Paned Emits

Let's take a walk down memory lane. Freshman year. Health class.

I was but a small, sickly girl and somehow the subject of massive flu epidemics was raised. A friend of mine and I decided it would be hilarious to predict how we were to die. We predicted I would die of a massive flue pandemic in the year 2010 and that he would die in the year 2012 for reasons I don't remember.

Let's fast forward three and a half years.

OH MY GOD, IT'S HAPPENING.

Maybe.

They're saying that over 150 people have died in Mexico... which sounds doubleplusungood to me. Except that no one outside of Mexico has died... and I don't quite understand why. Either way, they're pulling out the state of emergency stuff right and left and then telling people not to panic... which makes me turn my head in an inquisitive way. Mexico itself has pretty much shut down, it's ridiculous to read some of the reports coming out of there about the streets of Mexico City being empty. Which is only a little impressive until you realize that Mexico City is the second largest metropolitan area IN THE WORLD.

So yes, I'm quite interested to see how this all pans out. If any of you are interested, below is a copy of my Riddley Walker story which has a subject matter closely related to current events (which is totally coincidental... has nothing to do with the fact I wrote it this morning...)..

1.Mr. See De See wer every 1s Pot of Carry. Ben ther a chyld coffin or a woman done vomitit Mr. See De See myt wud go with a pot. That for them a rum for him. He done al right and the worl lookit him with re spekt. He make the sic wel and it ben a good sistem.
2.1 day Mr. See De See done seen 2 siclins in 1 day. He seen lots of siclins in lots of days but this wont no mal sicnes. This been a baddy that kylt folk. Sarz he callit and he tol the worl of it.
3.The worl was afeart wen he tol of Sarz but got careful for lots more kylt folk. Only acturely ther wer no lots more kylt folk. This got the worl mad at Mr. See De See, he done made them afeart for no raisen.
4.The worl said to Mr. See De See, 'You get moren a nuff a rum dont make us afeart for no raisen or well not give you no more.'
5.Mr. See De See wernt afeart of the worl. The worl and Mr. See De See had a good biz and no1 wud mes with him.
6.Then ther been a bloke he come to Mr. See De See with big Trubba. He and his woman and babbys al sic. His naminals been sic as wel. His nay boars been sic as wel. Every form he been a familyer of been sic.
7.Mr. See De See seeit this as big Trubba and he quick telt the worl. The worl worket quik and made pre pear rations for the A V In Flew paned emit. Lot of folks wer starvling and and freazing col from not wanting to go any wher for ther afeartnes of the A V In Flew. Hoal forms got kylt be cause no1 wud et ther naminals or crops.
8.This got the worl very mad. A V In Flew kylt les than col and starvling. The worl tol Mr. See De See, “Wer tired of your paned emits. You shunt mes with us like that. You been hy on power and a arum.” Stil folk went to Mr. See De See with ther sic folk.
9.The worl and Mr. See De See wer al right til al the babbys started turning sic. 1 day it was 3 then ther wer 9 then ther wer 27. Mr. See De See helpt some but givet some to Aunty
10.The folk yelt, “Our babbys! Why are you al cozy with Aunty now? Save our babbys! Tel the worl thers a paned emit!”
11.Mr. See De See sed “You dint want my help las time or the other 1. You yelt at me. Aunty and me got an under standment. She re spekts me and what I do for her.”
12.So the babbys of the worl kept goin to Aunty. Aunty likes babbys for she dint have none of her own. The worl was in morning and kept going smaler with out Mr. See De See to help. Thats why they been so weak wen Mr. Clevver got power.

No ovens for buns
My story is done

Heading to Australia tomorrow!

Yay! I'm taking off tomorrow! So like any good traveler, I'm checking up on the planes that I'll be traveling on!

Well... really just one. I've never been on a 747 and that is what I'll be taking from LAX to New Zealand (I think). The layout and other pictures seem nice enough, and my sister Courtney said the flight over there was nice enough, so I am hopeful! Below is an excpert from the wikipedia pages on 747-400s

Notable accidents and incidents

• On 23 July 1999, a man hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 61, a 747-400D airliner bound for New Chitose Airport near Sapporo, Hokkaidō from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). The man killed the pilot. Other crew members restrained him, and the airliner landed safely.^[18]
• On 31 October 2000, Singapore Airlines Flight 006, a 747-400 flying on a Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei route rammed into construction equipment while attempting to take off from a closed runway at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, caught fire and was destroyed, killing 79 passengers and three crew members. The accident prompted the airline to change the flight number of this route from 006 to 030 and to remove the "Tropical Megatop" livery on the accident aircraft's sister ship.^[19]
• On 31 January 2001, Japan Airlines Flight 907, a 747-400D bound for Naha International Airport from Tokyo International Airport, nearly collided with another Japan Airlines aircraft. The 747 pilot suddenly dived and narrowly avoided the oncoming DC-10. See 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident.^[20]
• On 12 March 2003, Singapore Airlines Flight SQ286, a 747-400 departing Auckland, New Zealand for Singapore suffered a serious tailstrike on take-off causing major damage to the tail section of the aircraft. The airplane returned safely with no fatalities reported.^[21]
• On 25 July 2008, Qantas Flight 30, a 747-400 bound for Melbourne Airport from Hong Kong International Airport, made an emergency landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines with a gaping hole in its lower fuselage forward of the starboard wing; the aircraft lost a fairing. No one was hurt.^[22][23] After ruling out terrorism, authorities focused on the possibility of an exploding oxygen bottle from the emergency oxygen supply system.^[24] This theory was confirmed as the cause in an interim report issued by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.^[25]

Far from finding all of this frightening, I think it it rather encouraging that all of the accidents were from something other than a major intrinsic design flaw. Yay!

Really?

"Really?" was all I could say when I read this story from Yahoo. It is quite possibly the most upsetting thing I've read all year. No joke. And here is why:

They joked about the Russian misspelling of "reset" on the button before sitting down at an oval table with aides. "We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" Clinton asked. "You got it wrong," said Lavrov, telling her "Peregruzka" meant "overcharge."

How do you screw that up? Does the State Department really have NO ONE fluent in Russian? On the flip side, it appears my services may be in high demand for the future...

ACHOO!

So the one good thing about being under the weather is that I get a chance to sit down, relax with a box of Kleenexes and read the newspaper.

This article in particular I found to be interesting.

And now I would like to juxtapose (a word I have never used before) that article with an excerpt from an article on the American Heart Association's website (source):

In February 2007, two new bills were introduced in Congress designed to give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products: HR-1108, sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA), and S 625, sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Cornyn (R-TX). The American Heart Association and several other health organizations support this new legislation.

Yes, putting more responsibility on the back of the FDA sounds like an excellent idea now, doesn't it? There are many, many, MANY things terribly wrong with this bill, but when we have peanut butter and syringes killing people, things that are 1) under the watchful eye of the FDA and 2) specifically NOT supposed to kill you, do we really need to have the FDA "protect" us from something that EVERYONE knows is bad for you?

I would like to think my father for the tip off about the article.

0_0

So... this article caught my eye today and it has me worried.

And it isn't really the story itself that has me worried. It's what the author has to say at the end about college professors in general. If it is true then gods help us, but I'm kind of counting on it not being so- at least where I'm going. I shudder to think what would have happened to this woman had she tried to teach like that at charter...

Egy nyelv sosem elég!

So, after a rather depressing Saturday (just hop on over to espn.com if you want to know why, hockey, football, any of the articles will do... or if you prefer, google Bev Purdue, it's enough to make a grown man cry.), I decided that a little blogging was just the thing to cheer me up!

I came across this rather interesting article today.

Basically, Eric Crafton of the Nashville's Metropolitan council has introduced a measure to make English the official language of Nashville, effectively barring the government in Nashville from using any other language.

This I find to be a bit needless and silly. I can't imagine a situation where a politician would go around speaking a language no one else could understand just for kicks. They (yes, I am using the third person plural as a gender neutral singular pronoun!!) need votes to keep their jobs, so why would they use Spanish or Afrikaans if their constituents or clients don't speak it? He does mention that he "happened to see a state legislature meeting in California where several of the state representatives had interpreters at their desk because they couldn’t speak English" and I must admit I'm a bit skeptical of this claim. It just doesn't make sense that someone who wishes to become a part of American Society and the political process would fail to learn English. It's pretty useful in case you haven't noticed. Also, I've have found no evidence to support his claim elsewhere on the internet. If it isn't on the internet it must be false, right?

My point is that we aren't danger of having the North Carolina State Legislature (yes, I know Nashville is in Tennessee, I'm just using North Carolina as an example) conduct their proceedings entirely in Malay. Though, now that I think of it, it would be an excellent way for the government to dupe the masses... not that the masses are paying much attention anyways... sigh...

But since I don't think this post is long enough yet, let's assume for a moment that it is true. California has some legislators that neither speak nor understand English satisfactorily. So what? Yes, it may be a bit cumbersome, there are plenty of other countries that deal with multilingualism just fine. Let the representatives pay for their own translators if they must, and get over it.

I also wonder if Mr. Crafton considers American Sign Language to be English or not...

And now for your viewing pleasure:



In case any of you were wondering, he isn't actually speaking Hungarian... it's just gibberish.

A légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal!!!