Li: ritual, propriety, etiquette. Hsiao: love within the family (parents for children and children for parents. Yi: righteousness--the noblest way to act in a situation. Xin: honesty and trustworthiness. Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others. Chung: loyalty to the state and authority. --Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

All articles appear in reverse chronological order [newest first].

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I believe the past is relevant, sometimes more than others of course. In most cases we are seeing history being repeated, so it is most relevant.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

People & Pets: Cheetahs

If you’ve never seen a Cheetah run live and in person you should visit the Cincinnati Zoo to see their daily exhibit. It is awesome.  What you can’t realize, even in slow motion, when watching a video or on TV is how much ground they cover in one stride.  They just appear to be running fast, which they are, but they are covering so much distance with each stride and they are so big that TV and video can’t convey the real picture.

See pictures from our 2007 trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.
Indianapolis is supposed to be getting a Cheetah exhibit soon, let’s hope it lives up to the Cincinnati exhibit.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Dogs, you gotta love em….

cofABaker (3) cofABaker

…Cats on the other hand…

abaker (5) abaker

…and then there’s always that one…

cofABaker (4)

cofABaker (2) courtesy of A. Baker

Monday, February 16, 2015

In The Wild:

abaker (2)

abaker (4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

abaker (8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  courtesy A. Baker

Friday, February 13, 2015

Drug testing of welfare applicants yields few positives

Six months after the rollout of a controversial law to drug-test people applying for public benefits, only a small fraction of low-income Tennesseans seeking financial assistance have tested positive for illegal drugs.

welfareThirty-seven of 16,017 applicants for the Families First cash assistance program between July and December tested positive for illegal substances, according to the Department of Human Services.

Such an infinitesimal rate of drug use among welfare applicants contrasts sharply with the state’s overall 8 percent rate of drug use. Across the country, states that implement drug tests for low-income families have found that economically vulnerable people are less likely than the general population to use drugs. Utah spent $30,000 on tests that caught just 12 drug users, for a positive rate of 0.2 percent of total benefits recipients, compared to 6 percent of all state residents who use drugs. Before a judge ruled Florida’s drug testing system was illegal, it had turned up a drug use rate of just 2 percent among public assistance users, compared to 8 percent of its total population.

GlennDL

Related Articles:

Who Will Control Your Facebook When You Die?

image

from “Ring Of Fire Website”

A problem that has plagued the social media giant has finally been solved. Sort of.

For over a decade now, users have been growing their networks with status updates, pictures, and messages with their friends. What happens to all that data when you die? There hasn’t been a good answer, until now.

Facebook has now started giving users the option to assign someone as their “legacy contact” to help manage their page after they have passed. Prior to the legacy contact option, Facebook would simply freeze an account when it learned the user behind it had deceased. This would place the accounts in a form of stasis that proved frustrating to loved ones left to try and make some sense of the locked account.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

We firmly believe that all means ALL.

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from the Christian Left website:

The Christian Left rejects exclusivity. We believe that John the Baptist wasn’t kidding when he proclaimed the coming of Jesus saying, “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” We firmly believe that all means ALL. The exclusionary gospel of the Christian Right is foreign to us. We do not recognize it. Jesus came to set the captives free and announce the arrival of the peaceable kingdom of God where ALL are welcomed. Like a member of The Christian Left (Shannon Maynard) has said, one of our favorite words in the Bible is “whosoever.”
The exclusionary tactics and demonization that is so frequently practiced by the Christian Right is not of the Jesus we follow. John the Baptist said, “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” The tree that is the Christian Right all too frequently bears fruit of anger, hate and judgment. It produces some strange fruit. “The same strange fruit that white supremacists hung from the trees in the South. The same strange fruit that the Nazis baked in the ovens of Auschwitz. The same strange fruit that was diced and sliced with machetes in Rwanda. The same strange fruit that is left to rot to death in Africa because the cost of a cure may undercut someone’s bottom line. The same strange fruit that is pounded to death daily with rocks and bombs in the

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Dear Dogs and Cats:

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.

Dear Dogs and Cats:  The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food.  The other dishes are mine and contain my food..  Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack.  Racing me to the bottom is not the object.  Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

from gary (3)I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed.  I am very sorry about this.  Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however.  Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep.  It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible.  I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

 


fromkelly (8)
For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door.  I must exit through the same door I entered.  Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is:  Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt.  I cannot stress this enough.

courtesy of Kelly & Gary

Friday, February 6, 2015

TO ALL NON -PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:

  1. They live here.  You don't.   !cid_4_548114793@web62204_mail_re1_yahoo
  2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.  That's why they call it 'fur'-niture. 
  3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people. 
  4. To you, they are animals.  To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly.


Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:

  1. Eat less,
  2. Don't ask for money all the time,
  3. Are easier to train,
  4. Normally come when called,
  5. Never ask to drive the car,
  6. Don't hang out with drug-using people;
  7. Don't smoke or drink,
  8. Don't want to wear your clothes,
  9. Don't have to buy the latest fashions,
  10. Don't need a gazillion dollars for college and
  11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children ..

!cid_14_548114793@web62204_mail_re1_yahoo courtesy of Kelly McKinney & Gary Littrell

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Exposing The UPC Barcode Myth:

by Glenn Littrell

updated 2-1-2015: see also Decoding your produce: 

re-posted from 7-24-2010:image

Recently an article has surfaced in several locations stating that you can tell where an item was manufactured by examining the consumer UPC barcode on the package. This article is almost verbatim from a ‘spam’ email that has been circulated for some time now.

The ‘gist’ of the article/email is that by examining the barcode you can use the information to avoid purchasing items ‘Made In China’.

The problem with the article is the misplacing of the emphasis on China and the


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