Mark's Notebook

All Articles - February 2006

What is communism?

This article from the LA Times about a joint effort between South Korea and North Korea in one brief sentence describes the essence of communism.

"The monthly salaries of $57.50 for each North Korean worker — regardless of position — are paid directly to the North Korean government, which in turn gives the workers about $8."

Think your taxes are high? Think again.

Gene variants make women see red

Reuters

By Amy Norton

A new gene study may help explain why she sees crimson, vermillion and tomato, but it's all just red to him.

In an analysis of the DNA of 236 men from around the globe, researchers found that the gene that allows people to see the color red comes in an unusually high number of variations. And that may be a boon to women's color perception in particular, study co-author Dr. Brian C. Verrelli told Reuters Health.

That's because the gene, known as OPN1LW, sits on the X sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, one from each parent, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. Because women have two different copies of the "red" gene, the fact that the gene can have so many variations means it may especially aid women's perception of the red-orange spectrum.

Past research into color-vision genes has focused largely on variations related to color blindness. The red gene routinely swaps bits of genetic material with its neighbor on the X chromosome, the "green" gene. Sometimes this exchange goes wrong and results in a defect that causes color blindness. An estimated eight percent of men are color-blind, while few women have the condition because the odds are they will have at least one good copy of the red and green genes.

http://www.mills-peninsula.org/health/healthinfo/reutershome_top.cfm?fx=article&
id=17899

Seeing Red

Netscape News

Women see one color differently than do men: red. She sees crimson, burgundy, and tomato. He sees red. Just plain ol' red. Why? It turns out there's a perfectly good reason why men can't see what is so obvious to women: the many variations--some subtle, some bold--of the color red. Reuters reports that researchers from Arizona State University in Tempe have determined there is a gene that allows us to see the color red, and that gene comes in a high number of variations. Because the gene sits on the X chromosome--and women have two X chromosomes and so two copies of this gene, compared with only one for men--the gene aids women's ability to perceive the red-orange color spectrum. The study findings were reported in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

http://channels.netscape.com/homerealestate/package.jsp?name=fte/popularcolor/po
pularcolor&floc=HR-1_T

God's Katrina Kitchen

Christianity Today

by Deann Alford

On August 29, Katrina made landfall just west of Pass Christian (pronounced "Christy Ann") on Mississippi's coast. The 30-foot storm surge killed 22 people, destroyed nearly all business property, and damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the town's homes. Pass Christian is one of the communities most devastated by Katrina. By January, only 1,500 of Pass Christian's 6,500 residents remained. The rest are scattered nationwide, joining 2 million other hurricane refugees across America.

Pass Christian's government is in tatters. Like virtually all Pass Christian residents, city leaders suffered grave personal loss. City Hall is now in a doublewide trailer. The storm set back the city 150 years, to its early days as a rustic resort area. Little of the tax base remains, nor does any meaningful employment beyond contract work for cleanup and debris removal.

The Red Cross has left town, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has scaled back. Other major agencies, such as the Salvation Army, are often outmatched by the size and complexity of the needs.

Greg Porter, who had cooked for an inner-city ministry, stepped into the hunger gap. His church, Christian Fellowship, provided supplies. He and his team of five drove a mobile kitchen from Indiana to Pass Christian, arriving September 14. They set up on a median and turn lane of crippled Interstate 90. Their first meal provided 125 free hamburgers.

After Hurricane Rita passed by, crews moved to a city-owned lot, which is now filled with donated refrigerated trailers, storage containers, and a big tent dining room. Their canopied kitchen includes industrial-grade appliances that create meals from food shipped from across the nation, all of which is donated. An Evansville radio station has solicited volunteers for the operation. In late October, a station broadcaster christened it "God's Katrina Kitchen." Its motto is posted at the entrance: "Not One Church, But One God."

Kitchen crews daily serve 1,500 hot breakfasts, lunches, and dinners to residents, relief workers, police, road repairmen, soldiers from Biloxi's heavily damaged Keesler Air Force Base, and anybody else who's hungry—free of charge, no id required. A donation box sits by the serving line.

God's Katrina Kitchen includes a clothing center, a food pantry, and tables with Bibles and Christian literature. Volunteers who distribute food and clothing often share the gospel with those receiving aid. Nightly worship services feature music and speakers from across America.

Until mid-December, the Colbys ate supper several times weekly at God's Katrina Kitchen. Pastor Colby found that both victims and volunteers bore a heavy emotional load. He labels it "Katrina brain." But the summer camp-like environment at God's Katrina Kitchen provides a daily occasion for people to break bread and talk about what they face.

The collaboration between Christian groups has impressed Pass Christian's politicians. Christians represent 95 percent of relief volunteers, said Lou Rizzardi, Pass Christian's Ward 1 alderman who coordinates them.

Crusade volunteers share the gospel with every family they help. Nonbelievers are far more receptive to the message after seeing faith in action.

DEET-resistent gnats, more prevalent than ever, leave welts that itch and sting weeks later. Razor wire, used to block roads immediately after the storm, remains strewn along railroad tracks. Dreamlike morning fog that rolls over the community might seem romantic if it didn't envelop a vision from hell. Cleanup alone will take two years. Rebuilding Pass Christian will take much longer.

University Crusade groups and ten Christmas Conference gatherings nationwide have promoted spring-break work trips to the region. Rick Amos, Crusade's Katrina relief coordinator, told CT that during spring break, "There will be just as much evangelism in Pass Christian and New Orleans as there will be in Panama City [Florida]."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/003/19.60.html

911 calls to be directly routed to city police

San Jose Mercury News

By Gary Richards, Mercury News

This month Los Gatos and Menlo Park join a growing list of cities where drivers making emergency calls from local streets will have 911 calls directly routed to city police, easing the pressure on the understaffed Highway Patrol.

San Jose is on board, as are most cities in Santa Clara County and along the Peninsula. Union City and Alameda are the only two East Bay cities taking local 911 cell calls on city streets, but more hope to.

All of the major cell phone companies, with the exception of Nextel, now have the ability to route 911 calls to the closest dispatch center.

Under the new system, city police can pinpoint the general location of calls on streets within city limits. Older phone models provide a phone number, cell carrier and cell tower that is being used along with GPS coordinates of the tower. Newer cell phones with a GPS chipset beam back the same information as well as GPS coordinates of the phone in use.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/transportation/13972237.htm

Cross-Generational Square Dance TOMORROW Feb 28

San Jose Mercury News

I'm not sure where else to post this notice, so here goes:

Cross-Generational Square Dance. Families with children ages five and older and seniors welcome. 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28. West Hope Presbyterian Church, 12850 Saratoga Ave., Saratoga. $3-$10. (408) 730-4684.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/events/13972263.htm

Four free ways to stop spyware

San Francisco Chronicle

Lavasoft Ad-aware SE 1.06
Cnet rating: 7.6 out of 10 (Very good)

Tenebril SpyCatcher Express
Cnet rating: 7.2 out of 10 (Very good)

Spybot Search & Destroy
Cnet rating: 6.7 out of 10 (Good)

Microsoft Windows Defender beta 2
Cnet rating: 6.5 out of 10 (Good)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/27/CNET.TMP

Mississippi Casinos Trump Katrina

Los Angeles Times

By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer

BILOXI, Miss. — Nearly six months after the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, the good times are rolling. The gamblers are back, and they are bringing huge amounts of money to this beaten coastline's most important industry.

Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29, destroying most of the waterfront casinos and shuttering the remainder. Some economists and tourism officials predicted that their comeback — if it occurred at all — would be slow going.

But the Isle of Capri and two other casinos resumed business in December, and since then have attracted thousands of visitors who have helped the gaming industry post surprisingly strong numbers. In January, the three casinos pulled in nearly $64 million in gross gaming revenue, according to the Mississippi Gaming Commission. The previous January, the total in Biloxi was $90 million — when the city had nine casinos in business.

In October, the Mississippi Legislature changed the law to allow onshore casinos within 800 feet of the shoreline. The casinos got another boost when Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) helped them win federal tax relief to rebuild.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-casino25feb25,0,3293245.sto
ry

Deaf Church Wins Land Value Battle

Los Angeles Times

By Dan Weikel, Times Staff Writer

A small church that has served the deaf community in Riverside County for decades will receive more than $4.5 million to settle allegations that Caltrans grossly undervalued the congregation's property when it was condemned to make way for new ramps on Interstate 215.

Calvary Deaf Church and Caltrans resolved their dispute Tuesday shortly after Superior Court Judge Gloria Trask tentatively ruled that Caltrans' original appraisal of $1.65 million was flawed and outdated. A trial had been scheduled for Monday.

Calvary Deaf Church, which has about 45 members, was founded in 1956 by Beatrice and John Berry, two Assemblies of God ministers. It is one of a handful of congregations in the region that specifically serve hearing-impaired people.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-caltrans22feb22,1,2015589.story

$3,200,000,000 and rising for Katrina relief

Christianity Today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Some organizations have raised so much money for Katrina relief that they're not taking any more, says The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Charities have raised about $3.2 billion, according to the publication's survey. Among the top recipients: The Salvation Army ($325M), Catholic Charities USA ($154.5M), Habitat for Humanity ($95M), The United Methodist Committee on Relief ($62.4M), Samaritan's Purse ($36.9M), Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief ($20.1M), and World Vision ($10.9M).

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/108/41.0.html

http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v18/i09/09005001.htm

Katrina Report Urges Retooled Disaster Plans

Washington Post

By Christopher Lee and Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writers

The White House proposed a major restructuring of federal preparedness and response efforts for catastrophic natural disasters yesterday, saying the government's failures in coping with Hurricane Katrina had laid bare the inadequacy of steps taken since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In a 228-page report that emphasized bureaucratic problems rather than failures of leadership, White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend detailed a host of problems in the federal approach to the most destructive natural disaster in the nation's history. The report contained 125 recommendations for improvement -- including 11 critical steps to be taken before the next hurricane season begins June 1.

The report echoed many of the findings of a special House committee, which issued its report last week.

A Senate committee is at work on its own report, and the Government Accountability Office has undertaken a comprehensive review. But there is no independent commission looking into the government's response to the hurricane, as there was after the 2001 attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022300236.
html

Mark says: How many damn reports do we need, anyway? Keep them congress-persons too busy to do other damage, I guess.

Billy Graham the Pastor

USA Today

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

The Journey: How to Live By Faith in an Uncertain World, by Billy Graham, will be in bookstores March 7.

"The book begins where a crusade leaves off. It's about being a Christian, not becoming one," says Graham's spokesman, A. Larry Ross. "It's his legacy, encapsulating the essence of his sermons, writings and recordings on what it means to be a follower of Christ."

There's no news in The Journey but the Good News, the translation of "Gospel." There are no bloggable bits where he slams people or pounds political views. He writes about, but never names, a "well-known Christian leader" with an impressive "zeal for truth" who was missing "a love for others (especially those who disagreed with him)."

The book's four parts focus on the basic elements of the Christian life: discovering God's love, building strength, facing challenges and finally, family life, aging and death.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-02-20-graham-book_x.htm

Wrapped in Prayer, Marines Leave for Iraq Duty

Los Angeles Times

By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON — Navy Lt. Jim Peugh, a Protestant chaplain, led the 100-plus Marines of Combat Logistics Battalion 5 in a prayer asking God to "be with us" as the battalion returns to Iraq and also to protect the families left behind.

"You need to be strong and you need to pray that they're all coming back, all of them," said Bev Singleton, the mother of Staff Sgt. Mikel Travis, 30. "These are all my sons and my daughters, every one of them."

It was a morning for spouses to trade secrets on how to endure the uncertainty of the deployment.

"Don't watch the news, be hopeful when he calls and don't bother him with problems. Just give him positives," suggested Carrie Strickland, 21, whose husband, Sgt. Chris Strickland, 23, is an explosive ordnance technician.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-troops20feb20,1,7023863.story

Does God love gays?

This cover story in the latest Metro Silicon Valley discusses a new documentary "God and Gays."

What God thinks about gay people is something that Christians and gay people need to think soberly and deeply about, not something where blanket pronouncements serve any purpose.

When some gay people say they can be Christians, they need to think about why their Christianity might give them some sense of being loved, but not some power to change. A real relationship with a loving Savior ought to impart some power to change some things in your life that you don't even necessarily think are wrong, but which God wants to change anyway.

On the other hand, when some Christians say that gay people cannot be Christians, they ignore the fact that the Bible has only half dozen passages that mention homosexuality, but four whole Gospels that show Jesus embracing those whom the religious community would not. Jesus did not condemn the outcasts, but he loved them back into the fold. Jesus condemned only the religious establishment that would exclude some from the spiritual life.

I personally like to think that the Bible can be summed up in these verses from Psalm 62:

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.

Gay people have a religion where God is loving but not very powerful. God wants to exercise his power in your life to change your life. And this means more than just the power to let you learn to love your mate better. Any old non-Christian person can do that, and divorce statistics indicate that they might do so better than self-labeled Christians do. God wants to change your life in ways you won't expect, and perhaps won't even want at first. But he also wants the power to change your attitude and desires. The irony is that by refusing to give full rein to God's power, they lose the most powerful demonstration of God's love. When you see God at work in your life in ways that are beyond human ability and comprehension, it validates your knowledge of his love in a powerful way.

Some Christians have a religion where God is powerful but not very loving. They remind me a lot of the Pharisees of Jesus's time. The Pharisees could quote lots of Bible passages, but they had a hard time showing the love of God to others. The irony is that by denying God's love, they cut themselves off from the full demonstration of God's power. God cannot reach others through a hateful person, although the story of Nebuchadnezzar shows that he can use even a hateful person to achieve his purposes through circumstances. I don't want to be a "circumstancial" Christian through whom God does things only by accident ... but someone whose love reaches out to others in a purposeful way.

Ministries mentioned in the article and the movie include Exodus International. This is not a hateful organization, as some would try to paint it. They do not try to "change" homosexuals into straight people. They do try to expose gay people to the love of God, and then let God exercise his power in his own unexpected ways. As Christians, we often hope that God will change a person in a certain specific way: free them from homosexuality, from substance abuse, or from pornography. But we forget that God's agenda might be to free them from cigarettes, from lying, from adultery, or from hatred of parents first. It's when we try to steer people away from God's agenda and toward our own that we get into trouble.

Each of us who calls himself or herself a Christian has our own "history" with Jesus. He has changed each of us in a unique way and a unique pattern. He doesn't fix everything all at once. Each of us still has ways we are being changed. Some of us may still be struggling with vices we've known about for many years. But God will fixes those things in the order that works best for him and his kingdom, and in the way that best indicates our awareness of his love and power.

Storm can't crush a town's heart

Los Angeles Times

By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, entire blocks have been bulldozed, leaving eerie empty spaces — like missing teeth — where quaint neighborhoods once stood. "The Pass," as everyone calls it, is a patchwork of FEMA trailers, RVs and pop-up tents. The town center is a field of drab-green Army tents used as dwellings and offices. City Hall is a double-wide trailer, as are the police station and library.

"We can't escape the devastation. It's everywhere," said Martha Murphy, who has lived here for most of her 54 years. "But we see Pass Christian through our hearts, not just our eyes. We know it is going to change. We just want to retain what it had that made us love it."

About two-thirds of the town's 6,500 residents have returned — enough families that 7 out of 10 children who were enrolled in Pass Christian schools before the storm are attending classes in neighboring areas where schools were less damaged.

Every public building in town was destroyed by Katrina, along with almost all the businesses and about 80% of the homes. Pass Christian's tax rolls dropped from 4,000 structures to 170.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pass21feb21,0,1760575.story
?track=tottext

Reasons computers must be female

Eddie N told me this joke at the men's retreat. I liked this one the best:

The message, "Bad command or filename," is about as informative as "If you don't know why I'm mad at you, then I'm certainly not going to tell you."

You can find the rest of them here ...

Everything just disintegrated

USA Today

By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

More than five months after Hurricane Katrina leveled much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, people here are still struggling mightily to restore some sense of normalcy.

The raw numbers are staggering: More than half a million people in Mississippi have applied for assistance from FEMA. In a state with just 2.9 million residents, that means more than one in six Mississippians have sought help. More than 97,000 people are still living in FEMA trailers and mobile homes. Another 5,000 to 6,000 are still waiting for FEMA trailers.

Despite a massive cleanup, many neighborhoods are still piled high with storm debris.

There is a lot of anger and frustration here: At insurance companies that accepted premiums for decades and are now, in the opinion of residents, dragging their feet or balking at paying off. At FEMA, which is doing a lot but is the main face of the federal government and therefore the target of much ire. At the media for focusing so much attention on New Orleans that Mississippians often feel their pain is being overlooked.

"You never see Waveland, Bay St. Louis or Pass Christian on the news, and we were the hardest hit," Linda Penrose says. "People do not know the devastation down here because the cameras do not come back here. Everything just disintegrated. I don't think they want people to see how bad it was."

Insurance problems plague the powerful and the not-so-powerful alike. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., have joined thousands of fellow Mississippians suing their insurer, State Farm Fire & Casualty, for refusing to cover property losses from Katrina.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-15-katrina-penrose_x.htm

TV Theology

USA Today

Watch for reincarnation Hindu-esque style if an Ashton Kutcher-produced sitcom lands on TV in the fall. For Pete's Sake is actually an interfaith goof: St. Peter plays bouncer at the Pearly Gates, sending five main characters off to rebirth instead of hell, garbling both Christian and Hindu theology.

After all, there's no law that TV or movies must teach correct doctrine, says Dick Staub, a writer on faith and culture for Christianity Today online.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-02-15-hindu-lite_x.htm

Mark sez: You mean the Jesus on South Park isn't the real Jesus?

The Church of Katrina

Yahoo News, AP

If it weren't for the faith-based groups helping out, the city of Waveland would be half the size it is now.

Katrina ravaged Mississippi's Gulf Coast, leaving roughly $125 billion in damage in its wake and nearly wiping some cities off the map. Waveland is still littered with massive amounts of debris, and police estimate fewer than 1,500 of its 6,600 residents have returned since the storm hit Aug. 29.

With government agencies stretched thin by the massive scope of the Gulf Coast recovery effort, groups from every conceivable religious denomination are shouldering a heavy share of the workload.

Amish and Mennonites are mucking out and rebuilding homes across the coast, with dozens living together at a religious-affiliated summer camp in Pass Christian. Lutheran and Islamic groups are providing free medical care to thousands in Biloxi. Southern Baptists have cooked an estimated 14 million meals in New Orleans and other hard-hit communities. The Salvation Army has had roughly 52,000 people working in Louisiana and Mississippi since the storm.

"We feel it's our duty to do it because it's God's work," said Amish volunteers who have gutted more than 300 homes in Waveland alone.

Tens of thousands of volunteers from hundreds of faith-based groups have poured into the region. That virtually bottomless well of labor makes them a valuable resource for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps coordinate their efforts to avoid duplication.

Volunteer groups have been the "only show in town" as the work shifted from emergency relief to long-term recovery and rebuilding, said Ken Skalitzky, FEMA's voluntary agency liaison for Mississippi, Alabama and six other states.

In December, FEMA doled out $66 million in Katrina-related grants for 10 social service and volunteer groups, including Catholic Charities, Episcopal Relief and Development, Lutheran Disaster Response and the United Methodist Foundation of Louisiana.

Amish volunteers, who rotate through Waveland every week or two, will be here for several years. They recently trucked in prefabricated homes for roughly 60 people, setting them up on property near the remnants of Gulfside United Methodist Assembly, a church retreat that Katrina leveled.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_re/religion_today

Silicon Valley Habitat for Humanity

San Jose Mercury News

Bay City News Service

The Milpitas-based non-profit organization Silicon Valley Habitat for Humanity plans to begin construction on six attached town-style homes at 2255 Gianera St. in Santa Clara this fall and is now accepting applications from county residents.

The homes are scheduled for completion by late fall of 2007.

Santa Clara officials agreed to foot the bill for the properties the homes will stand on and, as part of this deal, preference will be given to people who live or work in the city.

The six Santa Clara homes are part of a larger effort to construct 29 new homes in the next three years.

Habitat for Humanity, which has already built 28 homes in Santa Clara County for 28 families with a total of 95 children, strives to build decent, affordable houses for low-income families, Freiri said.

People with disabilities are encouraged to apply to purchase the new homes, one of which will be constructed to meet the needs of people with mobility impairments, and another that will be accessible to those with sensory disabilities, according to the organization.

http://www.mercurynews.com:80/mld/mercurynews/news/13897364.htm

Drunk Drivers' Penalty: Play Mahjong

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

Drunk drivers in Taiwan can now choose their penalty: Pay a fine or play mahjong with the elderly.

Playing the popular Chinese tile game of mahjong with token money has taught offenders to love and care for the elderly.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2006/02/16/international/i
160857S42.DTL&type=bondage

Home sales falter, hinting at slowdown

San Francisco Chronicle

by Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer

Bay Area home sales tumbled to their lowest level in five years last month, and prices hovered well below record territory, further evidence that the region's seemingly unstoppable housing boom may have peaked with the blistering market of 2005.

January's performance is the latest sign of a cool-off that began 10 months ago when sales counts began declining. Experts have attributed the loss of steam to higher interest rates, prices climbing beyond the reach of many consumers and the inevitable maturing of the decade-old housing boom.

Last month, nearly 36 percent fewer houses and condos sold in the nine-county region in January compared with December and 20 percent fewer compared with January 2005, real estate information firm DataQuick reported Thursday. The month's total was 6,004; it usually ranges between 4,000 and 7,500.

Prices, while still up notably on a year-to-year basis, fell below autumn peaks. The median for a single-family home stood at $628,000, up 13 percent from last January, but 4 percent under November's $656,000. The condo median hit $475,000, up from $410,000 last January but below the October record of $490,000.

Clearly, the market is shifting to a lower gear as real estate agents report fewer bidding wars and a jump in the number of properties for sale. But housing experts are divided on how long the respite will last and whether 10 consecutive months of declining sales activity foreshadow falling -- or merely stalling -- prices.

For some hint of the Bay Area's trajectory, DataQuick analyst John Karevoll pointed to San Diego, which has been termed the "canary in the coal mine" by economists who have watched closely as that city's price growth rocketed north of 26 percent in late 2004. A short time later, sales totals plunged, and price appreciation has sunk to about 2.5 percent annually.

But other experts think the Bay Area's high-flying market is due for a steeper correction.

Real estate agents -- who are usually among the first to sense changes in the market -- say power is now balanced between buyers and sellers after several years of rampant multiple offers, waived inspections and pleading "sell me your house" letters.

That new rubric was summed up earlier this week at a sales meeting at Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco. Of the 25 sales, 12 properties went for above the asking prices, 9 went for the asking price and 4 sold for below. Some agents say they must price their listings more realistically and market them aggressively.

Michael Carney, executive director of the Real Estate Research Council of Northern California at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, theorizes that an initial softening market may only drive more buyers out of the woodwork, buoying prices and sales over the longer term. "People are saying we're going to have this collapse of the bubble, but I don't think we're going to have an enormous drop in home prices," Carney said. "One reason is that you have a whole lot of people out there hoping prices fall. Demand is still there somehow."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/HOMES.TMP&nl=top

World's best cyclists in 8-day, 600-mile road race

San Francisco Chronicle

by Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

It's the Tour of California, an eight-day, 600-mile race from San Francisco to Southern California, modeled after the Tour de France and featuring more than 100 riders from 16 top teams. It's the biggest bike race ever to huff and puff into California, the sort of affair Lance Armstrong would be riding in if he hadn't broken every cyclist's heart by retiring.

It starts Sunday with a sprint in San Francisco. The next day, the pack pedals from Sausalito through the rural roads of Marin and Sonoma counties to Santa Rosa. After that, the affair proceeds from Martinez to San Jose before heading to Monterey, the Big Sur coast and the Los Angeles basin. The race is sponsored by Health Net and AEG, part of Anschutz Corp.

Leland Mew, a 56-year-old emergency room doctor, rode back and forth over the race route, from Lafayette to Moraga, checking his speed on his handlebar gizmo and lamenting that it was not quite the 28 mph that the pack of pros is expected to average. "But I'm doing OK for an old guy,'' Mew said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/BIKES.TMP&nl=top

Mark sez: don't expect to see me in that pack.

The neighbor from hell

San Francisco Chronicle

I thought we had the neighbor from hell, but then I read about this one in San Leandro ...

'Dream' vehicles turn nightmarish

by Chip Johnson

The other day there were 11 vehicles at the home of Russ Daniels on Lewis Avenue in San Leandro, a fleet that included two trucks, two boats, two vans and three trailers used for various chores.

Neighbors are fed up with the battered convertibles, the bashed-in yellow BMW and the truck he keeps "for parts" on a trailer outside his home, and they want the city to force Daniels to clean up his act.

Last month, Daniels paid more than $3,000 in fines -- a six-month accumulation of parking tickets and citations for unregistered vehicles.

During the last five years, Daniels' Noah-like quest to gather two of every kind of vehicle imaginable -- and other items you couldn't describe -- has driven his neighbors completely bonkers. His eclectic collection has been the subject of conversation among a homeowners group of 1,500 members, at city planning commission meetings and at this week's City Council meeting, where blight was addressed.

Scott Warner, a Lewis Avenue resident who's tangled with Daniels, told the council that the city's efforts to keep Daniels in line have been ineffective. "You can't leave a trailer, a motor home and oversized vehicles out in the street, and have five in the backyard as well," Warner said. "This has been going on for at least three years." Warner recently presented the City Council with a petition bearing the signatures of 42 neighbors who want the city to force Daniels to remove his vehicles and clean up his yard.

In the last year, the tense relations that existed between Daniels and some of his neighbors have begun to boil over. His vehicles have been vandalized on several occasions.

Daniels realizes he isn't being neighborly. "I don't think it's OK to park all the vehicles here," he said. "Look at the hate that it's generated. It offends people."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/JOHNSON.TMP&nl=top

Contactless credit cards

San Francisco Chronicle

by Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Credit-card outfits are pushing a new payment technology called contactless cards that could speed your way through the checkout line.

Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover are promoting the tap-and-go cards for use when buying something quick and cheap -- garlic fries at AT&T Park, a Slurpee at 7-Eleven, a prescription at Walgreens, a Happy Meal at McDonald's, or movie tickets at AMC, Loews, Regal and Cinemark theaters. All of those merchants are installing special terminals to read the cards.

With a contactless card, the cashier rings up your sale, you hold your card (or cell phone or key fob) an inch or two above a radio-frequency reader, which quickly flashes green and beeps to indicate that you've paid. For purchases of less than $25, no signature is required.

The concept is similar to the FasTrak transponders Bay Area commuters use to pay bridge tolls, except that contactless cards must be read at a much closer range.

Contactless-card transactions average 15 seconds, according to Visa. That's less than half the 34 seconds for cash transactions and about a third faster than the 24 seconds for payments using traditional credit cards with magnetic stripes that must be swiped, it said.

Discover is testing cell phones with contactless chips.

Nationwide, about 20,000 merchant locations have installed about 120,000 contactless readers in the past year, many of them concentrated in a few geographic regions, such as Atlanta and New York.

To get a card, go to a credit-card brand Web site and look for links to issuers that offer them. Rather than giving you another piece of plastic to carry in your wallet, banks will simply add the contactless chips to mag-stripe credit cards, debit cards or prepaid cards. Those cards will then work both for traditional mag-stripe devices and the new contactless readers.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/CONTACTLESS.TMP&nl=to
p

Americans in an uproar over cartoons?

In this rambling New York Times Op-Ed, Robert Wright starts out by making some good points.

Even many Americans who condemn the cartoon's publication accept the premise that the now-famous Danish newspaper editor set out to demonstrate: in the West we don't generally let interest groups intimidate us into what he called "self-censorship."

What nonsense. Editors at mainstream American media outlets delete lots of words, sentences and images to avoid offending interest groups, especially ethnic and religious ones. It's hard to cite examples since, by definition, they don't appear. But use your imagination.

Agree so far. The problem of self-censorship has become even more acute under the GW Bush administration, when any criticism of the Republican administration is considered treason.

But then Wright cites Hugh Hewitt's "apt comparison" that is so far off base as to be ludicrous:

... "a cartoon of Christ's crown of thorns transformed into sticks of TNT after an abortion clinic bombing," ... that cartoon would offend many American Christians.

Sure, it might offend many Christians, American or not, but it would not incite them to riot.

Wright's examples of the "American tradition of using violence to make a point" include the Watts riot of 1965, but the tensions that resulted in those riots had been brewing for over 100 years.

Besides, while certain American groups might resort to violence when they feel their own self-interest is threatened (as blacks did in the civil rights era of 1954-1968), expecting Christians to riot is beyond the pale of even the likes of Pat Robertson. After all, if American Christians ever felt the need to riot, wouldn't their favorite cause be the abortion rights ruling of 1973? But apart from a few loners who bomb abortion clinics, even the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade passed last month without major incident. Those few loners could hardly be called a riot or even a movement. Virtually all American Christian leaders decry those outbursts.

Which is more than you could say about Muslim leadership worldwide, who have apparently been fanning the flames of hostility behind the scenes. Wright makes this point also, and on this one other point he is also correct.

Letterfu: Letter-writing without envelopes, cutting or glue

A little communications origami:

• Print a letterfu design onto a sheet of paper
• Write your letter on the reverse
• Address the letter
• Fold using the instructions on the letterfu design
• Stamp it and drop it in the nearest mailbox

All you need to send one is a printer, an A4 or Letter-sized sheet of paper and a stamp. The letter is the envelope. It holds itself closed, secured by the stamp - so it doesn't even need any glue. You use the entire sheet of paper, so there's nothing to cut either.

http://www.letterfu.com/

They Haven’t Got Mail

Newsweek

By Mark Hosenball, Newsweek

The business world and government departments depend upon it, grade-school kids are taught how to use it and Osama bin Laden’s followers have become skilled practitioners. But congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation’s key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail.

The House committee established to investigate Katrina was informed that neither Secretary Chertoff nor Secretary Rumsfeld use e-mail.

Spokesmen for the two officials maintain that Rumsfeld and Chertoff were kept informed during Katrina the same way as they keep in touch during other crises: through aides and a variety of other communications methods. Brian Besanceney, Chertoff’s top spokesman, said: “Every senior DHS official knows that, if they have important information to convey to the secretary, they go to his office or pick up the phone.”

But Dr. Irwin Redlener, a disaster-preparedness expert at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, expressed surprise that two officials in such critical positions would not be adept at routine methods of modern communication. “This can’t be true,” he said, only half-jokingly. “It’s almost inconceivable in 2006 for officials at that level of government not to be directly connected to systems of communications.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11371281/site/newsweek/

New Presidential $1 Coins

United States Mint to honor the Presidents of the United States

Beginning in 2007, the United States Mint will strike and issue new $1 coins to honor the Presidents of the United States. Mandated by Public Law 109-145, the coins will be issued at the rate of four per year, in the order in which they served. The Presidential $1 coins will carry new Presidential portraits on their obverse, or heads, side and will feature an image of the Statue of Liberty on their reverse, or tails, side.

From the US Mint web page, http://catalog.usmint.gov/

New Grant System Excludes Mac Users

Washington Post

By Rick Weiss, Washington Post Staff Writer

What if the federal government were about to give away more than $400 billion in grants, but only people whose computers ran on Microsoft software could apply?

That is the predicament that many scientists, scholars and others say they are in as the government enters the final phase of its five-year effort to streamline its grant-application process.

The problem: Although many U.S. scientists and others depend on graphics-friendly Macintosh computers, the software selected by the government is not Mac-compatible. And it is expected to remain so for at least a year.

"Uh, this would be the same government that spent a lot of time and money pursuing Microsoft for its anti-competitive behavior?" one blogger wrote. "And they now offer a government site that mandates monopoly?"

But the promise of making Grants.gov accessible to everyone remains unfulfilled because of a decision by Northrop Grumman and the Health and Human Services Department to give a small Canadian company called PureEdge Solutions the job of creating the electronic forms.

The PureEdge solution, it turns out, works only with the Windows operating system. And that is especially galling, several scientists said, as at least one major grant-making agency, the National Science Foundation, has for many years been using a "platform-independent" system that works seamlessly with all kinds of computers.

Critics note that in contrast to the domination of PCs in the business community, Macs constitute about one-third to one-half of the computers scientists and academicians use.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200942.
html

Parents Protest Child's Spelling Bee Loss

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

AP Breaking News

Eighth-grader Sara Beckman from Reno's O'Brien Middle School spelled "discernible" correctly during Tuesday's spelling bee at the University of Nevada, Reno. But the judge rang the bell anyway.

Her parents are furious, but organizers say they had to protest the call immediately. Sara's mom said they waited until the bee was over to avoid interrupting it.

Her mother Cindy calls herself a "momma bear with her bear claws out" and is ready to go to court.

School spokesman Steve Mulvenon says defending a lawsuit over a spelling bee isn't a good way to spend school district money.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/08/national/a131010S43.DTL

(Should I have put this in the "humor" category or not?)

Paw and Order: Meet Fred, undercover kitten

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

By Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer

Authorities on Wednesday introduced the 8-month-old former stray cat that posed as a would-be patient while police investigated a college student accused of treating pets without a license.

At a news conference, Fred sported a tiny badge on his collar as he posed for photos with owner Carol Moran, a prosecutor.

Fred shared the spotlight with Burt the Boston terrier, an alleged victim of Steven Vassall, 28, who was arrested last week and released on $2,500 bail.

Burt's owner, Raymond Reid, contacted authorities after the dog survived a botched operation. In hindsight, he said, he should have been suspicious of a veterinarian who only made house calls and treated animals at an undisclosed location.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/09/national/a115702S56.DTL

Power Play

This article doesn't specifically lay it out, but I think the legislation is trying to reduce the amount of power consumed by a charger "brick" when it's plugged into the wall, but nothing is plugged into it.

That is, if you leave your cell phone charger plugged into the wall 24/7, but you only plug your cell phone into it at night, instead of drawing power all the time, it would draw power only at night, when the cell phone is actually plugged into it.

I agree that it can be more convenient to leave all those bricks plugged in all the time, especially if you have a dedicated spot to do so. Anthro Corporation has even come out with a wall-mounted shadow box that consolidates the whole mess. But Mary and I don't leave our bricks plugged in all the time. We plug them in only when needed.

That is, unless you count the six bricks underneath my computer table ... the ones for DSL modem and router must be plugged in all the time. The ones for print server and wireless access point need to be plugged in only when those devices are in use, but that can happen at any time. The one for the Palm Pilot really needs to be plugged in only when I charge that guy, which is only about once a week. And the one that says Sony ... hmmm, it's not plugged into anything at all. I bet it's for the video camera, which I've plugged into the computer only once at most. OK, make that five bricks plugged in under the table.

Maybe there's something to this legislation after all.

Now, about this new California rule that prohibits disposing of batteries in the trash ...

... let's not go through this exercise again. Just learn to live with it. "It's good for your soul."

Miracle of Coyote Gulch

San Francisco Chronicle

Old dump in Presidio ravine now a haven for wildlife

by Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer

A new push for restoration at the Presidio is turning toxic-waste dumps into wildlife habitat. The National Park Service, using $99 million from the former owner, the U.S. Army, is fixing up the 1,480-acre Presidio an acre at a time.

Watching the bird life with binoculars from Lincoln Boulevard, just north of the Baker Beach turnoff, San Francisco birder Josiah Clark is rattling off sightings.

Clark spotted a metallic green Anna's hummingbird with its rosy throat perched on the scrub. A common raven was patrolling the ground for rodents, and an American kestrel alighted on a post at Battery Crosby, an old military fortification. Red-tailed hawks were sparring in a Monterey cypress on a bluff overlooking the ravine.

From this spot where the narrow mouth of the Golden Gate stands in full view -- with the bridge invisible to the north -- Clark has seen harbor porpoises, surf scoters, red-throated loons and western grebes.

But it's the bird song unique to the local dunes that pleases Clark, a consulting ecologist who has worked on Presidio restoration for the Golden Gate National Park Conservancy.

One by one, he picked out the whistle of the Nuttall's white-crowned sparrow, the melodic call of the bright yellow meadowlark and the tinkling note of the bushtit. On the wind, he heard the trill of the song sparrow, the black phoebe's "fee-bee'' and the Bewick's wren's "peety, peety, peety.''

"The birds like a wet spot with a bunch of rushes,'' Clark said.

"Lots of birds are migrating through here. You add this new landscape and it bumps up the capacity for nesting in the Presidio.''

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/09/PRESIDIO.TMP&nl=top

Somebody turn it off!

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

Our new microwave oven beeps every 30 seconds until you take your finished food out. I thought that was obnoxious enough, until I read this ...

Stuck foghorn wails every few minutes

Associated Press

The tranquility of Monterey has been disturbed by a foghorn stuck at the end of the Coast Guard pier. The switch is stuck on "on" and nobody in the area knows how to fix it, Petty Officer 1st Class Lance Benedict said Tuesday.

So the foghorn wails every few minutes.

The foghorn and accompanying light at the end of the Coast Guard Pier off Lighthouse Avenue are meant to prevent water travelers from running into the breakwall, Benedict said.

During foggy conditions earlier in the week, the horn was turned on.

"We are just a search-and-rescue part of the Coast Guard," Benedict said, noting the Coast Guard's repair staff is based in San Francisco. They have been notified but it's unclear when the team will arrive, Benedict said.

The Big Easy Is Now Limbo Land

Washington Post

Slow-Moving Bureaucracy Leaves New Orleans Stuck in a Cycle of Waiting

By Linton Weeks, Washington Post Staff Writer

There are so many symbols of Limbo Land: Vast sections of the city are still without utilities. Without electricity, businesses can't open their doors; without open businesses, electric bills can't be paid. House-gutting companies advertise everywhere, but many homes are too far gone for gutting. Of an estimated 50 million cubic yards of hurricane and flood debris, about 6 million has been picked up, the city's Web site reported. Countless cars litter the landscape, rendered useless by the floodwaters. Ridership on buses and streetcars operated by the Regional Transit Authority has fallen from 855,000 rides per week before Katrina to 60,000 or fewer, according to a mid-January situation report by the Bring New Orleans Back commission. Only 17 of 122 public schools have reopened.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802401.
html?referrer=email

Storm Victims Face Big Delay to Get Trailers

New York Times

by Jennifer Steinhauer and Eric Lipton

Nearly six months after two hurricanes ripped apart communities across the Gulf Coast, tens of thousands of residents remain without trailers promised by the federal government for use as temporary shelter while they rebuild.

Of the 135,000 requests for trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has received from families, slightly more than half have been filled. The delays have left families holed up with relatives or stranded out of state, stalled local economies and infuriated state and local officials, who criticize how the program has been managed. Further, officials and residents complain about problems with quality, like poor plumbing and electrical shorts, with the trailers they have received.

Several Slidell city officials, including police officers, are still without trailers or just received them this week, and have been sleeping with friends or neighbors, and in one case, under a desk in a government office.

On Monday, frustrated by the delays, four members of the St. Bernard Parish Council performed what they called a symbolic act, taking three trailers from a local stockpile of about 275 and delivering them to residents.

"If this happened with any other business, you would find another purveyor," said Councilman Mark Madary, who represents a parish where 6,000 families are waiting for trailers and about 2,000 have received them.

The problems in administering the $4 billion trailer program mirror those of other major recovery efforts undertaken since the hurricanes crippled the region, and appear to be a result of failures at all levels of government. Local officials, contractors and residents say that some of the delays seem to stem from the federal government's poor planning and its frustrating layers of subcontractors and bureaucracy.

The goal from the start, particularly in Louisiana, was to find wide-open swaths of land where group sites, which have become known as FEMAvilles, could be set up. That was crucial because a large share of the homeless in Louisiana were renters who did not have their own property where FEMA could place a trailer. Even if they did, whole sections of New Orleans were still considered uninhabitable.

The contractors sent teams of surveyors to identify possible sites for these new trailer communities. But as they began to negotiate the permits required, local authorities and landowners, one after another, started to turn them down.

"There is a very strong message: not in my backyard," said Mark Misczak, who oversees the temporary housing effort for FEMA in Louisiana.

"If you needed a classic example of how to make every mistake humanly possible and then throw more mistakes on top of that, that is what you have with this trailer program," said Representative Gene Taylor, Democrat of Mississippi, a vocal critic of the program who lost his home in Bay St. Louis to Hurricane Katrina.

Shirley Harris, a 73-year-old Slidell resident, continues to live in a ramshackle house that was severely damaged by the storm. Ms. Harris said that FEMA had told her it could not install a trailer because she had electrical wires still hanging in front of her house. But looking across the street at a house with identical hanging wires and two FEMA trailers in the yard, she feels at a loss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/national/nationalspecial/09trailers.html?pagew
anted=1&_r=1&th&adxnnl=0&emc=th&adxnnlx=1139474981-dZZ3FuEsMMaX9XNUEzNgNA

Fred Phelps Confronted

KAKE TV, Wichita

by Jeff Golimowski

KAKE's chief investigative reporter Jeff Golimowski went inside Fred Phelp's world looking for answers.

"God hates america," said Phelps. He offers no apologies. "Tthis country is hellbound, it's hopeless."

Phelps' church isn't a big place. About 60 people were there the Sunday we visited, 30 of them children. His sermon often rambles, he repeats himself, jumps from one topic to the next and is often tough to follow. He includes conspiracy theories and a lot of fire and brimstone.

Phelps views himself as an instrument of God's will, but what drives him to be so outlandish, so hateful?

"Those old baptist preachers delivered me a charge from Isiah 58:1," said Phelps. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show thy people their transgressions."

We asked Phelps, "Do you preach hate?"

"Not in the perjorative sense I don't," said Phelps. "The truth of the matter is I'm the only one who loves these fags."

Phelps believes by pointing out what he calls the sin of homosexuality, he's fulfilling the Bible's commandment to love thy neighbor, but not letting his sin go unrebuked. "These kissypoo preachers that are telling them they are all right like they are, they don't love them, they hate them," said Phelps.

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/2252792.html

By the Thousands, Faithful Toil to Resurrect Gulf Cities

Washington Post

Sojourners in the South Leave Behind Jobs, Schools, Lives

By Jacqueline L. Salmon, Washington Post Staff Writer

Since arriving in Biloxi with a convoy of supplies and volunteers from his Fairfax County church, Lord of Life Lutheran, shortly after Labor Day, Bart Tucker has spent a total of eight weeks here. He goes home only to raise more money and recruit more volunteers.

His efforts have rippled across Northern Virginia. Other faith organizations have joined in -- churches, Habitat for Humanity, Bible study groups -- sending members and money, forming partnerships with Biloxi churches and adopting families.

More than 10,000 religious people across the country have poured through the stricken Mississippi Gulf Coast in an unprecedented volunteer effort.

They sleep in church sanctuaries, RVs and tents. They leave behind jobs, schools and retirement for labor pilgrimages of days, weeks or months.

Tucker doesn't question God's purpose for his presence. "I'm just here," he said. "Whether I'm called in this direction, I'm not sure. I'm here."

The volunteers' focus: a seemingly endless horizon of destruction that stretches 70 miles. In Mississippi, 35,000 homes owned by residents who had no flood insurance were destroyed. Tens of thousands more were heavily damaged. Beyond this is Louisiana, where 77,000 homeowners with no flood insurance saw homes destroyed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401381.
html

Nebraska Psychology Professor Uses IPod for Lectures

Washington Post

Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Psychology students and fans of Apple's popular iPod can now listen and learn at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Calvin Garbin is one of the first instructors at the university to harness iPod's versatility and use it as an educational tool.

Garbin uses a wireless microphone hooked to his shirt to record the 50-minute lecture, then downloads the recording onto his computer. He cuts the lecture into short audio chunks and puts it on his Web site for downloading.

Students confused about certain parts of the lecture can click on a link and listen again. And podcasting makes studying for tests easier for those students who are auditory learners, Garbin said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601295.
html?referrer=email

Habits of Highly Effective Justice Workers

Christianity Today

by Rodolpho Carrasco

Not so long ago, evangelical Christians who served the poor often found themselves on the defensive among fellow believers. Now it's the rare church that doesn't engage in works of mercy and justice. Watching this evangelical wave of concern and action, I've been greatly encouraged. Yet as I listen to my fellow justice-impassioned Christ-followers, whether they are newbies or grizzled veterans, I often hear only part of the message of justice.

There is no shortage of protest across the political spectrum. But while I celebrate this development, I worry that we are perilously weak at walking alongside the poor, at investing directly into the lives of individuals to give them what they truly need—not what we believe they need or what our policy statements tell us they need. I've found that it's relatively easy to raise a voice in protest, but unfathomably hard to invest in a life.

Take money skills. While some urban youth have a good grasp of personal finance, many don't. How to manage a credit card, why to avoid check-cashing shops, why a good credit report is a critical tool in America—most youth on my street know almost nothing about these topics.

Those who lack knowledge and experience managing money must be taught. But money management must be practiced in order to be truly learned. Is this young man getting the training he needs? More often than not, the answer is no, especially among fatherless young men. The older he is, the more bad habits he is likely to have accrued over the years. While he painstakingly unlearns those habits, he still has to make ends meet.

After seeing this pattern repeatedly in northwest Pasadena, I began to wonder where I learned about money. After all, at age 6 I was the at-risk poster child. I was "the poor." But my sister was a math major—and that fact alone made a difference.

But there came a day, as a young adult, when the problem was not understanding, but confidence. Deep down, I didn't believe I could really hold on to money, that this particular Mexican would ever rise above his circumstances. I went through a severe crisis of self-doubt.

I had a lot of support from family and friends, yet it took a long time to learn what I know now about finances. Now add issues like education, employment, and marriage. There is no way around these basic life skills if a person is ever to escape poverty. The investment needed is long, sacrificial, and, frankly, tedious. Doing justice by walking alongside people as they develop critical life skills is not exciting. Protesting on Wall Street against globalization is exciting. Getting arrested at the courthouse is exciting. Filling the National Mall with hundreds of thousands of people is exciting. But staying proximate to people as they learn lessons they should have learned years ago? When's the last time you saw that on cnn?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/002/31.46.html

One reporter's futile attempt to see the Shroud of Turin

Canada.com

by Howard Fendrich, Canadian Press

TURIN, Italy (AP) - A bit of advice for English-speaking visitors to this city who want to find the Shroud of Turin: Don't try asking locals, "Where can I find the Shroud of Turin?"

The reason, of course, that Italians aren't familiar with the word "shroud" is that it's, well, English. Italians call it "La Santa Sindone."

And then, I hit upon the secret formula, using these words in English: "Jesus" and "religious." Perhaps because those are pronounced quite similarly in Italian - "Gesu" and "religioso" - she understood.

"Aaah, La Santa Sindone," a newspaper vendor said, nodding excitedly, and pulled out a map to show me the way.

Here's some more advice: Don't expect to actually see the Sindone. About 4 1/2 metres long and one metre wide, the linen has an image that believers say was left by Jesus' body when he was wrapped in it after being taken down from the cross.

When you enter the cathedral, to the left of the pews, there's a photographic replica of the Shroud, about two-thirds the size of the original. There are pamphlets in several languages, and helpful guides who aim their red laser pens at the copy as they describe it.

The Shroud itself? It's in its own chapel in the back left corner of the cathedral, enclosed in a box behind bulletproof glass. It was last brought out for public viewing in 2000, and is not scheduled to go on display again until 2025.

There was speculation the Shroud might be open to viewing during the Olympics. But Turin Cardinal Severino Poletto, the Shroud's custodian, announced in December it would remain closed.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/oddities/story.html?id=31ed185b-58b6-4ad6-aa44
-963e1a40a184&k=20927

Crawling through Fresno

The worst part of visiting Fresno is that it seems to take longer to get through town there than to get there.

It is 150 miles from San Jose to Fresno. Mapquest says it will take 2.75 hours, but it can be done in 2.25 hours if you take no breaks.

But once you get there, it takes another 22 minutes to cross from Highway 99 to Cedar Avenue along Herndon Avenue. (When we left town, it took 19 minutes to do the reverse.)

It's only about eight or nine miles across town, and the speed limit is 50 mph most of the way. So why should it take so long? We had to stop at every traffic light along the way. They are not syncronized.

So I'm happy to read this ABC30 article indicating that traffic signal syncronization is in the works. "The Fresno County grand jury named traffic as Fresno's number one problem and accused the city of lacking the commitment to fix it."

But since when does it take a flippin' grand jury to get involved to fix these things?

Fresno seems like a nice place to live in many ways, and I've often considered buying a retirement home there. But traffic has been their number one problem as long as I can remember (since the early 1980's) and they seem to be doing nothing about it.

Bible Reading Plan Progress

A while back I mentioned that I've started a plan for reading the Bible through in about ten months.

I started reading the New American Standard Bible around the first of December. So far, I should be 62 chapters (2 months) into each "track." (You have to look at the Bible reading plan page to understand about the "tracks.")

On Track 1, I've read 149 chapters, from Genesis 1 through Numbers 32. This puts me about 87 chapters ahead on Track 1.

On Track 2, I've read 116 chapters, from 1 Chronicles through Esther, then moved on to read Isaiah chapters 1 through 18. This puts me about 54 chapters ahead on Track 2.

On Track 3, I've read Psalms 1 through 49. These 49 chapters put me about 13 chapters behind the 62 chapters I should have read. One reason why I'm behind is that if I miss a day, I like to make it up the next day. But the Psalms are so personal and intense that I prefer not to read more than one per day. Also, I'm not too worried about falling a little behind here because Tracks 3 and 4 are shorter than the other tracks.

On Track 4, I've read all of Matthew and Romans, and the first nine chapters of 1 Corinthians. This is 53 chapters and it puts me nine chapters behind on this track. The reason I've fallen behind on this track is I usually read this track last, and if I'm too tired I might not get to it at all. Again, I'm not too worried about falling behind on this track because it is a shorter track. Also, I can read the Gospels more quickly than the epistles, because the Gospels have a little more action. I should start making up lost time when I get to the book of Mark.

Overall, I've read 367 chapters, or about 30 percent of the entire Bible (which is 1189 chapters total). This is about six chapters per day. If I continue at this pace, I should finish the Bible in about seven months, or at the end of June.

I've usually been reading late at night, before I go to sleep, and sometimes after my wife has gone to sleep. I haven't yet decided whether that's a good strategy, because I'm often very tired. But I think I'm learning a lot. And I'm noticing lots of things that I missed the last time I read the Bible through.

Man gets wallet back after nearly 40 years

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

Associated Press

A man is being reacquainted with his past after a Utah family returned a wallet he lost at a gas station nearly 40 years ago.

Schmitt apparently lost the wallet at a gas station in Logan, Utah, in the spring of 1967, when he stopped to fill up his 1955 Austin Healy. The station's owner stashed it in a drawer, presumably hoping the person would come back.

Ted Nyman, of Logan, found it decades later while cleaning out his father-in-law's estate. He tracked Schmitt down through the Internet, and last week mailed the wallet 2,158 miles across the country.

The beige wallet still held $5 in cash, a traffic ticket, 8-cent airmail stamps and Doug Schmitt's freshman ID card from Utah State University. The wallet also had photos of Schmitt's high-school girlfriends and a dry-cleaning receipt.

As an antiques dealer, Schmitt is accustomed to digging through other people's attics for wartime letters and other personal histories. He never expected someone else to pore over his past.

"It's just so wonderful that people will take the time to research that, then return something to someone they don't even know," said his wife, Vickie Schmitt.

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