Vacationing at home

I just finished with an intense period of work, including trying part of a jury case that ended in a mistrial when the opposing attorney was rushed to the hospital with internal bleeding.  

Trying lawsuits can be exhausing work.  Really exhausting.  My wife (Anne) saw that look in my eyes, and insisted that I could really use a day or two to recover.  She suggested that I spend a night at a cabin at nearby Pere Marquette State Park (in Grafton Illinois).  This was really tempting, but I thought twice about doing that when I called the park and I was reminded of the cost of $125 for one night.   Did I really earn that sort of retreat? Did I want to travel that far to “get away?”

I considered plan B:  stay at home.  This would offer me the advantage of being with my wife and children, and I’ve really been craving time with them during the many evenings I’ve recently spent at work.  But Anne insisted, “You really need to get away and do nothing for a day.”

Then I considered plan C.   I visited Priceline for the first time last night.  This site gives you a chance to bid what you think a hotel is worth.   I got the idea of doing something I’d never done before:  taking a vacation in my hometown, in downtown St. Louis.  But I didn’t want to spend much.   Therefore, I placed a bid of only $40 for one night at a …

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Where are the wild Tigers? The danger of our obliviousness to incrementalism.

In the February 2008 edition of Natural History Magazine (article not available online), you can learn where tigers still live in the wild.  At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 100,000 tigers living in the wild.  Today, there are only 5000 in the wild. tiger2 Tigers now inhabit only 7% of their original territory, which has shrunk by 41% in the past 10 years.  Those relatively few tigers that remain in the wild hunt wild cattle, deer and pigs in isolated pockets of forested land in India, Sumatra, Eastern Russia in southern China.  Tigers are hunted illegally for pelts and for tiger parts that are used in medicines (such as tiger penis soups).


But did you know how many tigers live in United States?  7,000 to 15,000 tigers live

in private roadside zoos, circuses, sanctuaries, farms and backyards in the US.  Owners are often deluded into thinking that they contain the creatures, treating them like house cats, perhaps attracted by the challenge.  Yet even house cats, which

have been domesticated for thousands of years will reach out and swat their human companions.  What happens when a six month old sixty-pound beast with claws and slicing incisors takes a swipe?

Are these privately owned tigers allowed to run in large open areas and kept in good health?  Not likely.  Many tigers are kept in cages much too small for them and they are “fed insufficient or inappropriate food, such as canned dog food.”

tiger-lo res.jpg

The Natural History article indicates that tigers …

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Keillor: Don’t trash No Child Left Behind just because it is a conservative idea

Garrison Keillor is disturbed that so many children are not being properly educated to read proficiently.   He argues that not all damage being done to our children's education is being done by conservatives.   Face it, the schools are not run by Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats but by…

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Inventory of word used in the State of the Union Speeches since 2001

This inventory was published by the NYT. You can see what the Bush Administration wants us to think about (and what not to think about) by reference to this graph.  Also, check the President's plummeting approval ratings at the bottom of the chart.

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Another book argues that teenage girls would rather be sexy than clever.

The Telegraph is reporting on a new book that argues that teenaged girls are being corrupted by distorted images of what it means to be a woman.  In a society that celebrates people such as Paris Hilton, girls are being brainwashed into believing that promiscuity is synonymous with success, says…

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