12:38 AM — blogs update I just wanted to point out that I've changed main blogs. Go to zandperl for my main blog. To access some of the posts you will need to have me friend you, so get an LJ account and then friend me or leave a comment on a public post and I'll add you as well.

My secondary blog is Modern Science, and it's commentary and summaries of events, discoveries, and controversies in science. Discussion is encouraged.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  8:35 AM — More on New Orleans Hospital Murders I've finally seen the alleged New Orleans hospital "mercy killings" in a news source other than CNN, though not one I've ever heard of. It's also got much less info than the CNN article I quoted previously.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  12:04 AM — State of Emergency? Apparently Massachusetts was under a state of emergency until this afternoon. Who woulda thunk it?  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  8:30 PM — Random Today while commenting on Gran's On Bran, Google's "human verification" system threw me an interesting random set of letters.

ifucmu

I fuck mu.

"mu" as in the Greek letter that indicates the metric prefix micro (10^-6) or the coefficient of friction.

*hee* I am entertained. :)  ¶ permalink | 2 musings | add your musing

  5:11 PM — Mormons in Ar-Kansas?

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Michelle Duggar just delivered her 16th child, and she's already thinking about doing it again.

Johannah Faith Duggar was born at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces.

The baby's father, Jim Bob Duggar, a former state representative, said Wednesday that mother and child were doing well. Johannah's birth was especially exciting because it was the first time in eight years the family has had a girl, he said.

Jim Bob Duggar, 40, said he and Michelle, 39, want more children.

"We both just love children and we consider each a blessing from the Lord. I have asked Michelle if she wants more and she said yes, if the Lord wants to give us some she will accept them," he said in a telephone interview.

(CNN)

  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  4:51 PM — LJ I'm starting to use my LiveJournal account a bit more for posting "classified" material ever since I found out that a search on my full name could lead to this page. Check it out and friends me to keep tabs, though if I don't know you I may not friends you back and let you see all the secret stuff.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  7:09 AM — Killing Birds The large number of birds that has to be killed in Europe and Asia to prevent the spread of the avian flu saddens me. In Thailand I think they tried vaccinating the birds, but not everywhere has the money and/or desire to do so. It probably also isn't a failsafe way of preventing the spread. If you want to be sad about dead birdies too, scroll through the pictures in this CNN article.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  12:46 AM — Charity Evals I just found a link to CharityNavigator.org, an independent non-profit group that rates US charities (equivalencies exist in other countries as well).

• Mercy Corps spends 92% of its revenue on its programs, spends only 3c to raise another dollar of donations, and has an overall score of 64 (whatever that means...).


• The American Red Cross spends 91.1% of its revenue on programs, but requires 18c to raise a dollar, and has an overall score of 60.


• As a religious organization, the Salvation Army is exempt from filing the forms that would allow Charity Navigator to analyze them, so they've no data.


• The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) spends a measly 65.7% on programs and takes a whole quarter to raise a dollar. Its score is 52.


• Noah's Wish, which I'm considering as a potential future alternative to HSUS is apparently too new to have enough data to analyze, so perhaps I'll hold off on them.

Meanwhile, I've been pondering making a monthly donation to Mercy Corps. If I did $10/month that'd be $120/yr. Some religions suggest their members donate 10% of their yearly income to charity. I'm aiming for 1%, or around $300 so $10/mo isn't unreasonable, and I'm under the impression that a regular donation helps more than event-targetted donations.  ¶ permalink | 0 musings | add your musing

  6:36 PM — Super Secret Spy Service

The National Clandestine Service (NCS) will oversee all human espionage operations - meaning spying by people rather than by technical means.
...
The chief of the new service will supervise the CIA's espionage operations and co-ordinate all overseas spying, including those of the FBI and the Pentagon.

The director of the new agency, whose identity will remain secret and is simply known as "Jose", will report directly to the head of the CIA, Porter Goss.

"This is another positive step in building an intelligence community that is more unified, co-ordinated and effective," National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said.

Setting up the NCS was one of more than 70 recommendations made by a commission on weapons of mass destruction in March, which was highly critical of the US' intelligence capabilities.

As part of reforms following the 11 September 2001 attacks, the CIA lost overall control of US intelligence to the newly created National Director of Intelligence.

(BBC)

Too secret to be on American media apparently. But see how much we lag behind British intelligence agencies? They've got it on their news!  ¶ permalink | 1 musings | add your musing

  5:55 PM — What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Yankee

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

They left out a few choices though - not that I say these, but I hear them all the time here in Massachusetts.

5. You call sweetened, carbonated beverages:
Tonic

6. You drink from:
A bubbler

14. You work out in...
Trainers

And a few other interesting points...

1. The level of a building that is underground is called the:
In Europe, the ground floor is 0, and if you go up one flight of stairs it's the 1st floor. For the geeks, it's just like the difference between Fortran and C. ;) Belowground are increasingly negative numbers.

15. "Y'all"...
Some people around Pittsburgh, PA, say "Y'ins".

20. Mary / marry / merry...
Dawn / Don - I say those VERY differently. (I'm from NYC originally.)  ¶ permalink | 1 musings | add your musing