October 31, 2015

Today's Google Doodle: Interactive Halloween Candy Game

Welcome to the Global Candy Cup, a fierce competition where four extraordinary witches race to collect the most candy before the end of Halloween. Join one witch’s worldwide team and keep playing throughout the day to add to your team’s score. Only one team will go home with the Cup — will it be yours?

https://www.google.com/doodles/halloween-global-candy-cup-2015

(Sorry, I couldn't get it to copy.)

October 26, 2015

PA State Police having recruitment problems:

Pa. State Police recruiters struggle to find a few good men, women

Read more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/8793223-74/police-state-academy#ixzz3ph9IhPX8
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

>snip<

An estimated 1,000 troopers are eligible for retirement this year, and nearly 40 percent of the force will qualify for pensions in the next four years.
The nation's oldest state police agency is on the cusp of a potentially devastating exodus at a time when the pool of candidates interested in joining the agency has reached an all-time low.
For Carpenter and other recruiters, obstacles have multiplied in recent years, with the most daunting being that young men and women are not clamoring to be state troopers as they were in the past.
A 30-year low in unemployment, escalating violence against police and an uptick in officers being charged criminally in connection with on-the-job incidents have made law enforcement work less appealing to potential candidates.


Read more: http://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/8793223-74/police-state-academy#ixzz3ph95OnU4

Interesting article!

October 25, 2015

I think this is my first post in GD-P.

I thought O'Malley gave a great speech. I didn't know he could be that "fired up" because we haven't seen that much of him, except in the debate. He had great delivery, inflection and enthusiasm.

October 23, 2015

Adjourned! Hooray!

At long last.

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October 16, 2015

I love those big old department stores. This one was the best:

I went into mourning when Kaufmann's closed. They had the most magical Christmas windows. I recently read that some of their artifacts are going into the Heinz History Museum in Pittsburgh.

October 15, 2015

A really good article about Margaret Sanger, for a balanced view:

This scholarly article shows how Sanger was influenced by the times in which she lived. It gives a balanced view of her shortcomings, but illustrates that she was also
forward-thinking. The author goes into the how and why of her racial biases which were common at that time, even espoused by Teddy Roosevelt!

Excerpt: ". . . since anti-choice fanatics seem utterly incapable of making an honest argument in support of their position that Black women should be forced into childbirth rather than permitted to make their own decisions about what to do with their bodies, they resort to lies, misinformation, and half-truths about Sanger and the organization she founded."

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/08/20/false-narratives-margaret-sanger-used-shame-black-women/

October 14, 2015

For desert dessert day: Sandies!

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
Directions
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the water and vanilla. Stir in the flour and pecans until well blended. Cover dough and chill for at least four hours.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Shape dough into walnut sized balls or crescents. Place 2 inches apart onto unprepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden. Roll in confectioners' sugar while still warm.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/19207/sandies/print/

October 12, 2015

For a high court justice, Eakin displays a low-brow sense of humor: Good read

By Eric Heyl
Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, 5:15 p.m.
Updated 12 hours ago

<snip>

Taken on a case-by-case basis, many emails that J. Michael Eakin has sent and received prove the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice is unafraid to challenge conventional standards of good taste and decency.

Eakin is the second justice in a year to become ensnared in the ribald email scandal that originated in embattled state Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office. Seamus McCaffrey resigned last October because of revelations he exchanged more than 200 sexually explicit emails with AG Office staffers.

In fairness to Eakin, there is no evidence that he sent or received the offensive emails at work when he should have been earning his $203,000 salary. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, which detailed the contents of about 15 of the correspondences, they were traced to a private Eakin email account.

No one accesses private email accounts on the job, right?

More at link:

Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/ericheyl/9198435-74/eakin-email-features#ixzz3oN8xP9db

October 11, 2015

A cardboard Lexus (if you can't afford the real thing):

Story highlights
London-based LaserCut Works and Scales & Models have created a life-size cardboard replica of a sedan
The car has 1,700 laser-cut cardboard pieces
It is mounted on an aluminium frame and has an electric motor


http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/autos/cardboard-car-lexus-origami/index.html



How did we miss this?!

October 7, 2015

We are in rural PA and are afraid to go outside during all the various hunting seasons.

The farmers hunt on their own land, which is all around us. It will be Ka-pow, Ka-boom from now until spring turkey season, whenever that is. And in the off-season they are shooting at their styrofoam deer decoys.

Other than that, it's really "peaceful" here. (sarcasm)