Vleeptron_Z

News from Republic of Gilead: Oklahoma legislature strangles women's privacy and reproductive health rights

2009-12-19T12:39:00.005-05:00

I don't think I'll be setting foot in Oklahoma anytime soon.

I've been there, a long time ago, and I liked it.

But Oklahoma no longer seems to be in the United States of America.

~ ~ ~

CNN / Cable News Network
Friday 18 December 2009

Online posting of women's
abortion information
challenged in Oklahoma

by Wayne Drash, CNN

(CNN) -- A judge in Oklahoma extended on Friday a temporary restraining order on a law that would post information online about women who get abortions in the state.

In extending the restraining order, Oklahoma County District Judge Daniel Owens denied the state's motion to dismiss the case, putting the measure on hold until a February 19 hearing.

"We are very pleased with today's ruling. This law is a profound intrusion on women's privacy and a waste of taxpayers' money," attorney Jennifer Mondino of the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a written statement. The New York-based center had filed a suit on behalf of former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton and another Oklahoma resident.

"Women in Oklahoma should not have to jump through hoops to access legal medical care and the government has no business violating the state constitution to impose those obstacles," Mondino said.

The law, passed in May, requires doctors to fill out a 10-page questionnaire for every abortion performed, including asking the woman about her age, marital status, race and years of education. In all, there are 37 questions the women are [required] to answer.

Critics say the act would be harassment and an invasion of privacy.

State Sen. Todd Lamb helped draft the abortion legislation and describes it as "a common sense measure with bipartisan support." He said the left has tried to skew the law's intent through a campaign of misinformation.

"We're not trying to embarrass anybody, hurt anybody or make anybody's identities known. That's not the purpose of the legislation," the Republican lawmaker said.

"We want to collect hard data that can be a useful tool in helping prevent future unwanted pregnancies."

One section of the "Individual Abortion Form" says the woman must state her reason for seeking an abortion and answer this checklist. "Having a baby:

• Would dramatically change the life of the mother;
• Would interfere with the education of the mother;
• Would interfere with the job/employment/career of the mother."

A Democratic former state legislator called the law "abusive and invasive."

"Nosy neighbors with some effort could identify or, even worse, misidentify these women who answer these questions," said Stapleton.

Lamb, who is running for lieutenant governor, rejects that notion. How can it violate women's privacy, Lamb said, if their identity is kept confidential?

The measure specifies women's identities will be protected. "Nothing in the Individual Abortion Form shall contain the name, address or information specifically identifying any patient," it says.

"Nobody's identity will be made known," Lamb said.

Troy Newman, the head of the Kansas-based anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said the law is "designed so that the pregnant mother can have as much information as technology and medicine will allow."

"Naturally, the abortion industry wants to block this, because they know the more information the mom has, the less likely she is to abort her baby," Newman said.

The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that the measure is unconstitutional and in violation of the state's "single subject rule" because it covers different aspects of abortion. The law also bars women from seeking abortions solely because of the sex of the fetus, with fines up to $100,000 for doctors who "knowingly violate" it.

"We are very committed from keeping the law from going into effect," Mondino said. "The law represents a very serious invasion of women's privacy interests."

Lamb said he believes the law will stand. "None of the bill is being challenged on the merits of the legislation," he says.

Abortion rights supporters are extremely concerned about the intrusiveness of the questions, and fear that identities of women could be compromised, especially in small communities.

"It requires doctors to ask and submit answers to at least 37 intensely personal questions. There are details in those questions about rape, incest, abuse, relationship problems and emotional health," Stapleton said. "I think women can be identified."

According to state estimates, the Oklahoma State Department of Health will spend roughly $250,000 a year to carry out the law.

"To spend a quarter of a million dollars on this is absolutely ridiculous," Stapleton said, adding, "Oh goodness, all the publicity over this has severely blighted the image of Oklahoma."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1969 drafted criteria for vital statistics around abortion to look at infant and maternal mortality in an effort to make the procedure safer.

The CDC's guidelines have long been considered the standard and "all the states pretty much follow that," said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state abortion legislation for the Guttmacher Institute.

"You compare the law in Oklahoma to the CDC standard, and you see the law in Oklahoma goes far beyond what has been considered appropriate for vital statistics purposes," Nash said.

The law's co-sponsor, Lamb, said legislators drafted the measure using portions of a Guttmacher study. "Some of this was gleaned from the Guttmacher Institute," he said. "It's not Draconian."

"If we collect this evidence, we can better treat, we can better counsel, we can better provide alternatives," Lamb said.

Why draft the legislation?

"I'm pro-life," he said. "Oklahoma is a conservative state. We are a pro-life state, and I believe it's important public policy to stand on the side of sanctity of life."

Stapleton, who served in the state House of Representatives from 1986 to 1996, said the law is another example of the GOP "onslaught" in recent years in Oklahoma, with lawmakers taking aim at abortion.

"They're trying to do away with abortions completely," she said. "They can't because of Roe v. Wade. But they're finding ways around Roe v Wade."

If the law does go forward, the state Department of Health is to have the Web site up and running by March 1, 2011. Doctors are to begin submitting completed questionnaires 30 days later.

- 30 -

rara avis -- Whooping Cranes on the brink / Bob escapes wild boars by climbing a tree

2009-12-18T11:58:00.007-05:00

Click image, gets bigger.

First Day Issue / Tierra de los Sueños / TdSPosta

39th Anniversary of scrambling up a tree to escape a family (sounder) of wild boars (javelinas) in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf of Mexico, Texas USA.

(From TdSPosta stamp series: "Recovered Memories")

* Whooping crane painting by Jean-James Audubon

* Alligator from circa 1930 tinted postcard
..of St. Augustine, Florida USA

* Wild boar / peccary / javelina
..image source unknown

The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge was the winter habitat of the Whooping Crane, at this time on the brink of extinction in the wild.

The summer habitat is Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta, Canada. The Whooping Crane -- about 5 feet / 1.52 meters tall -- is the tallest bird in North America.

In 1970-71 I was stationed in an Army unit in nearby Corpus Christi, Texas, and one winter day a buddy and I motorcycled to Aransas to see the Whooping Cranes. I think we saw one or two far in the distance from the wooden birdwatcher walkway.

These were the seasonal termini of the last migratory flyway of the last Whooping Cranes still in the wild in the winter of 1970/71. There were about 20 or 21 of these magnificent birds left in the wild, although there were captive zoo populations, chiefly at the Patuxent, Maryland National Wildlife Research Station.

If ever there was a rara avis, it was the Whooping Crane in those days, its wild population rapidly heading the way of the dodo.

The single flyway exposed the migrating birds to accidental (or intentional) hunting kills. A cooperative program between Canadian and U.S. bird experts took eggs from Whooping Crane nests at Patuxent and replaced them in nests of the far more populous and robust Lesser Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis canadensis) in their geographically different nesting sites. The hatchlings were reared by their adoptive Sandhill parents, and migrated with them, thus establishing new north-south winter-summer flyways.

Another problem was the aggressive physical behavior of Whooping Crane chicks toward each other, resulting in broken bones and deaths. The Patuxent naturalists raised the fragile but aggressive hatchlings among robust and non-aggressive domesticated turkey chicks, who acted like soft punching bags; the Whooping Crane chicks bounced off the turkeys undamaged, and were able safely to grow to adulthood.

At the Kabul Zoo: lonely pig / lion kills man / man's brother avenges with hand grenade / Please Do Not Shoot & Eat the Animals

2009-12-16T15:14:00.005-05:00

Click image to enlarge maybe.

Reuters (UK wire service)
Tuesday 5 May 2009

Afghanistan's only pig
quarantined in flu fear

KABUL (Reuters) -- Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

"For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza," Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. "We've done this because people are worried about getting the flu."

Worldwide, more than 1,000 people have been infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization, which also says 26 people have so far died from the strain. All but one of the deaths were in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak.

There are no pig farms in Afghanistan and no direct civilian flights between Kabul and Mexico.

"We understand that, but most people don't have enough knowledge. When they see the pig in the cage they get worried and think that they could get ill," Saqib said.

The pig was a gift to the zoo from China, which itself quarantined some 70 Mexicans, 26 Canadians and four Americans in the past week, but later released them.

Some visitors were not concerned about the fate of the pig and said locking it away was probably for the best.

"Influenza is quite contagious and if it passes between people and animals then there's no need for the pig to be here," zoo visitor Farzana said.

Shabby and rundown, Kabul Zoo is a far cry from zoos in the developed world, but has nevertheless come a long way since it suffered on the front line of Afghanistan's 1992-4 civil war.

Mujahideen fighters then ate the deer and rabbits and shot dead the zoo's sole elephant. Shells shattered the aquarium.

One fighter climbed into the lion enclosure but was immediately killed by Marjan, the zoo's most famous inhabitant. The man's brother returned the next day and lobbed a hand grenade at the lion leaving him toothless and blind.

The zoo now holds two lions who replaced Marjan who died of old age in 2002 as well as endangered local leopards. In all, it houses 42 species of birds and mammals and 36 types of fish and attracts up to 10,000 visitors on weekends.

(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Jon Hemming)

- 30 -

stuff from the International Ice Patrol / icebergs in the North Atlantic

2009-12-16T12:33:00.007-05:00

Click image to enlarge.

SUBJ: INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL (IIP) BULLETIN

SECURITE

1. 28 JUL 09 1200 UTC ESTIMATED LIMIT OF ALL KNOWN ICE:
FROM 4725N 5241W TO 4715N 5100W TO 4715N 4800W TO 4800N 4715W
TO 4900N 4715W TO 5245N 5015W TO 5600N 5600W.

2. THIS IS THE FINAL BULLETIN OF THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL
SEASON. IIP THANKS YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION IN REPORTING ICE
SIGHTINGS, SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES, AND WEATHER INFORMATION
DURING THE 2009 SEASON. WE REQUEST THAT YOU CONTINUE TO
ADDRESS ICE SIGHTINGS SOUTH OF 50N TO COMINTICEPAT GROTON CT.
PLEASE ADDRESS OTHER ICE SIGHTINGS AND REQUEST FOR ICE
INFORMATION TO THE CANADIAN ICE SERVICE OR NGA NAVSAFETY BETHESDA
MD.

3. USE EXTREME CAUTION WHEN NEAR THE GRAND BANKS AS ICE MAY
BE PRESENT.

[The Titanic struck her iceberg in The Grand Banks.]

REPORT POSITION AND TIME OF ANY ICE ENCOUNTERED
TO COMINTICEPAT VIA CG COMMUNICATIONS STATION NMF, NMN,
INMARSAT CODE 42, OR ANY CANADIAN COAST GUARD RADIO STATION.
MAKE UNCLASSIFIED SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND WEATHER
REPORTS TO COMINTICEPAT EVERY SIX HOURS WITHIN LATITUDES 40N
AND 50N AND LONGITUDES 39W AND 57W.

4. ICEBERG CHART FACSIMILE BROADCASTS ARE AT 0438Z, 1600Z
AND 1810Z ON FREQUENCIES 6340.5, 9110.0 AND 12750.0 KHZ.

5. ADDITIONAL ICE PRODUCTS AND A SURVEY REGARDING IIP'S
SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE AT WWW.USCG-IIP.ORG.

BT

====================

THE 2010 ICE SEASON HAS NOT OPENED

INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL THANKS YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION IN REPORTING ICEBERG SIGHTINGS, SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES, AND WEATHER INFORMATION DURING THE 2009 SEASON. WE REQUEST THAT YOU CONTINUE TO ADDRESS ICEBERG SIGHTINGS SOUTH OF 50N TO COMINTICEPAT GROTON CT. PLEASE ADDRESS OTHER ICEBERG SIGHTINGS AND REQUESTS FOR ICE INFORMATION TO THE CANADIAN ICE SERVICE [Service canadien des glaces].

===============

A bulletin from the end of the last season of North Atlantic icebergs from the International Ice Patrol.

The IPP is run by the USA Coast Guard, but funded by 13 nations with commercial interests and activities in Atlantic Ocean shipping.

The IPP was founded and began reporting icebergs in the North Atlantic within a year after the sinking of the White Star passenger liner RMS Titanic, 15 April 1912, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England. Radio -- Morse code only -- was the state-of-the-art technology for notifying ships of icebergs in the shipping lanes. (The radio operators on The Titanic heard but ignored iceberg warnings from nearby ships.)

Since then the IPP uses satellites and faxes for communications, and for iceberg reconnaissance patrols uses military propeller aircraft based in Newfoundland, Canada. The headquarters of the IPP is in Groton, Connecticut USA.

Notice the large numbers of icebergs near the Atlantic coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. Polar bears do not naturally live in or hunt in Newfoundland, but several times each year a polar bear will hitchhike on an iceberg from Labrador and get off in Newfoundland. One of them tried to rip the shell off the park ranger's house trailer at l'Anse Aux Meadows (Viking settlement archeological site) to get at the meaty inside, but the ranger phoned for help, and the polar bear was returned to his home in Labrador.

The Arctic Circle is just north of the northern coast of Iceland, which is at 66° North Latitude. This map doesn't try to survey all North Atlantic icebergs, but rather concentrates on Europe-North America shipping lanes -- where the ships are, rather than where all the icebergs are. The IPP's charter mentions "Great Circle" navigation, so most commercial sea freight sticks to sea lanes in a fairly narrow band of the Atlantic.

During wartime, of course, all ships, military, passenger and freight, sail all over the place to try to evade submarines, and thus have to be concerned about a much larger area of iceberg activity. A ship sunk by an iceberg is no happier than a ship sunk by a submarine.

Not on my voyage, but on another voyage, my passenger ship from London (Tilbury) to Montreal, the Communist Polish liner TSS Stefan Batory, struck an iceberg that gashed its hull below the water line, but it limped the rest of the voyage to Montreal at an intentional list to keep the gash above water as much as possible. I am guessing the skipper did not receive a medal or commendation or bonus for that voyage.

Happy Hannukah!

2009-12-16T02:40:00.004-05:00

Click, maybe gets bigger.

Cat Report / the Geminids Meteor Shower / Radiant

2009-12-15T01:46:00.008-05:00

Click image, gets considerably bigger.

Victorian-era postcard advertising
Handy Box Shoe Blacking.

We can't let the cats out at night, the neighbors told us, because of owls, coyotes and fisher cats (a weasel family member, real nasty).

Currently living here:

* Benedict Spinoza Cat

* Priscilla (real nasty)

and the most recent arrival

* Stuart Wallace Darnley

... who is a marmalade (orange and white) polydactyl tabby. The Pilgrims brought polydactyl cats from England and Scotland to Massachusetts because they thought they were good luck cats.

Bennie, 4, and Stewie, 2, became instant Bestest Friends, they hunt and wrestle together all day. Bennie had been a bit lonely and unhappy since his Bestest Friend Elmer Elevator the Maine Coon died.

A human couple split up, and neither one took Stewie, so he ended up in the Daikin Animal Shelter in Leverett. He looked like a lot of happiness and fun to us, and is gorgeously colored and patterned, so we adopted him, and that seems to be just fine with Stewie. The Daikin has suspended its fees for cat adoptions, but you're encouraged to make a donation if you can. But essentially, cats are free at the Daikin this season if you have a loving home for them.

Oh, I'm sorry I don't have any photos of the cats, we've misplaced the download cable that connects the camera with the computer. Watch This Space.

Priscilla -- she's becoming quite old -- is ailing, and although she's happy to be anywhere with us humans, I don't think she liked the move to the new house in the Deep Woods. But she purrs whenever we pet her, so she's on the verge of happiness all the time. She doesn't like Benny and Stewie and lets them know it if either of them gets within a cat's length of her.

When Benny and Stewie got here in late autumn and started hunting, the place was overrun with chipmunks. Chipmunks aren't very bright, and the cats went right to work. I haven't seen a chipmunk in two weeks. They brought some of their kill into the house, it was always plump and meaty. We try to praise them when they bring us their kill because this is their way of contributing to the family.

If you saw the Geminids Meteor Shower from anywhere on the surface of Planet Earth, please Leave A Comment, describe what you saw. Did you face the Radiant, or turn your back to it? Or both?

The Radiant is the point in the night sky from which it seems all the meteors are coming. If you face the Radiant, all the meteors seem to be shooting directly at you.

But you see the shooting stars no matter what direction you face, so if you turn your back on the Radiant, you watch the meteors flame past you over your head.

I read that in Sky & Telescope last night.

Hot Reading Ahead! Hot Reading Ahead! Patience! Patience! Hot Reading Ahead!

2009-12-14T23:31:00.004-05:00

Say it wit' flowers
Say it wit' mink
But whatever ya do
DON'T SAY IT WIT' INK!

-- Jimmy Durante

* * *

The Associated Press (USA newswire)
Monday 14 December 2009

22,000,000 Missing
Bush-Era E-Mails Found

Computer technicians have found 22,000,000 missing White House e-mail messages from 94 days in the administration of President George W. Bush, and the Obama administration is searching for more potentially lost e-mail from the Bush years, according to two groups that filed suit over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record-keeping system. The groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive, said they were settling the lawsuits they filed in 2007. It will be 2014 at the earliest before the public sees any of the messages because they must go through the National Archives’ process for releasing presidential and agency records.

- 30 -

PizzaQ (Vleeptron Honor System): wtf does this sign mean???

2009-12-14T14:25:00.007-05:00

Click image, maybe it gets bigger.

Okay, now this is a VLEEPTRON HONOR SYSTEM PizzaQ -- no Googling, no Binging, no telephoning Klaas in Rotterdam, no asking Mom for help. Do your own work. Take personal pride in figuring it out all by yourself.

Or, if you have no honor, if you are an unhonorable person, this is a SPEED TEST PizzaQ -- if you're the first Commentor with the correct answer, just write in your Comment:

I have no honor. I was too lazy
to try to figure out the meaning
of this acronym by myself.
Or I tried, but I was too stupid.
So I Googled it.

(Dishonorable Answers must identify themselves with your full name and your location, so everyone in the Blogosphere will know what kind of person you are.)

But anyway ... believe it or not, about 4000 human beings know instantly and exactly what this sign means.

Think reallllllly hard and maybe you'll be No. 4001.

For the first correct Honor System answer: 1 large pizza with shallots, shitaki mushrooms, garlic and endives.

For the first correct Dishonorable answer: 1 slice that I found left on a table on a paper napkin in the high school cafeteria.

When somebody gets the right answer, I'll credit the photographer.

Tonight & Tomorrow night -- the Geminid Meteor Shower, and it should be good!

2009-12-13T16:12:00.007-05:00

The radiant of the Geminid shower is near Castor, the fainter of the Gemini Twin Stars.

The radiant is the perspective point where a shower's meteors would all appear to be coming from if you could see them approaching from the far distance. In reality they flash into view only when they hit Earth's atmosphere -— which can happen anywhere in your sky. But their directions of flight, if you trace them backward far enough across your sky, all cross this point. (S&T illustration)

Sky & Telescope Magazine
Cambridge Massachusetts USA, founded 1941
Tuesday 8 December 2009

Homepage Observing by Tony Flanders

A Great Year
for Geminid Meteors

The strongest and most reliable meteor showers are the Perseids of August and December's Geminids. Balmy weather and summer vacations have made the Perseids well known and popular, but the Geminids are actually easier to view from mid-northern latitudes. For one thing, nights are much longer in December. And while the Perseids are best viewed just before dawn (as most showers are), you can easily get an eyeful of the Geminids during the evening hours.

This year the Moon will be nearly new when the Geminids peak on the night of [Sunday-Monday] December 13-14. The shower's radiant, the point in the sky from which they all seem to originate, is near Castor and Pollux. It's well up in the east by 9 or 10 p.m. and crosses near the zenith (for mid-northern observers) around 2 a.m.

The shower should peak around 5:00 Universal Time on the morning of the 14th, corresponding to midnight EST and on the 13th at 9 p.m. PST — excellent timing for North America and Western Europe. Under dark-sky conditions you might see as many as 120 medium-speed meteors per hour. (Light pollution reduces the numbers.) The shower is active to a lesser extent for at least a day or two beforehand and about one day after.

The Geminid meteor shower is extremely unusual in that its parent object isn't a comet. Instead, it's an asteroid, a chunk of rock roughly 3 miles across called Phaethon (pronounced FAY-uh-ton). How can an asteroid produce meteoroids? Nobody knows for sure. Many scientists believe that Phaethon is the core of a comet that's been baked completely dry. Maybe a smaller asteroid collided with it long ago. In any case, a ribbon of debris lines Phaethon's orbit.

Geminid Meteor

On December 13, 2001, Thad V'Soske of San Diego, California, caught a Geminid crossing Orion's Belt. He was using Kodak P1600 slide film at a dark-sky site near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Meteor watching couldn't be easier. Lie back in a reclining lawn chair, relax, and watch the sky overhead. Ideally, you want nothing but sky in your field of view — not trees, and certainly not the ground. That means that you should either lie flat on your back or recline so that you face at least 45° above the horizon. Also remember that December nights are cold at mid-northern latitudes. Normal winter clothing won't even come close to keeping you warm after you've been lying still for a couple of hours. The best solution is to use a sleeping bag. Second best is plenty of blankets over your warmest clothing. And don't forget a hat and gloves!

The arriving Geminids will cover the whole sky, so it doesn't really matter which way you're pointed. If you look straight at the radiant, you'll see meteors coming directly toward you, bright but with short trails. Look the opposite way, and you'll see lots of long meteors moving away from you.

Careful counts of meteors have scientific value. Click here to learn how to conduct a scientific meteor count and how to report your results to the International Meteor Organization.

- 30 -

carol for Pilgrims to Bethlehem on Christmas / a safe and beautiful Pilgrimage

2009-12-12T23:29:00.006-05:00

Click image to enlarge.

Sound ON, Open this link in New Tab
to hear this carol performed by
the Vienna Boys Choir
Wiener Sangerknabel - MozartChor

A song for Christmas Pilgrims to Bethlehem to sing, wishing all a happy and safe Pilgrimage.

~ ~ ~

Il Est Né, le Divin Enfant

Il est né le divin enfant,
Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes!
Il est né le divin enfant,
Chantons tous son avènement!

Depuis plus de quatre mille ans,
Nous le promettaient les prophètes
Depuis plus de quatre mille ans,
Nous attendions cet heureux temps.

Ah! Qu'il est beau, qu'il est charmant!
Ah! que ses grâces sont parfaites!
Ah! Qu'il est beau, qu'il est charmant!
Qu'il est doux ce divin enfant!

Une étable est son logement
Un peu de paille est sa couchette,
Une étable est son logement
Pour un dieu quel abaissement!

Partez, grands rois de l'Orient!
Venez vous unir à nos fêtes
Partez, grands rois de l'Orient!
Venez adorer cet enfant!

Il veut nos cœurs, il les attend:
Il est là pour faire leur conquête
Il veut nos cœurs, il les attend:
Donnons-les lui donc promptement!

O Jésus! O Roi tout-puissant
Tout petit enfant que vous êtes,
O Jésus! O Roi tout-puissant,
Régnez sur nous entièrement!

~ ~ ~

from: "Hymns and Carols of Christmas"

The tune for this carol can be found in R. Grosjean's "Airs des noêl lorrain" (1862), where it is called 'Ancien air de chasse' [old hunting song], and it is indeed the case that an old Normandy hunting tune 'Tête bizarde,' although in 6/8, is melodically very similar.

The "Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols" editors postulated that the tune is an 18th c. composition in a rustic style.

The text of this carol was first published in Dom G. Legeay's "Noêls anciens" (1875-6). An English version of the lyric ... Geoffrey Brace's "Carol for Christmas Singers," Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991 ...

Masato (above) links translations in Hymns and Carols ... The Wilcocks-John Rutter arrangement is commonly used by choirs.

On the St. Regis Mohawk Reserve, [New York State USA], the carol is sung as "Rotonni Niio Roienha" (19th c. introduction?).

First Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron: Hunting Season 2009/10

2009-12-12T01:34:00.005-05:00

Click image to enlarge.

First Day Issue / Postalo Vleeptron: Hunting Season 2009/10

So far I have lived through Archery Season and Shotgun Season. Next: Primitive Firearms Season.

I am tired of wearing this stupid orange safety knitted stocking cap, but if I don't, I could get an 18th-century lead sphere bullet through my ass because some drunk in camo mistook me for a black bear.

PATFROMCH WINS PIZZA! it's a GEIGER COUNTER! Be the 1st on your block to KNOW when the nearby nuke has a Funny

2009-12-11T14:40:00.004-05:00

Click image to enlarge.

DING! DING! DING!

PATFROMCH WINS THE PIZZA!!!

Not to nitpick, but not a DIGITAL, but an ANALOG Geiger Counter ... but we can take the analog voltage output, stick an Analog/Digital Converter Chip on it, then feed it into the computer as a digital input -- and Voila! Now we got a Digital Geiger Counter (after I write some crude oscilloscope-emulation software).

Or I can just snake out the analog voltage to my olde-fashioned Hitachi Radio-Frequency range Oscilloscope!

===========================

Sensitive geiger counter kit uses a Russian geiger mueller tube and is sensitive to Beta and Gamma rays. Want to know if that orange colored plate that was all the rage in the 60's is radioactive, how about your dad's radium dial watch, or the mantles on your camping lantern -this will tell you! Produces the familiar audio clicks and lights up a blue/green LED in response to radioactive sources. Random clicks are even heard from your kit as cosmic rays strike the tube! Uses a Russian GM tube that was made during the cold war (we test every one for proper operation), various resistors, capacitors, and a special miniature speaker. Operates from one 9V battery (not included). Comes with all parts, PC board, GM Tube and instructions (no case available). Size of PC board 4-5/16" x 1-1/2". Skill Level 2. Requires soldering.

[YEAH! YOU SHOULD ALL ... ]

View YouTube Video

... and the Gizmo cost U$89 ! Cheap! Cheap!

That long brass-colored tube is a Cold War-era military surplus RUSSIAN Geiger Counter, our Russian ex-Comrades got a gazillion of 'em they're dumping on the electronics market.

Soviet Era Lo-Tek Rulez!!! The Russians are also tied with the Peoples Republic of China as the world's premier Go-To Guys for high-precision vacuum tubes/valves for audiophile music reproduction components each of which costs $1200. Your German Shepherd or Chihuahua can hear the difference!

This American firm in Scottsdale, Arizona USA, Goldmine Electronics, cooked up a KIT!!! for the Russkie GM tube, circuit board, resistors, capacitors and a couple of chips, and Voila! Fits in your pocket or hangs on the wall like a barometer!

Be the first on your block to know if the nuclear power plant in the next county just melted down! Put it next to your pillow with CLICK ON. Why wait for the 6 a.m. morning TV news to know what's hot before the elementary school principal knows! The sooner you guzzle down the iodine tablets, or throw the family into the Volvo and head for Indiana, the better!

Now where the hell is my soldering iron??? Do I have to buy all this soldering crap from Radio Shack all over again???

=====================

4 Comments:

Anonymous despicableteacher said...

hmmmm the telescope you so much wanted?

Wednesday, 09 December, 2009

Anonymous patfromch said...

Nope, Bob Is Assimilated Now (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T65NpyfPkQ)

GPS collars for dogs, RTFI chips for the cat, pretty soon the fridge will contact the store via the Internet when I run out of beer or ice cream (with or without my knowledge ?? ) Amazon sends me recommendations based on CRM data that acually matches my taste every now and then.

I mean, I can see the medical benefits of a new gizmo for diabetics but what irritates me is the Vleeptron is apperently psyched out about that. Shouldn't we be a bit more cautious when it comes to our privacy nowdays ? I don't want to spoil the fun for Bob, nosiree, but We Are Being Assimilated. Slowly , but we are. Or I am confusing something here or just too paranoid ?

Wednesday, 09 December, 2009

Blogger Vleeptron Dude said...

hey hey hi hi hi ola ola despicableteacher!

telescope is a Great Guess!

but ... wrong. sorry. guess again.

Wednesday, 09 December, 2009

Anonymous patfromch said...

A digital geiger counter ? Can I call someone ? Ask the audience or 50/50 ?

Friday, 11 December, 2009

the Dartmouth sports fan tradition -- homophobic, antisemitic, anti-women intimidation & screams at the Dartmouth-Harvard squash match

2009-12-09T15:40:00.006-05:00

It's Sports Time on Vleeptron!
All the Sports from Vleeptron!
We've got the latest Qx'ii scores!
All the games from the Dwingeloo League!
Dogfighting, fish-shooting,
cockfighting too!
Bare-knuckle boxing from 1902!
A fifth of our Sports
all take place in the Zoo!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!
Get your Sports on Vleeptron!

Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, is one of the prestigious "Ivy League" colleges in the United States -- along with one of its league sports competitors, Harvard.

Dartmouth is a little different from the other Ivy League schools. Academically Dartmouth is a brilliant school with top-tier, world-class professors. But it has an ancient tradition of male students who are rich, drunk thugs, who didn't get into Dartmouth for their brains, but because they come from rich, drunk families and their dads also went to Dartmouth.

* * *

The Valley News
White River Junction, Vermont USA
Saturday 5 December 2009

Dartmouth Students
Slur Harvard Athletes
During Squash Match

by Tris Wykes
Valley News Staff Writer

Hanover, New Hampshire -- A group of about 10 fans led by Big Green men's soccer players pelted Harvard competitors with obscene language and what was interpreted by the parents of a visiting player as an anti-Semitic slur Wednesday when the Dartmouth men's and women’s squash teams lost to the Crimson at Berry Sports Center.

“I was upset by the homophobic and anti-Semitic comments,” said Susan Cohen, who attended the match with her husband, Jerry, to support their son Franklin, a member of the Harvard team. “I don't care if my son wins a squash match, but it's upsetting to hear those things and it’s embarrassing for Dartmouth.”

The heckling was witnessed by a Valley News reporter covering the match. Asked about the incident Thursday, Dartmouth administrators said they would investigate.

Dartmouth student Bryan Giudicelli said Thursday he and his soccer teammates are routinely cursed at and heckled while playing on the road and were seeking to create a similarly intimidating atmosphere at Berry. However, he said the soccer players and some Alpha Delta fraternity brothers didn't realize how hostile such behavior would appear in the crowded squash courts.

“I think we created a good home atmosphere but the way we did it was uncalled for and I understand that now,” Giudicelli said later, stressing that he did not harass any of the Harvard women competitors. “We don't know the etiquette, so it came off much harsher than we intended it to be. I got caught up in the atmosphere and the moment and I'm embarrassed at what happened.”

Bob Ceplikas, Dartmouth's acting athletic director, attended the early part of the matches but departed for a women's soccer team banquet before the vitriol became evident.

“We take very seriously the whole concept of good sportsmanship and we work very hard to encourage that,” Ceplikas said, noting that a statement on the issue is read before Dartmouth home games at venues with a public address system. “Especially anything that interferes with an event in any way. We haven't gathered all the appropriate facts on this situation, but once we have, we'll follow through as we feel is necessary.”

Words such as “dick,” “fag” and “----sucker” were repeatedly shouted at the visitors Wednesday, many times with “f------” added as an adjective. Harvard's female players eventually sought the protection of an assistant coach after they said they were called “whores” and “sluts” while they cheered on their male peers. While playing his match, Franklin Cohen was told he had small genitals and asked if he liked bagels, a phrase his mother viewed as a reference to the family's Jewish surname.

‘Doughnut or Bagel'

Giudicelli said Susan Cohen confronted his group about the bagel phrase immediately after her son's match and was told it referred to Franklin Cohen having a zero or “bagel” on the scoreboard at a certain juncture in play.

“We discussed whether to say doughnut or bagel and obviously we decided to use the wrong word,” said Giudicelli, a junior defender from Emerald Hills, Calif., located between San Francisco and San Jose. “There was no anti-Semitism behind that.”

The event, at which the improved Big Green men had hoped to upset Harvard in Ivy League play for the first time in recent memory, attracted a crowd of roughly 300 to Berry's narrow second level. During team introductions on the main court before the matches began, Dartmouth was given a rowdy standing ovation while its foes were roundly booed. As the Crimson players walked to their various courts, they passed within inches of screaming spectators seated in the front rows of a bleacher section holding about 200 people.

Once play began, it was standing-room only as fans packed three and four deep in front of some of the glassed-in courts lining either side of the hall. Dartmouth points prompted wild cheering and occasional banging on the clear, back walls of some courts. A Big Green student dressed in a full-body parrot costume and another dressed as a cartoon bear led cheers and taunts.

Chants and comments such as “Harvard sucks” and “You're so rattled” began to give way to harder-edged comments as the matches heated up. Mike Lewis, playing No. 6 for Dartmouth against Cohen, is a member of Alpha Delta, which is located only a few hundred yards from Berry. Lewis' fraternity brothers were out in force and congregated at his court.

About half an hour into the Lewis-Cohen match, Giudicelli sat down next to a Crimson team member officially scoring one of the matches. Giudicelli distracted the visitor by draping an arm over his shoulder and speaking in his ear. Soon, Cohen was targeted with the bagel comments and obscenities and also called a “coward” and a “despicable human being.”

During a brief break between games, Giudicelli faced Cohen's parents, who are from the Boston area, from a distance of ten feet and screamed, “Did you raise your son to be a cheater?”, apparently referring to several recently disputed points. Another young male repeated the question while standing directly behind the couple, who ignored the comments. Cohen's father later said they had never experienced such treatment while following their son during his 8-year squash career.

“There's nothing wrong with being on top of the action or heckling,” Jerry Cohen said. “But I thought the fans here were horrible. Having spirit is outstanding, but being purposely off-color is not the way to cheer for your team.”

Dartmouth's first-year head coach Hansi Wiens said he was unaware of the abusive fan behavior until queried by a reporter midway through the match. He then asked to be steered towards Cohen's parents and headed in their direction, saying he would apologize.

“It's only a few fans causing a problem and it's mainly the soccer guys,” Wiens said. “I wish I could stop it but I can't stop it. That is not squash.”

‘Some Funny Things'

Dartmouth player Lewis said that because the Berry courts' back walls extend only about seven feet high, with open air and nets above them, “You can hear pretty much everything that's said” by spectators. He added, “There were some really funny things being said, and it's a shame if there was other stuff to take away from that.”

After Lewis defeated Cohen, a group of Dartmouth fans including Giudicelli occupied the front rows of the main court bleachers while the Big Green's Nicholas Sisodia challenged Harvard's Richard Hill. While amusing chants were shouted at Hill, the Singapore native was also subjected by Giudicelli’s group to some of the same obscenities that had been lobbed at Cohen. In addition, a young man seated near the soccer group raised his shirt and asked nearby Harvard women's players if they wanted “a piece of this.”

Soon after, a Harvard women's player spoke to a Crimson men's competitor, telling him she had been repeatedly harassed while cheering and that “being here felt like an assault. This is supposed to be a game.” She later requested that she not be identified for fear of Internet reprisal.

Shortly before the start of Hill and Sisodia's final game, Harvard coach Satinder Bajwa exited the main court in front of Giudicelli's group. Insults rained down but the coach gave no reaction and never slowed. Chris Smith, one of the Crimson's assistant coaches, said he knew venturing to Dartmouth would be a trip to hostile turf.

“When we've come up here the last few years, this place has been packed,” Smith said. “We tell our kids, especially the freshmen, they have to be ready for it and not to respond. Having the spectators so close and organized in their cheering is fun, but it can get out of hand.”

In e-mail exchanges with the Valley News Thursday, Bajwa declined comment other than to write “the matter will be dealt with internally with the two institutions involved.” Saying that his program did not complain to Dartmouth about the behavior, Smith nonetheless wrote: “We were aware of all of that going on and did handle things as best we could to not react in the moment as a team. I had all the girls around me at one point, very upset, looking for help. Those were very bad incidents.”

Continued Smith: “The Dartmouth coaching staff and players were apologetic to us after the match and I even saw their coaches doing crowd control during the match. College squash matches and fans have gotten out of hand at other schools in the past but crowd control and security were in place to make things stop. I think it's safe to say that next time a big match is (at Dartmouth), some crowd control security or upper (administrators) might be on hand to get the few bad ones out.”

The Harvard men, 3-0 and ranked No. 5 in the country, defeated No. 8 Dartmouth 6-3 and dropped the Big Green's record to 3-1. The Crimson women posted a 9-0 victory. The schools are not scheduled to meet in squash again during the regular season.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or (603) 727-3227.

- 30 -

PIZZAQ -- Guess My Gizmo!!! It's here! It's here! I am SO PSYCHED!!!

2009-12-07T17:02:00.006-05:00

Click image, maybe it gets bigger.

It's here! It's here! UPS just found my new house in the heart of the Great Boreal Deciduous Hardwood Forest and tossed the cardboard box on my porch!

It's a kit -- fuck Plug & Play, which murdered my beloved Heathkits -- so now I have to hunt for my soldering iron, my electronic solder (DO NOT USE PLUMBING SOLDER!), my needlenose pliers, my diagonal cutters ("dykes," no jokes, that's just what we Electron Heads of both genders call them), and my wire strippers. (At the moment I have no teeth, up to now the perfect tool for stripping plastic insulation from electric wire, no matter what the dentist says.)

So uhhh like ... What is it? Guess My Gizmo! 6 Slices Pesto & Avocado.

Notice that I'll be adding 2 "mods" -- modifications:

* a 3-position switch, and

* an output signal that, somehow, I can plug into my computer. The computer display screen, pretending to be an oscilloscope, shows what the Gizmo should be outputting (the Good Lord willin' and the crik don't rise).

Here's a Hint about the first (and maybe the only) Hint I'll give you if you whine and beg for a Hint: I'll tell you how much it cost.

I am SO PSYCHED!!! Where the fuck are my electronic kit tools? I better have an Energizer Bunny 9volt battery around here or I'm taking the one out of the smoke detector.

* * *

The Marvelous Toy

by Tom Paxton

When I was just a wee little lad
full of health and joy
My father homeward came one night
and gave to me a toy

A wonder to behold, it was,
with many colors bright
And the moment I laid eyes on it
it became my heart's delight

It went "zip" when it moved
and "bop" when it stopped
And "whirr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was
and I guess I never will.

The first time that I picked it up,
I had a big surprise
For right on its bottom were two big buttons
that looked like big green eyes.

I first pushed one and then the other,
and then I twisted its lid
And when I set it down again
this is what it did:

It went "zip" when it moved
and "bop" when it stopped
And "whirr" when it stood still
I never knew just what it was
and I guess I never will.

It first marched left
and then marched right
And then marched under a chair
And when I looked where it had gone
it wasn't even there

I started to sob and my daddy laughed
for he knew that I would find,
When I turned around, my marvelous toy
chugging from behind.

Well, the years have gone by
too quickly, it seems,
I have my own little boy
And yesterday I gave to him
my marvelous little toy.

His eyes nearly popped right out of his head
And he gave a squeal of glee,
Neither one of us knows just what it is,
but he loves it, just like me.

It still goes "zip" when it moves
and "bop" when it stops
And "whirr" when it stands still
I never knew just what it was
and I guess I never will.

Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? / Sen. Max Baucus finds perfect U.S. Attorney nominee just a horizontal inch away

2009-12-06T17:58:00.004-05:00

Click image for larger.

via U.S. Senate webform
to U.S. Senator Max Baucus (Democrat, Montana)

You're an idiot. You don't have the fundamental personal judgment to be a United States Senator.

How was she supposed to do her job, and the peoples' job, when everyone in the federal judiciary knows she got it because she sleeps with a Senator? She may, as you loudly proclaim, be qualified for the job, but you just flushed all her professional credibility down the toilet for the rest of her life. I'm sure she'll be grateful.

What Montana voters do is their business, but I hope a fool and a clown like you doesn't continue to try to lead on healthcare reform. Who on earth will listen to or trust you? Who will believe your only concerns are the best interests of the American people?

Robert Merkin
Chesterfield, Massachusetts

=============

Results of Sen. Max Baucus website search engine

Melodee Hanes

Search
Searched For: Melodee Hanes
Results - of .

[no results found]

=============

The Los Angeles Times
(daily broadsheet Los Angeles, California USA)
Sunday 6 December 2009

Baucus defends
recommending girlfriend
for job

The Montana Democrat and Senate finance chair named his companion in a list of U.S. attorney recommendations. She withdrew her name. His colleagues defend him as the healthcare debate goes on.

* Related: Senator Max Baucus nominated girlfriend for U.S. attorney

by Paul Richter

Reporting from Washington -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Saturday defended recommending his girlfriend and former staffer to become a U.S. attorney, arguing that she was a "highly qualified prosecutor" who would have served his home state well.

One of the most influential figures in the ongoing healthcare overhaul effort, Baucus acknowledged that he has had a romantic relationship with Melodee Hanes since the summer of 2008. In a statement, the senator said that he and Hanes, who live together on Capitol Hill, were both separated from their spouses at the time.

"It wasn't an affair," Baucus said.

However, after his disclosure of the relationship late Friday, the Republican National Committee demanded that the Senate Ethics Committee explore the propriety of Baucus' inclusion of Hanes among three candidates he recommended to the White House for the U.S. attorney post.

While some political analysts in Montana said the episode would likely cause political turbulence for Baucus back home, legal experts said his action did not break any law. The effect on the Democrats' healthcare overhaul is expected to be minimal.

Senate Democrats defended Baucus as he presided Saturday over the chamber's healthcare debate. The Montana lawmaker is a "good friend and outstanding senator, and he has my full support," Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.

Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also were not critical of Baucus.

Hanes, 53, had worked for the 67-year-old Baucus since 2003 as his state office director and field director. In March, he decided to recommend Hanes and two other candidates for the U.S. attorney post and -- in consultation with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) -- passed their names on to the White House. Later that month, before the White House made its decision, Baucus and Hanes decided to withdraw her name because she planned to move to Washington and take a job with the Justice Department so they could live together.

Baucus said he had submitted the three names "unranked," and insisted that the process that ultimately led to the selection of Montana lawyer Michael Cotter was "open and fair."

"In the end, we decided it would be best for Mel to withdraw her name from consideration. That allowed us to live together in Washington, where Mel applied independently with the Department of Justice and, not surprising to anyone who's looked at her resume, got the DOJ job [at the juvenile justice office] on her merit."

Baucus' disclosure came after a series of episodes that have embarrassed prominent politicians.

The Senate Ethics Committee is weighing action against Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who has admitted to an affair with a former member of his campaign staff. And in South Carolina, [Republican] Gov. Mark Sanford faces possible impeachment charges tied to his relationship with an Argentine woman.

Legal experts said Saturday that although Baucus may be guilty of a conflict of interest, he never had the power to choose Hanes for the job. "No potential violation of law comes into play give the facts as we currently know them," said Kenneth Gross, a lawyer and expert on congressional ethics.

But Meredith McGehee of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center said, "Ethics laws are not the same as criminal laws.

"They are intended to ensure the public's trust. What [the ethics committee does] in this case is going to be important. This is a very powerful man who has been in the center of the healthcare reform debate."

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a statement saying the disclosure that Baucus had "used his Senate office to advance a taxpayer-funded appointment for his staff-member girlfriend raises a whole host of ethical questions. This issue demands the attention of the Senate Ethics Committee."

Any senator can call for an ethics investigation. But the committee would not act unless at least one of the panel's three Democrats joined its three Republicans in requesting an inquiry.

Baucus, a senator since 1979, is not facing reelection until 2014. But political analysts in Montana said the episode could strengthen the views of some constituents in the conservative state that he does not share their values.

David Parker, a political scientist at Montana State University, said that Baucus -- who is from a wealthy ranching family -- has to overcome the perception that "he is losing touch."

Many Montanans are not enthusiastic about the healthcare overhaul, Parker said, and "this is going to raise questions about whether he shares Montanans' values."

"He's going to have to do some repair work."

paul.richter@latimes.com

James Oliphant, Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

- 30 -

=============

BBC News (UK)
Saturday 5 December 2009

US Senator Baucus
nominated girlfriend
for post - aide

Influential US Senator Max Baucus nominated his girlfriend for a key post earlier this year, his office has said.

It said Mr Baucus chose Melodee Hanes, his former aide, to serve as attorney in his home state of Montana because of her "extensive legal experience".

Ms Hanes later withdrew after both she and Mr Baucus had decided that they wanted to live together in Washington.

The Democratic senator is a key figure in the drive by President Barack Obama to reform America's healthcare system.

Mr Baucus, a 67-year-old divorcee, currently chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

He disclosed the circumstances surrounding the nomination process after enquiries from Mainjustice.com -- a new website that focuses on the justice department, the Associated Press news agency reported.

'Happy relationship'

In a statement, Mr Baucus's spokesman Ty Matsdorf said that in March the senator nominated Ms Hanes for the US attorney post because of her "extensive background as a prosecutor and extensive legal experience".

The spokesman said the senator submitted six names to an independent third-party reviewer, who later recommended three candidates, including Ms Hanes.

The spokesman said that Mr Baucus then submitted those three names to the White House for consideration "with no ranking or preference".

The statement added: "While her (Ms Hanes) personal relationship with Senator Baucus should in no way be either a qualifier or a disqualifier for the position, during the nomination process and after much reflection, both Senator Baucus and Ms Hanes agreed that she should withdraw her name from consideration because they wanted to live together in Washington, DC."

Ms Hanes, who is divorced, worked for Mr Baucus as his office director from 2003 until earlier this year.

The senator's spokesman said that when Mr Baucus and Ms Hanes "realised that their relationship was developing beyond a purely professional nature, Melodee began the process of resigning her Senate employment."

"Senator Baucus is currently in a mature and happy relationship with Melodee Hanes. They are both divorced, and in no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces," the spokesman said.

President Obama eventually nominated Michael Cotter for the US attorney post in Montana and he is currently awaiting confirmation.

- 30 -

kill all the bobcats you want, no limit in Massachusetts USA

2009-12-06T00:07:00.005-05:00

Click on image to enlarge.

The Daily Hampshire Gazette
Northampton, Massachusetts USA
Wednesday 18 November 2009

Plan to remove quota
on bobcat hunt draws fire

NORTHAMPTON -- State wildlife officials ran into a furor of criticism at a public information session Tuesday night from residents worried about a proposed change to the regulations governing bobcat hunting in Massachusetts.

The main issue before the gathering was the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife's proposal to remove the quota on the number of bobcats killed each hunting season. Nearly 30 people packed into the City Council chambers in Northampton, and everyone who spoke opposed the proposal.

Under the current law, bobcat hunting season is called to a close once 50 bobcats have been killed in the eight wildlife management zones in western and central Massachusetts where bobcat hunting is permitted.

Yet that quota is unnecessary, state wildlife biologist Laura Hadjuk said Tuesday evening, because the average number of bobcats killed over the past 30 hunting seasons is 24.

"The quota is unnecessary because it did not limit harvest during the years it was in place. The quota was only met once in the 32 years it was in place," Hadjuk said, speaking before the gathering. "A quota is logistically impractical because it creates confusion among hunters who do not know when the quota has been reached and contributes to unnecessary administrative overhead and communication burdens."

That was a statement that did not go down well with those in attendance.

Kurt Heidinger of Westhampton pressed Hadjuk on why removing the quota was necessary if the quota was never met. He also asked if the new regulations would have an impact on the number of bobcats killed each hunting season.

Hadjuk said it would not.

"We are simply removing a cap that never capped the harvest," Hadjuk said in response to Heidinger.

Helen Rayshick of Barre disputed the notion that removing the quota would not impact the number of bobcats killed. She cited the number of bobcats killed last year, 52, and noted that the state had no means of determining how many would be killed next year.

"You say you don't want to increase the number of animals killed, yet last year you exceeded the quota limit," Rayshick said. Her fears were echoed by others later in the meeting when Hadjuk noted that the number of coyotes killed each hunting season had doubled once coyote hunting season was expanded.

Hadjuk said it was not the department's goal to reduce the bobcat population.

"A stable population or increased population is what we are interested in," Hadjuk said. She noted that while the department does receive complaints about bobcats killing livestock, those complaints are few and far between.

Hadjuk noted that bobcat hunting season is currently 2½ months, from Dec. 20 to March 8, while trapping season covers the month of November. In the first half of the 20th century, bobcats were hunted year-round for a bounty. Since that time, hunting seasons have grown increasingly short, and are now the shortest they have ever been, Hadjuk said, noting that similar measures like regulating hunting hours and prohibiting the use of dogs in tracking the animals are more effective means of preventing large-scale killing.

Bob Zimmerman, a wildlife biologist from UMass, asked Hadjuk what the department's management goals were with respect to bobcats.

Hadjuk said the department was trying to accommodate different values in the community. Some people like to hunt bobcats, some like to see them in the wild - and the department tries to maintain bobcat numbers at a level that supports both, Hadjuk said.

That statement prompted Zimmerman to ask who had supported the proposed rule change. Hadjuk responded that hunters in Berkshire County had been supportive of the new proposal.

Tom O'Shea, assistant director of wildlife research, said the department had received 60 letters opposing the new measure and six letters in support.

Jackie Compton of Williamsburg asked if those who did not support the hunting of bobcats would be heard by the department. Officials responded together, saying that each letter was read and considered and that the values of all segments of the population were considered in the decision-making process.

O'Shea noted that the laws governing bobcat hunting are regulated by the department and therefore could be changed by a vote of the Fisheries and Wildlife board. He said it is possible that the board will vote on the rule change at its next meeting on Sunday.

Ben Storrow can be reached at bstorrow@gazettenet.com.

- 30 -

Comments

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 18:56 — LogiWrkr
Hunting and guns are not bad

I would like to see this decisions made based on facts and data. I come from a family of hunters yet have no interest my self, I think the animals are too cute. I don't think any less of those who hunt, in some cases it is necessary. Our ancestors were only able to hunt for game to eat. Fortunately we can now get our sustenance by other means, otherwise I personaly might starve. But that doesn't stop the population of animals that were hunted at one time from growing. I'm getting the impression if your not of the popular opinion, your opinion does not matter. Come on people, lets respect each other differences. I will hope this decision is well thought out made for the right reasons.

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 16:51 — sammysue14
DFW "science"

At the meeting, the DFW estimated a present statewide bobcat population of 1000-1200. When asked what the population was around 1970, the DFW had no data to refer to. In fact, except for the above figures calculated this year to buttress the rationale for the regulation change, the DFW has no population data whatsoever.

Without such data, any claim made that removing the quotas will either sustain or increase populations is not scientific.

This is an important point, b/c the DFW director said the DFW manages wildlife based on 2 values: cultural and ecological. The director said there was no ecological value to be found in the killing of bobcats, b/c they are not a "nuisance" or 'invasive" species, and b/c they play a key role in maintaining healthy biomes. There is a cultural value, however, in killing bobcats, b/c certain hunters enjoy the challenge and keep the skins.

So, what was so interesting about this meeting was that the "science" doesn't hold up—and won't until more data is collected and analyzed. The DFW found itself representing the "cultural values" of a minority of hunters against a majority of non-hunters, and arguing that the quota needs to be abolished because it is too much work for hunters to call DFW to see if the 50-kill quota has been reached.

What was disturbing to me was, that, lacking the science to back up its assurances, the DFW made the contradictory argument that the quota is unnecessary b/c it has never been exceeded—except for last year. The only time in 30 yrs the 50-kill quota was exceeded was last year: 52. This indicates that kills will increase if the quota is lifted. Given there is no historical data on population, the DPW cannot look to facts to back up its assurance that the population will be stable or increase.

I am not anti-hunting, but until the DFW has the science, the DFW Trustees cannot claim their decision is based on empirical facts, or "ecological values." If their decision is to remove the 50-kill quota, it will be based on "cultural values."

If 10% of residents want to hunt bobcats, and 90% don't (a figure that was raised w/out controversy at the meeting), a decision to remove the quotas will not be representative of the majority. It will be representative of the board of trustees "cultural values."

We should keep the quotas until the DFW has the science.

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 17:18 — denim
Speaking of science

You seem to be making too much stew from one oyster. You have a data point. You can't make a line or a curve from that. I can't argue with the rest of what you said.

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 16:09 — denim
Also

It'd be helpful to know what reasons people had for opposing the hunt. If it's a matter of "hunting bad, hunting bad", or "bobcats cute! cute little bobcats", those positions can be safely ignored. If it's more like "we need more bobcats for killing certain kinds of critter", that's another story. In other words, a real reason is one thing, while knee-jerk "guns bad"/"hunting bad"/"animals cute" is completely ignorable. To those people, I say, "go play with your dollies".

It'd be nice if this state would be less touchy-feely and less Big Brother, and better neighbors in the sense of "good neighbors know when to leave people alone/mind their own business".

Wed, 11/18/2009 - 15:02 — jplaza
Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife's proposal

It would be helpful to have the data on the estimated bobcat population, to place the quota (50) figure in greater context. From the average harvest referenced as "24", it appears the population is relatively small.

====================

The Daily Hampshire Gazette
Northampton, Massachusetts USA
Wednesday 25 November 2009

State lifts quota
on bobcat kills

Notes other protections for animals

The Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife Board voted Tuesday to lift the quota on the number of bobcats killed each year during the hunting season.

The state Fisheries and Wildlife Board voted unanimously Tuesday to remove a limit on the number of bobcats killed each hunting season, a decision that drew fire from animal rights activists, who say the change was based on anecdotal evidence and pressure from the hunting lobby.

In years past, the 2½-month hunting and one-month trapping seasons came to a close when 50 bobcats were killed. The regulation change removes that limit, allowing bobcat hunting to continue for the duration of the two seasons.

The measure also removes the former requirement that hunters check a killed bobcat at an official weigh station within four days of making the kill. Now, hunters must check the killed animal within four days of the close of the hunting season.

The hunting season goes from Dec. 20 to the following March 8. The trapping season goes from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30.

Joseph Larson, a member of the board, said members had concluded that the quota had little impact on the bobcat population in Massachusetts since it has only been reached once in its 32 years in existence. The quota was surpassed for the first time last year when 52 bobcats were killed.

"We were persuaded that the quota is not a factor for the bobcat population," Larson said in a phone interview Tuesday. The state Legislature's decision to remove the animal from a "varmint list," lifting of the bounty placed on the species, the closure of parts of the state to bobcat hunting and a shortened hunting season are a better means of managing the bobcat population, Larson said.

Helen Rayshick, executive director of the Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition, disputed Larson's take on the quota.

"We don't feel there is enough scientific data behind their decision," Rayshick said. "Some of their reasons include anecdotal information, like the number of bobcats seen by the public and the fact that it is too much work to take the time to count the number of bobcats killed each hunting season. Until the number of bobcats is known, we don't feel it is prudent to lift the quota."

Laura Hajduk, a state wildlife biologist, said Tuesday by phone that the population estimate is compiled using a density analysis, home-range estimates and the amount of available habitat, among other factors. She said population indices such as the number of bobcats killed by hunters, the age and sex range of those animals, the number of sightings and road kills are used to monitor their population.

Speaking about the quota at a public information session in Northampton last week, Hajduk said, "The number 50 really is an arbitrary number relative to the population."

She noted that the estimated bobcat population in Massachusetts is 1,200 to 1,300. "Twenty percent of the estimated population, or 120 bobcats, would have to be taken in order to negatively affect the population."

Rayshick also took issue with that logic Tuesday, saying, "First, we don't know what the population is, so we don't know what 20 percent of the population is."

She noted that the bobcat was not considered a nuisance, a pest or an overpopulated species and said she felt that the decision to change the regulation was meant to appease the hunting lobby.

"I believe the (lobbyists) put a huge amount of pressure on the division," Rayshick said.

Larson disputed that charge, noting that the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the U.S. Humane Society had not lodged any complaints concerning the proposal.

"I think they understand that what we are doing does not fundamentally impact the bobcat population," Larson said.

He said the lack of opposition from those groups made it hard to agree with the claim that only a small segment of residents was in favor of the change.

- 30 -

Comments

Wed, 11/25/2009 - 18:02 — etr
Seems like some odd logic with a few doses of conjecture.

Two organizations don't register complaints, so that equates with the majority agreeing with the change? That's a stretch.

You would also think that reaching the kill quota for the first time last year would be a red flag for the Board--suggesting that higher numbers of kills are now possible--therefore indicating a need for caution when considering changes at the moment.

I don't know whether the Board was too bureaucratically cumbersome to react to this new data, or they were reacting to it--as a great new opportunity for hunters. Either way, it smells fishy to me. Then again, it may simply come down to budgetary problems, which is a really unfortunate way to reach wildlife management decisions.

Wed, 11/25/2009 - 13:27 — richmar
This is very sad. What is

This is very sad. What is our state coming to?

Hunting Seasons and hunted animals in Massachusetts USA

2009-12-05T23:24:00.007-05:00

Click improved image to enlarge.
Please drink and hunt responsibly.

HUNTING Seasons
in Massachusetts USA

(very crude transcription
from official state .PDF file)

********************
NO HUNTING ON SUNDAY
********************

Daily Bag Limit
Possession Limit
Season Limit
Species
Open season (All dates inclusive)

Birds:
Crow: Jan. - Apr.
Pheasant: Oct. 7 - Nov. 28
Quail: Oct. 7 - Nov. 28
Ruffed Grouse: Oct. 7 - Nov. 28

Turkey
Spring:
Zones 1 - 10; 13: Apr. 27 - May 23
Zones 11 & 12: Apr. 27 - May 9
Fall:
Zones 1 - 9; 13: Oct. 26 - Oct. 3

Waterfowl / migratory birds (including woodcock)

Mammals:
Black Bear: Sep. 8 - Sep. 26
Bobcat: Jan. - Mar. 7
Dec. 20 - Mar. 8
Cottontail Rabbit:
Zones 1 - 12: Jan. - Feb. 28
Oct. 7 - Feb. 27
Zones 13 & 14: Jan. - Feb. 28
Nov. 6 - Feb. 27
Coyote: Jan. - Mar. 7
Oct. 7 - Mar. 8

Deer (archery): Oct. 2 - Nov. 2
Deer (shotgun):
Zones 1 - 11,13,14: Nov. 30 - Dec. 2
Zone 12: Nov. 30 - Dec. 5
Deer (primitive firearms): Dec. 4 - Dec. 3

Fox (red or gray) Jan. - Feb. 28
Nov. 2 - Feb. 27

Gray Squirrel
Zones 1 - 9: Sep. 4 - Jan. 2
Zones 10 -14: Oct. 7 - Jan. 2

Jackrabbit Nov. 6 - Dec. 3
Opossum 2 Jan. - Jan. 3
Oct. - Jan. 30
Raccoon 2 Jan. - Jan. 3
Oct. - Jan. 30
Snowshoe Hare
Zones 1 - 4: Jan. - Feb. 28
Oct. 7 - Feb. 27
Zones 5 - 12: Jan. - Feb. 5
Oct. 7 - Feb. 5
Zones 13 & 14: Jan. - Feb. 5
Nov. 6 - Feb. 5

Reptiles and Amphibians:
Bullfrog & Green frog: Jul. 6 - Sep. 30
Snapping Turtle: Jan. - Dec. 31

I am a Human Being / Bob is the height of Youth Fashion this season

2009-12-04T13:03:00.005-05:00

Click image for larger.

Worthington is the next town west of my new town, Chesterfield. This shooting probably took place within 5 miles = 8 kilometers of my house.

The week we moved in was bow-and-arrow hunting season. Now it's shotgun hunting season. We tacked up

NO HUNTING

signs on trees at the end of the drive.

Every time I leave the house I wear an orange safety stocking cap so I will not be mistaken for a quadruped. S.W.M.B.O. wears a safety orange vest.

I felt profoundly stupid in this dumb hat, until the other afternoon, when a 16-year-old girl walked down the road in my identical safety orange hat. So in Chesterfield, I'm the height of Youth Fashion.

I do not fear Death.

I fear Stupid Death -- like an arrow through my throat because some drunk in camo thought I was a moose.

I am not a moose. I am a Human Being.

===================

Daily Hampshire Gazette
Northampton, Massachusetts USA
Wednesday 2 December 2009

Hunter accidentally
shot in Worthington

by Owen Boss, Staff Writer

WORTHINGTON -- State police are investigating a hunting accident near the Berkshire Park Camping Area Tuesday afternoon that left one man with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.

Shortly after 1 p.m., state police responded to a wooded area near the Harvey Road campground for a report that a 60-year-old male hunter had suffered an accidental gunshot wound, according to state police Trooper George Beaupre, of the Russell Barracks.

"It didn't happen on the campgrounds. It occurred in the woods nearby, and it was only a minor injury, nothing remotely close to life threatening," Beaupre said.

The injured hunter, whom Beaupre declined to identify, was taken by ambulance to Cooley-Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.

- 30 -

Comments

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 09:31 — josgrab

Maybe every fall I can no longer hike in the woods for fear of being shot by some yahoo described in this article. I pay my taxes and deserve to hike more than one day a week, Sundays, when all the tough guys are not allowed to hunt. I was a veteran, so I know all about weapons. Let the biologist manage our lands, not Dick Cheney. And yes, wear PLENTY of orange. Kill Zone?? You should only hunt calzone, pal.

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 17:26 — Theresa1
Try the bike path

Josgrab,
You are wrong on this one; your ignorant opinions against the facts of hunting.

Try the bike path and take in the view, just watch out for the people on bikes.

Fri, 12/04/2009 - 13:23 — Conservative in...
Bike Path

Hey Theresa1,
I'll place a bet right now that if Josgrab takes your advise but gets hit by a bike on the bike path he'll complain that it is Bush/Cheney's fault!

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 14:30 — HampTaxPayer
One bad egg

OK- Number one, I am not your pal. Number two, I am not a hunter. I know many hunters and know a great deal about and highly respect the sport. I respect any man or woman's will to educate him or herself about hunting, spend time in the woods and humanely kill animals for food to nourish them self, and their family. Do you think you would be here today if it were not for hunting?
I also despise your comparison of every hunter to Dick Cheney. Listen here, not every hunter is an NRA card holding republican, so you can just take that stereotype and throw it out the window. And who do you think encourages hunting seasons? BIOLOGISTS. Do you want them flying over our woods in helicopters, and shooting them from there to thin out the population? Because, if there were no hunting season, that's what you'd get PAL.
The man who got shot is a veteran hunter. He was wearing plenty of orange and obeying the hunting laws. The man who shot him, simply shot into the woods when he heard the man move. The shooter in my mind is a criminal and no better than a poacher. He didn't know if the deer had antlers, didn't have an antlerless deer permit. He didn't know if he was shooting at a deer, a moose, a bear (it's not bear season), any other animal, a man, or a child. Yes children do go hunting, even though they cannot legally shoot a deer until they are 12, they go out and learn. The man who did this is an irresponsible idiot and in my mind is no different than any other "Joe Shmoe" out "hunting" (poaching) at any other time of year.
Please don't let this moron represent what hunters really are, which are responsible environmentalists and sportsmen. Most take their activity in the woods very seriously and wouldn't even dream at taking a shot at a deer unless they were certain they would kill it instantly. Hunting is the oldest sport, and we all have a right to do it. Hunters pay an outrageous amount of money for their permits, which rarely fund hunting related things, and they have to follow many, many laws. Including set hunting seasons. You however can hike at any time during the year. Hunters have selected land that they can hunt on, and those plots are getting smaller and smaller and fewer and far between, which makes for many hunters per each area. They need to seek permission to hunt on privately owned woods. Please- get off the backs of hunters and respect their sport. There is a reason why there are very few hunting accidents.

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 18:36 — dwright
nevertheless...

...one bad egg can kill you. (And yes, the shooter in this instance, if your information is correct, is criminally stupid.) Wish hunting and gun safety classes were formally required before anyone's allowed out to shoot anywhere. And that what's shot has to be eaten, not just for trophy.

Wed, 12/02/2009 - 13:41 — Conservative in...
Can't let go of it, can you?

Josgrab, you just can't get over the Bush/Cheney thing, can you? My God man, YOUR man has been in office since January... time to let it go.
It's also obvious you are not familiar with wildlife management because biologists RECOMMEND and SUPPORT hunting as a means to thinning and maintaining herds of deer and other game species at optimal levels. There used to be no hunting at the Quabbin. The result? Mass starvation and disease wiped out hundreds of deer and threatened not only other wildlife, but the entire drinking water supply. With the current lottery (recommended by state biologists) deer herds are maintained at healthy levels, people can put food on their table and things are working.
Like you, I pay my taxes and I'd like to be able to drive my vehicle when I go out at night and not have to worry about some drunk or stoned person crashing into me. I'd like to be able to take a walk after work and not worry about someone hitting me with their vehicle. So, what do I do... I take precautions. Are the precautions 100% effective? No. Do you blame Dick Cheney for the drunk, stoned or generally reckless drivers too?
Accidents happen. And just so that you know, according to statistics, more people are injured bowling or in their own bath tubs than by firearms EVERY year.
I deeply thank you and salute you for your service to our country, Josgrab. However, you are way off on your assumptions and thought process on this subject.
By the way, I'm an NRA Certified Basic Pistol, Basic Shotgun and Home Firearms Safety Instructor, so I'm familiar with firearms also.

Tue, 12/01/2009 - 22:47 — HampTaxPayer
Hurray?

Yeah, hurray for the deer. Hurray for the deer that will probably starve to death this winter when it could have been killed quickly and humanely, and provided organic meat for an entire family for most of this winter. Maybe instead it will get hit by a car. Yeah, hurray for that.

Hunting accidents are preventable. Hunters make sure you are wearing plenty of orange, and make sure you are taking an accurate shot right in the kill zone.

Good luck to you all this hunting season, and please be careful.

Tue, 12/01/2009 - 21:56 — josgrab

Woops!! Hurray for the deer!

Eid Mubarak! It's Eid al-Adha! / Vleeptron is filching other people's images again, but it's really for your own good / Hajj / H1N1

2009-11-29T02:37:00.009-05:00

Click image, bigger.

Vleeptron has backslid into its flagrant filching, thieving ways, but we believe there are valid reasons. This poster was just Google image searched and I liked it.

If I steal the poster (internetally) from a real mosque, it's much less likely that I'm going to get things all wrong, or screw up the spirit and flavor of the greeting, than if I try to cook up my own original Vleeptronese Eid Mubarak image.

This real mosque is the Hamilton Downtown Mosque in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Its website message is clearly aimed at an English-speaking crowd, so they are certainly going to communicate the important Eid information better, and in a more trustworthy way, than I will.

When I cross into Canada at Buffalo or nearby Niagara, I pass the substantive city of Hamilton, Ontario almost no matter where I want to go. Toronto's maybe another hour around The Lake, or Stratford is a few hours west after the Hamilton exits.

I might have off-ramped at Hamilton once or twice to gas up or find a Tim Horton's, but beyond that I have far more experience with the summer resort town of Simcoe (though in the winter) than I do with the metropolis of Hamilton, on the far western shore of Lake Ontario.

Worse: First I stole the poster, and then I changed it. Because I stole the 2007 poster, which was still lingering on the Mosque's website, and so I had to change the Gregorian calendar date. Islamic Lunar Calendar, Western Solar Calendar, they don't get along very smoothly.

But other than that bit of counterfeiting, this was the way a very talented and colorful artist said Eid Mubarak for Eid al-Adha عيد الأضحى‎ to an English-speaking Ontario-dwelling bunch.

Needless to say, all the info about the prayers was how things were in 2007, but could be totally wrong this year. Contact the Mosque if you want to know what's shaking right now.

But this is Eid al-Adha, which celebrates Ibrahim's willingness to obey God's command and sacrifice his son. The story of the sacrifice, of course, is revered by all the great Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

It's also the season for Hajj حج‎ , the pilgrimage to Mecca every Muslim hopes and tries to make. So at this moment there are about 3,000,000 Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Mecca is never lonely or ignored, but this is its Big Week.

So big that, desperately trying not to notice or care that it is a holy gathering, the public health experts of Earth are looking very carefully at this year's Hajj. Earth is in the midst of a pandemic of H1N1 influenza, a.k.a. Swine Flu, and the Hajj (and last week's USA holiday of Thanksgiving) is the perfect set of circumstances for accelerating the rate of infection and widespread global travel for new human cases.

At the arrival airports in Saudi Arabia, every pilgrim is scanned with a little point-and-shoot thermometer, and if his/her body temperature is above normal, the pilgrim is taken out of line and sent for more medical examination.

On a modern jetliner, you can have all the fresh air you want in the passenger compartment -- but it's cheaper for the airline not to suck in fresh air from outside the airplane, but to recirculate the same old passenger compartment air.

So a long trip in an airliner is the perfect machine for breathing in some other passenger's respiratory-transmitted disease. H1N1 has been waiting eagerly for USA Thanksgiving and for the Hajj.

There is an odd calculus equation for tracking the spread -- the increase, with time, of the number of infected people of a contageous disease -- and it is an odd equation because it's also the equation for tracking the spread of a Real Good Rumor through a population with time.

This is one reason why Meme Theory has received a lot of attention. The leap of ideas from human brain to human brain, via TV, radio or books or preaching or chatting, is mathematically very much like the leap of cooties from one human body to another via sneezing or coughing or shaking hands but not washing them thoroughly very often.

The Real Good Rumor has to be good enough to make people very much want to tell it to others.

It can't be a rumor you instinctively want to keep to yourself -- like, that the nuclear power plant has just released a dangerous volume of ionizing radiation, but so far it's a secret. If you know the secret and tell every Tom, Dick and Mary, by the time you toss your family in the Volvo and hit the highway, the highway will be solid gridlock and you all get to sit there taking a radiation bath.

But if you hear the secret and keep your mouth shut, you just might get out of town while traffic still moves.

Likewise the contageous disease. It has to be reasonably mild, or begin with a few days of mild symptoms -- so you'll keep going to work, where the workplace puts you into close physical contact with dozens or hundreds of people, where a sneeze or cough really gives the flying virus or bacterium a good chance to infect another person.

If the disease is so severe that it knocks you flat and makes you stay home, it may kill you, but it won't spread very rapidly through the population.

So ideas (memes) are like cooties (virus), at least they behave alike mathematically. A great idea that just never gets to travel or be chatted up a lot or broadcast a lot -- well, the idea may be great, but its rate of taking up permanent residence in new brains will be so slow that the idea may just never take off and become popular. Ideas are born, and go extinct, just plain die, all the time, and the fault may not at all be the idea itself at the center of the meme, but rather how well the meme's outer "protein jacket" helps it jump from brain to brain.

Viruses rely likewise on their outer protein jackets -- which have nothing to do with how sick the core RNA will make you -- to effectively spread through a population.

Having a great idea, but only being able to express it in Latvian, makes a real crappy outer protein jacket. Only Latvian speakers have any chance to hear or appreciate your idea (and give it a permanent new home in their brains). This is why so much world meme-tossing takes place in English; right now it's the Earth language that numerically kicks the most ass and can get noticed by the most people.

Well anyway, Eid Mubarak -- a Blessed Eid -- and (I am told) have fun wearing your very best clothes during this festival, and take pleasure and satisfaction in your very serious charitable responsibilities. Eid traditionally involves sacrificing a goat, sheep, cow or camel (as Ibrahim did instead of his beloved son), and the needy of the community share in the feast.

Next big festival or holy day i may work up the nerve to make another original greeting, which I will inevitably get wrong in some way.

Stealing old posters is better for everyone.

The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice / burning books since 1873 / party's over

2009-11-24T18:23:00.005-05:00

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only insignia for any organization on Earth which proudly displays one of its central activities: burning books.

I dunno what the Society is proudly throwing a man into the can for. I suspect they caught him having some kind of Fun.

They lost bigtime when they tried to ban "Jurgen" by James Branch Cabell, but (Wikipedia:)

In 1920 after the magazine The Little Review serialized a passage of the book Ulysses [by James Joyce] dealing with the main character masturbating, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, who objected to the book's content, took action to attempt to keep the book out of the United States. At a trial in 1921 the magazine was declared obscene and as a result Ulysses was banned in the United States.

I think it's legal to buy it in the USA now, but don't take my word for it.

Glenn Gould vs. Vladimir Nabokov / Seattle Peter is dumb as rocks / pounding stakes through the hearts of Puritans since 1798

2009-11-24T15:49:00.007-05:00

Click for a larger butterfly.

A butterfly of unknown (incognita) type dedicated to Nabokov's wife Vera.

Nabokov didn't drive, so his wife Vera chauffeured him on his summer trips around the USA collecting butterflies. On a summer butterfly hunt in the Pacific Northwest, Nabokov wrote the draft of the novel "Lolita," and then tried to burn it.

Vera stopped him from burning it.

==========================

----- Original Message -----

From: mary***** j*****
To: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu

Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:20 PM

Subject: [F_minor] I simply cannot resist

In 'Wondrous Strange', Kevin Bazzana writes that Gould "was disapproving of books in which ideas were sacrificed to aesthetics or ironic detachment. Among the Russians, for instance, he did not like Chekhov, or the dazzling Nabokov, whom he thought immoral."

A bit of Vladimir Nabokov chosen by me for Glenn Gould:

“I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet, after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip. And the highest enjoyment of timelessness -- in a landscape selected at random -- is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants. This is ecstasy, and behind the ecstasy is something else, which is hard to explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love. A sense of oneness with sun and stone. A thrill of gratitude to whom it may concern -- to the contrapuntal genius of human fate or to tender ghosts humoring a lucky mortal.”

“I witness with pleasure the supreme achievement of memory, which is the masterly use it makes of innate harmonies when gathering to its fold the suspended and wandering tonalities of the past.”

“I do not know if it has ever been noted before that one of the main characteristics of life is discreteness. Unless a film of flesh envelopes us we die. Man exists only insofar as he is separated from his surroundings.

The cranium is a space-traveler’s helmet. Stay inside or you perish.

Death is divestment, death is communion. It may be wonderful to mix with the landscape, but to do so is the end of the tender ego.”

Gould fibbed; he obviously hadn't read Nabokov at all.

M*** J*****

============

Mary

Of course Glenn has not read Nabokov!

And it's amazing that you have chose the same text as
Richard Rorty (one of my best loved philosofers) to ilustrate
his admiration for Nabokov in a famous interview with
Wim Kaiser in "Of Beauty and Consolation".

Jose A****** S*****

=============

----- Original Message -----

From:

To: <f_minor@email.rutgers.edu>

Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 6:15 PM

Subject: [F_minor] On the other hand Gould was right.

On the other hand.
Gould was right about Nabokov.
There is nothing more immoral than a high mentality combined with low morality.

By the way, when is someone finally going to do some work on Gould's religious life and beliefs? They are usually left unmentioned in most works about him or what seems more likely guessed at by authors. His families view are almost always ignored.

But thanks for a new thread of thought.

Peter in Seattle

====================

I love that "high mentality combined with a low morality."

The more you think about it, the more it makes sense. At least to me.

Thanks, Peter.

A*** in Santa Barbara

=======================
Bob speaketh:
=======================

oh for christ's sake, the guy wrote about 8 of the 20th century's most important novels, and was a world-class amateur lepidopterist, I think with butterflies named after him. He taught Russian literature at Cornell. (The years make it possible he may have had Thomas Pynchon as a student, even though Pynchon was an engineering major.)

I'm sorry you're still all upset about Lolita. Nabokov (said it rhymes with "your block off") was actually writing a love saga to his amazing new adoptive country. He wrote what he saw. That was his job, to write about what he saw.

You really need to ratchet up your entire understanding of what literature is, why people write it, why people read and need it, and why the Final Score is:

Censors & Dangerous Puritans 0
Nabokov 100000000000000000

btw the estate recently announced that against Nabokov's wishes, they are preparing the posthumous publication of his last novel ms. I cannot wait. I'm gonna sleep outside Barnes and Noble all night if I have to. This is extremely wonderful news, and the author himself is in no position to complain or thwart it.
=============

YES YES YES my hero!

Thanks for making this day more sparkling and grand.. ...

Cordialement

Danielle

==============

You tell 'em Bob.

Best regards,

F*** H**** Toronto

==================
to F*** H****
==================

god that jerk makes me so mad, and I refuse  to waste valuable couch time to figure out why. here i am trying to be Sweetness  & Light and celebrate Truth & Beauty, and then that schmuck opines, and  I go all Donald Duck postal.

it is a very fine thing for both of us that  he lives a large continent away.

N. sent the ms. of "Lolita" to his editor,  and the editor sent him back a telegram: "If I publish this, we'll both go to  jail."

Isn't it odd that nobody -- not cops and  prosecutors, not our Great Moralists -- ever notices truly filthy, soulless,  empty and dehumanizing porn, but it's the great authors, the explorers of the  deepest parts of our souls, who wake up to find lynch mobs with torches on the  lawn.

A few years ago, the DA in Oklahoma City  raided a Blockbuster and forced the Todd at the counter to surrender the  customer list, and then went around arresting every customer who had rented "The  Tin Drum," accusing them of trafficking in kiddie porn. Unfortunately one of the  customers he busted was a lawyer with the Oklahoma American Civil Liberties  Union. (Academy Award 1980, Best Foreign Language Film.)

And what talentless scum scrambled to turn  [Lolita] into a movie? Kubrick, James Mason, Shelly Winters, and Peter Sellers' first  serious dramatic role. Nabokov wrote the screenplay.

The Legion of Decency put its foot down on  just one scene, and said this one simply could not reach any theater audience in  Christendom. Mason is banging Shelly Winters -- but out of the corner of his eye  is looking at, and getting his inspiration from a little framed photograph of  Winters' daughter Lolita.

I guess I love Nabokov because he simply  rewrote and reinvented popular culture, the vocabulary of every language on  Earth, the Meme Pool, calypso songs, the titles of porno websites and chatrooms.  Swiss butterfly collector gave strokes to 2 gazillion puritans and turned the  world upside-down, so thoroughly that we are all still standing on our heads. I  could possibly have his daring, but alas it is unlikely I will ever be accused  of having his talent.

===============
Bob speaketh to Seattle Peter:
===============

Oh yes, and it's also been proven that all  the Grimm Brothers fairy tales are about sexual abuse of children. All modern  people know that.

Peter, I really don't know what to say to  you about anything. You're humorless, know little about music and seem not to be  thrilled by much of it, and you know clearly Zero about literature.  

Where on Earth were you schooled? By  whom?

Perhaps my Swiss buddy was right -- it's  the nasty weather in Seattle, it has turned your soul and imagination into a  wrinkled prune.

I only wish your comments did not from time  to time trigger a hot button with me. You SHOULD be so effortless to  ignore.

I wish no one so gray, shallow,  ignorant and colorless a world, so in the most charity I can muster: Start  reading. Now. A lot. Anything and everything.

Everything you learned in Sunday School as  a trusting but uncritical child -- now, as an adult, you have a responsibility  to let the creators of literature and ideas speak directly to you and show you  their dimensions of the world.

I have almost never posted words in the  least critical of Our Master, but it has always been clear and obvious to me  that, away from the keyboard, Gould had a deep lifelong problem with the worst  elements and beliefs of the nastiest and most mean-spirited of Calvinism.

I find it odd he should have been so  shackled and contaminated in Canada, particularly in Toronto and Ontario; you  and he reflect a rigid stridency more common in, and recently far more dangerous  to all, in the United States -- or, as the novelist Margaret Atwood calls us,  the Republic of Gilead.

Sadly, going back to Colonial times, the  Puritanical toxin has permeated and often seized political control of our  country, always with disastrous and shameful results, and every cycle begins  with an attack on literature and attempts to use the power of government to  censor and ban it, and, if possible, imprison or exile those who create it.

Charles Brockden Brown's novel "Wieland"  (1798) actually begins with a sad, almost pathetic preface begging the American  reader not to condemn him to Hell for the act of writing fiction, and promising  that if they will overlook his Sin of making up stories, the reader will find  important Moral Lessons consistent with a (puritanical) Christian ethos  inside.

Nothing in our clash of visions of the  world can or should be settled by a poll, but I have received several private  e-mails that were merry and grateful. To the best of my knowledge, neither the  woman nor the man are registered sex offenders. Neither am I, feel free to check  my town's police department website.

Bob

======================

Which proves his high mentality.

Lolita is a male sexual fantasy about child abuse. Ask any abuser.

Was this the book that bothered TS Eliot?

But good to get a response.

Peter

=================

----- Original Message -----

From: "José S*****"
To: <f_minor@email.rutgers.edu>

Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 12:00 PM

Subject: [F_minor] On the other hand Gould was right

Pursewarden, a character created by Lawrence Durrell in "Alexandria
Quartet" wrote that all of his books shoud carry a label saying "Forbidden to old women of both sexes".

I am starting to believe that Nabokov books must carry that label.

Jose A****** S*****

================

Hola José,

(Diacriticals often don't successfully make the trip via e-mail, so you know what I mean with your final e, even if it looks like a Cyrillic Q to you.)

Thanks for the Big Laugh of the Day. I'm a huge admirer of Durrell, his work and his life. (My wife loves his brother Gerald the zoologist. She thinks all English literature written after 899, when Alfred the Great died, is nasty and inferior. I am more appreciative of and comfortable with things written between the 11th and 21st centuries.)

I have a hot temper in the style of Donald Duck, and there is something about that jerk Peter in Seattle that just makes me start quacking incoherently and going postal/schoolyard. The Buddha, and I think the Sufis, promise techniques in which such jerks, and the dangerous and ignorant things they say and do, would simply vanish from my Universe, but I have not yet mastered these disciplines.

If you are a Durrell fan, there is a vanished treasure of American literature I would bring to your attention, the work of James Branch Cabell (1879 - 1958). In his day, his novel "Jurgen" was as shocking and villified as "Lolita," and was the target of a huge, noisy obscenity trial filed by (I love the name of this bunch) the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice.

The two-year trial and publicity rocketed "Jurgen" to the top of the charts, though this beautiful, funny novel and Cabell's others about the fictional medieval kingdom of Poictesme are great treasures of literature that did not need the assistance of the Society for the Prevention of Vice (although he thanked them in a preface to subsequent editions).

Cabell ("Tell the rabble / it rhymes with Cabell") was one of the most widely read Enlish-language novelists of the first decades of the 20th century; Twain was reading a Cabell book when he died in 1910.

If I were a competent dirweesh, I would have been oblivious to the brouhaha on F_Minor re Gould and Nabokov. But I write novels, well and just successfully enough to buy me a ticket to (North) America's miserable history of puritanism, and the contamination of and assault on literature and all the arts by the worst elements of Calvinism -- who, like the Undead, refuse to die, and have thrived in the New World for centuries. It is my job, when fools like Seattle Peter (and, sadly, GG) do their puritanical thing, to try to pound a stake in their hearts and make them stop bothering the world of beauty and ideas.

Thanks for a Huge Laugh, which even my wife (the English perfesser) shared.

Yours,

Bob Merkin

Massachusetts USA

read the innermost soul of the next president of the United StaEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!!!!!

2009-11-24T15:43:00.003-05:00

Santa Baby there's just 1 little thing that I need / the Deed / to a Platinum Mine / Santa Baby so hurry down my chimney tonight

2009-11-21T13:10:00.005-05:00

Click image to enlarge & marvel.

Polaris Dust Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mandel (Hidden Valley Observatory)
Research Collaboration: Adolf Witt (University of Toledo) et al.

My Dearest Wife,

We have left the City and, for better or worse, now dwell deep in the Great Boreal Deciduous Forest.

City life certainly had its challenges -- a Superintendent of Public Schools, for example, who went about packing large-caliber automatic pistols which he waved in his live-in female partner's face before he was led away in handcuffs -- but we have exchanged these for a New Set of Different Challenges, such as owls swooping noiselessly down from the sky to devour our housecats, and where water comes from (a well pumped by an electric motor) and where the contents of the Chamber Pot go (a septic tank and leach field).

Thank you, by the way, for tacking the

POSTED
NO HUNTING

signs to the trees by the road. I do not fear Death, but I have a great dread of being pierced through the neck by an arrow or blasted by a 30-30 bullet because an armed drunk in green camo mistook me for a quadruped, which is why I scrupulously roam the new property wearing a ridiculous safety orange tuque during hunting season. Out here, one must prove one is a sentient biped, or suffer dire or fatal consequences.

Safety must be our overwhelming concern in our new surroundings, and this is why I brought to your attention the necessity of the Generac emergency propane-fueled electric generator, so we can sit out the next 8-day winter power outage and still get satellite TV and the Hi-Speed Internet. Thanks! It is One Nifty Gizmo, and I am already developing an unhealthy bonding relationship with this remarkable machine which watches over our electricity needs waking and sleeping.

In this Safety and Emergency Preparedness vane, I wish to bring another Important Machine to your attention, and discuss the necessary details for immediately purchasing and installing it.

The first fucking thing we must always know with Great Precision here in the GBDF is Which Way Is Up -- or, rather, Where is True North? (From this, it is a fairly simple matter to extrapolate to the east, west and south; three extra Machines are not necessary for this task, but a Theodolite would certainly be useful to have around the house.)

I have attached an image of The Machine we so desperately need installed and Ready to Rip before dread Winter descends upon us, our beloved cats, and our cozy cabin.

The Celestron NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope -- well, this is simply the most dependable and inexpensive device on the market today for pointing to Polaris, the North Star, on a clear night, of which we now, for the first time in decades, have so many.

I believe it will be possible to purchase and install a housing to allow us to control and see the telescope images from the comfort of our indoor computers, rather than have to stick my eye up some rude eyepiece at 3 am on a night in mid-January. From what I have gathered from Sky & Telescope, nobody has to be outside any more to marvel at the night skies -- outdoor telescopy is so 1998.

I am convinced we are in Great Peril, particularly during the winter, until we promptly entrust our Land Navigation needs to the Celestron NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope, and a few inexpensive accessories to make its use convenient, comfortable and up-to-date.

Concerned ever for the Safety and Comfort of our new household, I remain

Your Beloved Husband,

Bob

How will I know in thicket ahead is danger or treasure when Body my good bright dog is dead

2009-11-20T12:14:00.002-05:00

Question

by May Swenson (1913 - 1989)

Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen

Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt

Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead

How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye

With cloud for shift
how will I hide?

May Swenson, “Question” from Nature: Poems Old and New

Santa Baby there's just 1 little thing that I need / the Deed / to a Platinum Mine / Santa Baby so hurry down my chimney tonight

2009-11-18T10:36:00.006-05:00

----- Original Message -----
From: "N L L"
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 5:02 PM
Subject: ***£1,500,000,00 GBP AWARD WINNER***

You have just been awarded £1,500,000.00 GBP, in the National Liverwood Promotion.Send us your details as below;

Names........
Address......
Tel......

===============================
Meanwhile, I am faced with an interesting mathematical puzzle:

A Trunk Box weighs approximately 50 kilograms. It is scanned, and revealed to be jammed full of paper currency of unknown nationality and denomination.

How much moolah will I get?

Also, where the fuck is .vn ?
==============================

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Sanchez." {src3456728934@yahoo.com.vn}
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 4:25 PM
Subject: YOUR FUND YET TO BE DELIVERED.

Hello,

I was consulted by my associate in the UN Indonesia about an abandoned shipment from Iraq to Indonesia that was supposed to be delivered to you as a personal consignment. Your consignment is presently stored with the UN Indonesia. It was scanned and it revealed an undisclosed sum of money in a Trunk Box weighing approximately 50kg. This is a deal between us. All communication must be held extremely confidential.

I have tried to reach your beneficiary regarding your delivery and confirmed from our contacts in Iraq that him and his family was involved in previous Bomb blast in Dohuk Iraq. I am sorry about that. Now I am contacting you because you are the real recipient of the fund. The fund cannot be delivered to any other person but you. If not it would be confiscated.

I am in charge for all delivery here in London, Iraq and all over Asia. Presently, I reside in London with my family. With my supremacy, I am willing to instruct my associate in Indonesia to deliver the consignment to you without difficulties if you agree to give me Ten Percent (10%) of the total sum at the end of the task.

This three following information are what I need from you to enable me reconfirm with my records and deliver your consignment.

Your full name?
Your valid telephone number?
Your valid address for delivery?

On receipt of the above data I will commence the delivery and you will definitely be updated with further details.

Regard,
Bryan Sanchez.