Monday, January 31, 2005

Women in Entrepreneurship

Jeff Cornwall discusses why more and more women are joining the ranks of entrepreneurs. Thanks to Ashish's Niti who wrote this week's Carnival of the Capitalists for the link.

Bloglines

I think I've finally found an RSS reader that I like. I had tried one which was a bit awkward and made reading blogs less enjoyable. I've added some of my favorite blogs to the reader at Bloglines and find that it is just like reading a blog. I love it!

Good Post from Glenn

Wow - I apologize for so long between posts; I've been blogging on my other blogs and neglecting this one I guess.

Glenn Reynolds has a great article on Slate this week. He talks about Clinton's victory in Iraq. It's so much fun to look at "that was then, this is now" scenarios and see all the flip-flops! By the way, you might also check out Glenn at Instapundit.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Blast Blogging

Bill Hobbs is doing it!

I'm Craving Skyline Chili

Bamablog included a recipe for Cincinnati chili on her blog. (No permalink so just scroll to January 25.) It's making me crave some Skyline!

$760/hour for Eating Donuts

I want this job. LOL Actually, I'll just take the check and the donuts. Forget the rest of the job!

Researching Online Gets Better

Thanks to efforts such as these, family historians have better access than ever to historical information.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Cow-Blogging

Blue Ridge Blog did some cow-blogging.

Carnival of the Recipes #23

It's posted at Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Christian Illiteracy

I find the quote below somewhat scary:

But, according to a 1997 poll, only one out of three U.S. citizens is able
to name the most basic of Christian texts, the four Gospels, and 12% think
Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. That paints a picture of a nation that believes God
speaks in Scripture but that can't be bothered to read what he has to say.

Full article here.

In the days following 9/11, it seemed as if there was a "great awakening." Of course, this poll was taken several years before 9/11/01. It would be interesting to see if there has been a change since then, but I fear not.

Friday, January 21, 2005

Rating Super Bowl Ads

Hey - looks like there's going to be some blogging done during the Super Bowl - and the discussion won't just be football.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Flash Movie Military Tribute

One of my colleagues sent a link to this great tribute to our military heroes. [Requires flash and works better with sound on.]

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Tennessee Theatre Photos

South Knox Bubba has some great photos of the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville which has just reopened after major renovations. Be sure to visit his gallery.

Blogging Convention

It's in Nashville at Belmont University in May.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Carnival of the Recipes #22

This week's installment is up at One Happy Dog Speaks.

Fornication Laws

Instapundit has some comments about the State of Virginia's overturning a 19th century law which made it illegal for persons to engage in sexual relations outside of marriage. He applauds its being overturned saying it's "about time." I don't think it really matters whether or not it is on the law books of the State of Virginia because it is against God's laws.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

My Ancestors' Diet

This is the diet that my ancestors must have followed.

Iceberg Collision

Neat photo of a coming event.

News with No Anchors?

Roger Simon thinks so.

Hobbs on TennCare

Bill Hobbs has a great short commentary on the scaling down of TennCare.

Also see Nashville Files Blog.

Reality TV News

I'll have to admit that this sounds more entertaining than most of the Reality TV shows currently out there.

Online Sales Set Record in 2004

More people (like Glenn) are staying in their homes to do their shopping, and as a result, online sales set a record in 2004.

Book Banning Followup

The library board reversed the decision because of national criticism of its banning of the book America (The Book). I think this whole process was probably handled incorrectly if the board didn't have its say in the first place. They really need to get a collection development policy in place that addresses what is and what is not acceptable. If the book was not going to have been circulated, it should have been sent back to the publisher and never made to appear in the library's online catalog. I don't have a problem with the library choosing not to add the book because of content, but to add it and remove it without a formal challenge is problem not in the library's best interest.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Geography Quizzes

These are fun and educational. Thanks to Coyote Blog for pointing them out.

Two in a Row

Peyton has won the NFL MVP award two years in a row. It's much-deserved!

Related: Love the headline from Sunday's game coverage.

Tennessee Theatre to Re-Open

Knoxville's historic Tennessee Theatre will re-open after undergoing renovations. The previews of the new interior look great!

Rathergate Fallout

Rathergate has cost 4 CBS personnel their jobs. Dan Rather has already announced his retirement plans and received no further penalties for his role. See the full report.

Blogger Reaction: Hugh Hewitt calls it "whitewash."
Powerline has a great summary and analysis.
Instapundit offers lots of blogger reaction links.


TennCare Gets Reductions

TennCare has been ailing for a long time. It's a program that needs to go. Gov. Bredesen has reached somewhat of a compromise by keeping the children covered by TennCare and cutting the adults who are covered by Medicaid.

Censorship or Selection

Apparently the Jackson-George Regional Library is taking some flack for its decision not to purchase the book America (The Book) by Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show. Critics always seem to call it "censorship" even if it is matter of selection. Libraries don't have the funds to purchase every book that patrons want. Their decision not to purchase the book is probably a wise stewardship of funds. They probably know their own patrons well and know that many of them would find the mentioned photo, particularly in its satirical setting highly offensive. The library would have met opposition either way. Those who want the book can always purchase the book or request it through interlibrary loan. It is a little harder to deal with it once it is in the collection (not to mention all the staff time and processing costs it would take to add and then deselect it from the collection following what was sure to be a challenge).

Update: I didn't read the article as closely as I should have. I guess they already had a copy. Still, if the library has received "challenges" because of its content, they have the right (acting under the direction of the library board) to deselect it from their collection. The article doesn't give enough background to know whether or not it was challenged by a member of the public who noticed it or a staff member, but I'm guessing that if it made it through processing and into the catalog that a member of the public challenged it.

Mona Lisa Deterioration Mystery Solved

An engineering student has discovered why the Mona Lisa keeps cracking.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

I'm Honored





Your Famous Blogger Twin is InstaPundit





Smart, well-informed, a true polymath
Don't be surprised if your blogging brings you fame as well!


Who would have thought I'd get one of my favorite bloggers as my twin?

Phyllis Harper 1/9/05

I always loved Phyllis Harper's columns. She took a three month break, but I'm glad she's begun writing her column again. This week's is about language.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Stitchers' Question of the Week

Okay - so it may not be quite weekly, but the Stitchers Question of the Week has returned over at Stitched with Love and Cat Hair by Renee. This week's question is: After you stitch a pattern or kit, what do you do with it? I keep the pattern and file it. I have loaned a few out, but I tend to keep the patterns.

Elvis-Blogging

Powerline appears to be Elvis-Blogging today.

More Attacks on Christians

Joe Gandelman is guest blogging at Dean's World and reports that an atheist is challenging Bush's placing a hand on a Bible at his "swearing in" ceremony.

It looks like Christians may well be in for an age of persecution the way things seem to be headed lately, but history shows that the church has enjoyed enormous growth during such times of persecution.

Carnival of the Recipes #21 is Up

PhysicsGeek is hosting this week's carnival.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Next Time . . . Get Someone Who Can Sing

James Calhoun believes Ashlee Simpson may be tone deaf. I didn't listen long enough to determine it because when I heard that awful noise coming from the set at half-time, I hit the "mute" key. Perhaps they ought to look to the country music scene for their next half-time show, or better yet, let the university bands play!

Interesting Stats

Here are some interesting statistics on the number of Democrats vs. Republicans in Congress.

New Maps Being Drawn Because of Tsunami

Cartographers are working on new maps because of the disastrous tsunami.

Related link: "The Maps Have Been Washed Away"

Election Certification Debate

Powerline has a great post about the Democrats' calling the Ohio votes into question. I watched part of their nonsense today on CSPAN. I'm not sure what their motivation for doing it was. It will only backfire on them. It really was a waste of time.

Historic Knox Structures to Be Spared

After one historic structure was recently demolished in the city of Knoxville, some old farm buildings in the county will be spared during an expansion of the sewage plant. [Free registration required.]

Treaty Oak

This historic tree marked the site of an Indian cession in middle Tennessee until it was cut into souvenirs.

1951 Nashville Blizzard

Nice article about this big snow and ice event.

Is "Confederate" a Taboo Word?

Vanderbilt University is in the midst of a battle over a building with the word Confederate in its name.

Diet Success?

A program where MORE than 10,000 persons lost NEARLY 20,000 pounds in 3 YEARS is being called a success. That's LESS THAN 2 POUNDS apiece in 3 YEARS. I don't know about you, but unless I already had a figure like Barbie, I wouldn't call that a success.

RELATED: The fittest (and fattest) cities. [Free registration required.]

Map Coloring

Okay - maybe only 4 colors are essential, but some of us would rather have a more colorful map!

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Tennessee Gets Bad Grades for English and Math

Tennessee's schools got a report card, and it wasn't a good one! Of course, this doesn't really surprise some of us who are teaching college. I know I can really tell that students are lagging. You can read the full reports on English and math.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Homemade Marshmallows

This recipe sounds really good. I think I'll make a batch to go with some hot chocolate sometime.

Happy New Year

I found this meme over at A Hazy Shade of Winter. I started tracing where it came from but decided to leave that to anyone who really wants to follow all the links.

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before? Visited St. Augustine, Florida. I'd been to other places like Orlando, Tampa, Homestead, the Keys, Panama City, etc. but never to the oldest city! I'm sure there are lots of other things, but that's the first one that came to mind.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't bother to make a list that won't be kept anyway.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My niece had a daughter and my nephew's wife had twin daughters.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, although not immediate family.

5. What countries did you visit? Just the good old USA.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004? A house of my own.

7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Election night - I was very relieved when I saw that Bush could win with Ohio. I had checked online and knew from when I had lived there that the precincts that weren't reporting were Republican strongholds so I knew Bush would win and that I could go to bed and sleep peacefully. (I should have called some of my friends so they could have done the same.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I'm not sure.

9. What was your biggest failure? Again I'm not sure. It's just too early to look back and really assess things like this.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? The usual sinus stuff and headaches.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A digital piano for myself my cat. He lets me play it to entertain him.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Those responding to the hurricanes in Florida and the tsunami in Asia.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Easy one--Michael Moore.

14. Where did most of your money go? To pay the bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The election outcome.

16. What song will always remind you of 2004? I liked Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying."

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? sadder

b) thinner or fatter? thinner

c) richer or poorer? about the same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? cross stitching

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? working (Don't we all wish we had more free time?)

20. How did you be spend Christmas? with my parents

21. Did you fall in love in 2004? no

22. How many one-night stands? none

23. What was your favorite TV program? Emeril Live

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? no

25. What was the best book you read? The Bible - but I'll also mention Shem Creek by Dorothea Benton Frank. I liked it so well that I bought the previous novels she had written. I didn't like them quite as much as Shem Creek but they were good. Maybe a little more graphic than I like in places though.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Not sure there was a big one. Maybe the great price on the digital piano. I just can't think of an artist that I discovered for the first time that I thought was great.

27. What did you want and get? affection from my cat

28. What did you want and not get? affection from my cat (Cat lovers will understand why this was in both places.)

29. What was your favorite film of this year? My cat says to put Garfield the Movie. I don't think it's my favorite, but I'm not a big movie goer, and I did buy that one because I love Garfield. I tend to watch older movies. The more recent ones are too graphic for me usually. Was The Passion of the Christ this year or last? It was good.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I have no idea, and it's impolite to ask a woman her age.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I can't answer this one without discussing personalities so I'll not answer it.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004? My usual is to find great priced separates of good quality.

33. What kept you sane? Church.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm not big on celebrities but it would probably be one of the chefs on the Food Network.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Rathergate.

36. Who did you miss? Ronald Reagan (after he died).

37. Who was the best new person you met? In the interest of omitting someone, I'll skip this one.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004. I need to think on this one. I'm not a person who can answer a question like this without a lot of reflection.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "Here in the real world, it's not that easy at all."