questions about American history?

January 172010

I was skimming through wikipedia this morn, and i got a bit baffled …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_ancestry
according to this, most Americans (without Hispano-Americans and African-Americans) are, historically, from Germany. Then why german is not official / most spoken language in the states, German ? My knowledge of American history is very thin (not from the states) … so as i know 13 states were first conquered by Dutch, then British. So to sum up the questions – Why is english the language of the USA (if barely anyone english lived there), is it because of the Irish? How come that so many people from Germany lived in the early years of the USA ? Thanks in advance

Irish Americans make up the second largest ethnic group, English make up the third. The English were here before the mass wave of Germans. I am someone with English, Irish, Scottish and German ancestors. I think German culture blended in well with Anglo-Saxon culture. We have hamburgers and hot dogs as some of our favorite foods. Both are German/American foods. I sometimes wonder if our accents were influenced deeply by Scots/Irish and German immigrants.

Please help me lose weight to help feed the hungry.?

January 82010

I have pledged to lose 50 pounds for charity. For every 1 pound that I lose, http://feedingamerica.org/ will donate 1 pound of food to my local city food bank.

I had pledged MYSELF to get healthy prior to finding about this challenge and have lost 14 pounds since December 21st of this year ( so, in the last 9 days ) and unfortunately that 14 does not count towards my charity pledge.

What I am looking for advice on my current diet plan and also information on how I should start to exercise. The weight I’ve lost so far is still with a completely sedentary lifestyle and job.

I am 29 years old, 5′1 and I weigh 261 pounds. I would ultimately like to cut my weight in half and hit a goal weight of 130 pounds, but more importantly is getting healthy and of course the immediate need is to hit the 50 pound loss mark for my pledge.

I will provide an example of my current diet over the past 9 days as well as what my diet looked like BEFORE I started. Any advice on what I can change to be more effective is helpful, as well as information on starting a fitness routine for someone who has been completely sedentary since about 1998.

My previous diet had almost NO variety and is therefore very easy to tell you in detail:

BREAKFAST: Taco bell value meal with massive soda, 2-3 Redbull drinks, whatever candy I had on hand. Snacking almost constantly on something throughout the entire day.

SNACK #1 (first break at work): Can of soup or bag of chips. More soda and imported black tea containing insane amounts of caffeine.

LUNCH: Large dinner at Big Boy restaurant, or if in a time crunch, 2-3 double cheeseburgers at McDonald’s with large fry and huge soda.

SNACK #2 (second work break): More chips or candy, more soda, sometimes beef jerky.

DINNER: Taco Bell or McDonald’s. Usually a McDonald’s hot fudge sundae for dessert and whatever I had around the house to snack on all night.

SLEEP: I slept once every 2-4 days (no joke) from all the caffeine and lack of exercise, often staying awake until I hallucinated.

———–

In comparison, my new diet plan actually has variety, so I can’t tell you exactly what I ate every day. I will however tell you what I ate yesterday. The other days were extremely close to this, with different foods around the same calorie/fat/fiber range.

BREAKFAST: Smoothie made from 1 banana, 1 measuring cup of skim milk, 1 tsp of Fibersure, 1/2 cup of strawberries. Half of a low fat whole wheat English Muffin with 1 tablespoon of hummus. Replaced the snacking throughout the day with chewing sugarfree gum.

SNACK #1: Large Romaine lettuce leaves with low cal/low fat dressing in spray bottle. (1 cal per spray, using about 10 sprays.)

LUNCH: Healthy Choice frozen dinner. 1 low fat yogurt cup from Weight Watchers brand. 1 large apple.

SNACK #2: A handful of raw carrots (love those), 15 no-salt dry-roasted almonds, 1 sugarfree jello pudding cup.

DINNER: 1 fairly large piece of fresh salmon, grilled on an electric skillet with a few sprays of olive oil and some salt-free lemon pepper. A large salad consisting of Romaine lettuce, spinach leaves, broccoli, carrots, and a sprinkle of slivered salt-free almonds. (about 1/2 tablespoon.) 1/2 cup of brown rice with some salt. (I did not measure salt here and may have gone overboard.) Dessert 1/2 cup of strawberries with 2 tablespoons of fat free cool whip.

I slept about 6-8 hours each night, but not very restfully. I drank over 1 gallon of water throughout the day, every day. (I have 1 gallon bottles to store water in and I have gone through 1 per day in addition to any water I drank from the tap.)

Benefits noticed so far: I am not jittery and stressed out. I am sleeping at least a little better. (And "too much information" coming up, so skip if you don’t want to hear) I have had my first NORMAL and non-painful menstrual cycle in over 10 years.

Any advice or information you can contribute would be great, as well as a possible fitness routine I can begin with. It’s VERY cold and icy outside so I cannot do much outside walking without trigger breathing problems from the cold, however, my place of work has a personal gym inside of it. I can easily work out in that gym before work, after work, on breaks/lunches, weekends..etc..

Thank you for your help and support. If you feel the need to mock me, I understand that as well. But I am tired of eating over my fair share of food and I’ve decided it should go to people who are starving instead. So I hope I get support. :)

WOW! What a change and difference you are making not only to your body but in helping others as well. You should be very proud of yourself! You are doing great!
Judging from your diet "now" I’m wondering if there is a necessity for all the snacks? If you feel crazy hungry and need a snack in between meals then perhaps reducing the quantity to just the apple and carrot sticks, or just the fat free jello. Take longer to eat them so it your body can actually feel full when your finished. Ya know how when your so hungry you scarf something down so quickly your body doesn’t have a chance to register that its full before you’ve finished eating it all? So, slow it down, that’s what I’ve learned to do. As far as exercise is concerned. What you need to start doing is just plain getting active. You do not want to be short of breath doing excercise that would be an-aerobic (not good). Yet you do want to challenge yourself a little! Do you have time to excercise at home? Get yourself a aerobic step and (now don’t laugh!) the Susan Powter step aerobic workout. When I had a great deal of weight to lose this is how I started. It actually motivated me because I could complete the whole workout tape without being winded and giving up. Sometimes I would actually do it twice a day just because I could! At work, if you have the opportunity take the stairs, get on the treadmill, even if its for ten minutes at an even incline. Anything and everything you do will help!
Again, What you are doing is great and you should be looking forward to this journey you will not believe how wonderful you will feel. Hope you get more sleep! LOL!!
Congratulations!

A question for Single Mothers?

December 62009

Do statistics such as those presented in this link worry you? http://www.fatherhood.org/father_factor.asp (I just saw that linked in one of Pdooma’s answers, hope he doesn’t mind me borrowing it!) – I haven’t read the entire exhaustive list, but I’ve read a bit and skimmed the rest. As an individual reading all that, who happens to be a single mother of a child whose father is not in his life, I find that sort of research a little upsetting. It feels like an attack, and a very one sided account – statistics can present a biased account when only given one angle; I see nowhere amongst that have they attempted to represent any research for any positive factors there may be. But having said that, it doesn’t personally worry me a great deal, because I am an individual, not a statistic, and I am comfortable that my family isn’t the sort of family to fall prey to the majority of that.

Single mothers, how do you feel reading things like that? Do you worry that your child may become one of those statistics? Will you/do you take any preventative measures to stop any of that from happening, or do you simply intend to live your life and raise your child(ren) in a good moral background as any parents do and pay no attention to statistics?

Also, this question can be for anyone, do you feel some of those statistics are merely coincidental and not related to the fact that the children are from single parent homes? Ones such as this: "Based on birth and death data for 217,798 children born in Georgia in 1989 and 1990, infants without a father’s name on their birth certificate (17.9 percent of the total) were 2.3 times more likely to die in the first year of life compared to infants with a father’s name on their birth certificate." – or if not coincidence, what do you think could possibly be the link between father not being on the birth certificate and infant mortality? (And same question applies for any of the more bizarre statistics like this).
Just to add that I am deliberately addressing single mothers as opposed to all single parents, because the research given only applies to that. But single dads, or anyone else with their 2pence to offer, feel free to answer too!
Pdooma – with all due respect, that wasn’t the question. I get the initiative of the website, but it is public and therefore for anybody’s eyes, I think I have a right to read it. The statistics are out there in plenty of other places too, I just happen to be linking that site to save myself trawling through Google to find the same research presented with a different message. I have witnessed you personally take offence enough times to things that weren’t directed towards you, so for someone whose answers I usually respect I find your stance a little hypocritical and unhelpful.

I agree with Sage.

"A child with a nonresident father is 54 percent more likely to be poorer than his or her father"

Would a child be richer if their dead beat jobless dad was in the picture?
I don’t think so lol.

Lets say, daddy does have a job but what if the single mommy has a better paying job?

Yup statistics are a bunch of crap.

how will the deficit EVER get retired if we continue to allow our leaders to make more bureaucracies?

November 72009

there is yet another little known detail to the stimulus package that most are not aware of, yet. it was slid in under our noses, and i for one have not heard my representatives in congress speaking out against it.

it is a provision for yet ANOTHER federal bureaucracy. this one is concerned with your physical health. ya know, i think health means all aspects of it, mental, love-wise, physical, spiritual and psychological, but so far, THIS new bureaucracy supposedly will only be in control of your physical health. especially health for the elderly, or those that are born with impairments or who has a condition caused by their genetics (big topic there, watch out for it).

the provisions within the stimulus package say that the right of elderly people to have timely surgery that will take them out of pain, for instance, hip replacement surgery, is to be determined by how old they are and what, by a table, their life expectancy is. in other words, all elderly people should be dying by age 85, therefore, if you are older than 85–let’s say, 87 years old and generally in good health–you may not be able to use the taxes you paid into the system in your working life to get your operation because that age factor will come into play. or, may i put it this way: if you are only 70 years old, you probably would get a hip replacement far ahead of someone in their 80s, since according to "tables" that predict when you will die, you wouldn’t benefit much from your hip replacement surgery.

so here is this new bureaucracy that is tucked into the tome that is still being written for the "stimulus package" that is supposed to stimulate the economy…so then why would any provisions for health care be in the package?

it is called: the "National Coordinator of Health Information Technology," which will be not one person, but a whole bureaucracy that you and i will pay for, as well as our grandkids’ grandkids.

here is a link to an article about it:

http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=6010

how DARE the government tell us that we may not be able to get surgery to put us out of pain and help us live fruitful lives until THE DAY that we are meant to go beyond? wouldn’t our doctors be best able to determine what our health is like, much better than a federal agency? are they not stymied enough already by the pay scales of HMOs and PPOs? (when i was younger, before the HMOs and PPOs, my doctors NEVER limited a visit to 15 minutes, on the dot).

but anyway, i want to know from you folks what you think will happen to our deficit (the one that is the difference between the Tax and what the federal government spends) as a result of adding yet ANOTHER bureaucracy to the federal agenda.

how many bureaucracies do we need? why do we need any of them? i mean, there are certain departments that are necessary to run the country as is outlined in the constitution, for instance, the Department of Defense. other than that, the framers wisely wrote that programs to belong primarily to individual states, not to a large federal government. does that make sense to you? why?

please open the link to the article and at least skim it through prior to answering this question. i’d really like to hear the full story of your thoughts, not just a sentence to get awarded "best answer." usually i do not determine the best answerer until the last minute, and it will be the one that has the most thorough argument.

i always love learning demographics, so, if you wish to disclose your age, whereabouts you live, what you do for a living (if you have a job), and so on, kindly do.

I have already read the article and will be calling my doctor to demand my records. Nobody has my permission to distribute them to anyone.

Our debt was at 10 trillion dollars, this combined bail out and spending bill will total about 9.7 trillion additional debt. That does not even account for the long term debt that will be added with all the new bureaucracies created in this bill or the impending Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security debt. The deficit is only the tip of the Iceberg, the debt is what counts. If the government taxed everyone at 100% they could not pay off the debt. They spend 40% of GDP now.

The system is designed to never be paid off! The Federal Reserve controls our currency and monetary policy and they are a body of unelected private bankers. We only pay interest on the debt, it is physically impossible to ever pay off the principle and the interest.

Did you know that prior to having a central bank there was virtually no inflation? We have become so used to inflation that we think it is a natural part of the economy. The Fed uses inflation as a stealth tax upon the people to create wealth for themselves. They constantly increase the money supply which devalues the dollar causing inflation. The government pays the Fed interest on paper that the taxpayers pay to print. The Constitution demands the Congress to coin our currency with no interest. The government likes inflation, it means they have "more dollars" to retire old debt with and they collect more in taxes. The problem is that wages never keep up with the rate of inflation.

There is NO authority in the Constitution for any of these federal bureaucracies or 90% of the spending Congress does every year.

It’s time we take our Republic back!
How appropriate this is today.

"The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by some fact with more fiction; they have been the dupes of artful maneuvers, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves. But times and truth dissipated the delusion, and opened their eyes." –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 1799. ME 10:123

I am a 47yr. old, self employed for 22 years, living in the great state of Texas where the economy is still pretty good.

What’s the FAA got to say about global climate change?

November 52009

The report linked below is 54 pages but has some incredibly valuable (if a bit thick) information that may increase your awareness and provide perspective. Read, skim, check it out, and see what yet another agency is doing to address the situation.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/aep/aviation_climate/media/ACCRI_Report_final.pdf

BB: You provided a quote from the report: do you understand what the quote means? I don’t think you do …

If people could really understand the effects of AGW, this site would be much more productive . The FAA report is an eye opener! They have NO doubts about climate change from the effects of AGW. Kinda refreshing.

Can’t find/install proper sound drivers for Vista. Driver update not working from manufacturer’s website.

November 22009

So I have an HP Pavillion Dv6000 laptop. It’s equipped with Vista and naturally, it sucks.

I’ve done some skimming around trying to find proper sound drivers as the only thing I can record from is a built-in microphone.

I have a Conexant sound driver right now. All the other entries I found with similar problems tell me to check HP’s site to find the proper driver for my soundcard. Well, on the HP site, I can download a Conexant High-Definition Driver. Cures the problem right? Wrong.

When I downloaded the HD Driver, my microphone doesn’t record and I still don’t have any other sound drivers.

According to the Audacity website, I should have these when everything is set to display:

http://audacityteam.org/wiki/images/thumb/c/c8/Vistarec.png/440px-Vistarec.png

But all I have is the microphone.

I’ve tried downloading realtek AC97 drivers a couple of times and it never properly installs.

Any help will be greatl appreciated.

Us Linux. It is free.

cognitive dissonance?

October 312009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

christians, muslims, pagans, theists, cultists and supernaturalists of all stripes:

(if you’re smart enough to read – or skim – and understand the above Wikipedia article)

I think there’s a part of your mind that *knows* your beliefs are irrational, improbable, and very possibly total BS. your "faith" tries to override this fact – it tries to hold its own agains encroaching reality – and that’s where the *cognitive dissonance* kicks in.

it’s easy to recognize when it happens to other people. UFO believers hold on to their faith even when all avenues of evidence are exhausted. the idiots! but it’s much harder to recognize when it happens to yourself.

when will you surrender to the inevitible? do your mind a favor: stop trying to believe what you know is impossible. embrace skepticism. embrace rationality. give atheism a shot.

come on in, the water’s fine. take the plunge. your sanity will thank you for it.

TY.

That actually happens to me all the time but my response/interpretation of it is precisely the reverse of yours.

I like the real world that I am used to, but things keep happening that make me nearly sure God exists.

It’s not just me, other people with me are witnesses with equal fascination of what has happened.

I am in utter disbelief of what I have seen lately.

I feel like my subconscious knows God really does exist but my consciousness doesn’t want to know.

Do you want to hear some good news?

October 292009

According to this article, women live in a more sustainable way than men, leave a smaller ecological footprint, and cause less climate change –

http://www.genderandenvironment.org/admin/admin_biblioteca/documentos/rapport_engelska.pdf

Isn’t that a nice change from being referred to as shallow & materialistic golddiggers? ;-)

*Please* read or skim the article BEFORE commenting.

What are your opinions?

Do you think gender equality can help the environment?
To those who stress women "produce" less -> that is perception, not reality.

Women produce most of the world’s food. Did you know that?

http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/food/womenas.htm

And women DO WORK – the fact that is is UNPAID does not *negate* the fact that it is still WORK. If one would put a dollar value on women’s unpaid work (clean, cook, transport, gathter wood or water, caregiver, etc) it would run into the TRILLIONS. (see UN for details)

I’m unsure what the full implications of that study are, but isn’t it possible that we live more sustainably because we just enjoy living that way? I’m sure there are some men who do the same thing, just as I’m sure that the Earth cries just as inconsolably when it sees a woman behind the wheel of a humvee as when it sees a man.

As far as gender equality helping the environment, I believe that the same type of person who believes in gender equality is going to want to help the environment.

ASAP physics project question help please? 10 points best answer!?

October 272009

lol sorry another question for my physics project ^^;

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Phys_p024.shtml?from=Home

that was the project i did i don’t expect u to read it all…but can u skim through it,briefly put its a coin apparatus, using magnets u can have the coin walk up the coat hanger

in my version tho i used washers and a metal wire (not hanger)

i’ve collected my data, but i am having trouble writing a conclusion.

any ideas of what i can say for my conclusion? i was thinking something like, different materials are magnetic, the larger/heavier the coin/washer the smaller the magnetic pull is…but all this sounds a bit like (common sense stuff ya know) i wanna say something using terms like "magnetic field" "alignment" "poles" "interaction between magnetic and ferromagnetic materials" and such.

I’m completely stuck and this project is due in a few days! so please suggest something 10 pts best answer!!
also does anyone know how this is related to physics at all?

cuz apparently all i’m doing right now is seeing which coins/washers are magnetic based on their materials and so far in physics class we have not worked on magnetism?

but i found this project through a site, had the materials, and decided to do it.

is it ok for a physics project?

Did you actually read the introduction on the website? Doesn’t it explain what you’re supposed to find?

On either side the river lie, fields of barley and of rye. That clothe the wold and meet the sky?

October 252009

And through the field the road runs by, To many towered Camelot.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MU_Tn-HxULM

Do you like Laurena Mckenitt’s version?
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/images/shalott.jpg

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil’d,
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the beared barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower’d Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, “ ‘Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.”

Back to top
Part II

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair’d page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower’d Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror’s magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott.

Back to top
Part III

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel’d
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter’d free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon’d baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn’d like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro’ the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d;
On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow’d
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
“Tirra lirra,” by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.

Back to top
Part IV

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower’d Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river’s dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance -
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right -
The leaves upon her falling light -
Thro’ the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head woun

yes I do thank you for sharing this and the people who do not appreciate good music ah well there loss ?we like it and that is all that matters