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October 28, 2005

FOUR FOR FRIDAY

Q1: What are the directions for making a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich?

Q2: How many weddings have you been to, and what is your most memorable wedding-related moment?

Q3: Would you rather spend money on good times and nice things now or invest it for the future?

Q4: Earlier this week, while acknowledging that there's an acute shortage of priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops from around the world reaffirmed the Church's stance on celibacy for its clergy. In your opinion, should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?

Posted by Mikal at 12:01 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

MIERS WITHDRAWS SUPREME COURT NOMINATION

The Associated Press is reporting this morning that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. Quoting President George W. Bush, the AP states President Bush reluctantly accepted Miers' decision to withdraw, after weeks of insisting that he fully supported her nomination and did not want her to step down.

The AP is also reporting that the Bush Administration is blaming Miers' withdrawal on calls within the U.S. Senate for the release of internal White House documents that the administration had insisted were protected by executive privilege.

In other news, the President announced today that he intends to nominate another personal friend and 'pioneer' financial contributor to his election campaigns--Marilyn Ware, of Pennsylvania--to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Finland. Ms. Ware, who currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for the Ware Family Office, a private company which designs and initiates business ventures and investment opportunities for the sole benefit of her own family, has no direct experience with working in Finland or with Finish authorities (nor do I suspect she even speaks enough Finnish or Swedish). Ms. Ware previously served as Chairman of Board of American Water Works Company, and in 2002 was appointed by the President to serve as a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, a group appointed by the President to provide him with advice on the security of information systems for critical infrastructure supporting banking and finance, transportation, energy, manufacturing, and emergency government services. Ware also holds a seat on the Board of Directors of the CIGNA Corporation, where she chairs the Corporate Governance Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of IKON Office Solutions.

Oh, and in case you're wondering... in the last few years alone, Ware, along with her mother--Marian S. Ware--have donated over $350,000.00 in soft money to the Republican National Committee.

Posted by Mikal at 8:14 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

October 26, 2005

In an apparent effort to lure health-conscious consumers into the company's 30,000 restaurants, McDonald's today unveiled a new packaging format that includes a nutritional information chart on the packaging of most of its fast food products. Graphics for calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, and sodium will appear on packaging for McDonald's food products along with a value and the daily-recommended allowances based on governmental nutritional guidelines starting in March of 2006. Here in the U.S., the labels will appear in English and Spanish, while in Canada labels will be in English and French.

Reaction from one of McDonald's sharpest critics has been swift and to the point:

While I feel McDonald's is making a step in the right direction, I agree wholeheartedly with Jacobson and CSPI. Putting nutritional information onto packagingópackaging that isnít even seen by the consumer until after theyíve ordered, paid for, and taken delivery of their foodóis not going nearly far enough. Menu boards, along with traditional restaurant menus themselves, must present calorie values up front in order for consumers to know what theyíre really eating.

McDonald's also needs to go a step further by distinguishing between saturated and trans fat from total fatóan important distinction. As it stands right now, McDonaldís fried foods are high in saturated and trans fat, with their potatoes, chicken, and fish all being fried in partially hydrogenated oil.

Finally, I think it's quite timely to note the following: in a study released just last week (called the McSubway Project), researchers interviewed 300 people as they finished their lunches at a McDonald's or Subway restaurant, asking each what they ate and how many calories they thought they had consumed. Researchers then calculated the number of calories actually consumed by adding up the calories in the foods and subtracting the calories in their leftovers. Among the findings presented last week at the annual meeting of Maryland-based NAASO, also known as the Obesity Society, an organization of weight-loss professionals:

The study clearly shows that McDonald's customers know that theyíre consuming a lot of calories, while those who eat at Subway experience whatís being called a 'halo effect,' allowing them to think they were eating better than they actually are. McDonaldís recent announcement that theyíll add nutritional information to its packaging may have the same impact, especially if consumers have no idea of how many calories equals one pound.

October 23, 2005

Here's how it works: Visit Google.com, and put your first name followed by the word needs in quotations in Google's search box (for example, "mikal needs") and click the 'Google Search' button. Write down the top 10 results. Here are mine:

October 22, 2005

Great news for those of us who like snow... From this morning's online edition of The Indianapolis Star:

According to the Star, the earliest freeze on record for Indianapolis occurred on the 30th of September, way back in 1899; while the average date upon which Indianapolis typically receives its first hard freeze of the year on the 16th of October.

October 21, 2005

Q1: When you're in the privacy of your own home, what--if anything--do you tend to read while youíre in the bathroom?

Q3: On this date in 1915, American Telephone and Telegraph Company engineers in Arlington, Virginia, initiated the very first transatlantic radiotelephone call (they called a telephone placed at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France). What was the last country you placed a call to besides your own?

Q4: If you had picked the winning numbers in this week's Powerball Jackpot, which was worth an estimated $340,000,000.00, you would have been given the option of choosing between a one-time cash payment of $170 Million, or 30 annual payments of approximately $5.6 Million each. Which would you choose and why?

October 20, 2005

I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday afternoon using Skype (very cool and useful technology, by the way). Christoph--who was one of my roommates when I lived in Boulder, Colorado, and now lives in Muenchen, Germany--asked me the following question:

My answer? "Oh, it's quite simple actually... politics in the USA is a lot like pizza.î

Well, think of the people who voted for George W. Bush as being the type of folks who like meat toppings on their pizza, while those who voted for John Kerry are strict vegetarians, opting instead for veggie only toppings on theirs.

Now, while it's true that more voters opted for the meat toppings in the last round of elections--and that nearly a year later the meat pizza they ordered doesn't taste as good as the one they'd previously ordered--being meat eaters, these citizen voters are choosing to stick with the meat topping.

You see, no matter how rancid their meat pizza may taste or how sick it may make them or the people they feed it to, to the meat toppers, all they can bring themselves to do is call the waiter over and complain about the taste of their pizza. Never, hardly ever, does it occur to them to actually order another type of pizza, especially a vegetarian one. Even though the vegetarian pizza may be better for them (and the rest of us, I might add), the majority of people who make the decision about what pizza topping should be ordered, like the meat pizza so much that they're willing to eat it slice after slice after slice, inducing massive doses of food poisoning, day after day after day after day.

- Why did so many people vote a Bush a year ago? Because, simply stated, they like meat pizza. Also, it didn't help vegetarian's cause any that it didn't give the voters a compelling reason to order it instead of the meat pizza.

- Why do so many people feel Bush is doing a bad job now? Because they're finally experiencing the symptoms of food poisoning... mainlyÖ nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness (lots of dizziness), fainting, rapid heart rate, and of course, diarrhea.

- Why is President Bush still in office? Because pizza lovers have an inherent need to be right about, well, everything, especially the toppings they choose for their pizza. If they get to be right, that means everyone who disagrees with them gets to be wrong.

Right verses wrong, that's how it works here in the USA, and it's not just the meat eaters who play this game. The vegetarian's do the exact same thing... they hold press conference after press conference complaining about how bad the meat toppings are for you, hardly ever acknowledging proteinís role in a well rounded diet.

If you ask me, Christoph, US citizens eat way too much pizza, both of the meat and vegetarian varieties. For some reason, we're committed in our belief that two toppings--both of which are on extreme opposite sides of the menu--are all that we need to choose from. God forbid we choose to add low-calorie options to the menu like salads and soups, or more heart-healthy choices like fish and chicken.

Here in the USA, peopleís eyes are bigger than their plates, and regardless of how sick or overweight they may become, voters have been conditioned to believe that they absolutely have to finish what's on their plates.

October 18, 2005

Have you seen or heard about this one yet? It's a series of television commercials promoting the October 20th launch of something, but what? Click here to see for yourself. The commercial claims:

- With it's sleek design and incredible handling, it can turn on a dime.
- It can hold up to 2,500 of your favorite songs.
- It can cook anything from succulent chicken to Chateaubriand.
- It doesn't lose suction.
- It was designed by German engineers and developed in Sweden by renowned Japanese scientists.
- It has over 1,700 lines of resolution.

So, it's a German-engineered car with an MP3 player and in-dash DVD player, complete with an engine so hot it can cook meals with the precision of a gourmet chef? Probably not, but whatever it is, the advertising agency that created the campaign has done a great job of creating buzz about it. And while we wont know what it is for another couple of days, maybe someone can tell me right now what in the heck this is (we stumbled across this a couple of weeks ago down in Nashville, Indiana):

UPDATE -- 10/24/05: It is eBay, and the commercials I reported seeing are part of a new advertising campaign for the 2005 holiday shopping season. According to various news sourses, the campaign is designed to attract new buyers by promoting the wide range of things you can buy on eBay. If you haven't caught the televised version of the ad, you can see it during Monday Night Football, Desperate Housewives, Lost and Alias, and during the World Series on Fox. Print ads are set to appear next month in popular magazines, including People, Time, Oprah, and Rolling Stone.

October 17, 2005

Here are my results from this past Saturday's 10th Annual Indianapolis Marathon & Half-Marathon:

Time: 2:54:09 (my fastest time ever!)
Pace: 13:18 per mile
Overall Place: 1,031st out of 1,237 total runners
Gender Place: 534th out of the 565 men who ran the race
Division Place: 98th out of the 101 men who ran in the 40-44 year-old age category

While 2:54:09 is four minutes and nine seconds (4:09) slower than what I was aiming for, it is three minutes and twenty seconds (3:20) faster than my previous personal best for the half-marathon, so I'm pretty pleased with the result. (As for the soreness in my arms and legs... well, that does sorta suck, but hey, no pain, no gain, right?)

October 15, 2005

In a few hours I'll be out at Fort Benjamin Harrison on the east side of Indianapolis (officially, I think it's called Lawrence) participating in the 10th Annual Indianapolis Marathon / Half-Marathon. This year's race marks the fifth time I'll run/walk a half-marathon, with the goal still being to someday participate in and complete a full marathon (most likely Chicago's or maybe even next year's 26+ mile run here in Indianapolis).

Anyway, my previous attempts at the half-marathon have successfully ended like this:

- 2004 Indianapolis Half-Marathon (Oct. 16, 2004): 2:57:29
- 2004 500 Festival Half-Marathon (May 10, 2004): 3:15:00
- 2003 Indianapolis Half-Marathon (Oct. 18, 2003): 3:36:47
- 2003 500 Festival Half-Marathon (May 3, 2003): 4:01:18

Today, I'm aiming to finish in two hours and fifty minutes (2:50:00); which is around seven minutes better than the personal best I set last October when the race was run in 50-degree temperatures.

The weatherman says today's race will be run under sunny skies with temperatures in the low 60's, so it might be a little easier to loosen up and shave valuable time when and where it couts mosts (for me, that's usually over the last three miles or so of the race). We'll see. I'll post my time later this afternoon, after I get home and devour a medium pizza from either Domino's or Pizza Express (hey, that's just part of the... err 'my' tradition).

October 14, 2005

Q1: When you were in high school or college, did you purchase/wear a class or school ring? If so, do you wear it anymore?

Q2: How often do you use a public or college or university library? What's the last book you checked out of a library?

Q3: Earlier this week, Apple introduced a video-enabled version of its ubiquitous iPod. Do you own an iPod or MP3 player? If so, do you download and listen to non-music podcasts? If you do listen to podcasts, which ones are you currently subscribed/listening to? If you do not own an iPod or comparable device, would you like to have one? If so, do you think you'd use your new iPod mostly for music or podcasts?

Q4: How concerned are you about a widespread outbreak of what's being called the Avian Flu?

October 13, 2005

As I wrote around this same last year, for the past 10 days or so, Jewish people all across the globe have been observing what is commonly referred to as The High Holy Days... a time of year when Jews are meant to reflect upon and examine the relationship they have with God (and with other human beings, too), and where we attempt to right past wrongs, as well as ask for forgiveness for the intentional and unintentional wrongs we know weíve committed. This year's version of The High Holidays officially kicked into high gear on the 4th of October with the marking of Rosh Hashanah (that's the Jewish New Year, by the way), and ends this evening at sundown (6:07 p.m. here in Indy) with the winding down of Yom Kippur, otherwise known as The Day of Atonement.

Many people have heard that Jews choose to fast i.e., not eat any food for around 24+ hours or so, on Yom Kippur, which is exactly what I'm in the midst of doing this morning (no food, only water--and a diet Dr. Pepper--since I went to gym and then a class at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon).

As a child, I was taught that the intention of fasting was not to torture or punish myself for the sins I committed. Rather, fasting was supposed to help me to transcend my physical nature so that I could connect with the most unselfish aspect of myself. I was also taught that praying without concern for food would allow me to completely focus on my prayers.

Well, to be honest about it, for me, ever since I was old enough to create meaning for myself, the fasting (read: the extreme hunger) has served as an intense reminder of all that I have done wrong in the past year, and thatís exactly why I choose to do it. The fasting encourages my ëprayersí (for lack of a better word), and reminds me that I must hold myself accountable for all of my actions, misdeeds included.

As I shared last year, these last 12 months has been remarkable ones. I've had the opportunity to interact with, and be a part of, so many different lives. For most, I know for certain that I was a positive influence... I was someone who was fully-engaged and supportive. For others though, well, quite frankly, I'm sure I was not.

So here it is (and I assure you that just because this is being shared in such an open forum, these words are not hollow ones)... If I offended you over the last year with any of my actions, motives, or words, please accept my apology. I'm a work in progress, and some days, especially today, I wonder if the work will ever be done.

As always, thanks for reading this post, as well as for being a part of my life, and for allowing me to be a part of yours. Sincerely, if I have upset anyone, please know that I am sorry and that I am committed to being more mindful of all of my actions (and reactions, too).

October 12, 2005

Just in time for Halloween, we stumbled across these interesting looking mushrooms while hiking around Ogle Lake at Brown County State Park (Nashville, IN).

Does anyone know what these mushrooms are called, as well as what the adaptation is that makes them orange? In other words, in the spirit of fall and Halloween, did some enterprising park ranger spread food coloring over them in order to spice things up a bit, or is the coloring natural and meant to deter predators, i.e., Bambi and Raccoon Ralph , from gobbling it up? Just wondering if anyone knows?

October 10, 2005

To recap... Last week, upon hearing of the President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, I contacted a few well-connected Texas-based friends (all of whom who work in the legal profession--and because of their jobs/posts, probably know Miers' or know of her in ways that the normal everyday American wouldn't) to see what each thought of the Miers' nomination.

As I wrote last Monday, one friend--a former president of the Houston Bar Association and once a partner in a firm where Miers worked--shared that he had indeed personally worked with her, liked her, and felt that despite the fact that her connections to Bush (she has previously served as his personal lawyer) potentially calls into question her ability to remain unbiased on certain matters, he felt she was probably a good choice. Not necessarily a ringing endorsement, but it's something.

Another friend--this one a Senior Counsel for a large Dallas-based law firm who spent five years as the City of Dallas' Chief Prosecutor--has also weighed in. He writes:

If it helps to know, both of the lawyers who have thus far offered an opinion on Miers are pretty liberal. The Dallas-based attorney struggled with his decision to leave the City of Dallas and go to work for a big law firm. In his own words... A lot more money, and I still feel a need to apologize to my secretary for giving her work. The other lawyer, the first one to weigh in on Miers, does a great deal of pro-bono work for not-for-profit adventure-based organizations like Outward Bound, and has been dubbed by Outside Magazine the Dean of the outdoor legal community.

October 7, 2005

October 4, 2005

Just two months after hanging ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 Certification banners in front of many of its Circle City locations (click here for that story), the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Indiana has served several local Veolia water management company officials with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating the falsification of water quality records in Indianapolis.

According to several local news sources, at the same time that subpoenas were being served at the homes of at least four water management staffers, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) agents swooped down upon several of Veolia's Indianapolis water treatment plants and other locations across the city to conduct surprise water testing. According to one particular news broadcast, state IDEM agents took samples of Veolia water from locations from all along the city of Indianapolis' water treatment lines, as well as from the faucets in a number of private homes and businesses. IDEM officials are saying an independent lab is analyzing the samples, and that test results could take as long as a week to come back.

For its part, Veolia has released a statement confirming that four of its management-level officials were served subpoenas and will be called before a grand jury to testify. "We are fully cooperating and providing requested information," the statement reads. "Public trust is important to us--the public should have every confidence in its drinking water."

Easier said than done, Veolia. ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications are supposed to represent internationally recognized standards that incorporate quality management principles and practices. Together, the registrations are meant to be central to delivering superior service to customers through faster, more consistent communication and safer, more reliable service.

In a related development, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson yesterday announced the second phase of a $435,000,000.00 project to fix the city's aging sewer system, which as I pointed out last week (click here for that post) presently allows for the dumping of approximately 8 billion gallons of untreated sewage into our city's rivers and streams each year.

October 3, 2005

If your kitchen is anything like mine, salad is almost always on the dinner menu. Thatís why Saturdayís Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning to consumers against eating certain pre-packaged Dole salad products was so, well, umm, unusual? In case you hadn't heard, the FDA is warning us lazy salad-making hounds to avoid three specific Dole prepackaged salads because theyíve been associated with an outbreak of E. coli. (Excuse me, but isn't E. coli usually associated with undercooked burgers at fast food joints like McDonald's and Jack in the Box? Apparently not!) The affected Dole products include three of the companyís most popular prepackaged salads, and are labeled with "best-if-used by" dates, as listed below, and include a production code that begins with "B250."

The "best-if-used-by" code date can be found in the upper right hand corner of the front of the bag. The FDA says that while itís unlikely stores still have these products on their shelves, some of us may have them in our refrigerators.

According to the FDA, E. coli infections often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps; sometimes the infection causes non-bloody diarrhea or no symptoms. Usually little or no fever is present, and the illness resolves in five to ten days. Although most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, in some persons, particularly children under five and the elderly, the infection can also cause a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This condition can lead to serious kidney damage and even death.

To date there have been reports of eleven cases of illness attributed to the Dole products. Of these eleven cases, two people have been hospitalized.

Calling her the one person who stood out as exceptionally well-suited to sit on the highest court, President Bush today nominated Harriet Miers to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's soon-to-be-vacated seat on United States Supreme Court. Curious to know more about Ms. Miers, I contacted three friends--all of whom work in the legal profession in Texas (two are lawyers, one's a judge), and who I suspect personally know or have worked alongside the nominee in one respect or another--just to see what their responses would be to these two very simple questions...

Reply #1 (from a well-connected Houston-based attorney who I used to work with):

My other contacts haven't replied as of yet, but I suspect each will offer up an opinion (which I'll be sure to post once they arrive).