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elw_miller

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Posts posted by elw_miller

  1. I read in a Reader's Digest article a while back that people generally considered others beautiful based on the symmetry and proportion of their facial features. They presented people with pictures of all kinds of people with all kinds of facial features and found that the ones people designated as "beautiful" had more symmetrical and proportional features.

     

    "One key to physical attractiveness is symmetry; humans, like other species, show a strong preference for individuals whose right and left sides are well matched. Denzel Washington’s face, on the left, is almost completely symmetrical. Lyle Lovett’s, on the right, is not — as revealed by a computerized image made up of his left side repeated on the right."

     

    Newsweek, June 3, 1996 v127 n23 p60(7). Excerpt from The biology of beauty, (Cover Story) Geoffrey Cowley.

    http://www.symonics.com/sci_balancing.html

     

    I think that society dictates what is beautiful, though, too--certain fashions, certain make-up, certain body-type and weight, etc. Gosh, I'm out! ;) Short in height instead of tall, very long brown hair I keep in a bun versus whatever "do" is in right now, medium-build body instead of slender, I abhor make-up in general, and I'm not particularly fashionable (though I do try to be presentable). Oh well. :)

  2. I agree that those comments are appalling. Fortunately, he appears to be distancing himself from that position. From The Washington Times

     

    Glad you're more up-to-date on the news! :) I'm still bothered by the idea that he has "distanced" himself rather than fully recanted.

     

    "Dr. Holdren is not and never has been an advocate for policies of forced sterilization." --except when he allowed his name to be connected to the assertions in Ecoscience.

    I hope he has recanted and that the journalists have just done a shoddy job of conveying that information.

  3. Quote:

    Originally Posted by Perry viewpost.gif

    Nobody's going to be forced to do abortions. From WSJ:

     

    You know, you say this NOW and I agree...for now. It is not what Obama is going to do now...this second. It is what he is going to do over his 4, possibly 8 years in office. Did you know that, in Minnesota, they are regulating the number of DOGS people are allowed to own. No more than 2. Freedom is going out the window...today dogs...tomorrow what? Children? China does it. Do we really think it could never happen to the US?

     

    Perry--While I agree with you--I, too, doubt anybody is going to be forced to do abortions--I am appalled that the President would choose a man as his Science "czar" who once once advocated it in a book he co-authored. John Holdren did such a thing:

     

    "Internet reports are now circulating that Obama's Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, penned a 1977 book that approved of and recommended compulsory sterilization and even abortion in some cases, as part of a government population control regime. Given the general unreliability of Internet quotations, I wanted to go straight to this now-rare text and make sure the reports were both accurate and kept Holdren's writings in context. Generally speaking, they are, and they do."

     

     

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-science-czar-suggested-compulsory-abortion-sterilization-50783612.html

     

    Here is a direct quote (there are plenty of others cited on the page) from Ecoscience, the book Holdren co-authored:

     

    "Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society."

     

    http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/

    Definitely an unnerving passage. It may be a 30-year-old book that did not get many reprintings, but unless he recants, that writing still stands as a testament to his beliefs. Very sad.

  4. I haven't read all the responses yet--this is a very interesting discussion so I'll do my best (in addition to trying to plow through the actual bill). :)

     

    The posts brought to mind the issue of taxing health care benefits, first proposed by John McCain prior to the election. The door has been left open by President Obama to also do this.

     

    Some articles:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/us/politics/15health.html

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7731736

     

    What are your thoughts on the taxing of some health care benefits?

    What do you think will be the end result of both of these ideas coming to fruition?

  5. No evidence to back this up, but I feel deep in my bones that there is something really wrong with this.

    I wonder if kids who do all this sight reading are short circuiting their brains. I think it's skipping important steps.

    Like trying to walk before you crawl.

     

    To echo this with an example from a perspective on music education: Shinichi Suzuki based his method on the idea that we learn to speak pretty well before we read. Children are immersed in music and learn to play by ear long before they ever learn to read music.

     

    I am also uneasy with the whole-to-part focus. Just my two cents... :001_smile:

  6. Seriously...do I just pick leaves off at will? Do I pick leaves and stems? I want to be able to make pesto -- lots of it. How do I deal with this herb? I have no idea how one takes the leaves/stems off!!!!!

     

    Well, I can't help you with the pesto--I've never made it. I prefer to use basil fresh, though I do dry it, too, when I have enough.

     

    I pick a bunch of basil above a growing point (several lower leaves). I try not to pick parts with thicker stems--mostly just nip the leaves off by snipping their little stem with kitchen shears or my fingers. If it's starting to get too bushy I take a larger bit and discard the stems. Then I rinse the leaves and chop them up and cook with them.

     

    If I dry them I hang them by the stems in a brown paper bag.

  7. I know you found your answer, too, but wanted to put some info on this out there anyway. :)

     

    You can tell an egg's age (and whether or not it's still good) based on how it responds to being submerged in a bowl of water. If it sinks all the way it's still good (even if it's just the tip still touching), if it floats it's bad. By doing this test prior to cracking them, I've found my eggs last far longer than the date stamp declares (the date stamp is just the sell by date anyway).

  8. The best reason I can give you is to send you to a Youtube video. These are kids from an advanced string camp in Kansas. The music speaks for itself...Just go to Youtube and search for this: Mendelssohn 3rd mvt, Ottawa, KS. Best wishes! Oh yeah, get a teacher first. Then comes the violin!:)

     

     

     

    That was excellent! Thanks for sharing! I sent this on to a friend who is considering doing Suzuki with her daughter; this may convince her. :)

  9. Is 5 too young?

    How do you find a teacher?

    How do you find a violin?

    Am I totally crazy??!!!

     

    Any other information anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. I'm totally at a loss here!!

     

    Five is not too young. My dd4 is currently taking Suzuki lessons and has been for over a year.

     

    You can find a teacher through the Suzuki Association of the Americas:

    http://suzukiassociation.org/parents/teacherloc/

     

    I got my dd's violins off eBay. Look at reputable violin sites to see what you should look for in a decent quality violin. I tried to find violins being sold by down-sizing music programs, though I did get one from an eBay store that also had a brick and mortar presense. You can also look into rental programs--many will let you put part of the rental fee into a future purchase of an instrument. Also be sure to have your daughter measured so she gets the right size violin.

     

    I also recommend reading Shinichi Suzuki's Ability Development From Age Zero. He has several other books which discuss his method and viewpoints, but I think this one is the best. It is a slim book, but an excellent read. In fact, I think any parent should read it since it could easily double as a good parenting book!

  10. The only reason I would worry about this is if she has trouble writing, forming letters, drawing a straight line, drawing a circle etc. It would indicate that she had poor fine motor skills and something you might want to work on. But if it is only the coloring, then it isn't quite as important as writing skills.

     

    :iagree:

     

    If you want her to see things that might inspire her, though, Highlights magazine has a section that shows pictures kids of different ages have created and sent to the magazine to be published. My dd4 loves looking at these pictures. Even though she enjoys looking at them, her drawings look kind of like the cave drawing by Sid the Sloth in the movie Ice Age. :lol: Ah well, they'll continue to develop as she does.

  11. Good questions; I was just saying that I assumed it was because of the sound, but I am not sure that she was supposed to have read King Lear before coming to Green Gables.

     

    In "Looking for Green Gables" the author specifically discusses (p 169-170) Anne's renaming of herself as Geraldine, Elaine, and Cordelia. :) In the back footnotes, she mentions the specific literary allusions in Anne, including talking about the naming of a rose (would it really be as sweet by another name?), Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald, and the naming of Willowmere.

     

    I'll have to read that book. Perhaps she was not supposed to have read King Lear, but perhaps we were (at some point in our relationship with Anne). She may have been ignorant to the reference, but maybe the author hoped we, the readers, weren't.

     

    What does your book say about the literary reference for Lady Cordelia Fitzgerald? Am I reading into things that aren't there (or will I have to satisfy my curiosity by reading the book you cited--which sounds like a good read anyway)? ;)

  12. I always thought Cordelia sounded better (to her) than Anne. It certainly has many more syllables (4 vs 1), and ends in a vowel. Rolls off the tongue more, or something. But I wouldn't kick yourself for not thinking of this.

     

    Well, yes. Anne even comments on how short and plain she thinks her name is (even wants it spelled with an 'e' so it's at least written with a vowel). But why did the author pick Cordelia and not Victoria or Estella or Isabelle--all these fit that criteria? Perhaps there is something apt about the name Cordelia. Why did Anne like the name? Yes, it is all those things to Anne, but might it be more? Did she feel a kinship, in a way, to the character Cordelia and thus chose that name as a substitute for her own?

     

    Just speculating... :)

  13. OK, I'm confused. How do we know Anne's desire to be called Cordelia is a literary allusion? I'm familiar with the story of King Lear and still don't get it. Couldn't Anne just like the name?

     

    I have not yet read King Lear. But, based on the CM poem I first cited, the poem seemed to indicate that Cordelia was an "unlov'd, unpitied daughter"--a character, if I'm right in understanding, Anne would have felt some resonance with, since she, too, until being adopted was an unlov'd, unpitied child.

     

    Cordelia is not a name that struck me as a "romantic" name as it did Anne. It's nearly up there with Mildred in my book (solid name though it be). I can think of no other reason why a name like Cordelia would be Anne's pick for a lovely name.

     

    But, like I said, I have not yet read King Lear, so I may be inaccurately seeing an allusion (one stemming from a poem I read in my CM in book) where there isn't one.

     

    Good question! I like these sorts of discussions. :)

     

    P.S. I'd never heard of the name Cordelia beyond Anne saying she liked it, until I saw the poem about the character from King Lear.

  14. One of my favorite quotes is from Cicero:

     

    "A house without books is like a body without a soul."

     

    Hey, we've got SOUL! :D

     

    One of my favorite quotes, too!

     

    I have to agree. It is not a sign of a packrat but the sign of a bibliophile. I'm one, too!

     

    A packrat saves a child's backpack from third grade for the memories. A packrat saves ALL plastic storage containers, just in case. Books don't count (unless they have been severely water-damaged and mildewed and you're saving them 'just in case' you might be able to save them). ;)

  15. :D have you read the response?

     

    The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

    by Sir Walter Raleigh

     

    I have not read the response--thanks for noting it! I'll go read it.

     

    Reminds me of the time my 8th grade students and I read the Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum "Old Father William" poem in class. One of my students asked if I'd ever heard of the original: "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them" by Robert Southey. I hadn't, so he enriched the class' experience by reading it in class the next day. :) That was one of my favorite things about teaching--learning from my students.

     

    A few more poems I'd add to the list: 'O Captain, My Captain' by Walt Whitman and

    various Emily Dickinson poems (like 'Nobody').

  16. You don't think that's something to be grateful for?

     

    All educations, even the very best, are full of innumerable holes. How happy that they are or else you wouldn't have had the joy of discovering a new poem that enriched your experience of revisiting Anne of Green Gables. How dead is revisit would be if there were nothing new about it.

     

    Thank you, and others, for helping me see the cup half full. :)

     

    I guess I was bemoaning the nearly missed allusion because I felt like I should have caught it (and did miss it until I read CM). One of my favorite literary devices is the allusion, so whenever I think I've missed one (or nearly missed one) I start wondering what else I'm missing. And while it's great to go read and learn something new, allusions in novels don't have citations for me to go discover their origin! Agh! ;) That aspect of my education being a sieve is what's bothersome, I guess, not it being a sieve per se.

     

    I'd best get to know King Lear in case there are other allusions waiting to be discovered in Anne of Green Gables. :) Hooray! Another adventure!

  17. My kids and I have just started listening to Anne of Green Gables. We listened to the part where she beseeches Murilla to call her 'Cordelia' instead of Anne.

     

    Until TODAY I thought her pick of Cordelia as a lovely and romantic name a bit odd.

     

    I am a sadly ignorant English major. :( This evening I picked up Charlotte Mason's 6th book, A Philosophy of Education. Here is what I read (p. 242):

     

    Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way; for example,--the reading of King Lear is gathered in twelve lines on 'Cordelia,'--

     

     

    'Cordelia'

     

    Nobliest lady, doomed to slaughter,

     

    An unlov'd, unpitied daughter,

     

    Though Cordelia thous may'st be,

     

    "Love's" the fittest name for thee; [just an excerpt]

    What a reference I missed until today! Anne of Green Gables is ever so slightly richer by my reading this small poem in a CM book. I have never read King Lear. I graduated with a degree in English Education. How in the world did I graduate without reading this? Or so many other books for that matter?!

     

    Yet again I am reminded my education could be a sieve it is so full of holes.

     

    Has anyone else experienced this (over and over and over again)? There are so many books and topics on my 'why didn't I read/learn this' list.

     

    What are some of yours?

  18. Ok, so my munchkins are a little young to start memorizing advanced poetry (we're learning nursery rhymes now). But, on my list of poems to know, if not memorize:

     

    The Village Blacksmith by Longfellow

    The Lady of Shallott by Tennyson

    When You Are Old by Yeats

    The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Marlowe

     

    some of Shakespeare's sonnets, perhaps bits of T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" or bits of his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

  19. How to Heal a Bee Sting Using Natural Treatments

     

    http://www.grannymed.com/meds/bee-sting.aspx

     

     

    • 1. Apply honey immediately after being stung by a bee
    • 2. Cut a tomato in half; apply the inner side on the sting for a few minutes
    • 3. Put vinegar on the sting
    • 4. Mix 3 teaspoons of baking soda to some water until it gets creamy. Then smear on the sting until pain is gone.
    • 5. Put ice on the sting.
    • 6. Apply Aloe Vera on the sting, can also add some lavender.
    • 7. Apply mud on the sting. Smear egg yolk on the sting to relief the pain and make the sting disappear.
    • 8. Apply backing soda on the sting.

     

  20. For those that make their own bread - is it really cheaper? I have been toying with the idea for a while but haven't made bread in a long time. I have a friend that sent a slow cooker recipe for bread a while ago (because I was thinking about getting a bread machine), but haven't tried it yet.

     

    It is absolutely cheaper, especially if you're wanting heartier bread. It has been a few years (about 4, now) since I calculated the cost of making my different recipes (I used to make bread to sell at farmers markets). Last I calculated, I could make my sourdough recipe for .80--it made 2 loaves. I could make my whole wheat recipe for about $2.40--it made 3 loaves.

     

    I make my bread by hand, which saves the cost of a bread machine. The slow cooker recipe sounds intriguing. I love my slow cooker! And making homemade bread.

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