Gaining strength by doing without : What we did during the Great Recession

The Washington Post often reminds me that I live in a different state .A different state of finance and of mind.My suspicion(hope) is that this must be satire.They should label this stuff better ,it is in the Business section,not normally the go to source of humor,even in the best of times .The many sacrifices being made in this country are documented ably by the paper .Good solid American citizens forced to cope with the demands of hard times .

Far reaching tales of the unbelievable pluck and resiliency ,that ultimately will help pull us through .One can only read in awe and wonder "Do I to,have what it may take ?"

The recession has had a powerful effect on the American state of mind shouts the Post

People forced to cancel lawn services ,forgo tailoring services and even dye their own hair ! Hard times .Spending on pet services is down and will only grow at 6% percent this year from a recent high of 40%growth.

Here are more examples of the sacrifices borne no doubt with grim faced stoicism . Within one week, Efthalia(not her real name ) changed the bulb in the headlight of her Mercedes, cutting out a $120 trip to the mechanic. The couple made a cake for their 11-year-old daughter's birthday party instead of spending $50 at the local bakery. And Epiktetos(not his real name ), who works in a management job, picked up some cans of paint from the Sears in Fair Oaks to help a friend redecorate -- seven hours of work but a savings of roughly $1,000. Griselda (not her real name ), 34, of Potomac canceled her lawn service last year and now mulches the yard and trims the wisteria herself, saving as much as $500 a month -- even before she was laid off from her marketing job about a month ago and started a bakery. Aglaia(not her real name) 28, of Arlington dismissed her personal trainer to save $60 a week.She has called off the lawn care service for the coming summer and asked the woman who does her nails to cut them extra short -- so the manicure will last longer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/25/AR2009022504009.html?hpid=topnews

Mutual promotion for Vt.Gov.Douglas

No doubt still energized after last Fall's appearance at a gala Wal-Mart promotional rally. Vermont Governor Douglas last week was the first governor to openly endorse (at his weekly press conference no less) Mass Mutual Insurance company's philanthropic 10 yr. life insurance program offered in all 50 states .A press release was also available on the governor's state run website describing the effort.The company and the governor stress the purely altruistic motives for this program and stress that no marketing or promotion is being done to sell policies .The governor's spokesman also stresses no connection between this and Mass Mutual life insurance PAC two $1,000.00 donations to Gov.Jim Douglas re-election campaign .

Jane Kolodinksy, chairwoman of the community development and applied economics department at the University of Vermont, is impressed with the strategy. She said it's a "perfect marketing communications plan.""Is it bad? No. It's done all the time. ... It's actually brilliant marketing. Does it hurt anybody? I don't think so. Will it help some people in the end? It will help a very small minority of people," Kolodinksy said.

Steven Wark dismissed the criticism and claimed not to have known about the pending endorsement until after contact had been made between Mass mutual and the Gov.'s office .

Vermont families who meet the criteria are eligible for a free, 10-year term-life insurance policy through the program. The insurance would not distribute a lump-sum check, but would establish a trust fund that could be used for a wide range of educational needs for the children. The funds cannot be used for other types of expenses, however. The signup date for Burlington is Saturday.

John Pastore of Pastore Financial Group LLC is hoping the LifeBridge program could result in $15 million to $20 million of coverage written for Vermonters, or 400 policies. Aside from the program's overall limit of 20,000 policies nationwide, there is no cap on how many policies can be written in Vermont, as long as the applicants meet the requirements, Pastore said. Roughly 9,500 policies have been written throughout the U.S.

"Through LifeBridge, Mass Mutual has identified a way to tie their philanthropic focus -- education -- with their primary product -- life insurance," Douglas said

What might be the governor's primary product being sold here ?

http://www.vermont.gov/portal/government/article.php?news=851

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090223/BUSINESS/902230306

Rabbit ears foiled: A brief analog dialog

Someone stole the public airwaves .No cable ,no dish.We were given an old TV years ago.

When outfitted with rabbit ears and the ideal amount of tin foil it got two and one half stations depending on the weather (sunspots?).

And then there was one.Last night I battled with a digital converter box and successfully reduced our number of stations down to one ,but by god its a great picture !

Why is New Hampshire Public TeeVee the only station we now receive here in Vermont ?

Obama's new nukes

Obama's Energy Secretary Chu's support for new nuclear power is making waves among several companies competing for DOE loans to build new nukes. Chu has said he will move quickly to get the loan guarantee program up and running this year.As we move to the green side on some items in the stimulus bill on another front Obama follows what for all the world looks like a small part of the Cheney energy task force recommendations .Some funds previously designated and not from the stimulus package will be used for loan guarantees to build new nuclear power plants .Major green energy-related portions of the stimulus law were largely left intact and large portions proposed for nuclear power were cut after Congressional debate,but new nuclear power plant planning and funding still grinds along.

Regarding the storage of spent fuel someone present with Secretary Chu,at a meeting concerning permitting Yucca Mountain storage facility is quoted as saying “It sounded like the expectation is (nuclear waste) will be stored at sites for a long time,” said one participant who asked not to be identified since it was a private meeting. Giving a post 9/11 nod to security concerns Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday Nuclear power plants will likely add fortifications to future atomic power stations despite the cost involved ,according to CNN. Nothing was mentioned about how this new safety concern may effect old plants still in use .

The field of U.S. companies competing for $18.5 billion in government-backed loans to build new nuclear plants has narrowed to five from about 14 last year, company sources said

Last year, developers of 14 new nuclear plants requested DOE guarantees totaling $122 billion, far exceeding the program's budget, the agency said. Several companies dropped out of the running in December, leaving at least 10 projects seeking federal support. The DOE process will determine which new reactors get built and only two or three will be built .

Federal loan guarantees are expected to jump-start interest in building new reactors, after massive cost overruns during the last nuclear boom and the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania left utilities hesitant to build new plants.

With a cost of $5 billion to $12 billion for each new reactor, depending on size and design, the DOE program is expected to fund only a few projects, but the guarantee is seen as critical to obtaining financing

http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/39803867.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10165605-54.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1846256420090218?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/02/18/afx6068518.html

Stress free combat ?

Some people may be born to perform with grace under pressure but could drugs and steroids create stress resistant people ? New studies are showing substances and steroids that appear in high levels in people that are able to remain calm under stress.The goal of a recent study was to find and identify specific drugs and steroids that would 'protect' people from high levels of stress.Thinking of the worst here,one can imagine a combat application for a stress reduction drug or steroid . Maybe as easily a benign use for blocking stress responses is in the works ..or both. Just flow with the neuropeptide as they say.The study notes treatment for stress related memories,PTSD as an application .But some researchers are finding risk of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder was influenced by their childhood. Stephanie Bird, an ethics consultant, said that medicating people to dampen their stress reactions raised serious issues. "We clearly don't want to create a population of people who act without thinking," she said. Sensible ethics really.

The research has led to a test that can predict which people will respond well in a stressful situation and those who are more likely to panic.
In a study,Deane Aikins, a psychiatrist at Yale University, took blood samples from soldiers before and after they took part in survival training exercises designed to test their skills at evading capture and enduring interrogation. In the majority of men, levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, increased sharply during the exercise.
But Aikins found a few men whose stress levels hardly changed during the exercise. They performed best because they were able to stay calm, he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago yesterday.
"Certain people are cooler under pressure and they perform very, very well during these periods of time," Aikins said.Further tests revealed the men who coped best with stress had higher levels of a substance called neuropeptide Y, which reduces levels of cortisol in the body and blocks feelings of stress.
Aikins said his next goal was to identify mental exercises or drugs, such as the steroid DHEA, that could protect people from high levels of stress. If that can be done, it might reduce levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects between 15% and 20% of active servicemen and women.The researchers now hope to find out how to help soldiers that aren’t as cool under stress.Aikins said his team is now looking into whether giving other soldiers a dose of this stress-dampening neuropeptide might help people fare better in combat situations.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1639999/study_compares_stress_levels_in_soldiers/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/16/coping-with-stress

Stinkin' Truth ....Lake Champlain's Quadricentennial condition

Six years ago in 2003 Vermont's Governor Douglas declared "After more than a decade of discussion we can, and we must, act now." Now State Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn says he wishes the environmental groups would stop drawing attention to a book by Peter Greenberg. The book in question is "Don't Go There!: The Travel Detective's Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World." in which he states "In 1999, two dogs died after ingesting Lake Champlain's blue-green algae-covered water. How bad is that? ... The water often looks cloudy and green and smells foul, due to algae blooms, and the depletion of the lake oxygen has affected fish ... Beaches along the lake are frequently closed in order to safeguard human and animal health ...." But wait there is more.Another group Secretary Dorn may wish would stop talking about he condition of the lake may be the press release from the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) that states A variety of man-made chemicals has been found in the streams and wastewaters that discharge into Lake Champlain. The chemicals found include pesticides, fire retardants, fragrances, detergent degradates, and caffeine. The chemicals were found at extremely low concentrations, measuring a few parts per billion. The concentrations were highest in waters released by sewage treatment plants, combined sewer overflows and small urban streams. The lowest concentrations were in larger rivers, an undeveloped stream, and the lake. Although the concentrations were low, the significance of such a mixture in the environment is unknown. How these chemicals affect fish and human health at the levels found is not well understood and an area of ongoing research. All this on the heals of this summer's EPA report stating that the Vermont must do a better job in its clean-up efforts.This report caused an unusually angry response from the Governor and the EPA later backed off slightly perhaps under pressure. Several days after the kerfuffle The Burlington Free Press Outdoor column weighed in on the Lake or as the articles title says the stinkin' truth .Fisherman are right on the frontline line and see(and catch) the living prove of a troubled lake . The Governor's cheerleading rings more and more hollow as he tries to find squirm his way off this hook . The Lake is in trouble.Gov.Douglas's Clean and Clear program which debuted in 2003 is failing at either fast or slow speed. Is Champlain a disaster? Well, maybe not yet, but if we use Champlain's fish populations as our litmus test, something is surely amiss. And it does seem to be getting worse. We catch pike with these huge, ugly growths (lymphosarcoma) and we're bracing for the arrival of the fish-killing VHS disease, which, we've been glumly assured, will be here before you know it. The fishing can be good -- no doubt about it -- but there's a strange feel on Lake Champlain these days, as if nature is seriously whacked and careening in the wrong direction from which there will be no return. I have no idea whether Greenberg is a fisherman, but as far a truth-sayer? Well, he ain't far off. http://www.amazon.com/Dont-There-Detectives-Essential-Must-Miss/dp/1605299944http://www.burlingtonfreepress...

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/a... http://www.burlingtonfreepress... http://governor.vermont.gov/to...

"....that doesn't mean I'm a sap"

"I am an eternal optimist [but] that doesn't mean I'm a sap. So my goal is to assume the best but prepare for a whole range of different possibilities in terms of how Congress reacts."

-- President Obama, in an interview with the National Journal

"The equivalent of just seven cups of instant coffee a day is enough to trigger the weird responses."

Late last night stumbled across two articles on coffee related studies. The first speculates

...Whether coffee itself deserves the credit is not yet clear, but researchers say the findings at least suggest that coffee drinkers can enjoy that morning cup "in good conscience."The study found that among 1,400 Finnish adults followed for 20 years, those who drank three to five cups of coffee per day in middle-age were two-thirds less likely than non-drinkers to develop dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

That reassuring study coupled with the second and equally reassuring Guardian's debunking of an earlier survey. That survey claimed "Danger from just seven cups of coffee a day," and that "Too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people" The Bad Science column questions the methodology of the report and the manner in which it was reported .Happy reassurance in both cases for any coffee people,who may be up late worrying over the state of the world .....

The second study and survey asks about caffeine intake in vast detail, and then uses one scale to measure how prone you are to feeling persecuted, and uses another, the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS), 16 questions designed to measure "predisposition to hallucination-like experiences". Some of these questions are about having hallucinations and seeing ghosts, but some really are a very long way from there. Heavy coffee drinkers could have got higher scores on this scale by responding positively to questions like: "No matter how hard I try to concentrate on my work, unrelated thoughts always creep into my mind"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/story.html?id=1249078

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/17/bad-science-ben-goldacre

Jus' Strunk and White

Writing well is not something that comes easily .Writing concisely and coherently doesn't come easily for that matter. So I have been looking around for some sound advise .I found a handy list of 25 tips here http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=158294 No need to post all of them but item # 5 stuck out like a reasonable ,yet vaguely Hemmingway-like admonition.

So on to wikipedia for the lowdown.That tells tell me that Strunk and White ,actually White took this item # 5 and expanded on it . One chapter is the simple admonition: "Omit needless words!" White updated and extended these sections, and prefixed an introductory essay adapted from his New Yorker article.

That speaks volumes on omitting needless words. I should probably and will leave it at that .Enough said .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X

Outrage over peanuts now. Torture and war later ?

Justifiable outrage today at the Peanut Corporation of America and an executive that knowingly shipped tainted products which to date are linked to several deaths .He pleaded the fifth and refused to taste his own companies products.
Congress has showed some real backbone tackling this.Get the nuts out of the way first .Maybe former Bush administration officials will be next. It looks that dealing with the past deeds of the former Bush administration will have to wait though as President Obama expressed at his news conference more a desire to move forward, and to not be diverted by backward-looking investigation.But Sen.Patrick Leahy has proposed something short of prosecution "We could develop and authorize a person or group of people universally recognized as fair minded, and without axes to grind. Their straightforward mission would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for purposes of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts" Someday perhaps but for now congress can handle peanuts and the executive looks forward.

Executives for Peanut Corporation of America refused to testify before a Congressional panel today. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, asked owner Stewart Parnell if he would be willing to eat his own products.
"This container is full of products that less than a month ago, people were consuming thinking it was fine to eat," asked Walden while holding up a container of Peanut Corporation products. "And one of the things I'm going to do today is ask Mr. Parnell from Peanut Corporation of America if he'd like to open this and sample some of the products that he didn't think were a problem to send out to the rest of us to eat."
Parnell refused to testify, invoking his right not to incriminate himself.
The Congressional Panel also reviewed emails showing Parnell urged workers to ship peanut products even after test results indicated salmonella contamination. The emails suggested that Parnell was more concerned about sales revenue.
"The company e-mails obtained by a House committee show Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales,"AP

P.B. facts :

2.4 billion pound are consumed in the U.S. each year. About 50% is consumed as peanut butter.

March is National Peanut Month, a time to celebrate

Two peanut farmers have been elected President of the United States: Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.

http://www.peanutbutterlovers.com/loversmonth/index.html

http://www.peanut-institute.org/index.html