http://www.coxesroost.net/journal Asking the Stupid Questions since 1971 Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:47:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today I learned that my daughter's 3rd grade class takes their clipboards to the school garden, and then writes something about what they observe. On Friday, they wrote one of each type of sentence. The Big Sister showed us where her teacher posts what the class writes. I expected that ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/09/06/complex-sentences I read in The Poughkeepsie Journal the other day that Dutchess County is considering widening 1.8 miles of Noxon Road, and that the project requires Federal approval because they're providing 80% of the funds for it. The United States Federal Highway Administration is providing 80 percent of the estimated $3 million ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/09/06/internal-improvements Every now and again I would appreciate a comment on here that's not spam. http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/09/05/the-transcendent-challenge-of-our-time The speakers at the Republican convention are harping on exploiting domestic energy sources in order to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil. Because, after all, Canada is an unreliable trading partner. And the world market never, ever, impacts the prices of domestic goods. http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/09/04/foreign-oil-slicks There seems to be some frustration over John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. Most of what I've read has concentrated on her inexperience and relative anonymity in the lower 48. One variation on this is the "I'm more qualified than she is" response. I ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/08/31/when-you-grow-up-you-can-be-president We were out the island on Sunday for the celebration of a baptism, and a day at the beach. (Say what you will about Robert Moses, he did know how to build a park — and parkways.) Before we left the restaurant to return home, our hosts asked if we ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/08/27/oriented I wonder if Google tweaks PageRank to reflect links shared in instant messengers, Google Reader, Twitter, and other semi-public channels. http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/08/19/on-the-infrequency-of-posts Zimran, thanks for linking to Michael Lewis's piece on Sarkozy's attempt to make the French more productive. It is funny, but given my circumstances at the moment, I would pull out this quote. Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president, has decided that the French need to become more productive. He eliminated ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/08/08/yr%c3%b7hours-workedyr While in Virginia for Camp Binky, I read a bunch of papers that my sister had found in Grandmother's collection of family histories. It turns out that my father's great-grandfather's mother weighed 575 pounds. My aunt has her chair. It's five or six feet wide. My sister has her apron; ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/08/07/big-woman I was looking at the Electoral College maps at 270toWin and noticed something interesting about the 1860 election that I had not seen before. The ranking by Electoral votes had Lincoln with 180, Breckinridge with 72, Bell with 39, and Douglas with 12. Typical high school textbooks, in their inanity, ... http://www.coxesroost.net/journal/2008/07/26/what-if