• Hot Off The Presses

    Zimbabwe: Truckload of Newspapers Burned

    The press is not free in Zimbabwe, and the state-controlled news organs are little more than cheerleading mouthpieces for the Mugabe regime. Independent weekly The Zimbabwean recently started a Sunday edition that’s become the country’s most-read Sunday paper. How? It’s printed in South Africa and distributed by truck; except that this Sunday’s edition won’t be arriving. The truck was hijacked and burned, and the two drivers badly beaten. This is Zimbabwe » Blog Archive » Assault on media freedom in Zimbabwe The Zimbabwean was established in February 2005 to stand against Mugabe’s media blackout. It exploits a loophole in Zimbabwe’s…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Only in Utah...

    LTTE: Polygamy From A Modern Girl’s Perspective

    The Salt Lake Trib’s letters to the editor often contain some interesting insights into life in Utah; I haven’t lived there for more than 30 years, and I feel I know the place because I can read the opinions of the cranks and the apologists and the activists and the completely whacked-out religious nutcases. This time, it’s a teenage girl’s perspective on the Texas FLDS polygamy case. She starts well, but I don’t think she can really imagine what it’s like to be raised in that society – no “modern girl” could, because essentially these are girls who are living…

  • All Things Interesting - Dear Mom

    Francis Baker, cooper of Yarmouth

    Francis Francis BAKER 1611 – 23 Jul 1696 * OCCUPATION: Cooper, surveyor of hwys * BIRTH: 1611, Hertfordshire, England [1] * DEATH: 23 Jul 1696, Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., MA [2] Family 1 : Isabel TWINING * MARRIAGE: 17 Jun 1641, Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., MA [9982] 1. +Nathaniel B. BAKER 2. +John BAKER 3. Samuel BAKER 4. +Elizabeth BAKER 5. +Daniel BAKER 6. +Thomas BAKER 7. +William B. BAKER 8. Hannah BAKER According to the genealogy files so laboriously compiled by my Aunt Nibby in the pre-Internet dark ages, Francis Baker was the first direct ancestor on Pop’s side. He came…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    Into The Light

    One of the photos I took while on our trip to the East Coast. My brother-in-law, Wally, was killed in January 1968 in Hue, during the infamous Tet offensive. He is listed on panel 37 East, line 54, as Edward W. Crum. Via: Flickr Title: Into The Light By: GinnyRED57 Originally uploaded: 23 May ’08, 9.53pm CDT PST Detail from the Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC. Edward W. Crum "Wally"

  • Geek Out! - The Never-Ending Bloga - Today

    Just because I can

    I changed themes again, this time rather painlessly, so that I could add a Google Reader share widget to the left column. I’ll be customizing the various header images over the long weekend and perhaps softening the color scheme and changing font. This theme is called Cutline and seems to work okay right out of the box. I have to add in my custom style stuff, but the photos page looks okay as – is. I’ll be uploading a lot of pictures to Flickr from the East Coast trip and some backlog too. But first we have to catch a…