Notes from the Surf

The Briggs-Rauscher Oscillating Reaction
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=680106771263243162
"After a short time, the mixture begins to oscillate between a yellow and blue color, which continues to cycle for over 10 minutes."

Terrorism Way Too Tedious
http://www.mattbors.com/archives/578.html
"Years of planning for one small bombing - if you're lucky!"

Competition leading students to study too much on their own, interfering with cooperative classroom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_Classroom
"Students in the jigsaw classes expressed significantly less prejudice and negative stereotyping, more self-confident, and liked school better when tested objectively... Students in jigsaw classes were absent less frequently, they intermingled more in the cafeteria and in the school yard, and they performed better on objective exams of curricular material this was especially true for minority students."

Does Morgan Stanley "Walking Away" from CRE Contribute to Strategic Defaults?
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/does-morgan-stanley-walking-away-from.html
Note that Morgan Stanley is current on the loan and is not in foreclosure. They are simply "walking away" because the buildings are worth less than the amount owed... One of the greatest fears for lenders (and investors in mortgage backed securities) is that it will become socially acceptable for upside down middle class Americans to walk away from their homes.

Uninsured in Japan: a medical trip report
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/18/816168/-Uninsured-in-Japan:-a-medical-trip-report
"when I get 3 prescriptions filled in 5 minutes and they are SORRY they have to charge me a whopping 30 bucks for it, and I see people back home paying many times that, I have to wonder how we're managing to do things just this wrong."

Frank Stanton and the CBS Blacklist
http://thekisseloffcollection.com/wordpress/KC/?p=236
Stanton literally handed him a list and said, “No one on this list gets hired.” ...Producers and Directors: Hi Brown, William M. Sweets, Charles Irving...

Former IMF official and Nepal's ambassador to US floats trial balloon for military coup
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/nepals-ambassador-to-the-u-s-sends-up-a-trial-balloon-military-takeover/
"if Nepal has the good fortune of some strongmen rising to the occasion—the likes of Korea’s Park Chung-He, Chile’s Pinochet, Indonesia’s Suharto—to take up the challenge of suppressing dissent..."

Urgent Action Alert for Honduras
http://www.quixote.org/urgent-action-alert-honduras
There has been a spike in targeted murders and abductions following the November 29th “electoral event” ...the daughter of controversial journalist Karol Cabrera was murdered by unidentified individuals on a motorcycle... A member of the Resistance Front against the Coup was decapitated Friday night presumably by the police under orders of the de facto regime... The Obama administration has never condemned the massive human rights violations... denounced and documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International... as well as Honduran, European, and other human rights organizations. There have been thousands of illegal arrests, beatings and torture by police and military, the closing down of independent radio and TV stations

"God’s love for the poor and despised outweighed the property rights of the rich"
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/4813836._It___s_okay_to_shoplift__says_York_priest/
The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are. “Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.”

Worker Cooperative Productivity
http://trustcurrency.blogspot.com/2009/12/worker-cooperative-productivity.html
"There is apparently consistent support for the view that worker participation in management causes higher productivity... participation is most conducive to enhancing productivity when combined with profit sharing, guaranteed long-range employment, relatively narrow wage differentials , and guaranteed worker rights (such as protection from dismissal except for just cause)- precisely the conditions that will prevail under Economic Democracy."

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a sack full of chings, upvotes, witty catbox sayings and general wonderfulness impacting you and yours.

You folks are the best.

For me, Winter Holidays always bore the scent of Hypnotic Poison.
It's a perfume, a present from my first love on Christmas Day, exactly 5 years-time now.
Ever since, my Winters were wrapped in this heavy, intoxicating odour. It cannot be worn but in the cold season, due to its unique chemical traces.
My scarves, my clothes, my hair, everything is impregnated with it, all December, January and February - long.

But today, to Poison's note was added the scent of desolation.
I visited my Grandma. Her younger sister was there, as she usually is on Christmas. Only this time, the 2 of them welcomed me with clear, starry-eyes. Not the kind of "starry" joy brings; the other.

Margaret (that's my grannie's sister name), with trembling hands, (it could be old age, but might as well be discomposure), handed me some papers.
I grabbed them, breathlessly glimpsed for a second at their faces, then read:

"Medical analysis result for...
Diagnosis: Neoplasm of Sigmoid Colon with possible branching into the neighboring anexae.
Surgical  removal & Radiological post-treatment recommended"

This isn't true. It's a mistake. Frequent errors do occur. 
I keep telling this to myself, but I can't get drunk just by sipping clear water...Although I wish it could be possible,
just this once...

 

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