here's what the CDC has to say:
“Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.”
“Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.”
“Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.”
“Try to avoid close contact with sick people.”
“You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products.”
yes indeed--wash your hands
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The flu
I know that two of my sibling have complained about the treatment of swine flu in the hews over the last few days. I for one love it. I think it is hilarious.
I wish bird flu would make a comeback so that we could hear about both at once.
I especially love the interactive maps.
I mean under what other circumstances can you know exactly how many people have a disease at any given time?
I think the funniest thing is that people react to what they hear on the news. Come on you can't say it's not funny to see people wearing those masks around, and closing schools and all...like I said, hilarious...
But I do think they should start calling it the pig flu instead of the swine flu--more funny
I wish bird flu would make a comeback so that we could hear about both at once.
I especially love the interactive maps.
I mean under what other circumstances can you know exactly how many people have a disease at any given time?
I think the funniest thing is that people react to what they hear on the news. Come on you can't say it's not funny to see people wearing those masks around, and closing schools and all...like I said, hilarious...
But I do think they should start calling it the pig flu instead of the swine flu--more funny
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bird flu
A few days ago we were getting in the car and I was closing the door-as it closed a small flock of swallows swooped by and three ended up closed in the car. I looked up and one was closed in the door. It's head was outside and its body was inside. When I opened the door it fell at my feet-in the car...and the other three were still flapping around in the car.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
On schools and other things
The Detroit public school system recently announced that it is going to close another 50 schools in the next year or so. 23 are slated for closures this summer. 600 teachers will be laid off. An additional 30-40 will close next year. There are currently 194 schools in DPS. Over the last few years 70+ schools have closed.
A closed school represents a lot of money. Desks, Books, Chairs, etc etc. Unfortunately due to budgetary concerns most of that capital has been left in the schools to grow dust, acquire water damage, be vandalized etc. Why have so many schools been closed? there are many reasons. 1. population contraction. 2. charter school expansion (about a third of Detroit students are in charter schools)and the biggest reason:
3. money money money. The district just can't afford to keep the schools open. The state recently stepped in and appointed a new superintendent with all sorts of special powers and a special investigator to figure out the finances. Detroit has faced falling revenues for many years for two reasons; population contraction and the impoverishment of the city. Put simply: All the people who could afford to pulled up stakes and got the heck out of Dodge. Anyway, the investigator found an additional 100 million dollars in unpaid debt that the school district didn't know about. A whole stack of invoices stashed in a drawer somewhere.
So where does this leave the students? I guess there's not really any way to describe it...crowded classrooms, limited resources, violent hallways, violent classrooms, jaded teachers without resources or the incentive to actually teach. The dropout rate is over 50% in most high schools, literacy rates in Detroit are below third world levels.
Here are some snapshots:
On March 29, 2006, students at Mackenzie High in Detroit staged a walkout to protest the lack of textbooks and toilet paper. 32 were arrested, with 8 charged for disorderly conduct, and 1 for inciting to riot. Students complained that they had only one textbook per 3 students, an administrator had an expensive plasma television, amid allegations of a missing $3,000, and leaking roofs which damaged 45 new computers in storage.
On August 31, 2007, Detroit Public Schools announced that they have opened a Detroit Police mini-station in Henry Ford High School. Detroit Free Press article indicated that police mini-stations are planned for Cody, Cooley, Northwestern and Central high schools. [54] DPS maintains its own sworn and armed police officers.
So why am I saying all of this? I have a confession. I always assumed that it was possible for anyone to make it to the top in the United States. I always said, "yes there is inequality of outcome, but there's equality of opportunity. If someone born in a poor neighborhood wants to they can make it out." And it gave me a good feeling inside. It justified my lifestyle. It gave me a feeling of superiority. Somehow I was better for having chosen to be responsible with money and for having gotten a job and gone to college and pursued success. And it justified my not doing more to help people.
And so I guess my point is this: Equality of opportunity in this country is a myth. A kid who grows up with no education, with parents who weren't educated and don't know how to fight for him, with no prospect of a job, in a place that the rich have abandoned and left for dead, does not have the same opportunity to succeed that I did. I don't say that to condemn anyone, or to try to goad you to action. Most of the people who read this blog do more than I do to help people anyway. But I say it as a confession. I was wrong. And I am one of the rich who turn their backs on the poor.
A closed school represents a lot of money. Desks, Books, Chairs, etc etc. Unfortunately due to budgetary concerns most of that capital has been left in the schools to grow dust, acquire water damage, be vandalized etc. Why have so many schools been closed? there are many reasons. 1. population contraction. 2. charter school expansion (about a third of Detroit students are in charter schools)and the biggest reason:
3. money money money. The district just can't afford to keep the schools open. The state recently stepped in and appointed a new superintendent with all sorts of special powers and a special investigator to figure out the finances. Detroit has faced falling revenues for many years for two reasons; population contraction and the impoverishment of the city. Put simply: All the people who could afford to pulled up stakes and got the heck out of Dodge. Anyway, the investigator found an additional 100 million dollars in unpaid debt that the school district didn't know about. A whole stack of invoices stashed in a drawer somewhere.
So where does this leave the students? I guess there's not really any way to describe it...crowded classrooms, limited resources, violent hallways, violent classrooms, jaded teachers without resources or the incentive to actually teach. The dropout rate is over 50% in most high schools, literacy rates in Detroit are below third world levels.
Here are some snapshots:
On March 29, 2006, students at Mackenzie High in Detroit staged a walkout to protest the lack of textbooks and toilet paper. 32 were arrested, with 8 charged for disorderly conduct, and 1 for inciting to riot. Students complained that they had only one textbook per 3 students, an administrator had an expensive plasma television, amid allegations of a missing $3,000, and leaking roofs which damaged 45 new computers in storage.
On August 31, 2007, Detroit Public Schools announced that they have opened a Detroit Police mini-station in Henry Ford High School. Detroit Free Press article indicated that police mini-stations are planned for Cody, Cooley, Northwestern and Central high schools. [54] DPS maintains its own sworn and armed police officers.
So why am I saying all of this? I have a confession. I always assumed that it was possible for anyone to make it to the top in the United States. I always said, "yes there is inequality of outcome, but there's equality of opportunity. If someone born in a poor neighborhood wants to they can make it out." And it gave me a good feeling inside. It justified my lifestyle. It gave me a feeling of superiority. Somehow I was better for having chosen to be responsible with money and for having gotten a job and gone to college and pursued success. And it justified my not doing more to help people.
And so I guess my point is this: Equality of opportunity in this country is a myth. A kid who grows up with no education, with parents who weren't educated and don't know how to fight for him, with no prospect of a job, in a place that the rich have abandoned and left for dead, does not have the same opportunity to succeed that I did. I don't say that to condemn anyone, or to try to goad you to action. Most of the people who read this blog do more than I do to help people anyway. But I say it as a confession. I was wrong. And I am one of the rich who turn their backs on the poor.
When opportunity knocks...
2 Thessalonians 3:1 "Pray that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you."
"There is great opportunity right now for the church to spread the word of God in the world and to bring those who are in darkness into light."
I am convinced that this statement is true, not just now, but always. We live in a broken world full of broken people...broken people who want to be made whole. I have been thinking a lot about this recently, and I think that if these people can't find the way to truth, the problem isn't them, it is the church. If we aren't connecting with people, we're not using the right words.
The Word of God is eternal--but the vast majority of what the church does to connect to the world isn't directly mandated in the Word. I am not aware of a directive that says this is what the church should look like--other than; it should be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the bride of Christ, the children of God in one body, united in worship. But the worldly part of us wants to be right, and wants to be in charge. We want everyone to look like us(whoever us may be). And so when the church reaches out to the world I think we try to transform the world into the image of our fathers rather than the image of our Father.
There are a lot of calls to lots of things in the Bible. But as far as I know there isn't anywhere in the Bible where it says that you have to sing a couple songs then pass the offering plate, then have a sermon then sing another song, and all stand up and sit down on cue. There also isn't any place in the Bible that I am aware of that it says that we should divide the church along racial and economic lines. I'm just sayin is all...
But back to my original point. There is a great task and opportunity to sow and reap. Now. But the church has to be willing to reach out to people who wouldn't be caught dead in most churches in this country. It has to be willing to reexamine what it means to worship. and ask the questions: Is the performance we put on every Sunday morning enough? Are we called to be a theater? Or is there something more we should be aiming for?
Don't get me wrong. The message can't change. The gospel is for all time. And the Word is eternal. But it just seems like sometimes we get the delivery all wrong.
"There is great opportunity right now for the church to spread the word of God in the world and to bring those who are in darkness into light."
I am convinced that this statement is true, not just now, but always. We live in a broken world full of broken people...broken people who want to be made whole. I have been thinking a lot about this recently, and I think that if these people can't find the way to truth, the problem isn't them, it is the church. If we aren't connecting with people, we're not using the right words.
The Word of God is eternal--but the vast majority of what the church does to connect to the world isn't directly mandated in the Word. I am not aware of a directive that says this is what the church should look like--other than; it should be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the bride of Christ, the children of God in one body, united in worship. But the worldly part of us wants to be right, and wants to be in charge. We want everyone to look like us(whoever us may be). And so when the church reaches out to the world I think we try to transform the world into the image of our fathers rather than the image of our Father.
There are a lot of calls to lots of things in the Bible. But as far as I know there isn't anywhere in the Bible where it says that you have to sing a couple songs then pass the offering plate, then have a sermon then sing another song, and all stand up and sit down on cue. There also isn't any place in the Bible that I am aware of that it says that we should divide the church along racial and economic lines. I'm just sayin is all...
But back to my original point. There is a great task and opportunity to sow and reap. Now. But the church has to be willing to reach out to people who wouldn't be caught dead in most churches in this country. It has to be willing to reexamine what it means to worship. and ask the questions: Is the performance we put on every Sunday morning enough? Are we called to be a theater? Or is there something more we should be aiming for?
Don't get me wrong. The message can't change. The gospel is for all time. And the Word is eternal. But it just seems like sometimes we get the delivery all wrong.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
A review or two
I was thinking, it's been a while since I wrote a movie review...so I'll write two.
Slumdog Millionaire=exploitative cheesefest
One down one to go
Last night we watched a movie called Gone Baby Gone. I'm not sure what made me watch it. It's about a guy who finds people. In Boston.
Anyway, despite the fact that it had nothing going for it before it started, It turned out to actually be a pretty good movie. So here's the story. This girl gets kidnapped and her aunt goes to the media, and then hires this private investigator to find her. So he follows all sorts of twists and turns to try to find her. I really want to say how it ends, but I won't because I think it would ruin the suspense of the movie for all of you out there who are going to go out and rent it because I said it was good (Ok, I recognize that that number of people is probably close to zero).
Anyway, here's why I liked it.
1. a good well constructed plot. I could often guess what was going to happen next, but not more than maybe 30 seconds before it actually happened. So it wasn't super suspenseful, but it definitely had lots of unsuspected twists and turns. I don't like predictable movies (like SM).
2. It raised real issues and portrayed people actually struggling to figure out what the right thing to do is. The main issue of the movie is "Is it better for a child to live in poverty with their biological family, or in relative affluence with a family not there own? How about if their family leaves them alone at night, or does drugs? And if it is better, who gets to decide that? Can I as a person who cares about children decide to take a child from another family I judge to be doing a poorer job?" A secondary issue is "If the state isn't doing it's job, do the citizens have to right to do it for them? And are drug dealers bad people?"
Just kidding about that last one.
3. It portrays people making decisions about what is right, and acting on those decisions, and then it shows the consequences of those actions. In movies we don't often get to see consequences of real actions. I mean we get to see what happens if I lay 20 pounds of C4 under this building, but we don't get to see people having to clean up the mess. Hollywood often falls into the trap of skipping from action, to actions, to more actions...and we miss all the messiness. And the thing is, life is messy and dirty and painful.
So let's see how SM stands up:
1. What plot? Two kids grow up poor in India and end up making it in the world. One in a respectable job, the other in crime. Then one of them wins a million dollars because they happen to pick 10 questions he actually knows the answer to. I have to say the only unpredictable part of that movie was him jumping in poop.--cheesefest
2.Here's the exploitative part. It doesn't actually deal with any issues. The message of the movie is--hey look at all the poor people. Nobody has to make any decisions or face any consequences for anything.
All that said. SM was a fun movie. It's not bad to have a predictable story. And it's not bad for the good guy to win. It just doesn't make it a great movie.
Slumdog Millionaire=exploitative cheesefest
One down one to go
Last night we watched a movie called Gone Baby Gone. I'm not sure what made me watch it. It's about a guy who finds people. In Boston.
Anyway, despite the fact that it had nothing going for it before it started, It turned out to actually be a pretty good movie. So here's the story. This girl gets kidnapped and her aunt goes to the media, and then hires this private investigator to find her. So he follows all sorts of twists and turns to try to find her. I really want to say how it ends, but I won't because I think it would ruin the suspense of the movie for all of you out there who are going to go out and rent it because I said it was good (Ok, I recognize that that number of people is probably close to zero).
Anyway, here's why I liked it.
1. a good well constructed plot. I could often guess what was going to happen next, but not more than maybe 30 seconds before it actually happened. So it wasn't super suspenseful, but it definitely had lots of unsuspected twists and turns. I don't like predictable movies (like SM).
2. It raised real issues and portrayed people actually struggling to figure out what the right thing to do is. The main issue of the movie is "Is it better for a child to live in poverty with their biological family, or in relative affluence with a family not there own? How about if their family leaves them alone at night, or does drugs? And if it is better, who gets to decide that? Can I as a person who cares about children decide to take a child from another family I judge to be doing a poorer job?" A secondary issue is "If the state isn't doing it's job, do the citizens have to right to do it for them? And are drug dealers bad people?"
Just kidding about that last one.
3. It portrays people making decisions about what is right, and acting on those decisions, and then it shows the consequences of those actions. In movies we don't often get to see consequences of real actions. I mean we get to see what happens if I lay 20 pounds of C4 under this building, but we don't get to see people having to clean up the mess. Hollywood often falls into the trap of skipping from action, to actions, to more actions...and we miss all the messiness. And the thing is, life is messy and dirty and painful.
So let's see how SM stands up:
1. What plot? Two kids grow up poor in India and end up making it in the world. One in a respectable job, the other in crime. Then one of them wins a million dollars because they happen to pick 10 questions he actually knows the answer to. I have to say the only unpredictable part of that movie was him jumping in poop.--cheesefest
2.Here's the exploitative part. It doesn't actually deal with any issues. The message of the movie is--hey look at all the poor people. Nobody has to make any decisions or face any consequences for anything.
All that said. SM was a fun movie. It's not bad to have a predictable story. And it's not bad for the good guy to win. It just doesn't make it a great movie.
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