respublica

The boys have arrived

Christian and Connor and their parents drove from DC to St. Louis today.  Out of the car and off they went. 

We took a quick walk around the campus, nothing escaped their notice.

Connor found that the metal plate covering the fountain pump sounded like a steel drum when he jumped on it.  Jumped over and over and over.

Opa decided to show the boys the renovations and heavy equipment.

Come on boys, climb up on the trackhoe.

Connor wasn't so sure about this while Christian and Opa pose readily.

How about following mom into the scoop?

Only one taker.  Oh, wait.  One more taker.

Christian!

Opa says, someone want to climb up to the cab with me?

Connor!

Who's watching Ferdie?

Christian!

Let's go to the bell.

While Opa tries to give the boys a history lesson on the 1883 bell, the boys, well..

Ferdie is just so much more interesting.

Bath time!

 

 

The most well read cities in America

According to Amazon which tallied all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format since January 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.

Not only did they compile data on book sales per city, but they took note of what kind of reading was done by buyers in those cities.

Cambridge is number one and selects a lot of non fiction.  Duh.  Harvard.

Alexandria Virginia is number 2 and gets a lot of children's books.

Boulder Colorado is into cooking, food and wine. 

I'd like to see what is most popular for the other cities, St. Louis is Number 20.

The entire list can be seen here.

When it comes to salami

St. Louis has the best including one place which rivals the best salamis in Europe.

How's that for a pat on the back.

The the best salamis are not from Volpi's, the most well known salami maker in St. Louis, but the honor goes to Salume Beddu.  This title comes from Forbes.

Salume Beddu is at 3647 Hampton if you're out that way and want to give it a try.

I am also partial to Oldani's Genoa Salami, so good.  Also made in St. Louis and located on Edwards.  It's hard to tell if you can just walk into Oldani's and buy their salami, but I do know  Spirito's Italian Grocery on Main Street in Collinsville sells it. 

Waste at the National Science Foundation

Senator Tom Coburn released a new oversight report on the National Science Foundation:  The report identifies more than $1.2 billion the National Science Foundation (NSF) has lost due to waste, fraud, duplication and mismanagement and an additional $1.7 billion in unspent funds.

Included are:

$80,000 study on why the same teams always dominate March Madness;

• $315,000 study suggesting playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain relationships;

• $1 million for an analysis of how quickly parents respond to trendy baby names;

• $50,000 to produce and publicize amateur songs about science, including a rap called “Money 4 Drugz,” and a misleading song titled “Biogas is a Gas, Gas, Gas”;

• $2 million to figure out that people who often post pictures on the internet from the same location at the same time are usually friends; and

• $581,000 on whether online dating site users are racist.

Also:

• Hundreds of millions of dollars lost to ineffective contracting;

• $1.7 billion in unspent funds sitting in expired, undisbursed grant accounts;

• At least $3 million in excessive travel funds

• A lack of accountability or program metrics to evaluate expenditures.

• Inappropriate staff behavior including porn surfing and Jello wrestling and skinny-dipping at NSF-operated facilities in Antarctica.

And more at the link.

Old wisdom?

There's an old belief that your foot is the same length as the distance between your elbow and your wrist.

Is it true for you?

For me, pretty darn close.

What was missed?

Between the weather the past couple of days, graduation, family coming to town, I've missed a lot in the news world.

Now, my internet is spotty, some pages load, others do not.  I'm guessing the cable line somewhere has a slit or squirrel bite and has let rain in which causes a bad signal. 

That's my thought and I'm sticking with it. 

I missed most of MSNBC's Ed Schultz calling Laura Ingraham a slut.  Seems he was suspended for a week.  Bleh.  Who watches that guy anyway?  The ironic thing is MSNBC's Morning Joe program was totally given over to women "knowing your value".  The panel made up mostly of women in politics or news chatted away about how hard it still is to be a woman in the workplace. 

No mention of their MSNBC fellow host Schultz' treatment of women. 

I guess as long as the woman is a conservative it's not worth noting.  MSNBC's Chris Matthews calls republican or conservative women horrible things on air.  That wasn't noted this morning either. 

Don't take the 5th in Oregon

An interesting bit of political trivia

Everyone who has ever held Oregon's 5th congressional district seat has gotten a divorce while in office.

Last week the news broke that the current representative form Oregon's 5th, Kurt Schrader, and his wife are divorcing.

Quite mindbogging. 

You get a waiver if

Union members which account for about 12 percent of all employees have received 50 percent of all the Obama care waivers.

As is asked more and more, "If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want to get out from under it?

Especially major supporters of Obama?

At last! A website to find news about Clayton

If you want up to date information on what's going on in Clayton, or Richmond Heights, check out the Clayton-Richmond Heights Patch.

You'll get current news on Board of Aldermen meetings, how often does that happen?  Never.

I enjoyed this evenings post on a minute by minute reporting on the Board of Aldermen meeting.  Oh no.  Dog park again. 

There are also items of interest you probably won't read or hear about anywhere else.

Would raise a genderless child?

After reading this the first thought that came to mind was whether this couple is the same couple who spent a year trying to avoid all waste and energy use.  They were famous for giving up even toilet paper.  You remember them.  How did they do?  Who knows.

Anyway a Toronto couple decided that their baby born on New Year's would be raised genderless.  They have given the child a non gender name (Storm) and have refused to tell anyone what the gender is.  Only Storm's 2 brothers, 1 close friend and 2 mid wives know. 

Looking at the photo of one brother kissing the baby, it seems obvious they have tried this before. 

Far be it for any of us to tell others how to raise their own child, it's hard enough raising our own, but this seems just plain hurtful.