42 + 8 + Rain = Great Day

I turned the mythic (For HHGG fans) 42 today. A friend asked me out hiking and I spent eight miles hiking through mixed rain and spots of sun up Juneau’s Perseverance Trail. I’m usually a fair weather hiker, but today was surprisingly fun and beautiful. I’m very thankful that my friend talked me into [...]

Living Death: The Truth about Drug Addication

Living Death
Originally uploaded by jen-the-librarian
Another great title from your Federal Government! According to jen-the-librarian, “The title is more exciting than the actual pamphlet.” If you want to find out for yourself, check out http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12365529 for a list of holding libraries.

“Saffron Revolutin” unfolding in Burma! – The Metta Center

From: “Saffron Revolutin” unfolding in Burma! – The Metta Center
“On Saturday, the Burmese military junta allowed 500 monks to visit Suu Kyi at her home-prison, yielding to the recent massive nonviolent demonstrations by monks, students, and civic leaders. It appears that the monks have set up a win-win situation, where the government is hesitating to [...]

Be Provoked, True Meaning of Turn the Other Cheek

I’ve added Provoke Radio, a Catholic podcast out of Baltimore, to my podcast listening. Whether or not you subscribe yourself, I suggest you listen to episode 60, available from the show archives. Show 60 is titled Pax Christi – Preaching Non-Violence and is notable for three things — a clear description of why “turn the [...]

New FGI Discussions: September 24, 2007

September BOTM Cass Hartnett and The Free Government Information(http://freegovinfo.info) volunteers posted the following stories in thepast week:
Cass’s Posts:+How Washington DC shapes us all: in honor of Art Emerson
Volunteer Posts:
+U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read – Jim A.+Do you suffer from Congressional Data Frustration (CVF)? TrySunlightalinazinosec! – James R.+Malamud takes on LC Copyright Database [...]

Conservation isn’t small potatoes – Ask Alaskan villages!

Villages in Alaska cut their power needs by over 40% thanks to a state energy program:

“Village End Use Efficiency Measures (VEUEM) are upgrades performed in rural Alaskan community buildings. From January 2005 through January 2007, the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA), with funding from the Denali Commission, worked with 17 villages to help them achieve [...]

Regular Flu more deadly than Bird Flu

Here is some good plain talk about risk perception. Fear the plain old flu – in terms of human death it gives us TEN 9/11’s each and every year.

Perceptions of Risk

via Schneier on Security on Aug 22, 2007
“Bird flu was called the No. 1 threat to the world. But bird flu has killed no [...]

Why the Forget-me-not?

The Forget-me-not is Alaska’s State Flower. Why?
The Forget-me-not was declared the official flower by an Act of the Territorial Legislature on April 28, 1917. This law can be cited as ch. 10 Laws of Alaska, 1917.
This law also explains why the symbol was chosen:
“Whereas, throughout her more than one-half million square miles of territory, stretching [...]

Why the Ptarmigan?

The Willow Ptarmigan is Alaska’s State Bird. Why?
The Willow Ptarmigan became our official bird by an Act of the Territorial Legislature on February 4, 1955. It can be cited as ch. 1 Session Laws of Alaska 1955. The preamble to this legislation explains why the bird was chosen:
“Preamble – Whereas, the Territorial Sportsmen, Inc., sponsored [...]

U.S. Foreign Aid to East and South Asia: Selected Recipients

A recent Congressional Research Service report shows the amount of aid we are providing to the dictatorship in Pakistan and also seems to show little correlation between how democratic a nation is and how much we’re willing to help them. It is patterns like these that underline how our verbal commitments to liberty are simply [...]