Electromagnetic Wave animation Video

Excellent Video explaining Electromagnetic Waves

Tribute to the Coastwatchers of the Solomon Islands in WWII

Link: Poverty approach not working – Times Union

This is a great article that really addresses the reason we still have poverty in the US fifty years after the start of the War on Poverty.

The paragraphs below are so important to re-framing the debate on poverty.

The polarized debate between the issue of individual characteristics versus macro- and microeconomic policy or structural reasons has kept public officials and community leaders from creating effective, long-term policy responses that would help to fundamentally mitigate poverty.

Believing that people are themselves responsible if they live in poverty makes it much easier to justify a lack of policy response. What has been allowed to happen by default is a corrosive stigmatization of the poor that further isolates them from mainstream society.

A new paradigm for eradicating poverty would include proactive collaborations among public officials, anti-poverty agency leaders and the private sector when it comes to community-based economic development initiatives. According to Payne, simply leaving economic development to market forces, developers and those representing business interests has had the effect of further marginalizing the poor in their own communities.

A new anti-poverty paradigm would mean the people and agencies that work with those in poverty would be present at the decision-making table drawing connections among their work, economic development and the well-being of people and children in their communities, something those engaged in business ventures typically overlook.

It would mean a voice at the table advocating for sustainable and living-wage jobs as part of community economic development investment and holding public officials accountable for the allocation and application of public grants and funding.

via Poverty approach not working – Times Union.

Link:The Innovation Trap: How the iPhone Isn’t Saving America » Sociological Images

This is true. Technology has many benefits but job creation is not one of them. We should have some kind of offsets like carbon offsets for technology. We could use the money to fund rebuilding our infrastructure.

The US economy faces a number of challenges—among them a lack of job creation and an ever-growing trade deficit. Many policy-makers believe that encouraging business innovation is the best response to these particular challenges. Sounds plausible but experience suggests otherwise.

The best example of why simply encouraging business innovation is not the answer for our employment and trade problems is Apple and its iPhone.

via The Innovation Trap: How the iPhone Isn’t Saving America » Sociological Images.

State budget cuts doom Alle-Kiski Learning Center – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

This is very sad. AKLC was a tremendous asset to our community. These politicians don’t seem to understand the harm they cause to real people’s lives. We want people to be self-sufficient and off of public assistance, but yet we cut the very programs that help them to be self-sufficient. Using the figures cited in the article the cost to the state was $579.89 per GED acquired, a bargain rate that really could change lives. (And that would be recovered by the state from increased tax revenue from the  increased wages that a person with a GED could earn versus someone without one.) Shame on you Governor Corbett. Shame on you.

When Gov. Tom Corbett made massive spending cuts to the state’s budget, many educational programs were affected.

No program was affected more than the Alle-Kiski Learning Center, which was housed along Fifth Avenue in Arnold.

The center had all of its funding — about $225,000 — eliminated by the state, causing it to close its doors, according to its former executive director, Mary Jendrey.

The center closed in the fall and likely won’t reopen.

via State budget cuts doom Alle-Kiski Learning Center – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Historic: KDKA Channel 2 Pittsburgh, PA – Last Analog Transmission

At the end is a very nice look back at KDKA TV through the years, ending with a sign-off (recorded) by long-time news anchor Bill Burns

Video: 250 Years of Pittsburgh Innovation

Interesting video from Heinz History Center

New Kensington church officials respond to burglaries with prayer – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Both churches Mt. Saint Peters Catholic Church and the United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington are very involved in our community and have been involved with our Circles program. Mt. St. Peter hosted a Bridges Out of Poverty class and The United Presbyterian Church hosted our Clergy/Lay Breakfast. It is sad to see there are people so desperate they would break into churches.

A Christmas Day break-in at Mount St. Peter Roman Catholic Church is getting the burglars more than they might expect.

The thieves walked away with about $5,000 and two digital cameras, but they also are being targeted with prayer.

Police are asking for information about the Dec. 18 overnight break-in of The United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington at 601 Fifth Ave., and the Christmas Day break-in at Mount St. Peter Catholic Church, 100 Freeport Road.

Anyone with information is asked to call New Kensington police at 724-339-7533.

via New Kensington church officials respond to burglaries with prayer – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

A painter captures the stillness of a winter’s morning in Oakland

Another interesting Pittsburgh art story.

If everything looks fresh in Martin B. Leisser’s “Oakland,” perhaps it’s because it was.

Mr. Leisser, for many years the dean of Pittsburgh artists, was about 75 when he completed the painting in the mid-1910s, with a career behind him and two more decades of painting still to come. But the buildings on the hilltops were young, newly minted to do the work of their namesake benefactor in raising up the children of the mill workers to a better life.

via A painter captures the stillness of a winter’s morning in Oakland.

Link:’Boyd’s Hill’ depicts a world of work in 1892 Pittsburgh

Interesting article on local art and history.

“Boyd’s Hill” is the name of Martin B. Leisser’s small painting of the rocky promontory we call the Bluff. The son of a South Side immigrant glass factory worker who became the dean of Pittsburgh painters, Leisser was 46 when he painted it on Jan. 4, 1892. It was among the first works he produced here after more than five years of living and working in Europe, most recently in Munich, where he had studied two decades earlier.

via ‘Boyd’s Hill’ depicts a world of work in 1892 Pittsburgh.

The Magnificat

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever

I Need a Silent Night Amy Grant

Joy to the World -Nat King Cole w/ lyrics

The First Noël – Celtic Woman

O Come All Ye Faithful – Celtic Woman

Little Drummer Boy – Celtic Woman

Carol of the Bells – Celtic Woman

Celtic Woman / Chloe Agnew – ”O Holy Night”

Repost: Two of my favorite Christmas Poems

These are two favorite Christmas poems by Christina Rossetti.

Love Came Down at Christmas

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

In the Bleak MidWinter

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When he comes to reign;
In the bleak midwinter
A stable place sufficed
The Lord God incarnate,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for him, whom Cherubim
Worship night and day
A breast full of milk
And a manger full of hay.
Enough for him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But his mother only,
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him —
Give my heart.