The Minnesota state fair boasts more things on a stick then anywhere else in the world, this video is a showcase of just that. It is a little long.
stillwater-high bridge August 12, 2008
So , this is a video I found strangely enough on youtube.com, it is of this very high railroad bridge in Stillwater, MN that my friends and I used to go visit when we were in high school. It is actually pretty scary. I remember when my friend Lisa almost peed her pants because she was so scared up there.
summertime fun August 12, 2008
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
~Henri Bergson
I really cannot believe summer is nearing the end. How does it go so fast now? Remember when you were a kid and summer seemed to last forever? You had endless days of warm weather fun and the days were so long. Why does time seem to move faster when you are an adult? Is it because we are so darn busy? Ryan and I really haven’t had much of a vacation yet this summer. Our usual trip that we enjoy so much is heading up to Orcas Island, which is one of the San Juan Islands of the coast of Washington. It is great up there and is one of our favorite spots. It is just about a 4.5 hour car drive from Portland and then an hour ferry ride to the island. What is so neat about Orcas is that there is no big time commercial businesses. Everything is locally owned and run. They have cute little cafes and bookstores, good restaurants, nice cabins. It is so darn relaxing there. There is a nice state park on the island with hiking and biking trails and a swimming hole. Last time we were there we rented Kayaks and enjoyed a few hours in the puget sound. If you ever get a chance you should check it out. We are sorry we didn’t go this year but it would have been a little much with Anna and Max. Hopefully next year we’ll go.
Did I tell you that last week we took Anna to her first concert? We went and saw Matisyahu at the Oregon Zoo. It was terrific and fun and Anna absolutely loved it. She was a trooper. She has a fondness for music I think because the only time she cried was when the music stopped.
Two nights ago we met some friends up at the Washington Park Rose Garden for the Symphony in the park. Anna loved that too. It was nice just to relax with friends, drink some vino, eat some bread and cheese and people watch.
Anybody out there have a favorite summer time spot to go to?
phthalates August 6, 2008
Lawmakers Agree to Ban Toxins in Children’s Items
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 29, 2008; Page A01
Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children’s products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from toys.
The ban, which would take effect in six months, would have significant implications for U.S. consumers, whose homes are filled with hundreds of plastic products designed for children that may be causing dangerous health effects.
The rare action by Congress reflects a growing body of scientific research showing that children ingest the toxins by acts as simple as chewing on a rubber duck. Used for decades in plastic production, the chemicals are now thought to act as hormones and cause reproductive problems, especially in boys.
It also signals an important crack in the chemical industry’s ability to fend off federal regulation and suggests that the landscape may be shifting to favor consumers. The movement to ban the toxins accelerated last year when California prohibited their use in children’s products.
Earlier this year, the country’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart; the biggest toy seller, Toys R Us; and Babies R Us told their suppliers that they will no longer carry products containing the chemicals, known as phthalates, as of Jan. 1, 2009. Toys containing these chemicals, however, will still be on many retail shelves during the holiday season.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that President Bush opposes the ban but that it is too early to say whether he will veto the measure, which is part of popular legislation to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Among other things, the legislation would ban lead in children’s products and would give consumers access to a new database of complaints or accident reports for goods. The measure also allows stiffer fines for violations and enhanced enforcement of consumer safety laws.
Under language finalized yesterday, House and Senate lawmakers agreed to permanently ban three types of phthalates from children’s toys and to outlaw three other phthalates from products pending an extensive study of their health effects in children and pregnant women.
Phthalates make plastics softer and more durable and also are added to perfumes, lotions, shampoos and other items. They are so ubiquitous that in one 1999 study, the Food and Drug Administration found traces in all of its 1,000 subjects.
The measure had wide support in the Senate, but it bogged down in the House, where the chemical industry waged a costly battle to defeat it. The campaign was led by Exxon Mobil, which manufacturers diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, the phthalate most frequently found in children’s toys. The company spent a chunk of its $22 million lobbying budget in the past 18 months to try to prevent any ban.
Daryl Ditz, senior policy adviser at the Center for International Environmental Law, said industry viewed the ban as a benchmark that might signal a shift in Congress’s willingness to toughen restrictions on toxins.
“The great fear is that if a big, established chemical like this can be driven from the market, what’s next?” he said.
Said Andy Igrejas of the Pew Charitable Trusts: “The debate over this one set of chemicals is a referendum on a broken system. Congress saw just how screwed up the system is in protecting people from chemicals, especially children.”
randy pausch -passed away. August 1, 2008
‘Last Lecture’ Computer-science Professor Randy Pausch Dies
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Friday, July 25, 2008 12:40 PM PDT
Randy Pausch, a computer-science professor who became internationally known for his inspiring “Last Lecture,” passed away in Chesapeake, Virginia, Friday after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
In an obituary issued by Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, where Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, University President Jared L. Cohon said Pausch has had “an enormous and lasting impact” on the university community.
“He was a brilliant researcher and gifted teacher,” Cohon said. “Carnegie Mellon – and the world – are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them.”
Gabriel Robins, a computer-science professor at the University of Virginia and Pausch’s former colleague, called Pausch “a force of nature” in the obituary, and said it was no accident that people of all ages, cultures and religions flocked to him.
“He had a very visceral, fundamental resonance to the core of humanity,” he said. “I thought of him as a genius of many things – not just science and research, but marketing, branding, selling, convincing, leading and showing by example.”
Professionally, Pausch is known for developing Alice, a computer programming environment for children. Alice enables novice computer users to create 3-D computer animations using a drag-and-drop interface.
But he will perhaps be best remembered for a surprisingly humorous and deeply moving lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” that he gave to students at Carnegie Mellon on Sept. 18, 2007. A Wall Street Journal reporter in attendance wrote about the lecture, which sparked global media attention and widespread distribution of a video of the lecture on YouTube.
Pausch called the talk “The Last Lecture” because he had recently been told by doctors he had only months to live due to pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver. He was first diagnosed with the terminal illness in 2006.
The speech gave Pausch celebrity in his last days. He survived for nearly a year after the lecture and was able to spread the teachings of his lecture through numerous public appearances during that time.
Pausch recited parts of the The Last Lecture on popular U.S. television shows in the U.S., including “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Good Morning America.” ABC News, which featured Pausch, his wife Jai and their three children in a primetime special, declared him one of three “Persons of the Year” in 2007. A book based on the lecture and co-written by Pausch topped best-seller lists in The New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly.
In The Last Lecture, Pausch provided simple guidance to help people live valuable lives and achieve their childhood dreams based on lessons he said he learned throughout his life. He emphasized that rather than seek material wealth, people should seek meaningful interactions with other people, and treat the people they encounter in their lives with the compassion and respect that come with forming lasting and true relationships.
The lecture also included simple advice for overcoming adversity and criticism people face every day to achieve important life goals, and guidance for making genuine apologies and amends to loved ones when necessary.
Pausch earned an undergraduate degree in computer science at Brown University in 1982 and a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon in 1988.
Before joining the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997, he served on the computer science faculty at the University of Virginia from 1988 to 1997 and spent a 1995 sabbatical working at Walt Disney Imagineering’s Virtual Reality Studio. He mentioned his work at Disney in his Last Lecture as an example of how he achieved a childhood dream to be a Disney Imagineer.
Pausch was a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and received ACM’s Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education from the ACM’s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education. He authored or co-authored five books and more than 60 reviewed journal and conference articles.
———Been meaning to write about this all week, Just haven’t had the time to do so until today. As you may have seen previously I had posted Randy’s last lecture on my blog. If you haven’t watched this yet-I suggest you do as it is very inspirational. We all can take away something from his lecture that he had actually written to his 3 young children. It is a lesson in how to live your life. There is also a book out called “The Last Lecture” written by Randy. In looking over all the postings on the internet this past week you can see just how many lives Randy Pausch has touched –to me–that is so amazing. If we all could only be that inspirational. What he achieved in his last year of life is truly wonderful. I wish his friends and family the best.
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