White House Slideshow

Stimulus in Kentucky

About $535 million of so called State Fiscal Stabilization money can go to education, which Beshear will divide between K-12 and universities and colleges.
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The state of Kentucky will receive $15 million from the federal government to help fund the Kentucky Summer Youth Employment Program.
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In Marion Kentucky:

"Bryant said there is reason to celebrate the improvements in the city's water over the past couple of years. He says a new strategy along with some earlier distribution improvements made a big difference. He also hopes to get $2 million in federal stimulus money to build a new 12-inch water main from the Front Porch Restaurant at the southern edge of town to Second Street on the north side. An old six-inch line currently carries water along that route, and it is continuously breaking, which means the street has to be dug up for repairs to be done. It's a double-edged sword, he said. The lines are a patchwork of repairs and the streets are rough from all of the disturbance.
Thanks to grant funds, the city replaced a significant number of small distribution lines a few years ago. It also switched its raw water source from old City Lake to Lake George, which Thomas and Bryant say was a big step toward producing better water."

Paducah Glow

Energy Department targets Cold War-era nuclear weapons production sites for cleanup projects

RICHARD LARDNER Associated Press Writer

1:16 PM CDT, April 22, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department will spend $6 billion as part of President Barack Obama's stimulus package to clean up nuclear weapons sites at Cold War-era facilities, with more than half the money going to sites in Washington and South Carolina, a senior official told Congress on Wednesday.

The government will focus on decontaminating and demolishing tainted facilities, removing radioactive waste and trying to restore soil and groundwater, Ines Triay, the department's acting assistant secretary for environmental management, told a Senate Armed Services panel.

More than $1.9 billion will be spent on cleanup at the Hanford site, a former plutonium production complex on the Columbia River in southeastern Washington. The site produced plutonium used in the first nuclear bomb. The government said there are more than 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste in 177 underground storage tanks there along with 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel and nine tons of plutonium.

In South Carolina, the government will spend more than $1.6 billion at Savannah River Site to shut down nuclear reactors and ship more than 4,500 cubic meters of waste out of the state.

Triay told the Senate panel that cleanup projects have been delayed to pay for more urgent programs. She said the total cost estimate for necessary cleanup is $14.3 billion.

Other states receiving parts of the $6 billion in nuclear cleanup money include:

—Tennessee: $755 million for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to demolish and dispose of uranium enrichment plant buildings, buildings from the era of the Manhattan Project and highly contaminated uranium processing buildings; and restore soil to protect area groundwater.

—Idaho: $468 million for the Idaho National Laboratory to demolish excess nuclear and radiological facilities.

—New Mexico: $384 million for the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a waste site in Carlsbad. The money will be used to demolish buildings and for waste shipment work.

—New York: $148 million for projects at facilities in Brookhaven, West Valley and Niskayuna.

—Ohio: $138 million for demolition and remediation work at Miamisburg and Portsmouth.

—Utah: $108 million for waste removal along Colorado River.

—Illinois: $99 million for work at Argonne National Laboratory.

—Kentucky: $79 million for work at a uranium facility in Paducah.

—California: $62 million for work at the National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University and the Energy Technology Engineering Center west of San Fernando Valley.

—Nevada: $44 million to install groundwater monitoring gear and demolish buildings at the Nevada Test Site.

___

Nuclear Stories

Odds and ends about nuclear power.
When you click the link above you will see all the posts I have on nuclear power.

More..

Nuclear agency can't stop import of foreign radioactive waste

From LA TIMES:

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission tells lawmakers it has no power to stop a Salt Lake City firm from taking tons of waste from Italy, processing it in Tennessee, then disposing of it in Utah."

Somebody is dumping nuclear material off the coast of Somalia

State-Corporate Crime and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

Violence is not patrolling our yards; nuclear power is.

Almost 0630 ; it is cloudy and very green in Kentucky. New leaves on the trees compliment the growing grasses in our yard. There is a peaceful quiet out with the movement of vehicle sounds in the distance.
The cats are coming in from their nightly prowls to rest in peace on our comfortable beds, some bathe, some sleep.
Violence is not patrolling our yards. We have walk away from the gunslinger attitude and given way to common sense law. The old testament has given way to the spiritual knowledge of understanding. Women are held high in esteem sharing the planet earth with men.
The old planet of violence has gone.
Buccaneer's and warlords need not apply for jobs in this new revolution; a quiet sheriff and a understanding of law is all that is needed. An eye for an eye is history.
The wild beast are under control. Man dominates the planet. All that endangers us is foolishness. Violence is not patrolling our yards; nuclear power is. Be careful what you wish for. I've seen it and it is not pleasant.

Facebook

Well a majority (well half) of our family is on FaceBook at the present time. It is nice to say in a few shot words, "Good Morning." to them all and to see photos of them just off those digital cameras.
**
Ice-D came in rubbing his bottom on the kitchen floor and spinning in circles. While he was outside a long 3" green sticker bush had latched on to his butt. I grabbed a paper towel and removed the sticker from his butt. He coughed up something green and proceeded to take a bath.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4

I have IE 8 , Firefox 3.0.9, Chrome and some other browsers on this Dell Inspion 1520 Vista Home Basic laptop.

So far the fastest loading browser is Firefox 3.0.9 that is from the time I click the browser on my desktop to viewing my home page. The other browsers ( including Firefox 3.5 Beta 4) may be faster after the browser loads but so far Firefox 3.0.9 is my favorite and fastest from a cold start.
I think that Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 will load faster after they tweak it under the hood but for today Firefox 3.0.9 is the fastest on this machine.

Household Earnings - Income by State

This morning it is raining outside and all the cats came in from the storm. There is no lighting or thunder or heavy winds just a steady hard rain.
I may have missed the storm in my sleep but I was up at midnight and the rain was in Missouri coming this way.

Household Earnings - Income by State - Click on Map

I cleaned half of the pool today and it looks like a milky-yellow-green pool. When I put my finger in it took at least 30 seconds of washing to remove the color and itching.
I will do some more cleaning tomorrow.

Food and Drug Administration

Today I clean the pool.

April 27, 2009
"More than 20 people from Oregon and other states who have been hit by recent food poisonings are converging in Washington, D.C., this week to press Congress to overhaul the country's food safety system."

Food and Drug Administration

April 27, 2009
"The F.D.A. is warning people not to eat raw alfalfa sprouts because they may be contaminated with salmonella, Allheadlinenews.com reports. Some 31 cases have been reported in six states so far. "

April 27, 2009

"Clues that the virus may be a synthetic creation are already manifesting.

According to reports, the virus is a “never-before-seen form of the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses” which consists of an intercontinental mix of viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

“CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before,” according to an Associated Press report.

“This strain of swine influenza that’s beencultured in a laboratoryis something that’s not been seen anywhere actually in the United States and the world, so this is actually a new strain of influenza that’s been identified,” said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas Co. Medical Director"
***

Is salmonella in our water?
"HABITAT
Salmonellae are primarily intestinal parasites of man and animals, both domestic and wild. They are frequently found in sewage, river and other waters and soil. They may survive for weeks in water and for years in soil.
Salmonella remains viable:

Days (Months):	In :
89	In tap water
115	In pond water
120	In pasture soil
280	In garden soil
28 months	In avian feces (bird doo)
30 months	In ovine feces (cattle)

Some serotypes are adapted to specific hosts; e.g. Abortusovis, Gallinarum, Typhi and Typhisuis are confined to sheep, fowl, man and swine respectively. Members of subspecies I predominate among mammals; while those from subspecies II, III and IV are found commonly in the intestinal tract of cold-blooded animals."

From: http://www.geocities.com/avinash_abhyankar/bacteriology.htm


Buy local products and keep your community safe. If you get sick from local stuff go over there and complain.
If you buy from corporate mfg - complaining - will just go into a trash can and cause more illness.

The 3rd World War has started and nobody sees it.

Muslin gunmen move into Pakistan.
Muslin gunmen move into Iraq.
Muslin gunmen blow up people.
Muslin gunmen declare war on liberals.
Muslin gunmen arm children in Africa.
Muslin's give money and oil to Muslin gunman.
Muslin gunmen have moved into Europe.
Muslin gunmen have moved into America.

Religious Justice: The United Nations better get their shit together

The Taliban gunmen shooting couple dead for adultery caught on camera.
Taliban gunmen have been filmed executing a surprised couple whom they repeatedly shot for the alleged crime of adultery. The biggest killers of Muslims are other Muslims.

This looks like bad publicity for the Muslin Nations in the Middle East. Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and the Northern borders of India may be swept up in the violence. We have seen this before in Germany, The Balkans, Africa and the Southern United States of America.
The United Nations better get their shit together and solve this problem; it can no longer depend on the Lone Ranger to fight their battles and become the scapegoat of world powers.
I guess the United Nations is to blame because they gave the Jews a home in Palestine.

I got started on the pool a little late, so we will be swimming a little later this year. Because of the budget deficit our pool will be green with algae for a bit.
***
We have seen three (3) deer ticks this week. Just a few minutes ago I saw one on a piece of sheet paper that our blue eyed cat was sleeping on. I felt one and removed it in bed 3 days ago, it was just crawling. Motherkitty reported one after her stay in the hospital.

0645 on Saturday morning and it is quiet outside. Bird s are singing and I hear a ringing in my ears. I can assume that it is the electricity running through the wires in our home and my brain.

I talked to my sister last night and she is very happy to be renewed with family ties on Facebook and with a telephone.
Facebook has one great quality - photos and good mornings. Laurel Rose is there. My sister Sandy is there. My son and daughter in law are there. My daughter is there with all her christian and high school friends. Some of my Morningstar friends are there. Two of my step brothers are there with their families.
It is a nice mixture.
It is peaceful here where I am at. I am in the place provided by life. Should other words spill from this life.

Cloaked in a story
We read poetry and sometimes a great novel.
History and biographies pass along our paths.
Sometimes we meet a human that is a novel, a human story, a biography,
and the person with a life that is a story.
Could it be that each one of us is indeed that great novel?
We as individuals are cloaked in suspense and drama, veiled in insecurities and peaceful oblivion.
We share what all great writers write about, we carry our novels in our souls as we walk into
that great storeroom of good words. Words that are cloaked in a story.
This is a nice thought.
We are.
Cloaked in a story.

http://laurelrose.com/TOMASMUSEE10.HTM

We have a cat (Alleycat) who is partially blind. She just stepped on my toast while getting off the couch. I placed the toast in her path. ((Love the one your with. ) one also refers to cats.)

That's The Way It Is

Sometimes peace is only in the mind. Sometimes we do not want to be bothered by anything or anyone. Sometimes a friend is only a festering sore that you wish would go away and doesn't.
I feel great and my solitude is my peace.
When someone sees someone at peace it aggravates them.
I do not understand.
I feel as if the world is falling apart around me and it does not bother me.
Is that peace or irresponsibility.
That reminds me of the Taliban that want my world to disappear (this peaceful place in Kentucky).
Some folks in this part of the country treated Negro's as slaves one hundred years ago. They also treated women as vehicles to produce children and servants.
My world is my space and I have no business elsewhere. That is where the saying, "Mind your own business." and "Leave me the fuc.. alone!" came from.
I am to be my own presence.
My set of rules do not apply.
And
That's The Way It Is
April 23, 2009

If I could just remember why I am standing here in this field all-alone.
The weather is nice, but I wonder why I am alone? I am clothed as I remember in my work uniform and boots.
I do have a fondness for pleasant weather and this is my kind of day, but how in the world did I get here?
I have had memories of living alone, wishful thinking, but that does not explain this, what in the world happened? Why am I standing in this field, something is going on, is this a test?
I have imagined myself living without any help before, could this be my answer?
I had imagined that maybe the civilized world that I lived in has ended and
I stood alone to fetch and fend for myself.
Someone in my past had told me to be careful in what I wished for; I seem to be paying that piper.
I thought that I could live like this forever, I do have what I think is intelligence.
I imagined myself standing like a Greek god with my hands at my hips and looking over this small planet.
I can marvel at the colors and stately beauty of this ball of elements, this earth.
Just look at me as I stand rotund and out of shape in a field of green, a weeble.
With no help or being nearby I think that we could live like this forever.
We could stand stately and proud and dare the world to come closer.
Has the author put us all in our own colorful field?
What am I to do?
When night falls we will realize that we are not alone.
The eyes of the wild creatures of the earth will watch us very closely. What am I to do?
We have to learn to use our knowledge, the things that we learned in our life.
We can look for some useful tool and use it, but if no tools are available then we must create some to use.
Can we survive all alone or does our life require the help of others?
How difficult will it be to remains alive and not be food for other creatures.
What can I do to survive?
Do I have to find a cave and figure out a way to start a fire?
Then after the fire is complete then I could maybe get some sleep.
Who is going to watch the night while I am asleep?
I may need to find another human to have some sleep.
I know that there is steel, but how do I create it by my self?
Everything that I saw before this moment had been created for my pleasure to use as a tool or a weapon.
Can I possibly create everything that I know of by scratch?
Or do I have to search the world for other creatures of intelligence to help me out.
Is this new possibility based on each human helping each other out?
Does each one of us behave in a way to help another? Are we dependent on each other?
Or can we stand alone without any help?
It is time to move. It is time to be keen and aware.

I slept in; it is now 0735 I am normally up and about between 0500 and 0600. It is strange sleeping in. Our morning sun has been up for a while; the school buses are on their routes and the birds have full bellies.
Today I will mow the lawn and maybe remove the pool cover.
It is peaceful in Kentucky.
Two police cars just drove by; at this time of morning young adults are driving to school. There was a fender bender in front of our home behind our lilac bush. I heard wheels spin, brakes and thump. When I went out a truck was moving from behind the lilac bush and 10 seconds later I saw a small car with damage on its hood. I assumed that that was the thumped car.
Polly-I is sitting outside our window waiting to come in. Poll-I is our pizza kitty; she was found on our tire during a hard thunder storm soaking wet and looking like a drowned rat. We were eating pizza at a pizza place 20 miles away during a thunder storm when a customer came in and told the waitress that she saw a kitten on the front wheel of a van outside. The waitress came over and asked us, "Is that your van outside?" and we said, "Yes." She told us about the kitten. We were about finished and we boxed what was left and went out to the van where Motherkitty went to the wheel and took the wet little rat; I opened the van door and jumped in grabbed a hand towel we keep in the van and Motherkitty placed the soaked kitten in the towel in my lap. We started home with the cat in the towel, the pizza box on the floor and I drying the fluffy gray ball. When the cat was dry I opened the pizza box, got out some pepperoni and laid it on a napkin on the floorboard and put the kitten down there. The kitten spread it's legs out as if defending it's meal of pepperoni pizza. When it was done it curled up in my hands and lay still until we got home. We have a picture of her in my hands somewhere in this house?
Motherkitty has had her tea (I fixed her a pot of tea while she slept) and is now washing clothes. Time for a cup of coffee and some nebulizer therapy.

sweeping changes for banks

It is peaceful and quiet but I do hear the sound of machinery and electricity. It may be to early for the birds, no I hear them, they are overshadowed by human engineering.

Motherkitty is asleep; she woke about 0300 move about, read the news online, some blogs and then back to bed.

The kitten slept between us then outside he went when I made some tea (in a small white teapot) for Motherkitty; hopefully it will stay warm.
As I look out the window I see cat paw and nose prints. We just did a spring cleaning on the windows just after the ice storm.
Motherkitty called me to help her - she just removed a small deer tick from our white cat. She wanted me to hold the cat while she made a thorough inspection on the cat.

While Motherkitty was in the hospital we saw and met a young man who had been bitten by a brown recluse spider; he was moved to a major hospital.

Motherkitty is Home

Our home smelled of oils from California that our son sent us when we went to bed. We now have a nebulizer to help Motherkitty clear her lungs of congestion. It really works and we are renting it for a year. She is prescribed to use it four times a day.
Our home soon may smell of that apple pie that she is carrying in the photo at left.
When she got home she was like a tornado moving about. She wanted the cats on her lap and I had to warn her about cat dander; she promptly told me that cats do not make people ill.

It is spring time in Kentucky. The Red buds and Dogwoods are in bloom everywhere you go. It is a magical morning. The birds are singing outside and we are in between rains. This time of year you mow the lawn twice a week just to keep up. New leaves on the trees are bright green and fresh.
I have to run an errand at 0730 then come back and see Motherkitty at the hospital. There is a good chance she will come home.

Michael Jackson Best Dance Moves

Motherkitty will probably leave the hospital tomorrow (4/21/2009).

Photos by Motherkitty

The skies are cloudy this Monday morning. It is 0600 in the morning and I will soon get ready to visit and be with Motherkitty. This is her 8th day in the hospital and the chances of her coming home are about 20 percent. The doctor knows that Motherkitty may be too active and not rest enough to come home and there may be a flare up very quickly of the pneumonia and jumping on her harshly. I can assume that she should be capable of fighting this if she comes home. That is a iffy question.

It is quiet here in Kentucky this morning. I hear birds singing and school buses starting their engines, when I went to the door to let a cat in I saw school bus lights flashing and back up warnings dinging. At our home that is normal. One of my newsletters that I read spoke of the beauty of the trees in the park she visited and thought to herself how peaceful it was. That thought was from someone that lives in the city. Here in Kentucky it is always green and park-like and peaceful. Their is no rush like activity here; there are also no jobs or money.
The photos of the tree and the creek in Crittenden County were taken by Motherkitty.

Motherkitty

0300

Motherkitty has been sick for a couple of weeks. The week before Easter Sunday she went to the doctor and he gave her an antibiotic for a bad cold. She went to work Saturday (the day before Easter) and was told to go back home because she could not breath. She went to the doctor again Monday and he put her in the hospital thinking maybe she had pneumonia. Tuesday the doctor said she had pneumonia and prescribed breathing treatments. She had a strong reaction to the breathing treatments and they let her rest for a day. Thursday the doctor restarted the breathing treatments with a extremely mild dose and that is still working on the congestion in her lungs. She may go home Monday but her stamina has been hit hard (she feels like she has been run over by a truck).
She is catching up on her reading. She is reading Duma Key by Stephen King.

Nuns being evicted from monastery

Monastery of the Angels

Blue Fin Tuna

From Wiki:

"The body of the northern bluefin tuna is cigar-shaped and robust. The head is conical and the mouth rather large. Northern bluefin tuna can live for 30 years. Due to overfishing of this species, few known specimens grow to a mature age and typical specimens average 2-2.5 m (6.5-7 ft) long and around 350 kg (770 lb) in weight. The largest recorded specimen was caught off Nova Scotia and recorded at 680 kg (1,496 lb). The species can reach a maximum length of about 4.3 m (14 ft). The color is dark blue above and gray below with a gold coruscation covering the body and bright yellow caudal finlets. Northern bluefin tuna can easily be distinguished from other members of the tuna family by the relatively short length of their pectoral fins. Their livers have a unique and definitive characteristic in that they are covered with blood vessels (striated). In other tunas with short pectoral fins, such vessels are either not present or present in small numbers along the edges.

The enormous muscular strength of this animal is channelled through a pair of tendons to the sickle shaped tail and in contrast to many other fish the body stays rigid while the tail flicks back and forth, increasing the efficiency of each stroke."

When we got home from the hospital the girls got to play outdoors. The ground was firm but mud was easily picked on shoes and knees.

Food safety in the United States is no longer improving

From Times Wire Services

Who is responsible for our safety?
The Federal Bureaucracy in Washington.
We the people of the United States.
Corporate America (overseas to).
Society on the planet earth.
All of the above.
Do you know who said this?

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

Republican Governors Get Dose Of Stimulus Reality

From CBS NEWS

"The list of governors threatening to decline federal stimulus money last month read like a list of Republicans considering running for president in 2012: Governors Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin led the anti-stimulus charge.

But what began with a bang is ending with something closer to a whimper. All three of those governors have been forced to scale back their expectations, to varying degree, as the push of conservative philosophy gave way to the pull of political reality.

All three found that praise from the conservative movement in Washington meant nothing to furious state legislators of both parties. And in the end, along with other conservative Republican governors, the three submitted letters in recent days asking to be eligible for federal funds, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget confirmed."

Somebody is dumping nuclear material off the coast of Somalia

Above From John C. Dvorak

BELOW FROM VOICE OF AMERICA
UN: Nuclear Waste Being Released on Somalia's Shores After Tsunami
By Cathy Majtenyi
Nairobi
23 February 2005

A United Nations' report released this week says nuclear and hazardous wastes dumped on Somalia's shores had been scattered by the recent Asian tsunami and are now infecting Somalis in coastal areas.
A spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Nick Nuttall, told VOA that for the past 15 years or so, European companies and others have used Somalia as a dumping ground for a wide array of nuclear and hazardous wastes.
"There's uranium radioactive waste, there's leads, there's heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, there's industrial wastes, and there's hospital wastes, chemical wastes, you name it,” he said. “It's not rocket science to know why they're doing it because of the instability there."
Mr. Nuttall said, on average, it cost European companies $2.50 per ton to dump the wastes on Somalia's beaches rather than $250 a ton to dispose of the wastes in Europe.
He said the Asian tsunami dislodged and smashed open the drums, barrels, and other containers, spreading the contaminants as far away as 10 or more kilometers inland.
Mr. Nuttall said it is impossible to know the exact tonnage or number of containers of wastes on Somalia's shores, but that the problem, in his words, "is very serious."
The results of the contamination on coastal populations, Mr. Nuttall says, have been disastrous.
"These problems range from acute respiratory infections to dry, heavy coughing, mouth bleedings, abdominal hemorrhages, what they described as unusual skin chemical reactions,” he noted. “So there's a whole variety of ailments that people are reporting from these villages where we had a chance to look. We need to go much further and farther in finding out the real scale of this problem."
The tsunami's effects on Somalia were detailed in a report the United Nations Environment Program released this week at its governing council meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The report described the effects of the late-December tsunami, which killed up to 300,000 people in 11 countries. It says the massive waves dislodged hazardous materials in countries throughout the region and recommended that governments preserve natural resources and restrict or ban development in vulnerable areas.
According to the report, hazardous wastes in Somalia have also contaminated some groundwater areas there.
The dumping of hazardous and nuclear wastes onto Somalia's coastline is a long-running concern. In a media report last year, Somali fisherman said they saw foreign vessels dropping containers onto the beach and pollution into the waters.
Somali officials said the country was vulnerable to illegal dumping, as Africa's longest coastline is not patrolled and the country has no coast guards, or health officials and facilities to test whatever is inside the containers.
Until late last year, Somalia had been without an effective central government since 1991, when then-leader Siad Barre was ousted. The new transitional government is in the process of moving to the capital Mogadishu from its current base in Kenya.

Easter Sunday

Motherkitty is still under the weather.
Motherkitty made a great home made chicken soup with great home made matza balls.

Nuclear Power

When I was working at the dam they sent us to Paducah to learn how to use a Geiger counter and learn a little about what to do in a nuclear disaster.
At the end of the program the teacher asked, "Is there any questions?" And I said, " Why don't we take these classes more often and why aren't we more serious in this class about a nuclear disaster?" The teacher just smiled and dismissed me as asking a foolish question.
Right after that class (within weeks, I am not sure) the Chernobyl disaster happened. We never had another class about nuclear power and nuclear disasters.
---
On another note the United States is clearing and scrubbing the Internet about nuclear problems in the United States. If you search for anything about nuclear pollution or how to dispose of spent rods you will find nothing.
The United States is waiting for all of us old timers to die off so they can go about building the next nuclear power plant.
Anyone that was alive during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have fading memories or have past on.
There is no danger in nuclear power if you know nothing about nuclear power. People used to get upset when trucks with nuclear waste drove near their towns. The people that know where nuclear problems are are tired of fighting the government, they are worn out.
Young adult today only know that folks protested in the sixties. Those that protested about nuclear wars are gone. Today we have terrorists and contained marches we see in the background of news casts - all trouble makers.
Our minds have been wiped clean.
Obama thinks there is no problem with nuclear power plants. It takes a plastic bag 1000 years to break down and it only takes one Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to pollute employees, streams, rivers and wells forever.

See:

Radioactive waste

What is Nuclear Waste?

what does humana do?

"The two patents filed by the Innovation Center on behalf of its Center for Health Metrics represent Humana's growing ability to use predictive modeling to help anticipate future costs and clinical events, a vital element that helps power our consumer engagement strategies within our clinical programs," said Carol J. McCall, vice president of the Center for Health Metrics (CHM).

One CHM patent application focuses on the innovative process used to generate "care maps" for members, allowing Humana to depict a member's complete clinical claims history over a period of two years. These use advanced visualization techniques to characterize an individual's clinical and behavioral profile, and in conjunction with the predictive model are used in clinical programs to help members manage and coordinate their clinical conditions. The second CHM patent application is to protect Humana's proprietary predictive model itself, which uses a number of advanced analytic techniques to predict members' future illness."

Spring time in Kentucky is very colorful. The lilac bush is in full bloom. The red buds are also blooming. It is cool after the storms and we are fine.

In the last two days I have been cleaning up a bicycle for "Little Brother". It was a little rusty in places but those places were not harmful to the function of the bike. It is about done; I just need some 3-IN-ONE oil to finish up the bearings and a good washing and waxing.
12:45 pm
The bicycle is done. Mother kitty went to work and they sent her home because of her cold. So she never got started at work. She sat out on the deck sunning her self with the cats as I worked on the bicycle.

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship From Wiki (above)

Michelangelo's Apprenticeship From (http://ahmednazari.weebly.com/apprenticeship.html)

Michelangelo began to show an interest in art and drawing by the age of ten, and became an apprentice by age 12. When Michelangelo was 13 he was set to be an artist. He became a pupil of the great sculptor, Donatello. His father soon recognized the boy's intelligence and While he studied the principles of Latin, Michelangelo made friends with a student, Francesco Granacci six years older than him, who was learning the art of painting in Ghirlandaio's studio and who encouraged Michelangelo to follow his own artistic vocation. When Michelangelo turned 13-years old he shocked and enraged his father when told that he had agreed to apprentice in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. After about one year of learning the art of fresco, Michelangelo went on to study at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens and shortly thereafter was invited into the household of Lorenzo de’Medici, the Magnificent. There he had an opportunity to converse with the younger Medici, two of whom later became popes (Leo X and Clement VII). He also became acquainted with such humanists as Marsilo Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano, frequent visitors to the Medici court. It is certain even this early in Michelangelo's training that his skill was evident or he would not have been invited into the powerful Medici family's patronage.

The Disposable American

Layoffs and Their Consequences
Written by Louis Uchitelle

Layoffs have become a fact of life in today’s economy; initiated in the mid 1970s, they are now widely expected, and even accepted. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In The Disposable American, award-winning reporter Louis Uchitelle offers an eye-opening account of layoffs in America–how they started, their questionable necessity, and their devastating psychological impact on individuals at all income levels. Through portraits of both executives and workers at companies such as Stanley Works, United Airlines, and Citigroup, Uchitelle shows how layoffs are in fact counterproductive, rarely promoting efficiency or profitability in the long term. Recognizing that a global competitive economy makes tightening necessary, Uchitelle offers specific recommendations for government policies that would encourage companies to avoid layoffs and help create jobs, benefiting workers, corporations, and the nation as a whole.

Happy Birthday Laurel Rose

The Grow a Farmer Campaign — Help Cultivate the Next Generation of Organic Farmers & Gardeners

School for young adults wanting to be organic farmers. It works.

It looks like we got a new way to get folks on the farm and also young adults raised on farms to switch from chemical farming to organic farming.
Get on the band wagon (farm truck) and do some good for the planet.

Compost Organic

I mowed today and it was almost too thick for our mower. The grass is so thick that I have a lot of grass clippings on the lawn. Because it is going to rain tomorrow evening I will have to pick up the clippings tomorrow morning. Last year I placed the clippings on the garden spot and the garden looks great but no vegtables are going there because of the deer. I will place the clippings on the Hackberry stump so it will break down quicker.
I have been gathering compost for 30 years. Thirty years ago it was all clay. With the addition of earthworms and compost our yard is nice. Not the best but a 100% improvement since 1975.
I have done what I can organically.

Rows of heavy grass clippings.

Volkswagen of America

Stefan Jacoby, Volkswagen of America, Inc., Pres. & CEO was on C-SPAN this morning and was asked this question by a caller, "Why did you move away from Detroit and move to rural America?"
I knew that the questioner knew the answer as I did. Mr. Jacoby walk around the question with a typical windy answer ( "and talked for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said,").
The answer is cheap labor with no union intrusion.

April 6, 2009 In this MegaVote for Kentucky's 1st Congressional District: Recent Congressional Votes - Senate: Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2010 House: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act House: To amend the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 House: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act House: Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2010 Editor's Note: Congress is on a two week recess. The Senate will return on Monday, April 20 and the House will return on Tuesday, April 21.

Recent Senate Votes

Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2010 - Vote Agreed to (55-43, 1 Not Voting) The Senate passed their version of the national budget for fiscal year 2010. Sen. Mitch McConnell voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO......send e-mail or see bio

Recent House Votes

Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act - Vote Passed (274-149, 8 Not Voting) The House agreed to the Senate amendments to this national service bill, sending it to the president. Rep. Ed Whitfield voted NO......send e-mail or see bio To amend the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Vote Passed (247-171, 1 Present, 12 Not Voting) On Wednesday, the House passed this bill intended to curb bonuses of executives at financial institutions that receive Troubled Asset Relief Program money. Rep. Ed Whitfield voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act - Vote Passed (298-112, 21 Not Voting) The House passed this bill that would give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco, but would not allow the agency to ban cigarettes or other tobacco products. Rep. Ed Whitfield voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2010 - Vote Passed (233-196, 3 Not Voting) The House passed their version of the national budget for fiscal year 2010. Rep. Ed Whitfield voted NO......send e-mail or see bio

Happy Birthday Aprilyn

A white cat was at the window wanting in, so I at 1200 got out of bed and let the cat in. When I awoke the sleepy kitten walked in the living room where I sat and said hello and jumped on my lap. I sat there for a hour while the kitten slept.
It is time to go back to bed.
It is now 0830 Motherkitty just got up and is getting ready for work. Today is a short day for her. Short days for her give her time to recuperate from the long days. She says that Wal Mart is doing a booming business; she stays very busy all day.
I started the mower yesterday and the battery light stayed on the whole time it was running (time for a new battery). Motherkitty said to call her if I needed anything for the mower. Yesterday Motherkitty brought home a lawn tractor battery for my riding mower and today she will bring home some battery cables for the mower. I should have mowed today but I have no gas and with one vehicle it makes it hard to get to town. I will put the mower back together this evening or tomorrow (there may be rain in the area today).

The kitten is making a nucience of himself wherever he goes at the moment.

Motherkitty's van is in the shop. A switch with the air bag is messed up and that has to be fixed. We do not want the air bad puffing up when it not wanted. But we do want it to work when required to do so.
I am on Facebook and I have said hello to all my relative and friends via the Facebook template.
It is fun. We still have email for long letters.
Facebook is nice to show off photos and to say a good morning to all your friends.

The link below is something we have known for awhile but this just proves how fast computers are.
Human beings created computers to make decisions quicker. It is a matter of asking the right question.
We seem to have in the link below.

Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics

From Wired Science

"In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings.

Developed by Cornell researchers, the program deduced the natural laws without a shred of knowledge about physics or geometry.

The research is being heralded as a potential breakthrough for science in the Petabyte Age, where computers try to find regularities in massive datasets that are too big and complex for the human mind. (See Wired magazine's July 2008 cover story on "The End of Science.")"

Rights of women in Afghanistan

Above from the The Guardian

and

Afghanistan Online
http://www.afghan-web.com/woman/

I live in Kentucky and I have lived in California and Washington State.
I can also assume that in the United States, we as a society do respect the fact that women are women and they are treated humanely and equally.
We avoid the caste system and fight it we it appears.

Reporters call Hillary Clinton, get phone sex line

From CNN

Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense

From: Time Magazine CNN
The thunder is rolling.

Motherkitty has light that stays on in her van. When we bought the van we bought a extended warranty. So far the warranty has paid for itself. We have had two major repairs and they have fixed them both for as little as nothing.

I pasted or uploaded photos on Facebook. Diane, Gil are you on Facebook?

The days here are one day rain and one day pleasant. It is time to mow the yard but it will be a muddy mess. I have 2/3 of an acre to mow and 1/3 of it is in muddy grass that will leave tracks. I mow that with the blade up at high speed.

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