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POPSGermany's role in managing Peru's jungle forests It's good to know that Germany is helping Peru prepare for climate change in the jungle by supporting Peru's new Environment ministry and financing projects for sustainable management of jungle forests. Maybe there is some hope for saving the jungle from loggers bent on exploitation and destruction of these sensitive areas for their own economic gain. And hopefully it is not too little too late.
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POPSWhy our dogs beg at the table Operant conditioning? "It is a dog’s natural inclination to avoid the leaders of the pack when the leaders are eating. Not doing so in a real pack situation is a good way to get bitten. If your dog sees you as the boss, it will treat you with this same respect. However, even dogs that normally are respectful can easily be taught to beg at the table. All you have to do is occasionally give them a sample from your plate. Presto. A beggar is born. The solution? Never feed a dog from the table. It’s a hard behavior to control once started. So don’t start. And don’t let anyone else start, either. It’s really that simple. Start the holidays with well-behaved pets. Keep it that way by not feeding them from the table."
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POPSThe Nutty Art of Corlette T Baylock Pistachio Nut Shell Art I love whimsical (nutty) art like this! The HGTV site has Corlette's instructions for making a shadow box (nut case) to showcase your own pistachio nut shell art.
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POPS4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit You can use these 4 steps to start any habit. Regular exercise is one habit that I really need to develop. It's tough getting started. The 4 steps are: 1. Set one easy, specific measurable goal (with a trigger to remind you) 2. Log it daily 3. Report to others. 4. Add motivation as needed. Don't just give up. Get moving!
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POPSArt on Wheels: The Magnificent Truck Art of Pakistan Beautiful, ornate artwork moving about the roads of Pakistan. "Jamal Elias breaks down the motifs for truck art into the following 5 categories: 1. Idealized elements of personal and communal life. 2. Elements of political and national life. 3. Talismans, trinkets, and clothing. 4. Talismans or religious symbols. 5. Obvious religious symbols and images." "Unlike vanity plates and ‘pimp-my-ride’ style modifications, Pakistani truck art is about cultural history and tradition, storytelling, passion, and sometimes playful one-upsmanship.'
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POPSWe Must Never Forget Too many egregious Republican party acts to fit in this clip, so be sure to go to the source to read the rest and add to the growing list in the comments. Here are a few more: "We must never forget that the Republican party gave us a president whose chief confidant and advisor was a political hit man and professional liar named Karl Rove." "We must never forget that the Republican party gave us a president who created a gulag in Guantanamo and sanctioned the torture of prisoners." "We must never forget that the Republican party gave us a president whose inner circle participated in the outing of a CIA agent as political retribution." "We must never forget that the Republican party gave us a president who commuted the sentence of convicted perjurer (and unconvicted traitor) Scooter Libby." "We must never forget that the Republican party gave us a president who tried to privatize Social Security."
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POPSThe Greying of Canada Will there be a national strategy to cope with the massive numbers of aging Canadians or creation of a national home-care program for seniors? "The older we get, it seems, the longer we want to live – and, indeed, are living. Like almost every other developed country, Canada is greying, big-time, as the population bulge known as baby boomers closes in on senior status, with the first wave turning 65 in 2011. They will live longer than their forebears; not only has Canadian life expectancy doubled in the past century, to 82 for men and 85 for women, but many more of us will live to be 100." "I tell old people: you have to pay attention to what you like, what gives you pleasure. I love clothes. I love food. I still cut out recipes even though I can't cook any more. I love to read. If you love reading, you've got it for life. I'm grateful to my friends and my children. I know there are grand gardens around the city but I couldn't be happier with my little garden."
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POPSThe saddest of Madonna portraits :( It's hard to fathom of the grief of those whose babies are stillborn or die soon after birth. My heart goes out to them. I'm glad to see that these specialty photographers are handling their work with such sensitivity and are not charging the bereaved parents.
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POPSThe search for the roots of psychopathy Research is being done to study the brains of psychopaths in prison using a portable functional magnetic-resonance-imaging scanner, looking for a defect , with the goal of discovering a treatment. "Although the number of psychopaths who are not in prisons is thought to exceed the number who are—if the one-per-cent figure is correct, there are more than a million psychopaths at large in the United States alone—they are much harder to identify in the outside world. Some are “successful psychopaths,” holding down good jobs in many types of industries. It is generally only if they commit a crime and enter the criminal-justice system that they become available for research." I've known at least two psychopaths personally, neither incarcerated. They are scary people.
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POPSMy Beautiful Blue Indiana! I am so pleased that the majority of voters in my home state of Indiana chose Obama over McCain! It has been an exciting election for us Hoosiers, who normally get little attention due to the assumption that Indiana is a dyed-in-the-wool red state. Well, not any more! Woo hoo! I was one of the Hoosiers who cast an absentee ballot this year. :)
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POPSVote With Your Fork Vote against dependence on oil. Vote for lower health care costs. Vote against all disposable bags at the grocery store. Vote for healthy food choices at restaurants. Vote against unhealthy food choices. Vote for locally grown produce. Vote against the inhumane treatment of animals. Vote for organically-grown food. Vote against eating on the run. Vote for smaller portions. Vote against food waste. If you get frustrated at the current food environment, do something about it. Every dollar you spend, every food choice you make, and every meal you eat is an opportunity to vote for what you believe in. We can't change the way our food environment is structured overnight, but we can make a difference three times a day by voting with our forks.
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POPSWhy the rich are rich and the poor are poor "Judith: Will this help Joe the Plumber? ...You know — the one who is not named Joe, is not a licensed plumber, and would benefit from Obama's tax plan? Steve: Of course not. Your average plumber makes $48,000 a year. Apart from Mafia enforcers, no one named Joe the Plumber is rich. The bailout is designed to help Alexis the Investment Banker, Jason the Hedge Fund Manager, and Thatcher the Trust Fund Nitwit. Judith: And why should we should help them? Steve: This is the natural order of things. The rich, not the poor, should have money. Otherwise the rich wouldn't be rich and the poor wouldn't be poor. As we have witnessed, disturbing the natural order of things creates instability and leads to economic chaos. " by Steve Clifford
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POPSTutorial: Concrete vs. Abstract Thinking
The Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham "ends with the narrator changing his mind from rejecting green eggs and ham under any circumstances to trying them and actually liking them. At a concrete level of understanding, the story is about a stubborn person changing his mind. At a more abstract level of understanding, it is about people in general being capable of modifying their thoughts and desires even when they are convinced that they cannot or do not want to do so. This more abstract level of understanding can be appreciated by two and three year old children only if the higher level of meaning comes out of a discussion of the book with a more mature adult. At older ages and higher levels of thinking, this same process of more mature thinkers facilitating higher levels of abstraction in less mature thinkers characterizes the process of teaching abstract thinking. For example, this is how great philosophers, like Socrates and Plato, taught their pupils how to think abstractly. "
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POPSEmbarrassing Scrabble hand maybe easier to go directly to the source. The site is very interesting, lots of droll cartoons and interesting scientific and mathematical stuff
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POPSSustainable Prefab Homes in Turkey Sustainable Prefabs from Orca Yapı: a steel-structured prefabricated home unit that could endure temperatures ranging from plus 50 degrees to minus 50 degrees Celsius, durable in earthquakes reaching 7.5 on the Richter scale, that is cheap to make "The baseline cost for a unit, which does not include any alternative energy production methods like the active solar power water heating system that is installed on the show model in Kocaeli, is $295 per square meter... 10 times cheaper than comparable units."
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POPSAnd the worst taste in a campaign mailer award goes to... Here's the rest of the story: Local party officials immediately climbed out of the muck to repudiate the piece and apologize, right? Not exactly. In a news release, the party disavowed the Hitler comparison but acknowledged that it had sent the piece out, in its entirety, because it was interesting and "might incite conversation." However, the release went on, "This sort of inflammatory language is neither condoned nor encouraged by our party." Except, that is, when this sort of inflammatory language is, in fact, condoned, encouraged and even distributed by the party. And they're calling him dishonest.
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