America needs The Maps

"The children of the US America are in deep trouble. Because some people out there don't have maps..
Such as South Africa."

Therefore, you must email maps to make it better.

Cow is just a number...

Found this interesting research courtesy of Library Guy.

The research documents among other things, that from 1856 to 1978, US library users borrowed about 15 books per user per year. From 1978 to 2004, book circulation per user declined approximately 50%.

Does this mean something for our society? Cow has commented before about being one of two persons in her office to have, and to use, a library card (of 15 persons).

Whatever the reason, Cow really likes the way Galbi writes. Here's a sample of what Oxford and the MIT could have done for you, too:

"In the U.S., many persons are obsessed with being number 1. Here at the Carnival of the Bureaucrats, we applaud popular enthusiasm for being a number. But bureaucrats are capable of producing many numbers, each unique and special. What's important is not what number you are, but what that number actually means."

And Cow, of course, is number 186,282.

Moo!

Awwww!.....

So, monkey moms talk "baby-talk" to their young'uns....

don't know what more to say about this except awwwwwwwwwww!

Photo credit.

New kinds of clouds

Even after the late summer sun has slipped below the horizon, clouds far above the Earth’s surface reflect the waning rays of light.

These noctilucent clouds have only appeared in the last two hundred years. Composed of microscopic ice crystals, they form fifty miles up; by comparison, white puffy clouds are only a few miles up. In recent years the clouds have appeared to grow brighter, leaving scientists wondering why.

Read more
Image courtesy of NASA.

Limitations and overcoming them

Have been listening to Dave Ramsey: Find something you're passionate about, pour your next decade into it...do written goals: on paper, on purpose...what else have you got to do? Overcome your obstacles, do it. Kill something and drag it home. Look in the mirror....

Topiary has been motivated to get that trimming done, today!

The Luck Virus

Those who were 'lucky' enough to be infected from birth do have it all...and pass it on to their children.

Those still trying to 'catch' it have attempted various methods of transmission. No one method has yet been shown to be universally effective. But they hope their luck will hold out...

Not this one though. This is ebola. No relation to luck at all.

Moo!

Diplomatic Immunity

There have been some complaints about Topiary driving.

As you can see from this gorgeous photo taken outside the Land of Topiary embassy, the Topiary flag (pictured, 18th from left) is a thing of beauty.

When you see it flying, best to get out of the way. Topiary recognizes no boundaries, nor stop lights, nor rights-of-way. Topiary only recognizes Topiary Shears.

Moo!

Homeless

70,000 puppies and kittens are born every day in the USA.There will never be enough homes for all these animals. Almost 8,000,000 dogs and cats are euthanized each year because there are no homes for them.

Pet overpopulation is a tragedy of our time. Topiary just wants every pet to have a good home.

Moo!

Scarcity and value

In some countries, the MD degree will allow you to make less than many taxi drivers. Thus, for instance, in Egypt, you find many qualified physicians driving cabs.

The trick of the American Medical Association has been to create scarcity along with demand by restricting numbers of medical schools and number of student slots. This has created pent-up demand which has been met by the number of foreign-medical-school graduates (FMGs)coming to America to practice and get rich.

Although FMGs participate in the system of artifically-induced shortages and gain benefits of inflated salaries because of this, ultimately they will probably overturn the system as the number of FMGs decreases the artificial shortage of American physicians.

Other graduate degrees, such as the MLS, would greatly benefit from a ruling body restricting the number of schools and graduates, imposing licensure requirements for all librarians to be able to practice, and somehow creating insatiable demand for degreed librarian services (difficult).

Could this be done, it would be the librarians with lucrative private practices, attentive staffs, new BMWs and the adoration of society.

Moo!

Planets all round us

Granted, Cow often bewails living in such a mechanized, car-centric world, with too much pollution, wastage of resources, loss of wildland habitat.

But, isn't it cool that we do live in a time where planets are understood? Where, when you look at the sunset, you know it is our sun, and we are a planet, instead of like, with Early Man, just another of the unending roll-call of things not understood.

Moo!