Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

I finally got a copy of this from the library. It's a fascinating story and good read. BUT it's annoying to read something so one-sided. Politically, I'm a bit left of center, but reading this brings out the rightist in me, just like reading a Wall Street Journal editorial brings out the leftist in me.

She did three one-month stints in low-wage, full-time jobs: waitress in a cheap restaurant, house cleaner and nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart clerk. The house cleaner job, for example, pays $7 an hour from a house-cleaning company. Free lancers can charge $15 an hour, and the company charges $25 an hour. But she never tries to free-lance nor digs into why her co-workers don't do so, or start their own company (the barriers to entry are low). The question that keeps coming up to me is: why don't these workers apply for a better job? The author claims they are just as smart and hard-working as anyone.

Plus she goes on and on about the cost of an apartment. But almost all of her fellow workers live in shared housing, with room mates or family. She never checks out the room mate wanted ads. Still, the stories are fascinating and the exploitation of poor people is sad, especially in regard to health care. Our country is the only rich country in the world without universal health care.

The WhyCry® Monitor

The WhyCry® monitor is a baby cry analyser. The monitor listens to the baby's crying for 20 seconds then digitally analyses it before indicating why.

The device then illuminates one of five crying ‘expressions’ telling you whether the child is hungry, bored, tired, stressed or annoyed.

They seem to be serious.

The Boy in Camp Granada
Interesting story about the son of Allan Sherman (of Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah fame). The boy really did go to camp and hated it and wrote home about it. Also check out Shelly's parody of it regarding dogs.

I like to protect myself from such Internet menaces as the Blaster worm by using a hardware firewall (mine is from Linksys). The nice thing about a hardware firewall is that it can't be reprogrammed into a menace, since the code is in read-only memory (unlike software firewalls). These firewalls are very easy to use and install and only run about $100, plus they have a useful router which lets me share my cable modem with up to four computers (more if I add a hub).

For virus pretection, I like Postini. This service ($1/month) blocks email viruses before they reach my computer. It also deals with spam, very effectively. And the Postini people deal with updating virus and spam profiles, not me.

The idea is to block these menaces before they reach my computer. Then computer configuration doesn't matter.

Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean, until 2000 BC
Some mammoths continued to live on remote arctic islands until well into historical times, corresponding to the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.

Old aviation mystery may have been solved
39 years later, lost plane of legendary bush pilot finally found
Pilot recounts discovering McAvoy wreck
McAvoy plane crashed and burned, RCMP say
Human remains, plane wreckage, may solve 40-year-old northern mystery
Frozen in Time
Airplane Missing Since 1964 Found
Plane From 60s Found in Canadian Arctic
Crash victims' families held onto hope for UMD graduates' return
Famed aviator disappeared in 1964

An email forwarded from my cousin Bruce Torp pointed to this shocker. My first cousin, Douglas Torp, was a geologist exploring in the Canadian Arctic. On June 9, 1964 his plane, piloted by Chuck McAvoy and also carrying fellow geologist Albert Kunes, went missing and he was never heard from again. Now, after 39 years, the plane and his remains have been found. It's too bad his parents and brother Berry did not survive long enough to learn what really happened. Doug and his brothers Berry and Bruce (and their Dad Glen) were great outdoorsmen who took the time to show a little cousin (me) how to fish in the North woods, how to use a bow and arrow, and how to skinny dip in beaver ponds. I used to find funny looking rocks and get Doug to tell me what they were. His wife LeAnn gave birth to a daughter, Krisane, after his disappearance, and later remarried. Doug's loss was a tragedy and a mystery, one that is now solved.

My Friday Five:

• What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
  Outside of our home state: Duluth, Minnesota for a family reunion. Outside the country: Moscow and Novosibirsk, Russia, to adopt our two children.
• What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?
  My car broke down in New Mexico and I needed money to fix it, so I pawned my camera. The owner was away (he needed to approve the deal) and I had to wait all day. The clerk was practicing with his band in the back room. They needed a bass player. So I played bass with them all afternoon. It was an all-Indian band, not much talking. Then the owner came back, I got my money, and left.
• If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
  Italy, Japan, Easter Island, Antarctica, Paris
• Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
  Traveling by train is very pleasant and retro.
• What's the next place on your list to visit?
  Probably we'll go to Chicago to see my Mom. The kids haven't seen her house yet.