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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 26, 2011 6:57:53 GMT -5
us.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/coffee.gif [/img]Good morning my friends from Tuxy and me Today is the 207th day of 2011 with 158 days left in the year. 8-)Today in central New York at 6:53 a.m. it's mostly cloudy www.msnbc.msn.com/images/msnbc/wea/36/27.gif [/img], temp 64ºF (feels like 64ºF), winds SW @ 6 mph, humidity 87% and pressure 29.78 in and rising. Today - Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms, high 83ºF. winds W @ 10-20 mph, chance of rain 30%. Still warm and muggy today but not HOT. Today's Headlines of Interest. 1. Postal Service targets 3,600 offices for closure. Postmaster to release list, propose shifting some functions to local stores that could replace some or all postal services by selling stamps and accepting packages under a so-called new "village post office concept." The Service is also pushing to eliminate costly Saturday delivery. Seems like a reasonable plan to me. 2. Norway attacks focus attention on US right-wing extremists. Anti-Islamic rhetoric from American groups cited in gunman's 1,500 page manifesto. The bomb attack and shooting spree that killed 76 people in Norway is refocusing attention on the threat from right-wing terrorist attacks in the US, inspired by anti-Islamic rhetoric. God forbid that a similar attack occur here. We've had enough problems from these crazies. a. Unsettling wariness in Norway, where cops are rarely armed. 'Criminals are now carrying weapons, so some people now think that police officers should have weapons as well'. By law, Norwegian police officers must have authorization from their chief to gain access to a firearm, but they have rarely needed to ask, until recently. Violent crime has been steadily increasing, jolting a society used to leaving doors unlocked and children to play without fear. Coupled with growing criticism over the police’s slow response time to the attacks and confusion about the death toll, which was lowered Monday to 76 from 93, there are growing questions about whether the police are equipped to deal with the challenges. 3. Winehouse's phone was hacked, reporter claims. Ex- Sunday Mail writer, Charles Lavery, says papers accessed her phone to find out when she'd be at rehab so they could have photographers camped out. So add the late singer to the list of UK celebs who were phone hacked. And I wonder how badly this constant presence of reporters/photographers contributed to her final end? 4. Antibiotics beat cranberries in battle against bladder infections. But berry has a major upside against UTIs--fewer side effects and no pesky drug resistance. For those women concerned about drug-resistant bacteria, the use of cranberry for the prevention of urinary tract infections may be the best approach, Dr. Marielle A.J. Beerepoot and her colleagues concluded in a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 5. Storm batters Philippines, 10 people dead, 5 missing. Ten people died and five fisherman were mssing in the central Philippines as storm Nock-Ten battered the main island of Luzon, suspending schools and grounding domestic flights and ferries, local officials said. OK, it's the start to the tropical storm season here and in Southeast Asia. So far our area has been quiet and let's hope it stays that way. a. Heat gives way to storms along East Coast. Airports see delays, some flooding, lightning in Washington, DC with rains drenching parts of Corn Belt, more to come this week. Now there's some good weather news. Today's Flower: Longiflorum asiatic lily Lilium 'Royal Sunset' Have a terrific Tuesday, my friends.
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Post by a on Jul 26, 2011 7:25:30 GMT -5
Good morning Peg and Tuxy!
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Post by susala on Jul 26, 2011 8:04:17 GMT -5
Hi Peg, I've always had a pretty good relationship with the post office and I used it quite a lot when I was selling books on eBay. I did once mail a bunch of library books to a vacation spot so that I didn't have to carry them on the plain. They got lost and it cost me a fortune to replace them but that was as much my error as theirs. It wasn't packed well enough.
I don't mind losing Saturday mail delivery and I don't know too much about rural delivery. II says it won't be that much of an issue.
Norway has lost it's innocence. I had no idea that most of their police didn't carry guns. So many things will change for them just as they changed for us after Oklahoma City. They'll have guards and guns and metal detectors and the like. It's so sad.
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Post by a on Jul 26, 2011 8:08:13 GMT -5
I had mail delivered Mon., Wed. and Fri. when I lived out of town. Didn't bother me. If someone wants mail every day, they'd get a PO box.
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Post by susala on Jul 26, 2011 8:14:30 GMT -5
Who needs mail every day, anyway? I only open mine about once a month.
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Post by a on Jul 26, 2011 8:40:35 GMT -5
It was a business concern at the time. With the advent of Internet ordering, I don't think it's that crucial anymore.
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Post by a on Jul 27, 2011 7:52:03 GMT -5
Good morning Peg and Tuxy!
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 7:54:44 GMT -5
Considering the amount of unasked for catalogs of goods and services I get in my mail box, I'd say the commercial aspects are alive and well. The difference is in the first class mail - we don't writer letters or send cards, etc. any more.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 7:55:17 GMT -5
Good morning my friends from Tuxy and me Today is the 208th day of 2011 with 157 days left in the year. 8-)Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:26 a.m. it's mostly cloudy , temp 64ºF (feels like 64ºF), winds W @ 5 mph, humidity 80% and pressure 29.92 in and rising. Today - mostly sunny , high 84ºF. winds NW @ 5-10 mph, chance of rain 0%. Another typical summer day, which is pretty nice.. Today's Headlines of Interest. 1. Casey Anthony judge blasts media, holds back juror names. The names of jurors in the Casey Anthony trial will remain secret until at least Oct 25th to allow those enraged by her acquittal to "compose and restrain themselves," according to the judge's order. Judge Belvin Perry acknowledged that the names must be disclosed eventually. He also took the opportunity to chastised our modern-day media. He lamented what he said was the blurring of lines between news and entertainment, saying court proceedings have become just another form of mindless entertainment and a revenue source for broadcast networks. "It was reported that television ratings for the trial were extraordinary. Clearly, the broadcast ... devolved into cheap, soap-opera-like entertainment," he wrote. He is advocating a new law to keep juror names secret in "specific, rare cases" both to protect jurors constitutional right to privacy and to prevent potential jurors from avoiding service. I glad that there is still a sane voice in this case. It certainly isn't in the American media. 2. Report: Rural Americans face greater lack of healthcare access. Rural Americans are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions (diabetes, heart disease, cancer) and face greater difficulty accessing quality healthcare than urbanites. So what else is new. This has been a problem for decades. 3. Can You Believe This?: North Korea demands peace treaty with US. North Korea demanded that the US sign a peace treaty formally endng the Korean War, saying that a treaty could go a long way toward resolving a deadlock over Pyongyang's pusuit of nuclear weaons. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge I'd love to sell you. 4. In the Who Cares Department: Crystal Harris gets candid about split with Hugh Hefner. I can't believe that this is a news item for today. Why in the world should anyone care about the relationship between this blonde bimbo and the octogenarian playboy Hugh Hefner? 5. Riot in south China after deathof fruit vendor. Angry residetns in a southern Chinese city went on a rampage after oficials apparently beat to death a disabled fruit vendor, in the latest incident of social unrest in the world's 2nd-largest economy and the largest dictatorship. The riot was sparked after urban management officers (a quasi-police force that enforces laws against begging and other petty offenses) were suspected of beating the vendor to death. China's stabililty-obsessed rulers get nervous about any sort of protest or unrest. "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." Today's Flower: Gloriosa superba 'Rothschildiana' Have a great Wednesday everyone.
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Post by susala on Jul 27, 2011 9:28:46 GMT -5
That's a great kitty picture, Peg! The civil unrest in Tunisia was caused by the death of a fruit vendor, too, although, I believe that he set himself on fire in protest after being arrested. It doesn't sound as if "fruit vendor" iss a very safe profession.
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Post by susala on Jul 27, 2011 13:59:13 GMT -5
The Postal Service is talking about closing the only post office that is located in a building that Ben Franklin once owned in Philadelphia.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 20:23:14 GMT -5
Walter Reed Army Medical Center: "A healing place' for all the warrior. to be closed. In a cost cutting move, Walter Reed will close its doors for good. The hospital has treated many of the country's wounded soldiers, including 18,000 wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a bittersweet "easing of the colors" ceremony, Army officers packed up their unit flags, never to be flown again over the hospital. For more than 100 years, from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan, Walter Reed provided medical cares for hundreds of thousands of US military wounded. Dedicated in 1909, it was named for Maj. Walter Reed, who discovered that mosquitoes were the source of yellow fever that plagued American military forces in Cuba after the Spanish-American War. Reed himself died of an infection from appendicitis seven years before the hospital was built. The remaining 150 of the most seriously wounded patients will be transferred in August to a new expanded facility at the Bethesda Naval Hospital to be named the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.The 113-acre Walter Reed campus is prime real estate. The city will claim most of it for commercial development and housing. The State Department will take over the rest to provide offices and housing for visiting diplomats. And so closes another historical memory of our country. I wonder if there will be at least a plaque somewhere commemorating the place.
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hawkeyefan
Mild Gabber
Go Hawkeyes!!!%%Gray Stone%%
Posts: 339
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Post by hawkeyefan on Jul 27, 2011 20:39:01 GMT -5
I heard that tonight, Peg!! It breaks my heart that they are closing Walter Reed after a century of providing services to the injured soldiers!!
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Post by susala on Jul 27, 2011 20:55:32 GMT -5
I hope they save the original building and repurpose it. We seem to destroy our history in this country faster than we make it.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 28, 2011 0:06:59 GMT -5
That's why I belong to the National Trust for Historic Preservation
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Post by Forever Sunshine on Jul 28, 2011 0:09:35 GMT -5
The Postal Service is talking about closing the only post office that is located in a building that Ben Franklin once owned in Philadelphia. I heard on the news tonight they're doing a study about closing some 3700 offices across the country. Almost 50 in my state alone. Some I can understand. They're in towns here that have less that a couple hundred people.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 28, 2011 0:09:37 GMT -5
It's time I was in bed. So good night everyone.
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Post by a on Jul 28, 2011 7:09:43 GMT -5
Good morning Peg and Tuxy!
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 28, 2011 10:16:36 GMT -5
us.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/coffee.gif [/img]Good morning my friends from Tuxy and me Today is the 209th day of 2011 with 156 days left in the year. 8-)Today in NY's Finger Lakes at 7:26 a.m. it's mostly cloudy , temp 64ºF (feels like 64ºF), winds W @ 5 mph, humidity 80% and pressure 29.92 in and rising. Today - mostly sunny , high 84ºF. winds NW @ 5-10 mph, chance of rain 0%. Another typical summer day, which is pretty nice.. Today's Headlines of Interest. 1. Sink the space station? Not so fast. Now that the space shuttle is out of service, the Russians are in charge of getting people to and from the ISS, so when a Russian space official talks about sinking the station as early as 2020, that may sound ominous to some. In reality, it's not that big a deal. That's been the plan along, to take it out when it's obsolete. And they are looking into extending it until 2028 if its components are still in working order. By then, more stations should be in orbit, including space bases scheduled for launch in 2015 by private companies such as Bigelow Aerospace. 2. On the Hill: what's happened to the art of the deal? In the past, this would be the moment for late-night favors and veiled threats, for whispered messages from the party leaders: "I need you on this." This would be the point at which the Congressional bosses would have agreed to a concocted deal and then wrangle the votes for it with strong-arm tactics as old as the Capitol's marble. But not this time. The current debt-ceiling debate is occurring after a string of bitter elections has left Congress with few of the old characteristics that once made compromise impossible - fewer moderates, less trust and also less fear of leaders. Everyone appears to have lost the appetite for public favor trading and/or compromise. It's definitely a bumpy road ahead. 3. Somalis flee famine along 'roads of death'. Tens of thousands of Somalis, mostly women and children, are on the move, fleeing the worst famine in a generation in the Horn of Africa nation. They have endured two decades of civil war and two consecutive seasons of failed rains. Now after their livestock and crops have died, and with babies suffering from malnutrition and food prices skyrocketing, they have given up any pretense that they can survive on their own. But Hope of the world helping has also faded. Al-Shabb, the militia linked to al-Qaida that rules large areas of famine-stricken southern Somalia has barred relief agencies from delivering assistance. It denies that a famine is taking place and that thousands, mainly children, have died. The disaster here is total. And the people are left with no hope. 4. Furloughs: Federal workers often first to feel effect of a crisis. Federal employees commonly are among the first to feel the effects when federal agencies, for whatever reason, fall short on available spending money. Employees are told to stay home until further notice, although those deemed "excepted"/"emergency" continue working (without pay). Whether employees who were kept away from work are later paid for that time is decided in the budget process. Today's Flower: Asiatic lily Lilium 'Purple Reign' :)Have a terrific Thursday everyone.
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Post by a on Jul 29, 2011 6:58:49 GMT -5
Good morning Peg and Tuxy!
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