Day: March 6, 2021

The Tale Of Dr. Seuss

Dr, Seuss is making news in more ways than we could have imagined…..

There are lessons in life that the Dr. teaches….

In 1984, Dr. Seuss won an award for his contribution to children’s literature.

In his years as a cartoonist and children’s writer, Theodor Seuss Geisel created some of the world’s most famous books and illustrations, including Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Cat, and The Lorax.

As lifehackers, we can learn a lot from the legendary Dr. Seuss. He was, after all, one of the pioneers of clever storytelling that didn’t insult the intelligence of children. For example, consider How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—an early criticism of commercialization—from 1957.

We can study Dr. Seuss’s successful children’s books to become more productive, feel more motivated, and live a rich life. But the “Father of Children’s Books” also has plenty to teach us about the importance of reading, believing in yourself, and doing the work.

Let’s look at some things Dr. Seuss used to say, and see what we can learn from each one of them.

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/11-important-life-lessons-from-seuss.html

Lots of positivity there…..but then there is the flip side of it, the negativity…..

Tuesday is the 117th birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, but the celebration this year comes with controversy. The business that controls the Seuss name says six books will no longer be published or sold because they portray people “in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” reports the AP. Two well-known titles are in the mix, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo, along with McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. Details:

  • Background: In recent years, Seuss books have come under criticism for their portrayal of non-white characters. A 2019 study, for example, found that Seuss books have 45 human characters of color—out of more than 2,240 human characters in total—and 43 “of them have Orientalist depictions and two align with the theme of anti-Blackness,” per USA Today. The AP notes related criticism over Geisel’s depiction of Black, Asian, and other characters in his earlier advertising and World War II propaganda illustrations.
  • Anger: At Fox News, Liz Peek wonders in an op-ed whether the new backlash against Seuss will be a “tipping point” in the culture wars. “Cancel culture has become so mindless and all-encompassing that the average American will soon say…Enough!” she writes. “Dr. Seuss could bring us to that point.” Sen. Ted Cruz even wrote some Seuss-like verse about all this, as noted by Twitchy.
  • Biden shift: March 2 is “Read Across America Day,” which is traditionally associated with Seuss. President Biden’s proclamation for the day left out Seuss’ name, a pivot from presidents Obama and Trump. And the NEA also has been shifting its focus on the day from Seuss to emphasize diverse children’s titles.
  • One district: Last month, Virginia’s Loudon County school district courted controversy when headlines suggested it was banning all Seuss books, notes CNN. But the district says is it not banning them, only de-emphasizing them. “Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” explains the district in a statement.
  • More on the study: The 2019 study noted that in If I Ran the Zoo, for example, the “three (and only three) Asian characters who are not wearing conical hats are carrying a White male on their heads.” The latter “is not only on top of, and being carried by, these Asian characters, but he is also holding a gun, illustrating dominance. The text beneath the Asian characters describes them as ‘helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant’ from ‘countries no one can spell.'”
  • Rationale: In explaining its decision to stop publishing the six new books, Dr. Seuss Enterprises says it “listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field as part of our review process. We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles.”

I am not a big fan of censorship….I mean my mother never told me what I could read or not….so I do not think any government has that right.

The decision should be made by parents….not government.

Then there is the GOP….who never misses a chance to want money from some silly cause….

Republicans aren’t happy about the “cancellation” of certain Dr. Seuss books over racist imagery—and they’re using the issue to raise money. “‘Cancel Culture is TOXIC!’ / Patriots proudly declare,” reads a rhyme on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s fundraising page. “‘Free Speech must be defended.’ / Dems retort: ‘Too bad! Don’t care!’ / If you’re tired of nonsense: / Join us. Take a stand. / Condemn the Far Left for / Their radical plan. / We won’t be able to speak or think freely, / By the time the Dems are through. / Chip in $25 now and / We’ll send ‘Cat in the Hat’ right to you.” As Axios points out, The Cat in the Hat is not actually one of the six books that Dr. Seuss Enterprises will no longer be publishing. This is just the latest example of the right using “cancel culture” as a rallying cry, Axios notes.

Other examples of fundraising calls issued by the NRCC recently include, “The Liberal mob wants to cancel the Fourth of July” and “The Radical Left wants to cancel Christmas for good.” Meanwhile, as the books’ cancellation drove demand for them way up, eBay announced Thursday it was sweeping its marketplace to delist all copies for sale, the Wall Street Journal reports. Other major retailers, including Barnes & Noble, had also pulled the books, though third-party sellers were still offering them on Amazon (for extravagant prices). One seller whose listing was pulled tells the Journal she was told by eBay that the bok violated its “offensive material policy.” Libraries oppose censorship, and the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tells CNN it will be up to individual libraries to decide whether to pull the books. Two big ones have so far announced the books will stay on shelves, CBS News reports: New York and Denver.

As usual the GOP will take a faux issue and try and drive the dialog to help avoid the fact they have NO principles left…all they have is fake issues that do NOTHING to move this forward or to “make it great again” (to use another worthless slogan)

What a worthless pack of Americans!

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Saturday News Update

The weekend once again….and all the news that did not make the news cycle for the past week….

The most important story that did not make into the silliness that is the MSM is about dogs…..important to me since my best friend is a canine……it seems some flea collars are killing dogs…..

Hundreds of pet deaths and thousands of injuries to pets and humans have been linked to one of the most popular flea and tick collars in the US, according to documents from the EPA. However, there has been no warning about the Seresto collar made by Bayer and sold by Elanco, reports the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The group received the documents from the Center for Biological Diversity, an EPA watchdog. They include 75,000 incident reports related to the top-selling flea and tick collar on Amazon from their introduction in 2012 to June 2020, including almost 1,000 involving injury to humans, from skin rashes to neurological issues. One boy who slept with his collar-wearing dog was hospitalized for seizures and vomiting, according to the report. It also describes tens of thousands of injuries to pets and at least 1,698 pet deaths.

The EPA’s silence “strikes me as bordering on criminal,” says Center for Biological Diversity senior scientist Nathan Donley. “You don’t even see these kinds of numbers with many agricultural chemicals,” he adds, noting the actual number of incidents likely exceeds those reported. The Senesto collar slowly releases imidacloprid and flumethrin, two pesticides “found eligible for continued registration” by the EPA. “No pesticide is completely without harm, but EPA ensures that there are measures on the product label that reduce risk,” a rep says, adding that some pets and humans “are more sensitive than others and may experience adverse symptoms.” An Elanco rep says “an adverse event report does not necessarily mean the product caused the problem.” Customs and Border Protection warned about issues tied to counterfeit versions of the collar in May, per PennLive.

Here in the Deep South fleas are a constant fight…..I use the 3 month pill and it works really well.

“Poo Power!  Power To The Poo!

Looks like there is a possibility that the UK will get some power from waste…..

Thousands of homes could soon be heated by human waste in a first-of-its-kind “poo-power” system.

Thames Water plans to use excess heat recovered from the sewage treatment process to warm more than 2,000 new homes in Kingston, southwest London as part of a regeneration plan.

Rather than returning all of the final treated warm water directly to a river, about one-third will be captured and sent to a new energy centre at the company’s Hogsmill site, where it will help heat water connected to Kingston’s Cambridge Road housing estate.

If successful, up to seven gigawatt hours of low-carbon heat per year could be supplied by a sealed network of pipes to the district heating system at the estate when it is eventually regenerated.

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/thames-water-heating-poo-power-b1808147.html

This is far from a sh*tty idea!

An excellent idea for low income regions to help the poor get nutritious food……

Townhouses were once intended for a 7-acre plot in southeast Atlanta. But the project fell through, and the area needs food more anyway. One-third of the Browns Mill neighborhood’s residents live below the poverty line, and the nearest grocery store is a half-hour away by bus. For Atlanta overall, one-fourth of residents live in food deserts, per CNN. So instead of townhouses, the land is occupied now by 2,500 pesticide-free edible and medicinal plants in what is the nation’s largest free food forest. It’s a project of the city of Atlanta, the Conservation Fund, and Trees Atlanta, funded by a grant from the US Forest Service. The mission has several aspects. “We host lots of students for field trips, and for a lot of them, it’s their first time at a garden or farm or forest,” said Michael McCord, an arborist and expert edible landscaper who helps manage the forest. “So here they get to experience everything urban agriculture and urban forestry all in one day. It’s really special.”

The idea has been around for decades, per Modern Farmer, but city planners recently have been incorporating edible public spaces in their designs. The project is one of 70 free food forests in the US. Laws had to change to allow it; growing food on Atlanta’s residential lots was illegal until 2014. The city has set a goal of having healthy food available within a half-mile of 85% of its population by next year. Atlanta owns the plot, and the parks department manages it with more than 1,000 volunteers pitching in. The volunteers harvest and distribute any food not grown in plots. Members of the community have priority at harvest time. “Every time I go there’s a community there who respects and appreciates the fresh healthy foods,” said a councilwoman who helped get the project going. “There’s a mentality there that people know to only take what they need.” In addition to food, McCord said, “we’re raising awareness about sustainability and agriculture.”

A damn good idea!

Should be more projects like this around the country….we have one ‘community garden’ in my town it helps seniors and low income people get the nutrition they need.

Finally, this shows just how ignorant people can be and still be elected…..this idiot is in Arizona…..

Rep. Joseph Chaplik, a first-term Republican legislator from Scottsdale, said his House Bill 2770 would give businesses the choice of whether to enforce the mandates that many communities already adopted.

Chaplik, however, argued that the mandates are an overreaction and that society has managed to survive other viral outbreaks without masks.

For example, he cited HIV “that was going to wipe our global destruction of human bodies with AIDS.”

 

“We heard about that in the ’80s,” Chaplik said. “Yet no masks were required.”

(tucson.com)

Maybe I can help this moron out about Covid and AIDS….my advice to this dullard….learn to read!

Here is my promise to help this “person” out…..

Medical consensus is that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is spread through exchange of bodily fluids, usually through sexual transmission or through the sharing of infected needles. It is not spread by air or water, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Sad to say it appears stupid is running deep here in the Good Old US of A.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”