Category Archives: Technology
Just finished my MRI…
Elly and Cassandra say I had a seizure going into the test… apparently I was “babbling”…but I don’t remember it. I was under the MRI’s spell for about an hour. Now we are having dinner and getting ready to drive back home.
They have added 2 more doctors appointments in Hagerstown tomorrow. There goes my last day off. I’ll be glad when the brain surgery is all over with this weekend.
Posting from my iPhone is a new experience for me. These fat fingers on a teensy keyboard really means not much writing. Sorry.
The questions you ask yourself…
I’m discovering as I face brain surgery and it’s unknown consequences that I find myself asking questions about what I have and have not accomplished over the last 66 or so years. It’s not a pleasant experience, btw, only one that makes me realize how many things I REALLY wanted to do which will probably never be realized. I guess, however, that this is common to just about everyone.
(Sorry… this is much longer than I expected and it will not hurt my feelings if you sign out right now, – Bill)
Starting with the basics:
- I have a wonderful wife who is taking care of me when she also maintains a full time teaching job that keeps us supported and in our mandatory health insurance mode.
- I have three impressive and incredible grown children, Cassandra, Penny and Will (who we call Buddy… I don’t know where “Will” came from), and four wonderful grandsons, 3 in Maryland and one in Connecticut. (Allow me to say while I’m in this particular note about how lucky I am to have my son-in-law Matthew Corrigan in Connecticut who has made sure Cassandra could be down here with me during all of this.)
- I set out many years ago for a life in the Arts, something I really discovered while a prep-school student at Tabor Academy in Marion, MA. Between painting and sculpture creation under Lou LaVoie, drama and theatre discoveries under Tom Weisshaus, ending as President of the Drama Club where i acted, but didn’t do much in tech theatre, I was poised to take off when I headed for The School Of Speech/Theatre Department at Northwestern University in 1964.
And just what did I do that I remember proudly?:
- After I discovered systems analysis through an amazing engineer, art collector and professor, Dr. Gustave J. Rath, I created my first small theatre company, Systems Theatre, which applied this amazing intellectual technology to performance creation. Our first major production was an adaptation of Frank Zappa’s “Lumpy Gravy” which eventually played Chicago’s Performing Warehouse between sets by the two great bluesmen B.B. King and Albert King (who I got to give a ride home to later… wow!) When I ended up in NYC in 1971 I restarted Systems Theatre with some of the same people who were with me at Northwestern
- There were a couple of plays that we did at Theatre at St. Clement’s, one of the really great off-off Broadway locations in the city. Well reviewed, well attended and most important to me was my adaptation of Thomas Merton’s “Original Child Bomb” which had gothic-y chants composed by a wonderful musician, Ed Roberts, who I had met when teaching for a year at Tabor. Ed and I went on to do several shows together… at St. Clement’s and other places. My greatest pride came in a project we did a little later:
- Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, an opera for children, was presented at the Whitney
The Whitney
Museum of American Art, thanks to a contact I made with one of the most influential people in my life and someone who I am so proud to call a friend today, Berta Walker. Berta was working as the Administrative Assistant to Steve Weil at the Whitney and was looking for children’s programming. Ed and I suggested doing “Snark” which we had just started working on and now we had a reason for pushing through. We opened to great reception at the Whitney and, a little bit later on, Berta and I produced it for a few weekends at a little theater on the East Side of Manhattan. Following that, it was taken to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, a major museum which had been started by Berta’s grandfather, where it was also successful.
- My friend and former Northwestern student John Driver, who played the original Bellman in “Snark” had been writing a musical based on Samurai warrior Mushami called “Ride The Wind” with
pretty much of a rock ‘n roll score and martial arts based choreography. This was during the time that “Kung Fu” was a big television show, and we thought we were really on something here, so Berta and I decided to produce it (the company we created was called Snarkophilus Productions after our big success). We started out aiming for Off-Broadway, but then the Bijou Theater, a little house at the end of Shubert Alley, became available and we booked it. We were now a Broadway show… albeit a very small one. My set design professor, Sam Ball, agreed to do the sets, which were built by Northwestern students and which I brought to New York driving a truck across country. A number of the actors who auditioned were folks I had known from the New Theatre Workshop, a small non-profit group which acted as a try-out location for new plays that writers were working on. I was their stage electrician for a year before they tore the theater down to build the CitiPlace Center on 57th Street.
- Unfortunately, “Ride The Winds” didn’t pass the New York Times test and I was no longer a Broadway producer.
- I had to work, so I took a job as Administrator of the Jamaica Arts Center in Queens, where I structured classes, set up concerts, scheduled movies and ran the books. It was there I met Elly, my current wife, who I hired to teach Photography in the class size darkroom I had built in the Center’s basement (I took up photography, too… something I really loved.) Eddy came down and we did a little revival of “Snark” in Jamaica for the kids in Queens. When I was hired later on by The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, by their Board President (you can probably see this coming… it was Berta Walker), Elly came with me and we settled in on lower Cape Cod. I helped the
Work Center fund raise, grow and prosper over three years, then spent another three years on it’s Board. Elly and I however, moved down to the mid-Cape where we started a business that would keep us in debt and development for the next decade: Our photo studio, Photography Associates of New England Inc., and U-Design, Inc.
- The appearance of the Apple Macintosh computer, the laser printer, a piece of software called Aldus PageMaker and things like scanners, modems, etc., inspired us to set up a rental-area business where folks would come in, rent space in a booth, and lay out, with our help, their ads and brochures. After a couple of years, we moved it to Hartford, CT… back in my home state. At one point we had U-Designs in three cities in CT (that was a mistake!) and we started doing more jobs for clients ourselves rather than booth rentals. We worked with major and minor companies, lots of non-profits, plus we offered desktop publishing classes. At one time we had a dozen or so employees. During this time I did no theatre, maybe a little painting, but not much (Elly was our painter and her work was wonderful.) While in Marlborough, however, I was recruited to be a Justice of the Peace, where I married several couples (I specialized in non-believers who I
thought should have a person of their own.) I did start designing computer fonts at this time… still do it, especially my “picture fonts” which have been used on this blog many times. U-Design Type Foundry has attracted hundreds of buyers, for which I have great appreciation.
More recent years… “Things fall apart, the center does not hold” – TS Eliot.
- We had built a passive solar house in Marlborough, CT, where we moved so Buddy could go to school there and we could lead the suburban life (eventually, we moved the last vestige of U-Design to Marlborough where it finally ended up in our house until it died.) I started going out and getting jobs as an Information Technologist at some larger companies, finally ending up at Computer Sciences Corporation, where I spent five working years. For most of that I was commuting to the Maryland-DC area every week to do a major piece of work for the Internal Revenue Service with a bunch of my colleagues. I made more money here than I ever had before. When my whole department was laid off after three years I even got six months of part-time work for the IRS itself to finish some of the project stuff.
- Elly and I sold the Marlborough house and bought a historic co-op space in Old Greenbelt, MD, where I was still doing CSC work. Eventually, when there was no more work and a guy in his late fifties had a hard time finding IT jobs when the market was stuffed with lower earning young guys. I had to take early retirement which, thanks to CSC’s salary, brought me a higher Social Security than I had expected. Elly took a teaching job in Graphic Design at Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, MD, and we eventually moved to
Ride The Winds
Hagerstown, then Shepherdstown (our favorite) and now Harper’s Ferry. While I was living in Greenbelt, I got involved with two community theatres, the Laurel Mill Playhouse and the Greenbelt Arts Center. Amazingly enough, with the entrance to all of this I made by meeting Linda Bartash, I directed several plays and musicals. The highlight of these was a revival of “Ride The Winds” which I got John Driver to rewrite the second act for. It was well-reviewed in the Washington Post and local papers and I breathed a sight of final relief. I also, amid all the shows I did, had a really good production of that unusual musical “Urinetown” at Greenbelt, also a success.
- I got involved with a new Community Theater in Shepherdstown, The Full Circle Theater, where I
The Hunting of the Snark, in Shepherdstown
became the House Electrician and ran lights on a bunch of shows, And then, can you believe it, I go to to do a revival of “The Hunting of the Snark” and Eddy, who was
then living in Pennsylvania, came down from time to time to help my friend and music director, Ruth Raubertas, get our favorite opera for kids off the ground. Everyone seemed to like it, but this was my last chance to direct anything and I sank into an ongoing depression hoping I would get to do it again some day. I don’t think, now, that it will happen. I have to say, though, that I made a great friend of John Case who played the Butcher in that last production. John had a weekday morning radio show on WSCH 89.7FM on Shepherd 
University’s radio station and originally he invited me on for an interview and eventually I was on every Friday, which John started promoting as “The Bill and John Show.” I guess I did OK, since a few months later the station manager, Todd Cottgreave, gave me a show of my own on Saturday mornings which I called “Talk To Me” and which I made into a call-in production. I think the radio shows really saved my intelligence and ability to carry on while under depression.
So those are things I’ve been thinking about. What I haven’t discussed here is this blog, which is the major occupation of an old, retired guy’s day. I hope I can keep it going for years (as you can see, I love to talk)… if it has to cease, however, someone will put up a final post.
Time to feed the dogs.
Related articles
- My daughter, Cassandra, has come down from Connecticut and is helping my wife coordinate all the brain surgery problems… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
- Looks like I’m on a revised schedule and a doctor change for brain surgery… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
- Perforated Skulls From Middle Ages Found in Spain (history.com)
Looks like I’m on a revised schedule and a doctor change for brain surgery…
My wife, daughter and my son (who just came in from Wisconsin to see me) have just returned from a long morning and early afternoon in Georgetown (northern DC) where we have been at the hospital and physicians‘ center at the University.
It now seems that this is where everything will take place with the actual surgery one week from today. Tuesday we’ll have to go down again for more testing.
My new doctor comes with a very fine reputation and many years of experience. The hospital is one of the best rated in the country (something the Hagerstown hospital was far from) and it looks like they know what to do. The results of the surgery will take out part of the tumor, discover what kind it is and whether it needs chemotherapy, radiation or both. Then I will have an idea of how much living I will be able to expect… realizing that there is no 100% cure here.
Me and my brain. So this is what it looks like!
I now have much more need to research the idea of a brain tumor and how it will continue to effect my life. When you are 66 and facing something major like this in your head, it is also concerning how much life there will continue to be to effect.
I can, however, do my radio show tomorrow morning on WSHC, Shepherdstown. If you aren’t in our 50 mile radius for 89.7 FM, go HERE and listen live on line. Tomorrow I’ll be on from 10:30 to 12:00 ET and I look forward to calls and requests (and I think my daughter Cassandra is going to do the show with me.)
Hope you all had a better day than I did. – Bill
(thanks to my daughter, Cassandra Corrigan, for the photo.)
Related articles
- Brain Cancer Chemotherapy (cancercenter.com)
- Brain Cancer Grading (cancercenter.com)
- Patients With Deadliest Of Brain Cancers Benefit From Repeated Surgeries (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Five Early Symptoms of Brain Tumor (healthybodylife.com)
- Helping M.D.s Help Brain-Tumor Patients (research.microsoft.com)
How do the candidates stand on America’s energy future? Here’s a radio piece from NCR
Energy policy, defining how we use energy to power our economy and our lives, is among the most pressing issues for the next four years. In this special edition of BURN, stories about the power of one: how, in this election season, a single person, place, policy or idea can — with a boost from science — affect the nation’s search for greater energy independence.
We’ve had a lovely afternoon and evening at the American Conservation Film Festival.
We are in the four day period of the ACFF, now celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary of presenting conservation and nature support films here in Shepherdstown.
We saw two films this afternoon, but tonight we saw two films accompanied by live discussions and question periods with the filmmakers.
The most interesting to me was Marion Stoddart whose life and career spent saving the Nashua River was so well presented in the short film “The Work of 1000.”
Filmmaker Susan Edwards broached the subject Can one person truly make a difference? This film tells the inspiring story of how a remarkable woman saved a dying river–for herself, for the community and for future generations–and became an environmental hero honored by the United Nations.
Mrs Stoddart, now in her 80s spent decades getting a very polluted river clean… petitioning, demonstrating, approaching manufacturers and politicians directly, and getting her husband and children involved. Her live presentation with the audience was very involving.
Our Nation’s River: A System on Edge was the second film we saw this evening. Ten minutes long and made by Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of historic natural filmmaker Jaques Costeau. This piece was particularly meaningful for us, since it is about the Potomac River, the water body that forms our northern border and flows from us down to Washington DC.
Ms, Cousteau answered questions but also presented a discussion panel of professionals from the Nature Conservancy and the Potomac River Foundation.
The House was pretty full at Reynolds Hall, Shepherd University, with a number of standers who wanted to catch everything as well. Among the folks there tonight were most of the officers of Sustainable Shepherdstown (My wife is in that bunch, of course), our current State Delegate John Dolan whose work for us has been spectacular and who is leaving office at the end of the session. Steve Skinner, the Democratic candidate for Delegate who, hopefully, will take John’s place, was there as well. Both men realize the importance the Potomac is to our community. Of course, Republican Candidate Elliot Spitzer was NOT there this evening. Preserving our environment is just not a Republican issue… after all, don’t they all think that Climate Change is a joke?
We’re going to some more films tomorrow.
Related articles
- Worst Potomac River Flooding in 16 Years Expected (washington.cbslocal.com)
- Flooding a Major Concern for Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay (washington.cbslocal.com)
- Water still concerns Cousteaus (toledoblade.com)
- Flood Warning Continues For D.C., Coastal Md., Va. (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season:
My “Talk To Me” show will be on WSHC this morning from 10:30 AM to Noon. We’ll have 90 minutes for your eclectic song requests, discussion of politics with 3 days to go until all of this is decided, and perhaps some comments on the results of Sandy.
If you are too far away to call in at 304-876-5369 remember you can also Listen Live at our web site from anywhere in the world. Just go to 579WSHC.org and click on “Listen Live” and you can join our regular morning call-in group (join Ralph, Stu, Bobby and Oinky and the rest of the gang… we’d love to have you on the team.
Elliott Simon’s shown is on before ours from 9:00 to 10:30 AM.
OK… I’m putting my show together so I can get out of the house on time.
Tell Mitt Romney: Climate Change Isn’t A Joke
Much of the nation is reeling from Superstorm Sandy. As families rebuild from Sandy’s destruction, our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific, fossil-fueled storm.
When Gov. Mitt Romney made climate change a punch line at the Republican National Convention, he mocked a real threat to the lives of Americans.
We can’t let Mitt get away with his laughing dismissal of the threat of rising seas caused by the carbon polluters who fund his campaign. Share this ad with friends and family to tell Romney: climate change isn’t a joke.
Ref: Three Ways Climate Change Made Hurricane Sandy Worse
Thanks to Climate Silence.org.
Do sacred undergarments make someone more Presidential?
If you’re a Mormon, you could be wearing the sacred undergarments to protect yourself. So would this help Romney as a president?
Well, let’s hear what Mike Wallace found out about the sacred underwear:
Are you convinced? Of course, Romney or his supporters have yet to criticize Obama‘s relatively ordinary underwear.
(Thanx to Caffeinated Politics.)
Related articles
- Despite his faith, Mitt hasn’t necessarily nailed the Mormon vote (o.canada.com)
- Using Mitt To Sell Magical Mormon Underwear (thedailybeast.com)
- Mormon Says Romneys Are Leading Church Into Mainstream (thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com)
- Website uses Romneys to sell Mormon undies (news.com.au)
- If Mormons move into the White House… (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
Realizing how much I have come to depend on my wonderful Superfocus glasses.
For the last few weeks I have been wearing my new Superfocus Leonardos, the new Italian design frames for the amazing focusable glasses I discovered a couple of years ago.
My original pair is a very modernist design called Bauhaus. My wife was so impressed with them that she bought a pair as well.
People are always asking “Where do you get those glasses?” and we give people the source and refer them to the Superfocus web site, show them the Penn Gillette ads, and demonstrate the ease of use and the focusing action of our specs.
The Bauhaus focuses with a sliding device and the new Leonardos have a rotating dial that is virtually invisible to onlookers. Both methods are very easy to use and I am so used to them I rarely even realize that I’m carrying out the focusing.
Interested? Go Here:
Related articles
- Superfocus releases “Leonardo” line… I’ve been one of their testers (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
Suppose Romney was President now, during Sandy…
First of all, he would have discarded FEMA as a Federal Agency and given the costs and responsibilities back to the states or to private enterprise. I’ll bet governors up and down the east cost would not be thrilled to lose the federal support.
So what is Romney‘s status on federal funds protecting and helping Americans in times of natural disaster? Take a look:
I guess that means what President Obama is doing now to aid the various states in preserving life and helping states is “immoral.” Tell that to Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who as already come out praising Obama and thanking him for making federal funds and FEMA available… and being available to him by phone for any future problems. I’ll bet Christie is glad that it is Obama and not Romney who is on the other end of the phone call:
“I appreciated the president’s outreach today in making sure that we know he’s watching this and is concerned about the health and welfare and safety of the people of the state of New Jersey.”
– Gov. Chris Christie, (R) NJ
Related articles
- Obama, Romney, suspend campaigning as hurricane Sandy bears down on East Coast (vancouversun.com)
- Hurricane Sandy Update: President Obama Signs New Jersey Emergency Declaration (keansburgpress.wordpress.com)
- Video: Clinton, Biden on Hurricane Sandy (cbsnews.com)
- Sandy Is the Most Important Swing Voter (theatlanticwire.com)
- President Obama signs emergency declaration for entire Mid-Atlantic region (examiner.com)
- Why Romney’s not ready for Hurricane Sandy (tv.msnbc.com)
- Romney may regret ‘privatize’ FEMA remarks in face of Sandy destruction (tv.msnbc.com)
- Obama visits FEMA, says Hurricane Sandy resources “are in place” (cbsnews.com)
- Romney: Privatize FEMA, Federal Disaster Relief Spending “Immoral” (rodonline.typepad.com)
- Emergency/Disaster Management – the politics (recoverydiva.com)
NOT SURE HOW MUCH SANDY IS GOING TO EFFECT THE EASTERN PANHANDLE…
But the animations the weather shows are presenting have rainstorms crossing over us… apparently we’re about as far to the west as any of this will reach and I can’t imagine it will be like a nor’easter or a tropical hurricane.
To make sure what’s happening however, I’m hanging out the Weather Forecasting Stone:
I have absolute confidence in the stone’s accuracy. Don’t you wish you had one?
Related articles
- Hurricane Sandy: Likely To Make Landfall On East Coast Monday Afternoon (boston.cbslocal.com)
- Hurricane Sandy Still Holding Strong (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
Here’s a small audio project for you and your iPhone:
I found this on Boing Boing the other day and it seemed to me an awfully clever idea: How to make a sort-of speaker for your iPhone.
It uses the cardboard toilet paper roll center that we usually just throw away. You just cut a slit in the middle that’s big enough to stick your iPhone in (speakers down, of course) and when you play music or radio or podcasts it’s like having an amplifier.
Try it. It takes about five minutes, Here’s what it looks like:
Love it.
Here’s a sign of the new embodiment of journalism…
Newsweek will discontinue it’s printed edition with the December 31st Issue. All of Newsweek’s information and branded publications will be on line after that, making it the leading news publication to make its entire presence on the web.
The all digital format is being adopted after more than 80 years in print. Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, will be a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context. It will be a paid subscription site (like the NY Times) and will be available on both tablets and the Web, with select content available on its current bl9g, The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast, which depends on Newsweek’s editorial content, now attracts more than 15 million visitors a month.
Tina Brown is the editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek. Baba Shetty is CEO of The Newsweek Daily Beast Co.
Related articles
- A Turn of the Page for Newsweek (thedailybeast.com)
- Newsweek to cease print edition (bbc.co.uk)
- Newsweek going digital-only by year-end (todayonline.com)
- After 80 Years, Newsweek Is Abandoning Print (businessinsider.com)
- Newsweek ending print edition, job cuts expected (miamiherald.com)
- Big news on the publishing front: Newsweek is going all-digital, two years after its merger with The Daily Beast. (shortformblog.com)
- Newsweek Will Stop Print Edition, Go All-Digital Next Year [Newsweek] (gizmodo.com)
I REALLY need your help to continue the blog…
…and, of course, I have a free gift for donations of $5.00 or more…
…you get my popular picture font:“Bill’s Victorian Ornaments”
These images created from traditional and period sources are very usable at any size in designs and publications. The font comes for Mac and PC, and I usually sell it for $29.95. It’s my way of saying “Thank You” to offer it to $5 or more donors. Believe me, October is becoming a low income month and I HAVE to get some contributions to keep going.
So many of you have been following this blog since 2004 that I feel we’ve built a huge web community.
I have enjoyed bringing you the Cartoon(s) of the Week, the Quotes, the Political and Arts News, the Blogrolls of the best sites in America and beyond… They are all a joy to put together. Often we get the breaking political stories before you see them anywhere else. And our wide open communication channels with readers can’t be beat. I offer your participation at all times and appreciate the hundreds of subscribers who sign up every year.
Without YOUR help to keep it going, I’m in big trouble. I’m hoping you will make a small contribution, by 
PayPal or credit/debit card, in support of Under The LobsterScope. You’d be amazed at how much $5.00 can do to help me bring more and more to these pages. And it is probably the LOWEST annual subscription fee you will make to any publication… interactive or not. I often receive larger contributions and I certainly appreciate those.
Remember, for a contribution of $5.00 (or MORE) you will receive a copy of my Picture Font, Bill’s Victorian Ornaments and the knowledge that this blog will continue onward.
I should note that even a donation of $1.00 gets my thanks and helps to keep this blog going. By clicking on the DONATE button below, you tell me that Under The LobsterScope makes a difference in your time on the web.
Thanks,
– Bill T.
Ever wonder how some people get elected to Congress?
I know I do. The fact that there are Republicans who appear to be uneducated, anti-intellectual and just plain outrageous makes me have a very poor impression of the people who vote for them.
Here are 4 samples of what I’m referring to:
Science and Space Committee? Intelligence Committee? How do these mini-brains get put on committees they don’t seem to have any intellectual connection with?
If statements like these keep them from being re-elected to the House, then I’ll have a much better vision of the voting public. I don’t count on it, however.
Related articles
- When Romney questions Obama’s achievements, remember what the Congress did to most of his proposals. (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
- April Russo: GOP Sen. says he will cut scientific funding because scientists read too much (examiner.com)
Thanks for your contribution, Joe Bratcher
My thanks to
Joe Bratcher for donating to Under The LobsterScope. Thanks, Joe .
Watch your e-mail, your Bill’s Victorian Ornaments font is on the way!
– Bill
If you’d like to help us out at Under The LobsterScope (and we hope you will), go HERE.
Related articles
- Keeping this blog going requires your help… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
I REALLY need your help to continue the blog…
…and, of course, I have a free gift for donations of $5.00 or more…
…you get my popular picture font:“Bill’s Victorian Ornaments” These images created from traditional and period sources are very usable at any size in designs and publications. The font comes for Mac and PC, and I usually sell it for $29.95. It’s my way of saying “Thank You” to offer it to $5 or more donors. Believe me, October is becoming a low income month and I HAVE to get some contributions to keep going.
So many of you have been following this blog since 2004 that I feel we’ve built a huge web community.
I have enjoyed bringing you the Cartoon(s) of the Week, the Quotes, the Political and Arts News, the Blogrolls of the best sites in America and beyond… They are all a joy to put together. Often we get the breaking political stories before you see them anywhere else. And our wide open communication channels with readers can’t be beat. I offer your participation at all times and appreciate the hundreds of subscribers who sign up every year.
Without YOUR help to keep it going, I’m in big trouble. I’m hoping you will make a small contribution, by PayPal or credit/debit card, in support of Under The LobsterScope. You’d be amazed at how much $5.00 can do to help me bring more and more to these pages. And it is probably the LOWEST annual subscription fee you will make to any publication… interactive or not. I often receive larger contributions and I certainly appreciate those.
Remember, for a contribution of $5.00 (or MORE) you will receive a copy of my Picture Font, Bill’s Victorian Ornaments and the knowledge that this blog will continue onward.
I should note that even a donation of $1.00 gets my thanks and helps to keep this blog going. By clicking on the DONATE button below, you tell me that Under The LobsterScope makes a difference in your time on the web.
Thanks,
– Bill T.
Related articles
- My great thanks to José Moreno for contributing to the blog… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
Keeping this blog going requires your help…
…and I will give you a free gift if you make a donation of $5.00 or more…
…you get my popular picture font:“Bill’s Victorian Ornaments” These images created from traditional and period sources are very usable at any size in designs and publications. The font comes for Mac and PC, and I usually sell it for $29.95. It’s my way of saying “Thank You” to offer it to $5 or more donors.
So many of you have been following this blog since 2004 that I feel like a member of a huge web community.
I have enjoyed bringing you the Cartoon(s) of the Week, the Quotes, the Political and Arts News, the Blogrolls of the best sites in America and beyond… They are all a joy to put together. Often we get the breaking political stories before you see them anywhere else. And our wide open communication channels with readers can’t be beat. I offer your participation at all times and appreciate the hundreds of subscribers who sign up every year.
I really need YOUR help to keep it going. I’m hoping you will make a small contribution, by PayPal or credit/debit card, in support of Under The LobsterScope. You’d be amazed at how much $5.00 can do to help me bring more and more to these pages. And it is probably the LOWEST annual subscription fee you will make to any publication… interactive or not. I often receive larger contributions and I certainly appreciate those.
Remember, for a contribution of $5.00 (or MORE) you will receive a copy of my Picture Font, Bill’s Victorian Ornaments and the knowledge that this blog will continue onward.
I should note that even a donation of $1.00 gets my thanks and helps to keep this blog going. By clicking on the DONATE button below, you tell me that Under The LobsterScope makes a difference in your time on the web.
Thanks,
– Bill T.
Related articles
- Font, TypeFace, TypeStyle, Typefamily, FontType? Whatever. (imjustcreative.com)
- Thanks to Mary Ellen Heinemann and beverle bloch for their contributions to this blog… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
Environmental Scientist Barry Commoner Dies at 95
One of the men I admired most in the early environmental movement, Dr. Barry Commoner, has died at 95 at his home in Brooklyn Heights, and I think the world experiences a great loss. He was an early champion of recycling, organic food 
and reducing fossil fuel use… and, of course, he took a firm stand against nuclear testing.
Commoner was trained as a biologist at Columbia and Harvard and combined scientific expertise and leftist zeal. His work on the global effects of radioactive fallout, which included documenting concentrations of strontium 90 in the baby teeth of thousands of children, contributed materially to the adoption of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
He was a popular speaker and author 1n the 1960s and ’70s, and even campaigned for president in 1980.
Time Magazine called Commoner the Paul Revere of Ecology on the first Earth Day in 1970.
His four informal rules of ecology were:
1. Everything Is Connected to Everything Else
2. Everything Must Go Somewhere
3. Nature Knows Best
4. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.
Dr. Commoner’s was both concerned with ecology and an ideal of social justice in which everything was indeed connected to everything else. Like some other leftist dissenters of his time, he believed that environmental pollution, war, and racial and sexual inequality needed to be addressed as related issues of a central problem.
Commoner insisted that the future of the planet depended on industry’s learning not to make messes in the first place, rather than on trying to clean them up after they were made. He thought scientists in the service of industry could not just create some new process or product and then remove themselves from a moral responsibility for the potential results. He was a lifelong opponent of nuclear power because of its radioactive waste and scorned the idea of pollution credit swaps because an industry would have to be fouling the environment in the first place to be rewarded by such a program.
He saw that social needs were tied up with environmental ones… for instance:
“I don’t believe in environmentalism as the solution to anything. What I believe is that environmentalism illuminates the things that need to be done to solve all of the problems together. For example, if you’re going to revise the productive system to make cars or anything else in such a way as to suit the environmental necessities, at the same time why not see to it that women earn as much as men for the same work?”
Harvard paleontologist Steven J. Gould’s summary of Barry Commoner’s work and achievements is clear:
“Although he has been branded by many as a maverick, I regard him as right and compassionate on nearly every major issue.”
Romney doesn’t seem to know why airplane windows don’t open.
Romney commenting on a forced landing of a plane his wife was in when there was an accidental ekectrical fire:
When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous.
The Republican nominee’s command of airplane needs and technology lets us see the weakness of his intelligence. Just think, he could be running the technical needs of this country.
Related articles
- Romney Wonders Why Airplane Windows Don’t Open (politicalwire.com)
- Romney: “I Don’t Know Why Airplane Windows Don’t Open” (littlegreenfootballs.com)
- Romney: Why Don’t Plane Windows Open? (drudge.com)
- Mitt Romney Doesn’t Get Why Airplane Windows Don’t Open (nymag.com)
- Mitt Romney wants airplane windows to roll down in case of fire so people can breathe more easily (dailykos.com)
- Hilarious Reactions to Romney’s Airplane Windows Comment (alternet.org)
- Another day, another Romney fail: Airplane windows edition (dailykos.com)
Romney is Inspired by Hitler for Energy Alternative…
In a video on You Tube from May, Romney is seen at a public event talking about alternative energy (which the Republicans in Congress have done everything possible to prevent). When discussing new energy sources new
energy source, Romney gives a hat tip to Hitler (about 42 seconds into the tape):
Liquified Gas. Gosh, Hitler during the Second War I guess, because he was concerned about losing his oil, liquefied coal. That technology is still there. I’m told the Chinese are building five liquefied coal plants right now.
It’s hard to believe that the Mittster cited Hitler in a public address. Then again, it’s hard to believe a lot of things this guy says.
Related articles
- Mitt Romney: Hitler’s Plan for Liquefied Coal is Good for America (treehugger.com)
- Why Mitt Romney As President Could Destroy Alternative Energy Investing (TAN, FSLR, TSL, UNG, USO) (etfdailynews.com)
- How a Romney Presidency Could Destroy Alternative Energy Investing (insidermonkey.com)
- Obama, Romney out of gas on energy (cnn.com)
Keeping this blog going requires your help…
…and I will give you a free gift if you make a donation of $5.00 or more…
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These images created from many traditional and period sources are very usable at any size in designs and publications. The font comes for Mac and PC, and I usually sell it for $29.95. It’s my way of saying “Thank You” to offer it to $5 or more donors.
So many of you have been following this blog since 2004 that I feel like a member of a huge web community.
I have enjoyed bringing you the Cartoon(s) of the Week, the Quotes, the Political and Arts News, the Blogrolls of the best sites in America and beyond… They are all a joy to put together. Often we get the breaking political stories before you see them anywhere else. And our wide open communication channels with readers can’t be beat. I offer your participation at all times and appreciate the hundreds of subscribers who sign up every year.
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Related articles
- Thanks to Mary Ellen Heinemann and beverle bloch for their contributions to this blog… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
Romney is Monsanto’s Candidate…there go our farms!
You know that this blog has a long history of exposing and criticizing Monsanto for the chemical destruction of what once was our fresh food products —Monsanto, whose dark history features scandals involving PCBs, Agent Orange, bovine growth hormone, NutraSweet, IUD, genetically modified (GM) seed and herbicides, reaching back to the 1970s and ’80s.
Those of us who support the remaining organic food growers, and who grow our own out of necessity, have set Monansto as the most evil of challenges.
If we go way back to Romney’s beginnings with Bain Capital when he was 30 years old, who do you think his largest client was, and who remains his friend today? You guessed it. Monsanto. This matters for a number of reasons: it sheds on Romney’s self-ballyhooed business experience; Romney helped create Monsanto corporate objectives that clash with planetary concerns; If Romney is elected, this enemy of environmentalists will have a very old friend in the White House.
Monsanto’s former CEO John W. Hanley is in fact the only business executive outside of the Bain founding family to so shape Romney’s career—jumpstarting the two companies, Bain & Company and Bain Capital, that account for all but two years of Romney’s much-ballyhooed business experience.
Monsanto, who currently produces Genetically Modified corn, soybean, alfalfa and other seeds, which are engineered to resist Roundup and increase yield, faces many global disputes, and has lost two recent, at least $2 billion, court decisions in Brazil – 5 million soy farmers sued them. The Brazilian farmers’ issue is also a source of frustration for US farmers—the contracts farmers are forced to sign pledging not to save seeds for future harvests, a common farm custom that resale-fixated Monsanto has hired a seed police army to stop.
“Roundup Ready” seeds, of course, are completely responsible to the success and safety of Roundup itself. However,“super-weeds” are developing a Roundup tolerance, requiring more and more spraying to work. This is 
harmful both ecologically and financially for farmers.The seeds, introduced in the Bain years with Bain boosting, Roundup’s supposedly “biodegradable” and “nontoxic” claims, have led to false advertising findings. This is part of Romney’s business trustworthiness and acumen.
In the presidential campaign, Romney is deliberately vague . He’s moved publicly in Monsanto’s direction on the company’s genetically engineered ethanol and farm subsidies, appears aligned with it on labeling (Monsanto wants to avoid labeling its fruits and vegetables with the 5 digit code, different for organic competitors), and his spokesman Shawn McCoy said this month that the candidate was “concerned by the effect that the Obama administration’s crushing onslaught of regulations is having on agriculture.” Read from this what effect the Obama administration will have on one of his largest campaign contributors.
Related articles
- mitt is a monsanto man (thegreenhorns.wordpress.com)
- Protesters Blockade Monsanto Seed Facility in California (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
- Monsanto Allowed to Put Genetically Modified Food on Your Plate (blogs.lawyers.com)
- GMO Update: New Study Shows Increasing Rootworm Resistance to Monsanto’s Bt Corn (eatdrinkbetter.com)
- Walmart Signs Deal With Monsanto to Sell Un-Labeled GMO Corn (friendseat.com)
- Lisa Cerda – Monsanto: A Modern Day Plague (prn.fm)
- Sept 16: Global Week of Action Against Monsanto (occupyventura805.wordpress.com)
Bill Nye the Science Guy is a true hero…
… but he did not, as a mischievously placed article put out by the Daily Currant stated, use foul language and push science versus creationism arguments challenging Todd Akin to a debate.
This happened after a video was released on You Tube saying evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. According to Bill Nye, aka “the science guy,” if grownups want to “deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it because we need them.”
Here’s the video:
See. Pretty damned specific.
Just for your entertainment, however, here is Bill Nye on Seattle’s “Almost Live” in his superhero guise as Speed Walker:
Thanks, thanks, thanks to Bill Nye. It’s good having him around.
Related articles
- Bill Nye the Science Guy says don’t teach your kids Creationism. (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
- Ken Ham Wants To Debate Bill Nye (sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com)
- Creation Museum’s Ken Ham: ‘Bill Nye Really Doesn’t Understand Science’ (patheos.com)
- Bill Nye is a science guy who knows what he is talking about (kbrooksjournalist.wordpress.com)
- Bill Nye: Americans who believe in Creationism hold the rest of us back (dangerousminds.net)
- Bill Nye the Humanist Guy vs. Ken Ham the Creationist Man (marccortez.com)
- Bill Nye Blasts Todd Akin, Challenges ‘Fucking Idiot’ to Debate | The Daily Currant (2012indyinfo.com)
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