I have business traveling I will be doing until the end of July. I have a wireless notebook to use while I travel, but since I’ve never done wireless before I don’t know how much I’ll be online. Things should be OK till the end of June, because I know of wireless sources where I’ll be during that time.
I’m also gone this weekend so there will be no Waukesha Carnival this week. Maybe the week after also.
If you have me in a reader, you’ll know when I’ve posted.
Have a great summer, just in case everything fouls up and I have nothing 
Filed under: Blogging, Waukesha Carnival , Blogging, Waukesha Carnival
There used to be a couple of writers at the Journal Sentinel who used to read the blogs so we didn’t have to. If you don’t stop by No Runny Eggs to read steveeggs Morning Scramble (you can read one here), you really should take a look.
He links to me every so often, so you know the quality of links is superb
Oh, I forgot, he also has a music video to begin each one.
Filed under: Blogging, Wisconsin , The Morning Scramble, Wisconsin blogs
I get my Scientific American today and whaddya know, blogging is good for me.
Self-medication may be the reason the blogosphere has taken off. Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.
And I get fewer visits from the police. And less stuff gets broken around the house.
Alice Flaherty, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, the placebo theory of suffering is one window through which to view blogging. As social creatures, humans have a range of pain-related behaviors, such as complaining, which acts as a “placebo for getting satisfied,” Flaherty says. Blogging about stressful experiences might work similarly.
“A placebo for getting satisfied?” Does that mean blogging is better than sex? I wouldn’t go that far.
Flaherty, who studies conditions such as hypergraphia (an uncontrollable urge to write) and writer’s block, also looks to disease models to explain the drive behind this mode of communication. For example, people with mania often talk too much. “We believe something in the brain’s limbic system is boosting their desire to communicate,” Flaherty explains.
As anyone who is acquainted with me knows, perhaps I write because I don’t talk alot.
Located mainly in the midbrain, the limbic system controls our drives, whether they are related to food, sex, appetite, or problem solving. “You know that drives are involved [in blogging] because a lot of people do it compulsively,” Flaherty notes. Also, blogging might trigger dopamine release, similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.
So runners who blog, like Nick, are probably gonna live 200 years.
Now if it will help me lose those 50 pounds I need to drop.
Filed under: Blogging , Blogging, health
I know it’s the second one, but this one from Spring City Chronicle was just too good,
The state won’t take the cars of people who get charged with 7 OWIs but the Waukesha Water Utility wants to be able to cut off your water for 7 “illegal sprinklings”???
Filed under: Quote of the day , Quote of the day
The Dave Casper Experience. Ok, it’s a week old, but I can’t help it I’ve been busy.
Hillary Clinton has about as much interest in ensuring her party’s strength and nation’s future as she does in snuggling up with Bill at the end of a long day on the campaign trail.
Filed under: Quote of the day , Quote of the day
This is the clever title (well, maybe not so clever since Cato wrote it first) of the latest post by Wisconsin 5th CD candidate, Republican Jim Burkee posted at the Small Business Times and on his Community NOW blog Responsibility Now (which has footnotes where the SBT post doesn’t. BTW, if anyone can figure out how the footnotes work, I would appreciate it. I can’t.).
His basis is that Sensenbrenner was the sponsor of the Real ID Act of 2005 which was responsible for an unfunded mandate that caused the Wisconsin Legislature to raise driver license fees $10 — the Sensenbrenner Tax.
This fee/tax was also involved in the recent budget repair “deal” and a tongue lashing by Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin Assembly Majority leader Mike Huebsch.
Burkee is correct when he says,
With Real ID, Jim Sensenbrenner has managed to unite left and right in opposition.
Of course, Sensenbrenner was just the sponsor. All but 12 Republicans in the House voted for the measure in February 2005 before it was attached as a rider to the military appropriations bill, eight voted “No” and 5 didn’t vote. All three of Wisconsin Republicans voted for the measure, so I’m not sure if Burkee is condemning the entire Republican Party and aligning himself with Ron Paul, who was one of the eight nay votes.
Instead of Real ID, Burkee touts Rep. Paul Ryan’s Employee Verification Act, which seems to have promise, but has not been passed and I doubt it will in the current climate.
I’m not a big fan of Real ID myself, but it seems we need to get something on track. And as Owen has pointed out, the Wisconsin Legislature has already passed the $10 fee and are not rescinding it.
This looks like a spending cut, but it really isn’t. It cuts $21,989,300 for implementing the Real ID Act and transfers the money to the general fund. But implementing the Real ID act is de-facto mandatory unless Wisconsinites are cool with their drivers’ licenses being invalid for federal purposes. So while this looks like a spending cut, it is actually just delaying this spending into the next budget.
Also notice that this was the excuse for the increased vehicle registration fee that was passed in the budget. So now there is a fee that is being collected to implement the Real ID act, but the money is being taken used in the general fund instead. Bait and switch, anyone?
Does this mean it’s no longer Sensenbrenner’s tax?
Filed under: 2008, Elections, Fifth Cong. District, Privacy issues, Republican, Wisconsin , 2008 election, Jim Burkee, Jim Sensenbrenner, Real ID, Wisconsin budget, Wisconsin Fifth Congressional District, Wisconsin legislature
We know that jumping the shark usually happens for several reasons, one of which, and, probably, the most recognizable, is death of a main character.
With a preponderance of shows this spring with a season finale in which someone dies, does this qualify anymore?
Or does it simply mean that more shows are getting desparate?
Filed under: Television , jump the shark, Television
Obviously, this guy knows nothing about Kentucky or the headline would have read,
Ignorant Racist Kentucky Inbred Gun-toting Religious Hillbillies Back Hillary
Filed under: 2008, Elections, Social issues, presidential , 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, bias, Hillary Clinton, racism
I really would like the Brewers to do well.
But remember I said,
This club is no better and may in fact be worse than last year’s 83-79 team. It remains to be seen if Gagne will even regain his form much less be better than Cordero. Does Braun have a sophomore season approaching last year’s rookie year while moving to left field? Does Bill Hall regain his team MVP season of two years ago? Will Sheets remain healthy? Do all those bullpen changes work?
I should have added I was skeptical Fielder could top last year, but you can’t think of everything.
I still hope I’m wrong.
Filed under: Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, Sports , Baseball, Milwaukee Brewers, National League Central
Badger Blogger reported
While BadgerBlogger can not independently confirm this, sources close to the Milwaukee Brewers organization tell BadgerBlogger late this evening, in the midst of another horrid road trip, and on the heels of a sweep by the Boston Red Sox, that Brewers manager Ned Yost will be relieved of his duties during the team’s off day Monday, and replaced on an “interim” basis by team bench coach Ted Simmons.
But swelled all out of proportion after Tom Haudricourt, a serious journalist, who probably, like Cuprisin and Kane, only blogs because his masters at the Journal Sentinel (Journal Communications?) make him, threw “the info out there for your consumption” along with disparaging remarks about bloggers on the Brewers blog that he and Anthony Witrado post to on JSOnline. He was obviously told about the post and not wanting to be scooped by these pesky bloggers, made his own post with his own speculations
Then the fit hit the shan, if you know what I mean. and the dust up gets commented on by Michael “I’m no baseball expert” Mathias and James Wigderson, who even drags Mickey Kaus into it.
Posts multiply upon post (and I admit I’m adding to it) charges and counter charges, source added to source, interviews on radio shows (h/t to Wiggy), speculation, innuendo, with all kinds of supposedly famous people commenting.
OK, I exaggerate. Somewhat.
I’ve been known to do so on occasion.
But it’s great drama.
Filed under: Baseball, Blogging, Drive-by media, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Brewers, Sports, Wisconsin , Baseball, blogs, main stream media, Milwaukee Brewers, National League Central, Ned Yost, Wisconsin blogs
