Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Musical Interlude: “Sing, Sing, Sing”

Both are grand… play them one after another and you willed be filled with joy.

Benny Goodman and his clarinet. Public Domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I’m in need of some good music this weekend.

Those of you who visit regularly might recall that I received the offer of a new teaching position for next school year, one which would require my family to move to Wisconsin. After a great deal of deliberation, of prayer and conversation, my husband and I agreed on a decision. I’ve accepted.

While we have several months before the move, the reality of just what it’s going to take to get our household of two adults, three children, three cats, three snakes, and a leopard gecko moved around 2,000 miles across country has hit hard this week. It doesn’t help that I’m not a fantastic housekeeper and the place isn’t exactly tidy to begin with. Friends, I have a lot of cleaning and sorting to do.

Which means, I…

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Beauty as a liability

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

       While most people I meet are a bit more tactful, one person I met in 2012 back in DC, from Europe, remarked upon seeing me that “God must have made mixed race people more beautiful so they wouldn’t be rejected.”   Once I got over the shock of her lack of manners, as we hadn’t even introduced ourselves, I tried to explain to her that I am not mixed, but Black, aka African American, these days, although it says “Colored” on my birth certificate.  She refused to hear that, insisting that I could not possibly be Black, insisting that I could be from Greece, or Italy, or any part of the Mediterranean, like her.  I chalked it up to her culture, and turned the subject to her publications, which then took up the rest of our meeting (no, she never asked me about my works).  So, I wrote…

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Schwinn Bicycle Company History and Facts

Frugal Average Bicyclist

Schwinn is probably the best-known vintage USA bicycle company. It was founded in 1895 by German-born Ignaz Schwinn in Chicago. They declared bankruptcy in 1992 and are now owned by Pon Holdings. They are mostly a big box store brand now.

1936 Schwinn

The rise of Schwinn

In the 1950s Schwinn decided they would only sell their brand rather than make branded bikes for the department stores. This really helped build the brand as quality above the competition. In 1962 they came out with the Sting-Ray which became an incredibly popular kids bike. The Varsity and Continental became very popular 10 speed bikes with teens and young adults.

Schwinn Sting Ray

Schwinn stumbles

The bicycle boom of the 70s started bringing in lots of lightweight road bike competition.  Raleigh and other brands from Europe had much lighter 10 speed offerings, lightweight bikes also started coming from Japan.  These were bicycle…

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Covid and Heart Damage, Revisited

CRAIN'S COMMENTS

I wrote about this in a post (3 December 2021) and there is new information out today from a study conducted by researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis and the Veterans Administration St. Louis Healthcare System.

The December analysis suggested that there was a low incidence of heart damage from Covid-19. I questioned whether we actually had enough data to support that statement, and the new research seems to differ on that point as well.

“What we’re seeing isn’t good,” Dr. Al-Aly says. “COVID-19 can lead to serious cardiovascular complications and death. The heart does not regenerate or easily mend after heart damage. These are diseases that will affect people for a lifetime.”

Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development service at the VA St. Louis Health Care System and clinical epidemiologist at Washington University(1)

The research is based on medical records of 153,760 veterans…

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Alphabet soup for the osul vol.2 -“T”

Words from Walden

T is for Transcend

“Transcend the limits of what you think is possible and you may just find greatness. -Justin Young-

Transcend time, Transcend space, Transcend your life.

We are all running a program, multiple programs actually.

The question is do you know who installed the program you are running?

If it was a program that was designed and installed by you intentionally and on purpose that’s great. Good for you. You’re probably winning at the game of life.

However, if you’re running a program that was installed by one of the many different archetypes that you’ve encountered since your birth than it was put there by someone else and it means that you’re program is based on someone else’s belief system.

Of course all of this is okay as long as you know it and agree with it. Ask yourself “Is this a belief system that fits with my…

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Parashat Ki Tisa, and Financial Self-defense?

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

     This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Ki Tisa, is the 21st sedra (portion) in the annual cycle, and the 9th in the book of Sh’mot/Exodus.

 

      This week, some will read about mandatory donations, the Egel Zahav (golden calf), and new tablets, and others will hear part of that reading, but no doubt discuss all of it.  My question is how we can use the lessons from this week’s parashah to build an egalitarian and respectful society that is kind to all.  Clearly, this week we center on the problems of money, the worship of money or consumption (or of power, based in a monetized society, if you prefer), and the respect for the rule of law and how our laws and policies which enforce those laws build systems of finance that encourage the best in all of us.

We can  Do Better.

-Shira   

 

Parashat Tetzaveh…

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