Saturday, October 14, 2006

Tommorow, 10-15-06, Sunday

At 8:00PM and 9:00PM There are two shows that you will want to catch if you can. If not try to find them at a future date and time.

Ch 42 National Geographic Channel

8:00pm The Ultimate Earthquake
9:00pm The Ultimate Tsunami
Airplane Fuel...

Ron Thomas

Last night I watched a program on TV (I'm terible at names) where the owner of Virgin Airlines was interviewed and he had a cool suggestion that I think everyone should know. The topic was the amount of fuel burned before take off and after landing by our huge jet liners. He said 5000lbs of fuel is wasted doing these activities.

What he said next was the cool part. ...... Why not tow the taking off planes to the runway and the landing planes to their debarkation points? I know a little about jet engines and when they are turned on they ramp upto speed and are fully ready to go in a couple of minutes. The fuel savings would be tremendous and the pollution would also go down.

That translates into using less fuel in a significant amount for the world economy and for world wide pollution.

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'A lifetime is more than sufficiently long for people to get what there is of it wrong.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose.'"

Frost Time - New York Times

Frost Time - New York Times: "For the most part our animals don’t have many secrets from us. The reverse is probably true too, except for the one big secret we keep from the pigs. The horses and poultry are always in sight, and together we all belong to something that is larger than any one of us — the daily routine of this small farm."

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Lost city 'could rewrite history'

BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Lost city 'could rewrite history': "The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history."

Friday, October 13, 2006






Hi my name is Sabrina and I am looking for new digs. I love my current home and my mom has been very good to me but I am all grown up and need more space.

I am used to being around cats – they are fun to chase – I like kids and most adults are pretty cool too. I am 3 ½ years old and weigh 80 lbs. I graduated from doggy training school. I walk on a leash, and remember some but not all the commands.

I am looking for someone with lots of room for me to run and romp. Better yet, if you have the time you can take me on long daily runs. I have lots of love to give to that special someone. Call Sabrina at ___961-1991

Imperial History

Ron says: This link yields a changing map of the Middle East as it oscillates from one conqueering empire to the next.. Pretty interestig to watch.

Imperial History: "Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans...the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.

"

AP nation news - StatesmanJournal.com

AP nation news - StatesmanJournal.com: "Health Officials said Thursday that people can do two things to protect themselves and their pets from rabies. One is to is to make sure your cats and dogs are up to date on their rabies vaccines. The second is to avoid handling a bat if you happen to come across one."

Researchers: Gold Deposit Formed Quickly, Researchers Say Large Veins of Gold in Papua-New Guinea May Have Been Deposited Quickly - CBS News

Researchers: Gold Deposit Formed Quickly, Researchers Say Large Veins of Gold in Papua-New Guinea May Have Been Deposited Quickly - CBS News: "Researchers: Gold Deposit Formed Quickly
Researchers say large veins of gold in Papua-New Guinea may have been deposited quickly

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2006
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer
(AP) Large veins of gold in the Pacific island country of Papua-New Guinea may have been deposited in a relative blink of time, geologically speaking."

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.'"

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Editorials you may like to see.....


Why did you move to a retirement community?

What is attractive about living with other seniors?

Have your thoughts about it changed since you moved here?

What is your opinion of elder abuse? Would you be surprised to learn it is here in this park?

Do you know how many seriously ill folks live here? Do you care?

These questions make for good editorials and responses ... We may put our opinion down in the future. Would you like to post your thoughts on any of these subjects?

If so email them to me and I will get them posted here on the website.

Click here to email Ron

BBC NEWS | Technology | Air passengers 'could be tagged'

Ron says:"Whoa! George Orwell's "1984".. Scary!"

BBC NEWS | Technology | Air passengers 'could be tagged': "Air passengers 'could be tagged'
By Rebecca Morelle
BBC News

Tag (Paul Brennan)
The tag would track passengers' movements
Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said.

The prototype technology is to be tested at an airport in Hungary, and could, if successful, become a reality 'in two years'."

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tees | 'Ghost ships' scrapping rejected

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tees | 'Ghost ships' scrapping rejected: "Ghost ships' scrapping rejected
US ghost fleet
The first of four ships arrived on Teesside in November 2003
Controversial plans to scrap former US naval vessels at a Teesside yard have been thrown out by councillors.

Able UK, which had won a contract to dismantle up to 13 so-called ghost ships at its facility in Graythorp, Hartlepool, said it would appeal."
CHARLES BURKE UPDATE...

I spoke to Charles this morning at about 11:30. He is being moved to Newport Rehab this afternoon.

Charles said he is in constant pain but with a typical Charles qualifier, a short laugh and says he will survive. At Newport Rehab they will work on getting his strength back. They have told him that the nerve bundle in his back needed to be separated when they operated and that is the cause of his pain but they say it will go away with time. After they get him physically stronger at rehab they are going to operate on him again. Charles said that the Dr. that did this to him will not be allowed to touch him again. He is going with a new one. When Charles gets better I sure want to know that Dr.'s name... Don't you?

The only thing you can do now is pull for Charles.. Keep him in your thoughts and hope for the best. If you see Frida offer to help do things around the house so she keep focused on Charles.

I will let Charles get settled in at rehab and then visit him.

Frida if you need anything or help let us know we will put up anything on the website and get lots of help.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Charles Burke

From a message on my answering machine....

Charles called to say he was in the local hospital and asked that folks not send him eMail for the time being. He said he has many problems to deal with and was worried about trying to answer all the eMail he has been getting. Honoring his request we put this on the web page hoping you will respect his wish.

More Tennessee

October 6th we left Nashville and headed for Memphis. We made an unplanned side trip to the Battle of Shiloh, from the Civil War. It was a big battlefield and we drove all over seeing where the different soldiers stood and fought in those few days. Very moving.
We drove through Adamsville, home of Sheriff Buford Pusser (from Walking Tall).
The morning of October 7th we visited Graceland, home of Elvis. Being an Elvis fan this was very moving for me. We hadn't planned on it but drove all day, through Arkansas and Missouri, and made it to Branson.
We had a great room and saw several shows in the few days we were there. We had dinner at the Dixie Stampede (a Dolly Parton show), saw Paul Revere and the Raiders and then Bill Medley (the Righteous Bros.). Fun show. Next day we saw Shoji Tabuchi, a Japanese fiddler and comedian Jim Stafford that night. We haven't been out that much in 20 years.
We left Branson October 10th heading north. We were eating Breakfast in Springfield, Missouri and decided we were ready to head home so changed direction and drove all day to Council Bluffs, Iowa and spent the night.
Got up early on October 11th and headed through Omaha, Nebraska on through the rest of the state of Nebraska, into Wyoming. We are spending tonight in Caspar, Wyoming. We will head for Jackson tomorrow to visit our daughter and newest granddaughter for a few days before heading home a few days earlier than we planned. Can't wait.

Tennessee

Wayde and Barbara Dudley trip:
On October 3rd we took a trolley from our motel to Dollywood (Dolly Parton's theme park, for those of you who do not know). It was great. It is set in the Smoky Mountains and they have bluegrass music playing through the speakers. I can't ride most of the rides because of motion sickness but Wayde rode each one, including the roller coaster which is the biggest wooden roller coaster in America. We both rode the river rampage ride and got soaked. I walked around for several hours with wet pants. It was worth it. It was really fun. There were several local artists and craftsman, beautiful things to look at.
We went to the Apple Barn for supper that night. Fantastic food in an old farmhouse. We ended up buying several jars of apple butter.
October 4th we set out for Nashville. Nashville was big, noisy and had a lot of construction everywhere. We did go to a great supper that night at a restaurant called The Aquarium. Sitting opposite a 250,000 gallon tank filled with salt water and watching the fish made us feel right at home.
The next day I went to the Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's home. It has been kept in woderful condition with most of the furnishings original to the house, even the wallpaper!
We went downtown that afternoon and toured the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was 3 floors of wonderful exhibits and music. Wayde and I are country music fans so it was very nostalgic for us.
Have to admit, though, won't feel bad about leaving Nashville.

There is a problem t

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AT LVH


There is a problem that exists for Longview Hills Residents regarding timely notification in an emergency or in an information alert. We currently have a Block Captain Coordinator tasked with calling 36 Block Captains who in turn call up to 6 others on their lists. The last use of the system found our coordinator not even half way through her list after 45 minutes and the alert was cancelled at that point. Added to this last problem that several block captains were not available to receive the coordinator’s calls and you have a lot of people not getting informed. That may be all right for something like a water outage announcement but how does that work for us when we have a far tsunami inbound from Alaska and it is absolutely critical that everyone shelter in place and not go anywhere near low lying areas along 101? The CERT team has a plan that we would like to put in place and have regular drills on (maybe monthly at noon for instance). We think but do not know if it will work so we want to give it a try.


A proposed solution.....

The problem comes to the Neighborhood Watch Coordinator either from the Park manager or the CERT team. The CERT team will be notified via NOAA Emergency Radio or the county wide disaster Control. The Neighborhood Watch Coordinator calls the duty CH 5 (FRS Radio Broadcaster.. probably a CERT team member) The Broadcaster immediately starts broadcasting the warning on CH5 until told to stop. The coordinator initiates the calling to 5 block Captains evenly spaced through out the park. If one is not at home another is selected. Those five turn on their car horn emergency system and continue calling their list. Each person called turns on their emergency car horn until a broadcast on CH 5 reports all clear for horns. Then the horns are shut down.

The community at large knows at that point that they have heard the car horn alert to tune to CH 5 and receive the alert broadcast or wait for a call from their own block captain.

At some point Ch 5 continuous broadcast is shut down and announced for residents to stand by for further instructions or an all- clear. During this event, in the future, CERT members would go around the neighborhood on bull horns announcing the event also.


Not a Rooky....

Ok, I am not a rooky when it comes to trying to put something new into operation at Longview Hills. There are going to be those of you who view this as an attack on your privacy, undue noise generated which you find offensive and overkill for a situation that you feel will never happen. I can assure you that those folks are looking at this and gearing up for a tizzy of a fight right now.

What I would like from all of you is for you to input ideas and positions in the comments to see if there aren’t better or more stream lined ways to get information passed. It doesn’t have to be the way described. Give us a better idea to work on.

Meanwhile, we will work out a poll for those of you who don’t want to comment but want to have a say.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Neighborhood Watch Meeting...

Tuesday was the Neighborhood Watch Meeting. Marlene Crites, Coordinator, introduced Sgt. Malloy from the Newport Police who gave a talk on crime in and around Newport as well as tips for avoiding Identity Theft. His talk was interesting but one of the facts he had was that in the State of Oregon, Newport has the highest per capita crime rate in the state. He was quick to explain that we are not roiling in a hot bed of crime but being a resort beach city we do attract more than our share of criminals.

He was quick to praise Longview Hills as the safest place in Newport. He attributed that to the community programs and the way neighbors look after one another. He also said that you should not feel like you are being paranoid by calling 911 to report strange occurrences in the neighborhood and encourages you to do so.

He was asked about the pan handlers at WalMart, Freddy's and Safeway. His response was as much as he would like to see them gone they are acting within the law as long as they do not chase after or intimidate people. In the past large stores such as WalMart have lost law suits claiming that they violated these beggars civil rights so that leads to complaints not being filed by them. He also has interviewed many of them and asked them why they just don't take a local job of which there are several.. Their general reply is that they can make $100 a day tax free doing what they do. $700 a week is pretty good money. After a day's work they live in the bush around Newport drinking and partying away their day's take. He seemed to imply that if people would stop giving them money they would go away.

The sergeant ended his presentation and the Block captains meeting started. Some folks stayed around just to sit in and listen. There are now 36 block captains give or take as new come on aboard and a few have resigned. The reason for so many was a concentrated effort to reduce the number of people that a block captain watches over. That being accomplished it was felt that during an emergency block captains would be able to check on their folks in a rapid manner. This would allow them to inform the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) of the status of their charges thus speeding up rescue operations and first aid through out the community. A special map of the park was handed out as well as a park roster based on lot numbers. Using the map and roster combination it will be easy to report the location of any residence within the park to the CERT team saving precious minutes in life threatening emergencies.

We called for the help of the Neighborhood Watch Block captains to rapidly report the status of the folks in their area to the CERT Communications center which will be located in the Clubhouse during most emergencies. The plan is in its infantcy and will be massaged and corrected from the feedback received from the community.

Thank you for attending and our parting comment was that the Neighborhood Watch Phone Tree has to be worked on to become more efficient and we ask everybody to think of ways to improve that system which will be hashed out at the next meeting.

Back To Africa, The Genographic Project Aims To Map Humankind's Migration Through The Ages - CBS News

Back To Africa, The Genographic Project Aims To Map Humankind's Migration Through The Ages - CBS News: "Back To Africa
The Genographic Project Aims To Map Humankind's Migration Through The Ages

Genetic Journey Genetic Journey
Using DNA samples, the Genographic Project tries to map humanity's trip through the ages.
Back+To+Africa


(Page 1 of 2)
NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2006
The Genographic Project hopes to collect more than 100,000 DNA samples to trace the migratory history of humans.



Quote

“We see a chance to write the genetic"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "John Clarke
10/9/2006 6:00:00 PM [rss@quotationspage.com (Quotes of the Day)]
'Who is more busy than he who hath least to do?'"

October 6, 2006—This is one reconnaissance mission that may finally reveal Victoria's secrets.

An image released today by the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson exposes the distinctive lacy scallops of Mars's Victoria Crater in unprecedented detail. The feature, an impact crater near the Martian equator, is approximately half a mile (800 meters) in diameter.










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Monday, October 09, 2006

News about Lori & Jacky


Today was the day Lori was to get her cast removed and be able to walk. She called into work that she wasn't coming in today and planned a day of celebration.

Enter the Grinch.... When they took the cast off she had pain which is kind of like when Pauxatanny Phil sees his shadow... Three more weeks of wearing a new cast. This time she made it survival orange. She was not happy...

Jacky will be there three more weeks. Her back is going out so between the two of them they are helping each other.

Atlanta

From Wayde and Barbara Dudley:
If the last e-mail seemed to end abruptly it is because I hit the "Send" button rather than the "Save" button. We are having to use the wireless systems in the different hotels and they cut off after a period of time and you lose what you were working on and you have to save it frequently. That and having to work with the small keyboard on the laptop make it difficult for long e-mails. (Maybe that's a sign I'm writing too much). Anyway, please excuse any typing errors or other mistakes.
Anyway, we had some friends fly in to meet us and shoot the Glock match in Conyers, GA (outside of Atlanta). They live in Lebanon, Oregon. We got up early on September 30th and headed out to the range. The gun club had an "old western town" set up for the cowboy shooting so we had a neat setting for the match. The guys shot okay and had a good time.
That afternoon we drove out to Stone Moutain Park. Stone Mountain is the largest exposed granite rock in the world with 583 acres of exposed granite and it is over 800' high. Likenesses of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis are carved in the rock. The project was started in the 1920's by the same sculptor that did Mt. Rushmore and is a tribute to the fallen Confederate soldiers. It is really amazing. We took the cable car to the top and while everyone else got out to explore the rock, I got right back in the next cable car and went right back down. I was pretty proud of myself for even getting in th!e car in the first place. We rode the "Duck" which is an amphibious vehicle that rides on the land and then rushes at 15 mph into the lake. It was really fun to float around the lake in a "bus". We then toured the Plantation. I thought it was a huge reproductions when, in fact, they were all original buildings that had been moved to Stone Mountain. There was a log cabin fro the 1700's, a house from the early 1800's, slave quarters, a barn, cookhouse and an antebellue house from the 1830's. The furnishings were all either original or antiques from the same time period. It was wonderful.
We left for Pigeon Forge (Dollywood) on October 2nd. We paid $2.02 for gas. That has been a pleasant surprise on this trip, low price for gas.
We started climbing into the Smoky Mountain, went through North Carolina into Tennessee. Absolutely beautiful country. We were glad to finally see some mountains and to be able to see them in all their fall glory was really a treat.
Got into Pigeon Forge late in the afternoon. In the process of doing laundry (one of the real down sides to taking a long trip), we got the call we had been waiting for from our youngest daughter, Beth, in Jackson, Wyoming. Our prayers were answered and she had given birth to a sweet, perfect baby girl that afternoon. Mother and daughter, Sunny Day, are doing great. Can't wait to see them.
Looks like this e-mail is long enough so I will finish later. Hope you are all doing well. We miss you.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

One Nice Thing About The Monthly Newsletter...

You may not have considered this but the News Letter generates a nice advertising income that pretty much takes care of monthly Social Club expenses. Without that income the Social Club treasury will take up the slack. That means that a lot of extras that the Advertising income was supporting really well will come out of the treasury. Over time the treasury will deplete itself as it has in the past. One day folks will say how can we get money into the treasury and beleive me that will take a lot of time and a lot of work from a lot of people.

Right now there is an opportunity for one or more persons to volunteer to be the editor of the monthly newsletter.. That one (or more) person(s) will mean the saving of the income that allows us to have so many activities. We can avoid making those future members having to labor hard to replace money from a depleted treasury. If you want to make them happy a year or two down the line from now... Let your hand fly to the sky and say I will, I will.

Got a flare for writting?... Now is the time. Come on down !

Ben Davi is acting Social Club President while Wayde Dudley is on sabatical. Give him a call or call Jim McCrea (better do it fast) he is leaving.

The Great DNA Hunt

Ron says this is of special interest to me. Any other amatuer archeologists out there?

The Great DNA Hunt: "The Great DNA Hunt Volume 49 Number 5, September/October 1996
by Tabitha M. Powledge and Mark Rose

Genetic archaeology zooms in on the origins of modern humans.


DNA can be used to understand the evolution of modern humans, trace migrations of people, identify individuals, and determine the origins of domestic plants and animals. DNA analysis, as one scholar put it, is 'the greatest archaeological excavation of all time.' Because ancient DNA molecules are normally so few and fragmented, and preserved soft tissues so rare, scientists had little hope of finding and analyzing it. But two breakthroughs have made this possible: the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a method for copying any fragment of DNA, and the successful recovery of DNA from preserved hard tissues, bones and teeth, that are durable and relatively abundant."