Simply Amazing

My sister sent me this link to an amazing You Tube video called "Regeneration of Cells". I thought it was another video about reuse of cell phones.
No destruction of human embryos needed for this scientific miracle. Do you think this just happens or are we not wonderfully made by a very "intelligent designer".
This may be a very good place to invest---probably better than Citi Bank or GM

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxhi4Q8EDTU&NR=1

Jai Ho, Jai Ho, It's Off to the Oscars, We Go

I will be routing for "Slumdog Millionaire" to win big tonight. We saw this bittersweet, yet uplifting movie and are fans. I love the music. I am an "Indian Wannabe" now. I am even a fan of the Bollywood musical ending. You must have heard this song, if not play it and see if you can get it out of your head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DciW_yuQGCw

That's the Pits

This week there was a dreadful story about a chimpanzee who attacked and critically mauled a woman. We often hear that "wild" animals can be unpredictable. I just don't think of cute little chimps as wild animals. Because of their antics they seem less harmful. What surprised me most about this story was the response of the animal's owner. She had raised him in her home as her "son" for fourteen years, but when he almost killed her friend, she called 9-1-1- and told police to shoot him. We are more familiar with pit bull owners who defend their animals and petition not to have them destroyed after they have eaten some kid.

I have a prejudice against pit bulls. Aren't there enough animal breeds out there without exposing others to the dangers of this steel-jawed dog if it attacks? My husband's nephew is raising a baby with three pit bulls in the house. I don't get it. With that mindset, you can imagine my surprise when I read a story about a local "therapy dog" who is an prize winning pit bull. In a week when institutions might be wary to admit a "therapy chimp" to visit hospitals or nursing homes, a therapy pit bull is a finalist in a national contest by Milk Bone.

http://www.stillwatergazette.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/news130.txt

Do Your Mothers' Know Where You Are?

Last weekend out youngest son, Andy, went ice fishing with a couple of his former college roommates. They rented one of those big ice houses on Mille Lac Lake. The week before we had a run of four or five days of 40+ degree weather that had melted most of our snow and left standing water on local lakes. I was worried it was a little late in the year to go ice fishing.

He just smiled when I expressed alarm that he would spend 24 hrs. on the ice. The DNR was warning that standing water had weakened some ice. There were thin, "rotten" spots. You need to know that the rental ice houses are a ways from shore on a very big lake. You drive out there. OMG thought the mother.

He didn't change his plans.

I made one last attempt to dissuade the kid. These ice houses are often heated by propane heaters. A nurse I used to work with has a son-in-law who spent a night in an ice house a few years ago that wasn't properly ventilated and was overcome by CO. He lived, but is brain damaged.

My husband thinks I worry too much. I probably do. (That and nag.) When I voiced these concerns to Andy he said, "Yeah, I packed a portable CO detector and extra batteries, mom." Right.

He is a thoughtful kid though. In the morning he called from the fish house on his cell phone and left a message to tell mom he was still alive. I never got a second call saying he also made it off the ice intact, but.....

The picture is not Andy and friend. I don't think it was warm enough to catch some rays shirtless. They didn't even get a fish or a nibble. I think they might have had a cooler, though.

Let Him Who Has Ears Listen....

For the last year we have listened to public service messages warning us of the coming change from analog to digital TV broadcast. If you don't have cable or satellite TV and depend on rabbit ears or a roof antennae, you need to get ready. Help your elderly family, friends and neighbors prepare.

My husband says I would have to be included in that list. He didn't say I needed help because I am elderly, although I probably fit in that catagory. I am among the technologically challenged. I would have heard the message and purchased the converter box but them scratched my head trying to install it. I might figure it out if I took the time to read the instructions, but I would have grumbled the whole time.

Congress recently gave an extention on the date for conversion to all digital broadcast, pushing it off until June. Good. There must be a loophole for broadcasters because some have already pulled the plug on analog signals. This afternoon I listened a gentleman who staffs a tech support service for the conversion. In some areas many TV stations have already switched. The help line was overloaded. Lots of people had the boxes but found their antennas did not have the UHF capabilities or people had not rescanned and reprogrammed their remotes. Who knew?

There are always people who love progress and look forward to change. Then there are others who resisted rural electrification, flouridization of drinking water and satellites flying overhead. I am not sure if they were more afraid of big brother watching or collisions in orbit. It didn't seem like much of a threat fifty years ago. Yesterdays paper had a letter from a lady claiming they never would switch to digital broadcast. To support her point of view she sited how we never switched to metric measurements despite the 1975 Metric Conversion Act. Are you buying gasoline by the litre?

Driving the Golden Spike

A century and a half ago, our young country celebrated as the ceremonial golden spike was hammered in place commemorating the linking of tracks forming the first transcontinental railway. California was now tied to the rest of the continental US.

Today we have undertaken a new project for the history books. The new stimulus bill provides $50,000,000,000.00 to build a rail connection between Disneyland and Las Vegas, Nevada. The whole project will be "golden", not just the spike. How will we ever be able to express our thankfulness to Congress for that gesture?

It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but lately I have only been able to silently shake my head and be grateful my mom isn't alive to see these times. We have a 1001 page spending bill that was hurried passed. Most supporters admit they haven't read it. Haven't read it? The spending spree reminds me of a low budget television show when contestants are turned loose in a grocery store to grab all they can stuff in their carts in a limited time. They push, grab and race to the finish trying to get more in their cart than the other contestants. The one with the most stuff is the winner. What have we just done? Will we be able to think of ourselves as winners?

I read that even if this stimulus bill provides three and a half million jobs, each job will cost $250,000.00. That doesn't mean each worker will make a quarter million dollars. You would have to be in the collapsing financial markets to get that kind of help. Maybe they could have skipped the railroad to Vegas and created 35 million jobs each paying $25,000. Maybe they could have taken a little more time to consider the cost of what we are doing.

My Other Valentines