn Vincent begins her rant at WorldMagBlog this way:

The world has heaped another honor on Albert Gore: The Nobel Peace Prize.

The world has?!

I guess I don’t understand how the Nobel Prize thingy works.

But never mind. Here’s more of what Lynn has to say:

I’m just not clear on how Gore’s pimping for a dubious corner of science qualifies him for this honor. This is a man who wrote (in his book, Earth in the Balance) that the first example of pollution in the Bible was when Cain slew Abel, spilling his blood on the ground (!!). Has the Nobel Peace Prize become more like getting elected global homecoming queen?

Well, like I said, my vote didn’t count.

I voted for Rush. 😀

Meanwhile, over at WizBangBlog, Kim Priestap begins her piece (An Inconvenient Truth) thus:

Yasser Arafat. Jimmy Carter. Now this . . . .

And concludes:

There was a time when winning the Nobel Peace Prize actually carried prestige, but no more. It’s nothing more than a left wing, environmentalist wacko, terrorist coddling, moonbat mutual admiration society.
Above all, love God!