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Research and information on infection spread/prevention and national obesity by US and states posted at SD Science Junction.
Information from Science News October 15, 2014. An experiment on virus spread and obesity. Worth viewing whether or not you are a scientist or medical researcher, but should be interesting to them for sure.
*** Stay tuned, eat right, and push hospitals and similar institutions to establish protocols for better health--- Doug Wiken
Carter and Reagan administrations gave us the same kind of assurances about HIV-AIDS that we are getting from the Obama administration concerning Ebola. Einstein wrote something like, "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity." The public statements and behavior of the federal government now seems to be engaging in insanity.
We have big business expedience and self-interest in maintaining trade and a weird kind of political correctness both threatening US legal residents for no good reason. It is possible to support quarantines and tighter borders without being anti-Black or anti-African. Blacks, whites, reds, browns, yellow are all threatened by Ebola or the failure to prevent its widespread dispersal in the US.
It does not require mindless panic to be concerned about the devastating potential of Ebola and the failure to prevent it in the US. One or two victims in the US is one or two too many victims. There is no good excuse for innocent US citizens of any party or race getting Ebola here. Labeling rational concern about the threat of Ebola as mindless panic is dangerous deception. Labeling desire for quarantine as prejudice against Africa and Africans is also dangerous deception. Both are irrespnsible political posturing.
There are also no good excuses for not doing as much as possible to stop the epidemic in Africa. Republican politicos whining about the Obama administration not doing enough are most often those also opposing funding to control Ebola in Africa.
Ebola spread in the US even if just a dozen cases will damage the economy, Christmas sales, reduce taxes and increase government spending, and waste millions of dollars better put into border control and quarantine of travelers.
Even one single more Ebola case in the US is a sign of failure by our government. There are no good excuses.
Here is some info on how Ebola and your immune system can destroy your body.
Here is an NPR link which might provide useful information NPR Shots Blog.
*** Stay tuned...and wash you hands--- Doug Wiken
A few elections ago, campaign workers here from out of state were amazed to find some of the poorest South Dakotans living in the most run-down inadequate housing proudly REPUBLICAN. They could not understand why when the GOP almost always takes actual action (rather than what they say) to make life harder and harder for the poorest or most unfortunate...whichever comes first.
Below is a link indicating the conservative think tank misinformation and deception coupled with Fox Noise might also be factors.
Misinformed USA: Why average Americans often vote Republican.
You may want to ignore practically every ad on this site however.
Average South Dakotans who continue to vote Republican after that party tries to screw them for the benefit of the rich and polluting are like a dog that enjoys repeated beatings.
***Stay tuned for more on the South Dakota circus parade of fools-- Doug Wiken
My father-in-law, or was it my MIL talking about him?, used to talk about "selective memory". This seems to be one of Mike Rounds character flaws. Or perhaps he has some weird form of Alzheimer's disease which causes him to instantly forget his unsavory political behavior. Nearly every time Mike Rounds makes some attack on his foes claiming they are lying about him, in a few days somebody drops another political bomb on his campaign and shows he is lying or has a mental problem.
Denise Ross in a column in the Mitchell Daily Republic puts another nail in Mike Rounds partisan political coffin. Link--- Denise Rose on Chinese Investor and Rounds.
The link might work for only a few days. It is in the snail mail version of the paper. It keeps gettting thinner and thinner, but often worth subscribing to even if its editorial page is often a manure spreader for wingnut right mythology.
*** Stay tuned, these are interesting days--- Doug Wiken
I dragged my butt out of bed before 6AM to get a shot of the lunar eclipse this morning of October 8, 2014. I thought the moon looked awfully dark and getting camera to focus was not working well. What I did not realize was that clouds were obscurring the moon. When the moon finally disappeared behind the wall of clouds that moved in, I decided it might be a better morning for trying to get a sunrise photo. One of those is below.
Click on image for a larger version. My wife liked it, but not sure if that was because it is a good photo, or because she realized I was unhappy because I missed a good lunar eclipse photo. Others in South Dakota did get a good image however.
Take a look at one on SDPB timeline taken at Hot Springs this morning. Blood moon at Hot Springs photo by Brian Gevik.
***Stay tuned, the Universe is yet young---Doug Wiken
In the Sunday, Oct5, 2014 Argus Leader, Jonathon Ellis has a column titled "Playing Chicken with state sales Tax". He as a little fun with the idea that South Dakota is seeking ways to tax breast milk since it is a product that is unfair competition for the commercial replacements. But, he also mentions that Sen. John Thune wants to make the sales tax exemptions of internet sales permanent and notes that will do away with South Dakota's grandfathered-in tax collection.
Thune's idea is better than the SD Revenue Departments plan to join a 30-State consortium to share sales information, buyers and sellers addresses, etc. This would be a monstrous data collection and sharing system which could be very intrusive.
A better idea is a federal tax on all distant transactions not just internet transactions. Collect a federal sales tax that is the average of all state sales taxes. Let the feds keep 10% of it and refund 90% to the states based on population. No need to keep track of who bought viagra or chastity belts or wine or whatever or where they were obtained or where they were shipped. Taxes would be paid with individual income tax filing.
But don't expect petty bureaucrats and timid congress critters to do anything which might be both efficient and sensible.
I also note that the idea of "fairness for main street" is hogwash. A few percent tax added to distant transactions will not help local businesses which charge two, three, or four times the going rate for products on the internet or miles away by the post office. And mostly, my guess is that those buying stuff via the internet are only buying products that are just plain not available locally.
Anyway, the Jonathon Ellis column was readable and might make a few more people think about the issues. I have no idea how long the link will work.
**** Stay tuned and be happy you aren't paying tax on what you read here-- That is a whole nother can of sales tax worms--- Doug Wiken
Good photographs, but not sure they are most important or iconic. They will remind most of some important issues and some great folly as well. Worth viewing. Take a look.
Iconic photos of the Century at Distractful
***Stay tuned even if images of Bush, Jr. can almost gag normal people---Doug Wiken
Woody Allen said something like "Just showing up is half of life." It has been turned into something like "Showing up is 80% of Success."
Candidate Rick Weiland is already showing up for work all over South Dakota and not just once in a lifetime, but twice in one Democratic campaign. Republican robber-baron Rounds is hiding under his gold-plated rock and dodging every debate. If showing up is really part of success, Mike Rounds is a huge failure.
Rounds slick ads are just a little too slick to be honest. His statements about Joop and EB-5 greencards for money are also just a little too slick. Rounds is just a little too slick to even be a politician let alone our US Senator. Compare Rounds to Abourezk, Johnson and McGovern and even Jim Abdnor and Larry Pressler, Rounds looks like a midget in a land of giants.
*** Stay tuned, the times are a changing, but so are the polls--- Doug Wiken
US Senator John Thune, R. SD spoke in Mitchell, SD to local Kiwanis Club. Headline is "We have to get Washington going again, THUNE: SENATE MUST COOPERATE."
Of course, party hack Thune's big idea to do that is ..surprise...elect more Republicans. This is like a man who just shot up a kindergarten class saying, "We need to stop the senseless shooting by getting more senseless shooters around here."
Thune has been an oh so willing partner in the retrograde obstructionism that Republicans in concert with TEA Party loons have used to roadblock good nominations, sensible economic proposals, Affordable Care and replace it with tax cuts for the very, very rich and other pandering to the Koch side of more economic privilege for the very, very rich.
Thune is the epitome of GOP hypocrisy and zombie economic mythology. He blathers on about programs that have never worked and never will. He is in favor of increasing the already grotesque spread between the top 1% and the rest of us.
Thune and Rounds are also supporting the XL pipeline. Bloomberg news has reported Trans-Canada saying the most important reason for the pipeline is to get the glut of crude oil out of the midwest so that gasoline and other fuel prices can be increased by 10 to 20 cents per gallon in this part of the country. Chinese investors are part of the tar=sands oil conglomerates. The XL pipeline will move oil to the Texas Gulf coast for export to China.
The proported tax benefits county commissioners and schools are drooling over have been grossly exaggerated with pipeline in eastern SD and are likely exaggerated for the XL pipeline. Apparently SD state school aid to school districts will be reduced by an amount equal to the increased pipeline tax share. That means zero net impact for schools. Couple that with likely increases in electric base rates because of the huge power demands of the pumping stations and the gasoline price increases and we residents of the midwest will actually be subsidizing a Canadian company and its US fossil fuel industry cohorts.
Thune is a deceiver is a deceiver useless to those who are not filthy rich. Speaking of which, an auto magazine had Ford Motor company production and pay for their chief executive. Anybody buying a Ford vehicle kicks in $10 to that CEO who is paid over $23 million per year.
Thune is friends of guys like that and the polluters in the fossil fuel industries. He is part of the threat to your health, economic well-being, and the future of our planet as a place habitable by humans. His blather about getting Washington moving agains is complete BS. If the GOP gets control, Washington might be moving, but completely in the wrong direction.
*** Stay tuned and don't be fooled by the GOP pretty boy--- Doug Wiken
I purchased Dragon Dictate home version (naturally speaking) a few months ago. Today I decided to see if I could set it up and use it. Partly because of the program and partly because of other factors, this has been one very frustrating afternoon. Needless to say, I am not trying to use the program to type this.
First off, the CD player did not work on the first old clunker computer I tried it on. So off to the basement to try one of the other dinosaur computers. The "on" button did nothing. Hmmm. How did I plug that computer in anyway? Follow that cord to there and then another cord from there to the outlet. Appeared to all be OK. Check fuses and breakers. No problem there. Outlet is a ground fault outlet. I finally get smart (or at least less oblivious and ignorant) and press the reset button. Desk light goes on. Power to the computer if not to the people.
I insert the Dragon Dictate DVD into the drive. Whirrrrrrr. It is working. First screen that comes up is "Dragon Dictate is not compatible with this OS". Computer OS is Windows XP. Then I finally find the "W7 and W8" logos on the software box. So, off to the new Windows 8 computer.
Looked like everything was going to work. Had microphone and headset plugged in to correct color portal, etc. I think the install took nearly an hour. Then to calibrate the microphone. That did not seem to work. Instructions said to repeat until I heard a beep in the headset. Nothing, Nothing again...several times more. Check the "Help" option. One suggestion was plug microphone and headset into the REAR of the computer. Why it did not work on the front plugins I don't know. Soon as it was in the rear plugins, the microphone test started and completed perfectly almost immediately. Then more setup and then "check for updates". Update was found. That took 3 minutes to downloard, and another 10 minutes to install.
Then the training fun started. It could have been worse, but it could have been better. This is a program with a steep learning curve compared to most I have messed with. Menus, error messages, etc. for training are OK, but sure could be better. I did get it to insert text into Jarte before I completely ran out of patience. I suspect this can be useful, but I really don't know if I have the patience to get proficient with it. Maybe a few minutes every day.
So, about 3 and a half hours later, I am typing this the old fashioned way and being glad I took High School typing from a very patient Mr. Robert T. Lang...now deceased. And very, very glad I can still type and see what goes on the screen. My sympathy to those who have no choice but to use options like speech recognition, etc. I may have learned barely enough to help them with it however.
***Stay tuned for more on the software front...sometime--- Doug Wiken
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