Coffee Klatch

The Herald-News, from Joliet Illinois, recently posted a story about a middle school student who got in trouble for reporting a gun on campus.

Seems Ryan Morgan heard a rumor about there being a gun in the boy’s restroom. He checked it out and found a pellet gun in the garbage there. So, being a good student, he put it in his pocket and took it to the assistant principal to turn it in. And what thanks did he get? He got expelled!

Audrey Morgan said her son tried to do the “right thing.” The couple asked the board to give their son a 10-day suspension instead of sending him to an alternative school.

The school board’s lawyer said that the administrators were “bound by state law” to recommend expulsion to the board, but after the outcry following his parent’s talking with the media, they changed their minds and decided to just force him to be home schooled instead.

So it’s not “expulsion,” it’s “forced home schooling.” Semantics??

[tags]zero tolerance, guns in schools, public schools, idiots[/tags]

This morning I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR while I was driving to work, and they had a story about fighting colds and the effectiveness of various treatments. Why do some people catch everything that’s going around while others seem to avoid the colds or at least make short work of them?

Some [people] add a jolt of wheat grass or green tea to their smoothies. Others choose megadoses of vitamin C.

Many people swear by Airborne, a top-seller in drugstores that’s marketed as the “original immune-boosting tablet” and “created by a school teacher!”

According to “Dr. Ronald Turner, who leads clinical research at the University of Virginia School of Medicine,” no duplicatable studies have been done that show that Echinacea, Zinc, or even high doses of Vitamin C do anything at all for boosting the immune system. Even though Airborne sales have gone from $2 million to $100 million over the last four years, there’s no real proof that it works. They claim that people who take Airborne have cold symptoms eliminated or at least greatly reduced within 5 days, but people who have NO TREATMENT AT ALL had the same results.

So all of these supplements really have questionable results in actual testing as to whether they help prevent or reduce the effect of colds. As someone who was interviewed in the NPR story said, it may be more mental than anything; when we take some of these supplements, we feel like we’re doing something for our bodies and we get the psychosomatic effect of helping things out.

Is psychological treatment of colds worth spending so much money on them? I’d say that’s up for grabs.

I know that when *I* feel a cold coming on, I take Vitamin C more than normal and eat a lot of onion and garlic. Those are both natural antibiotics (so I’ve heard) and I’ve always had colds go away much faster when I’ve ingested high amounts of onion and garlic. Typically my first reaction is to eat a whole onion. I’ll often use a box of macaroni and cheese as the delivery mechanism for the onion since they go well together. I’ve been doing this consistently for a few years now and my instances of severe colds has gone down dramatically, even when the rest of my family has gotten them.

The NPR story did say that the one element that has consistently been shown to have an effect on colds is STRESS. People with higher amounts of stress are twice as likely to get a cold as those with less stress in their lives.

Oh, and since colds are transmitted by viruses, wearing a coat or not when you’re outside really doesn’t make too much difference. Here’s another story that NPR did about why kids hate to wear coats and whether it matters.

Today is the official national day of mourning of former President Gerald R. Ford. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but is mostly known for being from East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was also an Eagle Scout. He was president from 1974-1977. Read his bio at the White House website. I think he’s probably most known for bringing dignity and credibility back to the White House after what had gone on for a while there before he took office.

Since it’s a National Day of Mourning, that means there’s no mail delivery, no banks are open, the stock market is closed, etc., so plan accordingly.

There is a very interesting case going on in Italy right now, concerning a man named Piergiorgio Welby, a poet who has been battling muscular dystrophy for 40 years and who has been hospitalized and on a respirator for 9 years.

He’s wanting to be taken off life support and be allowed to die. And he’s been blogging about it with one hand and a pencil tapping the keys on the computer keyboard. Plus, he just got a book published, called Let Me Die. He’s ready to die now but isn’t being allowed to have himself taken off life support.

To decline forced medical treatment is allowed under Italian law, experts say, but Italy has another law that makes it a crime to assist in a death, even with consent. So a doctor could not detach the respirator without risking prosecution.

It’s also more complicated in Italy because of the influence of the Catholic Church in politics, society, and life in general. The Catholic Church has always been a very firm supporter and defender of life. That explains their opposition to abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, and contraception. So what’s the problem here? The Church is also against artificially prolonging life.

So you can’t purposefully take him off the machines because that’s assisting in his death. And yet you shouldn’t artificially prolong his life. What a conundrum! Isn’t removing artificial life support the same as assisting in death? It’s a paradox that will have to be resolved before long.

As Welby asks:

“What is natural about a hole in the belly and a pump that fills it with fats and proteins? What is natural about a body kept biologically functional with the help of artificial respirators, artificial feed, artificial hydration, artificial intestinal emptying, of death artificially postponed?”

Be sure to click the link at the top of this post to read the full story from the New York Times.

Current music: A Christmas Together, by John Denver and the Muppets

[tags]euthanasia, life support, welby[/tags]

One of the most familiar stereotypes when it comes to crime is the concept of big cities having the most crime. In particular, New York City is one of those cities that is thought of as being a crime haven. It’s surprising, then, to hear that New York actually has the LOWEST amount of crime out of the 25 biggest cities in the U.S.

Apparently the number of murders is up (12%, or eight times the national rate), but other crimes have gone done, for a total of a drop of 7.2% in serious crimes. The numbers are based on the first six months of 2006.

Read the story at Bloomberg or New York Times.

[tags]crime, NYC, New York[/tags]

Joe Barbera, the creator of Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and Tom & Jerry, and half of the Hanna-Barbera team, died today at the age of 95.

Hanna-Barbera had to be the most prolific cartoon-making team ever. Granted, many were lame and only lasted one season, and most of the shows were similar and had the same people doing the voices, but you have to give them credit for trying so much and for creating some really famous and well-loved standards.

Check out the list of 326 productions that Hanna-Barbera put together.

Read Yahoo’s Obituary for more information about the life of Joe Barbera.

[tags]obituary, barbera, hanna-barbera, yogi bear[/tags]

Effective Jan. 23, 2007, United States citizens will be required to present a passport to enter the U.S. by air. A passport will also be required for air entries by citizens of Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. An FAQ addressing this new policy may be found at http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1164210249468.shtm.

As early as Jan. 1, 2008, this requirement will be extended to entries by land or sea.

Any United States citizen who plans to travel ANYWHERE outside the United States now needs to have a passport. To apply for a passport, visit the State Department web site: http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html, or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center: (877) 4USA-PPT; TDD/TTY: (888) 874-7793. Additionally, instructions for obtaining a passport are available through the U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com/passport/.

Current music: Skyline Firedance, by David Lanz

[tags]passports, travel[/tags]

A 94-year-old legally blind woman in Centralia, Washington, recently bowled a 244! She could see just enough of the floor to line up in the lane, then her 86-year-old husband had to tell her which pins were still standing. Not that there often were–EIGHT of the 10 frames were strikes!

Read the full story here.

[tags]bowling, blind woman[/tags]

This morning on the way to work I heard a story on NPR about how job recruiters were using social networking software to do their jobs. The example they used was Linked-In. I’ve been on Linked-In myself for well over a year now. It’s pretty cool to hear a story on the radio about software that you’ve already been a part of for so long.

Linked-In, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a networking-style platform similar to MySpace or Facebook. The big difference here is that Linked-In is PROFESSIONAL. It’s not designed for chit-chatting or making new friends (although that can happen). Instead, its focus is on making professional contacts. Which explains why recruiters can use it effectively.

So check it out. You never know when you’ll need somebody who knows somebody you need.

Here’s a link to my profile. Be sure to invite me to join your network if you sign up for Linked-In (which is, of course, free).

[tags]social networking, social software, technology, linked-in, NPR[/tags]

This morning I read a Reuters article about a guy who got kicked off an airplane because he smelled bad. (Be sure to read the whole article I linked to.)

A court in Germany rejected a man’s compensation claim against an airline after a cabin crew ordered him off a plane because other passengers were offended by his smell, authorities said Thursday.

An appeals court in the western city of Duesseldorf upheld an earlier ruling that British Airways (BA) had acted within its rights by removing the man from the aircraft after a female passenger sitting next to him complained about his smell.

“The stewardess took him to one side and asked him if he could put on a fresh shirt, but they were all in the hold,” a court spokesman said. “So then he was asked to leave the plane — about two minutes before take off.”

BA said other passengers were upset by the smell, he added.

Let this be a warning to all of you who don’t work at personal hygiene as much as you should.

[tags]hygiene, airplanes, air travel[/tags]