http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx recent pleonast.com entries by user trx en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=612230 Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. 2008-12-23 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=611086 Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious / secular persuasion and /or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, color, creed, age, physical ability... 2008-12-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=611013 Read here. 2008-12-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=608425 2008-12-11 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=601832 God willing, we're going camping next week, as we have done almost every year for the last quarter century. Kelia has been the main planner and executrix of this do (it now is an event in Capital Letters), and has decided to let this be the last year. Her letter to participants from prior years in toto, but slightly rearranged: I am looking forward to seeing as many of y'all as can be with us for Thanksgiving next week at Double Lake, God willing! I look forward to this time with great fondness. The Double Lake Thanksgiving tradition was begun by Steve and Shirley Maurer in 1983 when Crystal was less than 2, Marla was 2 and Kennon was 5. From 3 families gathered around a campfire the tradition has swelled to many, many more families--sometimes more than 100 folks on Thanksgiving Day each year with 40 or 50 of us camping together. It's been a BLAST! What has made this time most special to me and my family is the time I've had with folks like YOU. If you have been able to be with u... 2008-11-21 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=601633 2008-11-21 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=600980 From an article in Computerworld: Google today said that it plans to archive as many as 10 million photos and digitized images from the Life magazine archives. Some of the images date back to the 1750s, and many have never been published. Google today announced that it will add the images from Life photographers to its Google Image Search pages. Only a small percentage of the images -- including newly digitized images from photos and etchings -- have even been published, Google said in a blog post. The rest have been "sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints," Google said. Read the rest of the article here. 2008-11-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=600235 2008-11-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=598314 2008-11-11 http://www.pleonast.com/user/trx?l=5&entryID=595080 This is a chart of the changes in the national debt under the various administrations since WW2. All the numbers are stated as percentages of GDP, which essentially normalizes the data to the present value of money and the strength of the economy, and makes year vs year comparisons meaningful. I get a bit irritated when people say things like "the debt is higher than it ever has been" - that statement, taken baldly, is essentially meaningless. As the country grows, and as the size of the economy grows, the debt can grow without impacting the economy. A disturbing and frustrating pattern appears when you highlight the Republican administrations in the last 35 years. 2008-11-04