Peace of my Mind

Finding Dimes

2008-03-31T15:53:00.004-05:00

I took a Google Adwords quiz today. The prep included this page about where Adwords are distributed. Notice "Tencent" in China.

Later in the day I had to go to Barnes & Noble to pick up a new book. Made to Stick.
While there I noticed the poster at the checkout counter. See the picture about the The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been finding dimes again. I found one in the freezer, the bottom of the laudry basket, outside CVS, and on the floor of my daughters room. Thanks to everyone who has been sharing their dime stories on my previous post . If your interested in hearing about other people finding dimes check it out.

How to Write an Essay - Great info!

2008-02-05T10:19:00.000-05:00

How to Write an Essay

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Essays can range from being five paragraphs to twenty pages or more, covering any topic, whether it's what you learned from your dog, or why societies become hierarchies. What all essays have in common, however, is that they must stay true to the roots of the word "essay" which derives from the French infinitive essayer, meaning "to try" or "to attempt". An essay is essentially your attempt to explain your point of view, and a skillfully written essay is clear, illuminating and informative.

Steps

Define the context. If the essay is assigned, certain parameters will usually be defined for you, such as the length of the essay, format of the title page, and the intended audience (e.g. your teacher, an admissions committee). Otherwise, you need to determine your intended audience, how the essay is going to be presented to them (published in a book or magazine? through a blog?), and what length is appropriate. No matter what, if you're given directions, follow them. A brilliant essay might still fail to get its point across if it doesn't follow the rules.
Choose a topic. Often this will be decided for you, but if not, try to choose something you're interested in or, better yet, passionate about. It will make the essay easier to write. You can also think of your thesis statement at this point, but it shouldn't be set in stone since it may be elaborated or changed as you do your research in the next step. A thesis statement is what your essay is attempting to explain and prove. You can brainstorm a few different thesis statements and use them to guide your research. Some examples:
- I deserve this scholarship because I am going to give back to the community.
- Crop failure is directly caused by lack of fertility in soils, not by drought.
- Making people take tests before they're allowed to keep pets would benefit society in many ways.
Gather your information. Whether it's personal observations or scientific facts, you'll need evidence to back up your thesis statement. Take detailed notes, keeping track of which facts come from which sources. As you're researching your topic, don't ignore facts and claims that seem to disprove your thesis statement. A good essayist includes the contrary evidence and shows why such evidence is not valid.
- Going with the example about crop failure above, what if you find a research study with graphs showing that every time there's a drought, there are more crop failures? Maybe all those crop failures occurred on farms that had poor soils, and unless the condition of the soils can be provided, the crop failures can't be attributed solely to drought.
Plan your essay. This is the time to solidify your thesis statement. Look over all of your research and notes: Can you observe any patterns or observations? Try making a mind map to organize your thoughts. Maybe you started out wanting to show how you'd give back to the community, but now you see a better point would be that you're a good role model for others like yourself. Let the evidence speak for itself. If you don't have enough information to demonstrate anything, you may need to do more research or modify your thesis statement (or even your topic). If you have enough material to sustain a thesis statement, however, make an outline to organize your research with headings and sub-headings.
Write the body of your essay first. Identify three or more points that support and/or explain your thesis statement. Each point should be supported by specific evidence, examples or arguments. In shorter essays, such as a five-paragraph essay, each point should be supported by a single paragraph; but in longer essays, an entire page or more might be required to demonstrate a single point. Use your outline as a guide, presenting the information in full sentences that flow logically from one to the next. After you write out all of your points, arrange the points themselves so that they flow logically from one to the next.
- Be careful about generalizing. Statements such as "_____ is the most important problem facing the world today," can cause your reader to dismiss your position out of hand if he/she disagrees with you. On the other hand, "_____ is one of the most important problems facing the world today," is at least a bit harder to argue with.
- Unless you are writing a personal opinion piece, you should not need to use the personal pronouns "I" , "you" or "we", nor "my", "your" or "our". If you can't rephrase the statement to remove the first-person pronoun, then you probably don't have enough information to back up your point. E.g. Instead of writing, "I found Frum to be conservatively-biased", show why your statement is true: "Clearly, Frum is conservatively-biased when he writes...".
Conclude your essay. Summarize your points and suggest ways in which your conclusion can be thought of in a larger sense. What are the implications of your thesis statement being true? What's the next step? What questions remain unanswered? This is not the place to introduce any new information that supports your thesis--you should only be "repackaging" what you already discussed, using a broader perspective.
Write the introduction. Now that you've written the body and the conclusion, you're in the best position to tell the reader what they're getting into. Explain your thesis statement, and how you're going to affirm it, without being too specific. Do not use obvious expressions such as, "This essay is about..." or "The topic of this essay is..." or "I will now show that...". One approach is to begin with a general statement, then follow it with a question or problem, then with your thesis statement, and a brief overview of your points.
- Example: Every year, thousands of animals end up in shelters, unwanted and sometimes abused. This not only causes suffering to the animals, but it also costs local governments millions of dollars. Is there any way that this can be prevented? One proposed solution is to require pet-owners to become educated before they can buy a pet. While many people may resist this requirement, it may be more readily accepted if the benefits are clearly shown to outweigh the costs.
- For longer essays, it's useful to follow the "inverted pyramid" whereby you start off with a very broad description of your topic and gradually narrow it down to your specific thesis statement. This is the typical structure of a "literature review" in a scientific paper and may constitute up to half, sometimes more, of your essay.
Read through your essay. For now, don't worry about typos or grammatical errors; underline them so you can go back and fix them later. Go from start to finish to see how your essay flows. Does each sentence lead smoothly to the next? Does each paragraph flow logically to the next? Each statement should be connected or related somehow to the one before it, not thrown randomly together. There are many ways to transition from one idea to the next:
- one happens before or after the other:I first started to realize that I was in the minority when I was in middle school...My realization was confirmed when I proceeded to high school.
- one elaborates on the other:Plants need water to survive...A plant's ability to absorb water depends on the nutrition of the soil.
- one contrasts with the other: Vegetarians argue that land is unnecessarily wasted by feeding animals to be eaten as food...Opponents argue that land being used for grazing would not be able to be used to create any other kind of food.
- one is caused or affected by the other: I will be the first person in my family to graduate from college...I am inspired to continue my family's progress through the generations.
- one is similar to the other: Organic food is thought to be better for the environment...Local food is believed to achieve the same goals.
Revise, revise, revise! Writing the paper the first time is not the most important part of writing an essay—revision is! Sometimes the paper you write is not the essay you originally planned. It is difficult to accomplish all that one sets out to in a paper, and sometimes you may find that your ideas about your subject have changed as you've been writing. Make sure you're happy with the way your paper presents its points. Don't like it? Re-arrange it (that's one of the great things about writing with a word processor; it's easy to do things like this). Once you're happy with the body, make sure the conclusion and introduction (in that order) still match it AND match the way you see your topic now. If not, rewrite them to fit the essay you did write (not the one you started out to write) and the way you see your topic now.
Proofread. Now check for spelling and/or grammatical errors. If using a word processor's spell checker, remember that it only checks to see if a word is misspelled. For example, if you meant to use the word "write" and instead used "writ" the spell checker will pass it without noticing, since 'writ' is an actual word.
- Pick out any repetitive words. Vary your language with the help of a thesaurus. Consult a dictionary to make sure that you're using the synonym correctly.
- Avoid using colloquial (informal) writing. Do not use contractions or abbreviations, such as don't, can't, won't, shouldn't, could've, or haven't. Use formal English: do not, cannot, will not, should not, could have, have not. Your essay should have a serious tone, even if written in a light or lyrical style.
- Use English punctuation correctly. Consult a style book if you are unsure how to properly use quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, apostrophes, or commas. Avoid using exclamation points to emphasize your statements.

Tips

Have someone read your paper aloud to you or read it aloud to a tape recorder and play it back. Your ears are sometimes better than your eyes at picking up mistakes in language—-after all, they've had more practice.
Avoid the following:
- making columns of point-form lists
- making a comma-spliced list inside a paragraph
- using et cetera (etc.); it's a cop-out. When teachers see "etc.", they may interpret it to mean, "and I can’t think of anything else".
Refer to all illustrations and diagrams as Figure 1, 2, 3, etc. You can refer to tables and charts as Table 1, 2, 3, etc. or as figures. Photos can be referred to as Photo 1, 2, 3, etc., or as figures. Make sure you do refer to all figures in the text of your essay. A figure should not be included if you do not specifically mention it in the body of the essay or research report.
Remember that writing is a skill and, like any other skill, requires practice to become a master of it. One easy way to practice is to read more essays in the style and subjects that you write yours.
Essays come in many shapes and sizes. This is a general overview, but you can learn about the expectations associated with various kinds of essays by doing further reading here at wikiHow:

Warnings

Do not get bogged down in writing excessive background information or otherwise rambling off topic; it is considered essay "padding". If it does not relate to your thesis statement, cut it out.
Do not plagiarize. Parenthetically reference or footnote all borrowed quotes, facts and ideas that are not your own. Plagiarism is a serious offense in the academic world; students have been expelled from colleges and universities for plagiarizing.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

http://www.uk-student.net/modules/wfsection/viewarticles.php?category=2

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write an Essay. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

For your viewing entertainment!

2008-01-25T10:39:00.000-05:00

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

2007-09-10T21:13:00.000-05:00

Lyrics That Hook Me

Kenny Chesney - Don't Blink

I turned on the evening news
Saw a old man being interviewed
Turning a hundred and two today
Asked him what's the secret to life
He looked up from his old pipe
Laughed and said "All I can say is.

"Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you're taking naps and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I was glued to my tv and it looked like he looked at me and said
"Best start putting first things first."
Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can't flip over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth
Don't Blink
Just like that you're six years old and you're taking naps and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
next thing you know your better half Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I've been try na slow it down
I've been tryna take it in
In this here today gone tomorrow world we're livin' in

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you're taking naps and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster you think
Don't blink
Naw, don't blink

Apple iTunes
To download the songs,you'll need to get the free iTunes player.

news

2007-02-28T12:30:00.000-05:00

testing 123

More Schools are Worried about an Unusual Flu Outbreak

2007-02-17T10:57:00.000-05:00

By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 16, 9:04 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. - Midway through the month when influenza typically peaks, health officials were monitoring four hospitalized Nebraska children, while three North Carolina schools remained closed over widespread symptoms of the illness.

And in Oklahoma, one school district reported 350 students out sick Friday, though no schools were closed, authorities said.

Still, a federal health official called this season relatively mild so far.

Around the country, at least nine children have died of flu, and six other child deaths have been tentatively linked to flu since Feb. 3, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, 47 children under age 18 died from influenza. In 2003-2004, the worst recent flu season, 153 children died.

The four Nebraska children were improving, Dr. Tom Safranek of Nebraska Health and Human Services said, but he didn't know of plans to send them home.

None of the children were nearly as sick Ahn "Anna" T. Do, who died Feb. 10, four days after falling ill, her father Chi Do said.

Safranek said the four children did not have any known relation or close proximity to each other or Anna, and at least one had received some form of flu vaccine this season.

In North Carolina, the three schools in Hyde County closed Wednesday after at least 20 percent of their total 541 students fell ill, school system spokeswoman Carol Evans said. The schools won't reopen until Monday, she said.

The illness was blamed for last week's death of a 7-year-old girl in Seattle, and an 8-year-old who died there Wednesday had suffered from flu-like systems, health authorities there said.

About 36,000 people die from the flu each year in the United States, according to the CDC.

___

Associated Press writers Anna Jo Bratton in Omaha and Estes Thompson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Rare Salmonella in Peanut Butter

2007-02-16T18:34:00.000-05:00

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
The source of a dangerous salmonella outbreak took six months to track down in part because the culprit — peanut butter — took health officials by surprise.
The outbreak has sickened at least 290 people in 39 states since August. It took until this week to identify the source because peanut butter has only once before been linked to the life-threatening disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

ON DEADLINE: Information from the FDA, ConAgra

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday night that jars of Peter Pan and Wal-Mart's Great Value brand peanut butter beginning with the product code "2111" on the lid of the jar could be contaminated with the strain Salmonella Tennessee.

This variety of salmonella is so rare that the CDC normally sees only about 100 cases a year, says Robert Tauxe, chief of the CDC's Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch.

Symptoms include fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In people with weakened immune systems and very young children, salmonella can invade the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections.

The affected jars were from a single ConAgra Foods plant in Georgia, which FDA officials began investigating Wednesday. Great Value peanut butter made by other manufacturers is not affected, the FDA says. Consumers should discard any of this peanut butter purchased since May, the FDA says.

"Nature's been throwing us curve balls," says Tauxe. "We've had seven major product outbreaks in the last five months, and three have been in brand-new foods — botulism in carrot juice, E. coli in spinach, and now this."

When epidemiologists began getting reports of a growing number of cases in August, they took notice. But conducting normal case control studies — asking infected people what they had been eating — wasn't providing any clues, says Tauxe. Finally, people in the most-affected states began taking extensive, 300-question surveys.

That turned up peanut butter. "As our teams were talking to the people, they'd ask if they could donate that jar to the health department," says Tauxe. "By this Monday, there was an accumulation of half-eaten peanut butter jars in state health labs around the country." Those samples are being cultured now, he says.

There has been only one known outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter — in South Australia in 1996. Subsequent studies showed that because peanut butter is so thick and oily, heat pasteurization didn't kill the bacteria.

ConAgra has stopped production of peanut butter until the cause of contamination can be identified and eliminated. Consumers who have questions should contact the company at 866-344-6970.

For a full refund, consumers should send the product lid, their name and mailing address to ConAgra Foods, P.O. Box 3768, Omaha, NE 68103.

Those who have recently eaten the targeted peanut butter and become ill should contact their doctor immediately and report the illness to state or local health authorities, the FDA says.

Unusual Deaths from the Flu AGAIN!

2007-02-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Thu Feb 1, 6:11 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine children have died of flu this season in Alabama, an unusually high number that has some experts worried, a pediatrician said on Thursday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham said he had sent samples from the children to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for analysis.

"Nine children and we are a state of 4 million people," he said.

They were all affected with the regular seasonal flu, Whitley said in an interview, but were unusually ill with it.

"We have tried extravagant things (to save them)."

"These kids are presenting with an ARDS-like syndrome," he said. Acute respiratory distress syndrome usually only occurs with severe infections, and is not normally a symptom of influenza.

Normal seasonal influenza does kill children every year, even previously healthy children. Public health officials are watching flu more closely than before because of fears the H5N1 bird flu virus, a strain found primarily in birds but that has killed 164 people since 2003, might mutate into a fast-spreading and lethal pandemic form.

"Unfortunately, it is not unusual for there to be pediatric deaths in any flu season," CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding told reporters.

It takes years sometimes to get good estimates, but 153 children died in the 2003-2004 flu season, according to CDC figures. This year so far the CDC had reported eight deaths among children, but its statistics are usually several weeks old.

Whitley said his hospital started filling up with cases, mostly children, in December. The U.S. flu season normally runs from October to March.

"Our hospital has been at 115 percent occupancy," Whitley told reporters.

"We are not seeing influenza in our adult populations."

Most of the 36,000 Americans who die of flu and flu-related pneumonia in an average year are elderly.

Whitley said the annual flu wave was now starting to peter out in Alabama, but increased activity had been reported east, in South Carolina, and north in Illinois. The CDC says flu activity in the United States has not reached epidemic levels.

"We do know that the majority of virus circulating in this flu season is a strain that is an excellent match to the vaccine," Gerberding said. Every year, the flu vaccine is reformulated with three strains of flu that match the most common types in circulation.

The CDC now recommends that most people in the United States get flu vaccines every year, including young children, people over the age of 50, health care workers and people with chronic conditions such as diabetes.

Check this related story out:Bird flu can infect people via upper airway

Details of the Outbreak in Rhode Island

2007-01-18T07:51:00.000-05:00

From The Providence Journal

By Felice J. Freyer and Cynthia NeedhamJournal Staff Writers
When 7-year-old Dylan Gleavey fell ill in late November, with what seemed like a bad cold, his parents took him to a walk-in health center. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection. It seemed like a routine childhood illness.
Dylan’s family never dreamed that within three weeks their boy would be dead.
Nor did they imagine that his death would be linked to several other illnesses in his Warwick school that continue to puzzle health officials and alarm the community, leading to the closing of schools in three districts last week.
Health officials have no evidence of a continuing infection spreading in the state. But the sicknesses in the last few months hold many mysteries that have yet to be unraveled. Here’s an account of what has happened so far.
Dylan got sicker. On Thursday, Nov. 30, while watching cartoons in bed, he started vomiting and quickly lapsed into semiconsciousness, unable to move his head. His parents took him to Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and he was admitted in the early hours of Dec. 1. Doctors told his parents that he probably had viral meningitis, an infection of the fluid around the spinal cord and brain. The state sees about 300 to 400 cases of viral meningitis every year, and children who get it usually recover.
But by Dec. 6, Dylan’s diagnosis had changed. He had suffered several more seizures and was lapsing in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he seemed confused, sometimes yelling out curses, sometimes not talking at all, his mother said. Doctors thought he had encephalitis, a rare and dangerous inflammation of the brain. Informed by the hospital, the Health Department contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking for laboratory support and consultation. The standard testing for encephalitis was undertaken.
Meanwhile, in the first week of December, a girl who attended the same second-grade class as Dylan also started to feel sick. Like Dylan, Hannah Leahy missed a few days of school and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. And like Dylan, she didn’t get better.
Around Dec. 13, both Dylan and Hannah took a turn for the worse.
Dylan, who was already in the hospital, was admitted to the intensive care unit, according to his parents, Denise and Charles Spoerer. Doctors told them their son’s brain was swollen and drilled a hole in his head, to relieve the pressure.
Hannah, who was at home in Warwick, had awakened in the night screaming in pain. “As a mom, I just knew something wasn’t right,” her mother, Heidi Leahy, recalled in a recent interview. Hannah’s parents rushed her to the hospital, and she was admitted. Doctors said she appeared to have meningitis. It might have been bacterial, but because she had taken so many antibiotics, they could not detect bacteria in her blood.
Over the course of that week, Heidi Leahy said she often saw Dylan’s parents in the hallways of Hasbro, on breaks from their constant bedside watches. The parents shared hugs and, at times, doubts. Each said it was hard to imagine that the classmates’ illnesses were not somehow related, but that’s what doctors kept telling them.
According to Hasbro officials, the hospital on Dec. 13 notified the Health Department that two children from the same school had been admitted with neurological illnesses. Their symptoms, however, were very different. The boy had encephalitis; the girl had what looked like meningitis.
Back in Warwick, the rumor mill had kicked into high gear, as news of the classmates’ illnesses spread.
At Greenwood Elementary School, where both children were students, school nurse Carole Sivo had already contacted the Health Department when Dylan was first diagnosed with encephalitis, to ask whether the school should send a letter notifying parents. “They had said no, we didn’t need to send a notice home about encephalitis,” principal Rosemary Hunter recalled.
But when Hannah was admitted to Hasbro, Hunter said she called the Health Department herself. That phone call touched off what became a string of almost daily conversations that have continued ever since with Dr. Uptala Bandy, the state’s epidemiologist.
Schools Supt. Robert J. Shapiro said it was the Health Department that decided that parents needed to be informed and suggested a letter be sent out. “They really gave us instructions along the way, even to the point of assisting and drafting that letter,” the superintendent said.
“You may have heard that two students at Greenwood Elementary School have been admitted to the hospital,” the letter begins. “… These are isolated and unrelated cases.” The letter was signed by a school official and included fact sheets on encephalitis and meningitis.
That weekend the school was cleaned and parents were invited to a meeting on Dec. 18. No one alerted the media, but parents who attended the meeting later said that Bandy also told them that the two illnesses were probably not related. “Dr. Bandy explained that if it had been a mass outbreak, you’d have seen cases every three to four days,” said Bethany Furtado, a School Committee member and former chairwoman of the Greenwood Parent Teacher Organization.
Those at the meeting, including Hunter, recalled a high level of anxiety. Dylan’s father said he went to the meeting to voice the concerns that had bothered him for days: How could the two cases not be connected? Two kids from the same classroom with neurological illnesses?
On Thursday, Dec. 21, Dylan Gleavey died in the ICU at Hasbro.
The 7-year-old who loved riding his scooter and pretending to be a superhero spent his last few days heavily sedated, in and out of a coma, his parents said.
Test results ruled out two possible causes of encephalitis — rabies and Eastern equine encephalitis. No one knew what caused the encephalitis that killed Dylan Gleavey. About 80 percent of the time, the cause of encephalitis cannot be determined.
But health officials were growing concerned. They learned that Hannah Leahy was taking a long time to recover, and it looked like she, too, might have encephalitis. They also learned of another encephalitis case in a middle schooler from West Warwick that occurred earlier the same month.
Faced with the death of a 7-year-old and two other cases of encephalitis, a rare condition, within a narrow geographic area, Dr. David R. Gifford, the state director of health, decided to get some help. On Dec. 22, he filed a formal request with the CDC asking the federal agency to deploy an epidemiological team.
Meanwhile, Hannah started to get better. She returned home on Dec. 23, the Saturday before Christmas.
The day after Christmas, while schoolchildren were on vacation, the Greenwood School sent home a second letter, announcing the loss of a “sweet, kind and loveable little boy who won the hearts of all who knew him.” The letter did not mention Hannah Leahy. The same day, two doctors from the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service arrived in Rhode Island. They asked school officials for access to attendance rolls. They identified every child at the Greenwood School who had been absent for more than two days, and contacted the children’s parents and then their pediatricians. They turned up several cases of pneumonia, including a number that had been confirmed by chest x-ray. And they did tests to identify the cause.
On Friday, Dec. 29, two test results returned from the CDC. One showed that another child at the Greenwood School, who’d had pneumonia, had been infected with mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacteria. By itself, this was not significant; mycoplasma causes a number of pneumonia cases every year.
But the second test result gave pause: Hannah Leahy had also been infected with mycoplasma. She never had pneumonia, but she probably had encephalitis. Only very rarely does mycoplasma lead to encephalitis.
It was time to act. The state’s incident command system was activated. This is an emergency management structure with prearranged roles, terminology and lines of authority. A command center was established at the Emergency Management Agency in Cranston.
Gifford asked the CDC to send more investigators, and three more were dispatched. A typical CDC investigation involves one or two people. Rhode Island would soon have five.
The concern was not simply with the discovery of mycoplasma pneumoniae. They are commonplace bacteria that health officials don’t track and doctors don’t often worry about. Many people get infected with them, usually suffering symptoms like a common cold and then getting better without treatment. Sometimes mycoplasma can lead to “walking pneumonia,” a mild inflammation of the lungs that is common in school-age children and young adults.
But this situation was different. Only in one-tenth of 1 percent of the cases does mycoplasma lead to meningitis or encephalitis. And here there were two cases of encephalitis arising in one classroom, one of them clearly linked to mycoplasma. (Mycoplasma was never found in any specimens from Dylan Gleavey, but the bug is difficult to detect, and health officials presume that Dylan, too, was infected with it.)
At the same time, several cases of pneumonia had occurred in the same school — and one of them had already been linked to mycoplasma. (By the end of the New Year’s Day weekend, health officials would confirm that mycoplasma had caused a total of five pneumonia cases at the Greenwood School in November and December, in addition to the two encephalitis cases.)
So what to do about the Greenwood School? Health officials weighed their options. When mycoplasma outbreaks have occurred in places like long-term-care facilities or military training schools, the CDC has recommended that antibiotics be distributed to everyone who lives or works there, even if they don’t have symptoms. This has sometimes, but not always, stopped the outbreak.
But an elementary school is not like a military base. Children and staff don’t live at the school — they come and go, intermingling with the community. Never before had antibiotics been distributed to an entire school as a preventive measure. But Gifford and his CDC advisers decided it was worth a try.
On Dec. 30, the Health Department held a news conference announcing that the Greenwood School would be closed till Jan. 8, and antibiotics would be offered to every family who had a child there, to stop a possible outbreak of mycoplasma. On Dec. 31, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, health officials met with every family with children in the school, about 275 families. Nearly all agreed to take the antibiotics, and 1,182 doses were distributed at a cost of $57,000.
On Tuesday, health officials concluded that the West Warwick encephalitis case they’d heard about, involving a child from John F. Deering Middle School, had also been linked to mycoplasma. Little information was released about that case, not even the child’s age or sex. Health officials would only say that the child went to Hasbro Children’s Hospital early last month, was diagnosed with a mild case of encephalitis, and later went home to recover.
Meanwhile, the investigation was broadening. CDC doctors asked hospitals for information on any neurological illnesses, and checked attendance records at schools in neighboring towns. They found that two schools in Coventry had unusually high absenteeism rates. They interviewed families and pediatricians and sent throat swabs and blood samples to the CDC lab in Atlanta for analysis. They were trying to determine why a normally insignificant infection had led to three encephalitis cases in a narrow geographic area. Had the bug mutated into something more dangerous?
They also wanted to know if any unusual infection was continuing to spread. In the first days of the new year, it appeared not. But the data had not been completed or analyzed, so no one could be sure. The incubation period for mycoplasma — that is, the time from when a person becomes infected until the person shows symptoms — is typically two to three weeks, four at the most. If no new cases occurred, then it would seem that whatever happened at the Greenwood School had come and gone.
Then, on Wednesday evening, health director Gifford got word that a child from Coventry had been admitted to Hasbro Children’s Hospital with a probable case of meningitis. Actually, it looked like viral meningitis — but so had the cases from the Greenwood School. And Coventry was one of the towns were CDC doctors were investigating higher-than-normal absenteeism.
It would take a few days to find out whether the Coventry child had been infected with mycoplasma.
After several hours of pre-dawn consultations among state, health and school officials, it was decided that, in “an abundance of caution,” all schools in Warwick, West Warwick, and Coventry would close for Thursday and Friday, affecting more than 20,000 youngsters.
Yesterday, test results showed that — as expected, as hoped — the Coventry child had not been infected with mycoplasma.
What happened in December remains under study. Meanwhile, schools in Coventry, West Warwick and Warwick will reopen tomorrow.

Here is a timeline of the 2003 SARS outbreak. Notice it begins with an unusual outbreak of pneumonia.

1918 Flu Provides Clue

2007-01-18T07:40:00.000-05:00

1918 killer flu tested on monkeys
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Wed Jan 17, 11:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Scientists who tested monkeys with the resurrected 1918 killer flu virus now have a better idea of how the deadliest epidemic in history attacked and killed so many people — by over-amping the victims' own immune systems.
Those findings in a first-of-its-kind experiment also help explain why so many of the roughly 50 million who died in the Spanish flu pandemic were young and healthy. Based on what was seen in monkeys, the human victims' strong immune systems likely were overstimulated, causing their lungs to rapidly fill with fluid.
"Essentially people are drowned by themselves," said University of Wisconsin virology professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, lead author of a study being published Thursday in the journal Nature.
Scientists believe the results open a window into what could happen if the current bird flu in Asia morphs into a highly lethal strain that spreads easily among people.
The 1918 virus was reconstructed with reverse genetics, relying on tissue from victims of the early-day flu pandemic. The virus is kept only in two labs where scientists are studying it: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Public Health Agency of Canada's lab in Winnipeg where the monkey experiment was done.
When seven macaques were given the virus at the high-level biosafety lab there, scientists were struck by how suddenly and overwhelmingly the flu struck. The virus spread faster than a normal flu bug and triggered a "storm" response in the animal's immune systems.
Their bodies' defenses went haywire, not knowing when to stop, researchers said. The lungs became inflamed and filled with blood and other fluids.
The scientists believe the virus had the same effect on humans in 1918.
The macaque experiment was supposed to last 21 days, but after eight days the monkeys were so sick — feverish, in pain, and struggling to breathe — that ethical guidelines forced the researchers to euthanize them.
"There was some surprise that it was that nasty," University of Washington virologist and study co-author Michael Katze said. "It was the robustness of the immune system that helped victimize them."
The virus is very good at replicating itself, said Peter Palese, chairman of the microbiology department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Its effect on the immune system "triggers what one refers to as a cytokine storm," he said. Cytokines transmit messages among cells in the immune system. Palese wasn't part of the study but has worked on the resurrected virus before.
No other flu virus is deadly to monkeys, and the speed in its spread and the overwhelming immune system response is similar to those in the H5N1 bird flu, Kawaoka said.
If bird flu spreads person-to-person, scientists believe understanding the 1918 virus may give them clues about how to protect people from the new one.
The new work "gives us another tool," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, who was not part of the research. Fauci praised the study and said what it found in the effects on the body are stunning: "There aren't a lot of things that can induce that robust of an inflammatory response that quickly."
The 1918 flu research suggests that those fighting the bird flu in the future could try using drugs that reduce inflammation and control the body's immune response, Katze said.
In the Winnipeg research, the first controlled introduction of the 1918 flu to primates, the monkeys were given extra high doses of the flu virus by nose, mouth, eye, and direct injection into the trachea to ensure infection.
The virus had been tested before on mice, but macaques provide better models of how viruses work on humans, the scientists said.
The fate of the monkeys was sealed within hours of their infections, Katze theorized.
In normal flu, the immune system response wanes, but in the 1918 flu "the innate response stayed up and didn't go down," Katze said.
Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a Mount Sinai microbiology professor who conducted some of the earlier mouse work, cautioned that it may be a mistake to focus so heavily on immune system response. The 1918 flu "induces an overwhelming and probably damaging immune response system" but it is largely because the virus grows so much, he said.
In mice, when the overactive immune response was eliminated, mice died because of high viral levels.
"It's like a vicious circle, you get more viruses, you get more immune response and this results in damage," Garcia-Sastre said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nature.com

Rhode Island School Closed Due to Outbreak

2007-01-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press Writer

COVENTRY, R.I. - Rhode Island officials canceled school Thursday for more than 20,000 students while health experts search for any connection between a suspected case of meningitis and a second-grader's encephalitis death two weeks ago.
"Given the parents' concerns and our concerns, we felt that out of abundance of caution we would keep schools closed for the next two days," Dr. David Gifford, director of the state's Public Health Department, said early Thursday.
"Calling it an outbreak at the time is premature," he said.
The meningitis case was reported late Wednesday in a student at Hopkins Hill School in Coventry. Meningitis is an inflammation of membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord that requires hospitalization in severe cases.
Encephalitis also involves brain inflammation caused by a virus. It was blamed for the death of one Warwick student last month and two other children's illnesses.
There has been an unusually high incidence of pneumonia in those communities, Gifford said. Several Warwick students in recent months developed infections of mycoplasma pneumonia, or "walking pneumonia," which is common and can, in rare cases like that of the Warwick second-grader, progress to encephalitis or meningitis.
Health investigators will spend the next few days talking to school nurses and looking for possible additional cases in hospitals.
More epidemiologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also headed to the state to assist the half-dozen scientists already in Rhode Island, officials said Thursday.
Health and school officials will then meet over the weekend to determine when the public schools will reopen.
Classes were called off Thursday and Friday for 11,500 public school students in Warwick, 6,000 in Coventry, and 4,000 in West Warwick. Schools in other parts of the state will remain open, Gifford said.

Massive ice shelf breaks free of Arctic island

2006-12-29T11:38:00.000-05:00

Fri, December 29, 2006
By STEVE LILLEBUEN, CANADIAN PRESS

A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, leaving a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.
The mass of ice broke clear from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometres south of the North Pole.
Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, travelled to the newly formed ice island and couldn't believe what he saw.
"It was extraordinary," Vincent said yesterday, adding that in 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice.
"This is a piece of Canadian geography that no longer exists."
The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up tremors from it.
Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in 30 years and point fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor.
"We think this incident is consistent with global climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 per cent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.
"We aren't able to connect all of the dots . . . but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."
The ice shelf -- believed to be about 100 square kilometres or one quarter the size of London -- actually broke up 16 months ago, but no one witnessed the dramatic event.
Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.
Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what had happened.
Using U.S. and Canadian satellite images, as well as data from seismic monitors, Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early afternoon of Aug. 13, 2005.
"These ice shelves can break up really quickly, perhaps more quickly than we thought they could do in the past," he said.
"Within an hour we could see this entire ice chunk just disconnect and float away."
Within days, the floating ice shelf had drifted a few kilometres offshore. It travelled west for 50 kilometres until it finally froze into the sea ice in the early winter.

Mystery Illness

2006-12-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

December 27, 2006

Children's Hospital illness a mystery
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - What city health officials at first thought was an outbreak of whooping cough among employees at Children's Hospital Boston may have been something else entirely.

But exactly what is still in question.

It started when a 19-month-old patient came down with the classic symptoms of whooping cough, a respiratory disease also known as pertussis. Symptoms include a runny nose, sneezing, slight fever, and mild cough, which can develop into a violent and persistent cough.

A laboratory test confirmed the boy had the disease.

Three dozen hospital employees and one other patient also tested positive for whooping cough from late September through early November.

But further testing, different from the initial tests, could find little evidence of the highly contagious bacteria. Now no one can say for sure what made the workers sick, but pertussis hasn't been ruled out.

Federal and state health officials joined the city in trying to figure out exactly what ailed the workers, all of whom recovered.

The Children's Hospital cases were at first confirmed through a test called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

Based on the tests, Children's moved to contain the outbreak.

''Children's, much like we do at the local health department, really relies on laboratory tests to guide us on what the diagnosis is, especially illnesses that can look like a lot of different things,'' said Dr. Anita Barry of the Boston Public Health Commission.

''Having accurate test results early on, particularly when they're consistent with the clinical symptoms, really launches us into control steps.''

State lab workers then performed other tests, including the laborious task of culturing samples and taking blood samples from hospital workers.

The additional tests were almost uniformly negative for pertussis.

Samples were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

''The results were inconclusive,'' said Dr. Amanda Cohn, a medical epidemiologist for the federal agency.

Media Statistics

2006-12-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

December 15, 2006

America's media addiction rises
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Americans spend more time watching TV, listening to the radio, surfing the Internet and reading newspapers than anything else except breathing.

In fact, media use has risen every year since the start of the decade, helped by faster and easier ways to get information and entertainment, according to statistics in a new government report.

Next year, Americans are projected to spend more than 9½ hours a day with the media, though hours spent doing two things at once, such as watching TV and using the Internet, are counted twice in the report.

''There are more TVs than people and there's a TV, in many houses, in every room,'' said Patricia McDonough, senior vice president at Nielsen Media Research. ''For teenagers, being on the Internet and watching TV at the same time are not mutually exclusive.''

Americans spend an average of 4½ hours a day watching TV, far more time than they spend on any other medium. Next come the radio and the Internet. Reading newspapers is fourth, passed this year by Internet use.

McDonough said an increasing variety of cable TV channels has cut into broadcast viewers, but it has helped increase overall viewership.

''Before, if you looked at kids' TV programming, it was on Saturday morning,'' McDonough said. ''Now there is always targeted programming available for anyone in the household.''

McDonough said she expects overall viewership to continue increasing as baby boomers get older. The oldest of the post-World War II generation turned 60 this year.

''People who are 50 watch TV more than people who are 20,'' McDonough said. ''That will continue to drive this.''

The data on media use are part of the Census Bureau's annual Statistical Abstract of the United States, a 999-page book of numbers quantifying just about every aspect of American life, to be released today. The Census Bureau assembles the statistics from government and private sources so researchers, academics and businesses can find them in one place.

Many of the media numbers are from the Communications Industry Forecast & Report by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private equity firm serving the media industry.

Next year, Americans are projected to spend an average of 3,518 hours using the media. That's up from 3,333 at the start of the decade.

The number of hours projected for next year in different categories:

n 1,555 hours watching television, up from 1,467 in 2000. The estimate includes 678 hours watching broadcast TV and 877 watching cable and satellite.

n 974 hours listening to the radio, up from 942 in 2000.

n 195 hours using the Internet, up from 104.

n 175 hours reading daily newspapers, down from 201.

n 122 hours reading magazines, down from 135.

n 106 hours reading books, down an hour.

n 86 hours playing video games, up from 64.

Many people use multiple electronic devices at once, increasing media consumption, said Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research at PQ Media, a research firm.

Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers

2006-10-18T15:46:00.000-05:00

Lyrics that Hook Me

"Leave The Pieces" by The Wreckers (Jennifer Hanson/Billy Hanson)1st Verse

You're not sure that you love me
But you're not sure enough to let me go
Baby, it ain't fair, you know
To just keep me hangin' 'round
You say you don't want to hurt me
Don't wanna see my tears
So why are you still standin' here
Just a'watchin' me drown

Chorus
And it's all right
Yeah, I'll be fine
Don't worry 'bout this heart 'a mine
Just take your love and hit the road
There's nothin' you can do or say
You're gonna break my heart anyway
So just leave the pieces when you go

Now you can drag out the heartache
Baby, you could make it quick
Really get it over with
And just let me move on
Don't concern yourself
With this mess you left for me
I can clean it up, you see
Just as long as you're gone

(Repeat Chorus)

You not makin' up your mind
Is killin' me and wastin' time
I need so much more than that
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

(Chorus Out)

My Wish - Rascal Flatts

2006-10-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

Lyrics that Hook Me

This is for all the graduating seniors at Barnstable High School! Congratulations......
06/02/07

My Wish

I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow
And each road leads you where you want to go
And if you’re faced with the choice and you have to choose
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you
And if one door opens to another door closed
I hope you keep on walkin’ ‘til you find the window
If it’s cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile
But more than anything, more than anything

Chorus
My wish for you
Is that this life becomes all that you want it to
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small
You never need to carry more than you can hold
And while you’re out there gettin’ where you’re gettin’ to
I hope you know somebody loves you
And wants the same things too
Yeah, this is my wish

I hope you never look back but you never forget
All the ones who love you And the place you left
I hope you always forgive and you never regret
And you help somebody every chance you get
Oh, you find God’s grace in every mistake
And always give more than you take
But more than anything, yeah more than anything

My wish for you
Is that this life becomes all that you want it to
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small
You never need to carry more than you can hold
And while you’re out there gettin’ where you’re gettin’ to
I hope you know somebody loves you
And wants the same things too
Yeah, this is my wish

My wish for you
Is that this life becomes all that you want it to
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small
You never need to carry more than you can hold
And while you’re out there gettin’ where you’re gettin’ to
I hope you know somebody loves you
And wants the same things too
Yeah, this is my wish

This is my wish I hope you know somebody loves you
May all your dreams stay big

Credits:
Steve Robson, Jeffrey Steele© 2006 V2 Music Publishing Limited (BMI), Jeffrey Steele Music (BMI) All rights on behalf of V2 Music Publishing Limited administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. All rights on behalf of Jeffrey Steele Music administered by BPJ Administration, PO Box 218061, Nashville TN 37221-8061. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Finding Dimes

2006-10-11T13:32:00.000-05:00

I've decided to post every time I find a dime. I started finding dimes in random places about a year ago after my hairdresser told me she had been finding dimes. The strange and sometimes common places I have found dimes include: the kitchen sink, inside the refrigerator, on my lap while driving, on a just made bed, middle of the bedroom floor after vacuuming, next to my bar stool at a restaurant, on the kitchen countertop under papers, on the car seat, 3 on the car floor, laundry area, parking lots, living room floor, bedroom doorway and the trunk of the car. These are some of the places I have found dimes. I started putting them in a jar on the window sill above the kitchen sink with a little note about where I found the dime. Yesterday, 10/10/06 (interesting date) , I found 3 dimes in a line on the floor of my closet. I had made an appointment with my hairdresser ( the one who told me about her dimes) earlier in the day. There are many theories about what these dimes mean. Let me know where you find your dimes and who told you about it for the first time.

Unusual Ice Melting Man-made or Natural Cycle?

2006-09-15T06:05:00.000-05:00

These two images show Arctic sea ice extent from January 1, 1990 (left), and January 1, 1999, (Right) respectively. These images were created using data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) Special Scanning Microwave Imager (SSM/I). Credit: NASA
For more info read the report from 2003
The Arctic Perennial Sea Ice Could Be Gone by End of the Century

September 14, 2006

Fast-melting Arctic ice alarms NASA scientists

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
appeared in the Cape Cod Times

Arctic sea ice in winter is melting far faster than before, two new NASA studies reported yesterday, a new and alarming trend that researchers say threatens the ocean's delicate ecosystem.

Scientists point to the sudden and rapid melting as a sure sign of man-made global warming.
''It has never occurred before in the past,'' said NASA senior research scientist Josefino Comiso in a phone interview. ''It is alarming. ... This winter ice provides the kind of evidence that it is indeed associated with the greenhouse effect.''

Scientists have long worried about melting Arctic sea ice in the summer, but they had not seen a big winter drop in sea ice, even though they expected it.

For more than 25 years Arctic sea ice has slowly diminished in winter by about 1.5 percent per decade. But in the past two years, the melting has occurred at rates 10 to 15 times faster. From 2004 to 2005, the amount of ice dropped 2.3 percent; and over the past year, it's declined by another 1.9 percent, according to Comiso.

A second NASA study by other researchers found the winter sea ice melt in one region of the eastern Arctic has shrunk about 40 percent in just the past two years.

This is partly because of local weather but also partly because of global warming, Comiso said.

The loss of winter ice is bad news for the ocean because this type of ice, when it melts in summer, provides a crucial breeding ground for plankton, Comiso said. Plankton are the bottom rung of the ocean's food chain.

''If the winter ice melt continues, the effect would be very profound especially for marine mammals,'' Comiso said.

The ice is melting even in subfreezing winter temperatures because the water is warmer and summer ice covers less area and is shorter-lived, Comiso said.
(Published: September 14, 2006)

Earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico - Wicked Weather Strikes Again.

2006-09-11T06:46:00.000-05:00

I commented last year (check out the archives) about unusual and wacky weather on Cape Cod and other places around the world. Well, here is another unusual weather event baffling the experts. It may sound funny, but could someone have invented a weather/geological manipulation device? Strange things are happening.
Here are the details of the earthquake from the U.S. Geological Survey:

Gulf of Mexico Earthquake

By PHIL DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago

Story

TAMPA, Fla. - The largest earthquake to strike the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the last 30 years sent shock waves from Louisiana to southwest Florida Sunday, but did little more than rattle residents.

The magnitude 6.0 earthquake, centered about 260 miles southwest of Tampa, was too small to trigger a tsunami or dangerous waves, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The USGS received more than 2,800 reports from people who felt the 10:56 a.m. quake. Scientists said it was the largest and most widely felt of more than a dozen earthquakes recorded in the region in three decades.

"This is a fairly unique event," said Don Blakeman, an analyst with the National Earthquake Information Center who said the quake was unusually strong. "I wouldn't expect any substantial damage, but it is possible there will be some minor damage."

The most prevalent vibration, which lasted for about 20 seconds, was felt on the gulf coast of Florida and in southern Georgia, Blakeman said. But residents in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana also called in reports.

"It rattled our trailer pretty good," said Dan Hawks, who lives near Ocala in the small central Florida community of Pedro. "The house started shaking. We could actually see it moving. We looked at each stupidly and said, 'What's the deal?'"

Florida counties along the Gulf of Mexico called the state emergency operations center with reports of tremors but no damage was reported, spokesman Mike Stone said. Gov. Jeb Bush was informed of the situation, Stone said.

The earthquake likely did not have any effect on oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Ray Connolly, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association for the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. Earthquakes are factored into the design of the industry's equipment both onshore and offshore, Connolly said.

The epicenter is an unusual location for earthquake activity, but scientists recorded a magnitude 5.2 temblor in the same location on Feb. 10.

"This kind of occurrence is unusual in that spot, especially for an earthquake of this size," Blakeman said of Sunday's quake.

The temblor was unusual because it was not centered on a known fault line. The "midplate" earthquake, deep under the gulf, was probably the result of stresses generated by the interaction of tectonic plates in the earth's crust, the agency said.

Only one of Florida's rare earthquakes caused significant damage. In January 1879, St. Augustine residents reported heavy shaking that knocked plaster off the walls.

A more recent temblor, in November 1952, prompted a resident of Quincy to report the shaking "interfered with the writing of a parking ticket," the USGS said.

Cape Cod Airfield

2006-08-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

Hey! Check out the new website for Cape Cod Airfield. It's located in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts (Cape Cod). It's a real grass strip airfield. Beautiful. Be sure to stop by and watch the planes land sometime.

What Hurts The Most - Rascal Flatts

2006-08-16T14:03:00.000-05:00

Someone recently said to me that there should be a website called "I'm sad dot com" Not a bad idea..... Until then you can just turn on the radio, there are so many great songs to console the broken heart. Rascal Flatts "What Hurts the Most" is definately Lyrics that hook me! maybe you too.......

What Hurts the Most - Rascal Flatts
credits: Jeffrey Steele, Steve Robson

Lyrics That Hook Me:

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house
That don’t bother me
I can take a few tears now and then and just let them out
I’m not afraid
to cry every once in a while
Even though going on with you gone still upsets me
There are days every now and again I pretend I’m ok
But that’s not what gets me

What hurts the most
Was being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was tryin’ to do

It’s hard to deal with the pain of losing you everywhere I go
But I’m doin’ It
It’s hard to force that smile when I see our old friends and I’m alone
Still Harder
Getting up, getting dressed, livin’ with this regret
But I know if I could do it over
I would trade give away all the words that I saved in my heart
That I left unspoken

What hurts the most
Is being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was trying to do

What hurts the most
Is being so close
And having so much to say
And watching you walk away
And never knowing
What could have been
And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was trying to do
Not seeing that loving you
That’s what I was trying to do

Put it on your player:

or get it from Walmart Download Music: only 88 cents per Song!

Here's a clip:

Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve - Cape Cod

2006-05-09T21:05:00.000-05:00

The Nature Around You

I had the opportunity to hike out to a vernal pool near Quashnet River on Cape Cod recently with a couple of researchers from Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. We counted the egg masses of Wood Frogs and Salamaders. The population data is compared against weather fluctuations. It was a cold rainy April afternoon on Cape Cod. Enjoy the audio.

Jesus and Judas

2006-04-07T15:42:00.000-05:00

April 7, 2006

Document contradicts New Testament by suggesting disciple was only doing Jesus' bidding
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Perhaps it wasn't history's greatest betrayal after all, but a simple act of obedience.

Judas turned Jesus over to the high priests, not for money, but because Jesus asked him to do so, according to a newly translated ancient Coptic document

The ''Gospel of Judas'' tells a far different tale from the four gospels in the New Testament. It portrays Judas as a favored disciple who was given special knowledge by Jesus - and who turned him in at Jesus' request.

''You will be cursed by the other generations - and you will come to rule over them,'' Jesus tells Judas in the document made public yesterday.

The text, one of several ancient documents found in the Egyptian desert in 1970, was preserved and translated by a team of scholars. It was made public in an English translation by the National Geographic Society.

Religious and lay readers alike will debate the meaning and truth of the manuscript.

But it does show the diversity of beliefs in early Christianity, said Marvin Meyer, professor of Bible studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

The text, in the Coptic language, was dated to about the year 300 and is a copy of an earlier Greek version.

A ''Gospel of Judas'' was first mentioned around A.D. 180 by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, in what is now France. The bishop denounced the manuscript as heresy because it differed from the beliefs of mainstream Christianity.

The actual text had been thought lost until this discovery.

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, said, ''The people who loved, circulated and wrote down these gospels did not think they were heretics.''

Added the Rev. Donald Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago: ''Let a vigorous debate on the significance of this fascinating ancient text begin.''

Senior expressed doubt that the new gospel will rival the New Testament, but he allowed that opinions are likely to vary.

Craig Evans, a professor at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, Canada, said New Testament explanations for Judas' betrayal range from money to the influence of Satan.

''Perhaps more now can be said,'' he commented. The document ''implies that Judas only did what Jesus wanted him to do.''

Christianity in the ancient world was much more diverse than it is now, with a number of gospels circulating in addition to the four that were finally collected into the New Testament, noted Bart Ehrman, chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina.

Eventually, one point of view prevailed and the others were declared heresy, he said, including the Gnostics who believed that salvation depended on secret knowledge that Jesus imparted, particularly to Judas.

In Cairo, the editor of the Coptic weekly ''Watani,'' Youssef Sidhom, did not want to make an immediate judgment on the manuscript.

''However,'' he said, ''this will not greatly affect the central belief that considers Judas as a traitor, but there is an old school of thought that says one should not persecute Judas because his role was to complete the prophecies. It seems that the new manuscript will support this point of view - that Judas' role was pivotal to completing the prophecies.''

The newly translated document's text begins: ''The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.''

In a key passage Jesus tells Judas, ''You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.''

This indicates that Judas would help liberate the spiritual self by helping Jesus get rid of his physical flesh, the scholars said.

''Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom,'' Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status.

The text ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests and does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.

National Geographic said the author believed that Judas Iscariot alone understood the true significance of Jesus' teachings.

The author of the text is not named in the writings.

Discovered in 1970, the papyrus was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and began to deteriorate before conservators restored it. More than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled.

In addition to radio carbon dating, the manuscript was also authenticated through ink analysis, multispectral imaging, content and linguistic style and handwriting style, National Geographic reported.

You'll Think of Me

2006-04-06T08:11:00.000-05:00

You'll Think of Me by Keith Urban has to be one of the best breakup songs I've heard recently. For anyone who has a little left to say..... this song hits the target.

Lyrics That Hook Me:

Keith Urban
YOU'LL THINK OF ME
(Brown/Lacy/Matkowsky)

I woke up early this morning around 4am
with the moon shining bright as headlights on the interstate
I pulled the covers over my head trying to catch some sleep
But thoughts of us kept keeping me awake
Ever since you found yourself in someone else's arms
I've been trying my best to get along, but thats o.k., theres nothing left to say...but

Take your records,take your freedom, take your memories I don't need them Take your space and take your reasons, but you'll think of me
and take your cat,and leave my sweater,cause we've got nothing left to
weather , in fact I'll feel a whole lot better, but you'll think of me
you'll think of me

I went out driving trying to clear my head
tried to sweep out all the ruins my emotion left
I guess I'm feeling a little tired of this
and all of the baggage that seems to exist
it seems the only blessing I have left to my name
is not knowing what we could have been, should have been so...

Take your records,take your freedom, take your memories I don't need them
Take your space and take your reasons, but you'll think of me
and take your cat,and leave my sweater,cause we've got nothing left to
weather , in fact I'll feel a whole lot better, but you'll think of me
you'll think of me

someday, I'm gonna run across your mind, dont worry I'll be fine
I'm gonna be alright, while your sleeping with your pride
wishing I could hold you tight,I'll be over you, and on with my life

put it on your player:

Here's a clip:

Wicked Weather - 100 mph wind 12/09/05 Cape Cod

2005-12-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

December 15, 2005
Storm winds reported at 100 mph

By AARON GOUVEIA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER BOURNE - As damage reports and wind speed measurements continue to trickle in from last Friday's storm, it is clear that the northeaster was even more intense than first reported.

The National Weather Service has posted wind speeds from the storm of 100 mph or more in Wellfleet and Orleans. Water spouts were reported by police off Chatham and many beach parking lots lost sand and pavement.

The storm surge associated with Friday's blast washed debris onto beaches and roads, adding to the clutter of fallen trees and limbs. Most towns report the downing of large trees as the most significant damage.

Gratis, a lifelong Cape Cod resident, said he's seen his share of nasty weather but was shocked by the intensity of Friday's northeaster.

''It was almost more like a tornado in that it suddenly appeared out of nowhere, caused lots of damage and then it was gone,'' he said. ''One minute I was sitting in my office looking out the window at the sun and the birds, then 5 minutes later it turns black outside, the temperature drops 10 degrees and the wind sounded like a freight train going past town hall.''

Had weather forecasters and meteorologists given more warning of the storm's intensity, Gratis said he might have been able to minimize the damage.