JCCC:

GREEN DISCUSSION GROUP TO MEET MARCH 31, APRIL 28 AND MAY 12

The Green Discussion Group will be meeting from 5 to 6 p.m. March 31, April 28 and May 12, in 264 GEB. The March 31 session will again use Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” as the discussion topic.

Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this book is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat. It chronicles the experience of her family as they abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.

Books and/or articles for the following sessions will also be selected at the March 31 gathering.

Books will be provided for the first 10 registrants; you may do so through MyJCCC using CRN 30517.  If you wish to sign up for the following sessions, use the selected CRN’s listed below.

March 31: CRN 30517, Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”

April 28: CRN 30518, topic to be determined

May 12: CRN 30519, topic to be determined

HT Andy Roth at Club for Growth.

WSJ:

BELLEVUE, Wash. — A quarter-century ago, American rocket scientists proposed the “Star Wars” defense system to knock Soviet missiles from the skies with laser beams. Some of the same scientists are now aiming their lasers at another airborne threat: the mosquito.

In a lab in this Seattle suburb, researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light.

The insects survived this particular test, which used a non-lethal laser. But if these researchers have their way, the Cold War missile-defense strategy will be reborn as a WMD: Weapon of Mosquito Destruction.

NRO:

Palm Beach, Florida — Sen. Arlen Specter’s support for the 1,071-page Obama-Pelosi-Reid “stimulus” package will cost taxpayers $787 billion. That vote may cost the Pennsylvania Republican his job.

“I am very likely to make a run for the Senate,” says Pat Toomey, a former Keystone State congressman and free-market stalwart. “Specter’s vote was a profound betrayal of the Republican Party and conservative principles. It’s a big factor” behind Toomey’s potential challenge to Specter in 2010’s Republican Senate primary.

Ben Cunningham:

Rasmussen:

Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans say it is fair to require a vote by secret ballot if workers want to form a union. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 18% say it is not fair to require a secret ballot.

At the same time, most Americans (57%) believe it is at least somewhat difficult for workers to form a union. Just 19% say it is not difficult to form a union.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Republicans believe it is fair to require a secret ballot along with 54% of Democrats and 62% of those not affiliated with either major party.

But, 70% of Democrats believe it is difficult for employees to create a union. Forty-three percent (43%) of Republicans share that view along with 54% of unaffiliated voters.

Good?  Bad?

JCCC:

JCCC RECEIVES FUNDS FROM SPENDING BILL

Johnson County Community College received $713,625 toward a Center for Sustainability from an earmark secured by Sen. Sam Brownback as part of the FY2009 omnibus appropriations bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 11. (more…)

From INMED:

FIGHTING THE DISEASES OF POVERTY

Today, the startling fact is that the diseases of poverty remain the leading causes of death in poorer nations. Wealthier nations on our planet enjoy life expectancies into the 80′s and child mortality is significantly less than 1 percent. By stark contrast, life expectancy for Africa as a whole is only 51. In some nations the average person only lives to the youthful age of 41, with 25 percent of children dying before age five. This should not be so!  Read the Full Article

INTERESTED IN GOING DEEPER IN INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE?

CONSIDER ATTENDING THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE INTENSIVE COURSE
JUNE 1-12, 2009

This June, INMED is offering a new, low-cost International Medicine Intensive Course. This two-week Course will bring together 25 experts to equip health care professionals and students for serving in developing nations. The two-week course is designed to give health care professionals and students the academic fundamentals of the field. Participants who successfully complete the course of study and who pass the final examination will receive the INMED International Medicine Academic Certificate.  Learn More.

For questions or to learn more about INMED, please feel free to contact us by email at office@inmed.us or by phone at 816-835-1899.

INMED Email: office@inmed.us
Phone: 816-835-1899
Web: http://inmed.us

WOLVES IN SHEEPS’ CLOTHING

Did you know that 80% of all financial advisors are sales representatives who are paid commissions to sell investment and insurance products.  Searcy Financial Services, Inc. is a fee-based wealth management firm, which means you will not have to “guess” at whether we are putting your interests ahead of our own.  If you interested in working with an advisor who is held to the highest ethical standards in the financial services industry, please call 913.814.3800 or visit our website www.SearcyFinancial.com

QUICK LINKS

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE INTENSIVE COURSE

INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE BOOK & ONLINE COURSE

HIV LEADERSHIP ONLINE COURSE

INMED VIDEOS

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STUDENT BLOGS

INMED FEEDBACK

INMED ROLE MODEL
LANI ACKERMAN

This remarkable physician began her career determined to serve people who were most unreached. She honed her skills as a family medicine resident at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas and during a 6-month assignment at Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. In the process, she also married and started a family; but Lani never forgot her first commitment. The Ackermans went on to serve 8 years in the nations of Nepal and Bhutam, just north of India. She taught family medicine in a national university, served in mission hospitals and orphanages in the Himalayas, and created a community project that advanced agriculture and animal husbandry.

Lani will be presenting at the
2009 Exploring Medical Missions Conference.  Register today and reserve your spot at the conference, May 29-30, in Kansas City, MO.

TRAVEL TIP

When traveling to another country, take copies of your passport, visa, appropriate vaccination records and drivers license.  In the case your passport is lost or stolen, you may need to present these documents to the local police authorities and the Consular Section of the nearest US Embassy or Consulate.

Rasmussen:

Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans agree with President Obama’s proposal to require all schools nationwide to follow the same standards for curriculum and grading.

Thirty-five percent (35%) oppose the president’s plan, and 21% are not sure which is best in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Sixty-five percent (65%) favor merit pay, saying excellent teachers should be rewarded with extra money. Twenty-two percent (22%) disagree, and 13% are not sure.

Manhattan Institute:

Amid their smorgasbord of new congressional spending, Democrats have decided to make a highly telling cut in the $410 billion spending bill that the House passed last week: a popular and successful school-choice program in Washington, D.C. To add insult to injury, the initiative costs taxpayers just $18 million a year, which amounts to little more than a rounding error in the bill. Now the Senate has a last chance to save school choice for students in D.C. while advancing the broader cause of education reform.

Texas Public Policy Foundation:

Policy decisions impacting energy sources must support basic reliability, affordability, and supply necessary for electric generation. Too oft en, the inexorable rate and scale of growth in energy demand is not fully reflected in new energy policies. Environmental policy should enhance—but cannot supplant—the fundamental dynamics of securely available, cost-efficient energy. Without coal in the energy mix, sufficient electric generation to meet future Texas, national, and global demand is doubtful. Although frequently maligned as a source of air pollution and green house gasses, coal remains fundamental to current and future electric generation in the U.S. and Texas. In the U.S., and particularly in Texas, advanced emission control technologies have dramatically reduced major environmental impacts from coal-fired generation. A new generation of technologies under development herald a second generation of even cleaner coal power.

Reuters:

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scientists have developed a polyurethane coating that heals its own scratches when exposed to sunlight, offering the promise of scratch-free cars and other products, researchers said on Thursday.

“We developed a polymeric material that is able to repair itself by exposure to the sun,” said Marek Urban of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, whose study appears in the journal Science.

“In essence, you create a scratch and that scratch will disappear upon exposure to the sun,” Urban said in an interview on the Science website.

Reuters:

Networking and blogging sites account for almost ten percent of time spent on the internet — more than on email.

Time on the sites ranked fourth, after online searching, general interest sites, and software sites, according to a study released by Nielsen Online.

“While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing,” said John Burbank, the CEO of Nielsen Online.

One in every 11 minutes spent online globally is on networking sites. Between December 2007 and December 2008, the time spent on the sites climbed 63 percent to 45 billion minutes.

Oregon Live:

Among school-age children, one of every eight students qualifies for special education. Learning disabilities are the leading cause, with about 28,000 Oregon students in that category, the report said.

The fastest-growing group of special education students are those labeled “other health impaired,” a catch-all for students who have “limited strength, vitality or alertness” in class because of a chronic or acute health problem. Most of them have attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

UK Telegraph:

Kretschmer, 17, murdered nine of his former schoolmates, eight of them girls, as well as three female teachers at the Albertville school in Winnenden, near Stuttgart. Seven other pupils who survived being shot were all girls.

Detectives are working on the theory that Kretschmer, described as a shy loner who had never had a girlfriend, may have been motivated by a grudge against girls, possibly after being snubbed by female classmates at the school, which he left last year.

Computer World:

March 13, 2009 (Computerworld) Zappos.com Inc. credits its novel Web 2.0-based sales philosophy for much of its significant sales growth — and continuing profitability — during the current hard times.

The online shoe and clothing store doesn’t spend massive sums creating and implementing online or offline marketing and advertising campaigns, yet it still generates significant buzz among its current and potential customers.

How? Mostly through its heavy use of Twitter Inc.‘s eponymous social network and, to a lesser extent, its use of tools from Web 2.0 providers like Facebook Inc.

Computer World:

March 12, 2009 (Network World) First appearing in 1995, the “wiki” approach to creating interactive and collaborative Web pages quickly became the star format for social networks, but too often business also-rans. Part of the problem comes from top-down managers uncomfortable with underlings making changes without authorization, and from stories of update wars on the most famous wiki, Wikipedia, the encyclopedia written by users. But successful corporate wikis abound, including SamePage from eTouch Systems.

Wiki is the Hawaiian word for fast, and wiki wiki is nonsensical, like saying “fast fast” or “run run.” The word sounds cute and friendly, another strike against the technology being accepted in the board room.

Computer World:

March 12, 2009 (IDG News Service) Governments looking to silence critics and stymie opposition have added distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to their censoring methods, according to a security expert speaking at the Source Boston Security Showcase.

As the use of DDoS for political gains increases, expect the Internet to become more militarized, said Jose Nazario, senior security researcher at Arbor Networks Inc., in an address on Wednesday.

“I don’t think anyone is going to die because of these attacks, or a phone won’t work, but it is early,” he said, noting that other weapons have evolved from less-harmful initial forms.

Computer World:

The warning was shockingly clear: Upgrade now or “you will no longer be able to access … [d]ownloads of your bank, credit card, credit union, or investment account transactions.”

I had just received this message within Quicken 2006. It came in a pop-up alert box from Intuit, and it gave me a deadline. The download feature would be shut off for all users of Quicken 2006 as of April 30th. But I could avoid this fate by upgrading to Quicken 2009. “Buy now.”

The ability to download bank statements directly into Quicken to balance accounts is a core function of the product. For me, Quicken is pretty much worthless without it. They had me by the you-know-what. For me, the warning amounted to an ultimatum: Upgrade — or else.

The problem was, I’m trying to save money right now, and I didn’t see much value in the upgrade. I use Quicken like most people use a microwave.

Reuters:

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German mathematician who died 450 years ago has been sent a letter demanding that he pay long-overdue television license fees, residents at his former address said on Wednesday.

Germany’s GEZ broadcast fee collection office sent the bill to the last home address of Adam Ries, an algebra expert who bought the house in 1525. A club in his honor was set up at the property four centuries later.

“We received a letter saying ‘To Mr Adam Ries’ on it, with the request to pay his television and radio fees,” said Annegret Muench, who now heads the club.

The AP:

Charles L. Clemens Jr., 61, of Overland Park is charged with bigamy and other felonies, according to authorities.

Officials say police were called to the complex in November when the second wife went to first wife’s apartment to confront Clemens and found out he was married to someone else.