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28
Nov 13

To be thankful

I got to sleep in this morning. Woke up with my beautiful wife, who is wonderful in all things, and I am thankful for her company. I had the opportunity to sleep in, and I’m thankful for that. I made her breakfast, and we enjoyed just another taken-for-granted meal as a tiny part of the safest and most abundant food supply chain in the world. And I’m thankful for that.

She made dishes for our dinner. I helped a tiny bit, but she did the most of it. She made an apple pie, the proud daughter of a blue ribbon apple pie baker. I am thankful for delicious family recipes.

I am thankful for my family, which is wide and wonderful. I could not be with them today, but missing them makes you realize all the more how fortunate you are. This is a collage of a few of the important people in my little world.

I am thankful for great colleagues and talented students and a beautiful campus that make a terrific place to work. It is truly an amazing experience and I’m fortunate every day I get to be there.

I am thankful for the news, and all the incredible acts of journalism – big and small – that everyday goes into it. I am critical of it sometimes, because we live in an amazing part of the world where you can do that, and because it sometimes deserves it. I am proud of it because — having worked in that field, and now teaching young people how to work in that industry — I know how challenging and demanding it can be. I know how important it is to our society and I value its role. There’s no understating it. The hard work people in the news game is undervalued and essential. I’m thankful for all of it.

I am thankful for Allie, The Black Cat, who gives us a lot of entertainment and affection, and only demands your every waking moment that she wants, in return.

I am thankful for my view from here. I’m thankful that I got to ride today. It was 48 degrees, but I got in 27 miles. I had dead legs and a slow pace. Eventually my legs were so cold I wondered if I could keep turning them over. That is cold enough, thanks, but it was a great ride. I am thankful for that.

Because it gives me views like this one:

I am thankful for friends, a new one we had dinner with tonight, and a peaceful evening of fun. I am thankful for the dog that fell asleep next to me and the cat who refused to let me stand up and leave at the end of the night.

It was a fine night, which followed a fine day full of thankful things, big and small.

I am pleased to know that being thankful is to appreciate what you have and not long for what you want.

Happy Thanksgiving to you. I hope you have had a wonderful day.

Avoid the shade

Bright. Clear. Cold. Not so bad in the sun, but it was a different story in the shade.

So I tried to run in the sun, but of course all of our preferred routes have nice tree cover, which is a great idea for most of the year. Only tonight did I think of visiting the actual track.

Ah, well, freeze and learn.

The high was 45. We are diving toward 27. Like I said, cold. But I got views like this:

I ran 3.64 miles, and the cold made it hurt. It has been a long time since I’ve ran in a serious chill. It doesn’t feel any better now than when it did back then. But I ran. Someone who runs in cold weather needs to tell me how to dress appropriately.

Things to read …

Chart of the Week: A minute on the Internet:

Keeping up with what people do online is no easy task — just ask the researchers in our Internet Project. Nor is it much easier for those seeking ways to make money off online activities — they’re changing almost too fast to keep up with.

But the folks at Quartz, the business-news site from Atlantic Media, have given it a good shot. They pulled together data from Intel, investment bank GP Bullhound, and a Facebook-led consortium called Internet.org to create this neat summation of what happens in a minute on six of the Web’s biggest services

The numbers are staggering. And speaking of which, This Map Of Planes In The Air Right Now For Thanksgiving Will Blow Your Mind.

Gov. Robert Bentley says report that Medicaid expansion would create 30,000 jobs is ‘bogus’:

“Because the studies are all bogus,” Bentley said. “The jobs are already there. You’re not creating new jobs. You’re not creating new people by bringing this money in. You have the doctors are already there. The nurses are already there. You don’t produce a new doctor in a year. I went to school 24 years to become a doctor. You don’t produce these type people immediately.”

The governor said he did not dispute that expanding Medicaid, which states have the option of doing under the Affordable Care Act, would create some ancillary jobs.

“I’m not saying it couldn’t create some jobs,” Bentley said. “That’s not the reason we’re doing this though. That’s not the reason we’re making this decision. We’re making this decision philosophically.

“And we’re just going to have to see how this plays out. I personally think the entire Affordable Care Act is falling apart. The people of this country do not like it. The majority of the people of this country do not like it. And I’m not going to be a part of it.”

There’s a lot to unpack there.

Love stories like this one. Secret to a long marriage revealed; Birmingham couple in nursing home renews vows:

He was walking into the JC Penney in Jasper more than 72 years ago. She was walking out.

Wednesday at a nursing home in Birmingham where they both reside, Hercule, 95, and Kathleen Henslee, 89, renewed their wedding vows in a ceremony that brought tears to the eyes of family, friends and nursing home staff alike.

“Do you promise to love, honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, to be faithful, forsaking all others, for as long as you both may live?” asked the Rev. Herman Pair, pastor of Sandusky First Baptist Church, where the couple have been members since the 1950s.

I saw this young man in the background of a football game the other night. He has a remarkable story. Alexander in wheelchair, but UAB lets him work toward football dream:

Practice is for players and Timothy Alexander was not a player, not in his condition. But before he could dream to be upright again, he had a proposition for McGee: You let me live that dream and try to become that player.

“I just fell in love with the person,” McGee remembers. “Then he started talking to me about, ‘Man, the Lord is going to bless me. I’m going to be back on the field.’ I started saying, ‘You know, I believe that, too. I think you’re right.’ ”

So Alexander, seven years removed from his car wreck that paralyzed him, practices football. Each afternoon. It’s not the kind of practice any of them is used to. Alexander does push-ups during practice periods, does leg lifts in the weight room. He once benched 315 pounds.

McGee has given him a locker, his own jersey. This bio even says he’s playing football. All this because when the Lord decides to bring Timothy Alexander all the way to the field, he wants to be in shape.

That’s a great personification of the human spirit.

Auburn fans may be able to see this on Facebook, though for some reason they are having takedown orders on YouTube. Despite the left-hand, right-hand confusion this is a fairly intense video for the Iron Bowl this Saturday. We have reached saturation point. We don’t care. There is a video to see.

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24
Nov 13

Catching up

The post with leftover pictures! These things were homeless until now. They find a place to live, and I get an easy day’s worth of cheap content out of it. We all win! On with it, then.

Allie and her friend:

A few weeks ago I mentioned the proliferation of Ritz cracker varieties. Now I can prove it. There are at least 10 varieties here. Who knew there was such a demand?

If you’ve ever wondered, it comes in a gel, a foam and a spray:

You don’t see these much anymore. Naturally I saw it at Sam’s:

Moving a little heavy machinery from A to B:

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19
Nov 13

I walked into the end of this one, didn’t I?

Partly cloudy, cloudy, mostly cloudy, scattered clouds. All of that was in the weather analysis today. Also, a high of 59. The low tonight is predicted around 36. More of these were on the ground:

So autumn is over. Fall is here. I propose that we have two seasons. The autumn doesn’t last long, but our coldest season won’t typically show up until the end of December. We have to have something in between, right? So instead of just four seasons, I propose we have five.

This is funny because some would say we really only have three seasons. Or, maybe, even just two.

It is five. You read it here, on the Internet. It is true.

This is one of those things I’ve been hanging on to for several days. I may as well share it here. My colleague David Simpson takes it away:

Because I couldn’t get a projector to work at the National College Media Convention in New Orleans, I read aloud a passage in a “Free Your Writing Voice” session that I’ve sometimes just flashed on a screen. I had not prepared for a dramatic reading, so I was surprised at how powerful it sounded coming out of my mouth.

The audience seemed to like it, though it’s a long passage. So I encourage you to read it aloud.

[…]

I especially loved reading that long sentence. And the two-word emphatic ending.

Click on over to read the passage yourself. I suspect, if you like the art of writing, you’ll appreciate what you find there.

The funniest thing I did today:

Students just offered me a glowstick. Said "As a child of the Cold War I know not to touch glowing things." Radiation humor!

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) November 19, 2013

Yeah, it was one of those kind of days. My office is cold. The newsroom is colder. It might be warmer outside. The students are working on their paper and I’m grading things and working on projects and not touching glow sticks.

Things to read …

Tip pays off for Richmond student journalists:

The Collegian reporters started digging into the past of a law school student when they got a tip that he was a sex offender. Turns out he had served time in prison for aggravated sexual battery.

He had also been ordered to withdraw from the University of Virginia, according to the story Conklin and Arnett published earlier this month. At Richmond, he was the recipient of one of the law school’s most prestigious scholarships and a member of its Honor Council.

Interesting story — here is their reporting — that is continuing. The comments, as always, are insightful.

This is tough all the way around. She wrote the president, he used her tale as an anecdote. And then Washington’s health system found an error. Her rates increased. Then they found another error. Another hike. And now, Woman cited by President as Obamacare success story frustrated by sign up process:

The result was a higher quote, which Sanford said was for $390 per month for a “silver” plan with a higher deductible. Still too expensive.

A cheaper “bronze” plan, Sanford said, came in at $324 per month, but also with a high deductible – also not in her budget.

Then another letter from the state exchange with even worse news.

“Your household has been determined eligible for a Federal Tax Credit of $0.00 to help cover the cost of your monthly health insurance premium payments,” the latest letter said.

[…]

“This is it. I’m not getting insurance,” Sanford told CNN. “That’s where it stands right now unless they fix it.”

[…]

She is sorry Obama mentioned her during the October 21 speech.

“I feel awful about it. I support (the Affordable Care Act),” Sanford said.

But the messy rollout in the other Washington, the nation’s capital, was not far from her mind.

“What the hell? Why is it the same story as the federal government?” Sanford says in disgust with the Washington state exchange. “They didn’t have it ready.”

“They screwed up,” she added.

Comments on that story have been turned off, which is curious, but unsurprising.

The longest (and, in places, wrongest) infographic of your day. Commenters were helpfully pointing out errors here. That’s become its own industry at this point, hasn’t it, correcting the work of others in the comments below …

I await yours in 3 … 2 …

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18
Nov 13

I never have good titles for Mondays

Here are a few shots of leaves on campus this afternoon:

leaf turn

May they never complete their turn. Because you know they will, and that’ll just leave us sticks in the air, the great surrender of the trees to winter.

Fine day today. Lovely, sunny, weather. Béla Fleck played campus this evening. I talked about cover letters in class. There was the ritualistic grading of things and other typical office efforts. I had a baked potato for dinner. It was all grand in its own way.

Things to read … Smithsonian Now Allows Anyone To 3D Print (Some) Historic Artifacts:

The Smithsonian Institution may have hit on one of the best uses of 3D printing to date. Starting Wednesday, the world’s largest network of museums introduced Smithsonian X 3D, a new effort and web portal to create 3D renderings of its vast and fascinating collections of more than 137 million objects.

Amelia Earhart’s flight suit? Done! Wooly mammoth? You betcha! Abraham Lincoln’s lifemask? Creepy, but it can be yours.

We live in the future, and it is going to have awesome tidbits of the past everywhere.

And it will have, finally, maybe, self driving cars. Think of all the things you could get done on a long drive. Has the self-driving car at last arrived?:

His Lexus is what you might call a custom model. It’s surmounted by a spinning laser turret and knobbed with cameras, radar, antennas, and G.P.S. It looks a little like an ice-cream truck, lightly weaponized for inner-city work. Levandowski used to tell people that the car was designed to chase tornadoes or to track mosquitoes, or that he belonged to an élite team of ghost hunters. But nowadays the vehicle is clearly marked: “Self-Driving Car.”

[…]

Levandowski is an engineer at Google X, the company’s semi-secret lab for experimental technology.

Closer to home, Archaeologists finding clues to mining communities atop Red Mountain:

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Forschler-Tarrasch, who first thought the artifacts might be native Alabamian or Native American pottery. “We were surprised that most of the shards are English and American pottery. We identified one as a piece of German pottery. They are absolutely not from this area.

She speculated that either the workers brought them here, or they were purchased in company stores.

“Many of the shards have little marks on them,” she said. “You can date them based on the marks, and they mostly coincide with the dates of the settlement, so these were contemporary, household ceramics. Most of them are pretty average, but there are a few that are fancier, with some gilding that would have cost more. We have yet to determine what that means for the site.”

There’s just something about Red Mountain — the way the houses cling to the side, the way we’ve cut a road through it, its importance to the region’s development, the high quality ore they took out of there, something — that fascinates. This project, at less than 100 years old in places, is more cleaning up than archeology, but really quite cool.

Food stamp cuts in your state — an interactive infographic. The supporting NPR piece:

When you think of Oregon and food, you probably think organic chicken, kale chips and other signs of a strong local food movement. What probably doesn’t come to mind? Food stamps.

And yet, 21 percent of Oregon’s population – that’s one out of every five residents – relies on food stamps to get by.

Oregon has a host of unfortunate and challenging problems. And thanks for pointing out that 21 percent is one out of every five people. How else could I have figured that out?

Another fact that jumps out when looking at the map: While Republicans have led the call to slash the SNAP program in the House, many of the states whose residents are most reliant on food stamps are reliably Republican and located in the GOP’s Southern heartland. About 20 percent of the population in Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, and South Carolina, for instance, receive benefits from the federal food assistance program.

That part, I’m guessing, is where the regional debate in the comments comes from.

No debate here: full day, and so we’ll wrap it up here. Stop by Twitter. And come back here for more tomorrow.