A little amusement for you - play Halloween Hangman! It takes a minute to load, so be patient.

Enjoy!

It’s stats playtime again. I’ve been seeing the PubSub spider in my server logs, and decided to check it out.

Pubsub is a feed subscription service that looks like it’s similar to Bloglines, where you can view blog feeds from a variety of sources in one place. This morning I’ve been exploring PubSub’s Pubstats. Plug in your url and it will give you a day by day listing of how many blog posts have linked to you in the past month. It doesn’t seem to count blogrolls, and as I understand it, examines only rss/atom feeds. Since many sites only feed the first 5 lines, if you’re mentioned “below the fold” in a post, it won’t turn up here.

It also gives you a Link Rank for each day, placing you on a percentage scale based on incoming links. Mine ranged from a high of Top 19% to a low of Top 86%. I have no idea how it’s figured since my numbers so low as to be statistically non-existent, but I’d love to hear from those of you with more interesting data.

For me, nothing earth shattering there, but a fun toy to check out from time to time.

Edgar ready to party.

I can’t believe Fark hasn’t picked this one up. Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center is being sued - for setting a woman’s head on fire during surgery.

From the Seattle PI:

A 54-year-old cancer patient sued Swedish Medical Center on Friday for allegedly setting her face and head on fire during biopsy surgery.

Jackie Day of Poulsbo awoke from anesthesia during the May 2004 operation to discover her head ablaze, said her attorney, Jane Morrow.

Since the procedure at Swedish’s First Hill campus, Day has suffered from discoloration around her eyes; her eyebrows never grew back; and she is “petrified” to go back into an operating room, Morrow said.

Swedish acknowledged in a written statement Tuesday that Day had suffered burns to the back of her neck and scalp, adding that they were “perhaps due to the inadvertent ignition of an alcohol-based hair-styling product. The burn was treated immediately and appropriately.”

Swedish also said it investigated the incident, apologized to Day in writing, and “expanded its presurgery procedures to include screening for hair-care products.”

The lawsuit charges that the medical center failed to properly train and supervise staff in fire prevention and safety protocols.

Personally, I’ve had a lot of worries and fears before going into surgery, but spontaneous combustion wasn’t one of them. I’ll add it to my list.

From the Washington Post:

Harriet Miers withdrew this morning as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

In announcing the decision, Miers and President Bush cited their concern with the requests of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for documents dealing with her work as White House counsel that the administration has chosen to withhold as privileged.

But the nomination of Miers to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was already in deep trouble, with little support in the Senate, open criticism from many senators of both parties and an outpouring of opposition from conservative activists and intellectuals.

Some of them, most notably columnist Charles Krauthammer, had proposed using the documents dispute as a face-saving reason for withdrawal. In fact, negotiations over the documents had barely begun when the withdrawal was announced this morning.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that Miers called Bush about 8:30 last night to tell him she was withdrawing and handed him her letter 12 hours later in the Oval Office.

Bush is “deeply disappointed in the process,” McClellan said. Miers will remain as White House counsel and will be involved in choosing a new court nominee, he added.

So Bush is retreating on this bad nomination. But to what ground will that retreat lead? Somehow I doubt that the opposition of Democrats and Independents had much affect on this decision; it was the very vocal admonishments of the far right wing of the Republican party that brought this about, and I’m afraid they’re going to be appeased only by one of their own.

Where does that leave the rest of us? I’m not saying we should have supported Miers because there are worse options were out there. But this is scary territory. I have little hope that we’ll see anyone approaching the moderate label come out of this process. It’s a dark day.

Abstract discussions of a woman’s right to legal emergency contraception are all well and good, but the proof of any theory is in the implementation. This case, from Tucson, AZ, shows the very tangible results of all that “pharmacists’ rights” theory — a young sexual assault victim was victimized again by druggists who would not fill her Plan B prescription.

She called dozens of pharmacies only to be told they didn’t stock it and when she finally located one who did, was told that the pharmacist on duty at the Fry’s Food Store pharmacy would not dispense the legal drug because of religious and moral objections.

From the Arizona Daily Star:

On the night three weeks ago when an on-duty Fry’s pharmacist refused to fill the emergency contraception prescription, the pharmacy manager offered to find another pharmacy that would, according to Doyel.

“He felt he was making every attempt to help her get what she needed. A pharmacist would never just say ‘you’re out of luck,’ ” said Doyel, who would not allow any of the Fry’s employees involved in the incident to be interviewed.

But a friend with the sexual assault victim that night strongly disputed that account.

“He (the manager) said he would fill it himself if we could get there before his shift ended, within 10 minutes,” said Sabrina Fladness, a University of Arizona student and owner of a computer service business.

“But we were more than 10 minutes away, so that was impossible. So he said we would have to come back the next morning” - after the shift of the refusing pharmacist ended.

“He made no provision for getting it that night,” she said.

Plan B is time sensitive. It must be taken within 3 days of unprotected intercourse, and its effectiveness wanes as time passes. A prescription delayed may as well be a prescription completely denied. A 2004 Arizona Family Planning Council survey found that less than half the 900 stores surveyed keep emergency contraception in stock, citing lack of demand for the product, but some stated moral objections as a reason for kept it off their shelves. This leads to a race against the clock like this young Tucson woman was forced to endure, and finding a source does not mean they will sell it to you.

That’s the hard, cold facts.

What can you do about this travesty? Vote with your dollars. They have a right to choose — well, so do you. Find out which pharmacies in your area carry emergency contraception, and give them your business. You can refuse to patronize those who don’t. If you decide to transfer your prescriptions away from a pharmacy which doesn’t stock EC, write them a letter and tell them why. Show them that their choices have consequences.

It seems the city of Newark, NJ has bought itself a pet “newspaper” this month, signing a $100,000 deal with the Newark Weekly Times, also know as Visions Metro Weekly according to the New York Times, guaranteeing them good press. Owner Howard Scott pitched the idea to the city council, which unanimously accepted the offer.

From Editor and Reporter:
“Do we have critical reporters on staff? No. Do we have investigative reporters? No,” Scott said. “Our niche is the good stuff. People have come to know it, and they love it.”

Under the contract, the paper can only generate stories based on leads from the council and the mayor’s office, and will be working with the city’s public information office.

Legacy Media Group, which owns Visions Metro Weekly, makes no bones about its sources of revenue on it’s website.

Our firm specializes in marketing, exposure, and promotions. Whether you are looking to advertise your business, promote a function, or simply tell your story we can tailor a campaign for your business.

Our goal is to get you in the front-runner position in your industry, not just planning, but doing. Our work as media consultants is grounded in real business results, producing tangible progress toward bottom line outcomes. We use the context of your business to develop the strategies and behaviors necessary for success in today’s market driven climate.

Their About Us page promotes their hard copy edition, an on-line edition and a radio talk show called Visions of Serenity hosted by Howard Scott, which lists topics such as The Word of God, Paul’s Pulpit- A segment from a Guest Preacher, Developing A Relationship with Jesus Christ and Small Business Owners: A Profile.

Looks like they have all the bases covered, both with God and Man.

Yet they seem to bill themselves to readers as a newspaper. The banner of their online version currently reads “Celebrating 30 years as entrepreneurs” and “Your clear choice for urban news.” No where does it say “the best publicity money can buy.”

That the Newark City Council would buy themselves pseudo-news is troubling enough, but I’m highly concerned over the religious nature of Legacy’s other outlets. Newark may just have bought themselves more controversy than they bargained for.

From The ‘Lectric Law Library:

USUFRUCT - The right of enjoying a thing, the property of which is vested in another, and to draw from the same all the profit, utility and advantage which it may produce, provided it be without altering the substance of the thing.

It appears the city of New Orleans may not need to use eminant domain to acquire private property for rebuilding. Instead, the government may use a little known concept called usufruct, unique to Louisiana law, to assume controlling interest in devastated properties. The process would require an act of the state legislature and extensive federal funding to accomplish, but the proposal calls for affected homeowners to sign over controlling interest, but not titles, to the government. The goverment would then rehabilitate the property and have the use of it for an agreed upon length of time (for example, renting it out), after which the owner would have the option to repay the government for all repairs and improvements and reclaim the property. Should the owner be unable to pay, the property when then be sold to settle the debt.

The proposal is being floated as a means to provide housing for “essential workers” such as civil servants, teachers and police to allow for repopulation of the city.

“You are not going to rebuild New Orleans unless you are able to get government access to private property,” Mtumishi St. Julien, a longtime community advocate, a housing adviser to Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the executive director of the Finance Authority, one of the primary local agencies that administers government housing programs, said Saturday. “If government does not solve that problem, everything else is just talk. It is foolish to believe otherwise.”

Usufruct would avoid the problems often encountered in eminant domain takings by eliminating court battles.

On the surface this seems reasonable. Desperate situations call for unique methods, true. But color me skeptical. The most likely targets will be predominantly poor, black neighborhoods like the Ninth Ward, which can be rebuilt for the benefit of those who never lived there before. How many of the pre-storm residents will be deemed “essential workers?” Of those who would choose to return, how many will be able to repay the government for the property improvements plus the expenses necessary to move back? It seems a convenient way to make sure they take a small settlement and stay away.

Then there is the problem of rental housing. Large land companies will do just fine under this arrangement; they will have the means to reclaim their property at the end of the agreed upon period, and will be able to charge a premium rent for the improved properties. Will any of the poor be able to afford those rates? What are their chances of returning to their old neighborhoods? Where will they go?

In my opinion, this gentrification would shift the problem of unemployment and poverty permanantly out of New Orleans and onto relocation cities. Out of sight, out of mind. It may be “building a better New Orleans,” but not for those who suffered the most. I’m afraid that the benefits will be reserved for the middle class, the well-to-do and the corporate interests who will receive the goverment contracts to rehabilitate the properties. Those with few resources before the storm will be left out in the cold, and they’ll no longer be New Orleans’ problem.

Who will be looking out for them?

Don’t know what to get for the socially conscious individuals on your holiday shopping list? Even better, introduce your friends and family to a world outside themselves. Instead of giving consumables which only take up space and precious resources, please consider giving the gift of self-reliance and hope to struggling people around the world.

Heifer Project International is an organization that provides animals (example; water buffalos, goats, chickens) and farming materials (example; tree seedlings) to families to generate sustainable income. As a provision of the project, those receiving donations pass on the gift by sharing the offspring of their animals with others, allowing them, too, to generate a sustainable living. In addition to the farming programs, Heifer sponsors micro loans to help women establish businesses selling their wool, eggs and other products. One person at a time, Heifer is making a difference.

I’ve whole-heartedly supported Heifer for 10 years now and I urge you to do the same. Besides being a great personal charity, Heifer would make a fabulous beneficiary for your school, business and civic group projects.

Check out their catalog and get a start on your shopping today.