I'm thinking of traveling to Sweden with my mother to visit the places her mother and father came from, and see if there are any living relatives there. This professional genealogist looks good for preliminary research.

First thawed transplant success
Researchers have successfully transplanted ovaries that had been stored in liquid nitrogen from one female rat to another. Roger Gosden and colleagues at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal, Canada, are the first to demonstrate that entire organs can be safely [frozen,] stored and thawed.
This is a wonderful advance in cryopreservation - a real milestone. If human kidneys could be saved in this way, thousands of lives would be saved each year. Currently, many available kidneys cannot be used because a genetic match cannot be found in time.

Roundabouts replace lights for safety
Interesting WSJ article available for free from MSBNC about a big double-lane roundabout in Clearwater, FL. Drivers are mighty confused by it - and no surprise, as so few have experience with simple single-lane roundabouts. You have to walk before you can run. I guess that's news in Florida.

Conversation Cafés are gatherings of people at local coffee houses where they have serious conversations. They mostly talk about Sept. 11th, according to reports. I was thinking of going but I think I will wait for a topic shift.

If you're looking for ukulele chords, this ukulele-mandolin-banjo chord generator is the place to click. Tiptoe through the URLs, through the URLs, tra la la la la...

Can consumers trust "Eco-Labels"? I saw some vegetables labeled NutriClean in a Fred Meyer store today. It turns out this means that they test very low in pesticide residue. They claim "No detected pesticide residue" but that may be a little deceptive, as the best instruments can test below their threshold, but still it seems like a good thing. Of course, there is the organic label, now officially defined by the USDA, but organic covers methods, not results, as I understand it. Wind could blow pesticides onto an organic field from a non-organic one, for instance. Free Farmed is another eco-label, for animal products. It means the animals aren't mistreated. I haven't seen this one locally, but I would like to.

I did my annual stock market update: Tech Buffettology 2002. It looks like Buffettology didn't do so well. Ah well, another nice theory down the drain.

Another page about local cryonics preparations, by Steve Bridge (back in 1989): Practical planning for a cryonic suspension in your area. The immediate availability of large quantities of ice is crucial to the protection of your patient. Reducing the temperature of the patient's brain and providing prompt CPR are the two most important factors in preventing rapid ischemic damage. You will need to look for ice sources in the hospital or nursing home your patient is in (if you have the luxury of a warning), and you will need to check sources in your area for large quantities (up to 500 pounds) of ice. Obviously, this should be cube ice, not block. You don't have time to chop.