Supporters of Project Bow: Call your State Legislators to Defeat SB 666

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Aya Katz

Senate Bill 666 is a proposed Missouri law that would put non-human primates and their owners at the mercy of the state, and would among other things provide for the following:

  • microchipping all non-human primates
  • mandatory permits, including fees, for the keeping of a non-human primate
  • for non-human primates to be caged at all times
  • required liability  insurance coverage for $250,000.
  • posting large and conspicuous signs on their property that there is a non-human primate on the premises.
  • obeying any and all regulations to be promulgated in the future about exactly how to care for a non-human primate, and what the premises where one is kept will consist of.

Despite all the calls that we made to the Senate Agriculture Committee, it seems that there was a vote in favor of SB 666 on February 29, 2012.

If this bill passes, it is quite likely that I will lose Bow. It represents a financial hardship that I will not be able to carry, and I have no means to raise the funds to pay for the insurance alone, much less the permit, the microchipping (a process which would pose a health danger to Bow and to anyone attempting to impose it on him) , the signs, the inspections, and the countless government intrusions into my life and home and family, to meet regulations that can change at any moment and where the sky is the limit as to what they might be.

Rather than going into all the details, I would like to share some videos with you, so that you understand what sorts of things these lawmakers want to make impossible not just for my family, but for all other families who adopt non-human primates now and into the future.

Here is a video of  our family on vacation:

YouTube Preview Image

When Bow was little, he was not that difficult to travel with. He posed no danger to others, and he and Sword could play freely. He did not need to be locked up. We had so many great times together.

As Bow grew older, I did find the need to place him in an enclosure. Nobody had to tell me to do it. I understood by myself that the time for free roaming had come to an end. I built a sturdy enclosure in my own home, and it is very secure.

Bow is still part of my family, and we still interact freely, and the public is still safe.

Here is a video of Bow at his most recent birthday:

YouTube Preview Image

If something is not done between now and August of this year to put a stop to this legislation, Bow and I may be separated forever. It is in your hands! Call the Missouri State Legislature and the members of the Agriculture Committee:

Chair: Brian Muntzlinger

Senator Brian Munzlinger’s phone number – (573) 751-7985

Vice Chair: Mike Parson

Senator Mike Parson’s phone number – – (573)751-8793

Member: Dan Brown

Senator Dan Brown’s phone number – (573) 751-5713

Senator Dan Brown

Member: Chuck Purgason

Senator Chuck Purgason’s phone number – – (573) 751-1882

Senator Chuck Purgason

Member: Bill Stouffer

Senator Bill Stouffer’s phone number – – (573) 751-1507

Senator Bill Stouffer

Member: Victor Callahan

Senator Victor Callahan’s phone number  — (573) 751-3074

Senator Victor Callahan

Member: Ryan McKenna

Senator Ryan McKenna’s phone number — (573) 751-1492

Sentator Ryan McKenna

These people are personally responsible for this law. Tell them that they will be held accountable by the voters for their actions. Representative government requires constant vigilance.

Posted in Animals and Pets, Apes and Language, Opinion Pieces and Editorials | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

How to Use a Featured Image on PubWages

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin

Most of us who have been writing on PubWages for some time now use photographs and illustrations in the body of our pubs, and we know how to upload an image and embed it into the text. But did you know that you can also choose an image to put at the top of your page, where the PubWages logo usually goes?

How do we do that? Toward the bottom of the right sidebar, when you are editing your post, there is a slot for a featured image. You can decide to leave that blank, in which case the PubWages logo will appear at the top of the page. But if you click on “Select Featured Image” you can fill the slot with the image of your choice. Once you do that, you can actually see the featured image in the right sidebar.

 

In the screen snapshot embedded above, you can see that the featured image I am using for this post has been selected, and you  can also see that if I wanted to, I could remove it by clicking on the blue underlined text that says “Remove featured image.”

How can we use the featured image capability to enhance our pubs? There are a number of different ways. In her pub reviewing the book Killing Horses, Foxtrotter9 used the featured image to include a photo relating to her pub at the very top of the page, rather than inserting it into the text below the logo. This is a very effective technique and it works well for her post.

Another way that you could use the featured image is if you want to have all the pubs written by you feature their own distinctive image, sort of like your own logo. I have tried doing this for a number of my own posts, using an image of the bookshelves in my dining room. Here is an example, and here is another example. Notice that in the first example, the featured image was related to the content of the article, but in the second example, about  Bow’s hammock, the featured image was not related to the article, but it helped to form a sort of continuity between the different posts by the same author.

You can even make your own logo and post it up there for every pub you write. It is easy to make your own logo, because you can scribble, draw and print anything you want and turn it into a picture in MS Paint or any other software you use.

I know there are a lot of new writing sites out today that lure people with fancy graphic features that allow users to personalize their own space on that site. But we don’t need any fancy graphic features to personalize our own space on PubWages. We can just use the featured image option to good effect!

 

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Killing Horses by Judy Piatt: Local Author Pens Stunning Book After Living…

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Foxtrotter9

50 years after the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, there comes a book, so chilling in its detail and veracity, I will truly never be the same.

Keeping in mind the author is not a writer by trade, and it took her literally decades to write this book, it is on a level that parallels the best non-fiction writers of our time. Detailing the step-by-step deterioration of everyday life on a tranquil Missouri farm, and the long battle to discover the truth, the reader relives Ms. Piatt’s thoughts and emotions with her as the documentary unfolds.

Raising two daughters as a single mother, the author has a successful horse operation in Moscow Mills, MO. An idyllic existence, filled with friends, horse shows, prize breeding stock, and good clean country life is suddenly and tragically interrupted after the horse arena is “oiled” to keep down the dust.

Within weeks, small animals fall sick, and pets tragically die. Dead birds are scooped up by the dozens from the arena. Then the horses fall ill, one by one. The author and her daughters are plagued with a strange rash, and the youngest is hospitalized following a hemorrhage. The doctors at St. Louis Children’s Hospital are mystified. What follows is a heart-wrenching trip down the proverbial rabbit hole, as lies, cover-ups, dereliction of duty, and politics thwart the author’s mission to find what has caused the illnesses. Doing what the regulatory agencies won’t do, the author follows the trucks of Bliss Oil Company, obtaining evidence as they fill up at Monsanto, and dump the vile spew on country roads and fields, in creeks, and sometimes even down the drain at the local car wash!

Written with the aid of Ms. Piatt’s stunning memory, and her life-long habit of keeping notes, the book pulls you in from the first page, and the adult reader will have many “a-ha” moments as they recall certain events. The efforts of the author ultimately resulted in removal of Times Beach from the map after the toxic pollution by the perpetrator of her own tragedy was discovered in levels incompatible with life, human or otherwise.

A subtle undercurrent, one that the astute reader will pick up on, is the cause of this tragedy: was it simple ignorance of the dangers of chemicals in the early 1970’s, or the dark side of the horse business, where less successful horsemen seek to damage their perceived competition? Can simple greed rise to levels so unconcerned with both human and animal life? How could the EPA be so non-responsive in the face of overwhelming evidence? And what chemical dangers may be in our own backyard?

This book should be mandatory reading in veterinary schools throughout the country. While giving kudos to kind, caring and knowledgeable vets who went out of their way to help the animals, other practitioners were somewhat dismissive, and missed an opportunity as healers to diminish the almost unimaginable suffering of the people and animals depicted in this book.

Judy Piatt now lives and works in Licking, where she owns and operates the Chuckwagon Café. To learn more about the book, visit www.killinghorses.com.

Posted in Animals and Pets, Books and Authors, PubWages Staff | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Book review: Second String, by Anthony Hope

Posted on February 14, 2012 by AEHammond

Second String is a story of class differences, small-town scandal, politics and romance in early 20th Century England. Published in 1910, this novel has recently become available on Project Gutenberg.  Link to the book: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38796

Our hero, Andy Hayes, has just returned from Canada to his small home-town of Meriton, not far from London. There he meets his old friend Harry Belfield, the son of a wealthy estate owner. Harry is a candidate for Parliament, and he enlists Andy to help by speaking on his behalf at meetings.

The two young men are very different. Harry has all the advantages of wealth and education, but he is a wastrel and a playboy. Andy, on the other hand, is from a respectable but not wealthy home. He has only a grammar-school education, but he is sensible, serious, and hard-working. Andy worships Harry and thinks he can do no wrong. He is flattered to be invited to Harry’s home and to be introduced to Harry’s social circle in London. Harry accepts the adulation as due and proper from a “lower class” person like Andy. Andy is the “second string” of the title, always a follower of his friend Harry.

The intrigue starts when Harry becomes engaged to Miss Vivien Wellgood, all the while carrying on a secret flirtation with Vivien’s hired companion, Miss Isobel Vintry. Harry’s father, a widower, also has his eye on Miss Vintry as a possible wife. When Andy discovers the secret relationship of Harry and Isobel, he begins to see that his friend is not so perfect a gentleman after all, but he says nothing, out of loyalty to his friend. But when the elder Mr. Belfield finds Harry kissing Isobel, the scandal breaks, Harry ends his engagement to Vivien and elopes with Isobel. His father is outraged and Harry’s reputation and hopes for Parliament are dashed.

Andy, the second stringer, reluctantly comes to the fore. He takes Harry’s place in the Parliamentary election, which he wins with the support of old Mr. Belfield. He becomes the hero of the town, and after some time, also gains the affection of Miss Wellgood, who becomes his wife.

Anthony Hope (1863-1933), the author of this charming novel, is best known for his book “The Prisoner of Zenda,” which inspired the 1937 movie of the same name. Many of Hope’s novels are available from Project Gutenberg.

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How You Can Help Project Gutenberg

Posted on February 13, 2012 by AEHammond

Do you like to read? Do you think that books should be free? Do you have some spare time?

Project Gutenberg (PG) (www.gutenberg.org) is an organization devoted to making electronic texts available free to everyone. All PG books are free of copyright in the United States. This means that the vast majority of the texts are old. The texts are scanned, digitized, and uploaded to the site in several formats. Most are available as plain text and html. Many are available in special formats for e-readers. PG also publishes audio books, musical scores and recordings, and photographs.

There are many ways to help PG, but the easiest is to volunteer with Distributed Proofreaders (DP)(www.pgdp.net). The concept of DP is to distribute the work of preparing an electronic book among a number of individuals, each doing a small part of the project. The book starts with a scanned image that has been processed through an OCR (optical character recognition) program. The OCR text is examined by three rounds of proofreaders, with each page being seen by three different individuals. After proofreading, the text goes to the formatters, who add markup for things like italics, boldface, poetry, block quotations, and chapter headings. After formatting, the entire text goes to the post-processor, who will put the pages together, resolve any issues raised by the proofers or formatters, and prepare a final text and usually also an html version of the book, which will be uploaded to Project Gutenberg.

As a beginner with DP, there are three types of tasks you can volunteer to do: proofreading, formatting, and smooth reading. For proofreading or formatting, you must register with DP and get a password. Anyone can do smooth reading.

Beginning proofreaders work in round P1. You will see only one page at a time of the text, and the pages you see may not be consecutive. Your job is to compare the scans with the OCR output and correct the OCR to match the scan. You are also expected to make a comment if you see something you think is a typographical mistake in the original. Many of the books available in P1 are in languages other than English, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work on them! There is a wide range of books to choose from, and you can stay with one book or skip around and try a few pages of several. For example, at the time I’m writing this article, texts in the P1 round include a biography of an admiral, a mathematical text, a history of travels in the western United States from 1748-1846, the 11th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a chemistry text in French written by Lavoisier, and many other fascinating topics. If you are the kind of person, like me, who enjoys correcting the errors of others, you will find proofreading addictive. You will also get a good laugh now and again when the OCR misreads the text in a funny way, as it did this morning when I found a reference to “the virgin Marv” in a book about the Knights Templars.

Formatting will appeal to the type of person who likes to arrange and organize things. As a beginning formatter, you will work in round F1. You will also see one page at a time, with the original scan and the output of the third round of proofreading. Some pages will need no marking at all, others a lot. A large table, for example, may take an hour or more to format. It’s your job to make sure the spacing is correct around the titles, to mark the footnotes and illustrations, and to make sure the lines of a poem are indented correctly. Some formatters even specialize in tables or indices. At this time, there isn’t a lot of work for F1, but there is a big backlog in F2. That’s because to qualify for F2 you must do a certain number of pages in F1 and pass a test. There aren’t enough F2 formatters to keep up with the output from F1.

What if you want to read the whole book instead of getting one page at a time? Then smooth reading is for you. The smooth reader gets the book, usually in plain text format, after the post-processor has put it together, but before it is uploaded to Project Gutenberg. All you have to do is to read the book as you normally would, paying extra attention to possible errors in punctuation or spelling that may have slipped through. You make your notes right in the text, and send the annotated text back to the post-processor. The fun of smooth reading is that you get to see the book before anyone else does, and you get to read things that you perhaps wouldn’t normally read. Examples of books now available for smooth reading are: Old Time Wall Papers, The Camp Fire Girls Solve a Mystery, History of Painting in Italy, The Trial of Oscar Wilde, and A Population Study of the Prairie Vole. There’s something for everyone in smooth reading!

I hope this short description of Project Gutenberg and Distributed Proofreaders has piqued you interest and that you’ll want to check out some of the fascinating old books on these sites.

Posted in PubWages Staff | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lyric Legend App Review

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Peppergum01

Lyric Legend is an amazing app for the iPod/iPhone/iPad. It’s really good for people who love music. When you first go into it you can choose either single player, multiplayer, how to play, song store, or options. Basically what you do is you get to choose what song you want and then it will start. You have to press the lyrics as it sings them. You can get high scores.

Single player- You can just pick a song and play it by yourself by pressing the lyrics as it’s singing them.

Multiplayer- You can either host a game or join a game here.

How To Play- It explains and shows you how to play.

Song Store- You can buy more songs with gold notes or get a few free ones.

Options- You can change your profile around, go to library management, choose a language, look at high scores, see the information about it, and even see frequently asked questions.

This app is very enjoyable, fun, and entertaining. I recommend it and I’d give it a 9.5/10.  It was also free at the app store when I got it.

For more information and a full review on this app watch this video which I do not own:

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Summer Makeup Advice

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Peppergum01

Summer is a fun time of the year wear different makeup looks. Normally good colors for summer makeup are in the warmer tones such as: Red, orange, yellow, and pink. A lot of people like to be very colorful in the summer and here are some colors I suggest:

Eyeshadow: Red and orange blended together.

Eyeliner: Gel or pencil.

Mascara: Brown or black.

Blush: Any warm toned.

Lips: Nude lipstick and coral lip gloss.

Also, in the summer many people get tan easily like to use darker concealer and foundation. But the people who don’t get tan just use their regular medium or light concealer and foundation. Summer makeup always looks very fun and colorful which is another reason why this is my favorite season. Hopefully this will help you for when summer comes around.

To see how to make a nice summer look watch this video which I do not own:

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Winter Makeup Advice

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Peppergum01

There are many colors that you can use in the winter for your makeup. But the ones that look the best in the winter are the cooler colors such as : blue, purple, white, and sometimes even gray. You can also use darker colors in the winter too. So here is what I think would look wonderful in the winter:

Eyeshadow: Icy blue and crystal white colors blended together.

Eyeliner: Pencil or liquid.

Mascara: Blackest black.

Blush: A berry color.

Lips:  Berry lip stick and nude lip gloss.

Most people’s skin is also quite light in the winter so you’ll probably be using a lighter concealer and foundation. Of course, you can always wear warmer shades of colors if you’d like to in the winter but this is what I’d usually wear. However, everyone has their own opinion but I hope this advice helps you get through the winter.

To see how to make one of the winter looks watch this video which I do not own:

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How To Make Eye Makeup Remover

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Peppergum01

Some people don’t have the time or money to go out and buy makeup remover every few weeks. So to make it you will need:

1. Gentle cotton pads

2. Aloe Vera water

3.  Extra Virgin olive oil

First pour than less of half a cup of extra virgin olive oil into a bottle of aloe vera water. Shake it together so they combine. Quickly pour a little bit onto a cotton pad or cotton ball before the two elements separate. Gently place it on your eye makeup and leave it for a few seconds. The oil will break down the makeup. Then gently sweep the pad away from your eye. Your makeup should have dissolved now. Now you can clean your entire face.

Make sure to always remove your makeup at the end of the day. If you don’t it can clog up your pores and can cause acne or zits on your face. Always get it off to keep your face healthy. Give it time to breathe. And when you are wearing makeup, make sure not to cake it on and put small amounts at a time. Hopefully this will help keep your skin clean and healthy.

To watch how it’s done watch this video which I do not own:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMSKRpiUZWE

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